Psalm 22: Transform Hopelessness Into Success

Today we are working Psalm 22. Some of the uses magically for Psalm 22 are to end despair, for protection while traveling, to protect from misfortune, for deliverance from difficult financial situations, when you feel hopeless or when you feel backed into a corner. Today we are going to use Psalm 22 as a spell to disperse any sense of hopelessness that you might have about any situation or even existentially.

The way we work Psalm magic is simple, easy, and effective. We take the Psalm that we're working and we recite it out loud once, all the way through, without stopping. This is known as an incantation. Then we return to that Psalm verse by verse, and we search for hidden or occult meanings that we find behind each verse.

It really doesn't matter how well you think you're doing at this, you just give it your best effort. And that's all it takes to dislodge the magic seeds that are in each verse. Then those seeds are planted in the depths of your mind, where they take root, they grow, they blossom forth, and they bear fruit after their kind in your life.

And that is exactly what we are going to do together right now with Psalm 22.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry into the daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

But I am a worm, and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip. They shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. But thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly.

Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is no one to help. Many bulls have compassed me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

For dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me, they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones, they look and stare upon me. But be not thou far from me, O Lord, O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.

Ye that fear the Lord, praise him: and ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him: and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither hath he hid his face from him: but when he cried unto him, he heard. My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seeketh your heart shall live forever.

All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among the nations. All they that be fat upon the earth shall eat and worship. All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him, and none can keep alive his own soul. A seed shall serve him, it shall be accounted for the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born and he hath done this. 

That is one of the laments from the Psalm book. And the lament is a very important device in the book of Psalms. It's important that we understand that, yes, words have power. Yes, thoughts have power. But we don't just pretend like our negative thoughts don't exist. We face them. We bring them up and we transform them. And that's one of the things that the Psalms are very good at. It's like a libretto for a very tragic opera sometimes. It's starting out with, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

The opening of this Psalm is famous because it is said in the New Testament that Jesus on the cross cried out these words. We have to understand, though, that Jesus did a lot of Psalm magic in those stories. That character named Jesus was constantly uttering A Psalm and then some wonder would occur. It could be said that this is a piece of Psalm magic for the purpose of overcoming death. But we don't know that that's true. It's an interesting thought. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

So we are working this in regards to hopelessness. When you feel like you have no hope and you have any sense of an infinite power, an infinite creator, it's very common to say, hello, where'd you go? Is there anybody there? Is this thing on? Feeling completely abandoned, completely isolated and alone when we're in a state of hopelessness. It's important to acknowledge that experience. If there is a God, that God has completely forgotten about me, or I wouldn't be going through this. Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring?

Now, it's important to understand the infinite is omnipresent. There is no spot where God is not. And that includes when we're feeling hopeless. The infinite's always there. But our experience of hopelessness is a symptom of feeling abandoned. And if we feel abandoned by the infinite, it's because we're projecting that sense of abandonment that we have for the infinite onto it. We have abandoned the infinite on some level or another. Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night season and am not silent.

I'm complaining, I'm complaining, I'm complaining, why don't you hear me? But remember that the infinite shows up for us in the way that we project. So if we're complaining all the time and saying, why aren't you hearing me? The infinite is hearing us and is saying, if you're in a state of complaint where you believe that there is no help for you, that there is no hope for you, I just have to wait here patiently until you change your mind. I can't force you out of this situation.

But thou art holy, oh thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. First of all, Israel is the name of our soul. So don't think of it as either an ancient or a modern state or nation. This is a symbol in Psalm magic. Israel is a symbol of you as a soul, as the perfect soul. That inhabitest the praises of Israel. God lives in our praises. So if the soul is praising the infinite, that's where you find the infinite. If we're not praising the infinite, if we are complaining, if what we are doing is lamenting, we don't experience the place where the infinite inhabitest.

So the infinite is living within the praises of the soul. Therefore, if we are not praising from our soul, then we are looking everywhere that the infinite does not exist. And so that's why it seems like the infinite has abandoned us, because we aren't looking where the infinite exists. But didn't we just say there is no spot where God is not? That's true. So the infinite is everywhere, but if you're looking into places that don't exist, then you're not going to find that which does exist. So the infinite is all that exists, but if you're looking in places that don't exist, which is your right to do, because you have a creative mind, so you can make up all kinds of stuff that doesn't exist, but don't expect the infinite to live there, because the infinite doesn't live in that which is untrue. The places where you're not praising the infinite don't really exist.

