◄ What Does Psalm 22:1 Mean? ►

My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.

Psalm 22:1(NASB)

Verse of the Day

All Scripture is inspired by God, but some passages cause us to take off our shoes from off our feet, for the content they communicate is most holy and precious. It was David that was caused to pen these prophetic words which were uttered by our Saviour on the Cross, when He bore the sin of the world in His body on the Tree.

No matter what caused David to pen this Psalm, we remember the solemn event which it foreshadowed. For three long hours, time embraced eternity, as the world was plunged into a thick darkness. Heaven was hushed, time stood still, and God turned His face away from the Son of His love, in Whom He was well pleased.

For the three of the blackest hours in human history, the eternal Son of God was separated from His Father in heaven as He was made sin on our account: "My God my God why hast Thou forsaken me?" was the question He screamed, and these poignant words must have reverberated throughout an astonished universe.

The curse of the Law sliced though His spirit, soul, and body, as He drank the bitter cup that would provide such blessing for all who were born under the curse of the Law. For all who believe on Him by grace through faith, would be reconciled to God, become eternally saved, and forever forgiven by means of the astonishing atoning sacrifice that Christ made on that singular day.

Why did God forsake the Son of His love? Why did His Heavenly Father turn His back on His only begotten Son in Whom He delighted? Why should God the Son suffer the concentrated horror of those three eternal hours? Scripture gives us the answer:

God is just, and He is holy, and sin must be punished. Every sin and all sin had to be punished. The price of death for every broken law has to be paid in full. And the sinless Lord Jesus, Who is God in the flesh, took upon Himself every sin we committed and every violation of God's perfect Law, together with the inherent sin we received from our forefathers and the inherited sin nature we received as part of Adam's fallen race.

Christ voluntarily took upon Himself the responsibility of paying the price for all our sin (committed sins, inherent sin and the inherited sin nature), and God laid on Him the iniquity of the world. How shocking that the truth of the glorious gospel has been so watered down by Christendom in order to make it palatable to seeker-friendly churches. How shocking that so many legalists do not consider that Christ's sacrificial death was sufficient and insist that we have to add our own works to His finished work on the Cross. How shocking that the vast majority of humanity have refused to hear and receive the glorious gospel of grace.

The debt we owe our Saviour should be a never-ending stream of grateful love that floods through our heart and soul, knowing that He was made sin on our account so that we could be made the righteousness of God in Him. It was for our sake that He was forsaken, and it was for us that he was forced to cry out: "My God my God why hast Thou forsaken Me?" so that by faith in Him we might never be forsaken but united with Him forever.

My Prayer

Heavenly Father, I cannot begin to grasp what Christ had to endure on the Cross on my account. May my life reflect eternal love and gratitude for my precious Saviour. Thank You that He died for me, I pray that I might live for Him. In Jesus' name, AMEN.