00:00 Intro music and voice over.
Welcome to jesus loves the world podcast. For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Be blessed empowered and transformed in Jesus’ name!
00:20 Speaker
My God My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me
The darkest hour of humanity had come. For a renown criminal was chosen over an innocent man. One of the most brutal empires of humanity was in power. They had devised a form of execution of criminals and slaves that was ultimate torture. It was designed to be that way. This form of execution was a public humiliation and one of the most painful ways to die ever. The trauma was all encompassing - emotional, mental and physical. The Roman Empire was in power and the method of execution it used it was crucifixion.
So the time had come. From the 6th hour there was physical darkness over the land. The one who through Him and by Him all things good were created, had become a man. Still fully divine, yet fully human. Born of the seed of Holy Spirit, He was and is and always will be only good. He never is one with evil.
As a man He was on trial. False witnesses told lies. It was known that He was an innocent man.
The spiritual darkness of humanity was immense. Jesus the Son of God knew it and as the Son of Man He physically, emotionally and mentally experienced it. He willingly wrapped Himself up in a human tent to sacrifice His life at the hands of humanity, to set humanity free. He came to push back the darkness and shine His glorious light.
It was clear to all He was an innocent man. Yet He was sentenced to crucifixion. Stripped by the soldiers, He was brutally tortured and publicly mocked.
His tortured human body was nailed to a wooden structure for the crucifixion. He was then raised up on a hill for all to see. They who were there denied Him. Many blasphemed Him and most ridiculed Him.
There were those who knew who He was and believed in Him. Yet they did not fully understand. For at any time He could call down a legend of angels and save Himself, yet out of His great love for humanity, remained nailed to that cursed tree.
Matthew 27:39-44 And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” Even the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing.
Then it happened.
Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
With a loud voice for all to hear, Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1 “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Psalm 22 is a Psalm written by David, the shepherd boy who became the second king of Ancient Israel many centuries ago. In writing Psalm 22, king David laments the human condition since the beginning.
When humanity chose to be one with good and evil. They felt immense shame and ran from the presence of God and tried to hide from Him. Because of their shame, they felt so far away from Him. They became lost in the darkness. Yet God was there. He pursued them in love. As He never leaves nor forsakes anyone. For He is faithful and true. He is greater than any darkness.
David, the writer of Psalm 22 knew the heart of God. He knew and experienced the living God. God said of David that He was a man after His own heart. Yet David was trapped in His own selfish desires and as a result followed them into the darkness of his selfishness.
David desired God, yet in this moment of lament, felt so far away from Him. Because of the condemnation of David’s own heart, David felt God had forsaken him. But God was there with him and never would leave him, nor forsake him.
By quoting Psalm 22 in the hearing of all the passers by and ones gathered at the foot of the cross, Jesus was publicly identifying with humanity. So humanity would confront their own darkness and admit their need for a saviour. There need for God.
Matthew 27:35 Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet: “They divided My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.”
They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots… is a direct quote from Psalm 22 and the prophet referred to is the writer of the Psalm King David.
The passers by knew the scriptures. They knew Psalm 22 in its entirety. The scribes and the Pharisees, in fact everyone of Jewish lineage knew the Psalm and what led to the downfall of king David. They also knew the prophetic words in the Psalm, that Jesus was fulfilling right before their very eyes.
So let us read the entire Psalm.
Psalms 22 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent.
But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.
But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people. All those who see Me ridicule Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, “He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”
But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts. I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother’s womb You have been My God. Be not far from Me, For trouble is near; For there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded Me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me. They gape at Me with their mouths, Like a raging and roaring lion.
I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.
They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.
But You, O LORD, do not be far from Me; O My Strength, hasten to help Me! Deliver Me from the sword, My precious life from the power of the dog. Save Me from the lion’s mouth And from the horns of the wild oxen!
You have answered Me. I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You. You who fear the LORD, praise Him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, And fear Him, all you offspring of Israel!
For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from Him; But when He cried to Him, He heard. My praise shall be of You in the great assembly; I will pay My vows before those who fear Him. The poor shall eat and be satisfied; Those who seek Him will praise the LORD.
Let your heart live forever! All the ends of the world Shall remember and turn to the LORD, And all the families of the nations Shall worship before You.
For the kingdom is the LORD’s, And He rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth Shall eat and worship; All those who go down to the dust Shall bow before Him, Even he who cannot keep himself alive. A posterity shall serve Him. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation, They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, That He has done this.
This lament of David’s is rich in human emotion. It reveals the plight of humanity and their false perception of God, when stuck in bondage to their own darkness.
But unlike the passers by at Jesus’ crucifixion, David chose to accept God’s right to rule and reign. David had a revelation of God that God will never leave him, even in David’s darkest hour.
The passers by Jesus hanging on the cross did exactly what David’s accusers did in accusing God. They shoot out the lip, they shake their head, saying, “He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!
Let us read, Matthew 27:41-43 Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
Jesus hung on the cross, an innocent man, unlike David, unlike anyone of humanity, He is the evidence of humanity’s depravity. For it is humanity’s selfish desires that cried out, crucify Him, crucify Him. It was humanity’s selfish desires and consequences of them that resulted in giving power to evil and death. All this nailed Jesus to the cross. However it was out of God’s great love and desire to set humanity free that the Father, Son and Spirit willingly became the blood sacrifice.
Jesus the Son, came from the Father’s heart, born of the Spirit, became human. He suffered for us, so we could be set free. God, Father Son and Spirit, one God gave humanity power to reign with Him in His perfect creation. Yet humanity chose to give that power to evil and their selfish desires.
So God Himself had to become a man, a perfect man, representing both God and humanity. Representing God, He defeated death and the power given to humanity’s selfish desires. As representing humanity, become our substitute sacrifice that our selfish desires demand. For our selfish desires cry out for justice and that someone has to pay the cost. Jesus, the Son of God, became that someone.
In His victory on the cross and in His resurrection, Jesus took back the power given by humanity to evil and humanity’s selfish desires.
So the very thing God came to set humanity free from, God used to become the sacrifice for humanity, to pay the cost for it all. The cost that our selfish desires demanded had to be paid.
So at about the ninth hour Jesus declared the opening of Psalm 22. In Psalm 22 it states that they pierced My hands and My feet.
There before the people He was pierced in hands and feet. The word that has been translated as hand was first used in the Bible in Genesis. It is after humanity had chose to be one with good and evil. When God protects them from not being able to put out their hand and take also from the tree of life. As eating the tree in their damaged by evil state will mean they will in damaged state for all eternity.
Just as interesting the first time the word that has been translated as feet appear it is also in Genesis and in the context of the of the flood that God sent to cleanse the earth. A dove had been sent out of the ark but she had no resting place for her feet. As the whole earth was still flooded. So she returned to the salvation of the ark.
Both instances are referencing God’s salvation in amongst the darkness of humanity. The Son of God became the Son of Man, bringing God’s salvation of eternal life and rest. He shone His glorious light and stepped down into our darkness, to set humanity free.
Let us conclude with the Psalmist revelation Psalm 22:24 For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from Him; But when He cried to Him, He heard.
19:40 Outro music and voice over.
For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Be blessed empowered and transformed in Jesus’ name!