Weekly Bible Study - Psalm 22

29 March 2015

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

Today and Good Friday we will stand in solidarity with our loving Savior as he is condemned to die interior struggle of Jesus as he embraces his suffering. We witness a very human Jesus crying out to the Father in anguish. In his moments of agony he embraces the suffering of all humanity and our cries are his cries.
and journeys to Calvary. Two Gospel writers (Mark and John) will offer us a chronology of the week’s events. It is our psalm response, however, that draws us into what might be imagined as the

When we read this Psalm along with the Passion narrative we appreciate more deeply the broken spirit of our Suffering Servant* and his loving act of redemption. When we join ourselves in obedience to the Father ("take on the mind of Christ," as St. Paul explains), to the absolute and complete obedience of Christ, we make it possible that God will glorify us as Jesus was glorified in His Resurrection on the first Easter morning.

ST Seminary - Crucifixion Detail

Take time this week to join with Jesus in his journey to the cross. Place yourself within his heart as he voices his distress. Unite your own sufferings with his as he endures his physical and emotional pain. Walk quietly with him to Calvary as he holds your hand, wipes your face, carries your cross. Join with Jesus as he echoes Psalm 22:

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? 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.

All who see me mock me; they curl their lips and jeer; they shake their heads at me.

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.

Stay close to his side this week in his agony. It is offered in obedience so that we, sinners though we are, might be accounted obedient.

*Psalm 22 parallels the Suffering Servant Song of Isaiah 52:13-53:12, which we will encounter in the Holy Friday liturgy. Take time to ponder these Bible readings this week.

The author, Ms. Barbara Gawle, leads Bible studies at her parish, Incarnation Church of Wethersfield, CT. She is a CBS graduate and the 2012 recipient of the Biblical School's highest award, the Lawrence Boadt Memorial Medal.