“It’s always darkest before the dawn.” This is a common expression, one that may be familiar to most people. Personally, I don’t know how accurate the statement is. Before the sun comes up it actually gets a little lighter, in my opinion. But the point of the expression is that things seem to be at their worst right before good things break through and clear up all the problems.
After Jesus came into Jerusalem he was arrested and put on trial. He was convicted and sentenced to death on a cross, a public execution. While he hung on the cross Jesus quoted the first line of Psalm 22. What are the questions asked in this psalm? What is the attitude or feeling these questions evoke?
It is common to interpret the words of Jesus on the cross as an expression of sorrow and suffering. In the moment that he cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” it is assumed that God had momentarily turned His back on Jesus because of the sin Jesus took on.
But there is another way to look at what Jesus has said. In the time of Christ the psalms were not numbered and ordered as they are presented in our modern Bibles. Instead each psalm was remembered and recognized through the first line.
By crying out the first line to Psalm 22 Jesus was reminding those in the know that they should recall this psalm. While it begins with a lament and cry of desperation and despair, the psalm does not stop there. Like most psalms the attitude begins with hopelessness and sadness and then moves on to joy and triumph.
Even as early as verses 3 and 4 in Psalm 22 we see expressions of victory through God. “You are enthroned as the Holy One.” “In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them.”
Jesus was declaring that it was always darkest before the dawn, but dawn was coming. He was suffering on the cross and it may have appeared that evil had won, but there would be goodness that followed this execution. Jesus would rise again.
As we draw nearer to the celebration of Easter we must remember that there is hope for each of us. No matter what troubles we may experience, no matter how much we feel that there is no hope, we must remember that we are loved by God so much that Jesus was willing to die so that we might live. Through his death Jesus put sin to death for us. There is goodness that awaits us all.
DAILY CHALLENGE: How can you hold on to hope through your darkest hours?
