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The Gifts of Hymns and the Messiah: The Psalms · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to the deep Dive, powered by Reformed thinking.
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We have a fascinating set of notes in front of us today, all
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focused on Israel's hymn book, The Book of Psalms.
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We're going to be tracing the the intellectual and editorial
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journey it took, how it went from this diverse collection of
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worship songs, royal prayers, and laments to becoming, well,
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the most frequently cited prophetic book in the New
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Testament. That's right.
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Our main task in this deep dive is to really unpack how the book
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of Songs was collected, how it was strategically organized, and
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then crucially, how it was reinterpreted over many
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centuries. This whole process allowed it to
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shift from being, you know, just liturgy for the temple into a
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coherent, a very precise witness to the coming Messiah, Jesus
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Christ. We're tracking a clear, focused
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message here, the advance of God's Kingdom into the world.
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That's a huge mission, so let's get into it.
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We're looking at the Psalter as this theological center, this
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guidepost that points directly to that Kingdom message.
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But you know, before we can even get to the prophecies, we have
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to understand the physical structure and the identity of
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this book in its original context.
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It's 150 compositions, all collected and organized, But
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what did the people of Israel actually call it and what are we
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dealing with in terms of its age?
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Well, the Hebrew name itself gives us the first clue about
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its identity. Tehilim.
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Tehilim. Yeah.
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And it simply means praises. So that shows its primary
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spiritual function right there. It's a book of praise.
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Then when the text was translated into Greek, that's
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where we get our term samoi. And that refers to a song that
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specifically accompanied by string instruments, often
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suggesting the technical term pizzicato or plucking.
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So music and praise are just hardwired into it from the very
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beginning. But when you talk about its age,
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are we talking about the time of David, or does it go back even
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further? It goes back much, much further.
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We're talking about an incredible time span here.
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While you know most of the collection is associated with
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David and the era after Solomon, Psalm 90 is actually attributed
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to Moses, to Moses, to Moses, which places some of the content
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way back during the wilderness wanderings.
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That makes it by far the oldest piece in the whole collection.
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And the sources also point out that the theological ideas and
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the literary forms inside the Psalter show parallels with
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other ancient Near Eastern texts.
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Sumerian Akkadian uguriticsum dating back to around 1400 BC.
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So this isn't happening in a vacuum.
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Not at all. This confirms that these are not
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just Israelite innovations. It's Israel's unique theological
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response to these ancient traditions.
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They basically integrated the best literary forms available at
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the time to elevate their worship of the one true God.
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So you have a collection assembled over centuries, yet it
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was deliberately organized. The chronicler gives us an early
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peek into the liturgical life, and he validates a structure
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built around 3 main categories of worship.
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Let's focus on those foundational forms.
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Petition leading to declarative praise and then to descriptive
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praise. Yeah.
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And that sequence moving from petition or what we often call
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lament, to Thanksgiving, which is declarative praise, and then
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to general praise or descriptive praise, that's not accidental,
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it's instructional. These three basic categories are
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affirmed in First Chronicles 16.4, where the Levites were
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appointed to make petition, invoke, to give thanks and to
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praise the Lord. It shows us the kind of the
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theological life cycle of the worshipper.
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I cry out, I'm delivered, and then I praise God for who He is.
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OK, let's start with the largest group and maybe the most
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recognizable the petition Psalms or the land.
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These are those raw cries of distress.
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What makes this literary form so theologically vital?
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The lament is defined by an immediate, direct address to
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God, and that very act is theologically crucial because it
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demonstrates the worshippers complete dependence on God.
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The sources we have note that this dependence is really the
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defining difference between the covenant people and the Pagan
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world around them. To seek deliverance or strength
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from anywhere else is, at its core, idolatry.
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And the sources gave us that fantastic ancient phrase that
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captures the exact opposite of this kind of theological
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dependence. Yes, the.
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Babylonian phrase in a Ramanisha.
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In Armanisha. It means living by oneself on
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one's own resources, without dependence on God.
