All the ends of the earth...

Jesus' final words in Matthew and Mark are: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And here Jesus is saying the words from from Psalm 22:1.

By themselves the words sound so defeated. But James S. Stewart, not the actor but a Scottish preacher of the 1900's, wrote that during Jesus' time it was a Jewish practice to say just one line of Scripture when one had an entire chapter of Scripture in mind. Such a possibility changes my thought of what Jesus may well have had in his mind and heart when he pleaded to God the Father: "My God, me God, why have you forsaken me?" for that Bible chapter also has words of hope such as:

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;

and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.

For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.

(Psalm 22:27-28)

There is no doubt that on the cross Jesus was suffering. But if Stewart was correct then even there he had in mind the possibility of victory even through his own human suffering.

LORD God, may hope in You always surround all the earth, always surround me.