Seeing Jesus in the Psalms

  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...

  Psalm 88 “ He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.  We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.” Isaiah 53:3 The verse above from Isaiah is universally accepted as a messianic verse referring to Jesus the Christ and can be linked to a few gospel passages such as: “He told them, “ My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death . Stay here and keep watch with me.”” Mark 14:34 Two songs came to mind as I read Psalm 88 today. One is a hymn I have know since I was a child and I feel emotional when ever I sing or say the words even today. It deeply expresses the wrongness and yet rightness of the way Jesus suffered: Man of sorrows what a name for the Son of God, who came ruined sinners to reclaim: Hallelujah, what a Savior! If you don’t know this hymn and the story of the writer then I encourage you to enrich your heart and mind with both the music and story of P. P. Bliss. The other song mi...

  Psalm 69 MAIN POINT: A sinless Jesus suffered all the pain of sin for me (and you) while He lived and hung on the cross. Need I remind you that I am looking for Jesus Christ in the Psalms? So it is obvious that through the ages Psalm 69 is considered a Messianic Psalm because of Matthew’s inclusion of the detail of Jesus twice being offered sour wine. “But instead, they give me poison for food; they offer me sour wine for my thirst.”  Psalm 69:21 NLT  “ The soldiers gave him wine mixed with bitter gall, but when he had tasted it, he refused to drink it”. ... “One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink.”  Matthew 27:34, 48 NLT Many who comment on this Psalm say that only some parts of it apply to Christ because when David talks about being a sinner, that obviously can not apply to Jesus who was perfect and did not sin. I want to consider what Jesus did on the cross.  Jesus suffered humiliation. Dav...