Psalm 22: Finding God in Our Darkest Moments
Written by David centuries before the crucifixion, Psalm 22 prophetically captures Jesus’ suffering on the cross while speaking to David and our own suffering and feeling abandoned.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
These haunting words open Psalm 22, and Jesus echoed them in His final moments on the cross.
Sometimes, God is closest to us when we feel most abandoned. Jesus’ suffering on the cross—God’s Son experiencing the ultimate separation from the Father—secured our eternal reconciliation with God. In those hours of physical and spiritual darkness, Jesus bore the Father’s righteous judgment for our sins, ensuring that we would never experience God’s forsakenness.
In those hours of physical and spiritual darkness, Jesus bore the Father’s righteous judgment for our sins, ensuring that we would never experience God’s forsakenness.
This challenges our understanding of how God works. We seem to think that if God loves us, He will rescue us from all adversity and hardship. We may feel suffering is a sign of God’s absence or displeasure. But the cross turns this theology on its head. It was precisely because Jesus is the Son of God that the Father did not rescue Him from suffering. God’s love was demonstrated not by preventing pain but by fully entering it and defeating sin and death and suffering and separation for us.
It is precisely because Jesus is the Son of God that the Father did not rescue Him… God’s love was demonstrated not by preventing pain but by fully entering it and defeating sin and death and suffering and separation for us.
The psalm goes on to describe the physical and emotional anguish of crucifixion—bones out of joint, heart melting like wax, strength dried up. For David, these were poetic expressions of his distress. For Jesus, they became a literal reality.
When we’re suffering, it can be hard to see beyond our immediate circumstances. But just as God did not abandon Jesus to the grave, He will not abandon us in our trials. The resurrection assures us that God’s purposes will prevail, even when all seems lost.
Just as God did not abandon Jesus to the grave, He will not abandon us in our trials.
The psalm concludes with a breathtaking vision of global worship and the establishment of God’s kingdom: “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord.”
So, what does this mean for us as we deal with our own lament?
First, it gives us permission to be honest with God about our pain. The psalms show us that it’s okay to cry out, question, and express our raw emotions to God. He can handle our doubts and fears.
Second, it reminds us that feeling forsaken doesn’t mean we are forsaken. While our emotions are valid, they don’t always reflect reality. Even when we can’t sense God’s presence, He is with us, working for our good and His glory.
Third, we can trust that our suffering is not meaningless. Just as Jesus’ suffering on the cross achieved our salvation, we can trust God to use our trials to accomplish His purposes in ways we may not yet understand.
Perhaps you’re in a season of lament right now. Take heart—you’re not alone, and you’re not abandoned. In our darkest moments, when we feel most forsaken, may we remember the cross—where the darkest moment in history became the source of our greatest hope.