Start the first line of Amazing Grace in a room full of people and they will finish it without being asked. The crowd at the cross knew Psalm 22 the same way, so what did they miss when Jesus gave them its opening line?

In this second look at the fourth saying, we return to Psalm 22, a lament that opens in abandonment and ends in praise. Jesus cried out in the darkness, but heaven did not answer with a voice. So he reached for words God had already spoken, and found in Scripture a story that did not end where his suffering began.

Let hard times become Bible times. When the power goes out, you light a candle. Scripture is the light you reach for when everything else goes dark. Take your raw questions to heaven the way David and Jesus did, but remember the rest of the song. A cry of distress is not a cry of distrust, and God’s silence is not his absence.