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The theologian Helmer Ringron rightly said that concept, that
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self-reliance to the point of excluding the divine is the very
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essence of sin. So when a psalmist starts to
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lament, they are immediately rejecting in a ramen issue.
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Exactly. They are declaring my resources
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are gone, I am powerless. Only the sovereign God can help
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me now. That context adds so much weight
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to the laments. So the psalmist is venting their
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distress over a specific crisis. It could be sickness,
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persecution, a military threat. But the petition has to be
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directed upward. Precisely.
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And the structure of the Lament often mirrors the crisis itself.
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It starts with the complaint, focusing on the pain, the power
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of their enemies, their alienation from God.
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But it never, ever stays there. The genius of the Lament is its
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pivot. The confidence section that
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pivot is so important for moving the reader from despair back to
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hope. It is the hinge upon which the
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entire emotional and spiritual direction turns.
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It's often introduced by this powerful phrase, but you.
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But you. The psalmist moves from
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describing the crushing reality of their circumstances to
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asserting the benevolent attributes of God.
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And this confidence is not subjective wishful thinking.
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It is anchored in objective theology.
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They look back to the moment God revealed Himself to Moses in
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Exodus 34.6 as compassionate, gracious, patient, and abounding
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in love and faithfulness. And that's the Reformed
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principle right there. At its core, our hope is rooted
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entirely in God's character and his actions, never in our own
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behavior or merit. It's completely God centered.
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Absolutely. The theological necessity here
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is that if God is who he says he is, compassionate and gracious,
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then the worshipper must turn their petition toward him.
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And even within the darkest laments, we find the penitential
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Psalms, which deal with specific intentional sin, and they
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highlight this dependence on grace even more.
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Let's talk about those for a moment.
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Psalm 51 is the classic example, right?
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Where David confesses the sins of murder and adultery, sins for
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which the Mosaic Law offered no earthly sacrifice, no mechanism
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for restitution. David's confession is just
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startling in its transparency. He recognizes his overt,
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intentional acts of sin, but he also recognizes his moral
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impotence. Knowing he cannot fix himself,
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he pleads not based on any human merit, but for God's Spirit to
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recreate. Him and he says against you, you
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only have I sinned, right? David realized that while the
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crimes were committed against Bathsheba and Uriah, all sin is
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primarily and ultimately against the Divine Lawgiver.
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And his hope for forgiveness, even for these capital offenses,
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rests entirely on grace. Correct.
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David found forgiveness through the cleansing act represented by
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hyssop, which was a symbolic cleansing that of course,
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foreshadows Christ's cleansing blood.
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It's a powerful assertion. There is no human resource
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capable of erasing sin. Forgiveness is through God's
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mercy alone. This shows that even within the
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Old Covenant, the concept of salvation was rooted in the
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sovereign grace of God. So once that deliverance or that
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forgiveness is secured, the natural response is the second
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category, declarative praise. We tend to use the English word
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Thanksgiving for this, but the source material suggests the
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Hebrew word E is much more precise.
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Yeah, the distinction is vital for understanding worship.
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Declarative praise is a public acknowledgement and praise
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specifically for an act of God's deliverance that the worshipper
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has personally experienced. The scholar clause Westerman
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suggested that ye is better translated as to confess and
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praise rather than just to think.
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What's the practical difference for an ancient Israelite?
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Well, in English, thanking someone can be a private affair
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or even just a sense of obligation, a polite duty you
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have to perform. In the Psalter, declarative
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praise is public, it's spontaneous, and it's entirely
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focused on elevating God by telling the story of what He has
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done. It's a confession before the
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community. I was in distress.
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I called upon I am. He heard me, and this is how He
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delivered me. It follows a clear three-part
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structure stating the intention to praise publicly, narrating
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the specific experience of deliverance, and then concluding
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with a formal testimony. It ties the community together
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through the shared history of redemption.
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So if declarative praise is specific and personal, he lists
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me out of the pit, then the final category, descriptive
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praise, must be broader. It's a culmination.
