Psalm 22

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. 2 O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer; and by night, but I have no rest. 3 Yet You are holy, O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel. 4 In You our fathers trusted; they trusted and You delivered them. 5 To You they cried out and were delivered; in You they trusted and were not disappointed. 6 But I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. 7All who see me sneer at me; they separate with the lip, they wag the head saying 8"Commit yourself to the Lord; let Him deliver him let Him rescue him, because He delights in him."

9 Yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb; You made me trust when upon my mother's breasts. 10 Upon You I was cast from birth; You have been my God from my mother's womb.

11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near; for there is none to help. 12 Many bulls have surrounded me; strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. 13 They open wide their mouth at me, as a ravening and a roaring lion. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within me. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and You lay me in the dust of death. 16 For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced my hands and my feet. 17 I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; 18 they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

19 But You, O Lord, be not far off; O You my help, hasten to my assisstance. 20 Deliver my soul from the sword, my only life from the power of the dog. 21 Save me from the lion's mouth; from the horns of the wild oxenYou answer me.

22 I will tell of Your name to my bretheren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise You. 23 You who frea the Lord, praise Him; All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, and stand in awe of Him all you descendants of Israel. 24 For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from him; But when he cried to Him for help, He heard. 25 From You comes my praise in the great assembly; I shall pay my vows before those who fear Him. 26 The afflicted will eat and be satisfied; those who seek Him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever! 27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship before You. 28 For the kingdom is the Lord's and He rules over the nations. 29 All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship, all who go down to the dust will bow before Him, even he who cannot keep his soul alive. 30 Posterity will serve Him; it will be told of the Lord to the coming generation. 31 They will come and will declare His righteousness to a people who will be born that He has performed it.

This is a really encouraging passage, David starts out asking God why He has left him, and why He does not help him in his time of need, but in verse 3 David declares that the Lord is still holy. Through all the anguish and turmoil and despair David still clings to what he knows and what he has experienced in the past, that God is holy. He then goes on to say that his fathers trusted in Him and they were not disappointed. How great is it to know that the God David's fathers trusted is the God that still serves us and the God that will not disappoint us! David humbles himself and says that he is not favored by men, but God favored and protected him from birth. FROM BIRTH God loves us, I have done nothing to deserve this kind of love and grace, yet I build myself up thinking that I know so much and do things so much better than everybody else that they all should be like me. I have so much to learn. I realized today that I will be spending eternity with people at my church and people at GOC, so I should spend as much time as I can with my unsaved family members and share with them, because we have ETERNITY guys, rejoice.