March 23, 2024

Psalm 9.10 (NIV)
For you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

It wasn’t right that the Son of God was forced to hear the silence of God.*

If David is correct, those who seek the Lord may be tried and tempted like Job; hunted by enemies like David; or feel forsaken as Jesus did on the cross . . . but they are never forsaken.* Is it possible, though, that David’s words, like a proverb, are applicable most of the time but not all of the time? After all, it was his words, from Psalm 22.1, that Jesus called out from the cross, “My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27.46; Mark 15.34) 

While feelings are not reliable indicators of condition, if Jesus felt forsaken then I think it is safe to believe that for a moment, he was forsaken. In that instant, Jesus experienced Hell so that we wouldn’t have to. In the words of another writer: “As he hung on the cross, ‘made sin for us,’ he was left to struggle without a sense of his Father's presence.”*

We may feel forsaken at times as well, but God has promised many times in his Word that he will not forsake us (Deuteronomy 4.31 and 31.6; Joshua 1.5; and Hebrews 13.5, to name a few); and there are numerous promises made to those who seek him - Deuteronomy 4.29; Psalm 34.10; and, in Acts 17.27, we are told that God wants us to seek him and that he is not far from us. 

Jesus knew, even as his Father turned his face away, that all he had to do was cry out, “My God!” and God would return to him.

The omnipotent, in one instant, made himself breakable.*