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Descriptive praise celebrates God's person and his works in
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general. It moves beyond the specific
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intervention in the worshippers own life and focuses on God's
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attributes as the Creator, the ruler of history and the
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Redeemer of Israel. And what's the one key
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theological attribute that descriptive praise celebrates
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above all others? That would be This term appears
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127 times in the Psalter. It is the absolute central focus
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of this type of worship. While it's often translated as
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unfailing love or kindness, it really carries the weight of
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covenant loyalty. It celebrates God's constancy
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and faithfulness to His promises.
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And that constancy is what sets the God of Israel apart from all
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the surrounding polytheistic cultures.
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Absolutely. The capricious gods of the
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ancient world, Baal Mardik. They were fickle, often driven
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by arbitrary moods or petty jealousies.
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Worshipping them involved placated them just to prevent
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their wrath. Descriptive praise by
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celebrating aside exalts. A God who is true to His Word,
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consistent in His actions, and whose love is bound up in His
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covenant. This stability provided immense
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assurance to the covenant people.
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The simplest descriptive praise involved a call to praise, A
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cause for that praise, and then a renewed call to praise,
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establishing God's reliability as the foundation of all
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reality. We've established the
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theological mechanics of the Psalter, but we can't really
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move on to the messianic section without confronting the
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imprecatory psalms, those difficult passages where the
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petitioner asks God to punish, even destroy, their enemies.
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Many modern readers find these challenging, but our sources
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insist they are theologically sound.
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They are, and they are considered most holy because
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they are fundamentally ethical, not personal.
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These are prayers by covenant Saints who are suffering gross,
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often violent injustice. The key to understanding them is
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realizing that these Saints are not seeking personal revenge,
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they are seeking the establishment of God's righteous
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Kingdom. So they're delegating vengeance
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to the proper authority, not taking it into their own hands.
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Precisely. They are rooted in the
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theological recognition that vengeance belongs only to God,
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as it says in Deuteronomy 32.35 David, who famously demonstrated
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personal generosity, sparing King Saul's life, showing mercy
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to Shemai, who cursed him. He couldn't have been driven by
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simple vindictiveness. Instead, when David praised
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these imprecations as the anointed king, he is functioning
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in his office. That gives a critical
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distinction. The King represents the
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righteousness of the Kingdom itself.
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Yes, these psalms are ethical because they distinguish right
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from wrong. They're theocratic because they
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aim for the ultimate establishment of God's Kingdom
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of righteousness, and they're theocentric because they aim for
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God's justice to be publicly acknowledged and praised.
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On top of that, they're covenantal.
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A wrong against the Saint who is aligned with the King is viewed
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as a wrong against God himself. And this connects directly to
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what Paul says later, that persecuting the church was an
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assault on Jesus Christ. It's the very same principle.
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However, we do have to address the distinction made in the
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source material that these are inappropriate for the Church in
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the present dispensation. And the question is why?
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Why the change? It's because of the shift
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brought by Christ. We are living in the already but
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not yet phase of the Kingdom. That is the core reason the New
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Testament introduces realized eschatology, which means that
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while the prayers for thy Kingdom come are still valid,
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the immediate application of ultimate justice is reserved for
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the final judgment. The Christian mandate, it's
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typed by Christ, differentiates more distinctly between the sin
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and the Sinner. We are commanded to turn the
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other cheek, to pray for our enemies forgiveness, and to
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conquer spiritual powers through suffering and love.
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While the Old Testament king asked God to execute judgement,
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now the church is instructed to wait for the final eschaton.
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That sets the perfect stage for our next section.
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We have the foundational structure and forms.
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Now we trace the typological path from the historical David,
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the author and the type, to the prophetic ideal of the Messiah,
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the anti type. This really starts with the
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definition of the concept itself, Masha.
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The Hebrew root is masha, which means to anoint.
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So the machete is literally the anointed one, someone who is
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publicly designated for divine status and authority.
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The anointing ceremony, usually performed with oil, consecrated
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that person as God's exclusive property.
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It implied divine protection, and it equipped them with God's
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Spirit for their appointed task. And this title was initially
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quite broad in its application across Old Testament history,
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wasn't? It it was, it wasn't reserved
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for one future figure at the beginning.
