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Christ in the Psalms | E.S. McKitrick · Reformed Thinking

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Usually when we talk about a medical diagnosis, there is this
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expectation of absolute precision.
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I mean, think about it like structural engineering, right?
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You fall off a ladder, you break your arm and the X-ray shows
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that that jagged white line on the screen and the doctor just
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points out and says there it is. That is the problem.
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Yeah, it is binary. The bone is broken or the bone
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is intact. And that is comforting for us,
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you know. Oh.
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Absolutely. We like things to be visible.
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Right. We want things to be easily
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categorized and to have a straightforward treatment plan.
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But then you step into the world of neurodevelopment, or you look
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at something like psychological trauma, and suddenly that X-ray
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machine is useless. Completely useless.
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We are looking at a diagnostic landscape that is, well,
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honestly, it is murky, yeah. You cannot just point to a
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glowing white line on a scan and say there is the trauma.
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No, you can't. It is the absolute definition of
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diagnostic Muddy Waters. You know you are dealing with
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symptoms that overlap, hidden internal realities and a lot of
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subjective interpretation. Welcome to Reform Thinking.
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Today we are taking a deep dive into the source material and I
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bring up that medical analogy because I realized recently that
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I am using that same quick fix mindset for how we approach the
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book of Psalms. Oh wow, yeah, that makes a lot
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of sense. Right.
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We treat the Psalms like a spiritual pharmacy.
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You feel anxious about your bank account, so you pull Psalm 23
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off the shelf to calm your nerves.
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Yes, or you feel guilty about snapping at your kids and you
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grab Psalm 51 for a quick dose of forgiveness.
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Spot on. We look for personal comfort,
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you know, a rapid remedy for whatever emotion ailment we have
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that specific morning. That is a very common approach,
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especially in modern evangelicalism.
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It treats the text as a. Mirror.
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A mirror, right? Yeah, the reader is constantly
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looking for their own reflection, their own emotional
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state staring back at them. We want the text to validate how
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we feel in the moment. But what if you were looking in
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the wrong direction entirely? What if that mirror is actually
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a window and you are missing the main character standing right on
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the other side? That is a great question.
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So today we have a mission for you, the listener.
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We are going to examine a fascinating text from 19 O 7
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written by ES Mckittrick, titled Christ in the Psalms.
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And it is a fantastic piece of writing.
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It really is. Our goal for this deep dive is
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to see how the Psalter is not just a collection of ancient
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songs, it is a precise, Christ centered text that perfectly
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aligns with performed theology and the Westminster Confessions
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view of the mediator. Yeah, and the author's essay is
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drawn from a larger volume called The Psalms in Worship.
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And you know the historical context is 19 O 7 is highly
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relevant here. Let's set the stage a bit for
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that. Right.
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So you have to picture the theological landscape of the
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early 20th century. This was a time when biblical
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scholars were rigorously defending the messianic nature
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of the Old Testament against a rising tide of skepticism.
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You were talking about the influx of German higher
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criticism, right? The movement that tried to
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explain away everything supernatural.
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Spot on. Critics were attempting to strip
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the divine elements out of the text.
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They wanted to reduce divine prophecy to mere coincidence.
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Or they said it was all added later, right?
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Yeah, they argued that later editors went back and inserted
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details to make it look like Jesus fulfilled prophecy.
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But the author pushes back against that rationalism by
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demonstrating the objective reality of divine inspiration.
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And he does it so. Well, he does.
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He argues that the Psalms are mathematically and historically
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impossible to explain unless God is the primary author.
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OK. I want to drop a striking
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faction. The source text that absolutely
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floored me. Lay it honest.
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He points out that there are more references to the Psalms as
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Speaking of Christ in the New Testament than to the entirety
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of Moses and the prophets combined.
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Yeah, it is incredible. I mean, think about that for a
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second. We usually think of Isaiah with
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the suffering servant passages or Genesis as the heavy hitters
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for prophecy, right? But the Psalms outweigh them all
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when the apostles want to point directly to Jesus.
