Why have you forsaken me?

Psalm 22

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? 2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.

3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises. 4 In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. 5 To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. 7 All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads.

The prophetic words of this Psalm are what Jesus repeats on the cross as He died for our sins. Although written by David, this Psalm sets out in the passage the agonising experience of someone being crucified and being mocked.

Psalm 22:14

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. 15 My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.

16 Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. 17 All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. 18 They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.

Yet another demonstration of Jesus fulfilling scripture.

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day in Europe - when we remember the terrible events of WW2 where the Jews in particular were herded into Ghettos and then Concentration & Death Camps under the cruel dictatorship of the Nazis.

Many people have prayed this Psalm down through the ages, crying out to God: "Why have you forsaken me?" None more than the Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

Sometimes the best response to stark unimaginable suffering is to cry "Why" from our hearts. If the Son of God could cry such a prayer, why not us when we are crushed by trials?

Today stop a while to recall the sufferings of the Holocaust and stand with those who still mourn the slain.

Don't be like those to whom the prophet Jeremiah said:

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?

Look around and see.

Is any suffering like my suffering

that was inflicted on me,

that the Lord brought on me

in the day of his fierce anger?

Lamentations 1:12

Let me end with a picture of a quote from Pastor Martin Niemoller - who was imprisoned in Dachau Concentration Camp for speaking out against the Nazis - never be afraid to speak out against oppression of any kind - if we don't remember - it could happen again: