Psalm 22

A Sonnet For Good Friday

The Crucifixion by Harald Sohlberg (1877–1935)

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Whilst attending a contemplative service of lament on Good Friday, I felt moved to pick up my pen and to reimagine Psalm 22, which Christ himself quoted as he hung on the cross. You can read the original psalm below, followed by my own poetic offering.

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Psalm 22:1–6 (NIV)

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
So far from my cries of anguish?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
By night, but I find no rest.
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
You are the one Israel praises.
In you our ancestors put their trust;
They trusted and you delivered them.
To you they cried out and were saved;
In you they trusted and were not put to shame.
But I am a worm and not a man,
Scorned by everyone, despised by the people.

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Psalm 22

By Matthew White

My Ever–Present, my Never–Absent,
For what tall end do you take leave?
My Ever–Present, my Never–Absent,
What rhyme or reason bids you flee?
I seek your voice though silence is my fill;
Dawn carries no semblance of hope.
Likewise, at night your rest eludes me still,
Reprieve comes not to my bedraggled throat.
Yet though your words withdraw, your rule does not—
Ever–trusted and ever–praised.
Deliver me from rancour, ruin, rot,
Over my shame, O Saviour, reign!
But I am worm, anathemised, undone,
Despised, rejected, woebegone.

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