October 4, 2026 - Seeing the Psalms through Jesus: Psalms 22 and 31

Oct 04, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: When Only Five Words Are Heard, But the Heart Sings On

A child’s muffled song holds more than what ears can grasp. Though others might only catch fragments, every note matters to the One who leans close. Jesus’ cry from the cross—“My God, why have you forsaken me?”—was not an isolated plea but part of a lifelong rhythm of raw, persistent prayer. Like a child’s hidden melody, our incomplete prayers are fully heard. Trust that the Father receives even the parts others miss. [17:01]

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?… But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help me… For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.” (Psalm 22:1, 19, 24, NIV)

Reflection: When have you felt like your prayers were only partially heard by others—or even yourself? How might Jesus’ example reassure you that God hears the full song beneath your fragmented words?

Day 2: From Forsaken to Faithful: The Turn in Psalm 22

A cry of abandonment becomes a declaration of trust. Psalm 22 begins with anguish but pivots to hope, mirroring Jesus’ journey from Gethsemane’s agony to the cross’s purpose. The psalmist moves from “Why?” to “You have listened,” just as Jesus moved from “Take this cup” to “Your will be done.” Even in darkness, the thread of God’s faithfulness holds. [36:32]

“They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment. But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help me… I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you.” (Psalm 22:18-19, 22, NIV)

Reflection: Where is your heart wrestling between “Why?” and “Yet I trust”? How can Jesus’ use of this psalm guide you to hold both honesty and hope?

Day 3: Surrendering Breath: The Final Act of Trust

Commitment happens when control ends. Jesus’ final words—“Into your hands I commit my spirit”—were not resignation but active trust. Psalm 31, prayed by generations, became His breath’s last anchor. Surrender is not defeat; it is placing what is most fragile into the only hands strong enough to hold it. [34:17]

“In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame… Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God.” (Psalm 31:1, 5, NIV)

Reflection: What part of your life feels too fragile to release? How might entrusting it to God, as Jesus did, transform fear into faith?

Day 4: Enduring the Mudder Run With Eyes on Joy

Faith is a marathon with obstacles, not a sprint. Jesus “endured the cross” by fixing His gaze on the joy ahead—resurrection, reunion, redemption. The writer of Hebrews compares our walk to a grueling race, urging us to shed distractions and run with the Pioneer who finished His own race bloody but victorious. [24:18]

“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2, NIV)

Reflection: What “joy set before you” gives strength for your current struggle? How does Jesus’ endurance reframe your view of hardship?

Day 5: Blood, Sweat, and Psalms: The Grammar of a Faithful Life

Tears water the soil where faithfulness grows. Jesus learned obedience through suffering, praying Psalms with “fervent cries and tears.” His bloody sweat in Gethsemane and raw psalms on the cross reveal a spirituality that embraces struggle as sacred ground. True endurance is not stoic silence but wrestling trust. [43:10]

“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death… Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered.” (Hebrews 5:7-8, NIV)

Reflection: How can your current challenges become a classroom for deeper trust? What would it look like to bring your “fervent cries” to God without editing them?

Sermon Summary

Jesus’ cry from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and his final prayer, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit,” bring Psalm 22 and Psalm 31 right into the center of his suffering. Jesus does not sound like someone grabbing a random line here and there. Jesus had grown up praying the Psalms, and the whole context of these prayers likely formed the cry of his heart as he faced betrayal, mocking, shame, physical pain, darkness, and death.

Psalm 22 begins with the question, “Why?” The psalmist cries out as though God is far away, as though his anguish is not being heard. Yet Psalm 22 also names the very scene Jesus is living through: enemies divide his garments and cast lots for his clothes. The Psalm moves, though, from anguish to trust. God has not despised the suffering of the afflicted one. God has listened to his cry for help. The feeling of being forsaken is real, but it is not the whole story.

Psalm 31 carries that same movement. The psalmist says, “In my alarm, I said, I am cut off from your sight.” Then the psalmist turns and says, “Yet you heard my cry for mercy.” Jesus commits his spirit into the hands of the Father, not because the cross is easy or because the pain is unreal, but because the Father is still his refuge, rock, fortress, and faithful God.

