Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar;

Psalm 22:2:  “My God, my God why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?

This verse is sort of sacred cow that preachers will not expound upon unless it is in reference to Jesus.  The idea is that it is a messianic passage and applies to Jesus and Jesus only looking forward to the day he was on the cross.

Indeed, there is no question this passage is messianic and a reference to Jesus but it is also in a prophetic perfect form.  As one of  my seminary professors used to say, it was an “ongoing prophecy.”  In other words, it is indeed a reference to a future event but it also had an immediate fulfillment.  By ignoring the 70 faces of Torah we miss something very important.

This is David speaking in a period of his life of intense heart break, perplexity, pain and rejection.  At a time when he so needs to feel the presence of God, He just didn’t seem to be there. He felt abandoned by God.

C.S. Lewis in his book: “A Grief Observed.”  Told how he went to God during his time of grieving after his wife died of cancer. It was like he went up to God door’s and knocked. There was no answer. Suddenly the lights went out in the house.  He could hear the door being bolted. He peered through the window and was sure someone was home.  Why, he questioned, would God not be there at the time He needed Him the most.  Well, we know, like David, C.S. Lewis was a true saweedel and came out of his grief not only with his faith in tact, but even stronger.

I would like to focus on one word in this passage, “groaning.”  This is a complex word, sha’ag which shares a common root with sha’ah.   Sha’ag means to roar like a lion. It also means thunder.  Groaning is a later application for this word.  Sha’ah means to make a rushing noise, to fall with a crash.   David is not just groaning, he is wailing, screaming in torment over feeling separated from the God he once felt so close to and now feels abandoned.

Psalms 22 leads right into Psalms 23 where David finds himself once again in the presence of his “Shepherd.”

The Talmud tells of a rabbi who heard a child weeping for his mother who had gone to the market place.  The rabbi taught that there is a method by which a man can ascertain whether the mother just recently left the house or whether she has already been out for a long time. If the child is screaming loudly, “Mommy, Mommy!”  this indicates that the mother has just recently left the home and her child hopes that she will hear his voice and return.  But if the child is weeping softly, it is a sign that the mother has been gone for quite some time and her child does not expect her to her his voice; he therefore emits a soft weak cry that can barely be heard.

Has your prayers become soft and quiet?  That rabbi continues to teach that if a prophet were to appear and tell you at that moment the Divine compassion has been aroused and that Hashem would accept any request that you would make, you would pray until the last vestige of strength has been exhausted.

I am not a prophet, I make no claims to being a prophet, but I know the Word of God tells me that He will never leave me nor forsake me (Hebrew 13:5). From the Word of God I can assure you that this is a moment when Divine compassion is aroused and God will accept your request. Make you request known unto the Lord (Philippians 4:6).

As I child I used to go to Medinah Temple for the All Night Gospel Sing.  If you volunteered as an usher you would get in for free. I would sit way into the morning listening to the Gospel Quartets sing. The hands on favorite quartet was the Statemens. Quartet led by Hovie Lister.   Never had I heard anyone play the piano like Hovie, never had I seen such energy for the Lord.  Even at that young age I could tell this man was genuine in his Love for God.  Sometimes he would jump up from the piano, stop the Quartet from singing and just talk about his love for Jesus.  I never thought a guy like that even had any dark times. Yet years later in watching a Bill Gaither Video where Hovie Lister was interviewed, he did reveal a dark period when it seemed like God had abandoned him. He would pray but they were soft, weak prayers. But one day he realized that God was there and he began to “sha’ag” roar to God all through the night into early morning and then he returned to His sweet presence.  Out of that experience he wrote this song:

How long has it been, since you talked to the Lord,

And told Him your heart’s hidden secrets?

How long since you prayed,

How long since you stayed

On your knees ‘til the light shone through?

How long has it been since your mind felt at ease,

How long since your heart knew no burden.

Can you call Him your friend,

How long has it been,

Since you knew that He cared for you?

How long has it been since you knelt by your bed,

And prayed to the Lord up in Heaven?

How long since you knew,

That He’d answer you

And would keep you the long night through?

How long has it been since you woke with the dawn,

And felt that the day’s worth the living?

Can you call Him your friend,

How long has it been,

Since you knew that He cared for you?

There is the story in the Talmud of a King who had many disagreements with his son such that his son left home to live in another kingdom.  After some time the King, this father, sent a messenger to his son saying: “Please come home.”  The son replied,  “It is yet too far for me to come.  The father then sent the messenger back with this message: THEN COME AS FAR AS YOU CAN AND I WILL MEET YOU.”

It is time to come home.

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