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Psalm 22:1-2 meaning
The Biblical superscription of Psalm 22 is:
A Cry of Anguish and a Song of Praise.
For the choir director; upon Aijeleth Hashshahar. A Psalm of David.
The Biblical classification of Psalm 22 is twofold. It is both A cry of Anguish and it is a Song of Praise. The Psalm begins with a grievous cry or complaint to God (Psalm 22:1-21), but it ends with an awesome declaration of God’s overwhelming righteousness (Psalm 22:22-31). In some respects, it feels like two different psalms, but Psalm 22 tells a unified story of how God turns the anguish of suffering, humiliation, and defeat into a celebration of praise, wonder, and triumph.
Psalm 22 was written for the choir director—indicating that it was intended as worship music. Both its cries and its praises were sung and offered as a song of worship to God by Israel. King David was the writer of this psalm. We know this because the Biblical superscription of Psalm 22 tells us that it is a Psalm of David.
David (1040-970 B.C.) was the anointed king of Israel. David was anointed by God to replace Saul who sinned against the LORD (1 Samuel 15-16). The Hebrew word for anointed is a form of the word Messiah. This means David is a messianic king. David is generally regarded as the best king over Israel. The LORD blessed him, and he was a man after God’s heart (1 Samuel 13:14).
This did not mean David was perfect, or that he had an easy time becoming king, or ruling as king. He spent years in exile avoiding the jealous and deadly wrath of King Saul (1 Samuel 18:10-11, 19:9-10, 20:1, 21:10, 23:14-15). And his own son, Absalom, led a nearly-successful rebellion to overthrow David that forced him to flee from his capital city of Jerusalem (2 Samuel 15).
While we instantly sense that Psalm 22 is personal to David (My God, my God… v 1), and presumably autobiographical, we do not know for certain which specific set of circumstances David is referring to within it. David experienced numerous trials and fought in many wars against many different enemies throughout his life—both before and after he became king. Various lines within Psalm 22 could refer to any one or several of these perilous moments. It also may be that Psalm 22 is an amalgamation of multiple dangers which David endured, and deliverances by God from those perils.
That said, there is one incident where the Bible describes where David was captured by or at least living among his enemies. It is when David lived among the Philistines. This event is described in 1 Samuel 21 and is reflected upon by David in Psalm 56, which is “A Mikhtam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath” (Psalm 56, superscription).
While he is in the Philistines’ custody, David pretends to be a madman and froths at the mouth (1 Samuel 21:12-13). It appears that this shrewd act saved his life because the Philistine ruler, King Achish, did not execute David (1 Samuel 21:14-15). One of the reasons David was among the Philistines was because he fled to the territory they controlled as a means to escape King Saul who was seeking his life (1 Samuel 21:10).
There are many indicators in Psalm 22 that David may be drawing from his experience as prisoner to the Philistines. This terrifying and perilous incident in his life was a time of anguish and God’s rescue, comparable to this psalm of anguish and praise. This commentary will attempt to make note of these possible references as we come upon them.
Moreover, it is possible that David composed Psalm 22 after the dangers and God’s deliverance from them had already taken place. However, David wrote it in the perspective of the present as though the events he describes are actually happening. If so, it is as a “re-lived perspective.” This poetic technique immerses readers into the psalmist’s sufferings and desperation.
The re-lived perspective helps or even induces readers to experience some of his anguish as though they were living it as well. As readers experience David’s anguish vicariously through Psalm 22, they are also able to actively retrace David’s steps of faith in God as he hopes and celebrates the deliverance yet to come.
Psalm 22 is specific enough to be personal to David. But it is expressed in sufficiently broad terms so that significant portions are relatable to many who are experiencing feelings of anxiety, isolation, or desperation. Ultimately Psalm 22 is edifying, as its prayer progresses from describing the dire straits the psalmist experiences to the hope and assurance of deliverance and triumph through the LORD. It models the perspective we ought to choose whenever we encounter hardships or stress.
Even as Psalm 22 is a testimony to one or more hardships which David endured in service to God, it casts an incredible foreshadowing that distinctly details numerous and extraordinarily specific hardships that Jesus, the Messiah, would later suffer on the cross (Matthew 27:33-50, Mark 15:22-38, Luke 23:33-46, John 19:16-30). As the psalm indicates by identifying itself a Song of Praise, the LORD triumphantly delivered the messianic king David from the anguish of his troubles. So too would (and now has) the LORD deliver the Messiah from death through resurrection, to the astonishment and blessing for all the world.
