Devotion for Sunday 30/03/2025

Psalm 22:1 (NIV)

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

Why are you so far from saving me,

so far from my cries of anguish?

The first verse of this Psalm is by far the closest depiction of the cry of pain and anguish while Jesus was on the cross. Theologians often explain that it is because God is "of purer eyes than to see evil" (Habakkuk 1:13), He looked away from His Son as His Son was bearing the sin of all humanity on the cross.

Many feel the only answer to Jesus' question, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" is this: God forsook Jesus at Calvary so He would not have to forsake us eternally. Because Jesus died for our sins and conquered death, we can live forever in the constant presence of God. At the same time, as part of the Trinity, Jesus can never be entirely separated from God. As fully human and fully God, Jesus was feeling the human anguish of being momentarily separated from the Eternal Father.

The interesting point is that Psalm 22 does not seem to match any exact incident in David's personal history. The language used is more like an execution than a time of trouble. It seems David uses those figures of speech to highlight how troubled he was. This also implies this portion of Scripture is prophetic. The suffering depicted here closely matches that of Jesus during His crucifixion. Both Christ (Matthew 27:46) and later writers (Hebrews 2:12; Psalm 22:22) made this same connection.

The sense of abandonment was real to David at the time of his writing. A thousand years later the same sentiment was felt by the Lord, but he still acknowledges that the Lord is his God.

From a human point of view, we do not understand why the Father God did not rescue Jesus by taking Him off the cross, but in the eternal scheme of the great redemption, it is because He had sent Jesus into the world as His Lamb to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

When Jesus died on the cross, God "made him to be sin" for us (2 Corinthians 5:21) and a curse (Galatians 3:13). Rather than rescue Jesus "from" death, God rescued Him "out of" death (Psalm 22:24).

This is the simple and yet profound truth of the crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday and the triumphant Resurrection Sunday. Our Christian Faith is unique in that we serve a risen saviour and the great exchange He achieves for us are on so many levels. He was forsaken so that we are accepted, He was wounded so that we are made whole.

May the Lord grant you a wonderful Sunday as we gather to worship to be nourished by the word of God and the fellowship of the saints.