A word fitly spoken is like APPLES OF GOLD in a setting of silver – Proverbs 25v11
Psalm 22 begins with “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?” Many of us have either audibly or silently uttered similar words when we have experienced a crisis in our lives, but this is because we allow our feelings to obscure the fact that God is always aware of our situation. 1 Peter 3v12: “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer.” (The righteous are those who have participated in what is known as “the great exchange”- giving our sins to Jesus Christ and receiving His righteousness in return). God never forsakes His people and is always near us as Moses said many thousands of years ago – as recorded in Deuteronomy 31v6 and repeated in Hebrews 13v5: “the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” God could remove our anguish with ease, but He knows we will only grow spiritually through our suffering. So, instead He suffers with us – Hebrews 4v15 tells us that we have a high priest (the Lord Jesus Christ) who is able to feel sympathy for our weaknesses.
But for a period of three hours in history, God did abandon and forsake somebody and that was Jesus Christ – during that terrible time on the cross as recorded by Saint Peter in his epistle 1 Peter 2v24: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” Whilst on the cross whilst God turned His face away whilst Jesus fulfilled Psalm 22’s prophecy when He cried out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27v46.)
Friends, if you know Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord, take time to thank God once again for His great love for you. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5v8)
Amen
Graeme Greenwood