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We see it applied to patriarchs, to prophet, to priests, and most
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prominently to historical kings like Saul and David.
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These kings were seen as conduits.
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The reigning Israelite monarch was viewed as the Son of God in
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a covenantal sense, representing the invisible king.
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I am before the people. He was supposed to be endowed
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with righteousness and act as the source of strength and
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blessing for the whole nation. And this high ideal is then
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cemented in the Davidic covenant in Second Samuel 7.16.
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That covenant is the theological bedrock of all subsequent
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messianic expectation. God promised David an eternal
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house, Kingdom, and throne. And this wasn't a promise that
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was contingent on David's personal faithfulness.
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It was an unconditional decree that established the expectation
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of a single ideal future king whose reign would exist forever,
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ruling in the final age, the eschaton.
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But here's the major plot point. The historical kings, David's
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successors, they continually failed to measure up to this
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divine standard. They were idolatrous, unjust,
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politically compromised. How did the Psalter, their own
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hymn book, manage this huge theological tension between the
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ideal and the reality? The royal psalms contained
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ideals that drastically surpassed historical reality,
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and this intentional overreach created the necessary
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theological void. They spoke of the king ruling to
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the ends of the earth, enduring as long as the sun and moon, and
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sitting at God's right hand. As Psalm 110.1 says, no
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historical king, certainly not Rehoboam or A, has fulfilled
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these cosmic and divine descriptions.
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So the ideal existed in the song, but not in the palace.
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Exactly. The songs acted as perpetual
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promissory notes. These ideals were always
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pregnant with messianic expectations.
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They forced the faithful to look beyond the immediate flawed
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monarch to a spiritual fulfillment, a discontinuity in
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typology, moving from the flawed carnal type, the historical
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King, to the perfect spiritual anti type, the Messiah.
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The failure of the human monarchy became the engine that
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drove sacred history toward the ultimate fulfillment.
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And the prophets then picked up that baton, clarifying and
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detailing the nature of this future king.
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What did First Isaiah contribute to this doctrine?
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First, Isaiah laid out the lineage and the identity with
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breathtaking clarity. He foresaw A glorious future Son
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of David, born miraculously of a virgin, an Alma who would be
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called Emmanuel, God with us, God with us.
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And even more astonishingly, in Isaiah 9.6 he gave this king
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divine names. Wonderful counselor, mighty God,
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everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
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This immediately raised the expectation that the future
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Davidic king would be more than merely human.
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He would share the very attributes of the divine and.
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The prophets also added geographical detail.
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Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah, zoomed in on the physical
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birthplace. He predicted the humble origin
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of the Messiah in Bethlehem, a small, insignificant town.
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Yet this king would have a glorious, universal and enduring
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reign, one who would stand and shepherd his flock in the
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strength of I Am. The combination of divine
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identity and humble origins created a paradox that only
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Christ could fulfill. But the most shocking addition
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to the Messianic doctrine came later, from Second Isaiah,
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introducing the necessity of suffering before triumph.
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This was a radical departure from the expectation of a
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conquering king. It was an incredible theological
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challenge for the people. Second Isaiah introduced the
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anonymous Suffering Servant in chapters 52 and 53.
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This Servant who is true Israel, the faithful remnant, offers his
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life as an atonement for sin, suffering vicariously for the
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iniquity of others. So the sequence is clear.
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Very clear humiliation, death followed by resurrection,
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ascension and glorification. This prophetic contribution
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embedded the crucial doctrine that the Messiah must first
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suffer A sacrificial death before he could enter his cosmic
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glory. The Psalter needed both the
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suffering laments and the enthronement hymns to hold the
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full picture. Now let's ground this back in
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the Psalters composition itself. We talked earlier about the
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superscriptions, those little notes attributing authorship to
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David or providing historical context like Psalm 3 being
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composed while he was fleeing from Absalom.
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For many years, academic opinion just dismissed these notes.
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Where do the sources place the current credibility of Davidic
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authorship? Well, academic opinion is slowly
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but surely swinging back toward recognizing the antiquity and
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reliability of these superscriptions, really forced
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by the weight of external evidence.
