Psalm 22:1

Psalm 22
A few verses each time from Psalm 22 - Meditation by Spurgeon from Treasury of David - my comments in parenthesis - Spring 1999 - emphasis mine.

"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." ...It is the photograph of our Lord's saddest hours, the record of his dying words, the lachrymatory of his last tears, the memorial of his expiring joys. David and his afflictions
may be here in a very modified sense, but, as the star is concealed by the light of the sun, he who sees Jesus will probably neither see nor care to see David. Before us we have a description both of the darkness and of the glory of the cross, the sufferings of Christ and
the glory which shall follow...We should read reverently, putting off our shoes from off our feet, as Moses did at the burning bush, for if there be holy ground anywhere in Scripture it is in this psalm."

(Jesus understands my LONELINESS and my SUFFERINGS! May I stop and meditate today on intense torments and the price He paid so that I might gain eternal salvation...)

1. My God, my God, "Let us gaze with holy wonder, and mark the flashes of light amid the awful darkness of that midday-midnight. First, our Lord's faith beams forth and deserves our reverent imitation; he keeps his hold upon his God with both hands and cries twice, "My God, my God!"...Oh that we could imitate this cleaving to an afflicting God!"

Why Hast thou forsaken me? - "Why?" what is the great cause of such a strange fact as for God to leave this own Son at such a time and in such a plight? There was no cause in him, why then was he deserted? "Hast:" it is done, and the Saviour is feeling its dread effect as he asks the question; it is surely true, but how mysterious! "Thou:" I can understand why traitorous Judas and timid Peter should be gone, but thou, my God, my faithful friend, how canst thou leave me? This is worst of all, yea, worse than all put together. Hell itself has for its fiercest flame the separation of the soul from God. "Forsaken:" if thou hadst chastened I might bear it, for thy face would shine; but to forsake me utterly, ah! why is this? "Me:" thine innocent, obedient, suffering Son, why leavest thou me to perish? A sight of self seen by penitence, and of Jesus on the cross seen by faith will best expound this question. Jesus is
forsaken because our sins had separated between us and our God..

Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? "The Man of Sorrows had prayed until his speech failed him, and he could only utter moanings and groanings as men do in severe sicknesses, like the roarings of a wounded animal. To what extremity of grief was our Master driven? What strong crying and tears were those which made him too hoarse for speech! What must have been his anguish to find his own beloved and trusted Father standing afar off, and neither granting help nor apparently hearing prayer! Yet there was reason for all this which those who rest in Jesus as their Substitute well know."

(Yes, Lord Jesus, You know exactly how I feel because You've experienced it, too, and even MORE...DESERTION. Why do I cry and pray and yet at times there are no real answers for this environmental illness? Why do I cry and pray and yet I just get worse and worse? Why are You not answering my prayers? Why have You allowed me to become so chemically sensitive in the last 9 months? Lord, sometimes I do feel that You have FORSAKEN me. But somehow this morning You've given me a peace knowing that You have sovereignly allowed all of this.You have not forsaken me forever just as You have not forsaken forever Your dear Son. There is a REASON for my suffering.Someday I'll understand. Amen.)