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That statistical reality changes everything about how we view the
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Bible's architecture. It forces us to reconsider the
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entire structure of the book. Martin Luther recognized this
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centuries ago. He used to call the Book of
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Psalms a little Bible. A little Bible.
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I love that. And Bishop Horn described it as
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an epitome of the Scriptures. The idea is that in the Psalter
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you find a highly concentrated version of all the truths that
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are elaborated on throughout the rest of the Divine Word.
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It possesses an internal completeness.
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Well, yes, precisely. It holds everything together.
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The text also quotes Thomas Scott, the commentator who
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observed that all true religion, doctrinal, experimental and
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practical, is concentrated right here in these songs.
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Yes, and we should clarify that when a writer from the 19th or
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early 20th century uses the word experimental, they mean
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experiential. They mean the lived day-to-day
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reality of faith. Skype is saying that the
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theology here is not abstract academic data.
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It is lived out in the dirt and grime of human existence.
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I like to think of it using a modern analogy.
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The Psalms are basically a theological zip file.
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Oh, a zip file? That makes total sense.
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Right, you have gigabytes upon gigabytes of data, the creation
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of the world, the fall of man, the mechanics of redemption, and
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the future glory of the cosmos. And it is all compressed into
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one highly concentrated file. But you do not just double click
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this file to get the data. How do you open it then?
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The mechanism of extraction is music and emotion.
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When you sit down and sing these songs or pray them in distress,
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you are unzipping the file. I love that visual.
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All the vast theological truths of the Bible expand into your
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mind, but they bypass your intellectual defenses and hit
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your affections directly. What is fascinating here is how
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that aligns with the Reformed understanding of Scriptures
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unity, which we often call the analogy of faith.
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Right where Scripture interprets scripture.
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Yes, the Westminster Confession teaches that the inward
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illumination of the Spirit of God is necessary for the saving
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understanding of such things. Right.
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Since Christ is the central figure of the entire Word of
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God, a book that compresses all biblical truth must be
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absolutely overflowing with Christ.
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It has to be. You cannot have a summary of the
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Bible without the mediator taking center stage.
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If you are listening to this on your commute right now, you
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might be thinking great ancient trivia, but think about how you
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normally read the Psalms. Yeah, evaluate your own habits.
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Are you just looking for a quick emotional boost?
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We want to challenge you today to look for the central figure
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of Christ instead. The reward for finding him there
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is vastly greater than just finding a temporary Band-Aid for
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your anxiety. It really is.
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Yeah. So to find Him, we should look
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at how Christ himself taught us to read the Psalms.
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Right. The author takes us to a very
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specific scene to illustrate this, and it is arguably the
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greatest hermeneutics class ever taught.
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Right, let's set the scene. It is the evening of the
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resurrection. We are in Luke chapter 24.
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A very chaotic day for the disciples.
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Yes, very chaotic. The disciples are gathered in
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the upper room in Jerusalem. The doors are locked.
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They're terrified of the religious leaders.
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They're confused. And they are probably debating
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whether the rumors from the women about an empty tomb were
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actually true. Suddenly, Jesus appears in the
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midst of them. And he eats a piece of broiled
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fish to prove he has a real physical body, not some phantom
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spirit. Which is such a wild detail.
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And then he gives them this masterful theological lecture.
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He provides an exegetical master class.
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He explicitly instructs them, saying, These are my words which
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I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must
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needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and
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in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me.
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He specifically highlights the Psalms.
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Yes, the author points out that Jesus literally opened their
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minds to understand these scriptures.
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He showed them from the Old Testament text that the Christ
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had to suffer, rise from the dead, and that repent, sentence
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and remission of sins should be preached in His name.
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Wait, I need to push back on this for a second.
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OK, go for it. If the messianic prophecies in
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the Psalms were so clear, why were the disciples minds closed
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in the first place? That is a very fair question.
