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"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" The opening cry of this Psalm was quoted by Jesus on the cross, according to Matthew 27:46. Let us review here some of the likely and varied responses to this quote used by Jesus in his darkest hour.

First, let us remember that the Jewish people were very well versed in the Psalms. They studied them; they recited them; they sang them in worship.

Some standing there around the cross would have discovered the rest of the Psalm running unbidden through their minds, like a well-known song you can't get out of your mind.

These who found the Psalm running in their minds unbidden would have noticed immediately the mocking and derision mentioned in the Psalm. Some of these who noticed had that very day joined in the mocking, "He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him" (Mattthew 27:43). I wonder if there were some who began, at the cry from the cross, to read the Psalms in a new way, as appropriated and meaningful for their lives that very day.

There were probably some who recognized the cry from the cross as part of a Psalm but could not bring up the context in Psalm 22. I wonder if some of these went to their priest asking for a reading of the Psalm. I wonder if they were shocked or ecstatic to find the context so descriptive of the actual current event on the hill. I wonder if their priest looked at the Psalm in a new way.

Of course, Jesus himself would have known the context of the whole Psalm, and likely meant to claim the entire Psalm, but just couldn't holler out all the words. With that in mind, there is an instructive piece in this for my dark days.

He did what I must do in darkness, go back to where I last saw the light. He recalled events all the way back to his birth to claim and affirm his trust in God. "But thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when I was on my mother's breasts. I was cast on thee from he womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly."