A sorrowful symphony in three movements:
1) Desertion or Crucifixion
2) Expectation or Resurrection
3) Application or Consummation
Psalm 22 is without debate a Psalm that directs our attention to the cross. While the Psalm is one of David, and indeed describes his affliction to an extent, it far more obviously points to David’s greater Son in his final and saddest hour. Some commentators have suggested that in His darkest hour, Jesus abandoned trust in God. The pastoral application of this is that as long if the Son of God could crack under enough pressure, it should not be too surprising if you too should crack from time to time, so do not be too hard on yourself when you lose trust in God; it happened to Jesus, so it will happen to you. But is this an appropriate application of the text? Did Jesus lose trust in God when he quoted Psalm 22:1?
The very fact that Jesus quoted Psalm 22 demonstrates this. In his deepest trial He not only quotes the Word of God, but a Psalm that is one of the deepest expressions of confidence in God, in all of Scripture. When Jesus said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” it did not suggest a lack of trust in God at all; in fact, after His prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, it became clear that His going to the cross would be His Father’s will, so it was an act of decisive trust. It’s an irony, but the man who cries out in despair, at the same time, trusts God implicitly!
