“About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?’ that is, ‘MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?'” (Matt 27:46).

Many years ago I met a man in Eilat who claimed he had memorized the entire book of Psalms. He noticed by my reaction that I didn’t believe him so he asked me to read the beginning of any psalm in the Hebrew Bible, and he would finish it by heart. And so he did! He was able to identify every single psalm by its first few words.

Now to my point. I’ve heard Yeshua’s words, “My God, My God,” referred to as a cry of dereliction. But these are only words of dereliction to those who do not know the entire psalm. Consider the remarkable structure of Psalm 22. The first half of the psalm is the Messiah’s lament over cruel and unusual torture and death (vv. 1-21). The second half of the psalm, however, moves inexplicably to the topic of God’s universal rule and praise to the ends of the earth (vv. 22-31). And Psalm 22:22 is the hinge upon which this dramatic reversal takes place! “I will tell of Your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise You” (see Heb 2:12).

For those who are able to identify the entire psalm by its first few words, Yeshua’s cry was not one of dereliction but of victory. By citing the beginning, Yeshua proclaims with full assurance that God would bring him victoriously all the way to the end of the psalm, and after his terrible suffering the nations of the world would sing God’s praises! “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will worship before You. For the kingdom is the LORD’S and He rules over the nations” (Ps 22:27-28).

“All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will worship before You. For the kingdom is the LORD’S and He rules over the nations” (Ps 22:27-28).