Psalm 22:1-5 (My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?)

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon. We pray that as we declare the Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who Christ is.

May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you When we come to Holy Week. Especially on Palm Sunday. We're entering into one of the darkest weeks in human history. And out of that great darkness came the most penetrating and glorious spectacle of light.

Holy Week, Psalm 22, and the Prophetic Pattern of the Cross

But if you were standing on the streets of Jerusalem during the final 168 hours of Jesus's life. Well, there wouldn't be a whole lot That would have encouraged you. And even more interesting than that fact you would have.

Not.

Noticed one particular thing that we have the benefit of noticing today. Which is that these events that were going on in Holy Week are not novel. They're not that they they actually have been prophesied a long time before.

They actually occurred you can go all the way back to Genesis 3 in the Proto Evangelium where it is that Eve is gonna have a son and that son is going to crush the head of the serpent so the first crucifixion passage in the Bible is Genesis 3, but I Think one of the most explicit crucifixion passages in the entire Bible happens a thousand years before Jesus arrives in Bethlehem.

Today we're gonna be looking at that psalm. It's Psalm 22. It's a royal psalm. It's a messianic psalm. It's a song that G or that David writes. That Jesus from the cross in the darkest moment in human history Screams out at the top of his lungs.

This is a song that as I said is a thousand years old and it would have been a song of national repentance. It would have been a song that was saying in ancient Israel on high holy Sabbaths when the entire nation gathered around the temple on the Day of Atonement and they Gathered there watching the priest enter into the Holy of Holies.

Hoping that this year was not the year that God would forsake them and you can imagine that some of the men Some of the women some of the children as they waited on the high priest to come out of the Holy of Holies might Even have broke out in song my god my god.

Why have you forsaken me when they see the priest coming out of the Holy of Holies? They realize that they're not forsaken. They break out into Psalm 122 and they sing and they praise but this would have been a song of national lament.

You would expect the Levitical choir To sing this song in minor chords during solemn solemn assemblies and national repentance you would expect the Israelites who were walking in chains to Babylon To be singing my god my god, why have you forsaken us?

You can expect That this song would have been a favorite song in the intertestamental period when Malachi Finishes up his prophecy and you have 400 years without a word from God. Think about the the length of our nation is smaller than the gap between Matthew and Malachi.

And you can imagine many folks Would have been singing my god my god Why have you forsaken me and yet? This song is so much more than just a personal lament. See what no one understood about this song at the time was that it was not about the experience of David.

It was not about the experience of anyone particular in Israel nor a corporate Israel. It was always and forever Intended to showcase the passion of Jesus Christ. David screamed my god my god. Why have you forsaken me would become the scream of God in human flesh as he's hanging upon the cross as he's entering Into the suffering of his people as he's enduring the punishment that we all deserved.

And this is precisely why We're looking at Psalm 22 for Holy Week. Because Holy Week begins with people shouting and it ends with Jesus screaming so there's a theme there in the events of Holy Week with loud voices.

And as we go through Psalm 22 and as we see what it says about Jesus in his final hours and as we see what it says About Jesus in his resurrection and as we see what it means for his kingship his kingdom his eternality his dominion.

I Think that it could become One of your favorite Psalms and one of your favorite passages. Because it's breathtaking.

So if you will.

Let us jump in. Let us pray. Let us go to Psalm 22 1 through 5. I'm reading 1 through 5 because I want to read the entire psalm over the next three sermons this week. Good Friday and Easter. I'm too. I'm only focusing on verse 1.

I'm only preaching on verse 1. I'm reading verses 1 through 5 Just letting you know, so if you will turn with me to Psalm 22, this is the Word of the Lord from the lips of King David My god my god. Why have you forsaken me.

Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. Oh my god. I Cry by day, but you do not answer and by night, but I have no rest. Yet you are holy. Oh you who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel and You our fathers trusted.

They trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried out and were delivered and You they trusted and were not disappointed. So with that Let us pray Lord. Thank you for this song. Thank you for this royal messianic song thank you that this psalm is so much greater and bigger than the events that happen in the life of David and That they point directly To the author of life and the author of new creation and the one who took our sins and Took our stains and took our curses.

