The Forsaking of Jesus.

From: A Message From God: 1936

1.— Psalms 22

“My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”

THIS cry of the Lord Jesus proclaiming His abandonment upon the Cross is in the very words of the opening of Psalms 22. It may well be meant to draw our attention to the fact that the whole Psalm is a prophetic utterance, belonging to no one till He came. Being come, His are the only lips to which they can be fitted as His Own proper utterance, and His at one awful hour only. We know that He fulfilled the Word of God, not in disregard of it like the enemies who pierced His hands and His feet (Psa. 22:16¹⁶For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. (Psalm 22:16)), nor unconsciously like His disciples who only remembered long afterward that their Hosannas acclaiming the lowly Jesus King of Israel (John 12:16¹⁶These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him. (John 12:16)) precisely agreed with the things written of Him in the Old Testament. No, the blessed Lord Jesus was completely conscious all the time of fulfilling that Word. It was hidden in His heart, and even provided the motive beforehand for Him Who only could say, “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God” (Heb. 10:7⁷Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. (Hebrews 10:7)). Because it said in another Psalm (69:21), “In My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink,” He said aloud, “I thirst,” so that this last remaining detail might be accomplished as it had been foretold (John 19:28, 29²⁸After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. ²⁹Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. (John 19:28‑29)). It was the same consciousness, holy and obedient, when, forsaken of God, He acknowledged Psalm 22 as being thus fulfilled. It was this while expressing the absolute truth of what He was enduring. Perhaps the thought of many is correct (though we cannot know) that the Lord prayed the rest of Psalm 22 in silence in that sacrificial agony.

If the answer to that, Why? were of no interest to us, what thankless wretches we should be! When this Psalm, and other similar portions of Scripture regarding the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow were only unfulfilled predictions, the very prophets who uttered them, and of course also their successors, were diligent to search when, and how all these things should come to pass (1 Peter 1:10-12¹⁰Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: ¹¹Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. ¹²Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. (1 Peter 1:10‑12)). They were rewarded by being shown that these things concerned grace and salvation not then come, but surely to be. How might such an one have sought the answer to the “Why” of this Psalm?

No contrition or cry for mercy.

He might have remarked that there is no cry for mercy in it, and no confession of sin. Both might be expected out of such depths from a pious suppliant. They are found in other Psalms, such as (31:9, 10). Where consciousness of sin is, calamity will always bring it out in cries of deadly fear or penitence. Even true and faithful saints of God, when in trial, know they need mercy and ask for it. Nothing like this is in the long petition before us, the secret being that no one like this ever prayed before—He is the Holy One of God. Perhaps we are outrunning our searcher.

Supplication without ceasing.

Questioning in his heart, the enquirer might have proceeded—was it that the Sufferer did not turn to God and ask of Him, or in doing so lacked faith and importunity (Isa. 64:7; 9:13⁷And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. (Isaiah 64:7)
¹³For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts. (Isaiah 9:13); Hos. 7:7, 10⁷They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me. (Hosea 7:7)
¹⁰And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this. (Hosea 7:10))? The answer could only be, No! for verse 1 and 2 of the Psalm testify the intensity and perseverance of the Sufferer’s supplications. All the agony of His soul found vent for the ears of God in the words of His roaring. He prayed not in spirit only. Nor did He desist: “I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.” Not for want therefore of stirring up Himself to take hold of God was the face of God hidden.

God’s Name honored with whole heart.

Was it that, like Job, the Sufferer charged God with being His enemy and unjust, or less righteous than Himself? (Job 33:10, 11; 34:5; 35:2¹⁰Behold, he findeth occasions against me, he counteth me for his enemy, ¹¹He putteth my feet in the stocks, he marketh all my paths. (Job 33:10‑11)
⁵For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment. (Job 34:5)
²Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God's? (Job 35:2)). Again, No. For at verse 3 He says, “But Thou art holy,” and adds a testimony to the unfailing faithfulness of God in days gone by (vv. 4, 5).

When His thoughts return to Himself in presence of the holiness of God, He says not, like Job when at last broken in spirit, “I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 40: 2, 6). He can confess nothing within His heart abhorrent to Himself, or obnoxious to His God, but only His abasement “I am a worm, and no man” (vs. 6). He is despised, yet without resentment or rebellion, enduring in meekness and lowliness of heart, harmless, unresisting and content to be of no reputation. Weakness is there and reproach, but altogether apart from indwelling or committed sin.

Unmoved faithfulness.

Could it be that the Sufferer had Himself deserted the service of God like Jonah, and for this found Himself “cast into the deep,” “out of Thy sight” (Jonah 2:3, 4³For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. ⁴Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. (Jonah 2:3‑4))? Still No! That could not be: His plaint is, that while laughed to scorn by His enemies for His confessed trust in God, His God Himself forsakes Him. Though enemies see only a cruel jest in it all, they themselves are witnesses to His habitual trust and delight in God (Psa. 22:7, 8⁷All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, ⁸He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. (Psalm 22:7‑8)). That trust is unshaken even in this sorest of sore trials.

Perfect patience.

Did God then forsake Him because, under severest test, He broke down, like Moses, in impatience with other’s perversity, or, like Job and Jeremiah, in His ordeal cursed His day (Job 3; Jer. 20:14-18¹⁴Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. ¹⁵Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad. ¹⁶And let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide; ¹⁷Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me. ¹⁸Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame? (Jeremiah 20:14‑18))? A thousand times, no! His God is His portion and His praise; He remembers the day of His birth (vs. 9), but not to curse either it or the bearer of the tidings of it. On the contrary, He acknowledged His God then and thenceforward, and pleads His Own life-long, unintermittent trust. God is His only hope, yet He prays for no hurt to His enemies. Keenest insight into their character is nevertheless His, and holy sensitiveness to their antagonism, more than any other could possess, especially at such a time. He feels righteously, not like Zechariah (2 Chr. 24:22²²Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The Lord look upon it, and require it. (2 Chronicles 24:22)) to pray, “The Lord look upon it, and require it,” but to suffer under the infliction, awaiting God’s deliverance.

Unweary in Well-doing.

Was the Sufferer forsaken because He tired of the service of God, or hated life, longing to die like Elijah (1 Kings 19:4⁴But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. (1 Kings 19:4))? Or because utterly broken by pain, He regarded death as an escape like Job (7:16; 10:1)? No, no! Though the acute sense of His Own physical and mental agony (Psa. 22:14,15¹⁴I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. ¹⁵My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. (Psalm 22:14‑15)) spares Him as little as His piercing perception of others wickedness, yet His faith cries, “Thou hast brought me into the dust of death,” even as it had already said, “Thou art He that took me out of the womb.” Although confessing Himself “a worm, and no man,” yet He does not lightly esteem His life, His soul; it is His darling His only one. He prays, “Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog” (vs. 20). For this faith there is no table spread in the presence of His enemies; He is their prey and there is none to help. Such a Servant might surely claim, “By this I know that Thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me” (Psa. 41:11¹¹By this I know that thou favorest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me. (Psalm 41:11)). Yet, why comes no help from His God, appealed to with such powerful motives for His intervention? Only the mocking of His foes seems to answer.

Forsaken, yet afterwards heard.

This suffering could hardly have appeared to be anything but death, even to those of old who sought its meaning. “The dust of death,” “the power of the dog,” “the lion’s mouth”— these phrases all too plainly describe the infliction and suffering of death at the hand of foes, and not a narrow escape from death. None the less, it is just as clear that the Sufferer is heard, but it is “from the horns of the wild oxen” (5:21, R.V.) confirming that the enemy’s power was exerted to its full extent.

But why forsaken?