Living Psalm 22 – Good Friday

Living Psalms Book

Psalms in the form of words and art, reborn in the specific contexts of our world, privileging the voices of historically marginalized communities and those acting in solidarity with them.

Good Friday-Psalm 22
For the ones who have been cast out, but never abandoned
My God, my God, why does the world speak over me, like my voice was never meant to rise? Why do my prayers climb the air like vines reaching for a sky that refuses to open?
By day, I scream into pulpits that have never held my name with care. By night, I whisper my longing into pillows that remember more tears than dreams. But still—no answer, no rest, just the echo of a silence I do not deserve, like an exile I did not choose.

And yet–I know you.
I have seen you in the breath of the bound, in the voice of the defiant, in the song of the unashamed,
in the march of those who refuse to be erased.

Our ancestors cried to you—the ones whose names were whispered in hiding, whose love was condemned,
whose truths were burned at the stake, whose skin was a threat, whose tongues were stolen, whose land was taken, whose bodies were chained.
They called and you answered with fire in their bones, with courage in their trembling hands, with life where the world swore there should be none.

But me?
I am a thread unraveling. I am a name mispronounced on the tongues of those who do not care to learn it. They laugh, they scorn, they say, “Where is your God now?” as if holiness could only live in bodies that look like theirs. But you have been with me since the first time I loved without apology, since the first time I saw my reflection and did not turn away. Do not stay far from me now. Danger is close, and I am tired of running. I am poured out, empty from years of fighting to be something the world would rather erase. They cut pieces from my story, pick apart my pronouns like bones, call me lost as if I have not found myself a thousand times already.

But you—you have been with me since my first breath of honesty, since the first time I saw myself and did not flinch. Do not stay far from me now.
The teeth of this world are sharp, and I am tired of bleeding just to prove I belong.

Come quickly—rescue me from those who twist scripture into shackles.
Let me stand unbowed,
let me sing where I was once silenced,
let me rise in the sanctuary of the unashamed.

The poor will eat and be satisfied.
The trans child will sleep without fear.
The queer preacher will bless without shame.
The Black mother will breathe without terror.
The refugee will no longer run.
The Indigenous elder will see their land restored.
The disabled body will be honored as whole.
The neurodivergent mind will no longer be called broken.
The ones who love beyond boundaries will know they are your delight.

And the generations to come—the ones waiting for a world that no longer crucifies what it cannot control—
they will hear the story of a God who has always, always called them good.

Living Psalm 22 was written by Sam Houser.

Living Psalms Book is created by UCC Witness & Worship Artists’ Group, a Network of UCC connected artists, activists and ministers bridging the worship and liturgy of the local church with witness and action in the community. Maren Tirabassi, editor

Logo is detail from Living Psalm 80 by Sophia Beardemphl, Redwoods, CA. Recovering from significant bullying, Sophia, age nine, read Psalm 80 and thought of brokenness that needs mending. She drew this broken and mended bowl.