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Historically, yes, many scholars discarded them as unreliable
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later editions. However, consistency found in
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the Chronicler's history, later Jewish tradition like Josephus
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and even the Qumran Scrolls, supports their authenticity and
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early dating. And the linguistic argument
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about the preposition is key here.
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Absolutely. The preposition, when used with
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a name like David, commonly denotes authorship in the
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Semitic languages, just as a Psalm of David suggests.
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Written by David. This interpretation is
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solidified by synoptic superscriptions like those in
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sample Samuel 22.1 and Psalm 18.1.
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This is so important because accepting the authorship notices
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ensures the Psalms represent theology at work in real life.
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It transforms them from just abstract poems into these
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intimate historical reflections. Precisely knowing that David
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composed Psalm 3 while fleeing the ultimate betrayal from his
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own son, Absalom, it gives immense emotional weight to his
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words. I lie down and sleep.
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I wake again because I am sustains me.
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It anchors David's personal struggles, his anguish, his
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confidence, his petitions, directly in the context of the
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Davidic covenant. This validated the New
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Testaments typological reading, which says if David suffered
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this much as a covenant king, how much more must the perfect
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king suffer? This historical grounding leads
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us right to the most fascinating moment in the Soldiers history,
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the major editorial pivot, Section 3, the post exilic
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masterstroke. We need to set the scene around
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586 BC. The Babylonian exile was an
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absolute catastrophe. The temple was destroyed, the
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people were deported, and most relevant for our discussion, the
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earthly monarchy ended. Israel was left without a king
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and with a wardrobe of royal robes.
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In their humanity, they had this huge collection of songs
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celebrating an eternal Kingdom and a reigning monarch, yet
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their current reality was subjugation and loss.
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The anguish over this historical fracture must have been immense.
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Where do we see this theological distress most acutely within the
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Psalter structure? The pain is intensely
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concentrated in Book 3, which is Psalms 73 through 89.
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This section is often called the Dark Book because it wrestles so
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profoundly with the problem of the failed Davidic covenant.
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It culminates in Psalm 89, which ends with this anguished cry
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questioning God's promises. Where is your unfailing love of
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old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David?
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And yet, despite this failure, the unconditional nature of the
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covenants to Abraham and David meant the faithful could not
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abandon the hope of triumph. This vacuum, the absence of a
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king, became the necessary fuel for intense messianic
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expectation. It absolutely did, and this led
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to a massive deliberate editorial decision likely around
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520 BC during the post exilic period.
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The editors, facing a community without a political head, needed
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to re signify the collection. They consciously focus the
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entire Psalter on the king, meaning the future king.
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So they took the historical royal psalms and drape them on
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the shoulders of Messiah. That is the core insight.
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They strategically reinterpreted these historical prayers and
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anthems, coloring all 150 compositions with a messianic
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hue. They ensured that every reader
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from that point forward understood the Davidic promises
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were not just about some historical figure who failed,
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but about the future perfect king.
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This organizational work transformed a collection of
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ancient hymns into a forward-looking prophecy.
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And the physical structure itself shows this intention.
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The organization of the 150 psalms into 5 distinct books is
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not arbitrary. No, the division into five books
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consciously echoes the five books of Moses, the Pentateuch.
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This parallel was a deliberate theological statement.
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It signaled the Psalter status as a foundational, authoritative
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guide for the community. Just as the Pentateuch guided
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Israel's life through the Law, the Psalter guided Israel's
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worship and expectation through praise and prayer.
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The editors presented David, in a sense, as Israel's Mozart,
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taking the foundational law and translating it into this vast,
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expressive, organized work of art for the congregation.
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But the real interpretive genius lies at the very beginning of
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the book, Psalms 1 and 2, the interpreted gateway.
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They lack superscriptions and they set the theological frame
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for the whole collection. This is the editorial
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masterstroke Psalm. One starts broadly contrasting
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the righteous individual who delights in God's instruction,
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the Torah, with the wicked. The placement of this song
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transformed the book from a simple list of Temple liturgy
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into a book designed for reflective individual
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meditation, which was essential for the decentralized, post
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exilic synagogue. It acts as the garden gate.
