Why have you forsaken me?

My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me? Why do you remain so distant? Why do you ignore my cries for help? Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night you hear my voice, but I find no relief. Psalm 22:1-2 NLT

Have you ever been ignored by someone? I always hate it when someone I know won't speak to me. Even if they are not trying to ignore me, it always makes me feel unimportant.

How can you and I know if God is listening to us? How do we prove that God is not ignoring us?

For the psalmist, there has been a constant pain or period of suffering in which pleas to God to stop the pain have gone unheeded. Although the psalmist has not stopped praying, it seems as though God has stopped responding.

Many of us Christians are familiar with the very first two sentences. We recognize them as Jesus' own prayer from the cross. Many scholars and theologians have tried to explain why Jesus felt that God had abandoned him. The way I see it, Jesus was praying a psalm that fit his own situation. As we shall see in the next few days, many of the words of Psalm 22 became living, breathing reality for Jesus during his execution. It is not so much that Jesus was abandoned by God but that he found solace in this psalm, enough for him to pray it out loud from the cross.

God, help us to learn these psalms so that, in different times of our lives, we can pray these psalms and find comfort in them. We know you hear our prayers and you will never abandon us. Thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Copyright 2011 Amelia G. Sims