Since Wednesday Night...

Since Wednesday we have heard our Lord's great cry of anguish, his cry of separation and abandonment:

God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

It is the great lament of Psalm 22, and perhaps if those present were in a state to think about it their minds may have continued with it:

Why so far from my call for help,

from my cries of anguish?

My God, I call by day, but you do not answer;

by night, but I have no relief.

Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;

you are the glory of Israel.

In you our fathers trusted;

they trusted and you rescued them.

To you they cried out and they escaped;

in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

But I am a worm, not a man,

scorned by men, despised by the people.

All who see me mock me;

they curl their lips and jeer;

they shake their heads at me:

“He relied on the LORD—let him deliver him;

if he loves him, let him rescue him.”

For you drew me forth from the womb,

made me safe at my mother’s breasts.

Upon you I was thrust from the womb;

since my mother bore me you are my God.

Do not stay far from me,

for trouble is near,

and there is no one to help.

Many bulls surround me;

fierce bulls of Bashan encircle me.

They open their mouths against me,

lions that rend and roar.

Like water my life drains away;

all my bones are disjointed.

My heart has become like wax,

it melts away within me.

As dry as a potsherd is my throat;

my tongue cleaves to my palate;

you lay me in the dust of death.

Dogs surround me;

a pack of evildoers closes in on me.

They have pierced my hands and my feet

I can count all my bones.

They stare at me and gloat

they divide my garments among them;

for my clothing they cast lots.

But you, LORD, do not stay far off;

my strength, come quickly to help me.

Deliver my soul from the sword,

my life from the grip of the dog.

Save me from the lion’s mouth,

my poor life from the horns of wild bulls.

But tomorrow, ah tomorrow, the song we will sing.