PSALM OF THE FORSAKEN
Anyone who reads Psalm 22 can easily see Jesus written all over it and in it. This Psalm is often called the Psalm of Jesus or even the fifth Gospel. It is probably the most amazing of all the Psalms in that we have such a clear picture of the crucifixion of Jesus. And David wrote this piece one thousand years before Jesus was born.
Can you imagine such a thing? The most common question of an earlier generation was “Do you know where you were when President Kennedy was shot?” On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, while riding down a Dallas street in a convertible.
Suppose someone had discovered an authentic document from A.D. 963 that predicted this event. This was at a time when the Byzantine Empire was at its height, Constantinople was the capital of the world and America had not yet been discovered.
Imagine that some visionary had written an oracle back then which predicted that a time would come when a man of great prominence, head of a great nation, would be riding down a street of a large city in a metal chariot not drawn by horses, and would suddenly and violently die from the penetration of his brain by a little piece of metal hurled from a weapon made of wood and iron, aimed at him from a tall building, and that his death would have world-wide effect and cause world-wide mourning (Stedman). Oliver Stone would have to make a different movie based on such a prophecy.
Such a prediction would be very much like what we have in Psalm 22. The details of Jesus’ death are as fantastically recorded in truth as the fictional document we imagined concerning JFK.
The composition of this Psalm is unusual; like a sad, slow mournful song sung in duet with a hopeful, upbeat song. First the writer laments his troubles and then expresses trust in God. That is the way we will look at this Psalm and observe the thoughts of this man of sorrows who believes he is forsaken in every way.
1. Lament: God Abandons Him
It is said that the best way to approach this Psalm is to read it through and make brief comments and let it speak for itself. We begin with the familiar words of Jesus when he hung on the cross:
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In the midst of his pain and agony these words came to his mind. No one understood what he cried because he said it in Aramaic mixed with Hebrew: “Eloi, Eloi, Lama sabachthani?” That was as much as he could speak.
The Psalmist went on, “Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent.”
When Jesus uttered these words, the NT tells us that a strange darkness settled over the land. Someone said that when Jesus was born that night in Bethlehem, a star shone as bright as the sun in the night sky. When he died in the middle of the day, the sky grew dark. The Sun’s creator was dying.
Did God forsake his Son? Was Jesus actually abandoned by God on the cross? Some would ask: does it matter? Jesus died for me and that’s enough. I believe it does matter so let’s look at four views of Christ’s forsakenness.
a) It was a cry of anger, unbelief or despair – Was Jesus clinging to the hope that at the last moment the Father would send angels to rescue him? Or at the very least that he would feel the presence of the Father as he suffered? But now he felt abandoned and he cried out “Why?” as if his faith had failed him.
The problem is that this understanding of his cry denies the moral perfection of his character. Jesus would then be guilty of unbelief on the cross. It would be failure at Jesus’ greatest moment of sacrifice. We reject this thought then.
b) It was a cry of loneliness – This modifies the first understanding and says that Jesus knew God’s promises and only felt forsaken. Jesus was not guilty of unbelief but was experiencing the dark night of the soul.
The problem is that the words of Psalm 22 express an experience of being forsaken and not just feeling forsaken.
c) It was a cry of victory – the exact opposite of the first thought, Jesus in his understanding, quoted only the first verse to represent the whole Psalm which ends in triumph. This suggests that the people hearing him would know what he was referring to.
The problem is that this is far-fetched. Why would Jesus quote from the beginning if he was referring to the end? It is twisted and doubtful if anyone would catch this at the time.
d) It was a real cry of dereliction - Take the words for what they are. Jesus really felt abandoned. This is not unbelief, this was his reality. Calvin said, “If Christ had died only a bodily death, it would have been ineffectual…Unless his soul shared in the punishment, he would have been the Redeemer of bodies alone.” He paid an enormous price in the suffering of his body and soul as a condemned and forsaken man. As we saw in Leviticus 16, God cannot stand to dwell in a place tainted with sin. We cannot come before God as impure people. So Jesus experienced an actual and dreadful separation from his Father when he bore all our sins.
Yet as Jesus knew, the Psalmist goes on and sings that other tune:
Expression of Trust: …but he believes in God’s power. “Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel. In you our fathers put their trust; they trust and you delivered them. They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed” (3-5).
In the history of a people of faith, the writer remembers the fact that God never abandoned one of them. God faithfully came and delivered those who trusted in him. Why then is this faithful one being treated differently?
2. Lament: Others Loathe Him
If it is true that God rescues the faithful why does he feel abandoned and scorned? He says,
“But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people” (6). What a lowly comparison. A small and insignificant worm! Jesus felt no affirmation from the people he came to help; he felt no validation from his friends – they went and hid while he suffered; he was left alone to suffer without a comforting word.
What does John say about Jesus? “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (Jn. 1:11). He was rejected as a misfit; thrown away like junk.
The Psalmist had an even clearer picture now of what Jesus would experience when he writes:
“All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: ‘He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him” (7-8).
If some would say that Jesus planned this pageant by arranging to fulfill prophecy, how do you explain that the crowds said what they did? Jesus, hanging from the cross, could not have controlled their reactions.