Hebrews shows the same pattern in Jesus’ life. Jesus offered prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears. Jesus learned obedience through suffering. Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him. The joy was not the cross itself. The joy was resurrection, glory, the Father’s right hand, and the full accomplishment of redemption.

Honest prayer, hope, and faithfulness belong together. Honest prayer refuses to pretend that pain does not hurt. Hope refuses to treat the present moment as the whole story. Faithfulness becomes possible when a person brings the alarm, confusion, anger, and grief to God, then looks beyond what can presently be seen. God does not require polished prayers before he hears. God receives the cry, shapes the heart, and calls his people to be strong, take heart, and endure.

Key Takeaways

1. Honest prayer is still faith Psalm 31 gives words to the alarmed heart: “I am cut off from your sight.” That kind of prayer does not prove faith has disappeared. It can show that a person still believes God is near enough, strong enough, and faithful enough to hear the complaint. God is not offended by honest words brought to him. [43:10]
2. Hope looks beyond the cross Hebrews says Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him. Christian hope does not deny the cross, minimize pain, or pretend every answer comes immediately. Hope trusts that God’s work is bigger than the moment of darkness and that resurrection remains God’s final word. [49:40]
3. Faithfulness requires endurance Psalm 31 calls God’s people to be strong and take heart because their hope rests in the Lord. Faithfulness is not merely checking religious boxes when life is good. Faithfulness is staying true when humiliation, pain, betrayal, or unanswered questions make quitting feel reasonable. [51:44]
4. Jesus knows human suffering personally Jesus entered betrayal, denial, false accusation, public shame, mocking, and physical agony. His cries from the cross show that he did not stand at a distance from human pain. His obedience gives suffering believers both a Savior who understands and an example for enduring.

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Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[17:01] - A Child’s Praise and a Psalm
[18:33] - Learning to See Jesus in Psalms
[21:29] - Remembering Jesus at Communion
[23:37] - Jesus Endured for the Joy Ahead
[25:13] - Honest Prayer, Hope, and Endurance
[27:21] - Jesus’ Final Hours in Matthew
[33:30] - Two Prayers from the Cross
[34:43] - The Whole Context of Psalm 22
[36:32] - From “Why?” to Hope
[39:20] - Psalm 31 and Committed Trust
[42:26] - Pray Honestly, Hope Deeply, Endure
[45:44] - Hope and the Promises of God
[49:02] - Being Full of Faith
[52:14] - A Call to Faithful Endurance

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Psalm 22:1, 18
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.” [33:50]

Psalm 31:5, 22
“Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God. In my alarm I said, 'I am cut off from your sight!' Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help.” [34:17]

Hebrews 12:2
“fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” [24:23]

Observation questions

What details in the crucifixion scene match the words and images found in Psalm 22, especially regarding Jesus’ clothing and the treatment he received? [37:14]
What two different cries from the cross connect Jesus to Psalm 22 and Psalm 31, and how does each cry express a different part of his suffering and trust? [34:29]
In Psalm 31, what does the psalmist say in a moment of alarm, and what does the psalmist later say God has done? [41:26]
According to Hebrews 12:2, what did Jesus endure, and what was set before him as he endured it? [24:18]

Interpretation questions

Why might Jesus’ use of Psalm 22 and Psalm 31 show that his cry of abandonment was not hopeless despair, but prayer spoken to the Father in the middle of real suffering? [35:15]
Psalm 22 moves from asking why God seems far away to confidence that God has heard the afflicted person. How does that movement help explain the difference between feeling abandoned and actually being abandoned by God? [38:19]
What does it mean that Jesus endured the cross “for the joy set before him”? What was the joy, and why was the cross itself not the joy? [49:54]
Psalm 31 connects crying out in alarm with continuing to hope in the Lord. How can honest prayer and faithful endurance belong together rather than oppose each other? [42:26]

