Christ In The Psalms

Christ In The Psalms

Psalms

INTRO:

Good morning.   It is good to see everybody here this morning. I would like to continue our look at the Psalms and this time I want to examine in more detail how the Psalms are connected to Christ.

 

I want to encourage you to take out your Bibles and look at the scriptures I mention. If you have any questions about anything I say, I’ll be glad to talk to you about it. If I’m wrong, I will stand corrected.

 

We have used this reference before in Luke 24:44-45 The scripture says; “44. Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.'' 45. And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.”    Then Christ goes on to say; “Thus it is written…”

 

After Jesus rose from the dead, He was speaking to His apostles and His disciples in our text, explaining to them that what had been written in the Law of Moses, in the prophets and psalms had to be fulfilled.

 

In a previous lesson we looked at the foreshadowing of the Christ in the Law of Moses and over the last two weeks we had an in-depth study of Psalm 22.   These things show to me the value of the Old Testament in increasing our faith.   Yes, we may have accepted Christ as our savior, we believe and we obey, but we also know that we are to continue to study, as Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:13, and are reminded in 2 Timothy 3:16 that “all scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”  The study of the scripture increases our faith and this faith is needed to help us in our walk as Christians, showing others the way to go and to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Ephesians 6:16 tells us we are to be “taking up the shield of faith”.  

 

Our faith that the Bible is the Word of God is increased because of the prophecies. You can read of events that were prophesied about hundreds and thousands of years before they came to pass and then see the fulfillment of them in history.  Our faith that Jesus actually is the Christ, the Son of God, is increased as we see He fulfills the prophecies about the Christ.   The Old Testament helps us in our understanding of God and just how powerful and magnificent He is.

 

When we were looking at Psalm 22, we also looked at Isaiah 53 as a cross reference with it.   There really is a whole lot more in Old Testament scripture about the Christ and I will only touch some.   There are around two hundred prophecies of the Christ in Psalms.    I encourage you, as you read through the Old Testament, to keep the New Testament in mind and look at the connections.

 

What I want to do this morning is to look at some selected prophecies in the Book of Psalms. Some of these prophecies the New Testament talks about and some of them you are probably quite familiar with.  Some you may have never heard of are a bit more obscure and can be easily missed in reading.

 