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I mean, these are Jewish men. They grew up singing these songs
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in the synagogue since they were children.
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Why did they need Jesus to act as an expositor to see what was
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right in front of them the whole time?
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That is the crucial question, and it gets to the heart of
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reformed anthropology. Let's hear it.
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We recognize the reality of total depravity and spiritual
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blindness. The natural mind is at enmity
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with God and cannot discern spiritual truths unassisted,
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right? Sin does not just corrupt our
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actions, it exerts A noetic effect, meaning it corrupts our
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reasoning and our ability to perceive divine truth.
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So it is not an intelligence issue, it is a spiritual
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deadness issue. Precisely.
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Even the disciples who walked with him for years needed the
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Mediator to actively open their understanding by the power of
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the Holy Spirit. Wow.
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Without the Spirit removing the scales from our eyes, we can
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read the most blatant prophecies and see nothing but ancient
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poetry or Jewish nationalism. It is like staring at one of
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those Magic Eye posters from the 90s.
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Oh, I remember those. Yeah, the image of the sailboat
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is technically right there on the paper, printed in plain ink,
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but until your eyes adjust in a very specific way, it just looks
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like a bunch of random chaotic dots.
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That is a great way to visualize it.
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Jesus had to adjust their spiritual vision so they could
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see the sailboat. Yeah, and the author draws a
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sharp conclusion from this Upper Room scene.
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He notes that rejecting the messianic nature of the Psalms
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is not just an academic disagreement between scholars.
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It is much heavier than that. Right upon the testimony of the
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apostles and Christ himself. Denying Christ in the Psalms is
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an open rejection of Christ's teaching authority.
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Well, if Jesus says he is in there and a modern critic says
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he is not, the critic is calling the mediator a liar.
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And the disciples clearly took this master class to heart.
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It changed everything about how they preached.
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They absolutely did. This upper Room discourse became
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the blueprint for the entire Apostolic ministry.
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You see it right away in Acts. Yes, when you read Peter's
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sermon on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, he is using
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the exact framework Jesus gave him.
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He quotes the Psalms directly. He quotes Psalm 16 and Psalm 1
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and 10 to prove the resurrection and ascension right.
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When Paul writes his epistles asserting that Christ died for
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our sins according to the Scriptures, he is leaning on
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this very foundation. And Hebrews too, right?
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Yes, the writer of Hebrews quotes the book of Psalms
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extensively in the very first chapter to prove the divine
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dignity of the Son. They all learned how to read
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their Bibles from Jesus on that Sunday evening.
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So what does it look like when we actually apply this
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blueprint? The author breaks the Messianic
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Psalms down into two main categories.
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The first group is what he calls directly Messianic Psalms.
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Yes, a directly Messianic Psalm is one that is applicable
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exclusively to Jesus Christ. Exclusively.
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Right. It contains specific details,
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events or descriptions of character that cannot possibly
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fit the human author. The language breaks the
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boundaries of the human writers life.
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Mechanically, how does this work?
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Is God dictating this to David like a boss dictating a letter
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to his secretary? Or is David just writing a
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really sad poem that God secretly retrofits for Jesus
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1000 years later? The reformed view of inspiration
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is organic, not mechanical. OK, unpack that.
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God does not bypass David's intellect, his vocabulary, or
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his actual historical suffering. David is writing a real song
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about real distress. So he is actually going through
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something terrible. Yes.
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However, the Holy Spirit superintends the writing process
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so thoroughly that David is guided to use vocabulary and
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describe events that go far beyond his own experience.
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The Holy Spirit is the primary author, structuring the text so
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that its full meaning is only realized in the Incarnation.
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The prime example the text gives is Psalm 22.
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The title attributes it to David, but if you read the
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details of the suffering described in this song, it
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completely fails to match anything in David's historical
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biography. Not even close.
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Right. David's hands and feet were
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never pierced. His enemies never stood around,
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parting his garments and casting lots for his clothing.
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The scene described in Psalm 22 is a Roman crucifixion hundreds
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of years before the Romans even invented that method of
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execution. It is chilling when you read it.
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It details the burning thirst making the tongue cleave to the
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jaw pause, the physical strength drying up like a pot shirt, the
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bones protruding so they can be counted, and the staring,
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mocking crowd. It is wild.
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I compare Psalm 22 to a high definition photograph developed
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10 centuries before the camera was even invented.
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That is a really striking. Analogy.
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The Gospel writers tell us that the heartless crowds of Calvary
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hurled insult to Jesus. They were identically matched to
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the words written 1000 years prior.
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Word for word. It is so accurate that Jesus,
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while hanging on the cross, cried out the opening words of
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this very Psalm. My God, my God, why has thou
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forsaken me? Right.
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By doing that, he claimed the entire song as his own personal
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experience. If we connect this to the bigger
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picture of Reformed Christology, there is a crucial detail in
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Psalm 22 that the author highlights.
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Yes. Regarding the confession of sin,
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right? Think about typical laments
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written by David. There's almost always a
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confession of personal guilt. Right.
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Think of Psalm 51, where David begs for a clean heart after his
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sin with Bathsheba. But in Psalm 22, this agonizing
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cry from the depths of distress contains absolutely no
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confession of sin. There's no remorse, no
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compunction. Not at all.
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Wait. But David was a deeply flawed
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guy. Couldn't he just be writing a
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song where he is so focused on his physical suffering that he
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just forgot to apologize for his sins this one time?
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That is a common skeptical pushback.
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Why does a lack of apology automatically mean it is about a
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sinless Messiah? Because in the established
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structure of Hebrew poetry, particularly the lament genre,
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the confession of sin is structurally necessary when the
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author is claiming unjust suffering.
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Structurally necessary. The author usually says Lord I
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am a Sinner, but I do not deserve the specific attack for
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my enemies. To omit it entirely is a massive
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theological signal. Wow, so the silence speaks
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volumes. Yes, the absolute sinlessness of
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the sufferer points exclusively to the perfect substitute.
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It is the Man of Sorrows bearing the sins of the world.
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As the Apostle Paul writes, he was made to be sin for us.
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Right. If David had written this
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strictly about himself, a confession of his own depravity
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would have surfaced. The spotless nature of the
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victim proves it is the mediator.
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And then there is the dramatic shift at the end of the Psalm.
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The agony stops and suddenly the sufferer is rejoicing.
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Yes, the tongue completely flips.
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But he is not just happy he survived.
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He says his suffering will result in all the ends of the
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earth remembering and turning unto Jehovah.
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That is an impossible result for any mere mortal suffering.
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It really is. I mean if I.
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Suffer unjustly. It might inspire a few people in
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my neighborhood. It does not convert the entire
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globe to the worship of the true God.
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Such worldwide and lasting consequences can follow only one
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life and only one specific death.
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The first half is the Passion. The second-half is the universal
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Kingdom of the Messiah extending to the remotest generations.
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David's suffering did not bring the Gentile nations to Mount
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Zion. Only the cross accomplishes
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that. The source text gives another
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massive example of a directly Messianic Psalm, Psalm 110.
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It starts with a prophetic formula.
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Jehovah saith unto my Lord. The Lord says to my Lord, David
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is writing this and he is calling his own descendant my
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Lord. Our Savior actually cited this
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exact phrasing in Matthew 22 to trap the Pharisees in a logical
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dilemma. Oh, I love that interaction.
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He asked them how the Messiah could be David's son if David
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calls him Lord in the Psalms. The Pharisees could not answer
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him, and the text says no one dared ask him any more
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questions. Because they knew exactly what
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he was getting at. Right.
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The author points out that this proves the Jewish leaders of
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Christ Day already accepted Psalm 110 as a messianic
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prophecy, even if they failed to grasp the mechanics of the
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hypostatic union, the reality that the Messiah would be both
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God and man. And Psalm 110 introduces another
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massive concept, the perpetual priesthood.
