PSALTERIVM

PSALMVS XXI — DEVS DEVS MEVS

My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?

Deus Deus meus quare me dereliquisti is the great Messianic psalm of the Passion, whose opening words Christ cried from the Cross (Matt 27:46). It describes with prophetic precision details of the crucifixion centuries before that form of execution existed: pierced hands and feet, garments divided by lot, mocking onlookers. In the 1962 Breviary it is prayed on Good Friday and throughout Passiontide.

LATINE
Deus, Deus meus, respice in me: quare me dereliquisti? Longe a salute mea verba delictorum meorum.
Deus meus, clamabo per diem, et non exaudies: et nocte, et non ad insipientiam mihi.
Tu autem in sancto habitas, laus Israel.
In te speraverunt patres nostri: speraverunt, et liberasti eos.
Ad te clamaverunt, et salvi facti sunt: in te speraverunt, et non sunt confusi.
Ego autem sum vermis, et non homo: opprobrium hominum, et abiectio plebis.
Omnes videntes me, deriserunt me: locuti sunt labiis, et moverunt caput.
Speravit in Domino, eripiat eum: salvum faciat eum, quoniam vult eum.
Quoniam tu es, qui extraxisti me de ventre: spes mea ab uberibus matris meae. In te proiectus sum ex utero.
ENGLISH
O God my God, look upon me: why hast thou forsaken me? Far from my salvation are the words of my sins.
O my God, I shall cry by day, and thou wilt not hear: and by night, and it shall not be reputed as folly in me.
But thou dwellest in the holy place, the praise of Israel.
In thee have our fathers hoped: they have hoped, and thou hast delivered them.
They cried to thee, and they were saved: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
But I am a worm, and no man: the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people.
All they that saw me have laughed me to scorn: they have spoken with the lips, and wagged the head.
He hoped in the Lord, let him deliver him: let him save him, seeing he delighteth in him.
For thou art he that hast drawn me out of the womb: my hope from the breasts of my mother. I was cast upon thee from the womb.
NOTA
FONS
Douay-Rheims (1609) / Vulgata
USUS
Good Friday, Passiontide, Meditation on the Passion
CONTEXT
Psalm 22 in Hebrew numbering. Christ's cry 'Eli, Eli' quotes the opening. The casting of lots (v. 19) fulfilled at Calvary.