The term Aijeleth Hashshahar within the phrase—upon Aijeleth Hashshahar—is left untranslated by the NASB. It means “upon the morning deer.” On its own, it is unclear what is meant by this expression. In context, it probably is a musical reference informing the original readers that the text was to be sung according to a tune called the “The Morning Deer.” Others have supposed that The Morning Deer might refer to the Messiah. Psalm 22 is the only time the expression Aijeleth Hashshahar occurs in the Bible.
Psalm 22 is a Messianic psalm which prophesies important predictions about Jesus the Messiah—particularly in regards to His crucifixion, death, and resurrection. Matthew’s Gospel, in particular, explicitly features no less than two prophecies from this psalm (Psalm 22:18, Matthew 27:35; and Psalm 22:1 with Matthew 27:46) to demonstrate to his Jewish readers how the awful death Jesus suffered proved that He was and is the Messiah as foretold through the scriptures. This countered those who claimed Jesus was disqualified from being the Messiah.
The Bible Says commentary for Psalm 22 will initially focus on the immediate meaning of David’s psalm and then look at its prophetic forecasts of Jesus’s suffering, crucifixion, resurrection, and triumphant victory.
THE IMMEDIATE MEANING OF DAVID’S PSALM 22:1-2
Psalm 22 begins with a personal and agonizing cry to God:
My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? (v 1a).
David’s opening line of Psalm 22 is powerfully immersive. It instantly plunges the reader into the depths of David’s suffering. It immediately allows the reader to re-live David’s anguish. The writing is so persuasive that many have taken it as a literal fact—that God actually had forsaken David.
But God did not forsake David even though it may have appeared that God forsook him.
The Hebrew word translated as forsaken in Psalm 22:1 is a form of עָזַב (H5800—pronounced “aw-zab'”). It means “to leave behind,” “abandon,” “reject,” “fail,” or “desert.” Forsaken (“awzab”) is an emphatic and stark word.
The LORD promised the people of Israel through His servant Moses that He “will not fail you or forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6), using the same root word, “awzab,” for “forsake.” We know God had not literally forsaken David because God does not violate any of His promises (Numbers 23:19, Deuteronomy 7:9, Joshua 21:45, Isaiah 40:8, Hebrews 6:18):
“Once I have sworn by My holiness;
I will not lie to David.”
(Psalm 89:35)
David will later write in Psalm 22 how God did not forsake him:
“For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
Nor has He hidden His face from him;
But when he cried to Him for help, He heard.”
(Psalm 22:24)
Even though God did not actually forsake David, that does not mean David did not feel forsaken. David questioned God because of the horrendous circumstances he was facing that were threatening to overwhelm him. As Psalm 22 will later indicate (and 1 Samuel 22, one of the events Psalm 22 probably describes), these circumstances include:
Experiencing such horrible circumstances would understandably cause even the most faithful followers of the LORD to feel as though God had forsaken them. We are limited, finite beings, and our own strength fails us. A faithful follower of God would take such feelings and concerns along with the ordeal of their circumstances to the LORD in prayer. And this is exactly what David does.
The psalmist’s question is a sincere and respectful petition to God to explain to him why he is suffering such terrible things. It is a personal question addressed to My God. It is repeated for emphasis—My God, my God.
As phrased, the psalmist’s question seems to presuppose that God has forsaken him. But the question does not accept this presumption as settled fact. It would seem from the later verses in the psalm that rather than being offered as a charge or fault, blaming God for this action, David is seeking clarification or wisdom from God to better understand the terrible ordeal he is enduring.
In this psalm, it seems that David is fully expressing to God how he feels, then working through, with God, the reality of God’s benevolent care for him, even in the midst of great difficulty.
The Book of James explicitly teaches this approach.
“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
(James 1:2-5)
The opening line of Psalm 22 personally asks God why He is allowing the psalmist’s trial and pain to occur. But in the psalm, he does not blame God or accuse Him of wrongdoing. His suffering and question are both real, but the psalmist asks God with due reverence, respect, and faith (James 1:6-8).
While the Bible condemns grumbling against God or speaking wrong of Him to others, as Job’s friends do (Job 42:7), God does not expect His people to suffer in silent stoicism without His help. Rather, God invites us to come to Him in our pain and suffering and He will hear our complaints (see James 1:2-9). And though He may not remove the trial or the pain, He promises to generously give us His (true) perspective on whatever it is we are facing (James 1:5). This includes peace which passes all understanding (Philippians 4:4-7) and rest for our souls (Matthew 11:28-30).