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Thou art to priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
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Yes, let's look closely at that, because it sounds like an
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ancient trivia to a modern reader, but it is actually the
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core of how salvation works. In the Old Testament economy,
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the priesthood belonged exclusively to the tribe of
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Levi. You had to be born into the
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family of Aaron to offer sacrifices.
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No exceptions. No exceptions, but here God
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establishes a different priesthood for the Messiah.
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Melchizedek appears briefly in Genesis 14 as both a king of
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Salem and a priest of God Most High.
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Right, he meets Abraham. Yes, he has no recorded
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genealogy, no beginning of days, and no end of life in the
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biblical record. He stands outside the Levitical
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system. So what?
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Did that mean for Jesus? A priest after the Order of
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Melchizedek is a royal priest whose mediation never ceases.
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David was from the tribe of Judah.
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He was never a priest in this sense.
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This is the great high priest who passes into the heavens.
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This single verse from Psalm 110 is the most frequently cited Old
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Testament passage in the entire New Testament.
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It is undeniable when you look at the text.
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So that covers the directly messianic category, but the
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essay then shifts to a second group, typically messianic
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Psalms. Yes, in this category, the human
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author, like David or Solomon, functions as a type or a shadow.
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The Psalm has a primary reference to a historical event
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in their lives. However, under the inspiration
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of the Holy Spirit, the language expands far beyond their finite
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earthly kingdoms to describe the infinite antitype Jesus Christ.
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OK, but if we start seeing Jesus everywhere, don't we just turn
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the Bible into arbitrary allegory?
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That is a very real danger. Where's the line drawn so we do
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not just turn every single rock and tree in the Old Testament
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into a hidden code for the gospel?
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That is a critical distinction, and it separates reformed
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hermeneutics from a lot of ancient Greek message.
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Reformed theology relies heavily on typological interpretation,
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which is very different from allegorical reading.
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How so? Allegory often ignores
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historical reality to find subjective hidden meanings.
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Typology, on the other hand, honors the actual historical.
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Event, so it actually happened. Yes, the historical person like
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David, or the institution like the temple, was absolutely real.
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God sovereignly arranged actual human history so that this real
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thing would correspond to and foreshadow an even greater
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eschatological reality in Christ.
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It is like God is orchestrating history itself to cast shadows
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that look identically like Jesus.
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Yes, beautifully put. The shadow is real.
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It is cast by a real object, but it is pointing to a solid
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reality that is coming later. That is a brilliant way to frame
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it. The author provides excellent
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examples of this. Take Psalm 61 and Psalm 21.
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OK, let's look at those. Both are prayers for the king.
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They ask that the King's life be prolonged forever and ever, and
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that his years would be as many generations right now.
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Historically, the people prayed for David's dynasty to continue.
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But the language bursts the seams of a mortal man.
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David died. He is buried in Jerusalem.
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His life was not forever. No, the language only finds its
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full meaning when applied to the King who sits enthroned in the
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skies, whose reign literally never ends.
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Or look at Psalm 118. It talks about a stone that the
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builders rejected, which then becomes the chief cornerstone.
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A very famous passage. The text notes this was likely a
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song sung during the building of the Second Temple after the
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Exile. Historically, the rejected stone
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was the despised remnant of Israel returning from Babylon,
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right? They looked weak and
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insignificant to the surrounding nations, like a piece of rubble
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you would toss aside. But God used them to rebuild his
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house. But prophetically, the type
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expands. The ultimate rejected stone is
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the despised Messiah, rejected by the religious builders of his
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day, the Pharisees and Sadducees, right, who is then
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raised up by God to become the immovable head of the Church.
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Peter explicitly quotes this in his address to the Sanhedrin in
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Acts chapter 4, locking in that ultimate meaning.
