SureHope Counseling & Training Center
wants to wish you and your family a very blessed Easter!
As you probably know, SureHope is focusing on the spiritual and psychological aspects of lamenting this year. So, what does a lament and Easter have in common?
Everything.
In Psalm 22, one of the Psalms that is considered to be a “lamenting Psalm”, this Psalm starts with:
My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?
We find in Matthew 27:45-50, Christ using this phrase as he died on the cross.
As we read Psalm 22, it is clear that this Psalm is describing Jesus. We find in this Psalm a wresting going on of true suffering and true encouraging of self with ultimate truth. This lament is especially a reminder of how a spiritual and mental battle is won.
Have you ever had a time you felt so alone. A time where you felt God was not listening or responding. One where you felt it was hard to breath due to the pain of betrayal, rejection and ultimately the effects of sin (either by someone sinning against you, sin you committed, and/or the effects of living in a broken world)?
Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, is a reminder of Jesus taking on mental, spiritual and physical sufferings and throughout this time how he called upon God (both in the Garden and on the cross) and trusted the plan God had ordained.
There is nothing we can encounter that will be outside of what we can learn from how Christ handled the last week of his life.
How he poured his heart out to God,
how he asked questions,
how he trusted the character of God
and ultimately trusted God’s plan.
Practicing lamenting, is a way in which we train our hearts and minds to follow how Christ lived.
In Psalm 22, we also see how the character of God is glorified in not only what he had already done but also how God would be glorified forever.
Psalm 22:27 KJV states:
All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
What an honor it is to remember what our Lord did on Resurrection Sunday, to celebrate how mourning was turned to dancing (Psalms 30:11-12), how death has no sting (1 Corinthians 15:55-57) and to be given the blueprint to overcome any challenge in this life.
I hope you have a beautiful Easter and call upon the greatest name, the name above all names…
Jesus (see Romans 10:9-13).
_______
I highly encourage reading Psalm 22, see Christ throughout this Psalm and read the beautiful commentary Matthew Henry has on this Psalm (Psalm 22 KJV – My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken – Bible Gateway)
Psalm 22 KJV
22 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
2 O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
5 They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8 He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.
10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly.
11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, 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 in the midst of my bowels.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
19 But be not thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste thee to help me.
20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.
21 Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
23 Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.
25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
28 For the kingdom is the Lord’s: and he is the governor among the nations.
29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.
God bless,
Kelly Saylor – learn more about working with Kelly here!
