Psalms Meditations on God & Humanity - 2 Dire Straits (Ps. 22)

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1. Opening Question

Does suffering have meaning? Is there a limit to the meaning of suffering?

Elie Wiesel, Night (end, fourth section)

“Where is God? Where is He?” someone behind me asked. ..
For more than half an hour [the child in the noose] stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed.
Behind me, I heard the same man asking:
“Where is God now?”
And I heard a voice within me answer him:
“Where is He? Here He is—He is hanging here on this gallows. . . .”

Source: https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/night/quotes/page/2/

2. The Hiddenness of God...

Hester Panim

In Hebrew, the expression hester panim , literally, "the hiding away of the face," is used to describe the feeling that God is not paying attention or responding to difficulties that beset a person, community, or people. Panim may be familiar from the expression shayna punim, "pretty face." Hester comes from the root s.t.r. ס.ת.ר .

2a. ... in Torah and Prophets

2b. ...in Psalms

Adele Berlin & Marc Zvi Brettler, Comment to Psalm 13:2-3

In Torah and prophetic contexts, God's hidden face, his refusal to attend to humans, is typically a result of punishment; in many psalms, such as this one (Psalm 13), the psalmist suggests that this hiddenness is instead the result of divine neglect.

3. Our Text: Psalm 22

4. Setting, Context, and Place in Tradition

Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, Commentary to Psalms, Jewish Study Bible

Introduction to Psalm 22

The psalm opens with a plea from a person in dire straits, apparently a serious illness. His prayers having been answered, he brings the offerings he vowed and gives public acclaim to God as he promised. God is praised for His care of all people, and all people, now and in the future, should praise God.

This psalm does not have the same significant place in Jewish tradition that it has within Christianity, where the beginning words of verse 2, partially in Aramaic translation, are the last words of Jesus on the cross according to some gospel traditions.

Jewish tradition interprets this psalm as a lament by David over the future exile (Rashi), more specifically the threat against the Jews by Haman in the book of Esther. For that reason there is a custom to read it on Purim (Sephardic custom reads it on the Fast of Esther and on Purim).

5. My God, my God...

5a. "My God, my God" as an expression of despair

5b. "My God, my God" as an expression of hope

Hannah Szenes (Senesh) (1921-1944), "A Walk to Caesarea" ("Eili, Eili") (1942)

The song is considered one of Israel's unofficial anthems, and is the most-commonly played song on Yom HaShoah (the Holocaust Remembrance Day) in Israel.

My God, my God,
may it never end –
the sand and the sea,
the rustle of the water,
the brilliance of the sky,
the prayer of man.

אלי, אלי, שלא יגמר לעולם
החול והים
רשרוש של המים
ברק השמים
תפילת האדם

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Walk_to_Caesarea

5c. "My God, my God" in Christian Bible

(Gospels of Matthew and Mark)

Quoted from the New Revised Standard Version. The Gospels were written in Greek.

Mark 15:33-35

The Death of Jesus

33 When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.

34 At three o'clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

35 When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “Listen, he is calling for Elijah.”

In the Vulgate (Latin version)

34 Et hora nona exclamavit Jesus voce magna, dicens : Eloi, eloi, lamma sabacthani ? quod est interpretatum : Deus meus, Deus meus, ut quid dereliquisti me ?

Aramaic Targum to Psalms

אֵלִי אֵלִי מְטוּל מַה שְׁבַקְתַּנִי

Eili, Eili, metul mah shevaqtani?

​​​​​​​

Sometimes, those Latin words are written as seven words, Deus meus, Deus meus, utquid dereliquisti me ?

Matthew 27:45-47

The Death of Jesus

45 From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.

46 And about three o'clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

47 When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “This man is calling for Elijah.”

Luke 23:44-46

The Death of Jesus

44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon,

45 while the sun's light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

46 Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last.

Jesus' last words invoke Psalm 22[:2], both to express his sense of abandonment and, more subtly, to anticipate the time when all nations will worship God (see Psalm 22:[28]). - Suzanne Watts Henderson, Commentary to Mark 15:34, The New Oxford Annotated Bible

5d. My God, my god -- a theme common to Midrash and Gospel

Dr. Moshe Sokolow (Yeshiva University), "Esther and Jesus" (from 929.org.il)

“My God, my God, why have You abandoned me?” (22:2). This verse is textually connected to two “historical” episodes. The first involved Queen Esther who reportedly recited it prior to entering the throne room of King Ahasuerus to plead on behalf of her nation. The second was Jesus, who uttered it on the cross. I would like to take a brief look at each instance.

According to the Talmud, as Esther entered the “hall of idols” of Ahasuerus, she felt God’s presence desert her.

“She stood in the palace’s inner courtyard.” R. Levi said: As soon as she reached the hall of idols, the Divine Presence abandoned her; whereupon, she recited: “My God, my God; why have you abandoned me?” (Psalms 22:2). Could it be that you treat inadvertence as though it were deliberate, and forced behavior as though it were willing? (Megillah 15b).

To understand Esther’s choice of biblical quotations, two points must be stipulated. One, her given name was Hadassah (Esther 2:7) and Esther seems to be the name she appropriated for her public, non-Jewish, appearances. Two, Esther is a Hebraization of Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess, who is depicted in art and literature as the morning star (just like Venus, the Roman goddess of love). Is it too much to suggest that a good Jewish girl named Hadassah who bore the Babylonian name Ishtar, felt an implicit affinity for a psalm that begins with “For the leader, concerning ayelet hashachar, the morning star, a psalm of David”? (It is worth noting that her uncle’s name, Mordechai, is a Hebraization of Marduk, head of the Mesopotamian pantheon and patron deity of the city of Babylon.)

As for Jesus, Matthew reported: “About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (27:46). S-B-Kh is the Aramaic equivalent of Hebrew `ayin-Z-B and validates the assumption that the Jews of this era generally spoke Aramaic.

The citation of this verse in both instances reaffirms the argument (see my introduction) that Psalms is replete with meaning and significance far beyond that invested in it by David’s personal circumstances.

Source: https://www.929.org.il/lang/en/page/589/post/81416