Our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted and thou didst deliver them. Well, you did it before. You've done this before. If you're really looking magically at this, everything exists as you in this Psalm. So your fathers means in times gone by in my life previously, or even in previous lives, you've listened to me, you've been there. What's different now? They cried unto thee and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were not confounded. I'm understanding that this has worked before. It's not working now.

We're going to do two things in this next verse. On one hand, we're going to say, well, maybe it's because of me. And if I go really into self-deprecation, maybe you'll feel sorry for me. This is another device of the ego to try to get the infinite to wake up because we think that the infinite's ignoring us or fallen asleep to us or has abandoned us on some level or another. So we're trying all the tricks in the book here.

But I am a worm and no man. If we just really feel bad about ourselves, maybe the infinite will feel sorry for us. A reproach of men and despise it of the people. So I'm not like my fathers. I'm not like I used to be. I'm not like those other times. I must be extra bad right now for you to have abandoned me. Very passive aggressive, isn't it? It's very manipulative.

But we're trying all of our tricks here. All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip. They shake the head saying he trusted on the Lord that would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

Let's take this into the esoteric. The everybody is part of you. So the everybody that it's talking about are your thoughts mocking you. We are in a separated, split mind here. There's the part of us that used to be at one with the infinite and used to have things work out, but now we're being mocked by our own thoughts about the fact that we would trust in something that's not working.

But thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly. There's so many ways to look at this. But for now, let's look at the idea that the infinite gave me life. The infinite is the principle of life itself. And since the infinite is the principle of life itself, we are an extension of that principle.

We understand this, it's saying in here. We're getting this on some level, but we're not willing to give up the payoffs of feeling bad about ourselves or being right about the situation. We're still blaming God here. Our whole shtick here is I'm going to blame God. I'm going to hold God accountable for all of God's mistakes, because if God wasn't so careless with me, I wouldn't be going through this.

Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. We're trying so many different ways to get the help that we need here. We're going to bully God. We're going to make God feel bad for us. We're going to accuse God. And now we're begging, please God, please God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, but there is none to help.

And then we're going to explain to God why it's important that regardless of what God really thinks of us, that God comes in and rescues us now. Because many bulls have compassed me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. These big bulls that are compassing us are representative of big problems in our lives that we can't seem to get rid of. They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion.

The bulls and the lions were beasts that were, back then, especially very feared because there was no technology to protect us from these kinds of beasts. But these are representations of whatever the problem is that's bringing us hopelessness. There's a subtext here where we are saying, aren't you bigger than the bulls, God? Aren't you supposed to be everything?

Aren't you bigger than the bulls? Aren't you bigger than the lions? To maybe bruise God's ego a bit here. I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. Now we're going to go through our body as symbols of how hopeless things are and how bad things are. And if we can just list all of the reasons why everything's bad, maybe then the infinite will listen to us. I'm poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. Now remember, the heart is the deep mind. It's like wax. It is melted in the midst of my bowels. There's nothing in my deep mind that's doing anything except for projecting more hopelessness onto the screen of space.

My strength has dried up like a potsherd. My tongue is cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. It's your fault, God. You've done this. You've brought me into the dust of death. All of these things are your fault, so you have to clean up your mistake. For dogs have compassed me. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and feet. Everybody's out to get me. The whole world is out to get me. Nothing that I do works. I'm not responsible for this. You are. I may tell all my bones, and they look and stare upon me. Think about all my bones, the skeletal reality of who I am in this world. They're all telling me how screwed I am. There's no hope for me.

On one hand, I really want you to help me, and on the other hand, I'm mad at you because it's your fault. I have nothing to do with it. It's all you, God. But please save me. They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. Everything outside of me is against me. But remember, the outside of me in the Psalms really represents different parts of our own mind. So my own mind is betting against me. My own mind is betting against me. And by the way, this is your fault, God. You let this happen. You did this. But be not thou far from me, O Lord. O my strength, haste thee to help me. Isn't that interesting how we are? But God, I love you. Jerk!

Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling from the power of the dog. Now I've given you all of this lament, I've accused you, but please save me from these things. Please save me from that which is causing me hopelessness. Save me from the lion's mouth. For thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. Please remember that the unicorn here that they're talking about is not the pretty little pony with a horn in his head. The unicorn was a real thing. It was a type of rhinoceros. It was probably a holdover from a very ancient predatory beast. So when that thing got a hold of you, there was no hope for you. So please save me from the horns of this thing, which is another symbol of you having no hope to survive this in your mind.

I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation, I will praise ye.

Why did it change so fast? All of a sudden, it's just, oh yeah, the infinite's got this. I don't have anything to worry about. There is no such thing as hopelessness in the mind of the infinite. All I have to do is wake up to the fact that through the praise of my soul, like it said earlier, that's where the infinite lives. So if I'm praising the infinite, all is well. All is made right again.

So what happened? Some people say that this is another place in which there was an oracle, right in the middle of this. Regardless of that, once you go through the litany of what's wrong and how it's nothing to do with me and it must be God's fault, once you go through all of that, it's like when you are sick to your stomach, you've ingested maybe something that was tainted and you regurgitate it, you feel better.

So the infinite's fine with this. You can blame the infinite all day long if it makes you get to the point where you understand the truth. So there's nothing wrong with you going through this. In fact, it's encouraged in this Psalm. But you get to a certain point where you say, oh, that's right. This isn't the way to do this.

Ye that fear the Lord, praise him. All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him, and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. Remember, Jacob was beloved of the infinite and was renamed Israel. Jacob is a part of the mind that regardless of Jacob's flaws, the infinite loves. It's the idea of divine grace. That character Jacob did some pretty bad stuff, and the infinite disregarded it and forgave Jacob. And not only forgave Jacob, but rewarded Jacob. And Jacob changed. Jacob became a much kinder, nicer, more holy person as a result of that. And that's you. That represents you.

So regardless of all of this, regardless of what you've done, regardless of any of the things that you're lamenting, the infinite sees you as you are, sees you as your soul. To fear and praise the Lord, to fear the Lord is to experience the presence of the infinite. It's a type of ecstasy. So that's fearing the Lord. Yes, it is respecting, but it's also actually feeling the presence of. And then praising, to praise something means to acknowledge enthusiastically that something is good.

So here we are substituting all of that scorn, all of that hopelessness, all of that lament with praise and the fear of the Lord. So praise and ecstasy. And fear Him, all ye, the seed of Israel. So the seed of Israel is the heart of your soul. The center of your soul. Fear is the infinite. Fears the Lord. And the fear, again, is the acute awareness of the presence of it. Don't think of the fear of God as being afraid of God. To be afraid of God is not the point. The fear of the infinite is the experience of the ecstasy of God.

It's everything fear is without the pain. It's the only thing that you can fear in the entire universe that doesn't have pain attached to it. So if you fear the infinite, we say, if you fear the Lord, you have nothing else to fear. Therefore, if you are having the fear of the Lord here, the problem that you're feeling hopeless about disappears. There's nothing to be afraid of.

There's no need to be hopeless anymore. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither hath he hidden his face from him. But when he cried unto him, he heard. We're just realizing this now. We're saying, whoa, I was so wrong. My mind was off. But as soon as I got that praise and the fear of the Lord going, I'm understanding again. I'm remembering that the infinite didn't abandon me. The infinite's just been waiting patiently for me to come to my right mind again and ask for help in the right way.

My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them that fear Him. Praise of the infinite in the great congregation, meaning the entirety of your consciousness, the entirety of your mind, your deep mind, your conscious mind, your superconscious mind, that's the great congregation. And when you, as a consciousness, decide that within your full mind, the fullness of who you are, is going to praise the infinite, meaning acknowledge enthusiastically that good is good, things change.