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Only those who delight in God's instruction, the covenant
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keepers, are prepared to engage with the hymns that follow.
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But the reader's focus doesn't stay on that generic, righteous
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individual for long. No, Psalm 2 immediately
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escalates and narrows the focus. It takes the righteous
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individual and narrows him down to the righteous individual.
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I am's anointed king. It shifts the conflict from a
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personal struggle against local wickedness to a cosmic
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confrontation, the nation's raging against God's universal
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rule and His King. This prepares the reader to
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interpret every subsequent prayer, lament, or Thanksgiving
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in relation to two figures, the ideal promised King and the
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individuals within his eternal Kingdom.
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Let's follow that theological story through the five books.
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This progression isn't accidental.
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It confirms the narrative intention of the editors.
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Books 1 and 2, so Psalms 1 to 72, are explicitly royal.
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They established the Davidic Covenant, they introduced the
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King, and they feature his personal prayers, lamenting
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persecutions, celebrating victory.
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They progress from Psalm 2, which establishes the covenant
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promise, all the way to Psalm 72, which concludes Book 2 with
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a fervent prayer for the King's Son to rule, justly passing on
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those eternal covenant promises. Then the narrative hits that
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crisis point in Book 3. Book 3, Psalm 73 to 89 is the
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profound interlude of doubt. As we just discussed.
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This is the dark book concerning the perceived failure and
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fracture of the Davidic covenant because of the exile.
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The failure of the historical monarchy intensifies the
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expectation that the future fulfillment must be spiritual
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and supernatural, not just a political re establishment.
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And Book 4 then provides the community's theological response
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to that failure. What does Israel do when the
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earthly king is gone? In the absence of an earthly
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monarch, Israel necessarily redirects its worship back to
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its origins. They look back to Moses, who is
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attributed with the opening Psalm of this section, Psalm 90,
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and they redirect their focus to I Am as the eternal King.
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This section contains the famous enthronement Psalms 93 through
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99, which declare God's universal and righteous Kingdom.
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The editors intended these psalms to be interpreted
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messianically, referring to the King's reign, through whom God
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rules the world at the end of the ages.
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It's the ultimate pivot, shifting reliance from the human
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throne to the divine throne. And that leads to Book 5, which
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views the future with the kind of realized hope.
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Book 5, Psalms One O 7 to 150, begins by treating the
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regathering from exile as an established fact, a victory
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accomplished by God. David is no longer just the
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historical king. He's now presented as an
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exemplary model of personal piety and reliance on God for
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the returnees. This book is saturated with
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prominent messianic hope, particularly in its final
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sections. What are the key prophetic texts
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in book 5 that really stand out? Well, Psalm 118, which describes
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the rejected king becoming the cornerstone, the capstone of the
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entire building, and critically, Psalm 110.1, which is the most
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quoted Psalm in the New Testament.
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It contains the ultimate prophetic vision of a king who
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is greater than David, seated at God's right hand, functioning as
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a priest king forever after the ancient and mysterious order of
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Melchizedek. So the Psalter's structural
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journey is complete. It's complete from the
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individual's cry in book one, through the failure of the human
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type in book 3, to the affirmation of God's sovereignty
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in book 4, and culminating in the vision of the King priest in
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book 5. Transition leads US directly to
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Section 4, the fulfillment. It's so clear that the New
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Testament writers saw this entire edited, structured book
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as an immediate confirmation of Jesus Christ's identity.
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The statistics alone are staggering.
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The quantitative significance really cannot be overstated when
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we look at the entire New Testament.
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Out of 283 direct quotations from the Old Testament, 116 of
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them are remarkable. 41% are sourced from the Psalter. 41%.
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41% Jesus himself, in his teaching and ministry, alluded
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to the Psalms over 50 times. This means that for the early
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church, the Psalter was the primary lens through which they
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understood Jesus's mission, his suffering, and his
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glorification. And this reliance is based on
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the theological mechanism of typology, where David and the
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historical kings were the type and Christ is the anti type.
