What does "be not far from me" mean in Psalm 22:11?

(2) Ps. 22:7-11. Christ speaks of the people's mockery of His trust in God as His unfailing Helper, but He knows that from the womb He had been chosen and preserved by God. And He still calls upon God not to be far from Him in His trouble, but to help Him, for there is none else.

But in verses 9 and 10 the Lord Jesus appeals to the fact of His own birth by the intervention of God — we know, a virgin birth. When God had so intervened in man's affairs to prepare a body for His Son, could this whole matter have ended by death and oblivion? Certainly not! He says, "From my mother's womb You have been my God." Could this change now that He is crucified? "Be not far from Me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help" (v. 11). Thus, He expresses the agony of His heart, yet it was true that God was far from Him in those hours only, and there was no one else to help. The solitary anguish of this was confined to Him alone.

(vv. 19-21 A) Twice in the course of the psalm the holy Sufferer has appealed to God not to be far off from Him in His sufferings (v. 1 and v. 11); now for the third time He turns from His persecutors and His sufferings, and looks beyond men to God, and can say, “But thou, Jehovah, be not far from me” (JND). Thus it becomes plain that if the opposition of men is brought before us, it is not so much to show the fearful evil of men that, in other psalms, calls for judgment, but rather to show that even in the suffering caused by men the Lord was without help from God. Thus the utter abandonment of the cross, in view of atonement, is brought before us. Nevertheless, in the forsaking the trust of Christ in God remains unshaken. While the sufferings inflicted by man are felt with all the perfect sensibilities of Christ, yet they are taken as coming from God (v. 15). Thus God alone is the One to whom the Sufferer looks for help and deliverance.

But these were, however deep and real, external, and from man. From these He turns to God. And here the proper subject of the Psalm and His unfathomable suffering is found; He looks to God in the trials, and there was no comfort in the cup He had to drink. "Be not far from me, for trouble is near." Then, sorrows pressing Him still more closely, He says again, "Be not thou far from me, O Lord." Still as yet they were but the outward pressure from the hand of man. He was not stopped by them. He was going on through them to the cup which His Father was going to put into His hand; and there He met that which made Him cry out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" "Our fathers trusted in thee; they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. But I am a worm, and no man." So deep and terrible was the cup of judgment against sin!

There was no outlet to His grief, no comfort from man; and here we see the meaning of that, "Be not thou far from me, O my God!" Cast out by the scorn of those whom He came to in love, pressed upon, closed in by those whom He came to save, His soul turned to God: "My God, be thou not far from me!" But God had hid His face from Him: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He now found the darkness and wrath that came upon Him to the uttermost; there was no response on any side: the deep hatred of man around, and from above darkness also; everything was set aside but the power of love. "I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me." The waves and the billows went over Him; all was lost in the waves but love: it was that which sustained Him; love was greater than all; and it was set on us.

In Psalm 22 He speaks of all the external troubles, but then He says, "Be not thou far from me"-the very thing He was!

And the forsaking of God, the very words of the blessed Sufferer guide us to that twenty-second psalm, in which prophetically it is all explained; the depths of His heart are told out here into the anointed ear of faith, and we find indeed that which is the one exception in all God's ways with the righteous. "Our fathers trusted in Thee; they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them; they cried unto Thee, and were delivered; they trusted in Thee, and were not forsaken: but I am a worm, and no man!" Then all the long agony is described by One with no callousness, keenly alive and sensitive to it all; while yet from it all He turns to Him on whom from the womb He had been cast, to deprecate the one sorrow far beyond all others: "Be not far from Me!" — "But be not Thou far from Me, O Lord! Oh, my Strength! haste Thee to help Me!"

(vv. 9-11) Nevertheless, the One whom men despised, and God forsook, was the only absolutely righteous Man: One who from the moment of His coming into this world was marked by perfect confidence in God, for He could say, “Thou didst make me trust, upon my mother's breasts” (JND). Moreover He was perfectly dependent, for He could add, “I was cast upon thee from the womb,” and perfect in His subjection, for He says, “Thou art my God.” And yet the only One whose confidence in God, dependence upon God, and subjection to God, was absolutely perfect from the beginning to the end of His life on earth, is found in deepest trouble with “none to help.”

The word "Eloi," etc., in the quotation is expressive of nearness — "My God." It is not Hebrew, but Syriac. This expression coming forth to Him who was always so near has deep force in it; and the only moment in which He could be forsaken of God was this, when He was taking our sins upon Him. He was always in the full sunshine of God's favour; for He was holy. Christ could have been no victim if He had not been holy and separate from sinners. Nothing shows the perfect purity and holiness of the Lord like this psalm. A Jewish rabbi has called it a psalm of repining. True indeed there was a deep agony of soul when He said, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?" But almost immediately afterward He vindicates God: "But thou art holy."

(v. 3) That God should forsake a perfectly righteous man in his distress is entirely contrary to the ways of God with men. Yet we are assured there can be no unrighteousness with God. Thus we learn from the lips of Christ Himself that on this solemn and unique occasion, God was perfectly righteous in forsaking the absolutely righteous One; for the Lord can say, “But thou art holy.” Thus the One who is forsaken by God is the One who entirely vindicates God. These words, however, do more than assure us of the holiness of God in forsaking Christ on the cross. They tell us of the deep necessity for Christ to be forsaken when bearing sins, if God's holiness is to be met, and man to be blessed.