Two years ago when I was in Johnstown, PA I finished a series of sermons on the first two books of the Psalter. That was a challenge, but a joy to preach through them Biblical-Theologically.
I am back again preaching through the Psalter here in Ringoes. And sometimes I forget what I learned the first time preaching the Psalms. I have found myself time and again praying the words of the Psalms as if they were my words – as if they were about me. I fear, however, that I am not alone in this. I think many Christians read the Psalms Me-centrically, or egocentrically.
Think of Psalm 20:6, the Lord saves his anointed. I’m not the Lord’s anointed. It is true that he saves me from my sin and purifies me as if with oil. But how does he save me? He does so through Christ. He does so IN Christ. Jesus is the anointed one who was “saved”, that is, he was redeemed from the land of the dead through resurrection power. But, you may say, Jesus didn’t need “saving” or “redeeming”. Well, yes he did. Did he not have the sins of the people of God laid upon him? Was he not under a curse for three days? Did he not received the due punishment for sin in death? Was he not counted as a transgressor? Yes, on all accounts. Not because of his sin, of course (because he had no sin of his own), but because of our sin imputed to him. Therefore, his resurrection was his redemption – his salvation – and, yes, even his justification.
And this is where I come in, I guess. I am only saved, justified, anointed in the saved, justified, and anointed one. I have resurrection life because the one in whom alone I am found was resurrected. I am justified only because the one in whom I have been united was justified.
Therefore, the Psalms are not really about me, but they are about Jesus. And, only secondarily then, can I say they are about me. They are only about me in so much as I am in Him.
This is no forced exegesis – or, rather, eisegesis. This is Biblical-Theology made real to the Christian. The Psalms are my Psalms, but they are only my Psalms in Christ. Outside of Christ they do not apply to me at all, no matter how I try to tease out some abstract moral principle from the text, shedding the husk of redemptive-history. No, the Psalms are no fertile ground for Bultmannian-existentialist abstractions. Rather, they are the source for understanding the in-breaking of God’s salvific eschaton, foreshadowing the climax of the covenant promises in Christ.
Yes, I am slow to learn, but what a wonderful lesson to be learned – again and again!
The psalms are incredibly rich biblical-theologically. The twofold meaning of the Davidic psalms are particularly interesting. Thanks for reminding us of the exegetical importance of “in Christ.”
Yes, and so much more needs to be said. Here I focus eschatolgically, but we also need to speak protologically as well. Many of the Psalms have Genesis 1-3 in the background.
An interesting question I always come up against is the role of the covenant of works in the Psalms. When it speaks about the ‘righteous” and only the pure and upright may ascend the hill of the Lord, what is view here? A basically faithful member of the covenant, or the one who has kept God’s law perfectly?
Again, protology and eschatology come into play here. And so does understanding the original context of David’s life. But these are the challenges of reading the Psalms Biblical-Theologically.
Nice!