This line My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? (v 1a) contains the first two of many personal references in this psalm.
Notice how David refers to God as My God. He speaks directly to God and uses the second person pronoun—You—while addressing Him. Between Psalm 22:1-5 the psalmist will address God with—You—no less than eight times. This indicates that this portion of the psalm is a personal conversation between the psalmist and God.
The opening line touches upon the so-called: “Problem of Evil.”
To learn more about the Problem of Evil, see The Bible Says article: “The Problem of Evil.”
The Problem of Evil can be viewed from two basic perspectives. These are perspectives of pride and humility.
The “proud-posture” sees all things as relative to “me.” Pride is having a perspective that “I know best and the definition of good and bad are relative to me and to my desires.” Pride justifies our actions, casts blame on others, and rationalizes our behaviors.
This position judges God based upon the finite opinion of the one who is suffering. It presumptuously renders its verdict based on the perspective of the sufferer without considering God’s point of view (reality). The position of pride blames others. Part of that blame is to accuse God of being part of the problem. While tempting—especially in the midst of intense moments or seasons of suffering—this false perspective is not connected to reality and will not lead to life.
That the prideful posture of finite humans is not connected to reality is apparent from applying a simple thought experiment. If eight billion people on earth plus God share the perspective that “I am always right,” by definition all must be wrong save one (and in reality all are wrong). The only one who can be right all the time is the One (God) who can see all perspectives at once. Does that make God prideful? Not at all, for humility is the willingness to see reality as it is.
Boastful assertions against God stemming from the proud-postured explanation of the Problem of Evil are intellectual, unsound, and logically faulty. Pride merely generates an apparent dilemma for anyone who both claims that God is perfectly good and completely powerful while blaming God for not performing for them to meet their expectations.
The apparent dilemma stemming from the prideful perspective is rooted in the view that “Good is that which I desire, therefore the sovereign God is obligated to perform for me and give me what I want.”
Thus the proud-postured Problem of Evil argument often leads to a form of what is often referred to as atheism that runs something like this:
“If God truly was perfectly good and completely powerful, then He would not let this terrible thing happen. And because this terrible thing happened, this demonstrates that God does not exist.”
This is not actually a position of atheism, but rather a sort of philosophical tantrum, “If God won’t do what I say, then I will punish Him by not believing in Him.”
Superficially, the prideful posture that a good God would eliminate evil may seem to be a compelling argument, especially for someone who is in the midst of suffering. But the Problem of Evil is only an apparent dilemma—not a real one.
The prideful perspective solution to the Problem of Evil is based on at least five grossly presumptuous assumptions:
In short, the Problem of Evil understood from a position of pride presumes to put our finite perspective above God’s perfect wisdom. Or to say this in logical terms, all of these logical faults arise from erroneous presuppositions concerning such fundamental definitions of God, goodness, or evil.
When God created humans He made them in His image, which included giving humans the power to make moral choices (Genesis 1:26-27). God delegated to each person the authority to make three fundamental choices: who they trust, the perspective they adopt, and the actions they take. Much of scripture is dedicated to leading humans on a journey to adopt a perspective that is true, one that gives us the benefit of God’s perspective, which is reality; God can see all perspectives at once.
God’s introduction of human choice into the world also introduced the possibility of evil, for evil is simply any choice that departs from God’s (good) design for humans to live in service to and harmony with one another, as well as with God and the natural world He created.
The basic choice each human makes each day is the same as that offered to Adam and Eve—the choice between good and evil. The choice of good is to choose to love and serve others; this is a choice that leads to life, connection, harmony. The choice of evil is to choose to exploit others and extract from them in order to fulfill our fleshly appetites. The choice of evil leads to exploitation and violence.
Why then would God introduce choice, when human choice can lead to evil? There may be many reasons for this, but one that is apparent is that choice is necessary for there to be actual love. If we create a doll, we can love it, but the doll cannot love us back, because it has no moral choice.
Real love is serving the best interest of another when it is costly or inconvenient to us (John 15:13, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8). It is through this sort of serving-others love that we actually gain our own greatest fulfillment (Matthew 16:24-25). God’s reward for those who serve others in love goes far beyond anything we can conceive (1 Corinthians 2:9).
God actually promises to immensely reward those who set aside self to love others, as Jesus did. Jesus promises to those who overcome the temptation to fear the world’s rejection (as He did) that He will share His rewards with them (Romans 8:17b, Revelation 3:21). This is a mind-boggling good that God will create out of a fallen mess, like a potter making a beautiful vessel from a mess of clay.
