Series: Songs of Worship—Getting Real With God
Sermon: Forsaken
Speaker and Writer: Elia King

Refresh: Open with prayer. Ask God for understanding through the Holy Spirit.

Read: Psalm 23 (ESV). As you read the text in light of the previous Psalm, what new insights did you discover about God’s character?

Reflect: Have you ever been singing along with one of your favorite songs, only to be surprised when you realize what words you were actually singing? I think we tend to do that a lot, especially in church, because we don’t want to rock the boat. But every once in a while, I wonder, what exactly is a bulwark? Why would it fail? And who is this Ebenezer we keep singing about raising? Sometimes context can make a big difference.

I had never recognized the connection between Psalms 22 and 23 until I recently read all of Psalm 22. Maybe it’s because the 23rd Psalm has always been enough of a cliché. that I never though of it as much more than a nursery rhyme that we were required to learn in Christian grade school. Or maybe, like many songs, I learned the words and recited them without thinking much about what I was saying.

At any rate, as I read these poems in preparation for this series, I was struck by the significance of the two, especially when read back-to-back. Surely Jesus knew they were connected when He recited the first few words of Psalm 22 on the cross—although this was certainly more than just a rote recitation!

We often tell the story without connecting the dots, so we often talk about how Jesus felt disconnected from God and leave it at that. But surely Jesus knew the rest of the story as written in this Psalm. Surely as a kid who grew up singing these songs, He knew that the rest of the song talks about the promise of God’s deliverance. And He undoubtedly knew about what came next: even though He walked through the valley of the shadow of death, He needed not fear any evil. Without a doubt, when Jesus cried out the first words of this song, He was, like the Psalmist, calling on God to fulfill the promise of deliverance.

This Psalm should resonate deeply with believers today, because we recognize the immense and increasing pain of the world in which we live, and yet we also look forward with hope to the return of Jesus and the fully realized kingdom of God.

Recalibrate: Have you ever experienced pain and joy at the same time?

Respond: Ask God to show you what it looks like to trust Jesus in a difficult situation you are currently facing.

Research: Rewrite Psalm 23 in your own words. What situations would you include? What emotions? What imagery from your career or your journey of faith?