TEXT: Psalm 22

SUBJECT: Christ in the Old Testament #20: Forsaken!

Today, with God’s blessing, we’ll proceed in our study of Christ in the Old Testament. Before looking at the text, though, let me tell you a little story. I made up the story, of course, but it’s true one.

Mr. Jones is a radical atheist. His parents were members of the Communist Party and drilled unbelief into their son from the cradle. Now forty years old, he has never opened a Bible, offered a prayer, or stepped into a church. Often friends have tried to witness to him, but they’ve always been met with a barrage of laughter and scorn. He has lived in militant unbelief; he’ll die in it too. He’s perfectly described in Psalm 10:4,

Mr. Jones has forsaken God. Fully, finally, and forever. But has God forsaken Mr. Jones? No He hasn’t. Every day God’s sun warms the unbelieving face of Mr. Jones. Every night, he’s helped to sleep by the Lord’s darkness. Sometimes, God sends rain to keep his lawn green and thick. Up to now, the Lord has kept Mr. Jones’ body well and his mind sharp. He’s also given him a lovely wife and three nice children. Jones has never been out of work for long and looks forward to a comfortable retirement. All by the mercies of The Unknown God.

God has not forsaken Mr. Jones. In fact, He’s forsaken nobody in this world! Not Mr. Jones, not Herr Hitler, not Comrade Stalin, not even President Clinton! No one outside of hell has ever been deserted by God.

…Except for One Man.

He’s described for us in Psalm 22.

The Man feels deserted by God. He cries,

Maybe the word, "cries" is too weak. The Hebrew is "roar" or "howl". Think of a man screaming his lungs out—a man in desperate pain and with a terrifying sense of being Alone.

The scream is not from a sudden fear that quickly passes (like when my wife sees a mouse). No, He’s been yelling out to God for hours—or maybe more,

The Man is screaming for mercy, crying out for relief, but God’s not there for Him. He feels abandoned by God.

Is He?

We often feel that way when it’s not so. Job felt that way, while God was with him all the time. The same is true of David, of Jeremiah, and of others. Is that true of this Man. Is He forsaken by God? Or does He just feel that way?

He is forsaken. Other people have been in big trouble, too, but God bailed them out of it,

When Joseph cried to God, He saved him. When Shadrach, Meschach, and Abed-nego, called on Him, He heard them. Even bad people were often saved. Think of Hagar and Ishmael crying for water or Ahab, humbling himself and receiving mercy.

God, it seems, has helped everybody in the world. Everybody but this One Man.

He doesn’t just feel forsaken. He is forsaken. God has quit Him. No matter what He says or how fervently He says it, God is not coming to the rescue!

The Man must be pretty bad, huh? If God ignores Him while answering an Ahab, a Manasseh or an Ishmael, he must be a real devil! The man born blind said,

He meant, of course, extremely wicked and stubborn sinners. God won’t come to their rescue. He won’t help this Man. Therefore, He must be as bad as they come.

That’s what you’d think, at least.

You’d be in the majority. The people of His day felt the same way. When they saw His misfortune, they said, in effect, Serves Him right!

The words are sarcastic! Because God is not helping Him in His hour of need—they assume—it must be because He never trusted in the LORD or delighted in Him. He was a hypocrite!

Seeing Him abandoned by God, they pile on!

With ridicule, of course. But not just that. They physically abuse Him as well,

They’re like wild bulls, roaring lions, and a pack of feral dogs. They took Him for a very bad man, a chief of sinners, worthy of death by crucifixion.

But was He?

Dying men usually tell the truth. Especially if they’re talking to the God Who Knows.

He says He did trust God.

The Man’s character is spotless. Yet God has utterly forsaken Him.

How can that be?

Is there something wrong with the Man? No, there isn’t. He has trusted God His whole life. The LORD is His Strength. And though forsaken, He dares to call God "My God"! There’s nothing wrong with the Man.

Is there something wrong with God? That’s how most people think today. When they see bad things happening to good people (or babies), they assume that their either is no God or, if there is, that He’s either not almighty or not all loving.

Yet the Psalm affirms all of the above. Of course there’s a God. He’s invoked repeatedly. And He is both perfectly good ("But You are holy who inhabits the praise of Israel"), and perfectly able to save the innocent (as He did for the fathers long ago). There is nothing wrong with God.

Well, if the Man is Innocent and God is Just how can He possibly allow all these terrible things to befall Him? And, even more—how can He forsake Him when things are at their worst?

He had never done that before. When the Hebrews were put into a fiery furnace, "One like the Son of God" walked with them in it. Nor would He do it later. When Stephen was being stoned to death, He saw the very same God rising to meet him.

But God’s not coming through for this Man.

Here’s why: Because this Man, though perfectly innocent Himself, is taking the place of someone else. Being forsaken by God is the penalty of sin. Those who go to hell must hear these terrifying words,

They will be banished from God forever. Excluded!

This Man is suffering that fate. Not because He deserves it. But because we do.

The Man is Jesus Christ. Psalm 22 describes His fearful loneliness on the cross…in the place of sinners.

It is we who deserve to be forsaken, excluded, banished, and to never see God’s Face. But it is not we who suffer that fate. It is Christ. It is

The sufferings of our Lord were real, intense, and prolonged. But they didn’t go on forever. He cried His eyes out on Mount Calvary, but with no relief.

The relief came later, "Three days and three nights" later. On the first Sunday morning after the crucifixion, God answered His prayer.

By raising Him from the dead.

Jesus Christ gives thanks to God in two ways:

By praising Him Himself,

By saving a People who would join Him in praise,

The prophecy is staggering. God’s work is so great that the whole world—alive, dead, and unborn—joins the Lord Jesus Christ is praising His Father.

I invite you to join the happy chorus. You ought to praise God for what He’s done! The Israelites praised Him when He saved them from Egypt. Yet He has given—or offers—you a salvation far greater than theirs.

Can’t you find it in your heart to praise Him? To praise Him with your words? To praise Him with your thoughts (cf. Luke 1:46). To praise Him with your life?

Most lives are dull and prosaic. Better lives are poetic and romantic. But the best lives are like a hymn of praise.

Make your life sing.

And the love of God be with you. Amen.