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That is the necessary framework. The New Testament views David
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and Israel's kingship as patterns or types of Christ.
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But Christ is the anti type, the perfect fulfillment, who always
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exceeds and is greater than the flawed human pattern.
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And we see this contrast everywhere.
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David was a mighty king, but he was also a Sinner.
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Precisely. David confesses intentional sin,
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murder, adultery in the penitential Psalms.
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Christ is the sinless, perfect king.
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David is the Son of God merely as a covenant heir adopted into
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a royal line. Christ is the unique Son of God,
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united with God from eternity, proven by the virgin birth and
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his pre Incarnate glory. Even the most intimate, raw
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expressions of anguish in David's laments foreshadowed a
26:48
greater reality of spiritual suffering endured by the perfect
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king. Let's discuss how the New
26:53
Testament applies the Psalter. The Apostle Peter famously uses
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Psalm 16.10 bind to confirm Christ's resurrection in his
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Pentecost sermon. This relies on a pretty nuanced
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linguistic point about the Hebrew word shaped.
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This is one of the most intellectually satisfying
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typical prophetic applications. Psalm 16.10 B reads You will not
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let your holy one see decay. Peter argues that David's tomb
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is still with them. David died and his body decayed.
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Therefore, David must have been prophesying about someone else,
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the Messiah, whose body would not see decay.
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And the modern debate often centers on whether shade should
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be translated as pit, meaning simply grave or death, or if it
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truly means decay or corruption. Right, because if shot only
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meant pit, then the Psalm simply reads You won't let me die,
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which is clearly untrue for David who died and was buried.
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However, Peter, following the Septuagint and other ancient
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versions, interpreted the masculine form of shot as
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meaning decay or corruption. The linguistic evidence strongly
27:51
supports this ancient view. When the Hebrew intends to refer
27:55
to a place like a pit, it typically uses a verb of motion,
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like to go down into. When it refers to a state like
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decay, it uses the verb to see or to experience.
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So the grammar and the context confirm Peter's audacious
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theological claim. The psalmist was indeed
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predicting the imperishable nature of the Messiah's body
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after death. That is the core take away.
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The linguistic structure confirms that the Psalter
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contains specific, detailed prophecies of the resurrection,
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not just a general hope for avoiding death.
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We can categorize the New Testaments use of the Psalter
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into 3 distinct applications. First, there's the indirect or
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typical application. This is the broad application of
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David's general human experiences to Christ.
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So, for example, David's expression of confidence on the
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cross, into your hands I commit my spirit, which is from Psalm
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31.5, Or the general laments about unjust persecution, like
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those who hate me without reason, from Psalm 35.19.
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These psalms, which were written in small letters concerning
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David's personal passions, are understood to be written in
28:56
large letters concerning Christ's ultimate experience of
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suffering and vindication. Second, there's the typical
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prophetic application where the language transcends David's own
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life entirely. These are the direct, detailed
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predictions that David could not have fulfilled himself.
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These include the accounts of the crucifixion, such as they
29:14
divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.
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From Psalm 22.1. Eat or the preservation of his
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body. Not one of his bones will be
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broken. From Psalm 34.20, these specific
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details moved beyond general types and became precise
29:29
fulfillment criteria for the Messiah.
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And finally, the purely prophetic application where the
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Psalm speaks only of the superior status of the anointed
29:37
1. That category is dominated by
29:38
Psalm 110. It is the cortex used by the
29:41
apostles and Jesus himself. In this Psalm, David speaks of
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his greater Son. I am says to my Lord, sit in my
29:49
right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your
29:51
feet. Jesus used this text to question
29:54
the Pharisees. How can the Messiah be merely
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David's son if David calls him Lord?
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This demonstrated the Messiah's superior divine and eternal
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status over David, a notion that was wholly unthinkable for a
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mere mortal king from an Old Testament perspective.
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Despite this overwhelming body of prophecy confirming his
30:12
divine status and royal role, Jesus often preferred the title
30:15
Son of Man over the heavily loaded term Messiah.
