walkthesame: Firm & Secure Type & Edit by Naomi Scheel , Photography by Lizzie

Firm & Secure
Type & Edit by Naomi Scheel ,Photography byLizzie Guilbert
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises. In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed. - Psalm 22:1-5

At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). - Mark 15:33-34

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. - Luke 22:42-44
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Jesus’s cry on the cross moments before his death mirrors that of David in Psalm 22. If you’re like me, you maybe read these parts, and wonder “how on earth can I trust in God’s presence in my life if David, and even Jesus himself doesn’t even seem to?” These are problems we run into when we read Scripture out of its full context, and out of the light the Gospel in its entirety. David’s psalms are so powerful because they speak to us so well. David, a man of great faith, was never afraid to express his doubts and desperation, but always in the light of God’s eternal promise, faithfulness, and trustworthiness. Jesus, being fully God, but also fully human, experienced the same feelings of desperation and separation as a result of OUR sin, but always keeping in mind God’s promise and trusting His will, even to the cross.
Come what may, we can live freely in trusting God’s will for our lives as we pray with Jesus “yet not my will, but yours be done.” Because even when God seems distant, He is still enthroned as The Holy One, always working His sovereign will. So let us not take dismay in the cries of David and Our Lord, but rejoice in the presence and faithfulness of God even in those moments that they cried out. And just as David’s ancestors, and ours as the people of God, trusted in the Lord and were not disappointed, so we can trust in God and never be disappointed by His saving grace. For “when they cried to you, they were saved,” and so are we.