So that we may be blessed in him it's in Jesus name we pray amen. These are perhaps the most famous words in the Gospels maybe My god my god, why have you forsaken me. Matthew 27 46 records Jesus on the cross crying these words out just before he gives up his last breath as The skies were turning black as the ground was convulsing underneath the Roman centurions feet.

Jesus of Nazareth was looking up to the heavens not in incoherent anguish not in delusion not in doubt. But with purpose precision and power saying my god my god. Why have you forsaken me. And in that we have to understand what Jesus means?

Because he was not doubting God on the cross He was not announcing that his relationship with God in that moment was severed. He was doing something so much Deeper than maybe we even imagine in the most brutal and hellish pain that a human can undergo Roman crucifixion where every Faculty and nerve ending that you have is being stunted and paralyzed by pain Jesus had the wherewithal to quote Psalm 22.

When Jesus said my god, my god, why have you forsaken me he was quoting the song. He wasn't saying God you've forsaken me and I think this is so glorious. Because if you think about how God works in his perfect foreknowledge.

I was thinking about this this week.

God.

Determined.

For Christ on the cross. To cry out my god. My god. Why have you forsaken me? Before he made the first electron rotate around the first nucleus. Before Adam fell. Before Adam sin Ruined the world. Before Adams ancestor David sat down and thought this is a great song.

Our God predestined Jesus to scream it on the cross. At the very moment that he was being killed. And why did he do that? Before the foundations of the earth were formed. Why did God predestined Jesus to sing this song on the cross?

It actually I think That Jesus instead of just screaming it incoherently he may I don't know this for sure, but he may have done it somewhat in tune. Because this was a song on the lips of Israel Instead of Jesus and I'm going to try to prove this instead of Jesus saying that the second member of the Godhead was Permanently severed from the father, which is Christological heresy.

I Think what Jesus is doing instead is He's placing his moment right in the epicenter of Psalm 22 and saying this is What's going to happen now to the future of the planet? Because of me. Because when we get on Easter Sunday I'm not trying to give teasers and I'm not trying to evoke you to curiosity.

But when we get to Eastern we see how glorious it is and we see that at the end David proclaims that God has not forsaken him. We realize that the whole point of the psalm is not about David or Jesus being forsaken, but it's about what is going to happen to the world as a result of Jesus Christ the true and greater David.

So Jesus is singing the song on the cross heralding this message to let everyone around him know That two things are about to happen. Number one he is going to save his people and number two. He's Identifying his enemies when Jesus Sings the first line of the song and this song has lyrics in it that calls people dogs Bulls the people who surrounded me the one who gave me sour wine the one who pierced my hands and feet when Jesus is Singing that first line of the song.

He's looking at the people who murdered him and he said it is you Who surrounded me it is you who pierced my hands and feet it's you who gave me sour wine and it is you who will go down into the depths and Who will truly be forsaken?

So in that sense, it's a divine indictment and the Jews knew the song this was a popular song. They didn't misunderstand it at all. And there's something about that that we need to remember too because we do this as well.

For instance, forgive me for a second. It's gonna be a little bit more light-hearted. When I do this, what is love? You knew If you're in the south blame it all on my roots. When we sing the first line of a song Our brains are instantly connected to the whole of it to the rest of it.

We don't start in the middle. We start off that way as a way to let people know. This is the song that I'm referring to. So when Jesus did that he knew exactly what he was doing. When he said the first line of Psalm 22, he's saying all of Psalm 22 applies to this moment.

Right here.

He's saying that when David said all who sneer at me and wag their head at me. It's you if He's so righteous then let the Lord deliver him. The Pharisees actually said that In their ignorance in their hubris they quoted the psalm in their own judgment.

Jesus as many bowls have surrounded me verse 12. I'm poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is melted within me verse 14. My tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth verse 15. That's why Jesus said I thirst.

They pierced my hands and my feet. Here is a spoiler. David never had that happen to him. So David's talking about something that is not about him it's about Christ. They divided my garments among them and they cast lots for my clothing.

David recorded that a thousand years before Jesus came and what are the Roman soldiers do as soon as they see his fancy tunic? I Want it fulfilled right there by people who don't even know the scripture.

