Why Did Jesus Choose Those Words? {A Psalm 22 Devotion}

“Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (Mark 15:34)

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

As Jesus neared death, gasping for air and enduring the excruciating pain of bearing weight on his nail pierced feet to raise himself up enough to speak, he shouted these words, the opening words of David’s Psalm, for all to hear.

The mocking crowds heard words of defeat, even desperation. The so-called Savior who couldn’t save himself. The grief-stricken disciples heard words of anguish echoing their own feelings of abandonment.

But what were they to Jesus?

Of all of the words Jesus could have spoken, why these?

For a time that felt like a thousand years, Jesus, as he took on the full wrath of God’s judgment of sin, knew complete separation from God. Maybe they were simply the cry of a shattered heart.

But maybe, to Jesus, these words were not just a one-line cry of pure desolation. Maybe they were a cry invoking the fulfillment of the promise of this Psalm. A fulfillment that David wrote about but did not experience. A fulfillment pointing to this time and this place. Maybe he chose these words for you and me. Not to weigh us down in sorrow, but to point us to hope.

On this Good Friday, walk through this Psalm. Let the weight of it be an anchor of promise in whatever storm you are experiencing today.

Psalm 22 (NIV)

¹ My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?
² My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.

 Maybe Jesus wants us to know that we are not alone in our suffering. David wrote these words in response to unwarranted attacks from enemies that God had not yet delivered him from. They are described as the cry of the righteous sufferer. We have all cried out like this, haven’t we? We all know times when we feel we have been unjustly treated or when life has been unfair. Jesus, as he hangs on the cross, in the fullness of his humanity, understands this more than we often give him credit for.

 ³ Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
    you are the one Israel praises.

⁴ In you our ancestors put their trust;
    they trusted and you delivered them.
⁵ To you they cried out and were saved;
    in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

 Despite the unfairness of his situation, David recalls God’s faithfulness. Maybe Jesus spoke those words to call all those who would hear to do the same. Remember God’s faithfulness in our past and trust in his goodness for our future.

⁶ But I am a worm and not a man,
    scorned by everyone despised by the people.
⁷ All who see me mock me;
    they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
⁸ “He trusts in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.”

¹⁶ Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me;
    they pierce my hands and my feet.
¹⁷ All my bones are on display;
    people stare and gloat over me.
¹⁸ They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.

Maybe Jesus chose those words to illuminate how the crowds, the criminals on either side of Jesus, and the Pharisees all participated in fulfilling this Davidic prophecy as they pierced his hands and feet with nails, spit on him, insulted him, and mocked him saying, “He saved others but he can’t save himself!” Maybe the onlookers realized, as the disciple John did in hindsight, that even the soldiers were instrumental in fulfilling the scriptures as they cast lots, rolled the dice, to divide Jesus’s clothing (Mt 27:41-43, Jn 19:23-24). Maybe he wanted us to see how these words are alive today. Jesus is still mocked, still insulted, and maybe he wants to illuminate how we participate in it.

¹⁹ But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
    You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
²⁰ Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs.
²¹ Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
    save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

Ponder these words as Jesus’s plea for God to deliver him. Crucifixion was death by torture. Those crucified would often linger for days, ultimately dying of exhaustion and asphyxiation when they could no longer lift themselves by their nailed feet to gasp for air. Jesus died in approximately 6 hours. It seems odd to consider this God’s mercy, but as we ponder these words of Psalm 22, we can see God responding to Jesus’s plea for God, his strength, to come quickly to help him. Within moments Jesus gave up his spirit – suggesting an act of will, being in complete charge of when and how he would breath his last breath. He was not forgotten. And neither are you.

²² I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you.
²³ You who fear the Lord, praise him!
    All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
    Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
²⁴ 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.

²⁵ From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.
²⁶ The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the Lord will praise him—
    may your hearts live forever!

²⁷ 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,
²⁸ for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations.

²⁹ 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.
³⁰ Posterity will serve him;
    future generations will be told about the Lord.
³¹ They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn:
    He has done it!

Maybe, as Jesus uttered “My God, My God…” his hearers were catapulted back to their scripture lessons. David trusted that God would deliver him from his troubles. He didn’t know how or when. But he claimed the victory in advance of it happening.

Jesus claims his victory in advance too. It would be a long three days before the disciples witnessed this victory, but maybe the hearing of these words stirred the tiniest niggle in the back of their subconscious that not all was lost.

Maybe Jesus chose those words to show us not to mire in the immediacy of our circumstances but to set our eyes on the promise of hope and a future. Declare the victory ahead of time.

Maybe.