‘My Mother,My God,’ ‘Why have you forsaken me?’: An Exegetical Note on Psalm 22 as Christian Scripture

Abstract

This essay argues for a re-reading of the lament in Psalm 22:1–5, 9–11 as Christian Scripture. This reading of the Old Testament as Christian Scripture redresses an imbalance in Christian theology, which tends to highlight difficulties in Jesus’ cry of dereliction but obscures its lament. This lament is central to the cross as solidarity with the experience of human suffering as betrayal by God and as an invitation for humanity to cry out for God’s response, found ultimately in the cross. In particular, the essay offers a new, feminist, birth-sensitive interpretation of Psalm 22:9–11 and a new, feminist translation of Psalm 22:10b, accenting God’s motherhood in the passage.