The second posture from which the Problem of Evil can be addressed is a perspective of humility. Humility is the willingness to see things as they actually are—to embrace reality. This includes the reality that God is the omniscient creator who made all things, and that we are a part of His design.
Accordingly, the position of humility seeks wisdom by pursuing God’s perspective. When we see from God’s perspective, we see reality. This includes perspective on any evil that is being suffered. Psalm 22 can be viewed as taking its reader on a journey from seeing the evil circumstances from one’s own perspective, then shifting to God’s perspective. This indicates what we have all experienced—that our natural bent is to see things from our own limited perspective—for it is that perspective we feel and experience physically. The challenge to adopt a perspective of humility is that it requires looking beyond our own immediate experience.
The position of humility acknowledges human short-sightedness and finite limitations. In Psalm 22, David assumes the position we all have—that of the questioner. In the position of humility, by faith the questioner presumes that “the problem” is from a lack of understanding, wisdom, or right perspective regarding the painful circumstances.
According to this humble position, far from being part of the Problem of Evil, God (in His wisdom and mercy) is the only solution to it. Psalm 22 begins from the position of a human experiencing pain and difficulty and expressing it to God. We can presume this is not only healthy, but appropriate, given that Jesus uttered the words from the cross from Psalm 22 that express this perspective (Matthew 27:46).
But then Psalm 22 takes us to a place of humility, recognizing that God is in control and no amount of evil will overcome His benevolence. Jesus uttered the words from the cross, then committed His spirit into the hands of God (Matthew 27:50). God then resurrected Him from the dead.
Psalm 22 begins from a place of questioning then takes us to a place of committing our spirit unto God in humility (reality).
The prophet, Jeremiah, beautifully exhibits the humble approach that acknowledges the reality of God and Who He is when he wrote:
“Why should any living mortal, or any man,
Offer complaint in view of his sins?
Let us examine and probe our ways,
And let us return to the LORD.”
(Lamentations 3:39-40)
This humble (reality-based) attitude regarding suffering leads to life, wisdom, and all manner of good.
When taken as a whole, we can see that David is operating with a humble attitude as he addresses his heartfelt suffering and concerns to God in Psalm 22. The fact that he questions God does not negate that he approaches God in humility.
Perhaps like the father who came to Jesus with his gravely sick child, who cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24), David is seeking to add understanding to his faith amid awful circumstances. Or perhaps David first expresses his emotions to God, seeking His direction, and gains wisdom granted by God through the experience (James 1:5).
Psalm 22 starts amidst David’s bewildering agony.
He is in anguish and does not understand why God would allow such dreadful circumstances to happen to him. He personally asks his God why He has forsaken him and why He seems to be beyond the reach of his prayers. The psalmist laments that it feels like God is distant and inaccessible:
Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning (v 1b).
This expression means that the desired outcome of deliverance is far from his groans for deliverance. The gap is far and wide between the psalmist’s painful reality and his hope for salvation from his dire circumstance. David’s question in verse 1 is asked from the acutely felt gap between groaning and deliverance.
His question of God expresses how the psalmist feels as though his prayers for deliverance have been groaned in vain. He expresses a perspective that either God has not heard them; or God does not intend to answer them in a way the psalmist desires; or both.
David reiterates the futility of his desperate prayers to God.
O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer;
And by night, but I have no rest (v 2).
David is taking a posture of humility, in that he is seeking God. But here he expresses that his experience to this point is that God is not to be found. The psalmist is questioning God for why He is not responding the way he desires God to respond. God’s response seems to be to remain silent and/or apathetic toward him in the midst of his suffering.
The psalmist expresses his frustration; he cries out to God in prayer when he is awake (by day) but feels as though God is not answering him. The psalmist also cries out to God by night, but he finds no rest or reassurance. His exhausted plea, by night but I have no rest, seems to further indicate that the psalmist is unable to sleep because of pain, worry, or serious and imminent dangers encircling him.
If Psalm 22 refers to the predicament when David was living in captive exile among the Philistines where he had to feign insanity to survive (as described in 1 Samuel 21), the questions and statements of Psalm 22:1-2 would have been quite natural for him to wonder, or ask God.
My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.
O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer;
And by night, but I have no rest.
PSALM 22:1-2 AS A MESSIANIC PROPHECY
My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? (v 1a).
From a Jewish perspective, the expression: My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? is the equivalent in western culture of saying “Psalm 22.” When Jesus says these words, it is reasonable to assume He is invoking all of Psalm 22.
