“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!”

“I quoted Psalm 22 and you didn’t believe Me?”

Do you believe Jesus knew the thoughts of those standing around the Cross of His crucifixion?  So often we read of Jesus knowing what thoughts were in the hearts of those listening to Him teach or speak.

Why would it be any different on the cross? His awareness might even be heightened. And so He cries out! 

Psalm 22:1-2 NASB77 “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” and the verse continues, “Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.” David the Psalmist recognizes he is speaking against his own possible deliverance by his groaning exclamation of God being unfaithful!  Jesus knows what those around Him are thinking and are very aware of this song of David, and how the rest of it goes.

Psalm 22:3 (NASB77)
”Yet Thou art holy, O Thou who art enthroned upon the praises of Israel.” David’s heart knows, no matter what his situation God is holy.

In verses Psalm 22: 4-5 David declares the trust his forefathers had. In verse 22:6-8 we see David examining himself in light of men’s opinions. “I am a worm… despised…sneered at… mocked… just as Jesus was during the Passion and on the cross.

In Psalm 22: 9-18, we see the prophetic description of the crucifixion and how Christ might have seen His predicament matching, just as David prophetically penned.

In 22:19-31 we see the words of David become more positive and faith filled. Praise and deliverance is expressed and so we see important understanding that I believe Jesus was pointing to when He cried out the opening phrase of Psalms 22:1

Psalm 22:19 (NASB77)
”But Thou, O LORD, be not far off; O Thou my help, hasten to my assistance.”

Psalm 22:24 (NASB77)
”For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Neither has He hidden His face from him; But when he cried to Him for help, He heard.”

In Jesus life, at this time, He is the afflicted and is pointing to it! He is afflicted with OUR sin, as well as horrendous bruises we perpetrated. “Neither has He hidden His face from him; But when he cried to Him for help, He heard.” Psalms 22:24 NASB.

Are you seeing what I see? Jesus was NOT forsaken by the Father! His quoting this scripture is meant to clarify His situation as prophetic and what is in His heart toward Father God!

The Father did not look away because of sin!!! (Man’s traditional assumption)

Father God does not look away because of our sin!!! Instead God looks for what is in our hearts when we sin. Is there praise, appeal, is there repentance? Do we have reverence for Him in light of and with a vision of His future kingdom?

Isn’t the good news about the kingdom? Do we not read that Jesus came to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom? See Matthew 4:23, 9:35, and especially Matthew 24:14 (NASB77) “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come.” Why? Because how it works, works for us! We must however, “work it” to qualify as citizens and Father God is waiting on us each to do just that!

Through David’s song, PS 22, which Jesus knew they knew, Jesus is declaring the divinity of the moment, NOT that He feels or thinks in any way that He has been forsaken.

“He who hears, let him hear.” What we have thought traditionally is being clarified by the Holy Spirit for our sake, to strengthen us, lest we doubt “feeling forsaken” at a more critical time.

Have you felt forsaken? I lost my beloved wife Janis 3 years ago this coming December 12th after thousands of interceding prayers had been prayed for her around the world. Neither she nor I was forsaken!

“I want her with Me,” was spoken to me 24 hours before her passing.  In our grief can we accept, The Lord gives, the Lord taketh away, and blessed be the name of the Lord or will our tragedy be a dagger in our hearts toward God and His very existence?

Janis arriving in my life was a divine event. Living with her was divine, really it was. Her departure must also precipitate a divine reverence in me toward Father God, along with the hope that I will accomplish His divine will for me in the earth while I remain. It is a will for me that Janis believed in and supported, a will I might have forsaken out of my love for her and the care she needed had she lived but was not healed. Why might that be? Because when the Lord said, “I want her with Me.” He also said, “I can’t trust you with her.”

“I can’t trust you with her.” WHAT Lord? No response. It was weeks later on a Saturday morning I awoke, now alone, thinking about such a troubling word. You can imagine why. He then said, “You have it all wrong. You cannot do what I have called you to do and care for her also. I cannot trust you with her … so I want her with Me.”

His calling in me, the task He has shown me, was more important to Him than all the good Janis represented in this life to me or to Him. Everybody loved Janis! Now you know why I am absolutely dedicated to this rescue mission. He has trusted me and  taught me for such a time as this and by His grace I will NOT let Him down.

Can we accept the fact that His people are to be swept up in the flow of the darkness and some in the Apostasy just as Joshua and Caleb were swept up for 40 years in the desert because the other spies came back with a bad report? Bet on it but be ready for it!

Oh loved ones, we are never forsaken! Let us never forsake; not just in the face of death but in the face of life and its challenges, a far more subtle threat.

The Apostasy has already begun. Falling away is not always sudden. Life itself holds a dagger for our hearts.

We have been given a means of escape. Do we know for sure what it is? The kingdom requires its use, its keys, in order to go beyond our initial reconciliation by the death of Jesus. In fact, Paul says, “…we are saved by His life!” Romans 5:10 and Romans 8:2, and John 3:36 all hold the clarity we must grasp. Read them…. please.

Strengthen your personal spiritual foundations, a house built on the Rock and all the characteristics of that Rock. “…we are saved by His life!” Romans 5:10 NASB

The next post, “Bad guy, bad day or the bad guy rapture!”

“If we remain in His grip, how far from His heart can we be!”

Michael

    Exit Strategy

   We initiate the return of Christ!  (The E-book)

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