Saturday, April 25, 2009

Psalm 22 - remembering God's personal presence

And so the work of remembering begins again.

PS 22:9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;

you made me trust in you

even at my mother's breast.

PS 22:10 From birth I was cast upon you;

from my mother's womb you have been my God.

PS 22:11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near

and there is no one to help.

The psalmist reminds himself that he is not a worm, but a precious human being, and someone who has been known by God since birth. God is not a God of the past who acted once upon a time for the Israelites, but God is a personal, up close God, the psalmist's God. God is the God who knows us in every moment of our lives and who cares for us tenderly.

There is great comfort in knowing that God doesn't just care for His people, but that He knows and cares for you and me. That there has not been a moment of our lives that He has not been at work to draw us to a life lived in relationship with Him as "My God." Remembering that relationship reminds us to not simply cry out "where are you" but to cry again, "Help."

It also frames our sufferings not as something happening outside of the care and purview of God, but rather events that are happening within His embrace and care; though He may not end them immediately, He is not far from us.

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