1. The Birth Of The Christ - In Psalm 2:6-7 it says; “6. "Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.'' 7. "I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ` `You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.”    This is talking about God setting His king over His holy hill, Zion and it goes on to say, “you are my son”. It is talking about the Christ and here we learn that the Christ is the Son and God says “I have begotten you”. God Himself upon the occasion of Jesus' baptism made it clear enough who this Son is, Matthew 3:17.  
   1. This is dealing with who the Christ is and at the core of Christianity is the question - who is Jesus.   In Matthew 16 Jesus asks His disciples "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?'' Then he asks them; "But who do you say that I am?''
      1. Everybody sooner or later must face that question, “Who is Jesus” and we're going to have to come to an answer.  
      2. What we should see is that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; He is the king of the kingdom.   We believe that and we have all these witnesses, these prophecies about the Christ and who He is and the nature of the Christ, fulfilled in Jesus.
   2. Another prophecy about the nature of the Christ is found in Psalm 110:1 – “The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.''” If you're familiar with the scriptures you may remember this verse from Matthew 22:42ff where Jesus is talking to the Jews there and says; “"What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?'' They said to Him, "The Son of David.''”  Then Jesus quotes Psalm 110:1 in asking “43…. "How then does David in the Spirit call Him `Lord,' saying: 44. `The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool'' '? 45. "If David then calls Him `Lord,' how is He his Son?''” The point is He's not son of David, He's the son of God.
2. The Crucifixion Of The Christ - In Psalm 41:9 we read; “Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me.”  This is a prophecy of Judas Iscariot and we read from Matthew 26:14-16 – “14. Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15. and said, "What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?'' And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. 16. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.” We see the fulfillment of Psalm 41:9 in Judas Iscariot.  
   1. In Psalm 109:25-27 – “25. I also have become a reproach to them; When they look at me, they shake their heads. (Now when we read that particular verse I hope we remember the lesson from last week because this particular phrase is also found in Psalm 22 about how He is a reproach, and about when they see him they shake their head at him) and He says; Help me, O Lord my God! Oh, save me according to Your mercy, 27. That they may know that this is Your hand That You, Lord, have done it!” In our lesson on Psalm 22 last week we pointed out that God allowed Jesus to die.
      1. Remember that when we got to the last part of Psalm 22 we pointed out that God heard Jesus’ cry, He heard His prayer and He answered His prayer.  
      2. However God allowed Him to die, it was the will of God for Him to die on the cross.   Where it was that we see God delivering him—is in the resurrection.  
   2. The resurrection, according to Romans 1:3-4 is the ultimate miracle declaring Jesus to be the son of God with power. “His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, 4. and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead,”
      1. Therefore, the resurrection of Jesus is the miracle we look at and realize He really is the son of God because God raised Him from the dead, declaring him to be the son of God with power.
      2. What is happening here at Calvary, if we look at the very last part of Psalm 109:27 is the will of God. God has done this, that they may know that this is Your hand.  
      3. Christ crucified and the resurrection of the Christ, is the hand of God and the will of God for mankind so that our sins can be forgiven and so that we can overcome death and have the hope of the resurrection.
   3. Let’s go now to Psalm 118:20-24. “20. This is the gate of the Lord, Through which the righteous shall enter. 21. I will praise You, For You have answered me, And have become my salvation. 22. The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. 23. This was the Lord's doing; It is marvelous in our eyes. 24. This is the day which the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.”
      1. The builders the verse is talking about are the leaders of the Jewish nation, the high priest, the priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, these individuals rejected the Christ but He became the chief cornerstone, the foundation of the church upon which the church is built.  It says this was the Lord's doing
      2. Going back, if you remember the very last prophecy we looked at where it said, that you may know that the Lord has done this. Here again it emphasizes this is the Lord's doing.  God is doing this, God sent Jesus, the Christ; God brought Him into this world. It was the will of God for him to be crucified.
      3. Notice the very last part of this. This was the Lord's doing it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.
      4. I suspect some of us when we see this last verse think; “I know this verse, it's on the wall in my house”. This is the day the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad, is one of my favorite verses.   When I read it, I think of the day before me, but what we see this morning is that in the context of the text, the day being discussed is the day of Calvary and the crucifixion of the Christ. This is the day the Lord has made. This is from God. This is the hand of God for the sins of mankind.
   4. Continuing now in Psalm 69:21 - “They also gave me gall for my food, And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”
      1. We find the gall in Mathew 27:34 then we read “they gave me vinegar to drink” and this particular prophesy is fulfilled in Matthew 27:48 – “Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave it to Him to drink.”
      2. Remember when we looked in Psalm 22, how does it begin? My God my God why have you forsaken me. Well here's another prophecy that you may not be familiar with Psalm 31:5 – “Into Your hand I commit my spirit…” Recall this is the last thing Jesus said before He died.  
      3. In the beginning of Psalm 22 is what He says about feeling betrayed because He's feeling like the Lord is not hearing Him the Lord is denying him, that the Lord is not going to answer.   But when we get down to the middle of Psalm 22, He recognizes He has answered, He does hear.  
      4. God heard His prayer and then here in the close of the crucifixion of the Christ, “Father into your hands I commit my spirit”,  God heard His prayer and God raised Him from the dead. We need to understand the answer given by God is the resurrection of the Christ.