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He is so bold there. He tells the religious leaders
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to their faces. Jesus is the stone you builders
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rejected. My favorite example of a
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receding type is Psalm 72. It is clearly written with
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Solomon's reign in mind. It describes this prosperous,
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wealthy king, yes, but as the song progresses, the description
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starts scaling up drastically. It says his dominion will reach
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the ends of the earth and his name will endure as long as the
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sun. Men from all nations will be
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blessed in him, right? Solomon was wealthy, sure, but
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his dominion did not reach the ends of the earth.
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The type gradually recedes as the song advances, the earthly
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shadow fades into the background, and our thoughts are
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concentrated entirely upon the great antitype, the Prince of
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Peace. Wow.
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Solomon's Peaceful Reign is just a tiny preview trailer for the
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Cosmic Reign of Christ. It reminds me of walking toward
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a mountain range. Yeah, from a distance, the
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foothills look massive and you think they are the peak, right?
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But as you get closer and move past them, the foothills drop
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away out of your line of sight, and you see the staggering
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Snowcag summit towering behind them.
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Solomon is the Foothill. Christ is the summit.
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That is a fantastic visual, and to truly grasp the identity of
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that summit, the essay brings us into the classic reformed
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framework of the munis. Triplex, the threefold office of
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the mediator. I love this concept.
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It is so vital. But for someone who didn't grow
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up reading John Calvin's Institute, what is the munis
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triplex and why does it matter here?
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It is the theological understanding that Jesus Christ
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accomplishes our salvation by executing 3 distinct offices,
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prophet, priest, and king. In the Old Testament, these were
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three separate roles, usually held by three different people.
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You had Moses the prophet, Aaron the priest, and David the king,
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but Christ combines all three in one person.
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The author proves that the Psalms outline this threefold
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work just as clearly as the New Testament epistles do.
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Every aspect of his mediatorial work is sung about in the
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Psalter. I picture this like a three
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piece interlocking key. Oh, I like that.
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If you were trying to unlock the heavy vault door of human
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salvation, you cannot just use one piece of the key to unlock
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the full identity and saving work of the mediator.
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You need all three pieces functioning perfectly together.
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Yes, let's look at the first piece of the key, the office of
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Prophet. A prophet speaks God's word to
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the people. He reveals the divine will.
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In Psalm 22. The Messiah says, I will declare
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thy name unto my brethren, right in Psalm 40 he says, I've
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proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great
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assembly. I've declared thy faithfulness
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and thy salvation. Christ is actively revealing the
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character and the salvation of the Father.
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Then we have the second piece, the priest.
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A priest does the opposite of a prophet, right?
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A priest represents the people before God, offering sacrifices
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for sin. We already talked about the milk
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that Melchizedek and priesthood in Psalm 110, but look at Psalm
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40 again. The Messiah says, Lo, I am come
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in the role of the book. It is written of me.
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I delight to do thy will, Oh my God.
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That phrase I delight to do thy will is central to the Reformed
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doctrine of Christ's active obedience.
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Let's define that for the listener.
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As a priest, he does not just offer an animal on an altar, He
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offers himself. We call that his passive
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obedience, His suffering on the cross right.
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But more than that, he lives a life of perfect, joyful
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obedience to the law of God on our behalf.
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He secures our righteousness by fulfilling the law we broke.
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He delights to do the of God, whereas we rebelled against it.
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And finally, the third piece, the king.
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A king rules and defends his people.
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Psalm 2 announces, Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill as
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I am. Psalm 45 declares.
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Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
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A scepter of equity is the scepter of thy Kingdom.
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We need to connect this directly to your daily faith.
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Why does a mediator need to hold all three offices to save you
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perfectly? Let's bring it down.
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Think about our condition after the fall.
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We are ignorant and blind to the truth, so we need a prophet to
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teach us. We are guilty and alienated from
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a holy God, so we need a priest to atone for our sins and
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intercede for us. We are weak and surrounded by
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spiritual enemies, so we need a king to conquer us to himself,
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rule over us and defend us. A king who's not a priest cannot
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wash away your guilt. A priest who is not a prophet
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cannot reveal the way of life. Right.
