My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? (Psalm 22:1, ESV)These words are so central to the traditional evangelical understanding of the cross of Jesus Christ that their sentiment echoes in the songs we sing, most notably:
How great the pain of searing loss—But is this really what's happening on the cross? The Father turns His face away from the Son? The Father forsakes the Son? The Father is considering His Son to be a cursed criminal instead of the apple of His eye? I want to make the case, on the basis of the Scriptures, that this is not what's happening. I would submit that throughout Jesus' entire experience of the cross, the Father never stopped viewing His Son as the apple of His eye with whom He is fully well-pleased.
The Father turns His face away,
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory.
Psalm 9
The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you. (Psalm 9:9–10, ESV)
When Jesus speaks the words of Psalm 22:1 from the cross (Mark 15:34, Matthew 27:46), we know that He is speaking the words of David. But let's begin here with the words of David in an earlier psalm. In Psalm 9, here we see David stating unequivocally that God has not forsaken those who seek Him. And what is the context?
When my enemies turn back,
they stumble and perish before your presence. (Psalm 9:3, ESV)
Be gracious to me, O LORD!
See my affliction from those who hate me,
O you who lift me up from the gates of death,
that I may recount all your praises,
that in the gates of the daughter of Zion
I may rejoice in your salvation. (Psalm 9:13–14, ESV)
In Psalm 9, David is being afflicted by human enemies. And it's in the context of this kind of opposition from humans hating him and wrongly attacking him that he declares that God doesn't forsake those who seek Him.
Psalm 22
If we then fast forward to Psalm 22, we see that the circumstances are very similar:
Many bulls encompass me;
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion. (Psalm 22:12–13, ESV)
For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet— (Psalm 22:16, ESV)
But you, O LORD, do not be far off!
O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
Deliver my soul from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dog!
Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen! (Psalm 22:19–21, ESV)
We can sometimes be quick to apply these verses to what is happening to Jesus on the cross. But before we do that, we must first consider what they are describing in the life of David. Animals are mentioned here alot: bulls, lions, dogs, and oxen. But this passage is not about David being attacked by literal animals. Similar to Psalm 9, this passage is about David being afflicted by human enemies who have become so debased in their violent tendencies (i.e. the sword — bulls, dogs, lions, and oxen don't use swords) that they are more like predatory animals that act instinctively in hunting than they are like humans capable of demonstrating love and mercy.
So faced with such affliction at the hands of human enemies in both Psalm 9 and Psalm 22, on the one hand David states confidently that God has not forsaken those who seek Him (Psalm 9:10) and on the other hand he asks God why He has forsaken him (Psalm 22:1). So which one is it?
Before we answer the question of whether or not the Son was forsaken by the Father on the cross in Jesus mouthing the words of Psalm 22:1, we must answer the question of whether or not David was forsaken by God in Psalm 22 and Psalm 9.
I think it all depends on how we define what it means to be forsaken. And I would submit that the concept of being forsaken has a different sense in Psalm 9 than it does in Psalm 22.
When David asks in Psalm 22:1 why God has forsaken him, he is asking something to the effect of: "Why are you allowing these humans to oppose me? Why are you allowing me to be attacked in this way?" Forsaken in this sense means that God allows human enemies to some extent to have their way with David.
But in Psalm 9, when David confidently states that God has not forsaken those who seek Him while finding himself in seemingly identical circumstances to Psalm 22, he is saying something to the effect of: "You are with me and you are for me even in the midst of my enemies attacking me and I know that ultimately you will vindicate me."
And so in this way it's possible for David to be forsaken by God in the sense that God has temporarily allowed David's human enemies to have their way with him and at the same time not be forsaken by God in the sense that in the midst of those circumstances God smiles upon him in love, is for him, and will ultimately vindicate him. Otherwise if we require forsaken to mean the same thing in Psalm 9 as in Psalm 22, it seems we have a contradiction: David is not forsaken and at the same time is forsaken. Logically, he can't be both forsaken and not forsaken if forsaken means the same thing in both cases.
So, David was forsaken in the sense that God allowed his human enemies to have their way with him to an extent but he was not forsaken by God in the sense that God turned away from him in anger.
And the whole point of Jesus from the cross quoting David in Psalm 22 is that what was true of David is also true of Him: given up by God to human enemies but never totally forsaken by God, and all the more so as One who never stopped seeking God.
Matthew 27
Recall these words in Matthew leading up to Jesus quoting Psalm 22:1:
And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. (Matthew 27:39–44, ESV)
Note carefully what's happening in these verses and how it's a re-enactment of Psalm 22. In the aftermath of being physically attacked by the soldiers who had put Him on the cross, Jesus is now being verbally attacked (derided, mocked, reviled). Just like David in Psalm 9 and 22, He is being attacked by humans. And notice what the humans are calling into question: whether or not God is really for Him. "Let God deliver him now, if he desires him." In other words, God must not really desire or care for Jesus because God is letting Him die. God must have forsaken Him. That's what these attackers think.