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Why the aversion to the title that's so clearly defined his
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role? Because Jesus radically
30:24
redefined the nature of Messiahship, post exilic Judaism
30:27
and the intertestamental literature had developed a very
30:30
strong political expectation. They crave to David Rita Vivas,
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a military king who would conquer the Roman oppressors,
30:36
restore the political sovereignty of Israel and
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establish a national Kingdom. The term Messiah had become
30:41
intrinsically political. It was so politically charged
30:44
that if Jesus had used it publicly as his primary title,
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his mission would have been instantly misunderstood by his
30:49
contemporaries. The Jewish people would have
30:51
tried to crown him immediately and start a political revolt.
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Jesus instead came for spiritual transformation.
30:58
He demanded repentance from self righteousness and corrupt
31:01
religious practices and required personal trust in him.
31:04
He was establishing a spiritual Kingdom built on grace, not an
31:08
earthly 1 based on military conquest.
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His use of Son of Man, drawn from Daniel 7, emphasized his
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heavenly eternal authority and his eventual returning glory,
31:17
distancing himself from the limited political expectations
31:20
of the time. And that redefinition brings us
31:22
back to the theology of the already, but not yet.
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Exactly. The New Testament introduces
31:28
realized eschatology. The fulfillment of a messianic
31:31
expectation is already accomplished in Jesus's first
31:34
advent through His death and resurrection and the
31:36
establishment of His church, though not yet is the future
31:39
consummation at His return. Because the New Testament sees
31:43
the entire collection pointing to Christ, it even identifies
31:46
the everlasting Creator spoken of in the Psalter with Jesus
31:49
Christ Himself, quoting Psalm 102.25 to 27 in Hebrews 1.10 to
31:54
12, confirming Christ's pre Incarnate glory and divinity.
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What a phenomenal sweep of sacred history.
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We've moved from these ancient compositions influenced by Near
32:04
Eastern literary forms, through the raw personal anguish of
32:07
historical king, to the catastrophic failure of the
32:09
monarchy, and finally to a divinely guided editorial
32:12
process that structured the entire book to focus on one
32:15
single fulfillment, Jesus Christ, the Eternal King.
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The Psalter is not a random collection.
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It's a structured, edited book designed to guide God's people.
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That strategic editing process, particularly around 520 BC,
32:26
provided the intellectual and theological framework that
32:28
ensures every element of the Psalter.
32:31
The lament of Book 3, the enthronement of Book 4, the
32:34
explicit prophecies of Book Five points consistently to the
32:37
necessary suffering and subsequent glory of the Anointed
32:40
One. It truly transformed formed a
32:42
set of ancient hymns into the foundational prophecy of the New
32:45
Covenant era. So we begin our discussion with
32:47
the historical grounding of Psalm 3.
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David fleeing Absalom as a piece of lived theology.
32:52
If David's flight is a type of Christ's suffering and ultimate
32:55
betrayal, and his confidence in God is a model for the covenant
32:58
people facing persecution, how does applying these historical,
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structural, and messianic approaches to a personal meant
33:04
today enrich our assurance? Well, when you read Psalm 3
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today, you gain 3 layers of assurance.
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First, historically we understand David's personal
33:12
suffering, betrayal, flight, danger, the pattern it provides
33:16
for venting anguish while maintaining objective faith. 2nd
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Structurally, the post exilic editors teach us that we are
33:23
reading this lament with the Messiah in mind, knowing that
33:27
the ultimate failure of man, the monarchy, paved the way for the
33:30
ultimate triumph of God's King. And finally, messianically, we
33:34
realize we are members of a royal priesthood and we are
33:37
praying these psalms not just after David, but with our
33:39
reigning King. Our personal struggles, like
33:42
David's, are framed within Christ's guaranteed narrative,
33:45
knowing that our King secured the victory promised in that
33:47
same Psalter, his suffering leading to his eternal
33:50
enthronement. That provides a source of
33:52
assurance that our hope is anchored in the spiritual
33:54
reality of God's unshakable eternal Kingdom, no matter what
33:57
the immediate earthly crisis is.