The Psalms of Christ - The Messiah Lesson 18 We are now studying the last group of Messianic Psalms. When we began this study, we started with Psalms that were written in the first person (I, me) and spoke of Jesus Christ. All of these were attested as speaking of Jesus Christ by Jesus Christ himself, or the Apostles. This last group of Psalms, I believe are also speaking of Jesus Christ in the first person. They include almost a dozen Psalms. They fit the pattern of the attested Psalms in that they closely describe what we know of Jesus' life, yet do not fit what we know of the writer's life, who is most often David (all of the Psalms we are studying in this lesson were written by David). I believe that knowing, as we do, that all the Old Testament speaks of Jesus, we have permission to look for Him throughout the Old Testament, not just in those passages that are quoted in the New Testament. In that spirit, we will study Psalm 86, Psalm 101, Psalm 140, and Psalm 141. They are the last in our study. Psalm 86 Verse 13 contains one of the great indicators of a Messianic Psalm. It says, "you have delivered me from the depths of the grave." This is a statement that cannot be said about David, but can only be said about Christ. Psalm 86 A prayer of David. 1 / 9
86:1 Hear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. [a] 86:2 Guard my life, for I am devoted to you. You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you. 86:3 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to you all day long. 86:4 Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. 86:5 You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you. 86:6 Hear my prayer, O LORD; listen to my cry for mercy. 86:7 In the day of my trouble I will call to you, for you will answer me. 86:8 Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord; no deeds can compare with yours. 86:9 All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, [b] O Lord; they will bring glory to your name. [c] 86:10 For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God. 86:11 Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. 86:12 I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. [d] 86:13 For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave. [e] 86:14 The arrogant are attacking me, O God; a band of ruthless men seeks my life-- men without regard for you. [f] 86:15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. 86:16 Turn to me and have mercy on me; grant your strength to your servant and save the son of your maidservant. [g] 86:17 Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, [h] for you, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me. 2 / 9
Psalm 101 If the voice of this Psalm is David, it only signals his intent not the action of his life. He did not lead a blameless life, his ministers, particularly Joab were duplicitous. Furthermore, some of the intentions of this Psalm were clearly beyond an ordinary human. Only God can see who are the faithful and who are the proud. However, it seems to me that the voice of this Psalm is that of the Son of David, Jesus Christ (see footnote on verse 8). Psalm 101 Of David. A psalm. 101:1 I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will sing praise. 101:2 I will be careful to lead a blameless life-- when will you come to me? I will walk in my house with blameless heart. 101:3 I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me. 101:4 Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil. 101:5 Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure. 101:6 My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he whose walk is blameless will minister to me. 101:7 No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence. 101:8 3 / 9
Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land; I will cut off every evildoer from the city of the LORD. [i] Psalm 140 All the words of this Psalm not only describe the trials of Jesus, but appear on most of the cited Messianic Psalms. Furthermore, verse 10 calls a judgement on the enemies of the voice of this Psalm which would not be appropriate for David. It says, "Let burning coals fall upon them; may they be thrown into the fire, into miry pits, never to rise." Only the rejection of Jesus Christ merits this judgment. Verse 3 gives the origin of the slanders against the voice. They come from serpents and vipers, which are the symbols for Satan. Satan is never mentioned in the story of David, but he is ever present in the story of our Lord. Psalm 140 For the director of music. A psalm of David. 140:1 Rescue me, O LORD, from evil men; protect me from men of violence, 140:2 who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day. 140:3 They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent's; the poison of vipers is on their lips. Selah 140:4 Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; protect me from men of violence who plan to trip my feet. 140:5 Proud men have hidden a snare for me; they have spread out the cords of their net and have set traps for me along my path. [j] Selah 140:6 4 / 9
