How often do you come to a holiday like Easter and it seems to be over before you even get a chance to enjoy it? One way to be more present is to spend time during the season before Easter (which is called Lent). Whether you chose to participate in Lent or not, a simple way to bring focus before Easter Sunday is to take this week (which is called Holy Week) and meditate on Jesus’s journey toward the cross.

I don't know if you've ever observed Holy Week, but it's simply a time to focus in on Jesus's last few days on this earth before he was crucified. It is one of my favorite times of year in the church calendar. Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday, and goes through to Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday. Thinking on these things forces us to meditate on him and on the cross all week, making Easter all the more sweeter.

How are you going to focus your heart and your mind this week on Jesus as we move toward Easter? In the past, I've used devotionals or walked through a gospel or focused in on a passage that talked about Jesus's last days on this earth before he was crucified. Psalm 22 is a passage I often turn to during Holy Week. Even though I've studied this psalm before, there is so much more to gain from meditating on this passage. Jesus quoted quite a bit from this psalm while on the cross.

Today and the next four days, we will be digging into this psalm. There will be five podcasts walking through Psalm 22. I encourage you to write out this psalm as we go. This practice can be very helpful.

Why?

This psalm is rich with meaning. It is a Psalm of David. It’s also a Psalm of Lament, which is fitting for these last days as we follow Jesus on his walk towards Calvary. This psalm begins with the words we hear Jesus speak from the cross in a moment of abandonment. He says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

I don't know about you, but I've been there. I've had things happen in my life and had things happen in our family's life that cause us to ask those big “why” questions like, “God, what in the world are you even doing?” “Why is this happening? I can't even process this.”

David continues his questioning in the psalm by stating the extent of his abandonment. “Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer. And by night, but I find no rest.” He is constantly calling out to God, but he's finding no rest. Jesus spoke these very words from the cross as he was experiencing the full weight of the wrath of God and the abandonment by his Father for us.

David answers himself by saying this, “Yet you are holy.” Isn’t it interesting that right after he finishes crying out in the face of abandonment, seeking answers but not receiving any response, he chooses this attribute of God to arrest his wayward whys? You would think he might focus in on an attribute like the fact that God would never leave or forsake him, or God’s love. But instead he focuses on God's holiness. This is huge, especially as we look at the cross and what it means for us today. I know it’s not the first attribute we might choose, but it begs our meditation. Think on his holiness today. Wrestle with the fact that his holiness is what required Jesus to be forsaken for us.

Remember

David then turns his attention on remembering. He's going way back to remember God's rescue of his people in the Exodus. We do the same thing as we walk through these last few days. We remember. We remember how God rescued us, how we had nothing to bring him but our own sin and he chose abandonment, in order to die in our place so that instead of us experiencing abandonment, we would enjoy acceptance. The focus on God's holiness is intentional.

That is one attribute of God we can focus on this week: his holiness. Sit with the forsaken psalmist as he meditates on God’s holiness in the midst of his crying out. Why would he choose to focus on this attribute of God here?

God placed the wrath that was reserved for us on Jesus at the cross. He was abandoned so that we could be accepted. Today, I encourage you to give yourself permission to pray raw prayers, to ask the whys, to wrestle with your feelings of forsakenness and to sit with his holiness. This is where it begins. A holy God must punish sin and he did in his Son’s sacrifice on the cross for us. His ways are holy and just and his plan is beyond our understanding.

Trust him. Trust his holiness. Trust in his sacrifice. Trust in his rescue. When the whys are looming large, trust him.

If you don't already have something you're reading this week or something that you're walking through, I would encourage you to join me as I read through Psalm 22, listen to the podcasts or follow along on YouTube. As you follow along, write the Scripture out. There's something about writing down the Scripture. The words will just jump off the page. There's a different level of comprehension when we write Scripture. Join along this week as we journey toward the cross through Psalm 22.

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