Psalm 22:6-18 Jesus Crys for Help.

Psalm 22 is a song about Jesus suffering on the cross. It was written hundreds of years before Jesus was born. The Jews of Jesus time knew these verses as they did all Scripture. Perhaps this psalm convinced many thousands of people to realize Jesus is the Son of God.

I've written about the first three verses in the previous post. I've decided I cannot do justice to these words. I will just put them here for you to read.

But I am a worm and not a man,

scorned by everyone, despised by the people.

All who see me mock me;

they hurl insults, shaking their heads.

“He trusts in the Lord,” they say,

“let the Lord rescue him.

Let him deliver him,

since he delights in him.”

Yet you brought me out of the womb;

you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.

From birth I was cast on you;

from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

Do not be far from me,

for trouble is near

and there is no one to help.

Many bulls surround me;

strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

Roaring lions that tear their prey

open their mouths wide against me.

I am poured out like water,

and all my bones are out of joint.

My heart has turned to wax;

it has melted within me.

My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,

and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;

you lay me in the dust of death.

Dogs surround me,

a pack of villains encircles me;

they pierce my hands and my feet.

All my bones are on display;

people stare and gloat over me.

They divide my clothes among them

and cast lots for my garment.

But you, Lord, do not be far from me.

You are my strength; come quickly to help me.

Deliver me from the sword,

my precious life from the power of the dogs.

Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;

save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

I will declare your name to my people;

in the assembly I will praise you.

You who fear the Lord, praise him!

All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!

Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!

For he has not despised or scorned

the suffering of the afflicted one;

he has not hidden his face from him

but has listened to his cry for help.

From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;

before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.

The poor will eat and be satisfied;

those who seek the Lord will praise him—

may your hearts live forever!

All the ends of the earth

will remember and turn to the Lord,

and all the families of the nations

will bow down before him,

for dominion belongs to the Lord

and he rules over the nations.

All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;

all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—

those who cannot keep themselves alive.

Posterity will serve him;

future generations will be told about the Lord.

They will proclaim his righteousness,

declaring to a people yet unborn:

He has done it!

Psalm 22 - The Psalm about Jesus Suffering.

Psalm 22 - Verse One.

 "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?"

Pulpit Commentary
Verse 1. - My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Not a cry of despair, but a cry of loving faith, "My God, my God - Why hast thou for a time withdrawn thyself?" It is remarkable that our Lord's quotation of this passage does not follow exactly either the Hebrew or the Chaldee paraphrase - the Hebrew having 'azab-thani for sabacthani, and the Chaldee paraphrase metul ma for lama. May we not conclude that it is the thought, and not its verbal expression by the sacred writers, that is inspired? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? It is very doubtful whether our translators have done right in supplying the words which they have added. The natural translation of the Hebrew would be, Far from my salvation are the words of my roaring.And this rendering yields a sufficiently good sense, viz. "Far from effecting my salvation (or deliverance) are the words of my roaring;" i.e.of my loud complaint. Our Lord's "strong crying and tears" in the garden (Hebrews 5:7) did not produce his deliverance. 

 "My God, my God!" The spirit of adoption was strong within the suffering Son of Man, and he felt no doubt about his interest in his God. Oh that we could imitate this cleaving to an afflicting God! Nor does the sufferer distrust the power of God to sustain him, for the title used - "El" - signifies strength, and is the name of the Mighty God. He knows the Lord to be the all-sufficient support and succour of his spirit, and therefore appeals to him in the agony of grief, but not in the misery of doubt. He would fain know why he is left, he raises that question and repeats it, but neither the power nor the faithfulness of God does he mistrust. 

What an enquiry is this before us! "Why hast thou forsaken me?" We must lay the emphasis on every word of this saddest of all utterances. "Why?" what is the great cause of such a strange fact as for God to leave his own Son at such a time and in such a plight? There was no cause in him, why then was he deserted? "Hast:" it is done, and the Saviour is feeling its dread effect as he asks the question; it is surely true, but how mysterious! It was no threatening of forsaking which made the great Surety cry aloud, he endured that forsaking in very deed.  Hell itself has for its fiercest flame the separation of the soul from God. "Forsaken:" if thou hadst chastened I might bear it, for they face would shine; but to forsake me utterly, ah! why is this? "Me:" thine innocent, obedient, suffering Son, why leave me to perish? A sight of self seen by penitence, and of Jesus on the cross seen by faith will best expound this question. Jesus is forsaken because our sins had separated between us and our God.

"Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?" The Man of Sorrows had prayed until his speech failed him, and he could only utter moanings and groanings as men do in severe sicknesses, like the roarings of a wounded animal. To what extremity of grief was our Master driven! What strong crying and tears were those which made him too hoarse for speech! What must have been his anguish to find his own beloved and trusted Father standing afar off, and neither granting help nor apparently hearing prayer. This was good cause to make him "roar." Yet there was a reason for all this which those who rest in Jesus as their Substitute well know.


Jesus took our eternal death upon himself. "Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

Jesus felt as we would feel if we were to go through the second death in which our soul will die.

The Power of Love.

I was watching T.D. Jakes on TV today and he gave a sermon about the cross. He said it would be better not to study the "what" of the cross, but the "why" of the cross.

"For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not die but have eternal life." John 3:16

God so loved...

God so loved you...

God so loved me...

Jesus didn't stay on the cross because he was nailed there. He stayed for love.

When he was being arrested he said, "Don't you realize I could ask my father for thousands of angels to protect us and He would send them instantly?" Matthew 26:53

Jakes said,  "Love is the ultimate power in the universe." It took the power of love for Jesus to stay on the cross. If we want power, then we must love others as God loves us. Love is real power and God will fill us with it if we ask Him.

We are Reconciled with God.

"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation...  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

"For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this; that one has died for all, therefore all have died. And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."

Jesus became sin itself on the cross. Someone equal to the law had to satisfy its claims. Jesus kept the law, there was no sin in him. Therefore he could fulfill the law for us who cannot keep the law. His goodness becomes ours when we accept his sacrifice.

I don't really understand how Jesus became sin or how he felt on the cross. I have read that he felt eternally lost as he hung there; that he felt what a lost person feels at the judgement and this is why he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He must have felt he would never see Heaven or his Father again.

I thank Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit for going through all this for me.