Ash Wednesday: The Last Lament

We Begin Our Journey to the Heart of the Cross

(For the Season of Lent, I will be using the text of Psalm 22 to reflect and share thoughts, stories, anecdotes, and biblical truths, perspectives and wisdom. I wrote a book about Psalm 22 a few years ago. But in these articles, I want to go deeper into the heart of our Lord. I will stay very close to the text. I will be sifting it, screening it, getting behind the words of David and the words of our Lord.)

My God, my God…

Never underestimate our ability—my ability in this case—to miss the obvious. Sometimes, the most apparent fact right in front of our faces is the last to be noticed—the last to be considered.

Case in point: I know Psalm 22 (see the entire psalm below) like the back of my hand. I am one of two people in the last 100+ years (that I can tell, anyway, from a search on Amazon) to have written an entire book on it. (John Stevenson, who lived in the 1850s, is the other author whose book I bought via Kindle.)

However, both Pastor Stevenson and I missed the glaring fact that this Psalm begins with a double invocation: “My God, my God…”

This is the only instance in the entire Bible where a doubling phrase is used for God. The only time.