Psalm 88:8

Psalm 88:8

Abandoned by friends

V8        Abandonment by friends is a painful experience. Job writes about it in Job 19:13-19. 

“He has alienated my family from me;
    my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
My relatives have gone away;
    my closest friends have forgotten me.

My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner;
    they look on me as on a stranger.
I summon my servant, but he does not answer,
    though I beg him with my own mouth.
My breath is offensive to my wife;
    I am loathsome to my own family.
Even the little boys scorn me;
    when I appear, they ridicule me.
All my intimate friends detest me;
    those I love have turned against me.”

We cannot begin to imagine how Jesus felt as He was condemned to die by Pontius Pilate. By this time Simon Peter had already denied Him and as He made the painful journey to the crucifixion site, His only comfort came from a stranger from Libya, Simon of Cyrene, who was compelled to carry the cross. At the place of crucifixion there was no sign of the crowds who had waved banners and shouted their “Hosannas” to their Messiah just a few days earlier. The only loyal spectators were Mary, the mother of Jesus, some other women, and John, the closest of Jesus’ disciples. All of these stood at a distance and watched with horror and grief as their friend was crucified. Truly Jesus was, “Despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.”Isaiah 53:3.

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