Why Have You Forsaken Me? Series

Scripture

Psalm 22 is an appropriate psalm for our meditation tonight, Good Friday, and also for this coming Easter Sunday. The reason is that the first part of Psalm 22 (verses 1-21) focuses on the experience of suffering on a cross, and the second part of Psalm (verses 22-31) announces the resurrection and expresses praise to God.

Psalm 22 is a psalm of David. However, scholars are not able to pinpoint a time in his life when he experienced the kind of suffering he describes in this psalm. He did go through extremely difficult times, but the Lord never abandoned him and always provided friends to help him in his time of need.

Moreover, the suffering described in this psalm is not the suffering of someone with a severe illness or an injury from battle. It is an astonishing description of one being crucified as a criminal! It is astonishing because crucifixion was not known in the time of David as it only became a form of execution centuries later.

This fact has led one leading Old Testament commentator to write, “No incident recorded of David can begin to account for this…. The language of the psalm defies a naturalistic explanation; the best account is in the terms used by Peter concerning another psalm of David: ‘Being therefore a prophet… he foresaw and spoke of… the Christ’ (Acts 2:30f.).”

Most scholars agree that Jesus was meditating on Psalm 22 as he hung on the cross on that first Good Friday. As I read Psalm 22:1-21, you will see many expressions that confirm this.

So, please follow along as I read Psalm 22:1-21:

To the choirmaster: according to The Doe of the Dawn. A Psalm of David.

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me,

from the words of my groaning?

2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,

and by night, but I find no rest.

3 Yet you are holy,

enthroned on the praises of Israel.

4 In you our fathers trusted;

they trusted, and you delivered them.

5 To you they cried and were rescued;

in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

6 But I am a worm and not a man,

scorned by mankind and despised by the people.

7 All who see me mock me;

they make mouths at me;

they wag their heads;

8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;

let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”

9 Yet you are he who took me from the womb;

you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.

10 On you was I cast from my birth,

and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

11 Be not far from me,

for trouble is near,

and there is none to help.

12 Many bulls encompass me;

strong bulls of Bashan surround me;

13 they open wide their mouths at me,

like a ravening and roaring lion.

14 I am poured out like water,

and all my bones are out of joint;

my heart is like wax;

it is melted within my breast;

15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd,

and my tongue sticks to my jaws;

you lay me in the dust of death.

16 For dogs encompass me;

a company of evildoers encircles me;

they have pierced my hands and feet—

17 I can count all my bones—

they stare and gloat over me;

18 they divide my garments among them,

and for my clothing they cast lots.

19 But you, O Lord, do not be far off!

O you my help, come quickly to my aid!

20 Deliver my soul from the sword,

my precious life from the power of the dog!

21 Save me from the mouth of the lion!

You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen! (Psalm 22:1-21)

Introduction

After Jesus had the Passover meal with his disciples in Jerusalem, they went to the Mount of Olives. While he was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas came and betrayed Jesus with a kiss to the security police of the religious leaders. Jesus was arrested and kept overnight under guard in the house of the high priest. In the morning, a hastily called meeting of the Jewish Sanhedrin convicted Jesus of blasphemy. Jesus was taken to Pilate, the governor of Judea, for sentencing. The Jewish leaders were not allowed to sentence a person to death, since they were under Roman occupation, but they wanted Jesus sentenced to death. Pilate vacillated when he met with Jesus, but eventually he gave in to pressure and ordered Jesus to be sentenced to death by crucifixion on a cross.

By Friday morning the Romans had nailed Jesus to his cross. Jesus hung on the cross for six hours, from about 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., when he died. However, from noon until 3 p.m. a very unusual and intense darkness came over the entire land. James Montgomery Boice says, “The darkness was sent by the Father to shield Jesus during the hours he was made sin for us. These were private hours. It is as if God had shut the bronze doors of heaven upon Jesus so that what transpired during those hours happened between himself and Jesus alone.”