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Jesus Christ is the complete Savior because he perfectly
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executes all three offices and the Psalms sing of every single
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one that. Structural reality leads to one
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of the most incredible claims the text makes.
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The author states that you could compile a complete comprehensive
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biography of Jesus of Nazareth using only the Book of Psalms.
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It is a striking assertion, but he provides the textual evidence
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to back it up completely. He essentially walks us through
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the life of Christ chronologically using nothing
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that songs written centuries prior.
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This is like reading a highly detailed, intimately accurate
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biography of Abraham Lincoln only to flip to the copyright
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page and realize the book was published in 1400 AD, centuries
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before the guy was even born. That is insane to think about.
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The sheer statistical impossibility of this should
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stop any critic in their tracks. Let's walk through this
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chronological biography. We don't want to rush this
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because the volume of data is staggering.
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Where does the biography begin? We begin before time itself with
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his eternal pre existence and sonship.
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Psalm 2 says, Jehovah said unto me, Thou art my son this day.
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Have I begotten thee? So it starts before Bethlehem.
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Yes, this establishes that the Messiah is not just a highly
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exalted man. He shares the divine nature.
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Then we move to his incarnation. Psalm 40, as applied in the book
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of Hebrews, says a body, Didst thou prepare for me?
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And there is a brilliant, subtle detail in Psalm 22 regarding his
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birth. Oh, yeah, he speaks tenderly of
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a human mother. Thou art my God, since my mother
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bore me. But there is absolute silence
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regarding a human father. It is an implicit nod to the
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supernatural virgin birth hidden right there in the text.
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Moving into his earthly life and character, Psalm 45 speaks of
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his moral beauty, saying Thou art fairer than the children of
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men, and notes the anointing of the Holy Spirit with the phrase
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Grace is poured into thy lips. And his zeal too.
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Right Psalm 69 captures his passionate devotion to his
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mission, a verse the disciples remembered when he cleansed the
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temple. The zeal of thine house hath
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eaten me up. But then the biography turns
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stark. The rejection begins.
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Yes, Psalm 69 foretells how he would be treated by his own
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family and the nation of Israel. I am become a stranger unto my
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brethren and an alien unto my mother's children.
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It says those who hate him with that cause outnumber the hairs
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on his head. Even the specific betrayal by
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Judas Iscariot is recorded in Psalm 41, the writer laments He
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that eateth my bread lifted up his heel against me.
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And Jesus brought that up directly, didn't.
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He he did. Jesus himself quoted this verse
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to identify his betrayer during the Last Supper in John chapter
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13. And then we reach the Passion
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Week. Psalm 31 describes the
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conspiracy of his foes, taking counsel together to devise a way
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to take his life right. We already discussed the vivid
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crucifixion details in Psalm 22. The pierced hands and feet, the
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parted garments. But the detail goes even deeper.
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Psalm 69 adds another horrific element to the physical torture.
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They gave me also gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave
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me vinegar to drink. This was fulfilled to the letter
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when the soldiers offered him sour wine on the cross.
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Psalm 34 predicts that unlike the two thieves crucified next
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to him, whose legs were shattered by the Roman guards to
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speed up death, a bone of him shall not be broken.
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Even his final dying breath is scripted in Psalm 31.
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Into thy hands I commend my spirit.
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But the biography does not end in the tomb.
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No, it proceeds to his victory over death.
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Psalm 16 prophesized the resurrection, famously cited by
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Peter at Pentecost. Thou wilt not leave my soul unto
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Hades, neither wilt thou give thy holy One to see corruption.
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The victory is complete. Yes, Psalm 68 describes His
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ascension into heaven. Thou has to send it on high.
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And finally, Psalms 50 and 98 look forward to his second
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coming, describing how He will come to judge the earth with
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absolute righteousness and equity.
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When you lay it all out like that sequentially, it is
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staggering. This provides a massive anchor
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for the listeners confidence. Yes, it really does.