Near the end of His six hours of suffering on the cross, the last three of which are when darkness covered the earth, “Jesus cried out with a loud voice…‘My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).
Jesus the Messiah was in unimaginable agony when he shouted out these words. The intense emotional, mental, psychological, and spiritual pain this expression revealed is too mysterious and profound for us to fully comprehend. Perhaps the best we can make of it is that what Jesus endured was the worst suffering a human being is capable of experiencing. His anguish was beyond anything anyone before or since has endured. Not only was He dying a brutal death, He was also taking upon Himself the sins of the entire world (Romans 6:18, Colossians 2:14, 1 John 2:2).
Taken in isolation, these words could seem to indicate a cry of defeat. But Jesus’s cry was not in isolation; the totality of Psalm 22 is inferred, which ends in victory. However, at the time of its utterance, Jesus’s desperate exclamation: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) was four things at once.
1. Exclamation as an Expression of Anguish
The Messiah said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” as He was screaming out in unbearable agony over the broken fellowship that He had forever enjoyed with His Heavenly Father. Matthew indicates that Jesus cried out My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? at the conclusion of the three-hour darkness (Matthew 27:45-46). This terrible darkness is generally understood to be indicative of the Father’s wrath endured by His Son, when Jesus became the sin of the world on our behalf (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Nature itself quaked at this horrible estrangement. How could the sun shine forth when the eternal and fundamental relationship—the Triune Godhead— which had created the cosmos was fractured for a time, and God was (paradoxically) forsaken of Himself?
For the first time in eternity, God the Son was in some mysterious way not in harmonious fellowship with God the Father. The unbreakable bonds of fellowship within the godhead were severed, so that humanity might be joined together with God (Romans 6:18).
It was in dissonant rupture of the divine relationship that Jesus screamed: My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? When saying this, Jesus was quoting Psalm 22, which prophesied the words that Jesus would utter.
Jesus’s lament—“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34)—reveals the symbolic meaning of the darkness that covered the earth for three hours (Luke 23:44) to be an experience of overwhelming loneliness and desperate desolation. It was a time of intense existential dread for Jesus.
Jesus’s expression is a response to that existential pain. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46, 15:34) is bleak question. And there is no immediate reply. Jesus’s outcry unveils a glimpse at the profound isolation and emptiness He felt on the cross when He was temporarily forsaken by God.
With God’s back toward Him, Jesus was likely tempted to feel as though He were defeated.
The Messianic Servant Song of Isaiah 49 suggests as much when the LORD’s Servant (the Messiah) says to the LORD: “I have toiled in vain, I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity” (Isaiah 49:4). Indeed, the eleventh verse of Psalm 22 suggests this as well:
“Be not far from me, for trouble is near;
For there is none to help.”
(Psalm 22:11)
This sense of futility likely intensified the loneliness, isolation, desolation, and existential pain Jesus suffered.
Perhaps more succinctly, Jesus’s desperate question, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46, 15:34), was in response to the disturbing disorder of spiritual death.
Death is separation. When we think of death, we think of a person’s spirit and soul being separated from their physical body. When this kind of death occurs, we who remain can no longer interact the person who has died; their body is merely an empty vessel.
But spiritual death is not the severance that takes place between a person’s material body and their immaterial spirit. Spiritual death comes when our soul is separated from God—from life itself. That is why the Bible describes the consequence or wages of sin as death (Genesis 2:16-17, Romans 6:23, James 1:15), because sin separates us from God. Sin separates us from God’s (good) design for us to live in harmony with God, nature, and one another on this earth.
Jesus seems to have died—in both senses of that word—on the cross. That is, Jesus suffered spiritual death (for all of humanity) on the cross and He suffered physical death on the cross. He suffered spiritual death when He was separated from His Father and took on the sins of the world (Romans 6:18, Colossians 2:14). Then He suffered physical death when He dismissed His spirit.
Like the first Adam, Jesus appears to have suffered spiritual death first and physical death second.
Adam suffered spiritual death when he sinned, as evidenced by him hiding from God (Genesis 3:7-8). He suffered separation from God’s (good) design for humans to never die physically when he was exiled from the Garden, and could no longer eat from the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:22-24). Adam was also apparently exiled from the intimate fellowship he had with God in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8, 23-24).
There were other deaths that took place the day Adam sinned. His fellowship with God was broken in that he blamed God (Genesis 3:12). His fellowship with Eve was broken as well, as he also blamed her (Genesis 3:12). And since Adam did not take responsibility for his own actions we can infer that he suffered an internal separation from reality. Adam physically died as well, but much later (Genesis 5:5).