And that's where, on cue almost, Psalm 22: 1 finds its expression on the lips of Jesus:
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:45–46, ESV)
I don't think we are understanding Jesus if we think His point in quoting Psalm 22:1 is to affirm what His human attackers are already thinking. His point, I believe, is to prophetically declare that they haven't fully grasped what's going on. He quotes only the first line (though not the only reason, probably due to His physical condition limiting His ability to speak more) of Psalm 22 to say that the entire psalm—not just verse 1—is unfolding before their eyes: "Yes, my Father has allowed you to have your way with me to an extent just like He allowed David's opponents to have their way with him to an extent, but He has not forsaken me. He smiles on me in love, is for me, and will ultimately vindicate me just like He was toward David and did for David."
And if He had read Psalm 22 in its entirety from the cross, this interpretation of what was going on there would have come through loud and clear:
For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him. (Psalm 22:24, ESV)
All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you.
For kingship belongs to the LORD,
and he rules over the nations.
All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
even the one who could not keep himself alive.
Posterity shall serve him;
it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,
that he has done it. (Psalm 22:27–31, ESV)
Three lines in particular stand out to me:
- "He has not hidden his face from him" — not for one moment did the Father turn or hide His face from Jesus throughout the entire experience of the cross. But He was smiling upon His Son in pleasure as He received the Son's obedience to the point of death offered to Him in love. How could it be possible for God to smell Jesus' offering as a pleasing aroma (Ephesians 5:2) if His face is turned away from Him in that very offering of His life?
- "[He] has heard, when he cried to him" — If Jesus had become the embodiment of sin that the Father had to completely separate Himself from as He died on the cross, then Jesus would have been among those whom God doesn't listen to (Proverbs 15:29, Psalm 66:18, John 9:31). But Psalm 22 tells us that this is not the case. God listened to Jesus. And not only does Psalm 22 tell us this, but Hebrews 5:7 tells us the same. Jesus pleaded with God in prayer during His sufferings leading up to and on the cross. And Hebrews 5:7, like Psalm 22:24, tells us that He was heard, specifically in Hebrews 5:7 because of His reverence. Jesus was most likely praying for God to strengthen Him and keep Him from yielding to the temptation to abandon the cross, which would have been disobedience and thus spiritual death. And God heard Him, giving Him the strength to sustain Him to be perfectly obedient unto death. If God had turned away from Jesus, He wouldn't have answered His prayer to save Him from temptation.
- "Even the one who could not keep himself alive" — Contrary to what those people thought who stated that he couldn't save Himself, Jesus was worshipping His Father in the act of giving Himself over to death rather than trying to save Himself and He would worship His Father along with His brothers in being resurrected together with them.
John 16
In addition to what we see in Psalm 22 itself and Matthew 27 as a fulfillment of that psalm, Jesus Himself tells us that even though every human would forsake Him on His path to the cross and while on the cross, His Father wouldn't forsake Him but instead would be with Him:
Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:32–33, ESV)
And don't miss the logic here. Jesus is telling His disciples that even as He is forsaken by every human so that the Father is the only one who is with Him, it is this reality that becomes the basis for their own peace in a world full of trouble and humans who will fail them at their hour of greatest need.
Psalm 23
In the very next psalm after David pens the famous words, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1), we have these words that are just as famous recorded by his pen:
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me; (Psalm 23:4, ESV, emphasis added)
At his darkest hour, David boldly confesses his confidence that he has nothing to fear, precisely because God is with him. So in the darkest valley of the shadow of death that Jesus experienced on the cross, His Father was with Him, and I think it's highly likely that it was precisely this verse that Jesus had in mind when He states in John 16:32 that He is not alone because the Father is with Him when His hour finally comes.
In other words, as was true of David (given over to trouble at the hands of humans but always loved and smiled upon by God), so it was true of Jesus. And because it is true of Jesus, so it is true of us who are in Him. God will allow us to experience trouble at the hands of humans—even from those closest to us we would never expect it to come from, e.g. Psalm 27:10—but, in and through that trouble, He is always for us and smiles upon us in love. And this is the source of our peace—the only peace that surpasses all understanding and will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. (Acts 2:23–24, ESV)
for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. (Acts 4:27–28, ESV)
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32, ESV)
Yes, the Father predestined that He would not spare Jesus but instead would deliver and give Him up to His human enemies for the sake of the life that His spilled blood would impart to humanity dead in its sins and trespasses. In this sense, He forsook the Son at the cross. But He did not totally forsake or turn His face away from the Son in anger at the cross. Instead, He was with Jesus, for Jesus, smiling down on Jesus in love and receiving Jesus' obedient death as a fragrant offering that brought Him pleasure as He anticipated that moment He would vindicate Jesus in the resurrection as the apple of His eye.
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