About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Matt. 27:46)
‘He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now,’ the religious leaders jeered (v. 43). Full of irony, what they really mean is: ‘He can’t really trust in God. If he did, God wouldn’t have let him go to the cross!’ Jesus’ anguished cry: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ almost seems to justify their charges.
But the opposite is true. Jesus is quoting a psalm of David. Throughout Psalm 22 David simultaneously cries to God in the most abject despair, while demonstrating his trust in God. It’s not that the despair means that David is not trusting in God. It’s precisely in his despair that he trusts God all the more! Jesus understands the meaning of the text, and as David’s royal heir, He now uses the same words. He is the Davidic King who is trusting in His heavenly Father as he cries out in a despair even greater than David’s.