Jesus appears to have suffered many forms of separation (death) at once in the time between His arrest and the end of His crucifixion. It is inferred He endured spiritual death (separation from God) while on the cross during the three hours of darkness—when He took on the sins of the world. Jesus was forsaken by God as “He bore our sins in His body on the cross” (1 Peter 2:24). He suffered separation from men when He was rejected by His own people (John 18:40, 19:15), and ridiculed and mocked (Matthew 27:43). He suffered separation from His disciples, who forsook Him (Matthew 26:56).
Jesus also suffered physical death on the cross when He gave up His Spirit (Matthew 27:50; Luke 23:46).
But unlike the first Adam, Jesus did not suffer spiritual death because of His own sin. Rather, Jesus suffered spiritual death because even though “He knew no sin,” He was made “to be sin on our behalf” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus died many deaths on the cross including both spiritual death and physical death. God, the Father, was the One who crushed Jesus, for our sake (Isaiah 53:10a, Philippians 2:8, Hebrews 10:9). This happened when He bore the sins of the world during the darkness.
Presuming the darkness represents the time that Jesus bore the sins of the world, Jesus was spiritually dead for three hours (Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44-45). Jesus was the One who laid down His life physically (John 10:17-18). This happened when Jesus cried “out with a loud voice [and] breathed his last” (Luke 23:46). Jesus remained physically dead for three days (Matthew 17:23, Mark 9:31, Luke 24:7, 1 Corinthians 15:4).
Having been betrayed and denied by His own disciples (Matthew 26:46-50; 26:69-74) and rejected by His own people (Matthew 27:22, 27:25, John 1:11, 19:15), God had turned His back on His Messiah on the cross. The perfect Son was separated from His Father’s perfect love. Paradoxically, God had been forsaken of God. This was done so that humanity could be grafted in (Ephesians 1:22-23).
The spiritual anguish caused by this spiritual separation (death) was overwhelming. Even though Jesus clearly understood His mission (Matthew 20:18-19) and He willingly took up His cross out of obedience to His Father (Matthew 16:24, Luke 23:39, Hebrews 12:2), this did not eliminate the emotional pain and existential anguish of experiencing spiritual death.
2. Jesus’s Exclamation as an Expression of Humble Faith
Like His ancestor David, who cried out from a position of humility seeking understanding, Jesus cried out ““My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46, Mark, 15:34, Psalm 22:1) from a posture of humility.
Even though He was God, Jesus endured suffering as a human. Jesus did not rely on His divinity to overcome His suffering—He “emptied” and “humbled” Himself (Philippians 2:6-8). He humbled Himself by being willing to obey His Father’s will (Philippians 2:8, Hebrews 5:8, 10:9).
If we take the view that all of Psalm 22 is messianic, as is presumed in Jesus’s utterance of the first line of Psalm 22, we can conclude that Jesus overcame His suffering as a human the same way that we are to overcome suffering—by faith. Jesus took the faith journey expressed in Psalm 22 while hanging on the cross.
That is why Jesus is referred to as “the author and perfector of faith” (Hebrews 12:2). As David was bewildered by his sufferings, Jesus too was bewildered by the torturous ordeal of the cross and of being forsaken by His Father during the three hours of darkness. Yet He endured.
Given the faith journey of Psalm 22, we can conclude that the Son of God’s question on the cross—My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?—was an honest expression of what He was feeling, and that He then immediately sought to see His own circumstances through the eyes of His Father.
Jesus’s question—“Why?” was not a cry of defeat, nor an accusation that God was unjust. Rather it was the beginning of an honest inquiry that never strayed from an underlying belief in God’s goodness.
To learn more about the Problem of Evil, see The Bible Says article: “The Problem of Evil.”
3. Jesus’s Exclamation as Utterance of Atonement
As previously explained in the commentary of this passage as it pertained to David, the Hebrew word translated as forsaken in Psalm 22:1 is a form of עָזַב (H5800—pronounced “aw-zab'”). It means to “leave behind,” “abandon,” “reject,” “fail,” or “desert”. Forsaken (“awzab”) is an emphatically harsh word.
Unlike His ancestor David or any other human living on earth, Jesus actually was forsaken by God for a time. David was not actually forsaken by God because God promised to never forsake His people (Deuteronomy 31:6).
