The Cry from the Depths.
I. We have to speak about the darkness. Note (1) that it was a darkness which science is unable to explain. It was not the darkness of night, for it began at twelve o'clock in the day. It was not the darkness of an eclipse, for it was then full moon, and it is only at the new moon that eclipses of the sun can take place. (2) The darkness was in keeping with the cry which at this time hung over the Redeemer's spirit. God was pleased to make Nature visibly sympathize with the passion of His Son. The crowning crime of men, the crime of killing the Prince of Life, and so of casting out the Lord of Nature from His own world, was not to pass without some expostulation of Nature itself against it. (3) Regard the darkness at the Crucifixion as a sign from God, intended not only to mark the importance of the event transpiring, but to work upon the consciences of the crucifiers before the deed was done.
II. We have now to speak about the cry. (1) What was there in this cry different from any other dying cry? We must take choice of two alternatives; one is that the cry came from a faintness of heart that was unworthy of a man, the other that it came from feeling a mystery of sinbearing, unfathomable and Divine. That was the cup "tasted," the cup for the passing away of which from Him, if it were possible, He prayed, and to the drinking of which, if the Will required it, He solemnly devoted Himself. (2) The cry had been foretold. The exclamation, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" is the first verse, and sounds the very key-note, of the 22nd Psalm. Regarding that psalm as a prophecy of Christ's thoughts while on the cross, we may fairly regard this verse as indicating the thought that would then have first place and power in the great Atoner's mind. (3) In this cry we have the perfect example of trust in trial. Just then, when He was being crucified in weakness, His cry was "My Strength, My Strength." Although in that hour of darkness He does not utter that happy cry "My Father," He, as the perfect Man, clung fast to his Rock, held on through all the blows of the waves and billows; and even in this short burst of language in agony applied to God the word "My" twice over, appropriating the "Living Strength" as His very own.
C. Stanford, Voices from Calvary,p. 159.
References: Matthew 27:45; Matthew 27:46. New Outlines on the New Testament,p. 23.Matthew 27:45; Matthew 27:51. Ibid.,p. 23.