Matthew records that, “Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads…” (27:39), and some said, “He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him…” (27:43). It was like they were reading a script and speaking exactly what the Psalmist had written a thousand years prior.
If God has abandoned him, the people reinforce this feeling of being forsaken. They drive home the feeling that he is worthless and worthy to be mocked. He talked big about God, talked about being his Son, like he was tight with God and we weren’t…well where is his God now? And so they ridicule his faith. God has seemingly left him, and the people around him are no comfort.
Isn’t that how it is our dark nights of the soul? In our agony or depression we feel that God is far away. He has left us; turned his face away from us. We assume it is because we aren’t worth loving or rescuing. Nothing anybody says can console us either. Our friends offer pithy band-aids like “Just give it to God” or “Jesus is the answer” when you and they don’t even know what the question is. It’s just one big feeling of abandonment.
Expression of Trust: …but he believes in God’s purposes for his life. “Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God. Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help” (9-11).
He is not a worm. We are not worms. His birth was not a random happening; a result of simply his parents wishes. God brought him out of the womb. “He was no accident of nature, but the object of God’s loving design and purpose” (Tidball).
Ultimately we cannot believe that we are accidents. God was so intimately involved with the birth of Jesus, this is true. But as David says in another Psalm, God knit us together in the womb so intricately and brought us out. We are the products of grand design with great purposes.
It is not uncommon to forget this and to feel forsaken. For Jesus, the wounds he endured were beyond physical, they were spiritual and emotional as well. He bore the weight on his chest of having God somehow abandon him in his moment of need. Yet in the mystery of the indivisible Trinity, God never left him but somehow suffered with him. This is a paradox we cannot understand. Yet Jesus, the Son of God, endured this agony alone.
3. Lament: His Life Is Over
It gets worse. “Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths wide against me” (12-13). As bulls they seem powerful and strong, and unstoppable. They are like lions, fierce, frightening, threatening, their fangs dripping with anxiety to be at him and tear him apart. The bottom line: he is surrounded by his enemies and they are in control.
What the Psalmist describes next is a perfect picture of the exhaustion of the cross! “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death” (14-15).
Written at a time when crucifixion was unknown as an execution, this describes death on a cross exactly. After hanging on the cross for six hours suspended by nails in his hands and possibly ropes, his body weight will have pulled Jesus’ arms out of their joints. His energy would be depleted and he was gripped by a horrible thirst so that his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. More descriptive yet is the declaration of the Psalmist:
“Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet” (16). “Dogs” are a metaphor used often by the Jews to describe Gentiles, especially Romans. How appropriate that the Psalmist would say “dogs” when a squad of Roman soldiers would be standing guard at the crucifixion. But whatever the Psalmist meant by his hands and his feet, this is so prophetic of the nailing of Jesus’ hands and feet to the cross. We can’t miss this no matter how hard we try.
Jesus experienced a great tension here between the reality of his knowledge and experience of a good and loving God and the reality of the hurt, betrayal and suffering he was enduring. Somehow this does not make sense, it does not add up for us. Through this Jesus entered into our human experience more than anyone ever will and knew what it was like to taste the hiddenness and silence of God when we needed him most.
His humiliation continued: “I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing” (17-18). It was as if he were already dead and gone. The Roman soldiers did not wait but began to divide up his meager belongings, playing a game for the last piece so they would not tear it. How could these words and actions be so precisely exact if this were not of God? One thousand years later the scene is acted out to the letter. Two thousand more and it gives us pause to wonder and worship…
In her book The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom tells of the time she and her sister were forced to remove their clothes and stand naked during a typical Nazi inspection. Miss ten Boom said she stood there feeling defiled and forsaken. Then she remembered something. Jesus hung naked on the cross. Suddenly her emotion turned to wonder and worship when she thought of how He chose to do what they were forced to do. She leaned forward and whispered to her sister, “Betsie, they took His clothes, too.” Betsie gasped and said, “Oh, Corrie, that’s right, and I never thanked Him.”
Expression of Trust…But he believes in God’s ability to deliver. “But you, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me. Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs. Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen” (19-21).
He has just reached his lowest point. And still the sufferer persists in believing that God is his God. His strength was gone but he now calls God his Strength. He still believes that God can be a source of help to people who suffer like he does and will rescue him somehow. Even in this darkest hour, the Psalmist’s faith, and later, Jesus’ faith, will not give in to despair or unbelief. As the Psalm continues we read that it is a victory Psalm in keeping with a Palm Sunday theme. The resurrection victory can only give us hope though, as the forsaken one goes through this dark valley of sin and abandonment. We cannot identify with this hope unless he identifies with our suffering.
Finally…
His forsakenness, real forsakenness, has a purpose. Jesus was forsaken by God so that I would never be rejected. So that when you and I go through the dark night of the soul, experience pain, tragedy, humiliation and loss, we could know that God is not far off. Here’s a beautiful little saying for those times: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out” (Is. 42:3).
“In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time, after a while I have had to look away. And in imagination I have turned instead to the lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of His. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering" (John Stott).
The Psalmist ends with many words, but among them it is said, “…all who go down to the dust will kneel before him…” (v. 30). To which Paul expands with “…that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Phil. 2:10-11). He is LORD!
AMEN
