Psalm 22 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? 2 O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent.3 But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.4 Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them.5 They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed. 6 But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people. 7 All those who see Me ridicule Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8 “He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!” 9 But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts. 10 I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother’s womb You have been My God. 11 Be not far from Me, For trouble is near; For there is none to help. 12 Many bulls have surrounded Me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me. 13 They gape at Me with their mouths, Like a raging and roaring lion. 14 I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. 16 For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; 17 I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. 18 They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots. 19 But You, O LORD, do not be far from Me; O My Strength, hasten to help Me! 20 Deliver Me from the sword, My precious life from the power of the dog. 21 Save Me from the lion’s mouth And from the horns of the wild oxen! You have answered Me. 22 I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You. 23 You who fear the LORD, praise Him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him,
And fear Him, all you offspring of Israel! 24 For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from Him; But when He cried to Him, He heard. 25 My praise shall be of You in the great assembly; I will pay My vows before those who fear Him. 26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied; Those who seek Him will praise the LORD. Let your heart live forever! 27 All the ends of the world Shall remember and turn to the LORD, And all the families of the nations Shall worship before You. 28 For the kingdom is the LORD’s, And He rules over the nations. 29 All the prosperous of the earth Shall eat and worship; All those who go down to the dust Shall bow before Him, Even he who cannot keep himself alive. 30 A posterity shall serve Him. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation, 31 They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, That He has done this.
MATTHEW 27
39 And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”
41 Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, 42 “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. 43 He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
44 Even the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing.
45 Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Have you ever trusted God through prayer and then God didn’t seem to listen? Have you ever cried out and it seems that God is far away? In those moments, what is your reaction? Many times in my life my reaction was to plead more, question more and blame him more. The loss of my brother, the loss of my job, the loss of my marriage all led me to question God. People can come against you, ridicule you and persecute you and you cry out to God for relief and it just doesn’t seem to come soon enough. In these situations, we face uncertainty in many ways. I want to spend some time this morning discussing a small part of verse 43. “He trusted in God.” What is trust? Trust comes from the greek work peitho pi’-tho which means to convince, to rely on with inward certainty, to have full confidence in. These are some awesome definitions. Lets break them down some more to get a better picture. Certainty is perfect knowledge that has total security from error or being without doubt. Confidence is the belief in the power, trustworthiness and reliability of a person or thing. So we have total security in the knowledge that God is perfect and never makes an error and that He is powerful enough, reliable and trustworthy all of the time. This is His very character. These form the pillars of this word trust.
To have a discussion about trust we have to look at God’s character in each of these definitions. First, is God perfect and without error? Jesus said, “Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Moses when considering God’s truthfulness said, ““God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” Our God is absolute truth. It is impossible for Him to be anything else. He is the source of truth and we can have total security in the knowledge that God is without error.
Secondly, is he powerful enough? The prophet Jeremiah says, “‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.” God created everything and His power can be trusted.
How about the faithfulness of God? David when singing praises to God says, “O Lord God of hosts, Who is mighty like You, O Lord? Your faithfulness also surrounds You.” Paul writes, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” God is faithful. We can have full confidence in Him that He is all-sufficient to meet our every need. On these two pillars of the character of God hangs our ability to trust in Him. Trust then means that we are convinced that we can rely on God and full confidence in His ability to work on our behalf.
Trust is a position in which we place our confidence. The question that I want to submit to you is where do you place your trust? Our trust is found in our identity. Who are we in our identity? Do we put our trust in others or in God? To answer that question we simply have to look at ourselves and ask this simple question. Do we care more about what people think or what God thinks about our situation? I believe that many people today do not trust in God because their identity is not in Him. What do I mean? Success must be defined on our obedience to Him rather than on the world. Our lives have to be based on a personal relationship with God in whom we place our trust, rather than trying to control and manipulate circumstances.
So, who are you in Christ? Paul when writing to the Galatians defined our identity in Christ like this, “Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” We are no longer slaves and bound by our ways of control and manipulation. We don’t have to grope about in the darkness pining for others approval. We are children of the Most High God and join heir with Christ. We are princes of the Kingdom of God and we walk about this life worrying about what other people think. We worry about not having enough. We are worried that success will not come. The problem is that we have not claimed our identity in Christ! We don’t have to worry about success because as His child we are already winners-we get eternity in Heaven with God! Price has been paid and now we are waiting on our time to go! What about not having enough? Our God is the owner of it all and we are joint heirs. Perhaps we need to redefine what enough is and find peace and contentment in the LORD. Then He will provide for our needs based on His faithfulness. You say, “Pastor, you don’t know my problems!” I would respond, “No, but He does!” Trust is such a phenomenal word and it is something that I think that we really don’t place solely in God. Instead of letting our problems define us, why don’t we view them as God using them to sculpt and mold us making us “His masterpiece.” That’s what Paul says, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
So how do we get to the place of trust? You have to come and believe three truth’s about God. First, God is good all of the time. Say it with me, “God is good all of the time.” Paul when writing to the Romans says “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” How many things does Paul say? All things. Everything God does on your behalf is for your good, which leads us to the second truth.
We have to come to the understanding that “God is for me.” Say it with me, “God is for me!” Do you believe that God is doing everything that He can on your behalf? If so, does He make the very best decisions? If we trust in Him, then when we pray for our wants and needs He sometimes says “No” for our good because like a father, He knows best. Paul when writing to the Corinthians says, ““We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.” Have you ever felt like this? We can rely on God to do all things for our Good!
Finally, the last truth we have to realize that “God is with me.” Say it with me, “God is with me.” And we turn back to the original passage at the end when Jesus says, “My God, My God, why have Your forsaken me.” God’s holiness required a perfect sacrifice. All of the sins of the world had to be laid upon Jesus. From an eternity past, Jesus had always been with the Father. Now was the time of the ultimate sacrifice. God, unable to look upon sin, turned His back upon His son. Separation occurred for the first time in eternity between God the Father and His son. The holiness of God and the love of God were being reconciled. Jesus cried out and was separated so that never again would we who trust in Christ be separated from Him again. Jesus, on the cross, cries out “God is Good, He is for you, He is with you for ever and ever.” And He did all of this just for you! Do you believe that? You can trust in God! The question is will you trust in Him today?