O LORD, I say to you, "You are my God." Hear, O LORD, my cry for mercy. 140:7 O Sovereign LORD, my strong deliverer, who shields my head in the day of battle-- [k] 140:8 do not grant the wicked their desires, O LORD; do not let their plans succeed, or they will become proud. Selah 140:9 Let the heads of those who surround me be covered with the trouble their lips have caused. 140:10 Let burning coals fall upon them; may they be thrown into the fire, into miry pits, never to rise. 140:11 Let slanderers not be established in the land; may disaster hunt down men of violence. 140:12 I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy. [l] 140:13 Surely the righteous will praise your name and the upright will live before you. Psalm 141 It seems unlikely to me that the voice here is the voice of David. The words rather seem to be the voice of Christ. A number of the verses could not describe David, but perfectly describe Christ. Psalm 141 A psalm of David. 5 / 9
141:1 O LORD, I call to you; come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I call to you. 141:2 May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. [m] 141:3 Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips. [n] 141:4 Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil, to take part in wicked deeds with men who are evildoers; let me not eat of their delicacies. 141:5 Let a righteous man the righteous one [o] strike me--it is a kindness; let him rebuke me--it is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it. Yet my prayer is ever against the deeds of evildoers; 141:6 their rulers will be thrown down from the cliffs, and the wicked will learn that my words were well spoken. [p] 141:7 [They will say,] As one plows and breaks up the earth, so our bones [q] have been scattered at the mouth of the grave. [r] 141:8 But my eyes are fixed on you, O Sovereign LORD; in you I take refuge--do not give me over to death. [s] 141:9 Keep me from the snares they have laid for me, from the traps set by evildoers. [t] 141:10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I pass by in safety. [u] [a] According to 2 Corinthians 8:9 "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." The Messianic Psalms describe Jesus as "poor and 6 / 9
needy" or just "poor" many times (Psalms 40:17, 35:10, 86:1, 109:16, 109:22, 140:12, and 34:6) [b] See Revelation 5:9 "with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." [c] John 17:10b "And glory has come to me through them." [d] "Glorify your name forever" is characteristic of no one but Christ. John 13:31 "When he was gone, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him.'" [e] "Delivered from the depths of the grave" is characteristic of no one but Christ. [f] The verse certainly describes the High Priests and the Sanhedrin. [g] This reference to the Mother of the one who is the voice of this Psalm points us to Jesus. We know next to nothing of David's mother, not even her name, yet this speaks of his mother as bearing special humility. It points to Mary, the mother of Jesus who when hearing the LORD's plan for her life: Luke 1:38 " I am the Lord's servant,' Mary answered. May it be to me as you have said.' Then the angel left her." [h] As a Messianic Psalm, the sign asked for here could have been given by several things. It could have been the voice of God speaking on Palm Sunday: John 12:28 " Father, glorify your name!' Then a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.'" It could have been darkness covering the earth along with the earthquake at the time of His crucifixion. 7 / 9
It could have been Jesus' resurrection. [i] The words of verses 6-8 seem to match the words of Jesus Christ in Revelation 22:14-15 "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. [j] Lamentation 4:20 [k] The helmet of salvation Isaiah 59:17 "He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak." [l] According to 2 Corinthians 8:9 "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." The Messianic Psalms describe Jesus as "poor and needy" or just "poor" many times (Psalms 40:17, 35:10, 86:1, 109:16, 190:22, 140:12, and 34:6) [m] Of course Jesus himself is the meaning of the incense and the evening sacrifice. [n] Isaiah 53:7 "He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth." During Jesus trial he never defended himself. He let His own teachings and works defend Him. Matthew 26:62-66, Matthew 27:11-14. [o] The word "man" is not in the original. It is more properly translated just "the righteous." If so it can just as easily be understood as "the righteous one" as it often is in other places. "The righteous one" sometimes refers to 8 / 9
God. If this Psalm is Messianic this makes perfect sense as Jesus was struck and rebuked on our behalf as the second Adam for our sins. [p] Matthew 26:64 " Yes, it is as you say,' Jesus replied. But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.'" [q] The use of "our bones" seems to me to be speaking of all those who have come bringing the word. [r] This seems to me to be the cost of preparing the soil of the world for the seed of the gospel of truth. Jesus said as much of the evil men who opposed His Gospel. Matthew 23:29-35 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers! "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar." [s] This was a prayer that was answered for Christ. [t] Lamentation 4:20 [u] The Cross, by which Satan thought to destroy Christ, in fact, was Christ's victory and Satan's defeat. 9 / 9