My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?

My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?

What did Jesus mean when in Matthew 27:46 “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

• Eli, Eli Lema Sabachthani is one of the phrases Jesus spoke while on the cross. He was quoting Psalm 22. The Hebrew people would have recognized this Psalm. Psalm 22 is a lament and Messianic Psalm. A lament usually has a complaint, trust, deliverance, then ends in praise. In Psalm 22 David is describing his feeling of abandonment from God because he was experiencing despair. However David does follow up Psalm 22:3-11 by describing how despite what he was feeling God has remained faithful to him and in fact not abandoned him. Psalm 22:12-18 focuses on a messianic prophecy of a picture of the crucifixion.
  • Poured out like water
  • All bones out of joint
  • Mouth dry
  • Piercing of hands and feet
  • Bones on display
  • Mocking
  • Diving of his clothes
  • Lots cast for his garment
• It prophesized multiple things that were being fulfilled in that very moment. Jesus was telling the people he was the awaited Messiah. The Hebrew people recognized what he was claiming. That is why they reacted as they did immediately running to give him a drink of vinegar.
• God did not turn his back on Jesus. God did not forsake Jesus. God can not separate from God. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one. As one God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit do not separate. God the Son did not cease to be God on the cross therefore did not separate from God the Father or God the Holy Spirit.
• It is very likely that Jesus felt despair similar to the despair David felt writing Psalm 22. Jesus did take on the wrath of God the Father. 2 Thessalonians describes God’s wrath as 1:9 “9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;” While Psalm 139:8 states “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.” God is still sovereign even over Hell. Even in Hell God is present, however his glory is separated and wrath is poured out. Again Jesus did suffer the wrath of the Father. However he never ceased to be God or cease to be one with God the Father or God the Holy Spirit.
• Jesus in quoting this Psalm was telling the Hebrew people he was the Messiah and they were fulfilling prophesy. He was also reminding them of God’s sovereignty and was offering hope and deliverance to the people who believed him to be the Messiah as David did is Psalm 22.

 

Psalm 22 KJV 22 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? ² O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. ³ But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. ⁴ Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. ⁵ They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. ⁶ But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. ⁷ All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, ⁸ He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. ⁹ But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts. ¹⁰ I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly. ¹¹ Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. ¹² Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. ¹³ They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. ¹⁴ I 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. ¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. ¹⁶ For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. ¹⁷ I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. ¹⁸ They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. ¹⁹ But be not thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste thee to help me. ²⁰ Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. ²¹ Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. ²² I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. ²³ Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. ²⁴ For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard. ²⁵ My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. ²⁶ The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek him: your heart shall live for ever. ²⁷ All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. ²⁸ For the kingdom is the Lord’s: and he is the governor among the nations. ²⁹ All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul. ³⁰ A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. ³¹ They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.