"1 MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my GOD, I cry by day, "BUT YOU DO NOT ANSWER", and by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet YOU are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 In YOU our fathers trusted; they trusted, and YOU delivered them.
5 To YOU they cried and were rescued; in YOU they trusted and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people."
If Psalms 22:1 seems very familiar to you you may recall when JESUS was hanging on Calvary's cross in Matthew 27:46 HE cried out to GOD a similar request. The fellowship between GOD and JESUS had never been broken until JESUS freely took on my sin, because I could not PAY the sin-DEBT I owed! The weight of owing a DEBT is a burdensome thing. Until that DEBT is wiped clean by someone with the capital to cover the DEBT, a person can feel abandoned!
King David must have felt abandoned when writing this Psalm. He must have felt GOD had left him with his problems to figure them out on his own. Like a debtor with insufficient funds to pay his DEBT, we have no capital to cover the amount we owe. The experience that JESUS must have been subjected to in Matthew 27:46 was something HE had never experienced before. GOD cannot fellowship with sin and all my sin was placed upon JESUS while HE hung on that cross!
GOD's Word promises to NEVER leave us (Deuteronomy 31:6;8 and Hebrews 13:5), but GOD is HOLY and HE cannot abide sin! How then, did King David write that GOD had forsaken him! Why did he feel as though GOD had abandoned him when he needed GOD? Might it be that GOD is silent at times to allow our FAITH IN GOD to increase?
When we are delivered from catastrophic circumstances, we develop a know-so FAITH compared to the believe-so FAITH we formerly had! "BUT YOU DO NOT ANSWER" doesn't necessarily mean that GOD has abandoned us. It may mean HE is developing our FAITH in HIM so HE CAN BE GLORIFIED!!
There are times when I get a telephone call and I choose not to answer it AT THE TIME it rings! I may be in a meeting with someone, or I may be busy with something. But if that person calls me back several times trying to get me to answer, I will probably get worn down and finally answer the call and see what it is they want! GOD may need us to continue praying, not to get on HIS nerves, but to develop our FAITH that HE is able to provide what is needed to glorify HIM! "BUT YOU DO NOT ANSWER" may be a signal we need to keep calling!
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