I want you to notice the point Jesus was not announcing that God had ultimately abandoned him. Jesus was quoting the lyrics of Psalm 22. I need you to understand that because he's not claiming that a member of the triune Godhead was somehow ontologically forsaken.

The scream is Not about him experiencing None of the presence of God it is about him identifying the perpetrators and Him saying the future of the world now belongs to me and you'll see that more clearly as we go, especially on Easter.

By quoting a single line in a song he's inviting them to open up their ancient hymn books as they watch him bleed to watch prophetic history Unfold before their very eyes and he is inviting them into the wrath of God.

Because he's claiming that the wrath of God is falling on him and he's drinking it down to the dregs for you and I. But at the end of it the one who had the wrath poured out on him Exploded out of the grave and freedom and the one who thought they were free Actually went down into the grave.

What a dramatic reversal? He's saying by current by singing the song that all of the covenant curses for disobedience Found its target on him. That he would stand in the place of sinners that he would bear the torture.

That was meant for you and I. The placard above the cross which says Jesus the Christ the Son of God should have had my name and your name. But because we are in his name. Our name never will be above that cross.

And in this sense.

It is the greatest love song That's ever been sung. It's not the sappy big-haired Rob Stewart ballads of the 80s. It's not the Sisyphide boy bands droning on ad nauseum. This is the greatest love song sang in blood-curdling screams.

Maybe more like an emo song. Just kidding. The greatest love song that was ever sung. Begins like this my god my god. Why have you forsaken me? And he said it with a broken body and he said it with an aching heart.

He said it with a resolute commitment to the sovereign will of God. And again, what I need you to understand here is he is not saying that that Metaphysically or ontologically that he has been forsaken by God.

And I want to go into that Just for a moment. What didn't he what he didn't mean when he said my god my god, why have you forsaken me? I want to talk about five things. This is what he did not mean Number one.

He did not mean that the Trinity was torn apart. He did not mean that there was a fracture in the Godhead when he said my god my god, why have you forsaken me? He is not suggesting that the Trinity at that moment had lost a member.

He is not saying that that there was an ontological Disintegration that occurred within the Godhead. He is not saying that his eternal union with the father was severed. He's not saying that Because that would be theological blasphemy.

To even entertain it. Because we know from Scripture that the father and the son are one. They're not separated into two. They're not divided by their will they're not competing. Authorities, we know from church history that the word homoousius One being Means that they share the same essence the same substance the same divine nature their eternality and immutability are eternally connected.

Which means that When Jesus cries out in John 10 30, I and the father are one. He cannot on the cross be saying That's no longer true. He just can't when he says Eggo, chi Ha pot hair and s o men. I and the father are one.

He is saying this word in which is very small, but it's not incidental. It means that we are actually one. John 14 9 he who has seen me has seen the father. John 5 19 the son came up not to do nothing of himself.

Unless it is something he sees the father doing for whatever the father does these things the son does also in like manner. Colossians 1 15 through 17. Jesus is the image of the invisible God and he's declaring that in him all things hold together.

Hebrews 1 3 the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature. And He upholds all things by the word of his power. Jesus is the face of God. Jesus is the exact representation of radiance of his glory.

So he can't be saying that me and the father are not one anymore. He can't be saying that me and the father are not connected anymore. He can't be saying that God is actually Abandoned me or forsaken me because that's heresy.

And.

If the Trinity's torn apart the fabric of the universe is torn apart as well because if in him all things hold together and If for a moment he was not held together with the father Then everything would fall apart.

The Sun would not give its light. And if you want to be philosophical for a second with me. Since God is eternal if there were ever a moment where Jesus and God Failed to be in right relationship There would have never been an earth.

There would have never been time there would have never been space because if he holds all things together Eternally that means that it must always be so or it could have never been so. Does that make sense.

God would not be eternal Omniscient omnipotent omnipresent. It would mean that we would have never existed. Because God can't stop being God and Jesus can't stop being the Son. And If we believe that on the cross He was forsaken in that way We're believing a heresy now.

There are songs that say literally The father turned his face away. You actually won't find that line in Scripture. I Think the heart behind that song is Not to pronounce a Christological heresy. I want to give grace.

