Word of Salvation – April 2026
Why have you forsaken me?
Sermon by Rev John Haverland
Text: Psalm 22:1-21
Reading: Mark 15:33-39
Theme: Jesus used the lament of David to express his questions and sorrows to his Father in his suffering on the cross.
Purpose: To help us appreciate how much Jesus suffered for us so that we may praise him for this great salvation.
This Psalm records the sorrow and questions of David during a time of great suffering.
Jesus quoted the opening words of this psalm while hanging on the cross in agony and distress at Calvary (Mark 15:35). Many of the other phrases of this psalm anticipated his suffering and death.
But this psalm also looked ahead to his triumph and victory over sin, death and Satan, and his glorious resurrection!
Martin Luther taught theology at the University of Wittenberg. When he lectured on this Psalm he came to a new view of Christ and of God.
Spurgeon wrote, “This is beyond all others, the psalm of the cross.” And of the 150 Psalms this is the one most frequently quoted by the writers of the New Testament.
It is a lament psalm: laments give voice and language to suffering; they cry out to God for deliverance and help.
It is a long Psalm – 31 verses – but we will be considering verses 1-21. These verses point forward to the suffering of Jesus on the cross.
But they also anticipate the triumph of the Lord Jesus and the praise and worship that rises to him by all his people through all the ages throughout the world!
This psalm is a striking contrast with the preceding Psalm 21, which describes the victories and triumphs of David and of Christ, whereas this one describes the anguish and pain of David and Jesus.
We will consider
1) How they cried to God;
2) That they were despised
3) That they were attacked, and
4) That they prayed for help
- They cried to God – v 1-5
a. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
These were the words of David who called out to God in a time of great distress. We don’t know what situation prompted this question and this psalm, but it is clear that he was in desperate need of the Lord’s help.
Jesus uttered these words when he was on the cross to express his pain and grief. He felt forsaken by God his Father.
Later we will sing of this;
“How great the pain of searing loss,
the Father turns his face away…” (SttL 279).
Jesus cried out to God because his Father had turned his face away from his Son. Yes, he experienced the terrible physical pain of a death by crucifixion, but he also experienced the punishment of hell, and this alienation from God, because he carried our sins on himself.
He became a curse for us (Gal 3:13). He literally went through hell for us, in our place, on our behalf.
He asked his Father, “Why are you so far from saving me?” (v 1b – ESV)
God the Father did not save him from this pain, or from death, because Jesus was bearing our sins and so had to take the punishment we deserved to bear.
We sing of this in a hymn written by Philip Bliss:
“Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned he stood,
Sealed my pardon with his blood,
Hallelujah, what a Saviour!” (SttL 290 – Man of sorrows)
When Jesus suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane his sweat was like great drops of blood, and an angel came to comfort him, but no angel came to him at the cross. He was indeed forsaken by God.
David expressed this in the lament of v 2, which Jesus would have felt also; “O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.”
Even in his great suffering Jesus held on to God his Father and called out to him. He appealed to God for help; he prayed to his Father, but there was no answer.
b. When David was in his great struggle and grief he reminded himself of God and who he was.
v 3. God was “holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel”. The people of Israel trusted in the Lord and he delivered them; they cried to him and they were rescued (v 4-5).
You and I need to do the same when we are suffering and sick, when we are despondent and down, when we are worried and weary.
Our heavenly Father has promised that he will never leave us nor forsake us. He assures us that he is always close by and near to us. So we ought “always to pray and not give up” (Lk 18:1).
Our Father in heaven will not forsake us because Jesus took our sins on himself and suffered in our place; he bore the suffering and death we deserved to bear.
David and Jesus cried to God, but at that time there was no answer. They cried to God.
- They were despised – v 6-11
a. In v 6-8 David again described his situation of suffering and gave an honest expression of how he felt.
v 6: “I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people”.
This also described Jesus when he was going through his trial before the Sanhedrin and before the Roman Governor Pilate.
And this fulfilled the words of Isaiah the prophet;
“He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Is 53:3).
Jesus was the eternal Son of God, the great I AM.
He became a man and he suffered; he was rejected by the Jews and despised by the Gentiles.
Jews and Gentiles walked by the cross and they mocked and scorned him:
“He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him.” (v 8)
(Luke 23:35; Mark 15:31f; Matt 27:43)
Jesus did trust in his Father, and his Father delighted in him, but God his Father did not rescue him from suffering or death.
b. David continued his prayer to God in v 9-11, recalling that God watched over him in the womb, and that he had trusted in God from a very young age, as many of you have done. From birth the Lord had been his God.
