Transcript
Matthew 27. 45-46, 50 Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
Let us pray: “Heavenly Father, thank you for opening the eyes of our understanding your word this morning, that we may know you better and love you more. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.”
After all the scourging, the mocking, the crown of thorns, the agony of crucifixion, we hear what seems to be this cry of despair and abandonment in Matthew 27. This cry elicits our deepest emotional response: “Where are you, God, in my suffering? Why have you abandoned me?”
The first century Judean would have understood this cry in a very different way. First of all, he would have known the scriptures in a way we would find unimaginable.
The Scriptures were known almost by heart by everyone. From quite early in the Second Temple period, one could hardly find a little boy in the street who didn't know the Scriptures. According to Jerome (342-420 A.D.) who lived in Bethlehem and learned Hebrew from local Jewish residents in order to translate the Scriptures into Latin [producing the Vulgate Bible]: "There doesn't exist any Jewish child who doesn't know by heart the history from Adam to Zerubbabel.”
What would the first century Judean have understood when hearing, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Would they have immediately known Jesus was referring to the first verse of Psalm 22? Would they have known the Psalm by heart and would have sung it or heard it sung all his life? They would have recognized Psalm 22 as a Psalm of Lament.
The Psalms were the official song book of Israel. One third of the psalms are psalms of lament.
In fact, laments were set to music as an entire congregation sang their sorrows. You might think lament is the opposite of praise. It isn’t. Lament is a path to praise as we are led through our sorrow and grief.
Throughout the Scriptures, lament gives voice to the strong emotions we feel because of suffering. Lament typically asks at least two questions:
- Where are You, God?
- If you love me, why is this happening?
Psalms of lament provides a path to deal with suffering and pain.
In a Psalm of lament, the heart is turned to God in prayer.
To learn how to lament, we must resolve to talk to God—to keep praying. The psalmist brings laments and petitions to the Lord precisely out of trust that God is faithful to His word.
In a Psalm of lament, a complaint clearly and bluntly lays out the reasons behind the sorrow.
Lament gives us permission, even encouragement, to lay out our struggles, even if they are with God himself. At some point, every believer has to struggle with God’s seeming remoteness, especially at a point of pain or suffering. The lament psalms teach us that these feelings should not be dismissed as invalid or sinful. They are part of the journey, an aspect of genuine faith.
In a Psalm of lament, there is a request for God to act – to do something.
Honestly praying this way recognizes that pain and suffering are difficult emotions that are not based on truth, but feeltrue, nonetheless. In all we feel and all the questions we have, there comes a point where we must call to mind what we know to be true. Who God is, and His character, eclipse the laments. The psalmist asks God to act in accordance with His character.
In a Psalm of lament, nearly every lament ends with renewed trust and praise.
It is an affirmation of the character of God. It makes lament full of grace as we turn from honest questions to confident trust.
In addition to all the other prophecies about himself, Jesus knew and declared Psalm 22 while on the cross. Psalm 22 is written 1000 years before Jesus came on the scene. As we go through it, you will see that it was a Psalm written for our Savior's own personal use on the cross.
Charles Spurgeon has written: “This is beyond all others THE PSALM OF THE CROSS. It may have been actually repeated word by word by our Lord when hanging on the tree; it would be too bold to say that it was so, but even a casual reader may see that it might have been. It begins with, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ and ends, according to some, in the original with ‘It is finished.’ For plaintive expressions uprising from unutterable depths of woe we may say of this psalm, ‘there is none like it.’ It is the photograph of our Lord's saddest hours, the record of his dying words, his last tears, and the memorial of his expiring joys.”
The footprint of Psalm 22 appears everywhere at Jesus’ crucifixion. Psalm 22 begins with a lament. Psalm 22. 1 – 2 reads,
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.
Psalm 22 then continues with an expression of trust. Psalm 22. 3 – 5 reads,
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises. In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. This shows trust on the basis of what God has done in the past.
Psalm 22 then reverts back to a lament. Psalm 22. 6 – 8 reads,
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, saying “He trusts in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.”
What the Psalm describes plays out in the Gospel of Mark. In Mark 15. 29 – 32, Those who passed by blasphemed him, shaking their heads and saying, “Ah, you who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” Likewise, the chief priests mocked Him among themselves with the scribes and said, “He saved others, but He cannot save Himself! Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.”
Psalm 22. 16 – 18 pick up another lament:
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.
John 19. 23 – 24 reads: When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be." This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, "They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots."
The Psalm now changes in tone entirely. It moves from lament to an expression of trust and confidence in God. The Psalm foresees the Messiah with a great congregation joining in praise to God.
Psalm 22:22-23 reads, 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!
Revelation 7:9-12 reads, After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”
Psalm 22. 24 then reads, 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. For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from Him; But when He cried to Him, He heard.
2 Corinthians 5. 21 says that God “made him to be sin who knew no sin.” Some have taught that as a result God had to separate Himself from him. But the figure of speech, metonymy, is being used where a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with it. An
Example is referring to a businessman as “a suit.”
Ephesians 5. 2 says the same thing without the figure of speech: Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Psalm 22:25-26 reads, 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!
Psalm 22:27-31 reads, 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! “It is finished.”
Romans 8. 17 reads, And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
We, too, are called to suffer as we follow Jesus. We may ask, My God, why has this happened to me? My God, why has my best friend’s daughter died at age 21? My God, why did the hurricanes have to hit the same people twice?
Let us learn to lament in the pattern taught by scripture in order to suffer well.
