Feeling Abandoned by God

Psalm 22 is usually considered Christological. It is normally thought of in its relation to Christ at the crucifixion. It is right to think that but it is easy to ignore the fact that the writer was going through a most stressful and painful time. When he wrote this it was not with the thought in mind of some future prediction about someone else. He wrote this about himself during a specific time of great hardship and pressure. He really did feel abandoned by God. I suppose many believers in Christ can identify with this. They have either done something very foolish or are experiencing difficulties and pain such as never before. Even though the writer is describing how he feels in relation to God and the world around him, there are two key phrases that make the difference: "Yet You" and "But You, O LORD." Not only does the writer, David, feel abandoned by God, he also tells how he just is not functioning very well in daily life (vs. 14), he describes himself as broken and useless (vs. 15), and also in that verse says he has no hope and thinks of dying. This describes quite well a dark period in my life that lasted for at least 15 years. That is a long time to feel abandoned by God, to consider oneself useless and unable to understand why he was still alive. To top it off there were peers that indicated in past conversations that if I ever failed as I did, God would put me on a shelf for the rest of my life. I missed or was not paying attention to those phrases: "Yet You" and "But You, O LORD" even though I had read them several times. When David uses the word "LORD" he is using the covenant name for God. This evokes the memory of God's promises to be near to support His people and to protect them. I will never understand in this life why I missed this during that period. So I hang onto vss. 9-10. Because God has shown His love to David from birth, God has a purpose for him. God did not set His love on him just to later abandon him. In Psalm 138:8 he is able to confidently say that God "will acomplish His purpose for me." God never abandons those He has set His love on. One other way to look at it would be as Jacob did in Genesis 48:15 when he said that God had been his shepherd every day all his life clear up to this point when he was dying. And he knew God would take him all the way. So when I feel abandoned by God, whether it is because of something I have done or not, this is the hope and promise God never stops working His purpose out for me and will shepherd me all the way until I am with Him face to face.

The Second, Third, etc. Time Around

One of my favorite people of the Bible is David. Two things stand out to me about him: he was a man after God's heart, and he failed alot and big. It isn't so much that he failed but that he continued to get back up with God's grace and keep going. This was because he was a man after God's heart. Most think about his failure with Bathsheeba but there were others. His first marriage failed, he caused the death of a lot of his people by his own arrogance, he failed with his kids, and the list goes on. I would suppose that because he was a leader God let us see more of his life. Not that his failures did not cost him. The consequences for some of them were enormous and lifelong. Psalm Three talks about what happened after the Bathsheeba affair. The first two verses explain a bleak situation. There did not seem to be very many of his friends left. He had a lot of enemies, the chief of which at this time, was his own son. He wanted David dead. His enemies were speaking about him behind his back and possibly to his face. What they said is what is so significant in this psalm. They were saying that because of his failures God had forsaken David; that God had given up on him. More modern terminology (the kind of which I personally heard toward me) was that God put him on a shelf for the rest of his life. However, David knew this was not true. Whether or not he would be restored as king, he still knew God had not forsaken or given up on him. David referred to God as a shield around him. As a result he could get a good night's sleep because he knew God had not given up on him and was still taking care of him. SO...
Regardless of the failure, even though forgiveness is promised for all sin, the promise of God still holds: "He will accomplish His purpose for me" (Psa 138:8). "He who began a good work in me will continue it until the day I face Him" (Phil 1:6). There are other Scriptures along this line but these two keep me going. The same God who held David by the hand WHEN he fell (Psa 37:23-24)is also holding mine and will never let go. God does not promise second or third chances per se, but He seems to like to give them to those after His heart.