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Seven Last Words Daily Devotional -25

by David Joynt on March 13, 2021


PSALM 22:19, 23-24, 27 | 19But you, O Lord, do not be far away! O my help, come quickly to my aid!

23You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him; stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! 24 For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.

27All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.

Psalm 22, quoted by Jesus on the cross, is more than a cry of dereliction and abandonment. It is also a Psalm of appeal, a prayer for help, and divine rescue.

And it is a cry of faith. The Psalmist imagines a time beyond his suffering when he has been restored. He can even see his suffering and recovery as a way God will bring the world to faith and worship.

Jesus’ honest cry of separation is also, through this Psalm, a prayer for help and a statement of faith. Trust is at its strongest when we can’t feel God’s presence but still believe He will restore and bless us.

Name some of your afflictions to God today.

Turn your list into an appeal and then envision His saving
response.

 

Tags: response, afflictions

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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