Daily devotion – Psalm 22
1 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.
These words penned by David transport us to Calvary, for Jesus quoted them at the close of a three hour period of darkness.
Jesus had previously told His disciples He was not alone because – the Father is with me – John 16:32, and yet He cried out that His Father had forsaken Him .
When Jesus spoke these words, He had had been engaged in a mysterious transaction with His Father, dying for the sins of the world – 1Jo 2:2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
On the Cross of Calvary Jesus was made to be sin – 2Co 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. – and made to be a curse – Gal 3:13 – for us!
In some inexplicable way Jesus experienced what condemned lost sinners ‘away from the presence of the Lord do and will experience– 2 Thess 1:9.
However, note that both David and Jesus called Him “MY God”, making it clear that they still knew and trusted the Father.
This was not the cry of a complaining servant but the cries of a broken-hearted child asking – “Where is my father when I need him?”
As David prayed for help, he wondered why God did not answer him. After all, He is the God of compassion.
The loneliness that sin brings is a complete separation from God – this is death in its worse form.
Let us give thanks, those who have received God’s forgiveness and His grace, for Jesus suffered our loneliness so that we would never have to come under its final suffering now that we are righteous in Him!