My argument is not against "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" because Christ was forsaken (as I have repeatedly said) to suffer and die (God withdrew His help or deliverance from suffering and death). My argument is against those who believe that the plain meaning of the passage is that God abandoned and withdrew Himself from Christ (separated from Christ). I am glad that we can at least agree that my interpretation is legitimate.
Given that
@Steve Owen offers my interpretation of "forsaken" is legitimate (that God withdrew help in the form of deliverance from physical suffering and death) and this interpretation would also fit within the context of Christ crying out for help, I think that this is perhaps the view we can agree upon. There is no biblical warrant to view God as abandoning or withdrawing/ separating from Christ.
I do not accept that your interpretation is at all legitimate. Here's my dictionary definition again, with a little emphasis:
Oxford Concise Dictionary.
Abandon. v.t.Give up to another's control or mercy; yield oneself completely to a passion or impulse; give up (possession, habit, game);
forsake (person, post, ship).
Forsake. v.t. Give up, break off from, renounce; withdraw one's help, friendship or companionship from, desert,
abandon.
I don't know how familiar you are with dictionaries, but when definitions are separated by commas rather than semi-colons, it means that they are synonyms. so to withdraw one's help, friendship or support from someone, to desert someone and to abandon someone are all synonyms and they all mean to forsake.
Let us suppose for a moment that you were someone's second at a boxing match. Halfway through the match you withdrew your support from him, and went and sat in the seats at the back of the hall. At the end of the bout, he might well come up and say to you, "Why did you abandon me halfway through the match?" He might equally use the word "forsake" because in that context, the two words are synonymous.
Now what was the situation with the Lord Jesus during those hours of darkness? In addition to the physical agony that He was suffering, He had the mental and spiritual anguish of having, as a Man, no sense whatever of the presence of His heavenly Father.
"Why are you so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning?" And the reason is given in verse 3:
"But You are holy."
So holy is God that no human can look at Him and live. So holy is God that when Abraham stood before Him he cried,
"I am but dust and ashes!" So holy is He that when Job was in His presence, he said,
"Therefore I abhor myself." So holy is He that when Isaiah had a glimpse of His glory, he cried out,
"Woe is me! For I am undone....for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" So holy is He that when Daniel saw a manifestation of Him, he declared,
"No strength remained in me; for my vigour was turned to frailty," and Habakkuk declared of Him,
'Your eyes are too pure to behold evil; You cannot look upon iniquity.' When Peter first had an inkling of who Jesus Christ really was, he cried out,
"Stay away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."
And because the Lord Jesus was bearing our sins (1 Peter 2:24), the Holy God would not look upon Him, turned His face from Him, forsook Him; for the Lord had made all our iniquities to meet upon Him (Isaiah 53:6), and all our sins being upon Him as our substitute, the wrath of God against all our offenses was spent upon our sin offering.
But just as
'Our fathers trusted in You. they trusted and You delivered them........' (Psalms 22:4-5), so the father heard the cry of the Son. The darkness evaporated, and the Lord Jesus could cry,
"It is finished!" It is completed; it is accomplished; it is paid.