My God, Why?
From birth I was cast upon You; from my mother’s womb You have been my God. Psalm 22:10 · Berean Standard Bible
From the very moment of birth, the psalmist has belonged to God and trusted Him—his faith isn't new; it's been his entire identity.
He's saying that his relationship with God isn't something he picked up yesterday when trouble came. It's the foundation of his whole life. This makes the current abandonment even more painful—and his continued trust even more remarkable.
The psalmist, describing his lifelong dependence on God.
This establishes that true faith isn't faith in God because circumstances are good; it's faith rooted in an identity formed from birth—like how Jesus came to do the Father's will from eternity.
The psalmist reiterates and deepens the previous claim: from birth itself, he was cast upon God's care, and God has been his God from his mother's womb.
The intensification from *from the womb* (מִבֶּטֶן, mibeten) to *from birth* (מִשּׁוֹם גִּזְלִתִּי, mishom gizlati—'from my being cast out') creates a temporal expansion encompassing the entire existence. The phrasing *cast upon You* (הִשְׁלַכְתִּי, hishlakhti) employs the root suggesting both necessary dependence and sacrificial offering—the infant has no choice but to rely, yet this compulsory reliance becomes the model for faith. The phrase *You have been my God* (אֱלוֹהַי אַתָּה, Elohay atah) asserts personal election and covenant relationship from humanity's earliest moment.
The psalmist, consolidating the claim that his relationship with God predates his suffering and transcends his present crisis.
This claim of foundational divine relationship becomes Christian anthropology's cornerstone—we exist covenantally related to God before we possess consciousness or capacity to respond. Medieval theology would later formalize this as the doctrine of *prevenient grace*, while Reformation thought emphasized that faith, paradoxically, is both response and gift, both human act and divine accomplishment.
8“He trusts in the LORD, let the LORD deliver him; let the LORD rescue him, since He delights in him.”
9Yet You brought me forth from the womb; You made me secure at my mother’s breast.
10From birth I was cast upon You; from my mother’s womb You have been my God.
11Be not far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.
12Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
Read all of Psalm 22 — Begins with a cry Jesus echoes on the cross. The anguish is real — but so is the turn toward praise that comes at the end.
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