When We Feel Abandoned By God

‘When we feel abandoned

by God’

Psalm 22

1. The Passion of the Cross (22:1-21)

2. The Promise of hope when we feel abandoned (22-22-31)

Abandoned

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so

far from my cries of anguish? - Psalm 22:1

The Passion of the Cross

Fulfilled in Matt 27:46

But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without

blemish and free from accusation

Col 1:22

The Passion of the Cross

Despised

But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by

the people – Psalm 22:6

The Passion of the Cross

Heb ‘tola’ = ‘Crimson worm’

Physical suffering

• attacked by enemies 22:12–13, 16

• life poured out like water 22:14a

• bones out of joint 22:14, 17

• heart melted like wax 22:14

• strength totally dried up 22:15

• hands and feet pierced 22:16

• clothes divided up/gambled for 22:18

The Passion of the Cross

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Luke 23:34

The Passion of the Cross

“It is finished"

John 19:30

God is sovereign and we can trust Him

Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises. In you our

ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and

were not put to shame – Psalm 22:3-5

The Promise of hope when we feel abandoned

Our testimony can encourage others

I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you

Psalm 22:22

The Promise of hope when we feel abandoned

God has exalted Jesus and will exalt us

… all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the LORD

and He rules over the nations

Psalm 22:27b-28

The Promise of hope when we feel abandoned

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient

to death—even death on a cross!

The Promise of hope when we feel abandoned

Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every

knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue

acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The Promise of hope when we feel abandoned

“Every time we look at the cross, Christ seems to say to us, ‘I am here because of you. It is

your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering, your debt I am paying, your death I

am dying.’ Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross.

“All of us have inflated views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousness, until we have

visited a place called Calvary. It is there, at the foot of the cross,

that we shrink to our true size”

John R. W. Stott