Abandoned by God and Man

O Lord, God of my salvation;
        I cry out day and night before you.
Let my prayer come before you;
        incline your ear to my cry!

For my soul is full of troubles,
        and my life draws near to Sheol.
I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
        I am a man who has no strength,
like one set loose among the dead,
        like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
        for they are cut off from your hand.
You have put me in the depths of the pit,
        in the regions dark and deep.
Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
        and you overwhelm me with all your waves.  Selah

You have caused my companions to shun me;
        you have made me a horror to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
        my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call upon you, O Lord;
        I spread out my hands to you.
Do you work wonders for the dead?
        Do the departed rise up to praise you?  Selah
Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
        or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
Are your wonders known in the darkness,
        or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

But I, O Lord, cry to you;
        in the morning my prayer comes before you.
O Lord, why do you cast my soul away?
        Why do you hide your face from me?
Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
        I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
Your wrath has swept over me;
        your dreadful assaults destroy me.
They surround me like a flood all day long;
        they close in on me together.
You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
        my companions have become darkness.  (Psalm 88:1-18)

These words, expressed by the sons of Korah, reveal the desperation and emotional agony of one has been completely abandoned.  He cries out to the Lord for some measure of relief and understanding, yet even there the psalmist feels hopelessness—that God Himself has turned his back.  But even in this there is a glimmer of understanding that the end will come, and God will deliver him.

Then I considered this in light of the cross.  We can see much the same being worked in the Lamb of God, who would take away the sin of the world, as he was abandoned by his disciples and his Father, and gave himself to mockers, torturers, and finally to executioners.  All this for me and you.

Man of Sorrows! what a name

For the Son of God, who came

Ruined sinners to reclaim.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,

In my place condemned He stood;

Sealed my pardon with His blood.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Guilty, vile, and helpless we;

Spotless Lamb of God was He;

“Full atonement!” can it be?

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Lifted up was He to die;

“It is finished!” was His cry;

Now in Heav’n exalted high.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

When He comes, our glorious King,

All His ransomed home to bring,

Then anew His song we’ll sing:

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Offering the Daily Sacrifice

Origen, in his commentary on John's gospel, gives notes pertaining to the baptizer's statement, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"  As part of the thought, Origen pursues the significance of the lamb among the acceptable altar offerings in Leviticus.

Now we find the lamb offered in the continual (daily) sacrifice.  Thus it is written, "Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two lambs a year old day by day regularly.   One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight.  And with the first lamb a tenth seah of fine flour mingled with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering.  The other lamb you shall offer at twilight, and shall offer with it a grain offering and its drink offering, as in the morning, for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord.  It shall be a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there.  There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory.  I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar."  But what other continual sacrifice can there be to the man of reason in the world of mind, but the Word growing to maturity, the Word who is symbolically called a lamb and who is offered as soon as the soul receives illumination.  This would be the continual sacrifice of the morning, and it is offered again when the sojourn of the mind with divine things comes to an end.  For it cannot maintain for ever its intercourse with higher things, seeing that the soul is appointed to be yoked together with the body which is of earth and heavy.

But if any one asks what the saint is to do in the time between morning and evening, let him follow what takes place in the cultus and infer from it the principle he asks for.  In that case the priests begin their offerings with the continual sacrifice, and before they come to the continuous one of the evening they offer the other sacrifices which the law prescribes, as, for example, that for transgression, or that for involuntary offences, or that connected with a prayer for salvation, or that of jealousy, or that of the Sabbath, or of the new moon, and so on, which it would take too long to mention.  So we, beginning our oblation with the discourse of that type which is Christ, can go on to discourse about many other most useful things.  And drawing to a close still in the things of Christ, we come, as it were, to evening and night, when we arrive at the bodily features of His manifestation.

(Book VI, cap. 33-34)

Origen's point is clear.  The believer as priest begins and ends with Christ each day in a continual fashion, being diligent not to slack in the faithful endurance with which we start.