Singing Psalm 22 you rest in changing tides
- Karen Wallace
- Aug 25, 2022
- 6 min read
Updated: Sep 2, 2025
Singing Psalm 22 you are humbled by changing tides
Looking inward, you are sometimes twisted up inside from threats on the outside or uncertainties within.
Unsettled, you waste no time and turn your attention to God’s faithfulness. You become calm.
But then others introduce turmoil and again there’s unrest. You feel beaten. You need the Lord God to be solid in your thoughts but he seems nowhere to be found.
Even then, he wants to hear you express your feelings to him.
“My God, my God, to You I cry;
O why have You forsaken me?
Why are You far from giving help,
And from my agonizing plea?
All day, my God, I cry in vain;
By night, yet no relief I gain.” ~ Psalm 22:1-2
You can ask these questions and say these things as a child whose father is always there for him, counting on his father to continue to love and support but at this point he can’t perceive it.
These words are filled with sorrow but not bitterness. The cry is one that expresses great need, not incredulity that God won’t ever answer.
There is a long wait and an honest plea that this is hard. But it is in the very waiting that his mind turns from himself to who God always was and still is. He is willing and able to help. He is still on his throne. This child trusts his God in a time of no response.
Thankfully your position among changing tides is clearly laid out for you to ponder with gut-level honesty as you sing Psalm 22 and wait for God who does not change.
“To you they cried, and rescue came;
They trusted, and were free from shame.” ~ Psalm 22:5
Singing Psalm 22 you are confident through changing tides
You are sometimes mocked for your confidence in him. At other times, it is contagious.
Either way, whether at once or over time, the Lord causes your confidence in him to grow. Because this is not a desperate counterfeit confidence, the hold he has on you is clear not only to you but to some of those around you.
You learn that time is a tool to use for what matters and is mostly taken up with his majesty in the midst of daily living. Ironically, this draws some to want to know you while others are leery. Regardless, specific praise of him and his ways flow from your lips and pen.
Endurance in suffering becomes characteristic for you. You find that you can go through difficult trials and rejections, endure unsettling feelings and losses that before would have you undone with fear or anger.
Turning your gaze to your maker, you can move quickly from changing tides of involuntary emotional gyrations to a cool mental stability, from not knowing how you can go on to looking forward to what’s around the corner.
Pinching yourself at changing tides that now seem too good to be real, you figure it must be a supernatural assurance, a gift of faith. This is hope you can share with others. This gift of faith is given to all who ask for it, and for some God gave it without having been asked.
It now matters to you more than anything that the Lord Jesus went there before you, is with you now, and is leading you where you need to go. He imparts strength as you go through to the other side as he brings you out from under every trial in changing tides.
Serving Jesus was a belabored chore that is becoming a delight tempered with anticipation. You are becoming a new creation in Christ through the testing of your faith. Although you outwardly look the same, inwardly you are becoming unrecognizable as the same person you were.
“Be not far off, for grief is near;
No other helper will appear.” ~ Psalm 22:11
Singing Psalm 22 you rest in changing tides
Certain that you have a firm grip on the Lord’s hand as you go through each peak and valley, the waxing and waning of life through changing tides, you move forward in peace.
You take every threat to your good shepherd. He brushes each one off your shoulders in his perfect timing. You are taken up with pleasing the Lord who frees you from the desire to gain the favor of people quickly over waiting for the favor of God.
Others can see it and some will want to get off the emotional roller coaster to join you in your walk even as you stumble, cry, and in joy mixed with sorrow, continue untriggered on a steady path.
The triune God provides you with mental stability amidst the wind and waves as you sing Psalm 22. He does not change. You and all those who love him are tethered to him in an everlasting way and rest even in changing tides.
“For He has not despised the poor;
He has not scorned their wretched state.
He has not turned away His face
From anyone in trouble great.
When any cry to Him in grief,
He heard his prayer and sent relief.” ~ Psalm 22:24
August 20-26, 2022
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Heart ♥️ reflection
February 28, 2025
“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” ~ Hebrews 12:28 - 13:2
Question: How can I become a consistent safe place for the people I return to or who return to me each day at home, work, or school?
Heart reflection: If the air around you is thick with unsettled judgments, misunderstandings, or silent reservations, how does the air lift? You encounter a smile that exudes a breath of fresh, welcome air in a haven of acceptance where those who come near him know that they are wanted. You leave with a renewed faith in what humans can be. You are curious as to what makes this person different. It’s all you can do to find out how you can get around him more. You’d give anything to be like that and yet still be you. Then you find out that he offers anyone who would trust him and his care for them to learn from him who is gentle and lowly in heart and to follow him. You get on board and never look back.
“To you they cried, and rescue came;
They trusted, and were free from shame.” ~ Psalm 22:5
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The Psalms—Q&A
“Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” ~ John 7:19
“My God, my God, to You I cry,
O why have You forsaken me?
Why are You far from giving help,
And from my agonizing plea?” ~ Psalm 22:1
How can singing Psalm 22 help me grow in my affection for God and in my connection with others?
The Father’s friendship with the Son was called into question. Yet in following through the cross to the resurrection, Jesus confirmed that “No other helper will appear.” ~ Psalm 22:11b
O Father, please tend the uncovered hearts that you clearly see and lay bare, and every thought, word, and deed that flows from them, that through trust in Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit, you would be pleased. Let us keep our closest circle tight with you within it. Indeed, no other helper will appear.
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, then I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day…It is the spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life… no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” … So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”…” did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.“ ~ John 6:35-70
Matthew Henry on this passage:
“Young beginners in learning must take things upon their teacher’s word.”
Will I hang on Jesus’ every word whether or not I find his teaching hard? Is that not what he means when he says to feed on him? To take our cues for life from him who trusted his Father and waited through his silence and was glorified only after suffering?
“A seed will rise to do His will,
And of the Lord be made aware.” ~ Psalm 22:30
Engage and grow together!
“Iron sharpens iron,
and one man sharpens another.” ~ Proverbs 27:17
August 29, 2025
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