God overlooked the sins of the world prior to Jesus, who took on the sins of the world (Acts 17:30). Likewise, God is patiently withholding the fullness of His wrath upon the living, “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). We can infer that those who refuse to receive God’s grace and the forgiveness of sins will be eternally forsaken of God in the next life, by their choice (Revelation 20:15). But Jesus took on the sins of the entire world, that whoever would believe might have eternal life (John 3:14-15, Colossians 2:14, 1 John 2:2). When He became sin on our behalf, Jesus suffered the forsaking wrath of God for us.
David’s intense sufferings and circumstances spurred him to petition God about what was happening to him. Taking the entirety of Psalm 22 as messianic would indicate that Jesus also went to God in prayer throughout His fiery trial.
It was in reference to the anticipation of being forsaken by God while experiencing His Father’s wrath on the cross that Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane for this cup to pass from Him (Matthew 26:39a). Jesus prayed in the Garden for His Father not to leave, abandon, reject, or desert Him. He prayed for God, His Father, to not fail to rescue Him from the humiliation and agony of the cross. He sought another way. Yet He submitted to His Father’s way.
All others, including His disciples, would run away or turn on Jesus. The Son prayed for His Father to not “awzab” (forsake) Him. But Jesus the Son, as He prayed to not be forsaken by God His Father, also prayed, “yet not as I will but as you will” (Matthew 26:39b).
God the Father did not answer His Son’s prayer in the way His Son apparently desired Him to respond. Against His Son’s desperate and personal desire, the Father forsook the Son:
“You hid Your face, I was dismayed.”
(Psalm 30:7b)
“But the LORD was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief.”
(Isaiah 53:10a)
“He…did not spare His own Son.”
(Romans 8:32a)
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin.”
(2 Corinthians 5:21a)
When Jesus became the sin of Israel and the sin of the world on our behalf (2 Corinthians 5:21) the full weight of God’s wrath was kindled against His Son. This passage from Deuteronomy illustrates the use of “awzab” (forsake):
“Then My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake (awzab) them and hide My face from them, and they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will come upon them… But I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they will do.”
(Deuteronomy 31:17-18)
The LORD makes this statement in Deuteronomy to Israel. The question might arise as to why God would say that He will forsake Israel when elsewhere He promised to never forsake them.
The first way to reconcile God’s promise to never forsake Israel and His prophetic anger is to distinguish two different applications of “forsake.” One application is related to Israel’s acceptance, which is permanent, absolute, and unconditionally given by God; God will never forsake His people from being His precious possession. The other application is related to Israel’s fellowship with and approval from God—this is conditional, based on their faithfulness to their covenant with Him under the Law. God forsakes fellowship with His people when they forsake following His ways.
For a fuller explanation of this topic, see The Bible Says commentary for Deuteronomy 31:14-23.
The second way to reconcile God’s promise to never forsake Israel is as a Messianic prophecy that was fulfilled during the time Jesus took on the sins of the world. God’s unconditional acceptance of all who believe is made possible because Jesus paid our ransom to redeem us from sin. The way God kept His promise to never forsake sinful Israel (Deuteronomy 31:6) was by forsaking Jesus, the Messiah, when He became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). God made His promise to never forsake Israel (Deuteronomy 31:6) in anticipation of the cross. This promise to never forsake His people has extended to all who believe on Him (John 3:16).
It is possible that both reconciliations can apply at the same time.
Jesus was forsaken by God on Israel and the world’s behalf like no one ever has or will be forsaken; He endured the sins of the entire world (Colossians 2:14).
But the Father’s rejection of His Son and His petitions were part of a better plan, a plan to redeem all of humanity. A plan to not only repair the separation between people and God, but also to restore humans to their original design to reign over the earth (Hebrews 2:9-10). Jesus’s death on the cross was the Lamb of God that took away the sins of the world:
“If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.”
(Isaiah 53:10b)
“but delivered Him over for us all” (Romans 8:32).
“on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
(2 Corinthians 5:21b)
Jesus, the Messiah, God’s only begotten Son was forsaken by His Father and suffered and died horribly on the cross. And it was during these three hours of darkness that Jesus was made to be sin on our behalf. But Jesus would not be forsaken by God forever.
Jesus the Messiah endured the brunt of God’s wrath when He was forsaken (and spiritually slain) by His Father during the three hours of darkness on the cross. But the Father’s wrath against His Son who became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21) lasted only for a brief time, then turned into immense favor:
“For His anger is but for a moment,
His favor is for a lifetime;
Weeping may last for the night,
But a shout of joy comes in the morning.”
