Forsaken by God?
September 8, 2025
“My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning?” (Psalm 22:1).
Dear Praying Friends:
In the past year, I have heard similar words from several people who feel as if God has utterly abandoned them.
We should not minimize the agony of this sense of desolation and desertion. After all, David, the “man after God’s own heart,” penned these words out of the depths of near-despair, and many psalms echo the same sentiment. Fierce enemies surrounded him and taunted him as he experienced unspeakable physical and emotional pain. Mary and Martha complained that Jesus had left them alone while their brother Lazarus lay dying (John 11:21, 32).
Where was God when they needed him?
Your heart may resonate with these words even now, or perhaps you have known such mental (or physical) torture in the past.
What can we say at such times? The subject is vast and complex, but a few things are clear:
You are not alone. Countless believers have walked through this “valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4) before us, including Joseph, Moses, Daniel and his friends, Jonah, and Paul (see 2 Corinthians 11:23-33; Hebrews 11:32-40).
You are not forsaken! Jesus said to those whom he had commanded to take the gospel to all the nations, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). “He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5).
Jesus knows. When he was nailed to the cross, suffering indescribable pain and mocked by his foes, he quoted David’s cry of dereliction (Matthew 27:46).
In fact, only Jesus knows what it means to be utterly abandoned by God even though he had done no wrong. He bore the wrath of God for us as our sinless substitute, so that he “might bring us to God” forever (1 Peter 3:18).
“Fear not, for I am with you” (Isaiah 41:10).
Yours in his never-failing presence,
Wright