Psalms 22:1-2
1My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? ▼▼ From the psalmist’s perspective it seems that God has abandoned him, for he fails to answer his cry for help (vv.
1b–2).
I groan in prayer, but help seems far away. ▼▼ Heb “far from my deliverance [are] the words of my groaning.” The Hebrew noun שְׁאָגָה (
she’
agah) and its related verb שָׁאַג (
sha’
ag) are sometimes used of a lion’s roar, but they can also describe human groaning (see
Job 3:24 and
Pss 32:3 and
38:8.
2 My God, I cry out during the day,
but you do not answer,
and during the night my prayers do not let up. ▼▼ Heb “there is no silence to me.”