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?”
This taken from Psalm 22:
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?
Psalm 22 offers much of what we find in the events of Christ’s crucifixion. I want to spend some time with this, looking at the crucifixion and then looking back to Psalm 22 and some other Old Testament passages that are also seen in Christ’s death.
To begin, that Christ cited these opening words from Psalm 22 doesn’t mean He ended it there. Christ has the entire passage (chapter, in our term) in view, when He utters the opening phrase. I will come back to this later......
Conclusion
Thus far, there is nothing pleasing about any of this story: My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? It is how the Psalm opens, and it is what Jesus cries out on the cross.
But Christ knew that the story has a wonderful ending:
Psalm 22: 21(b) You have answered Me.
God answered Christ when He ask God about being forsaken, and the answer is in the Psalm – and it is an answer of victory:
22 I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You. … 25(a) My praise shall be of You in the great assembly
27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You. 28 For the kingdom is the Lord’s, and He rules over the nations.
30 A posterity shall serve Him. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation, 31 They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, That He has done this.
Christ saw all of this while on the cross, and He told us so when He got out the first few words of the Psalm.