I Think the heart of that song is that that on the cross the curses of the covenant were poured out so powerfully on Jesus That the father turned his face away. But I don't believe that's what happened.

I want to be gracious to what I think their motivation was for writing that line. But I don't believe that's what happened. Because nothing happens outside of the sight of an omniscient God. Nothing there's not a moment that the father stops seeing.

Stops being stops relating and there's not a moment where he's not in perfect communion with his beloved son. So what we're saying here is That God did pour out his wrath on to Jesus. What we're saying is that God enacted the covenant curses we deserve on to him but what we are not saying is That God did it by abandoning Jesus.

Jesus quoted Psalm 22. Jesus is not saying that God ontologically abandoned him. Does that make sense? Because the point of the Psalm is Not divine abandonment. The point of the Psalm is you are the perpetrators and the only way that you're going to know God is if you're in Jesus Christ.

So that's the first thing I would point out is that the Trinity is not broken here. That's the first thing Jesus is not doing. The second thing he's not doing is he's saying he's not saying that God was somehow absent from Golgotha.

When we have this kind of idea where we're tempted to think that for a moment it was so bad. That Jesus and God could not experience one another in some way. What we are doing is we're affirming heresy.

Because there's never a moment where Jesus is totally and truly alone. There's never a moment where Jesus has no access to the Father. It can't happen. Psalm 139 8 says if I ascend to heaven you are there.

If I make my bed in Sheol you are there. The Omni presence of God means that there is never a modicum or square inch of reality where God is not. You can go to the highest heavens or you can go to the deepest hells so in that sense God is not turning his face away from Jesus, which again is not in the Bible.

God is not turning his back on his son. God is looking right at him as a proud father. He's staring right at his son and he's pleased. We get the idea From hymns and modern culture that the father was repulsed.

The father was pleased what does Isaiah say. It pleased him to crush him. What does Hebrews say for the joy set before him he endured the cross? In a way that you and I cannot fully comprehend. The moment of greatest joy that has ever happened on earth Was when Jesus Christ was dying and his father was celebrating his faithfulness.

And we can't fully comprehend that but it's true. That's the second reason. That this does not undermine the omnipresence of God. The third thing Jesus is not saying is that he's lost his eternal sonship.

If the father abandoned the son on the cross to where he's no longer the son you have Jesus. Experiencing a change which is not true because he's immutable. The universe depends upon the sonship of God of Jesus Christ.

So all reality would cease to exist. Hebrews 5 8 says although he was a son. He learned obedience through suffering. It does not say that he lost sonship through suffering. His suffering was not proof of his disownment.

It was proof of his obedience and I tell you again when the father saw his son obeying him to that degree. The father was pleased and the father rejoiced and the father said well done Son. This is not evidence of Jesus is crushing.

It's not evidence of Jesus is being cast away from the father. This is evidence of His being a willing substitute for you and I and it pleasing the father. God's omnipresence is still intact. The Trinity is still intact.

His eternal sonship is still intact. And number four. I want to press this a little further. This means that Jesus did not go to a place after he died of eternal abandonment. Despite what many people believe about what hell is and we put Sheol on the Apostles Creed and I can explain that to you later.

It's not the point of the sermon. But even if you grant.

Hell.

Which again, I don't think that's where Jesus went. Even if you grant it hell is not the place where you will find the absence of God. Hell is a place where you will find God perfectly present. But without the grace of his mediation and without the grace of his mercy hell is.

Where God is present and you have no mediator and you have no mercy and his wrath is.

All you feel.

That's what hell is because if God is everywhere and if God is infinite and God can't be limited and God is everywhere even in hell. But what makes hell so terrible is Not fire. What makes hell so terrible is not What the scriptures say worms and maggots and Gnashing of teeth and weeping that's the sort of language that it uses.

That's not what makes hell awful. What makes hell awful is that you're in the unbridled presence of God without Christ without grace. Do you remember when the mountain was shaking at Mount Sinai and the people were laying?

Pressing their face into the earth hoping that they could burrow down deep enough Into the ground to where the holiness of God was not ripping their bodies apart. That's a metaphor of what hell is like without restraint.