Now, how do you praise God? It's not by going into a church and saying, Praise the Lord, you could do that. There's nothing that says you can't do that, but that is not what we're talking about. To praise the Lord in a magical sense means to acknowledge what's good. It's not all bad, even in the midst of your problem. So if you're hopeless, it's because you're not praising the Lord. And if you start praising what's good in your life, that gives you more to praise and it becomes very contagious. Did you have something to eat today? Do you have a roof over your head? Do you have some clothes? Were you able to take another breath a second ago? Are you alive? Is your heart beating? There's something to praise. Something good is happening.

And then feeling the presence of the infinite, those two things, that's everything right now. That's the formula here. And that's being done in the great congregation. You want every part of your mind to hear this. Paying my vows before them that fear him. So every part of your mind that is experiencing the presence of the infinite, you are paying your vows. You are vowing right now that you are experiencing and you're keeping your mind stayed on this. You're focusing on this, not upon what you believe is hopeless anymore. You've done what you needed to do. You've acknowledged the hopelessness on very deep, visceral levels. And now you are pivoting completely. From that, you're putting your mind on praise and presence. The praise and the presence of the infinite.

The meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that seek Him. Your heart shall live forever. So when you seek the Lord, when you've made up your mind to turn from the problem to the infinite, through praise and experiencing the presence, you'll be satisfied. Because that's what the meek is. Remember, the meek isn't the weak. The meek is the adept. The meek is the trained. The meek is the peaceful. No matter what seems to be going on in the world, you say, oh, yeah, that's right. I can turn to the infinite, praise the infinite, and experience the presence of the infinite, and the problem disappears. That's the meek. That's the adept in you. The adept is going to be satisfied. You want to be an adept.

It says, your heart shall live forever. There is no end to who you are. Now let's look at who you are as a soul. The soul of you lives forever. You're an extension of light, and that light doesn't stop. That light is eternal. That light is bigger than your life in this world. It's bigger than your body, bigger than your storyline, definitely bigger than this problem, bigger than everything. Now let's say you're feeling hopeless about something that's really important to you.

Maybe your business closed and you have all these debts and you don't know how you're going to pay them. But think in terms of if you took and you pulled back and you saw yourself as a soul that was bigger than this lifetime, that's been alive since the beginning of time and continues to live forever, that problem from that perspective isn't even there. It isn't even something that you think about. And that's how the infinite sees your problem. Since the infinite knows that there is no problem, when you turn and face this power with praise and a visceral experience of the presence of this power, this power has everything it needs to right the situation.

All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord. The ends of the world are what you are capable of conceiving. Everything that you're capable of conceiving, both in your mortal egoic mind and in your immortal soul's mind, every single thing that you could possibly think of and conceive and experience will remember and turn unto the Lord. It's about remembering. They used to have a commercial back in, I think it was the 80s. It was for the drink called V8. They would hit their forehead with their palm and say, wow, I could have had a V8. And this is what this is. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord. I could have remembered the Lord.

All the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. The nations are the overarching thought forms in your consciousness. And everything that comes out of those overarching thought forms are now worshiping, meaning working for the infinite. They're no longer working for your demise. Your mind is not working against you anymore because we have in the great congregation declared that the two things that must be done now are the fear of the Lord and the praise of the Lord, which means experiencing viscerally the presence of the infinite and acknowledging enthusiastically what's good. And when we do that, everything that comes out of those thought forms then work for the infinite. And when those things are working for the infinite, they are working for your best. They are working for the greatest in you. And so there is nothing to worry about any longer. There's no longer a sense of hopelessness because not only do you feel better, but because you feel better about it, you start seeing things change in the actual events of your life to prove to you that this magic is working.

For the kingdom Him is the Lord's, and He is the governor among the nations. Think about when you are created as a soul. You're created not only with the ability to think for yourself, which you do have, and you have the freedom to do that, but you come with pre-installed thought forms, pre-installed software that knows what to do in any situation, no matter what. It gives you great power over all that is. And that's the Lord being the governor among the nations. But then we also have the freedom to make up our own thought forms too, or to change the thoughts, to reprogram things if we want to. And we're at liberty to do that.

Most of the time when we do that, we create problems for ourselves. Things that were working so well in their factory settings, we decide to go in and change the code on it, and they don't work so well anymore. And a lot of things happen when we do that. On one hand, we fall in love with those new thought forms and don't want to change. And so when problems start happening because of the way that we've rewritten the code, we've rewritten the scripts, we don't want to let go of those things. We have little payoffs, and that's the trick of the ego, is to fall in love with the ideas that create our problems, and we don't want to give up those problems. And now it's saying, no, but the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among the nations. And this is something that we want to decide for ourselves.

The kingdom is what? The kingdom is every part of your life. Every single part of your life. Remember, the Psalms are to be taken personally if they're to be worked magically, not religiously. So the kingdom doesn't mean anything religious. The kingdom means your life, every aspect of your life. If every aspect of your life belongs to the Lord, meaning the infinite, with those factory settings, all is well.

So you've decided to turn everything back to its factory settings here. You're not going to think all by yourself anymore. You're going to think in concert with your soul. Because the "all by yourself" is the ego mind. And the ego mind is, remember, an imposter. It's not the way you are as a soul. It's the idea that you're separate from your soul. It's the idea that you're separate from your creator. It's the idea that you're separate from everybody else. It's the idea that you're all alone and that you have a reason to be hopeless. Those are all ego-based thoughts.

And so when we turn away from the ego and say, no, I want to think like my soul now, we are finally finding independence, true independence. Because we are individuals, we were created to be individual expressions of the light. And the ego takes the idea of individual and turns it into something gross, turns it into something bad. We are declaring our independence with this, for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among the nations. That's not giving your power away, it's taking your power back.

All they that be fat upon the earth shall eat and worship. All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him, and none can keep alive his own soul. The principle of life itself is what is keeping you going. The only difference between you and God is that God created you and you didn't create it. But everything else is identically the same. You are the same stuff, the same fabric, the same critter as the infinite. Having a dream, believing that you are less than, that you are a worm, like it said before, that you're separate, that you have problems, that you're hopeless.

All they that be fat upon the earth shall eat and worship. All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him, and none can keep alive his own soul. It doesn't matter where you are in the storyline, what your concept of yourself is as an ego. When you understand that the infinite is your source, then you want to know yourself as the source sees you, not as the story sees you, not as all of the problems see you, not as all of the comings and goings of the ego sees you. Because none can keep alive his own soul. In other words, you are an extension of the infinite. Nothing can change that. No matter how much you lean into that nightmare saying that that's not true, it's true regardless. And so you want to wake up to that fact here.

A seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. So the seed that's serving the Lord that will be accounted for a generation, in this particular case, is the germ of the thought that all is well, that you are an extension of perfection, that nothing but perfection can exist in this situation, and that if you turn your focus now off of whatever this hopelessness is, and you put it all upon the infinite, or the Lord calls it in most of these Psalms, for a generation, meaning for the period of time in this world that is being affected by whatever this hopelessness is, it's going to be changed. It's going to be transformed. You don't have to worry about this problem anymore. There is no more hopelessness. It's being replaced by all blessings.

They shall come and declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this. Now who are the people that shall be born? Everything that's coming in your life. Remember, people are thoughts and experiences for you. So everything that is to come, your future, is safe. Because everything that's coming in regards to this is not going to look like what happened before. It's not going to look like what you think it is now. It's going to be a people that shall be born, that shall come and declare the righteousness of the infinite.

How will it declare the righteousness of the infinite? By reflecting that righteousness as circumstances in your life. Those are the things that are coming, the things that reflect only the righteousness of the infinite. And the righteousness of the infinite is everything that's going to make you happy, not everything that's going to make you hopeless. They shall come and declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this, that he hath done this. The infinite has done this. And has already done this, by the way. The infinite already knows what's going to make you happy about this in this situation. The infinite already knows how to handle this problem and to bring you out of hopelessness and into happiness.

It's just a matter of time now, by coming back to this Psalm each and every day, that you are going to get a sense first of peace and certainty about the situation, and then the situation itself is going to change and transform and reflect the so-called righteousness of the Lord, that which is going to make you happy. You just keep coming back to the Psalm every day, once a day is fine, until you get a sense of peace and certainty about the situation. And that sense of peace and certainty is an indicator that your spell has been cast and you do not have to worry about this anymore. Move off of it. Put it out of your mind unless you are guided to do something about it and move on to something else.

Thank you so much for spending some time with me today. I so appreciate you. Until next time, blessed be.