Seeing Jesus in the Psalms

Psalm 149 1 Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song.     Sing his praises in the assembly of the faithful. 2 O Israel, rejoice in your Maker.     O people of Jerusalem, exult in your King. 3 Praise his name with dancing,     accompanied by tambourine and harp. 4 For the Lord delights in his people;     he crowns the humble with victory. 5 Let the faithful rejoice that he honors them.     Let them sing for joy as they lie on their beds. 6 Let the praises of God be in their mouths,     and a sharp sword in their hands— 7 to execute vengeance on the nations     and punishment on the peoples, 8 to bind their kings with shackles     and their leaders with iron chains, 9 to execute the judgment written against them.     This is the glorious privilege of his faithful ones. Praise the Lord! 3 Don’t you realize th...

  Psalm 137 Wept, captors, tormentors, “Destroy it!”, “Level it to the ground!” pays you back,  takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks! I pulled out some of the emotionally charged and deeply disturbing words from Psalm 137. Somehow the slaughtering of evil kings is easier to handle than the expression of pain, remorse and justice-seeking from today’s Psalm 137. The Bible is good because it is real, gritty, true to life, holds nothing back, honest about emotions and actions. When we look at the Bible, we are looking in the mirror, we are looking at ourselves, we are looking at our society. Jesus is no stranger to being the victim of children smashed on the rocks. Crucified! The son of God was crucified and Jesus’ own people yelled “Crucify him”. And Jesus too was in exile (in Egypt) because of a baby-smashing, slashing killing spree of a Jewish king’s cruel, fear-driven power: 16 Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent sold...

  Psalms 130 A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem. 1 From the depths of despair, O Lord, I call for your help. 2 Hear my cry, O Lord. Pay attention to my prayer. 3 Lord, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive? 4 But you offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear you. 5 I am counting on the Lord; yes, I am counting on him. I have put my hope in his word. 6 I long for the Lord more than sentries long for the dawn, yes, more than sentries long for the dawn. 7 O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is unfailing love. His redemption overflows. 8 He himself will redeem Israel from every kind of sin. Psalm 130 hope in the Lord v.7 MAIN POINT: There is hope for despair in the person of Jesus who redeems. If you read too quickly you might miss the words “ depths of despair ”. You might have become numb to a Psalmist’s honesty and emotional transparency. Maybe you are too tired yourself to feel with the writer and to connect to the words aga...