The goodness and the beauty of God becoming so dangerous to the soul of sinful man. A metaphor which is always dangerous when you're talking about these things, but To the degree that you can understand it and to the degree that it's limited give me grace.

The Sun is a glorious thing in the sky. I Learned it all too. Well in Myrtle Beach where it was 80 degrees and I missed it all too terribly when I got back here and it was 36. Without the Sun there is no life.

There's no photosynthesis. There's no vitamin D there's nothing and Yet if you could manufacture a rocket that could take you there Before you even got close. You would be burned to a crisp the goodness and the life-giving essence of the Sun is so powerful that You would be ripped to shreds in the same way.

The goodness and the glory and the holiness of God being present in hell with no grace is What makes it so terrifying and so bad so in that sense Jesus Christ is not descending to a place of abandonment.

That's my point. Because if Jesus had truly ever been God forsaken you and I would still be God condemned. The atonement would have been invalidated. The Covenant would have been broken. The gospel would be a lie, but praise be to God brothers and sisters.

That that's not the case. Because Jesus was never abandoned you and I will never be forsaken. The fifth thing that Jesus is not doing is He's not crying out in failure. This is not a defeat the cross.

This is a declaration of victory. And that's just not that's not just the glasses have full kind of optimism. That's what Psalm 22 is arguing. This is not the the sound of a man who's defeated. This is the sound of a man who is fulfilled a man who is winning a man who is going to win this is not Jesus buckling under the weight of Abandonment or the the bitter taste in his mouth as he lost.

This is Jesus going out and dying winning. Psalm 22 is not a cry for help from Jesus. This is an indictment of the enemies of God who killed him and a declaration of the glory of the gospel for those who are his so that All who are in him will never be forsaken.

That's what Jesus does not mean by this passage. There's five things probably you could do five more. But I want to talk now what he does mean. What does he mean when he says he was forsaken? When he says my God my God, why have you forsaken me?

What if I'm gonna give you four things number one? It means that the curse found its target. It means that Jesus stood where sinners should have stood if you read in the Old Testament. Especially in Deuteronomy 28 if you don't obey the terms of this covenant if you don't do this if you don't do that.

Then this is what's gonna happen to you and you read the list of things that is going to happen. You're either gonna have two outcomes. You are either going to have the curses of the Covenant poured out on you or you're going to have them poured out on Jesus.

And.

He will be your Savior. That's it. That's the only two pathways that this life affords. You will face God alone or you will stand in the shadow of Jesus Christ. So what he's saying is is that he would become our curse, which is what is Isaiah 53 is actually talking about in Verse 12 When it says he was stricken and afflicted for us.

When Jesus is crying out my God my God, why have you forsaken me? He's not questioning the Father's presence. He's not so he's not shouldering some kind of injustice. He is taking the volcanic eruption of Mount Sinai that should have been Consuming us because we didn't obey the law.

And he is facing it on Mount Calvary and he's taking it on him. Deuteronomy 28 is being unleashed on him. The exile the shame the hunger the nakedness. Why was Jesus crucified naked. It says in Deuteronomy 28 that you will run away naked in your cursing.

Jesus is taking our curse. For the elect Jesus became the forsaken one so that you and I would never be forsaken. That's what Paul's talking about in Galatians 3 13 when he says Christ Redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us.

It doesn't mean that God abandoned Jesus. It meant that he bore our curse and Because Jesus stepped in front of us. The bullet that should have penetrated us struck him. He stood in the place of sinners so that we could stand in his place in the righteous way.

He was not Disowned. He was designated by God appointed by God joyfully as God Sacrificed for you. And I the third thing that Jesus is saying I Combined one and two there if you were keeping numbers. The third thing Jesus is saying here is that he meant that the day of the Lord had come the Old Testament.

What is the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord. The day of the Lord burning and with great wrath and hot in Its fury Malachi talks about it'll be like fire that will consume some and Purify others. If you're chaff, it will burn you.

If you're gold. That needs to be purified it will refine you and purify you and The question about whether you are one of those is not based off of you and your ability in your performance. It's based off the election of God.

When Isaiah cries out? Woe is me. I am undone before the Holy Throne. Jesus is declaring two things here. If you're in him, you will never be undone. That's why Jude says that you'll stand in the presence of God without stumbling.

