My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Psalm 22 opens with the most anguished cry in the Bible: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?' He describes his enemies circling him: 'Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me — they pierce my hands and my feet.' He describes his body: 'I am poured out like water, all my bones are out of joint.' He describes the mockery: 'He trusts in the Lord — let the Lord rescue him.' The psalm pivots to praise at the end. Fourteen centuries later, Jesus quotes its opening words from the cross — this ancient prayer for a dying man becomes the words of the dying man.