Forsaken

Psalm 22:1-21

One of the most depressing and discouraging words in the English language is the word “forsaken”.  It brings to mind being abandoned and deserted by those we should have been able to trust or who we felt should have loved or cared for us.  We might think of a woman whose husband walked off and deserted her, saying she was forsaken. Or a mother who abandons her child somewhere. That child is forsaken.  When we need a helping hand or someone to turn to during a difficult period, it is very discouraging to find that those we thought of as friends have forsaken us. Feeling that one is forsaken is one of the worst feelings imaginable.  In our psalm for Holy Week, the week leading up to Good Friday, is one that pictures the great suffering and torture the Lord Jesus went through on that Good Friday, and His being forsaken by God during those hours.

Psalm 22 is a prophetic psalm, with many of its verses being fulfilled by Jesus Christ on that day of His crucifixion.  The very first verse is one of the most heart-rending verses in the whole Bible, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  These were the words that Jesus cried out as He hung upon the cross (Matthew 27:46). Jesus went to the cross to pay the price for our sins, the sins of the whole world.  Though He had no sin Himself, our sinless Savior became sin for us (II Corinthians 5:21). He experienced the full penalty of all of our sins, including the terrible separation that sin caused between mankind and God.  God poured His wrath upon His Son Jesus, for our sake, turning His back to Him during those hours He hung upon the cross. During the time that Jesus hung on the cross, the sky had gone dark and the sunlight disappeared, signifying being forsaken by God.  Being forsaken and abandoned by God was worse than any other pain that Jesus went through, and He cried out in agony to His Father.

As we continue reading in this prophetic psalm we see the people who gathered around the cross at a short distance, and what they sneeringly called out to Jesus (vs. 6-8).  The words of these verses echo what those people, especially the Jewish religious leaders and Pharisees said (Matthew 27:41-43). They stood around the cross, casting reproach and ridicule upon Jesus.  We do not know what David was going through at this time, but his words were prophetically fulfilled by Jesus at the time of the crucifixion. Despite their being like ravenous beasts, like raging lions, ferocious bulls, and wild dogs (vs. 12-13, 16), Jesus did not reproach them back.  Instead, He prayed to the Father (vs. 9-11).

The psalm continues to give a very graphic description of much of the physical agony and brutal treatment that Jesus endured (vs. 14-15).  The torture of Jesus started in the Garden of Gethsemane, and continued on through the hours on the cross. Jesus’ bones were put out of joint, and his heart felt like giving out (vs. 14).  All through that horrible day of beatings, scourging, carrying the cross and then hanging upon it, He was not given a drink of water. His thirst must have been worse than any we might ever go through (vs. 15).

In verse 16 we have a prophecy of the type of death that Jesus would experience.  This psalm was written approximately 1,000 years before Jesus lived. At that time crucifixion was an unknown form of execution, not really practiced until centuries later.  Yet here David describes the nails going through Jesus’ hands and feet. Crucifixion was not a type of execution that the Jewish people ever used. Instead, they would stone a person, or occasionally hang someone, but never crucify them.  That was a Roman form of execution. God put in His Word that the Savior was to be crucified, both in this psalm and also through the prophet Zechariah (Zechariah 12:10).

Another Messianic prophecy that was given in this psalm, and which was fulfilled in Jesus was in verse 18, when the Roman soldiers cast dice to see who would get the seamless robe that He wore (Matthew 27:35).  As we read that verse in Matthew, and corresponding ones in each of the other Gospels, we might overlook it, but it is another example of how Jesus Christ fulfilled each prophecy that was given in Scripture for the Messiah.

We may go through some very bad times, have all our family and friends abandon us, but God will never forsake the believer, the ones who have come to Him through Jesus.  We may feel like God is not there, however He will never forsake us. Because Jesus was forsaken at the cross, we never will be (Hebrews 13:5).