הכנת ליבנו לפסחא: צום לתפילהדוגמה

Preparing Our Hearts for Easter: A Lenten Devotional

יום 15 מתוך 40

"Day 15: The Forsaken"

Psalm 22 is the first in a cluster of psalms that describe the suffering of someone which seems to echo the accounts in Isaiah of the suffering servant of the Lord. The first line of this psalm is likely to be familiar to us because Jesus cried out these exact words when he was being crucified on the cross. Yet this psalm was written by David, many generations before that. Whatever suffering of his own that David was recounting, he was also prophetically describing the redemptive suffering of Christ on the cross thousands of years later.

Jesus would have read this psalm many times in his life during worship at the temple. He no doubt had it memorized, for it to come so readily to his mind when he was on the cross.

Knowing what he was going to face, Jesus could have spent his life in fear or dread. Instead, he, like David before him, clung on to what he knew was true: God is holy, God is his God, and God has been trustworthy throughout his life. And then, based on these truths, David appeals to God to stay close to him. Jesus knew, though, that the greatest suffering he would face would be abandonment by God, so that God would never abandon his people.

The psalm ends with praise and a note of triumph at the end: “for he has done it.” Jesus stayed to the end, bore our sins, and purchased our reconciliation with God. The messianic nature of the psalm becomes clear as David declares that past generations that have died as well as future generations not yet born will all come to know that his God is a God who delivers his people from suffering. After all because Jesus really was completely forsaken by God (for us!), we can be confident that we never will be abandoned, even if, in our suffering, God seems far away or silent when we call out.

Prayer

Gracious God, we glorify you that because Jesus knew what it meant to be utterly separated from you, we will never have to experience that. Strengthen our faith to truly believe this especially when we think we have reasons to doubt it. In Christ’s Name, Amen.

Copyright (c) 2012 by Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
יום 14יום 16

על התכנית הזו

Preparing Our Hearts for Easter: A Lenten Devotional

מה היא תקופת צום, התענית? זה הזמן שבו אנו צופים לניצחון של אור וחיים של ישוע על החושך של החטא ועל המוות. כשנצא למסע של יום רביעי "אפר הפסחא", אנחנו נזכרים במציאות של חולשתינו וגאולת החסד של אלוהים.

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דברי הגות אלה נכתבו על ידי הצוות של הקהילה "Redeemer Presbyterian," פורסם במקור ב-www.redeemer.com בשנת 2012. בהסכמה מבעל הרשאה.