Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Psalm 22 from my new book:

A NEW LOOK AT THE OLD PSALMS
Praying the Psalms: a modern interpretation

A New Look at the Old Psalms

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I present here a new perspective on the psalms. I have rewritten them from a New 
Testament Christ-centered point of view. I did not try to capture the poetry of the 
psalms – I leave that to more gifted writers – but I attempted to capture their message
with a more modern interpretation.
God bless,
John
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Psalm 22

I
n agony on the cross, Jesus experiences the dark night of the soul. He feels completely abandoned by the Father: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Mark: 15:34 (NLT) Sometimes we feel the same way. Filled with worry and anxiety, we can forget that God has rescued us many times in the past. Yet our soul knows that he has been with us since he formed us in our mother’s womb.
 
Here is Jesus, our Savior, despised and ridiculed as he hangs on a tree between two thieves. Onlookers deride him, “He trusted God, so let God rescue him now if he wants him.” Matt 27:43 (NLT) Jesus’ life is flowing out through his many wounds; his bones are broken; his strength is failing; he thirsts, not just for water, but for souls. His enemies have pierced his hands and feet with nails. They have stretched him so tightly on the cross that one can count his bones. Soldiers even throw dice for a chance to win his last possessions: his clothes.

His physical body cries out for relief. He knows that the Father hears his prayer, but this time there is no response. His atonement for our sins must be complete. The Son of God must die so that we may live. Yet his divinity knows that the Father will not leave him in the grave. Did he not tell his disciples that the Son of Man would die and rise again? What joy we felt upon learning of his resurrection.

Nations will come and worship our Lord for he is King. Let all generations repeat the story of the wonders of our Lord. Let us all bend our knee and bow down before the Lord who saved us. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.1  

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Cover image: Christ the Saviour (Pantokrator)." Web. 25 Sept 2016.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spas_vsederzhitel_sinay.jpg
"Creative Commons License." Web. 18 May 2016.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

1The Orthodox Study Bible. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008), 694.

This book and other books I have written are posted for your reading pleasure at Booksie.

Scriptural quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, 
copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois
60189. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2016 by John P. Gross. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this material must 
be done in its entirety with the copyright notice intact. This book is not for sale, but is 
offered to the public free of charge for the glory of God.

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