Psalm 22

As we embrace the psalm, we join a vast company of people who for nearly thirty centuries have grounded their prayers and praise in these ancient words. Kings and peasants, prophets and priests, apostles and martyrs, nuns and reformers, professors and folk singers - for all of them and a host of others the Psalm has been spiritual life and breadth.

The 22nd psalm can be divided into two divisions: Verse 1- 21 A cry to God of Agony Verse 22-31 Praise, Thanksgiving and deliverance. within the first division we have mutiple sections, verse 1-5 which we will start in today is an appeal to God the Father; Theres is a two fold problem in the first few verses: 1. Why art thou so far from my groainings, I cryout in day and night, yet there is no answer from God. Thou sittest on the throne of Israels praise = meaning the Lord by His awesome deeds for His chosen people recieved constant praise. Again I ask why are thous so far away in my time of need. 2. Our fathers trusted and were saved, but where is God now? Psalm 22:1 [To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.]] My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? [why art thou so] far from helping me, [and from] the words of my roaring? I have a book that is titled The hard sayings of the Bible, I searched for this verse and Mark 15:34 and the book states this is the hardest saying of them all.

Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. The fourth word form the cross. This verse is the final word of despair, it is the utterance of a religous man who at the bottom depths of misery, when man has turned against him and the world as we know it has come at him with the full force of all of its imaginable evil and cruelty, these are the words that came to light and were spoken by this a faithful man. When we break down each individual word of this first verse we get a better understading of the person who spoke them and what the verse says. MyGod, My God This phrase Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani is spoken by a man who: never lost his faith which is evidenced by the words MY GOD, MY GOD. This is a confirmation of faith, to cry out to God in such anguish is truly a testament to ones faith in God the deliverer. 1 Peter 4:19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls [to him] in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he [is] God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations This is an address to God and a cry for help. Physical sufferings are often much harder to bear by reason of distress of the soul. The stress is a result of the mysterys of Gods ways in relation to ourselves. In this time of great stress we may cry out and question God in our own ignorance or arrogance, but we are to remain failthfull as God is a faithful God of love and mercy for those who love Him.

Why The psalmist is asking why because he has faith in God. He believes God is listening to his cry. Therefore, he has hope. Even if no cause can be found, even when we have no understanding as to why we are deserted and in our desperate situations, we can still have hope as did the psalmist who wrote these words. We are saved by hope: Romans 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? The scriptures are the source of our hope: Romans 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Even when we do not understand our situation when we are lost or confused and we cant make heads or tales of our circumstance. We can still have hope. Hast It is done, feeling its dreadfull effect, it is the truth but we still do not understand it. Jeremiah 12:1

Righteous [art] thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of [thy] judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? [wherefore] are all they happy that deal very treacherously?

Thou- God We can understand people abandon us, friends or family, or when people turn against us in our time of need, as we all are only human. We cant comprehend how My God, my failthful friend, how can you leave me. Separation from God is hell. The fiercest flames that hell has to offer is separation of the soul from God. Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid [his] face from you, that he will not hear. Forsaken In the Greek the word forsaken is made up of three words, to leave meaning to abandon, down suggesting defeat and helplessness, and in referring to place or circumstance. The total meaning of the word forsaken is abandoning someone in a state of defeat or helplessness in the midst of hostile circumstances. This has to be the saddest word in any language. Jesus on the cross knew what it was to be forsaken. Proverb 1:28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: The mental torment of knowing that you are separated from God has to be worse than any physical agony.

Me The innocent, obedient, suffering servant, why me to perish.When we see ourselves in light of pentinece and Jesus on the cross we can expound upon this question. This is an appearant injustice; Romans 9:14 asks the question What shall we say then? [Is there] unrighteousness with God? God forbid. Ecclesiastes 7:15 All [things] have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just [man] that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked [man] that prolongeth [his life] in his wickedness. This is the question asked here by the psalmist. Why does the sinner prosper and the righteous suffer.

Jesus was forsaken because our sins seperated us from God. This phrase was uttered by our Lord and Saviour Jesus on the cross at Calvary, this was not by any means a description of His own needs. He spoke these words as to voice the cry of the helpless sinners for whom He was dying. Jesus sounded not for Himself as He felt the increasing burden of human sin while His own physical light was fading, he sounded out for you and me these notes of sins despair. This is a cry of LONLINESS, from Jesus on the cross. Loniliness because this is the first time Jesus felt the burden of sin, not His own sin but our sin. Isaiah 53:12 Therefore will I divide him [a portion] with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death:

and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

I Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. This lonliness is reflective of a distant God. Sin separates us from God, sin is a turning away from God, with the emphasis on the word away. When we do wrong God seems very far away. God becomes so distant it is as if God is out of focus in our lives. We dont see God when we should or could, because of the distance and because God is not our focus. This is where we are in relation to God when we sin. Sin is symbolized in the cross: where wrong like a cross beam cuts right through our upright and noble purpose. Gods love cuts right across the upright of our evil and His love redeems us. Amen. Life has a relative side in respect to distance. Happiness and sorrow are the relative distance from the person or things that we love. When all is well with our trust and devotion to our Father, He seems near. When we sin or turn our backs to God, He seems oh so far away. The grocery store, when we feel good and strong is just right down the road. It is not far away. When we are ill or tired the distance to that same store seems much greater. The distance is not so much in the mileage as it is in ourselves. The distance between our Father and ourselves never changes (God is omnipresent). What changes is what happens inside of us, in our hearts and in our minds. God never leaves us as He is a faithful God, we because we are often weak or fickle stray away from God. This is one of the hardest truths to accept when studying the bible. It is in me to fail, but we have a God who forgives and accepts us back into the fold with open arms and love when we turn back to Him. Amen

Jesus on the cross used this verse as an expression of suffering and also to echo the lonliness of all who do wrong. God had not forsaken Him, God did not forsake the thief who was pentinent, God was not distant when our Saviour prayed for His crucifiers, nor was He distant when He commended, His tired, worn, exhausted spirit into the Fathers keeping. Dying for sin, Jesus personifies sins awefullness by the psalmist words of lonliness.

