Mensa Otabil - You Have Been My God (10/24/2025)
We're looking at Psalm 22, and we are examining verses 9 and 10: "But you are He who took me out of the womb; you made me trust while on my mother's breast. I was cast upon you from birth; from my mother's womb you have been my God."
Psalm 22 starts on a very dark note of suffering, pain, and groaning, along with God's apparent silence in the life of the psalmist. However, it also speaks of Jesus Christ and, in a real way, speaks to us when we are in a dark place and things are not going well. In these two verses, the psalmist positions himself well in the way he sees God and his relationship with God. He says, "Lord, even in my despair and my pain, this is one thing I acknowledge: that I am in your hands." I'm in your hands. How do I know I'm in God's hands? Because he says, "You took me out of the womb." The psalmist is saying, "I've never left God's hands." Not only did He form me in my mother's womb, but His hands literally took me out of the womb. What he's saying is there is no point in your life, in my life, or certainly in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ where we leave God's hands. His hands are always on us; He took us from the womb.
Then he says, "You made me trust you." So God took us out of the womb, and then He gave us the ability to depend on Him. He says right from my mother's breasts. While I was suckling as a baby, I was learning to trust God, just as I learned to trust my mother to feed me. I learned to trust my mother to protect me and understood that my mother would always be with me. So I learned to trust you; that you are always with me, that you feed me, protect me, and help me, and you never leave me. That's a very important truth in our spiritual walk because there will be moments in your life when you feel forsaken. But we must be assured that we have never left God's hands. We may think He has left us, but He never takes His hands off us.
Then he says very triumphantly, " Lord, you have been my God from my mother's womb; I have trusted you." In other words, even when I didn't know You, You knew me. Of course, a child in the mother's womb cannot trust God actively, but he says, "You've been my God." In other words, God, even when I didn't know You, You knew me. When I couldn't recognize You, You recognized me. When I didn't know Your voice, You knew my voice. That is the assurance with which we live our lives: that we are in God's hands. And of course, because this is a Messianic Psalm, it also speaks of Jesus Christ and the affirmation of His confidence that nothing could separate Him from the Father; that His pain, His suffering, and His enemies that surrounded Him could not take Him away from the love of the Father. Similarly for us, nothing we go through takes us out of the love of God because we are always surrounded by His presence. He's our God; He's our help, our deliverer, and He will never leave us nor forsake us.
So as you struggle with your dark moments in life and your pain in life, remember God's hands never leave you. He surrounds you with His presence wherever you are. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, you have always been my God. Teach me to trust you in all situations. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Well, I'll catch you again tomorrow. I'm Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.