My God. My God

 ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Psalm 22:1, Matthew 27:46 & Mark 15:34

The LORD God did not forsake you. He did not leave you without intending to return. He did not abandon or desert you, leaving you when you especially needed him, did he? He did not.

He did not turn his face away from you because you were marred by our sin, did he? Our sin does not cause our God to turn his face away from us. He does not abandon, desert or forsake us because of our sin. He does not.

You were crying out to him in anguish, and it seemed like he wasn’t answering. You cried out to him in the night; you couldn’t rest. You reminded your God that your people, his people, trusted in him, and he delivered them. They cried out to him, and they were saved. You reminded him that he is trustworthy. He doesn’t abandon, desert, or forsake; he saves.

People were mocking you, insulting you, shaking their heads at you. They scorned and despised you. They mocked your relationship with your God, saying that as you trust in him and delight in him, he’ll rescue and deliver you, implying by their mockery that he won’t. They mocked and tried to make you believe that your God would not rescue and deliver you; they tried to persuade you that your God had forsaken you.

Yet you looked back on your life, and you saw the goodness of your God. He brought you safely into the world from your mother’s womb. As a child growing up, he was there with you; you trusted in him, and he was your God throughout your life.

Then you looked at your circumstances; you saw the trouble all around you with no one to help. Strong bulls were surrounding you, roaring lions with wide open mouths ready to tear into their prey, all your bones were out of joint, your heart turned to wax and melted, your mouth was dry, tongue stuck to the roof, you were being laid in the dust of death. Dogs surrounded you; a pack of villains encircled you; your hands and feet were pierced. All your bones were on display, people stared and gloated over you, and your clothes were divided up amongst your mockers.

But you turned your eyes away from your circumstances and back to the LORD your God, saying, “Do not be far from me.’ You declared and spoke out that the LORD your God is your strength that he comes quickly to help you that he delivers you from the sword, he rescues and saves you from the dogs, the lions and the bulls, from the gloaters, mockers and scorners. You encouraged others to turn their eyes towards the LORD their God, you declared his name to your people, and you praised him. You led your people to fear and praise him, to honour and to revere him.

Then you saw that the LORD your God had not despised or scorned your suffering, you, the afflicted one. He had not hidden his face from you, but he had listened and heard you cry for help.

Through you and because of your affliction, because you defeated the dogs, lions and bulls, the mockers, scorners and gloaters by trusting in your God and refusing to doubt him or to be persuaded that he had forsaken you, the poor will eat and be satisfied. Those who seek the LORD will praise him, and their hearts will live forever; all the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all families of nations will bow down to him because dominion belongs to the LORD, and he rules.

All the rich of the earth will feast and worship, all will kneel before him, all will realise that life comes only from him.

All future generations of people will be told about the LORD and serve him. They will proclaim his righteousness, telling all generations because;

‘It is finished’ and ‘you have done it’.

 Yes, and amen.

Amen.