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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. (Psalm 22:1-2)

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

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Many of us hear and immediately recognize the opening words of this Psalm as the words of Jesus from the cross.\xa0 But before they were Jesus\u2019 words, they were Israel\u2019s.\xa0 Psalm 22 was a prayer regularly read or sung in worship that had been sincerely prayed by many who felt abandoned and afflicted by God.\xa0

In his death on the cross then, Jesus is not only shouting out his own experience of forsakenness, but is also identifying himself with the forsaken: with all those who have prayed this prayer to God\u2014from the time of its writing right up to the present day.\xa0 For, as the book of Hebrews tells us, \u201cwe do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses\u2026\u201d\xa0

Many of our lives will include moments when we feel forsaken by our God.\xa0 When a loved one dies, for instance, or when a painful situation rips through our family.\xa0 And of course there are many others in our world on the margins who may feel that forsakenness far more often.

The existence of this prayer of forsakenness and the identification of Jesus with it tells us that it is a perfectly faithful expression of faith to ask God why he\u2019s absent and why he has abandoned us in those times when it feels like he has.\xa0 We don\u2019t have to keep a stiff upper lip or grin and bear it.\xa0 We can be honest and raw with God.\xa0 He\u2019s big enough to handle our hurt.

We know that to be true because of watching Jesus\u2019 own suffering.\xa0 The Father did not ultimately abandon Jesus to the grave.\xa0 But rather vindicated him, raised him from the grave to new life: a new life that we will share in also.

Psalm 22 takes a similar turn.\xa0 Mid-way through, a declaration of praise rings through the despair.\xa0 Why?\xa0 Because God does not and has not ultimately scorned the suffering of the afflicted one.\xa0 God has not ultimately hidden his face, but instead has turned, listened, and delivered.\xa0

Jesus himself is the promise that the prayer of forsakenness never goes unheard.\xa0 He comes to us to minister to us still today, finding us wherever we may be and saying: \u201cI hear you, I understand, and I am here.\u201d

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