Day 958: Never forsaken – Psalm 22 vs 1 -10

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. 3-5 Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. 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. 7-8 All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”

9-10 Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother's breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God. Psalm 22:1-10 English Standard Version.

As we approach the time of year associated with the Jewish Passover feast and the events of Calvary, I thought I'd use the next three posts to focus on Psalm 22. The Psalm's heading is “To the choirmaster: according to The Doe of the Dawn. A Psalm of David.” We're not told when David wrote it, so it may even be a summary of things he experienced at different stages of his life, but the Psalm says many remarkable things which we know Christ experienced during the Passover week when He was crucified many years ago. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark tell us that at around 3pm of that day Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34)

In the case of David, he says (in vs 2) that he had been groaning day and night under some terrible situation. And what made his situation worse was that he knew that other saints had been rescued by God when they cried out to Him. (vs 3-5) What was the sad conclusion that passed through David's heart at what looked like God having forsaken him? (vs 6)

He felt that he was as worthless as a worm, something easily trampled under the feet of men. We don't know all the thoughts went through the mind of Jesus that day, but the fact that He cried out those words surely suggest it was a very dark valley He was going through. He was cruelly mocked by the crowd. We read in Mark 15:29-31 that “those who passed by derided Him, wagging their heads and saying, 'Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!' So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked Him to one another, saying, 'He saved others; he cannot save himself.'” How well that ties in with what our Psalm says in vs 7-8.

What was the truth that David took hold of as he experienced the trial, or trials, he was passing through? (vs 9-10)

He remembered that it was God who had given him life in the first place, and who had brought him through all his years to the trial he was now facing. And, in another Psalm, David said: “The darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb”. (Psalm 139:13) It may be significant that the verse just before the one which tells of Jesus crying out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, says: “From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land.” (Matthew 27:45)

We know that Jesus also came into the world through the will and working of God, and, like David, was brought up by, and dependent upon, a mother. An angel of the Lord had said to Joseph, who was engaged to Mary, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:20) Later in His life Jesus went on to say: “Whoever sees me sees Him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” (John 12:45-46)

As Christians we can take great encouragement from this. Times of fearful darkness that might make us feel utterly forsaken of God, will not last. God's light and God's love will come bursting through. The darkness will never overcome that light. God will never forsake us.