“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?”
The Fog
David’s own words here were later spoken by Jesus himself from the cross, worth holding as this book’s deepest possible companionship, this exact cry of genuine forsakenness not foreign to Christ, but actually, historically spoken by him, in his own moment of genuine, felt abandonment.
Notice my God, my God, repeated, worth examining directly, this is not someone who has stopped believing God exists, but someone crying to a God he still, genuinely addresses as his own, worth holding as this whole book’s continued pattern, doubt and genuine relationship held together.
This is worth applying against however much you have assumed genuine faith and this kind of honest crying out are somehow incompatible, rather than this verse’s own testimony, and Christ’s own use of it, both together, genuine address to God, and genuine, honest naming of felt forsakenness.
Whatever forsakenness you currently, genuinely feel, bring it today to God using these exact words if they fit, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, trusting that Christ himself once prayed this same honest cry, worth holding as the deepest possible permission for your own.
Walk Through the Fog
- Pray this exact psalm today if it genuinely fits your own current experience.
- Consider that Christ himself prayed these words, the deepest possible permission for your own cry.
- Hold genuine relationship and genuine forsakenness together today, both honestly true.
Prayer
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Let me pray this honestly today, trusting that you yourself, Lord Jesus, once prayed this same cry from the cross. Amen.
Carry this today
Christ himself prayed this cry of forsakenness. It is the deepest possible permission.