How To Pray When God Feels Silent

Psalm 22^[1]

For the director of music. To the tune of “The Doe of the Morning.” A psalm of David.

¹My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me,

so far from my cries of anguish?

²My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,

by night, but I find no rest.^[2]

³Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;

you are the one Israel praises.^[1]

⁴In you our ancestors put their trust;

they trusted and you delivered them.

⁵To you they cried out and were saved;

in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

⁶But I am a worm and not a man,

scorned by everyone, despised by the people.

⁷All who see me mock me;

they hurl insults, shaking their heads.

⁸“He trusts in the Lord,” they say,

“let the Lord rescue him.

Let him deliver him,

since he delights in him.”

⁹Yet you brought me out of the womb;

you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.

¹⁰From birth I was cast on you;

from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

⁷For the Lord is righteous,

he loves justice;

the upright will see his face.

¹⁸The Lord is close to the brokenhearted

and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

²¹God made him who had no sin to be sin^[1] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

¹⁶Dogs surround me,

a pack of villains encircles me;

they pierce^[1] my hands and my feet.

¹⁷All my bones are on display;

people stare and gloat over me.

¹⁸They divide my clothes among them

and cast lots for my garment.

²⁴For 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 23

A psalm of David.

¹The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

²He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

³he refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths

for his name’s sake.

⁴Even though I walk

through the darkest valley,^[1]

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

⁵You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

⁶Surely your goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord

forever.