The Passion: My God, My God — Jesus Cries on the Cross
Study The Word
Psalm 22:1–8, 14–18
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… 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. 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. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet… They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
When Jesus cried out from the cross, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” which is, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” — He was not merely crying out in anguish. He was also fulfilling prophecy. He was fulfilling the first verse of Psalm 22, a messianic psalm written by David a thousand years before the crucifixion. And this psalm gives us the most intimate, the most detailed perspective of what was happening inside the heart of Jesus while He was on the cross. If Isaiah gave us the outward perspective — what happened to His body — Psalm 22 gives us the inward perspective — what was happening in His heart, in His spirit, in His thoughts. That the Spirit of God would give to us this account and perspective. Incredible! Remember when He said “that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning Me.” (Luke 24:44)
This is one of them and, we will give the prophetic Psalm the red letters it deserves.
עזב ‘azab forsaken – to leave, to forsake, to abandon, to depart from; the experience of being left alone by God
What had happened? God had turned His back on Jesus. Why? Because Jesus now had the iniquity and the sin of the whole world upon Him. God had made Him to be sin. He had made His soul an offering for sin. And because God is holy, because God cannot look upon sin, He turned His face away from His own Son. And Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He says, “O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not.” God was not hearing Him. God was not answering Him. The fellowship between the Father and the Son was broken because the sin of the whole world was now upon Jesus. Ayaa!
And then the psalm describes what was happening inside His body: “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.” His heart burst inside of His body! His heart ruptured! When the sin of the world came upon Him, when His soul was made an offering for sin, his heart could not bear it. It melted like wax. It ruptured. And when the soldier came and pierced His side, blood and water came out. Why? Because the blood and water from His ruptured heart had filled the cavity of His body. Hey! This is what was going on inside of Jesus while He hung on that cross. What a perspective! Thank you Holy Spirit!
לב leb heart – the inner man, the mind, the will, the heart; the seat of emotions, courage, and life
And yet, in the midst of this unimaginable suffering, the psalm does not end in despair. It turns. In verse 22, Jesus declares, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.” Even while His heart was rupturing, even while God had turned His face away, Jesus was looking ahead by faith. He was looking at you. He was looking at me. He was looking at every nation, every tribe, every tongue that would come to worship God because of what He was about to accomplish on that cross.
שׂבר sabar hope – to look, to wait, to hope, to expect; a confident expectation of future deliverance
And then in verse 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.” That is you! That is me! That is us! Jesus, while hanging on the cross, while His heart was melting like wax inside His body, was looking at us by faith and declaring that all the nations of the world would turn to God and worship Him. That was His faith. That was what sustained Him. The joy that was set before Him. That was the voice of the faith of the Son of God echoing in His heart whilst He hung on the cross! Hallelujah! And the psalm closes in verse 31: “They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.” He has done this! It is finished! The work is complete. Jesus did it, Glory to God!
Pray The Word
Heavenly Father, I thank You for the sacrifice of Jesus who endured the agony of being forsaken by You so that I would never have to be forsaken. I thank You that His heart was broken so that my heart could be made whole. I thank You that by His faith on the cross, all the nations have come to worship You, and I am among them, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Speak The Word
My God has never forsaken me because Jesus was forsaken in my place! His heart was broken so mine could be whole. I am part of the great congregation that praises God because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. All the ends of the earth worship before Him, and I declare His righteousness to my generation — He has done this! It is finished, in the name of Jesus Christ!