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  1. What is the correlation between these two scripture?
  2. Why Jesus felt forsaken if he knew what was going on?
  3. Why was it mentioned in Old Testament as well as New Testament(in two places)?

Psalm 22:1 (NKJV)

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?

Matthew 27:46 (NKJV)

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, β€œEli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, β€œMy God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

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Maybe better asked: Biblical Hermeneutics – user1054 Mar 13 '12 at 18:20
@DanAndrews, Does Biblical Hermeneutics available to public beta? – Vijin Paulraj Mar 13 '12 at 18:25
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hermeneutics.stackexchange.com – user1054 Mar 13 '12 at 18:26

5 Answers

up vote 7 down vote accepted

He was quoting David in Psalm 22. But nevertheless, Jesus must have felt these words Himself. What it was like for the Son of God to experience "Hell", or separation from God, we can not begin to imagine.

We can only speculate that Jesus, when He uttered those words, felt God had abandoned Him in a real way, not a symbolic way. Jesus truly felt separated from God, and that was far worse than even the pain and suffering on the Cross.

I have heard that the source of human depression is separation from God (and His love). Perhaps it was necessary for Jesus to feel that at the deepest level.

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"the source of human depression" that is so pure speculation that it it devalues your answer slightly IMO. Unless you have some causal evidence with that? (not anecdotal, not correlation, but causal). I don't mean that nastily, but human depression is complex, often profound, and affects all backgrounds and walks of life - throwing this out there so casually is - unhelpful. – Marc Gravell♦ Mar 13 '12 at 19:08
Very much speculation and generalization on my part. – Hammer Mar 13 '12 at 20:11
up vote 7 down vote

For the same reason so many other things from the Old Testament are mentioned in the New Testament: they're quotations. This particular one was a reference to the beginning of the 22nd psalm, and it's quite instructive to look at the psalm in its entirety. Of particular interest is verse 18, which had literally happened to him just moments ago. Jesus's invocation of the psalm gives a good look into his mindset and his feelings at the time.

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I agree. "The Psalm of the Cross." I like how the Psalm not only starts with "My God, My God..", but ends with something similar to "It is finished!" And everything in between can definitely give insight to what Jesus felt in that moment. – Shredder Mar 15 '12 at 0:32
up vote 5 down vote

The quick answer, the condensed one that I hear in homilies at Mass around Holy Week is that Jesus quotes this scripture to evoke the Psalm, not just the part of the Psalm where David feels forsaken, but the part where God is glorified.

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+1 because of "God is glorified" – Vijin Paulraj Mar 13 '12 at 17:07
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Jesus was really suffering. He probably could have used miracles to not feel any pain, but then the whole sacrifice would just have been a fake one. To be a real sacrifice, feeling real human pain, both physical and psychological, was indeed necessary in my opinion. Can there be any bigger emotional pain than feeling that God has forsaken you?

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up vote 1 down vote

Take a look at this article which I feel explains one view pretty well.

"It is possible that at some moment on the cross, when Jesus became sin on our behalf, that God the Father, in a sense, turned His back upon the Son. It says in Hab. 1:13 that God is too pure to look upon evil. Therefore, it is possible that when Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross (1 Pet. 2:24), that the Father, spiritually, turned away. At that time, the Son may have cried out."

http://carm.org/questions/about-jesus/why-did-jesus-cry-out-my-god-my-god-why-have-you-forsaken-me

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