Human Response 711: Cry to the Lord in Agony

Psalm 22:1-2 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not silent.

David, in his pain and agony, feels that God is not present to help. He cries out to God, but He is absent, not listening. He cries day and night, but God has forsaken him, left him alone. Where is God? Why has he allowed this suffering to happen to me?

There are times in our own life when we feel separated from God, bad things are happening, and we ask “Why?” Where is God? The truthful answer is that our sins have separated us from God. It is our own fault. God can have nothing to do with sin. Yet we live in a sin-ridden body in a sin-filled world. Of course, God must forsake us, since He can have nothing to do with sin. So we cry.

Jesus quotes the first verse of this Psalm while in agony on the cross. Because He was at that moment bearing the Sin of the world in His suffering body He felt separated from God. This spiritual separation from God was far more intense than the physical suffering, as bad as that was. This is a mystery: even though He was God, Jesus as the Son of God felt the extreme pain of separation from God because of sin, though not His own sin.

In that severe moment, we can personally sense the unbelievable love of God; for the Son of God was experiencing forsakenness from God the Father in order to bear our sin and its punishment, thereby taking away Sin and Death from us and bringing us back to a living relationship with God. Now we know the answer to Jesus’ “Why” plea. Because God loves us more than we can ever believe.