And now, in his time of great need, he called out to God, “for trouble is near and there is none to help” (v 11).
This was true of Jesus; his disciples had run away from him and there was, literally, no one to help.
Many of us here today have known God from our youth; we have grown up in Christian homes and our parents have taught us from the Bible.
But this does not protect us from trial and temptation, or from sorrow and suffering.
When you are afflicted and anxious you need to cry out to God, to ask for his help and guidance, and seek shelter under his wings.
Remember that Jesus was forsaken by God so that you will never be forsaken by him.
In times of trial we need a genuine sense of the presence of God with us and around us.
David and Jesus cried out to God in their trouble; They were despised, and
- They were attacked, v12-18
David compared his situation to being surrounded by many bulls (v 12). These were “strong bulls of Bashan”. Bashan was well known for its good pasture, which produced large and vigorous bulls!
No one wants to be in a paddock with an angry bull, let alone with many bulls!
But during that trial by night the Jewish leaders gathered around Jesus like many bulls, and the Roman soldiers did the same in the early morning.
And through all this Jesus was alone and unarmed.
It was as though he was threatened by a ravenous and roaring lion! (v13b).
As a result of all of this he was utterly spent, poured out like water and all his bones were out of joint (v 14).
This may well have been literally true after the rough treatment he had received from the Roman soldiers and the trauma of the crucifixion.
His heart was like melted wax (v 14).
His strength was dried up like a broken piece of pottery, and he was so dry that he felt as though his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth. (v 15)
He was surrounded by “a company of evildoers” who had pierced his hands and feet (v 16).
Yes, they had literally nailed him to a wooden cross and hung him up to die!
His body was so beaten and wasted that people could see his bones (v 17).
The people who passed by stared at him and gloated over him; they mocked and scorned him.
We read in the gospels that the Jewish leaders scoffed at him saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God!” (Luke 23:35)
The soldiers also mocked him, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” (v 37).
While all this was going on the soldiers around the cross cast lots to see who would get his clothing (v 18; John 19:23f).
- In their suffering David and Jesus cried to God,
they were despised, they were attacked,
and they prayed for help.
Verses 19-21 are the climax of David’s lament and mark the turning point of this psalm.
v 19: “But you, O Lord, do not be far off!
O you my help, come quickly to my aid!”
David had been through great trials and much suffering and he called out to God in prayer and in faith, to God his help. The word help can be translated as ‘strength’ (NIV). It is a rare Hebrew word. He wanted no one but his God.
Many of us have been through sickness and suffering, pain and sorrow, sadness and deep distress.
In times like this we want the comfort of a parent, our husband, wife, or a close friend.
But sometimes no human help is available.
Yet God your Father is always present, always near you, and he hears every word of your prayers, spoken or unspoken.
And Jesus our Saviour is also present with you through his Spirit.
God has promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you”.
“So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (Heb 13:5)
David continues: (v 20-21a) “Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog!
Save me from the mouth of the lion!”
He felt close to death, so he prayed that God would rescue “my precious life”, or “my only one”; (“my only life” NASB). This was all he had left.
So this section closes with v 21b; “You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen.”
The word ‘rescued’ is the final word in the Hebrew sentence, put last for emphasis. It is the Hebrew word for ‘answer’ or ‘hear’. The Lord heard David’s prayer and he answered him, he rescued him.
In v 15b we read David’s words; “you lay me in the dust of death.” That was how David felt; but the Lord rescued him from his enemies and he had a long reign over Israel for 40 years.
But Jesus was laid in the “dust of death”.
At the ninth hour in Jewish reckoning, at 3 in the afternoon, ‘Jesus said, “It is finished”, and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit’. (John 19:30)
Before sunset his dead body was laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.
Jesus died on the cross to pay the full price of your sins and mine, to bear the ultimate penalty for us.
The Apostle Peter wrote to the Christians in the 1st century (1 Peter 3:18);
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.”
He was separated from his Father to bring you home to God.
He died so that you might live.
He was put to death on the cross and buried in a tomb.
But God his Father raised him from the dead to prove his victory over sin, death and Satan!
Death was not the end. Jesus lives forever and is ruling and reigning from his position at the right hand of his Father!
The fitting response to this is to praise God, and this is how this psalm ends. (Verses 25-28)
“From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him. The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord! May your hearts live forever! All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.”
Amen