(Psalm 30:5)
Three supreme goods came about through His being forsaken and killed:
(Isaiah 53:12a, Philippians 2:9-11, Hebrews 12:2)
(Isaiah 53:12b, John 3:16, Colossians 2:13-14)
(Hebrews 2:9-10, Revelation 3:21, Romans 8:17b)
Interestingly, from the Messiah’s perspective, the first half of Psalm 22 (Psalm 22:1-21) describes God the Father’s rejection of the Son, while the second half of the psalm (Psalm 22:22-31) describes the eternal blessings that came about through the divine forsaking.
One final point needs to be made regarding Jesus’s death and question why have You forsaken me as they pertain to atonement (covering).
According to Matthew and Mark, the timing of Jesus’s lament “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” was spoken “about/at the ninth hour” (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). This would have been approximately 3:00 p.m. This is significant because Jesus not only died shortly after saying this, it also corresponded with the timing of the daily afternoon “Tamid Sacrifice.”
The Tamid Sacrifice took place in the temple each morning and afternoon. It consisted of several elements: an unblemished male lamb; a flour and oil mixture used to make unleavened bread; wine; and incense. This sacrifice symbolized the perpetual covenant between God and the people of Israel.
It was offered twice daily to display how God’s relationship was continuous and unwavering. The Tamid Sacrifice was offered as an atoning sacrifice—particularly for sins committed unintentionally (Luke 23:34). Hebrews alludes to the Tamid Sacrifice when it says: “Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices. To “atone” means “to cover.” The daily sacrifices covered sin for a time. But Jesus’s sacrifice was once for all (Hebrews 9:12) and covered all sins for all time.
Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29) was not only “our Passover [lamb]” (1 Corinthians 5:7) who was sacrificed for us, He is also our Tamid Sacrifice. The body and blood of Jesus is the sacrifice that sanctifies us once and for all (Hebrews 9:25-26; 10:9-11).
The symbolism of Jesus’s outcry and death occurring at the same time as the daily Temple sacrifice for sin demonstrates how He is our atoning sacrifice of the everlasting covenant, to wash away all the sins of all who believe (John 3:14-16).
4. Jesus’s Exclamation as a Prophetic Allusion to the many Messianic fulfillments of Psalm 22
While on the cross Jesus directly quoted the first line of Psalm 22: My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? (v 1a).
Within Jewish culture, quoting the first line of a psalm is a way to name or call upon the entire psalm—including its prophetic lines of Messianic vindication, triumph, and praise (Psalm 22.21-31). From a Jewish perspective, the expression: My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? is the equivalent in western culture of saying “Psalm 22.” Therefore, when Jesus cried out the first line of this psalm, He was highlighting how the whole psalm pertained to Himself as the Messiah. This included both the psalm’s prophetic sufferings and the psalm’s prophetic triumphs. This was Jesus’s way to express how the entirety of Psalm 22 was really about Himself and the Messianic work He came to accomplish.
A more complete list of the prophetic fulfillments of Psalm 22 is available in The Bible Says article, “Jesus’s Seven Last Words from the Cross—Part Two: A Word of Desolation.”
Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning (v 1b).
The second line of Psalm 22:1 may refer to multiple moments within Jesus’s final hours.
It could refer to the Father’s denial of Jesus’s desperate petition for Him to provide another way besides a painful and humiliating death on the cross to accomplish His mission to offer salvation to the world. In the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was troubled to the point of death (Matthew 26:38), He fervently prayed: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:39).
There was a wide gap and far distance between the outcome Jesus wanted His Father to have for Him and the desire of His groaning prayers.
The line Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning (v 1b) could also be in reference to the three hours of darkness and silence Jesus suffered on the cross. The Gospels do not go into elaborate detail about what happened between the sixth and ninth hours (~ 12:00pm-3:00pm) when Jesus was on the cross. They mostly say that it was dark (Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44-45). But it seems as though that it was during this time that God turned His back on His Son as He sacrificially became the sin of the world. It was during this time that God the Father forsook God the Son, hence Jesus’s loud lament: My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
Moreover, if this was the case, then the next verse of this psalm expounds on what Jesus may have been experiencing as the darkness covered the earth.
O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer;
And by night, but I have no rest (v 2).
This verse seems to indicate that Jesus was praying to His Father during those three awful hours of darkness. It also seems that God did not respond to Jesus according to His immediate wishes to be consoled or delivered. Jesus cried by day (before it was dark) and God did not answer. Jesus cried out in the darkness (by night) but He received no consolation up to that moment.
To learn more about the meaning of Jesus’s question—My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?—from the perspective of the cross, see The Bible Says article, “Jesus’s Seven Last Words from the Cross—Part Two: A Word of Desolation.”