Psalms of Christ's sorrow

Bonus! Today's discussion is also on Youtube if you'd like to listen rather than read!

Last week we spent time together in Psalms that recounted the history of God's great deeds. This upcoming week we will be studying Psalms that pertain to the life, ministry, and nature of the Messiah. Another way of saying this is that we are studying the Christ in the Psalms. That may be a bit of a shock, we sometimes think of the Psalms as flowery poetic language speaking of things we don't much care to understand. Yet the Psalms are filled with words concerning the Christ. 

Over the weekend we had a game night at church where we played Catch-Phrase. Catch-Phrase is a word association game. During Catch-Phrase each player takes turn trying to get team members to guess a word. The word is hidden on a device that is passed from player to player as each team takes turn guessing. When you are holding the device, you try (under the pressure of a dwindling clicking clock counting down) to give clues regarding the word. You try to help your team associate a clue with the hidden word. When you are guessing, you try to listen attentively to your teammates hints while making connections between the clues given and potential answers. 

The Psalms are a bit like Catch-Phrase in speaking of the Messiah. Do the Psalms say in so many words "The Messiah of God will be named Jesus, he will be born in Bethlehem sometime between 0-4AD to a virgin named Mary and an adoptive father named Joseph"? Of course not! (If you are wondering why, feel free to reach out and we can chat more about God's plans and communication methods, that is not a topic for us to tackle in this discussion today). Through the use of poetic expression the Psalms speak with God inspired prophecy regarding the Messiah. This prophecy mostly comes through associative word pictures. That's a fancy way of saying descriptions. The prophecies throughout the Psalms regarding the Messiah usually isn't declarative, but rather is descriptive. 

The Psalms many descriptions of the Messiah leave only a few options:

1) The associations between the life of Jesus and the Messiah described in the Psalms are false. 

2) The associations between the life of Jesus and the Messiah described in the Psalms are true. 

Let's take a look at some of these associations together:

How did the Psalms point to the life of the Messiah? 

The life of the Messiah described throughout the Psalms is one marked by sorrow, humiliation, and rescue by God. Many of the Psalms were composed by David, and often the Psalms of David speak of those pursuing his life, seeking rescue and finding deliverance from the Lord. Jesus' life was often threatened during his ministry. David's life prior to becoming king (yet already being anointed) was often a life of suffering, and roaming from place to place. The same can be said of Jesus, who although he was anointed with the Holy Spirit by God the Father, he had to experience much suffering and roaming from place to place. The parallels between the life of David and the life of Jesus are numerous!

The Psalms (not just the ones by David, but many others as well) speak of the Messiah's life in terms of sadness and mockery. The Messiah ultimately would only receive vindication from God the Father. We see this in Psalm 22. Psalm 22:1 was quoted by Jesus on the cross (Matthew 27:46):

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Psalm 22's descriptions are vivid and startling to read in light of Jesus' life. Verse 6-8 reads:

But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. “He trusts in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.”

Matthew 27:41-43 tells us of the mockery of Jesus on the cross:

In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42 “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

Psalm 22's description of Jesus physical demise is again vivid and startling to read in light of Jesus' crucifixion. Verses 14-18 say:

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.

We read in John 19:33-34 regarding Jesus being pierced and water poured out:

But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.

A few verses later in John 19:36 more from the Psalms is quoted, notably Psalm 34:20:

These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,”

Even the division of clothing stated in Psalm 22:18 was fulfilled by Roman soldiers presiding over Jesus' crucifixion as we're told in Matthew 27:35:

When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots.  

Jesus' life was marked by sorrow and humiliation as described by the Psalms and lived out by Jesus. Beyond his sorrow and humiliation, in the Psalms we can see prophecy regarding Jesus' rescue by God and exaltation. Tomorrow we will chat a bit more about Christ's rescue by God and exaltation as prophesied in the Psalms.