Application questions

Is there an area of pain, confusion, grief, betrayal, or disappointment where it has been difficult to speak honestly to God? What might it look like to bring that specific burden to him without pretending it does not hurt? [43:36]
When prayers seem unanswered, what messages does a person tend to tell himself or herself—such as “God has forgotten me” or “I am cut off from his sight”? How does Psalm 31 give a truer response to those messages? [41:49]
Jesus understands humiliation, false accusation, betrayal, denial, mocking, physical pain, and sorrow. Which part of Jesus’ suffering especially helps someone in the group know that he understands their experience? [28:26]
What present hardship makes endurance feel difficult right now? What would faithful endurance look like in one concrete next step this week—not as denial of the hardship, but as trust in God within it? [52:02]
Hope looks beyond what can currently be seen. What future promise of God—resurrection, restoration, Christ’s presence, eternal life, or something else—most strengthens the group to remain faithful today? [48:30]
What practices can help make prayer more honest and hopeful this week—for example, praying a psalm, writing out a prayer, asking a trusted believer for support, or naming both the pain and the hope before God? [49:02]

Sermon Clips

42s

#EndureInFaith

“Some of us are in places right now where it... All the... We're checking all the boxes. Life is good. Others of us know what it means to be humiliated, know what it means to be in pain, know what it means to be betrayed, know what it means to feel like God's not hearing us. And for you, I wanna say, yeah, now's the time. Endure. Be faithful. Follow the example of Jesus. Follow the the movement of these Psalms. Be honest in your prayer. Be hopeful in the promises of God. Get into God's word. See what his promises are, and then be faithful.”

30s

#PrayHonestly

“So if you're praying those kind of prayers right now, you're in good company. Jesus prayed that kind of prayer. The psalmist prayed that kind of prayer. If you've gotten to a point where you don't have any hope in God or any confidence in God and you don't even pray about those things anymore, that's that's an unhealthy place to be. That's a place where you need to go back and go, no. I'm I'm gonna be real with God.”

43s

#RememberJesus

“We come to the Lord's table and we remember Jesus in a variety of ways. We remember what he did on the cross for us. We remember the price of our sin. We remember the reward of what he did, the benefit we received. But we also, when we come to moments like this, should be remembering how Jesus lived and how he died in obedience to the father. So remembering him in part is remembering his example.”

46s

#FullOfFaith

“So be honest and be hopeful. Be honest and authentic and vulnerable in your prayers. Be hopeful, which I believe this is modeling for us leads to this third and that is that we will be faithful. I'm going to put it like this. I know that's not how you spell faithful, but I want to make the point that I want you to be full of faith. He's writing telling, how do you how do you express your love for god? Your faithful people. Your people that are true to him.”

52s

#ChristianHope

“As I've been meditating on this passage, I've I've just been reminded how essential hope is in the in the Christian experience. Our religion is not just a religion of, hey, you just do this because it's the right thing to do. You do a, b, and c, and don't do d, e, and f. But that that the message of Jesus, the message of all of scripture is one of hope, that God is true, God is faithful, God is love, God is good, and and he will respond to our faith. He will respond to our obedience. Maybe not all the time, in our timing, but you can trust that he will.”

47s

#FaithfulLiving

“If we're gonna follow this example of Jesus, we're gonna have to pray like Jesus. Pray authentic, real, even tear filled prayers. So I'm gonna I'm gonna encourage you to pray honestly. Number two, I'm gonna encourage you to be people of hope. People that that are looking for the joy set before. Not just gritting your tooth and saying, I'm just gonna do this because it's the right thing to do, but but anticipating the joy. And the third thing a life that shows endurance, that shows faithfulness, that sticks with, the plan of God even when it's tough. So I'm a I'm a land on those three things.”

31s

#DontGiveUpHope

“Don't give up hope. Don't think that the Christian life is just about today. Yes. It is about today, but it's also about God is at work, and so be anticipating. God is not gonna be like thinking you're being transactional, just looking for the good stuff if you are, are quoting back to him from the Psalms these promises. Right? He gave them to you.”

28s

#HopeFromTheCross

“Then we know, according to Luke's account, that there's also heard from the cross, from another Psalm, Psalm 31. So so maybe it is what Jesus is doing is he's praying Psalm 22 and he gets to this place of of confidence. He's gone from a place of being forsaken to a place of hope and and Psalm 31 is a Psalm of hope.”

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