"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me."

In his need, Jesus turns to the psalms which he has learned and prayed regularly since a child. As he began his painful crucifixion by praying to the Father for others, he now continues to turn to the Father to pray for strength to endure till the end.

Choosing Psalm 22, he utters this cry of anguish, not in despair but in trust of the Father. For in faith he knows that death will not be the ultimate victor, but life will reign through death. While the bystanders may have interpreted Jesus’ cry as a cry against God, the Father heard the recommitment of the son to embrace the Father’s will even in his anguish and horrific suffering.  In verse 25, Jesus prayed: “For he has not spurned or disdained the misery of this poor wretch, (He) did not turn away from me, but heard me when I cried out.”

In invoking this psalm, Jesus is quoting a Scripture which says the cry of the one who is apparently forsaken by God is actually heard by God the Father, that the Father doesn’t turn his back on the one who is afflicted, and instead, hears his prayer and answers the prayer. At the end of his prayer, Jesus said in the words of the psalm: “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD; All the families of nations will bow low before him. All who sleep in the earth will bow low before God; All who have gone down into the dust will kneel in homage. And I will live for the LORD” (vs 28, 30) 

In the next few days, pray this psalm with Jesus.