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This is not blind leap in the dark faith.
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This is objectively verifiable prophetic fulfillment.
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God is actively breathing out a text that structures human
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history to validate His Son. Absolutely.
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The mathematical probability of one man fulfilling all these
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distinct granular details written centuries prior is 0,
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unless the author of the text is also the sovereign author of
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human history. It grounds our faith in
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historical reality, which is a hallmark of Reformed theology.
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Our faith is based on facts that happened in space and time,
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orchestrated by a sovereign God. Here is where it gets highly
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fascinating. At the very end of his essay,
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the author points out a grammatical nuance about how
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these psalms are written. Yes, this is a great point.
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In the Gospels, we watch Jesus from the outside.
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We see what he does, we see the miracles, and we hear what he
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preaches to the crowds. But in the Psalms, Jesus often
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speaks in the first person We actually get to hear his
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internal emotional state. The Psalms provide the inner
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monologue of the mediator. We feel his anguish in
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Gethsemane, his zeal for the Father's glory, his resolute
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trust in the face of death. It.
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Is so intimate. We get unprecedented access to
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the inner life of the God man. But the text notes something
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that totally confused me at first.
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He points out that many of these prophecies are written in the
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past tense. Right, which seems backward.
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If you are writing a prophecy about an event that will not
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happen for 1000 years, why on earth would you use the past
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tense? Wait, so if an ancient Hebrew
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reader picks this up, they might just think it is history book
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about David's past? How does that grammar work?
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It might confuse someone reading it strictly as Western
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literature, but in Hebrew grammar this is known as the
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prophetic perfect tense. OK, what does that mean?
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It is a massive theological statement about the sovereignty
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of God. When a prophet sees an event
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that is decreed by the sovereign will of God, that event is so
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absolutely certain to occur that the prophet writes about it as
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if it has already been completed.
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He. Is like a king signing a decree
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to build a bridge across a massive river.
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OK, let's hear the analogy. The moment the King's royal seal
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hits the parchment, the bridge is as good as built.
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The king has all the money and all the manpower, so the herald
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goes out into the town square and announces the bridge is
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finished even before the first stone is laid in the water.
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That is a perfect analogy. The eternal decrees of God
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cannot be thwarted. Therefore the suffering and the
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victory of Christ are spoken of in the past tense, because in
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the mind of God the work is totally secure.
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The author also argues that this grammar indicates the Psalms
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were designed specifically for the Gospel age.
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They're actually written for our current era.
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Yes, while they were sung by the ancient Israelites, Looking
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Forward and Shadowy Hope, they are uniquely tailored for the
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New Testament church. That makes a lot of sense.
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We sing them looking backward at the finished work of the
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mediator. The past tense grammar perfectly
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suits a Christian congregation today praising God for a
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redemption that has already been accomplished in history.
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When we sing, They Pierced My Hands and My Feet, we are
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singing about a historical fact that is already finished.
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So synthesizing all of this, the 19 O 7 analysis completely
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dismantles the idea that the Psalms are just a collection of
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generic religious poems or a spiritual pharmacy for quick
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emotional fixes. Absolutely.
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When you read them properly, equipped with the hermeneutic
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Jesus himself provided in the upper room, you find a Psalter
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that is exclusively, directly, and typologically centered on
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the Mediator, Jesus Christ. Right from His eternal sonship,
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through His threefold office of prophet, priest, and king, all
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the way to his physical crucifixion and glorious
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ascension. And that reality should
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completely change your posture the next time you open the.
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Book it really Should we want to leave you with a final thought
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to Mull over. Go ahead, When you read the
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Psalms tomorrow morning over your coffee, consider this.
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Are you just reading ancient poetry, or are you actually
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reading the personal diary entries of the Son of God
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written before the foundation of the world specifically so you
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would know his heart toward you? That is a heavy, beautiful
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thought. Thank you for joining us for
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this deep dive into the source material on Reformed thinking.
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Keep seeking Christ in all the scripture.