Psalm 22: Spiritual Warfare – Abandoned by God
Easter Friday, April 25, 2025
Adapted from a reflection, entitled Spiritual Warfare, written on Veteran’s Day, November 11, 2008.
On Veteran’s Day in the U.S., we celebrate the end of war. Today we reflect on Jesus’ death last Friday, and the silence that reigned in the Christian world last Saturday as Jesus transitioned from healing prophet to the Messiah Christ. If we are able to take the time to pause, we think a bit about the spiritual warfare in which we are all daily engaged. We consider the constant question of whether or not God has deserted a planet created for and in love. We reflect on the many times the world asks Christians, “Where is your God?” And so we pray.
My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
While still on the cross, Christ appealed to the father with this prayer that generations of his people have used while addressing God in times of stress. In the NABRE the psalm bears the title Prayer of an Innocent Person. Jesus, the unblemished lamb, dies in innocence, in the act of bringing healing to peoples crying for relief. But Christ knew, as Paul tells us in Ephesians, Our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. Paul describes the armor of God we must wear as we enter into the warfare each day: the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Our feet must be shod in readiness for the gospel of peace. (Ephesians 6)
Many bulls surround me; fierce bulls of Bashan encircle me.
Bashan – a land east of the Jordan noted for the size of its animals – provides fierce opposition to the life of a Christian. Again, Paul reminds us in his letter to Titus how to be consistent with sound doctrine, namely, that . . . [we] be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, love and endurance, reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not addicted to drink, teaching what is good, so that they may train [others]. (Titus 2) Paul also calls women to a role subordinate to men which was appropriate for the day – and which we now recognize as outmoded in its effect. The point here is that combat as we witness need not be fierce. It need only be faithful, prayer-filled, and consistent with the Gospel.
If we might find the minutes to pray this psalm today, we find not only the dark fear of abandonment, but also the burning hope of resurrection.
Tomorrow, proclaiming God’s name.
For more on the meaning of Bashan, visit: https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/bashan/ , http://biblehub.com/topical/b/bashan.htm , http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsMiddEast/SyriaBashan.htm, and https://www.britannica.com/place/Bashan
Image from: https://www.wikiart.org/en/francisco-de-zurbaran/agnus-dei-1640
For more on Zurbarán’s work Agnus Dei, visit The Prado site at: https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/agnus-dei/795b841a-ec81-4d10-bd8b-0c7a870e327b
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