For the director of music. To the tune of “The Doe of the Morning.” A psalm of David.
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.
4 In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
8 “He trusts in the LORD,” they say,
“let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”
When Jesus went to the cross the Father forsook Jesus. This Psalm is a prophetic declaration. Jesus felt abandoned because he was bearing our sin on the cross. His cry in this Psalm reflects his knowledge that He was fulfilling Scripture as well as His authentic emotional and spiritual condition.
Believers can be encouraged that Jesus went before us. God refused to show Him any kindness, help or encouragement. Why? “God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT).
When we feel far away from God, it may be tempting to stop seeking him and stop reading because we feel like we won’t be able to hear him answer us anyway. But that is precisely the time we need to seek him the most, especially through simple and faithful disciplines like reading the Bible on our own daily and staying dedicated to prayer.
Jesus knows what it is like to feel like God is far away, and He shows us what to do in the darkest moments: turn to God in prayer and lean upon God’s Word. Jesus’s recalled the verse from Psalm 22, from memory, in his moment of greatest need. It is an example to us, as sinners, that we can put our hope in God. Christ is the pioneer of our faith. With His sinless life He paid for our sins. We can turn to God for Christ has paid for every sin and He will not turn away. “And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:19-22, NLT).