   5. In Psalm 34:20 – “He guards all his bones; Not one of them is broken.” We find the fulfillment of this in John 19:33 – “But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.”
      1. Pilate was amazed to hear that Jesus was already dead but when we read Isaiah 52 it talks about how He was marred more than anyone.   We talked about this in the lesson last week that when Jesus was scourged, they marred Him more than anyone.
      2. There's no telling how much blood He had lost before he even got to the cross.   We know He died after about six hours. Normally whenever someone was going to be crucified to make them die quickly they would break the legs so they can no longer push themselves up but when they came to Jesus they did not break his legs because he was already dead, prophesied about in Psalm 34:20.
   6. Psalm 69:9 – “Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up,” because zeal for your house has eaten me up. This particular prophecy is often talked about when discussing Jesus driving the money changers and those that buy and sell out of the temple.  
      1. But the last part of this verse is not talked about in conjunction with those texts because the last part of the verse says; “And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.” We will see in the verses we're about to read is the reason the Christ is dying, is for our sins, not for anything that He has done but because of what we have done.  
      2. Psalm 65:2-3 “2. O You who hear prayer, To You all flesh will come. 3. Iniquities prevail against me; As for our transgressions, You will provide atonement for them.” The one to whom we pray, is going to be the one who is going to be providing what is necessary for the atonement of our sins.
      3. That's what the Lord's Supper is all about, how God gave the sacrifice at Calvary for our sins, for our transgressions, he's the one who provides the sacrifice of the Atonement.  
   7. Going to Psalm 49:7-8 – “7. None of them can by any means redeem his brother, Nor give to God a ransom for him 8. For the redemption of their souls is costly, And it shall cease forever.” We should take a moment and consider those words; for the redemption of their soul is costly.  
      1. There's nobody out there that you know that can redeem and pay the price for your soul.    Because the redemption of your soul is costly.   How costly?   You could take all the gold and all the silver and all the earth and everything on it and you could not purchase one human being's soul. God has no use for any of those things, they are all His anyway.
      2. What was the cost for the redemption of the soul of humanity?   The blood of the Christ is the only thing that can redeem the human soul, for the redemption of their souls is costly.
      3. Another Psalm 107:1-2 - “1. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. 2. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy,”  Christ is the one that paid the price to redeem us from the enemy, Satan.   He came to destroy the works of the devil through His crucifixion, His resurrection and His ascension; these aspects of the gospel are a victory over the enemy, over Satan.   And that is the one who He redeemed us from with His blood.
3. The Resurrection Of The Christ – We have looked at the crucifixion in Psalms now let’s look at the resurrection and remember this is recorded a thousand years before it happens. Let’s start by reading Psalm 49:15 – “But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, For He shall receive me.” Then in Psalm 16:9-11 - “9. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. 10. For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. 11. You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
   1. We read in the New Testament that when Jesus prayed at the very close of the crucifixion; Father into your hands I commit my spirit, three days later He rose from the dead.   God heard His prayer, God answered His prayer and the answer is the resurrection because in the resurrection He conquered death, He conquered the one who has the power over death, that being Satan and has freed us now from bondage to Satan, sin, and death.
   2. Peter speaking by the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:31-33 is quoting from these verses in Psalms when he says; “31. he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. 32. "This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. 33. "Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit,”
   3. In Romans 1:4 – Paul says in his introduction “3. concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, 4. and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead,” The resurrection is God’s answer to Jesus’ prayer; into your hands I commit my spirit.
4. The Ascension And Glorifying Of The Christ – A lot of times when we talk about the core of the gospel we talk about the death, burial and resurrection. We need to realize the ascension, glorifying and reigning of the Christ is a major part of the gospel as well.  In Psalm 91, you may recognize this part in verses 11 through 16, Psalm 91:11-16 – “11. For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. 12. They shall bear you up in their hands, Lest you dash your foot against a stone. ” Ok, the first part here you realize you have heard before.   Indeed, you have, this is what Satan was quoting to Jesus when he was tempting Jesus to throw Himself down from the Temple Mount, from the top of the temple.  
   1. Let’s go a little bit further in the verse that Satan does not quote. A little further down in verse 13, it talks about the lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.   It reads; “You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, The young lion and the serpent you shall trample under foot.”
      1. I can not help whenever I read this phrase “the serpent you shall trample under foot”, remembering the very first prophecy back in Genesis chapter 3 when the curses are being given.    God tells the serpent; “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” So, the very first prophecy about the Christ in Genesis 3 is about the Christ trampling the serpent under foot.
      2. I find it interesting here that you find the same concept in Psalm 91 where you have Satan quoting this text and the future is going to be Christ who destroys the work of the devil.
   2. As we go further in the same text; “14. Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high,” We are talking about the Christ here again, being delivered from death, the resurrection and being set on high, His ascension into heaven to be at the right hand of God.
   3. Continuing; “because he has known My name. 15. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. 16. With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.”    This goes back to Psalm 22, God heard, and He answered. The Christ is going to be delivered, the Christ is going to be honored, and the Christ is going to be set on high
