April 9 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Psalm 22:1-19:

¹My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
²O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
³But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
⁴Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
⁵They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
⁶But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
⁷All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
⁸He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
⁹But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.
¹⁰I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.
¹¹Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
¹²Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
¹³They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
¹⁴I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
¹⁵My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
¹⁶For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
¹⁷I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
¹⁸They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
¹⁹But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.

Devotional

The hatred and derision of the Jews must have been hard to bear for Jesus. But that one of his own disciples betrayed him, another denied him, and that all forsook him and fled must have pained him still more. But who can fathom what it meant for him to be forsaken of God? In the garden of Gethsemane, when the powers of darkness sought to overwhelm him, there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. But here, when hanging on the cross, He must experience the agonies of hell, in order fully to atone for our sins. He must be forsaken of God. To be separated from God is hell. No doubt the pain and agonies of the lost are caused by their separation from God, the source of all good. That Christ must suffer the pangs of hell, was foretold in the Old Testament.

We read, "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me." We read: "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me." And in our text Christ uses the very words of Psalm 22:1: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

Why descend into hell?

Why did Christ have to suffer thus? The answer of the Heidel­berg Catechism is: "That in my greatest temptations I may be assured that Christ, my Lord, by his inexpressible anguish, pains and terrors which He suffered in his soul on the cross and before, has redeemed me from the anguish and torment of hell." Question 44. What a comfort! Praise the Lord.

Prayer

Our God and our Father, we thank Thee that Christ has once suffered for our sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. We thank Thee, that we who were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ, and that He is our peace. Help us to abide in him. Amen.

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Scripture in Devotional: Matt. 26:56; Luke 22:43; Ps. 116:3; 18:4,5.

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