The following service was designed to be part of an arts week at Regent College. The readings were organized by Stacey Gleddiesmith and Robert Lockridge. The service was coordinated by Stacey with help from Aminah Al-Attas Bradford, Robert Lockridge, and Andrea Tischer. Various Regent College students and faculty members contributed their artistic talents for this service as we sought to exegete and communicate the text of Psalm 22 through various art forms.
Service
Call to worship: Spoken prayer 1
A cry for help: Psalm 22:1-2
Congregational response, sung
Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy on us.
Looking back at God’s faithfulness (national): Psalm 22:3-5, group reading
R1: Yet you are holy
R2: Yet you are holy
R3: Yet you are holy
R1: Yet you are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
R2: In you our ancestors trusted;
R3: They trusted and you delivered them.
All: To you they cried out and were delivered;
R1: In you they trusted
R2: In you they trusted
R3: In you they trusted and were not disappointed.
Artistic Exegesis
We cling, in the midst of trouble, to the character of God presented to us in Scripture, and to memories of God’s faithfulness in the past.
Congregational response: “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” st. 1-2, no chorus CH 245, PH 9, PsH 328, SFL 123, SWM 81, TH 194, WR 154
Expression of reality (internal): Psalm 22:6-8
Congregational response, sung
Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy on us.
Looking back at God’s faithfulness (personal): Psalm 22:9-10, group reading
R3/All/R3: Yet you brought me forth from the womb;
R1/All/R1: You made me trust when upon my mother's breasts.
R2/All/R2: Upon you I was cast from birth;
All: Since my mother bore me you have been my God.
Artistic exegesis
We often have difficulty reconciling God’s character and love for us with the circumstances we sometimes find ourselves in.
Expression of reality (external): Psalm 22:11-18
Congregational response, sung
Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy on us.
Artistic exegesis
When we’re in pain we can sink into the depths—feeling abandoned by God and given over to death.
Spoken prayer 2
Plea for help, promise of proclamation: Psalm 22:19-22, group reading
R1: But you, O Lord
R2: But you, O Lord
R3: But you, O Lord, be not far off;
R1: be not far off
be not far off (add R2)
be not far off (add R3)
R1: O you my help,
R2: come quickly to my aid.
All: Deliver my soul from the sword,
R2: My life from the power of the dogs.
R1: Save me from the lion’s mouth;
R3: From the horns of the wild oxen you answer me.
R2: I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; In the midst of the assembly
R1: I will praise you.
R2: I will praise you.
R3: I will praise you.
All: I will praise you.
Congregational response: “Blessed Be Your Name,” Matt and Beth Redman (see RW 100)
Artistic exegesis
We express a cry for help that expects God to answer—darkness shot through with light.
Expression of reality (God’s faithfulness endures): Psalm 22:23-2
Congregational response: “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” CH 11, PH 356, PsH 486, TH 457, WR 68
Expression of reality (God is with us in suffering; his rule will be complete): Psalm 22:27-31, group reading
R3: All the ends of the earth will remember and turn
R1: remember and turn to the Lord,
R2: And all the families of the nations will worship before you.
R3: And all the families of the nations will worship before you.
R1: And all the families of the nations will worship before you.
R3: For the kingdom is the Lord’s
R1: And he rules over the nations.
R2/All: All the prosperous of the earth will feast and worship,
R3/All: All who go down to the dust will bow before him.
R1 (whisper): Even those who cannot keep their souls alive.
R2: Posterity will serve him;
R3: Future generations will be told about the Lord.
R1: They will come
R2/All: and will declare his righteousness to a people yet unborn,
R3/All: that he has performed it.
R1: He has done it
He has done it(add R2)
He has done it (add R3)
All: It . . . is . . . finished.
Spoken prayer 3
Final, joyful artistic exegesis/congregational response
Whatever you choose to place at the end of the service, it should be wholly joyful. This psalm is one of the most dramatic transformations from despair to joy and praise (the heart of a biblical lament)—so the final element of the service should be bursting at the seams with joy!