   4. Now Psalm 68:18-19 – “18. You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; (this particular verse is quoted in Ephesians) You have received gifts among men, Even among the rebellious, That the Lord God might dwell there. 19. Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation!”  This particular verse again quoted over in Ephesians 4:8, is talking about Jesus ascending on high.  When he ascended into heaven, He conquered death and was the one who had the power over death as shown when He rose from the dead.   When he ascended into heaven scripture tells us in the Book of Revelation He has the keys to Hades and death.  
   5. Turning to Psalm 110:1 - “The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” This particular verse shows up most often in the New Testament.   Think about all those verses in the New Testament that are talking about Jesus being at the right hand of God.  
      1. This concept of Jesus being in the right hand of God we find in Acts 2 and all the way through the rest of the New Testament.  
      2. Jesus has ascended into heaven, He's sitting at the right hand of God, He's reigning now and the last enemy, talked about over in First Corinthians 15, the last enemy that's going to be destroyed is death.
   6. Let us continue in Psalm 110:4 – “The Lord has sworn And will not relent, "You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.” If we go to the book of Hebrews 7:17 – “For He testifies: "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
      1. In Hebrews 9:12 and following we find an important aspect of the Ascension of Christ. After He ascended to heaven, He went into the presence of God with his blood.  In Hebrews we find He functions now as our high priest in things pertaining to God and our sin.  
      2. When Jesus ascended into heaven, He was set at the right hand of God. Can we think of anything higher than being at the right hand of God? The way it's put over in Matthew 28 is he's been given all authority in heaven and on Earth.   The only one higher than the Christ is God the Father Himself.
      3. Jesus is now in heaven functioning as our high priest and from Hebrews 7:24-25 – “24. But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. 25. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He ever lives to make intercession for them.”
      4. When we're going to God, and I don’t believe that a day goes by anymore that I don't pray for forgiveness of sin, every time we are going to God and praying for forgiveness, we are going to the mediator, we're going to our intercessor, we are going through our high priest to God, seeking that forgiveness.
      5. Jesus is the intercessor, He is the mediator, He is our high priest in heaven itself after the order of Melchizedek, fulfilling the prophecy here and Psalm 110:4.
   7. Next let’s look at Psalm 45:17 – “I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations; Therefore the people shall praise You forever and ever.” Another verse, Psalm 72:17 – “His name shall endure forever; His name shall continue as long as the sun. And men shall be blessed in Him; All nations shall call Him blessed.”   Here we see that all generations are going to remember His name and all nations are going to praise Him and bless Him.  
      1. Acts 4:12 – “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Whose name are we talking about here, we're talking about the name of Jesus.   There's only one name given under heaven by which we can be saved.
      2. Philippians 2:9-10 – “9. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10. that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,”
   8. We are coming back to the original question we opened with; “who is Jesus”. As we go through the Old Testament prophecy after prophecy after prophecy, about the Christ, about His birth, about His crucifixion, about His resurrection and now about His ascension and His glorification, we find our answer.
5. The Kingdom Of The Christ – Psalm 89 is where we look next.   Psalm 89:3-4 – “3. "I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn to My servant David: 4. `Your seed I will establish forever, And build up your throne to all generations.'” If you don't know this is the Davidic Covenant, which was made by God to David and we find it in Second Samuel Chapter 7.  
   1. This psalm begins with the reiteration and restatement of the Davidic Covenant. Your seed I will establish forever, And build up your throne to all generations. What we find here is that Psalm 89 is a messianic Psalm.
   2. Now looking at the middle of this messianic Psalm, Psalm 89, starting with verse 26.  Psalm 89:26-29 – “26. He shall cry to Me, `You are my Father,” In the New Testament we find Jesus calling God, “Father”, in many places.
      1. “My God, and the rock of my salvation.' 27. Also I will make him My firstborn,” Speaking about the Christ He is going to be God's first born.
      2. “The highest of the kings of the earth.” There is nobody higher. “28. My mercy I will keep for him forever, And My covenant shall stand firm with him. 29. His seed also I will make to endure forever, And his throne as the days of heaven.”
      3. In John 5:18 – “Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.” Because He called God His Father the Jews sought to kill Him. That's exactly what was prophesied about Him back in Psalm 89 He should cry to me You are my father.
      4. What about I will make him My firstborn? Turn to Colossians 1:18 – “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” In fact, we find Hebrews chapter 12 where the church is called the Church of the first born.
   3. He is the first born from the dead. Jesus is the first one to rise from the dead never to die again.   If you don't know this concept of the first born, it is a phrase in reference to family. In the Hebrew family at the top of the family was the father and the second in the family, as far as authority, was the first born male.   In the family unit God is the father Jesus is the first born.    
      1. As far as authority in the universe Jesus is number two, number one is the Father. Jesus is at the right hand of God.  
      2. He has all preeminence as the text says here. He is the head of the body of the church. There's nobody higher than him.
   4. Now going to Psalm 145:11-13 – “11. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, And talk of Your power, 12. To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, And the glorious majesty of His kingdom. 13. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.”
      1. This is talking about the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant. The Kingdom stands forever and the king, the Christ (which means anointed one) reigns forever.   He's the king of the kingdom, we are the kingdom.
      2. The church is the kingdom, and Jesus is the head of the church. He is the head of the body. He's the king of the kingdom. The kingdom came into being on Pentecost and it will continue for all eternity with Jesus, its king, at the right hand of God.

