When Dr. Grant suggested that we use Psalm 22 as the text for our Wednesday night Lententide devotions, I immediately thought we should sing through this messianic psalm during the Sundays of Lent as well. The only problem was that the version that we know best, Greg Wilbur’s fantastic All Earth To Him (Psalm 22) is taken only from the end of the psalm (verses 27-31, to be exact). The lines which prophesy the sufferings of Christ on the cross (“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me,” “they have pierced my hands and feet,” “for my clothing they cast lots”) are found in the first half. To sing those prophecies, we needed a new setting. Beginning with the text from the 1912 Psalter, I adjusted the beginning of each verse to match the tragic rhythm of the repeated opening line “My God, My God.” The mood of the text seemed suited to the minor pentatonic scale used so often in Blues music, and that in turn reminded me of a specific piece—the folk song “In the Pines,” whose refrain opens with a repeated phrase just like Psalm 22 (“In the pines, in the pines”). DONELSON’s melody includes an allusion to that haunting tune, that tells the story of a character alone and in distress, abandoned by those around her. Though that folk song tends to end badly, the psalmist concludes Psalm 22 with a hopeful note: through trouble and despair, we can declare with confidence, “I live, for You have answered me.” —Henry C. Haffner
Key Words: Council. Testimony, False Witness, Christ, I Am, Power, Wept
Keystone Verse: You will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven. (Mark 14:62)