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It's common for people to talk about the stories of the Bible, especially the stories many people grew up with in Sunday School. You know the ones: Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Noah's Ark, Moses parting the Red Sea; then in the New Testament, the stories of Jesus' birth, when he walked on water, fed thousands of people with just a few fish and a couple loaves of bread. Do you ever think about how those stories are connected?
Sometimes we don't realize it looking at certain passages in Scripture, but the Bible is really one big story all about Jesus. In every book of the Bible, while we don't see Jesus' name, we see evidence that points to Jesus.
One book that you may find particularly challenging to see Jesus in is the book of Psalms.
I've recently been teaching through the Psalms, looking at the ways that the Israelites worshiped God through songs, poems and prayers. It has been so cool to see some of the situations that the psalmists were in and the authentic emotions they felt coming through their writing. The fear that David felt when he wrote Psalm 57 is a great example of this.
We read in the heading of the psalm that David wrote this prayer in the cave of Adullam as he fled from King Saul, and see evidence where he cries out to God for deliverance. In many of the psalms, we see these strong, authentic emotions of the authors crying out to God -- in both pain and praise -- giving us a model for how and when we should go to God.
In the Psalms though, Jesus is never mentioned, which begs the question, "If Jesus is in every book of the Bible, where is Jesus in the Psalms?"
Perhaps the most obvious passage in the Psalms we can point to is Psalm 110: the most quoted psalm in the New Testament. Psalm 110:1 begins, "The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool." This is quoted five times in the New Testament, thrice by Jesus himself. There are a total of 27 references to this psalm in the New Testament!
Because of this, we can clearly see that King David -- the greatest man in all of Israel at the time -- recognized there was someone who would come after him who would be greater than he, someone for whom God would put this man's enemies under his feet and give him the seat at God's right hand.
This someone is Jesus. In Matthew 22:41-45, Jesus is speaking with the Pharisees, asking them about this passage. What is so interesting about this, is that Jesus is identifying himself as the Lord greater than David. The Pharisees understand that this passage is referring to the son of David, and Jesus is known to be from the line of David. Here, Jesus uses the Old Testament passage -- Psalm 110:1 -- to show that he is greater than David and deserves to be seated at the right hand of God, a place reserved only for the Son of God. He uses Scripture to point to himself! How neat is it that Jesus would come to this earth and use the very words given by God to us to tell us about himself?
Whether reading the psalms of praise, thanksgiving, or lament, we can see aspects of Jesus all throughout the literature of this poetic book. Sometimes we may have to do some digging to see how we can identify characteristics of, or allusions to Jesus in the Psalms, but they are there. The whole Bible is one story about Jesus, from Creation, to the Fall, by his Rescue through his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, to finally the Restoration that he will one day bring when he returns. The whole Bible speaks of Jesus, even the Psalms. So the next time you're reading through the Psalms, remember Jesus, and see if you can find him!
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Finding Faith is written by area pastors. Robbie Mays, associate pastor of campus ministry, at Big Woods Bible Church, Lock Haven.