I was always intrigued by what Jesus meant when, right at the end of Luke’s gospel, he says:
These are my words that I spoke to you while I was with you – that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophecies and the psalms must be fulfilled.” (Lk 24v44)
What things?’, I asked myself.
Well, of course, there are particular texts, especially from the prophets, that seem to speak of Jesus. Isaiah 9 speaks of the ‘prince of peace’, and Isaiah 53 describes a suffering servant.
And I can still remember hearing Psalm 22 read aloud for the first time during Holy Week, and being amazed at the way that it tells of Jesus on the cross.
But as wonderful and celebrated as such texts are, I’ve come to understand what Jesus is saying as referring to the whole sweep of scripture; and – in particular – to the ‘big story’ that the psalms have to tell.
The trouble is that we very rarely hear the ‘big story’ because we pick and choose and read the psalms in a jumbled order. That’s one very good reason to do what we’re doing in this psalms course; to read them all in order. And if you do that, a story begins to emerge…
Psalms 1 and 2 form an introduction. They set out the scope of God’s purposes. Psalm 1 refers to the ‘law of the Lord’, the way which God has given for us to follow. Psalm 2 widens the scope of God’s purposes from the personal to the political, with reference to the king and to the nations.
Both these, we believe, are fulfilled in Christ. We can put the baptism of Jesus alongside Psalm 2, especially in relation to God declaring: “You are my son; today I have begotten you.” (v7b)
But in Book I of the Psalms, which runs up to Psalm 41, we see how God’s good purposes are threatened and remain unfulfilled. Psalms of lament at injustice or protest at personal suffering, are interspersed by those of praise, thanksgiving and trust.
Book II begins with a heartfelt longing for God and contains the most profound expression of confession in the form of Psalm 51.
Even the king has failed to be who and what God intends. But Book II ends, in the form of Psalm 72, with a long prayer that the king may yet fulfil God’s calling to bring justice to the nations, something we see as fulfilled in Jesus, as son of God. Alongside all of this we can put the Jesus’ ministry, as he heals and teaches, gathers disciples, faces opposition and travels towards Jerusalem.
Book III is the shortest of the five books which make up the Psalms, and contains explicit references to the fall of Jerusalem and to the deportation of God’s people to Babylon (Psalms 74 and 79). It looks back on the way that God’s people have failed to follow in God’s way (Psalm 78). And it ends with the unrelenting darkness of Psalm 88 and with the haunting final question of Psalm 89 (v49):
‘Lord, where is your steadfast love of old which by your faithfulness you swore to David?’
Read in the light of Christ, we can see that foreshadows the darkness of the cross.
But unexplained and unlooked for, God raised Jesus up. And we see this move in Book IV of the Psalms, which - beginning with Psalm 90 - contains a series of psalms which see God proclaimed as king.
Newness is possible, despite the failures of the past!
The final book of the psalms seems to resonate with the new possibilities of God’s grace and God’s power.
A series of psalms proclaim ‘Hallelujah’ (113-118), another series of pilgrim psalms sees God’s people on the move (120-134), and the whole book of psalms ends with five psalms which enlist the whole of creation in singing the praises of God (146-150).
Read in the light of Christ, the big story which the Book of Psalms has to tell is none other than the story of Christ: his baptism, his ministry, his rejection and execution, his resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God.
Richard
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