Psalms 22:1
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
Study Note
Study Note
The cry of dereliction — 'my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?' — is the opening of Psalm 22 and is quoted by Jesus from the cross in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34, making it the most explicitly christological psalm in the New Testament. The double vocative 'my God' preserves relationship even within the complaint of abandonment — the psalmist does not surrender the covenant connection while protesting its apparent failure. The psalm moves through complaint (verses 1-21) to praise and universal proclamation (verses 22-31), providing the narrative arc of the passion-resurrection that Jesus's quotation on the cross invokes in full. The verse has generated extensive discussions of whether Jesus experienced genuine abandonment, identified with the psalmist's ultimate vindication, or both — making it the central exegetical text for theology of the cross.
Other Translations
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou sofar from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?
To the Overseer, on `The Hind of the Morning.' --A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? Far from my salvation, The words of my roaring?
My God, my God, why are you turned away from me? why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my crying?
Cross References
For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the Lord to …
For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.
Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men:
But I trusted in thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my God.
Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies’ sake.
When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.