Psalm 22

(Here’s the 21st post in my continuing series on the Psalms for All Seasons Sunday school class I co-teach with Andrew Friend. Each week we sing psalm settings from Psalms for All Seasons, Lift Up Your Hearts, and other CRC hymnals. Previous posts is the series focused on Psalm 121, Psalm 122Psalms 2/99Psalm 72Psalm 95Psalm 147,  Psalm 112,  Psalm 29,  Psalm 40Psalm 23Psalm 27Psalm 130Psalm 15Psalm 51,  Psalm 6Psalm 32,  Psalm 143,  Psalms 38/102Psalm 31Psalm 116, and Psalm 16. On March 16, our class took up Psalm 22.)

From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).… And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. (Matthew 27:45-46, 50)

The first line of Psalm 22 are the only words that Mark and Matthew report Jesus speaking from the cross, shortly before his death. They have come to stand for the abandonment Jesus felt during the cruxifiction, but also point ahead to the rest of the psalm (which Jesus may also have recited), which looks forward not just to personal salvation from death but to all the ends of the earth, even generations still unborn, worshiping the Lord.

The first 18 verses detail the psalmist’s dire circumstances: abandoned by the very same God who had saved our ancestors (vv. 1-5) and had protected the psalmist since birth (vv. 9-11), abandoned by other people (vv. 6-8), surrounded by enemies and near death (vv. 12-18). Features from the psalmist’s description of his distress, e.g., enemies casting lots for his garments, correspond to details of the cruxifiction.

Then the psalm takes a turn with a prayer for deliverance (vv. 19-21) and a response to that deliverance in which the psalmist calls the people to worship (vv. 22-26) and looks forward to God’s worldwide reign (vv. 27-31). If the CRC hymnals are any indication, this final section of the psalm is more popular with songwriters  than the earlier parts of the psalm.

The Revised Common Lectionary designates Psalm 22 for Good Friday during all three years (as well as three more three more Lord’s Days in Year B and one in Year C).

“My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?” (PFAS #22A) is the only hymn in Psalms for All Seasons based the first section of the psalm. The refrain is the title of the hymn. The four stanzas are based on vv. 7-8; 16-17; 18-19; and 22-23. It seems better suited for for choral than congregational singing. A sample is here. According to the performance notes, “The paraphrase here offers a compelling interpretation of the psalm in the voice of Christ, making it ideal for use on Good Friday.”

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
People who see me are scornful,
sneering at me, and tossing their heads.
“His trust was in God, let God save him.
come to the aid of his own special friend.”

A majority of the Psalm 22 hymns are based on the final triumphant section of the psalm. Three of these are in Psalms for All Seasons, include two great hymns from the 1912 Psalter.

“Amid the Thronging Worshipers” (PFAS #22E/LUYH #551/PH87 #239/PH57 #37) is a versification vv. 22-28 set to BOVINA. (A sample is here.) “The Ends of All the Earth” (PFAS #22G/LUYH #594/PH87 #542/PH57 #36) is a versification of vv. 27-31 set to VISION. (A sample is here.) These two songs are in the select 18 psalm hymns that appear in all three Psalter Hymnals and Lift Up Your Hearts with the same tune. (No other psalm has more than one setting on this list.) Either of these would be appropriate as an opening hymn for almost any service.

The ends of all the earth shall hear
And turn unto the Lord in fear;
All kindreds of the earth shall own
And worship him as God alone.
All earth to him her homage brings,
The Lord of lords, the King of kings.

“In the Presence of Your People” (PFAS #22F/PH87 #160) was written by Brent Chambers in the style of Jewish dance music. The first verse, which appears in the gray Psalter Hymnal,  is based on Psalm 22:3, 22 and Psalm 145:7. Bert Polman wrote stanzas 2-3 based on Psalm 22:3, 23-28. However, these rejected by the hymn’s copyright holders for the gray Psalter Hymnal and they first appear in Songs for LIFE, the CRC’s 1994 children’s song book. A sample is here. My daughters, Lydia and Chloe, who attended class today (the children’s classes were cancelled), said this was their favorite song of all we sang.

Two other hymns based on the conclusion of the psalm (both from the 1912 Psalter) can be found in the Psalter Hymnals. The blue Psalter Hymnal contains “All Ye That Fear Jehovah’s Name” (PH57 #35). The gray Psalter Hymnal includes “Come, All Who Fear the Lord God” (PH87 #240). (This is first instance I’ve noticed of a hymn from the 1912 Psalter appearing in the gray Psalter Hymnal despite being left out of the blue Psalter Hymnal.) “Come, All Who Fear the Lord God” is a good hymn, but doesn’t compare to “Amid the Thronging Worshipers” or “The Ends of All the Earth.” (We had so many hymns to choose from today that we didn’t sing “All Ye That Fear Jehovah’s Name.”)

Two full versifications of Psalm 22 from the Psalter Hymnals are left out of the new CRC hymnals. The blue Psalter Hymnal’s full versification is the 11-stanza “My God, My God, I Cry to Thee” (PH57 #34), which is from the 1912 Psalter (and wasn’t sung by us).  The gray Psalter Hymnal replaces this with “My God! My God!” a 10-stanza versification by Calvin Seerveld set to MALDWYN. Seerveld did an excellent job of turning the psalm into vivid rhyming couplets.

My God! O my God! Have you left me alone?
Why have you forsaken me, deaf to my groan?
I cry to you daily and plead late at night,
but you do not answer or pity my plight.

The responsorial setting in Psalms for All Seasons is “My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?” (PFAS #22D). The alternative is “All the Ends of the Earth Shall Remember” (PFAS #22D-alt).

Sing! A New Creation includes another responsorial setting (of vv. 1-11 & 22-31) using the first two lines of “What Wondrous Love” (SNC #142). An updated version of this appears in Psalms for All Seasons and Lift Up Your Hearts, titled “Psalm 22:1-11, 22-29: A Scripted Reading” (PFAS #22C/LUYH #165). It uses four sung responses, which are the openings of the four stanzas of “What Wondrous Love.”

Lift Up Your Hearts places this setting opposite the full version of “What Wondrous Love” (LUYH #164/PH87 #379), which is designated as a Psalm 22 hymn.

Psalms for All Seasons also includes a chant, “Lord, Why Have You Forsaken Me” (PFAS #22B), that covers vv. 1-11 and 23-31. The first part is sung in union is a minor key, the second part in four-part harmony in major mode. A sample is here.

If I have a complaint about the Psalm 22 settings in the two new CRC hymnals (PFAS & LUYH), it’s that they don’t provide a great hymn for congregational singing on Good Friday. Most of the settings ignore the section of the Psalm most relevant to the crucifixion, including the “scripted reading” that is in the Good Friday section of LUYH. The lectionary assigns all of the psalm to Good Friday, not just 1-11 & 22-29, so those missing verses are an odd lacuna in that reading. “Lord, Why Have You Forsaken Me” skips the same section as well.

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