What an understatement Jude is saying you'll stand in the presence of God without tripping. I Want you to think about what that means? Actually, you will stand in the presence of God and not be undone like Isaiah was feeling.

You'll stand in the presence of God. Not be ripped apart by the fabric of your being because of one thing and one thing only that's the blood of Jesus Christ. But if you are not his brothers and sisters.

The one that is declared here Forsaken will forsake you and you will be undone By him. This psalm talks about both salvation and judgment. It talks about both both saving and sentencing. And it talks about what Jesus did for us and it also talks about what he will do to all who are not his Brothers and sisters.

This is so important as we're facing Holy Week this week. There's parables that are terrifying in the Bible. Many will come to me on that day and say Lord Lord. Didn't we do this and didn't we do that in your name and he will say depart from me.

I never knew you. See the point is Not what you know, it's the point of whether he knows you. There are many people on that day Who will be divided on the opposite side of glory? Because they were pretenders.

Because they came to church because they were getting something out of it other than Jesus. There will be some like the goats who are put upon his left hand and they'll say Lord didn't we do this and didn't we do that for you and he will say I don't know you and Then there will be those who are on his right hand the sheep and They'll say Lord.

When did we do this Lord? How did we do this? Because as they stand in the presence of Jesus they realize Who's good and who's not? That's the difference if you stand before Jesus and you're arguing for your justification.

You don't know him but if you're standing in front of Jesus and you're and you're arguing with him on how wretched you are and how undeserving you are and he looks at you and he says Enter into my presence enter into my joy.

You see knowing Jesus produces two things. It produces a love for Christ and it produces a hatred of your sin. Fake Christianity produces two things. It produces a love of your own righteousness and a hatred of God.

That's the difference in this passage where Jesus is Saying that there are dogs who are surrounding him. There are wicked people who abandon him. He's talking about religious people. He's talking about people who went to church their entire life who went to synagogue every day.

He's talking about the pastors of that society the leaders who were the ones who were performing the worship services. And he's looking at them and saying you don't have it because all they had was themselves and They did not have Christ number four.

He's saying What love actually looks like the scream that echoed into eternity from that cross was painted in his royal blood and in that sense Love is not sentimental. Love is sacrificial love is Jesus Christ absorbing the wrath that you deserve the hell that you deserve and Saving you from your sins and giving you the cup that you don't and this is why the Lord's table Is such a declaration of the gospel.

I Say this sometimes but I'm gonna say it again I'm not a perfect preacher. I'm not a perfect communicator. There may be days where you come here and I actually speak something absolutely ridiculous and and it doesn't align with Scripture and I apologize if I do that and I hope I'm always humble about that because I want to be so I'm not a perfect communicator and I trust God every week to.

Help.

But you know who is perfect. Do you know who always serves you perfectly? It's not me. It's Jesus Christ because at the table I Might be standing there, but Jesus is the one who's serving you. Jesus is the one who's caring for you.

Jesus is the one who's nourishing you. Jesus the one who's feeding you Jesus the one who's giving you his body and his blood. When we first started this church, I Thought that preaching was all that it took.

I Thought that if we could just preach what the Bible says Then that would be enough. I don't believe that anymore. I believe that preaching is good. I believe we should preach in season and out of season.

I believe we should herald the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation. I believe all those things. But I believe at this table the Lord Jesus serves you and if you are in Christ, he feeds you and he nourishes you.

And guess what? This table tells you one very incredible thing. He did not stay dead. The one who said my God my God, why have you forsaken me was not forsaken and If you're in him, you won't be either.

Let's pray Lord. We thank you for this passage. We thank you that this was the scream that shook history. This is the scream that collapsed the Old Covenant and brought about the new creation this is the scream that brought the temple down and Erected a new temple in Jesus Christ.

So that now all of us here who are in him are living stones connected to him. This is the scream that Actually put an expiration date on the Old Jerusalem and it's the scream that inaugurated the New Jerusalem.

This is the scream that put the Passover on the shelf of antiquity and made Christ our living bread and drink Lord help us as We look to the cross and we see Jesus standing in our place. That we affirm orthodox truth about who he is and that we with great gratitude Worshiped him for all he's done.