MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME? / PSALMS 22:1

START YOUR DAY RIGHT DAILY DEVOTION

(KJV) Psalms 22:1

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

The Cry of the Forsaken: Finding Hope in Jesus’ Deepest Agony

We have all experienced moments of profound isolation—times when the silence of heaven feels heavy, and we wonder if God has forgotten us entirely. But there is one cry in human history that carries a weight of abandonment so deep, it splits the fabric of eternity.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

These agonizing words, originally penned in Psalms 22:1, were voiced by Jesus Himself as He hung dying on the cross (Matthew 27:46). In that desperate and dreadful moment, the Savior of the world was overwhelmed with a sense of total separation from God’s presence—a spiritual exile unlike anything anyone else has ever known.

The Weight of Our Rebellion

Consider the magnitude of what was happening on Calvary. The Son of God, the very Creator of the universe, was rejected by His own creation. He was suddenly cut off from the One whose presence fills all of existence.

In those final, dark moments, the Father’s protective presence was withdrawn. As scripture tells us, “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Though Jesus lived a flawless life, He willingly took upon Himself—all at once—the full, crushing impact of judgment for humanity’s rebellion. He literally became a curse for us (Galatians 3:13).

With the heaviness, heartache, and raw pain of all sin for all time weighing on His mind, spirit, and body, Jesus endured absolute isolation from His holy Father.

A Sovereign Claim

When Jesus cried out using the opening words of Psalms 22, He wasn’t just expressing His pain; He was making a profound declaration. By quoting this specific verse, Jesus was claiming the entire prophetic psalm as a description of Himself.

If you read further into Psalms 22, it meticulously details the piercing of hands and feet, the mocking of the crowds, and the casting of lots for clothing—prophecies written centuries earlier that Jesus fulfilled to the letter.

He endured the ultimate abandonment so that we would never have to. Because He was forsaken for a moment, we are welcomed for eternity.

A Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father,

We come to You humbled and broken-hearted by the depth of the sacrifice made on the cross. Lord Jesus, we can barely comprehend the agony of Your cry—to be completely separated from the Father’s love, bearing the suffocating weight of our sins, mistakes, and rebellion.

Thank You for enduring that absolute isolation so that we would never have to walk alone. Thank You that because You were forsaken, we are given the promise that You will never leave us nor forsake us. When our own lives feel dark and heaven feels silent, remind our hearts of Calvary. Anchor our souls in the truth of Your finished work, and fill us with the peace of Your permanent presence.

In Your holy and precious name, we pray, Amen.

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