Psalm 22 From the Cross
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?”Psalm 22:1 (KJV)
About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” They are the first words of Psalm 22, written a thousand years earlier.
Anyone who knew the psalm would have heard the rest of it echoing at the foot of the cross. “For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.” And then, “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.”
John watched the soldiers do exactly that, and wrote it down: “They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled.”
On Good Friday, Jesus was forsaken so that we would never be. He went into the darkness of Psalm 22 so we could come out into its ending, where the psalm turns to praise. Read it today, all the way through.
Read it yourself
Read all of Psalm 22. Where does the psalm turn from suffering to praise?
What does it mean to you that Jesus was forsaken so you would not be?
Lord Jesus, you were forsaken for me. I will never understand the cost, but I thank you with all my heart. Amen.