CONCLUSION:

Studying the Old Testament should strengthen our faith. Our faith that Jesus really is the Christ; He really is the son of God. He really did die on the cross, it was prophesied about and He did it.   It was the will of God the Father for Him to do it, and He was obedient to death, even the death of the cross.  

 

God heard Jesus prayer on the cross when He said “Father into your hands I commit my spirit”.   He was heard, He was answered, and the answer was three days later when God raised him from the dead.   He prophesied He was going to do it and He did it.  When He rose from the dead as I told you from Hebrews chapter 2, we learn that it is through this resurrection He conquered death and conquered the one who has the power over death, that being Satan, and has freed us from bondage to Satan, sin, and death.

 

He has redeemed us from the enemy with the power of His blood.   It was all prophesied about a thousand years before it ever happened.   That's not coincidence.   It is God’s plan.

 

We all need our faith strengthened, those who are Children of God and those who have not yet accepted Christ as their savior.

 

Jesus is at the right hand of God right now, our high priest, our intercessor, our advocate.   There's no other name given among men by which we may be saved.   He has pre-eminence in the universe and every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess.  You need to figure it out. Who is Jesus? Look at the prophecies and His fulfillment of the prophecies, look at the miracles that He did.   Hopefully, they will lead you to the conclusion He really is the Christ. Your faith will become stronger.

 

If you are subject to the Gospel call in any way whatsoever let us know as we stand and sing the song that has been selected.

 

Invitation song: ???

Reference sermon by: Wayne Fancher