Awaken The Dawn

AWAKEN THE DAWN!

My God...Why? At the conclusion of a strange darkness that had fallen over the land, Jesus cried, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” 7 This anguished cry (unlike the other two prayers) does not use the warm, familiar “Father,” but rather “God” in a startling, cold, hortatory manner. Has He been abandoned by God in this most awful hour? At first, this prayer seems like a shout of utter desolation. That is, the cry of Jesus, the Son of Man, voicing in behalf of all people the hopelessness of the sinner, dying in his sin without a Savior. The strange darkness that overshad- owed the land through that afternoon of the Crucifixion was a graphic sign sent by the heavenly Father to confirm dynamically that what occurred in the natural realm coin- cided with the spiritual realm. The same words in this prayer opens Psalm 22. The description of the Crucifixion is so accurate that one can- not help but wonder if this is in fact recorded history rather than prophecy. Charles Spurgeon makes this appropriate comment in his opening remarks on this chapter:

This is beyond all others THE PSALM OF THE CROSS. It may have been actually repeated word by word by our Lord when hanging on the tree; it would be too bold to say that it was so, but even a casual reader may see that it might have been. 8

I feel that the Psalms were very real to Jesus. I know this is a very personal conclusion, but it seems so true from my own experience. It is difficult to pray day after day 162