“Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.” -Psalm 22:9–11
Simply put, The Lord (YWHW) had been David’s God all his life. In the midst of his distress, he not only recounts the faith of his fathers, but his own personal experience as having known the Lord since his infancy. Like Timothy’s mother and grandmother, David’s family had raised him as a child of God, a covenant member in the household of faith.
“I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.” -2 Timothy 1:5
“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” -2 Timothy 3:14–15
May God revive the historical Christian imagination within the modern church and return us again to embrace the biblical mandate for parents to raise up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4) and for children to honor their parents that their days (generations of believers) may be long upon the earth. Then our children can confidently pray with David, from my mother’s womb you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.