Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Never Abandoned
“Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.” (Deuteronomy 31:8 NLT)
Psalm 22 is one of the most unique psalms in all the Bible. We call it a messianic prophecy, which simply means that it’s one of the remarkable passages in the Old Testament that points to Jesus as the Messiah.
And not only is Psalm 22 a messianic prophecy, but it’s also a graphic description of the events that took place on the day of the crucifixion. In many ways, it is more detailed and specific than the accounts of the crucifixion that the Gospels provide.
What makes it so amazing is that David penned these words one thousand years before the crucifixion of Jesus. In fact, the Jews didn’t practice crucifixion, and the Romans didn’t come up with it. It was a form of death initially devised by the Medes, Persians, and Assyrians. And then it spread throughout the ancient East.
The Romans took it from the Phoenicians. Thus, crucifixion was something that wasn’t even practiced when David wrote Psalm 22. Even so, it reads like a vivid eyewitness account of what happened on the day of the crucifixion of Jesus. That is what makes it all the more remarkable.
A number of things stand out in Psalm 22 that concern the death of Jesus Christ. Rather than describing a situation that he was going through, David, as God spoke to him, described the suffering of the Messiah. And perhaps he didn’t even fully grasp everything he was writing down.
The psalm opens with the words, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (22:1 NLT). Of course, Jesus spoke these words from the cross.
The Bible tells us that a mysterious darkness fell upon the earth in the middle of the afternoon. Suddenly it was pitch black for three long hours, and Jesus was silent. After the three hours had passed, the silence was broken as Jesus cried out from the cross, “ ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ which means ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’ ” (Matthew 27:46 NLT).
From a human standpoint, it’s impossible to fathom what actually took place. But it’s important to try and grasp what was happening here, because it is of the greatest significance. It speaks to us of God’s love for us.
When Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” it wasn’t the delusion of a man who merely was in pain. It wasn’t that the faith of Jesus was failing Him. He wasn’t delirious or losing His mind. Rather, something of profound significance was taking place. And Jesus merely was stating the truth of the situation.
This is not the way God normally deals with His own when they face life’s hardest moments. If you are a child of God, then you never have been, and never will be, forsaken by God. Jesus made sure of this on the cross. He said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you” (Hebrews 13:5 NLT).
The ear of God was closed to Him for a time so that it might be open to us forever.
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