Psalm 22:1-5: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 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.
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel. In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.”
The worst feeling in the world is to feel that God has forsaken you. There is nothing worse than to feel cut off from Him and His presence. In fact, that is the very essence of hell itself, the total separation from the presence and glory and goodness of God. That is what makes hell, hell; the absence of the presence of God. On the contrast, that is what makes heaven, heaven; the fullness of the presence of God!
Psalm 22 is a Psalm that ultimately points to Jesus. In fact the first part of this Psalm is what Jesus quoted from when He was on the cross. In the case of Jesus, and in the mystery of the trinity, God the Father did forsake His One and Only Son. This is something we cannot fully grasp or appreciate. In fact we are told in Matthew 27:45-46 that: “From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”-which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus, who had no sin, became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Think about that. He took upon Himself not only all my countless and innumerable sin, but your sin and the sin of the entire world! Every injustice, every abuse, every neglect, every act and thought of immorality, every evil, wicked, unclean word and action and attitude. All the filth, the lies…every vile, immoral, wicked, evil, unrighteous thing we have done, thought, harbored. He also fulfilled all righteousness, doing what we have failed to do, living the perfect life we have not. And all the unrighteous things we have done, He paid the price for. It all came crashing down on Him. He bore the weight of sin, the consequences of sin and the just wrath of God because of sin. No wonder darkness covered the land. The Son of God was forsaken because of our sin. It wasn’t just a feeling, but a fact in fullness.
However, the Good News of the Gospel and hope for us is what Peter preached on the day of Pentecost over 2,000 years ago that was prophesied years before He proclaimed it and it became a reality:
Acts 2:24-28: “But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him: “‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.”
Think about this. If God did not abandon His Son for good, despite bearing the sin of the whole world, do you think He will abandon you for good if you turn to Him and trust in Him?
This is where the second part of Psalm 22:1-3 comes into play.
The Psalmist begins by bemoaning feeling forsaken by God.
But then He states this fact: “Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel. In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.”
The only way we are cut off from God is if we fail to put our hope in Him. 2 Chronicles 15:2-3 says: “The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.”
There is no hope apart from Him, but there is hope in Him!
Our sin does separate us from God, but Isaiah 59:1-3 says: “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things.”
The issue is not God’s power. The issue is repentance of sin. Confession of sin. Putting our trust in Him. Crying out to Him. If we repent, He will restore. If we confess, He will forgive. If we cry out to Him, He will save. If we trust in Him, He will come through.
When all seems hopeless, when God seems to have forsaken or abandoned us, we need to see both His Sovereignty and Salvation. He is “enthroned as the Holy One.” He is also the “praise of Israel” the salvation of His people. When all seems chaotic, God is still in control. He is the Lord Almighty, the one who has His hands on and in everything. And Jesus is our gracious Savior, our advocate in heaven, our high priest who intercedes and mediates on our behalf.
We need to guard our hearts from unbelief, panic and worry. God is willing to forgive, but we must be willing to confess our sin. God is ready to show mercy and grace, but we must be ready to repent. God’s arm is not too short to save, but we must acknowledge our sin and trust in Him. God is able to help us; we must cry out to Him in faith.
The presence of Jesus is what makes all the difference. It is what is most needed.
In Judges 6, the angel of the Lord comes to a man named Gideon. He tells Him that the “Lord is with you.” But Gideon doesn’t believe this. In Judges 6:13 he protests: “But sir,” Gideon replied, “If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.”
I believe many people right now have succumbed to this same question and unbelief: “If God is with us, why has all this happened to us?” “Why has God allowed these things in my life?” “I don’t see His power that I read about and have heard others testify of in my life.” “God has abandoned us (me) and handed us (me) over to the enemy for good! “There is no hope for me and my hope is cut off!”
It is true that God allowed (and allows) the consequences of the people’s sin to play out. It is true He “gives us over” to our sin and consequences when we refuse to repent (Romans 1:18-32). It is true that He allowed the enemy to plunder them and take them captive. But it was not to abandon them for good. It was actually to bring them back to Himself!
This is true throughout Scripture. When God’s people would sin against Him, they would suffer the consequences as a result. But when God’s people would cry out to Him and put their trust in Him, He would deliver them and rescue them.
Even in the case of the Egyptians enslaving the Israelites out of fear of them, when the Israelites cried out to God He heard them and delivered them.
Circumstances in our lives can lead us to feel like God has abandoned us or forsaken us. Our sin does rob us of the joy and security of fellowship with Him and result in consequences. And the world being against us can feel like God is against us.
But this is when we need to look to and trust in Jesus.
Romans 8:31-39 reminds us: “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died — more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Ben Foley 