My God, My God...
- manjulajk
- May 6
- 2 min read
Psalm 22:1. My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Eli, Eli, lamah azavtani?
This psalm was titled the Deer of the Dawn (ayelet hashachar in Hebrew) and called the death psalm. It is referenced more than 15 times in the New Testament, so the early church called it the fifth gospel. In Hebrew text, the first verse is the title since there was no numbering. When Yeshua called out these words, He was pointing to this Psalm. Psalm 22:1. Mark 15:34, Matt 27:46; Hebrews 5:7; Luke 24:44.
Psalm 22
During Lent, and especially on Good Friday, when believers all over the world focus on the crucifixion of Yeshua the Messiah, this verse comes up as one of the seven sayings on the cross.
It is a cry of despair from someone who is suffering intensely. This psalm was written by David around 1044 BC during troubled times. This psalm is a prophetic psalm written under the direction of the Holy Spirit foretelling the death experiences of Yeshua the Messiah. When he wrote it, crucifixion was not a known method of execution in Israel. In the first century (a thousand years later), it was regularly used in temple worship, and the people were familiar with it. The Dead Sea Scrolls group them in ‘The Psalms of the Righteous Sufferer.’ It meant that YHWH would vindicate his Anointed through suffering.[1]
Had Yeshua quoted from the Psalms (Tehillim), he would have spoken in the original language, Hebrew, and not in Aramaic. Chaim Ben Torah, a respected teacher of the Torah, suggests that this would be better translated as,” Listen to my heart, this is my destiny.” He is all-knowing and understands what is happening. In the throes of death and pain, Yeshua is saying to those grieving him, especially the few precious women, including his mother, “Listen to my heart, this is why I came to earth in the first place. This is my purpose: to die for you.”[2]
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