Psalm 34:19 Many [are] the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all. Jesus prayer was answered by the one who could save Him from death, what is meant is that Jesus was delievered from dying; Brought back from the dead, Hebrews 13:20 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Jesus was brought again from the dead to live hereafter by the power of an indestructible life Hebrews 7:16 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. Jesus was made to be sin for us 2 corinthians 5:21

For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Jesus learned obedience from what He suffered. By what He suffered He learned the cost of His whole hearted obedience to the Father. His acceptance of the cross crowned His obedience, it was an act of total devotion. This however, absoluteley does not diminsh the reality of Him being God forsaken. Jesus felt the pain and agony of seperation from the Father because our sin pulled His soul away from the Father. This reality made Him more effective as a deliverer and supporter of His people. The one who knew no sin, and felt the sin of the whole world on that dark day hanging on the cross. When we cry out God why hast thou forsaken me?, we can reflect that this was what Jesus cried. Theres is no depth of dereliction known to human beings which He has not unraveled. By this it means that he has been made perfect, He is completely qualified to be His peoples sympathizing helper in their most extreme need; being forsaken, seperation from God. Hebrews 5:7-9 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; When we call out of the depths, He who called out of the depths on good Friday knows what it feels like. The differecne is He is with us now to strengthen us, no one was there to strengthen Him, true lonliness was His, so it will not be our lot in this life. When we cry out to the Lord we do it out of commitment and the Lord responds with strenght for us in our time of need, out of Love. The opposite of lonely is loved, or befriended which is supported.

This love that God has for us is what is there to remind us that we are never alone. In our darkest days of our own sinful, evil ways when we hate the world, forgot about God, and when even we hate ourselves becuase we are so far from what is right with God, we still by grace through faith have support. We are befriended, we are loved. As constant as time keeps ticking forward is as constant as the love of Christ in heaven has for us. We can not be seperated from this love. Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [shall] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. We are His friends. We who believe in Christ, that he died on the cross for our sins, we are those counted as His friends. The words of Jesus John 15:9-10 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. But when we are alone it is because we did not keep His commandments. It is becuase we chose our ways. If it is us chosing our own ways that has caused separation from God then we need to repent and turn back to God. The word repent comes from the Greek metanoeo, to perceive afterwards, to change ones mind or purpose., always in the new

testament involving a change for the better, amendment, always except once, it is of repentance of sin. Acts 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; Repentence is the first step to ending lonliness. There are promises to the pentinent, Answer to prayers 2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Pardon for Sin Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. LIFE Ezekeil 18:21 But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. Comforted Matthew5:4 Blessed [are] they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. The gifts of the Holy Spirit Acts 2:38

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. We have to come to our Lord with a contrite heart. We have to apologize, we have to show in our hearts Godly sorrow. Joel 2:13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he [is] gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. rend = to tear, or divide... 2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. This type of humbleness, this coming clean with God through confession of our sins this is what brings us back to God. This how we are forgiven. When we sin we repent and come back to God, once we are reconciled with God we then can become reconciled to each other. Matthew 6:14 Jesus Taught us... For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: Sin is what seprates, it is what causes loneliness. In society no one relly wants to hang out with the liar, the cheat, the thief, the murderer, the junkie, the criminal. We are socially ostracized from family, friends, loved ones, from those who chose not to live a life of sin. The sinner who is so distant from God that sin controls their life is so distant from the love of the community they live in. We still all have the same right for forgiveness. Ephesians 1:7

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Jesus while on the cross forgave the person next to Him on a cross, he prayed for those who nailed Him to that tree. We, by the grace of God, do not have to be on a cross. We are forgiven because of faith and this forgiveness is eternal, our repentance may be an ongoing process, but forgiveness is eternal no matter what our circumstance or situation may be. We are never alone as long as we turn to God, God will deliver us from any dire circumstance form any depth of despair. [To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.]] My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? [why art thou so] far from helping me, [and from] the words of my roaring? God is always there and is never far away from our roarings, never far from helping us. God has provided eternal life, salvation by grace through faith, which is eternal help. God has never abandoned us in a defeated state while in hostile circumstance. We through our sin forsake or abandon God, we through sin do not help edify the Church, through sin we neglect the words of scripture. Thank you God for your endless love and forgiveness of our endless failures in righteousness, this love that allows us to come back to you, your love that has provided us an eternity with you. The psalmist words are a reflection of his decisions which brought him to a state of despair. Jesus words on the cross is reflective our sin that brought him to a physical death so that we may have eternal life. Once again thank you God for your forgiveness, love and slavation.

In Jesuss name I pray! Amen

Far from helping me and from the words of my roaring Habakkuk 1:2 O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! [even] cry out unto thee [of] violence, and thou wilt not save! Pslam 55:2 Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise;

Psalm 22:2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

Psalm 142:2 I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble.