And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
— Luke 24:44-47
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
— Psalm 16:9-11
To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly. Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard. My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the LORD’S: and he is the governor among the nations. All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul. A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.
— Psalm 22:1-31
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
— Psalm 40:6-8
A Psalm of David. The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries. He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.
— Psalm 110:1-7
The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.
— Psalm 118:22
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
— John 5:39
Christ in the Psalms, by William S. Plumer. The following contains an excerpt from his work, “Studies in the Book of Psalms.”
For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publickly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.
— Acts 18:28
The weightiest matter in controversy respecting the interpretation of the Psalms regards their application to Christ. How far are they Messianic? Has any part of them a primary application to David or Solomon and a secondary reference to Christ? Were these kings types of the Savior? If so, how far may we go in regarding them as typical? In this matter there may have been rashness and folly on both sides. An unbridled fancy may find supposed analogies where none were intended to be suggested. And a cold, critical turn of mind may reject the most striking types. To say that nothing in the Old Testament is a type of Christ unless in the New Testament it is expressly declared to be so is as contrary to reason as to say that no prophecy of the Old Testament relates to Christ unless it is quoted as such in the New. The entire old dispensation was full of figures. So Paul teaches in Hebrews 10:1. On the other hand, fanciful men will pervert anything. In explaining God’s word, we must exercise sobriety. The Scripture calls on men to use common sense. Lacking this, they will err whatever may be the rules of interpretation adopted by them. They must prove all things.
It has often been said that Cocceius carried the typical interpretation to an extreme, finding Christ everywhere. Both Christ and His apostles taught that the Old Testament was very full of Messiah and His kingdom. See Luke 24:44 and Acts 3:24. These passages are supported by Luke 24:27, 2 Timothy 3:15, and many others. If, therefore, Cocceius did find Christ “in all the prophets,” inspired men did the same thousands of years ago. He may have erred in some of his views, but some examination of his work on the Psalms satisfies me that he is a far safer and sounder guide than any of his traducers. This great man wrote at a time when the world was far gone astray, and his attempt to recall mankind to the simple truths of Scripture provoked violent opposition, which covered his name with unmerited reproach. He laid down no rule of interpreting the Psalms more comprehensive than that of Horsley: “There is not a page of this Book of Psalms in which the pious reader will not find his Savior, if he read with a view of finding Him.” Henry: In the Book of Psalms, “so much is there in it of Christ and His gospel, as well as of God and His law, that it had been called the abstract or summary of both Testaments… David was a type of Christ, Who descended from him, not from Moses, because Christ came to take away sacrifice (the family of Moses was soon lost and extinct), and to establish and perpetuate joy and praise; for of the family of David in Christ there shall be no end.”
The great key to the interpretation of the Psalms respecting David and Solomon is found in 2 Samuel 7 where God gives a clear promise that the seed of David should reign forever. In no sense can that promise be made good except in Christ Jesus. Bishop Chandler very justly remarks that “The Jews must have understood David, their prince, to have been a figure of Messiah…They would not otherwise have made his Psalms a part of their daily worship, nor would David have delivered them to the church to be so employed, were it not to instruct and support them in the belief of this fundamental article. If the Messias were not concerned in the Psalms, it would be absurd to celebrate twice a day in their public devotions the events of one man’s life, who was deceased so long ago as to have no relation now to the Jews and the circumstances of their affairs; or to transcribe whole passages from them into their prayers for the coming of Messias.”
Gill says that “The subject matter of this book is exceeding great and excellent; many of the psalms respect the person, offices, and grace of Christ; His sufferings and death, resurrection, ascension, and session at the right hand of God; and so are exceeding suitable to the gospel dispensation.” Dr. J. A. Alexander: “The chain of Messianic promises, which for ages had been broken or concealed beneath the prophetic ritual, was now renewed by the addition of a new link in the great Messianic promise made to David (2Sa 7) of perpetual succession in his family.”
In discussing the question “whether all the Psalms should be applied to Christ or not,” Scott says, “No doubt every pious mind will allow that each of them immediately points to Him in His person, character, and offices; or may be so applied as to lead the believer’s thoughts to Him Who is the center of all acceptable religion.” Leighton: “There are many things in the Psalms and other parts of the Old Testament applied by the apostles to Christ, which, but for their authority, perhaps no one would have considered as referring to Him.”
We might therefore agree with Morison that we “perceive no infallible guide but in the comments and appropriations of Christ and His apostles”; and yet with consistency we might say with him, “That many of the psalms have a double sense attached to them cannot be fairly disputed.” And there is much truth in the remark of Dr. Allix, that “although the sense of near fifty Psalms be fixed and settled by divine authors…Yet Christ and His apostles did not undertake to quote all the Psalms they could quote, but only to give a key to their hearers, by which they might apply to the same subjects the Psalms of the same composure and expression.”
Nothing heretofore said was designed to oppose the rule of interpretation laid down by Melanchthon that we must always seek the grammatical sense of Scripture; nor that laid down by Richard Hooker: “I hold it for a most infallible rule in expositions of sacred Scripture, that where a literal construction will stand, the farthest from the letter is commonly the worst.” Let us then in all cases admit the literal or primary sense of Scripture.
But this should not hinder us from also admitting in many cases the spiritual or secondary sense. A thing spoken of David may be literally true of him. Thus, we have the primary sense. But David was a type of Christ, and what he says primarily of himself may have a secondary fulfilment in Christ, and so we get the spiritual sense. Without admitting thus much, how is it possible ever to apply the doctrine of types in persons to the antitype? When we have a figure, the first thing is to discover the foundation and sense of the figure; the next is to apply it to the matter in hand.
This is not giving unbridled license to the vagaries of men of no judgment. Vitringa was right when he condemned what has often passed under the name of spiritualizing: “I do not deny that many men of uninstructed faculties and of shallow judgment have, in almost every age of the Church, commended to persons like themselves, under the name of allegorical interpretations of Scripture, certain weak and stupid fancies in which there is neither unction, judgment, nor spiritual discernment; they have sought for those mysteries of theirs that spring from a most frigid invention, either in improper places or promiscuously in every place, without any discrimination of circumstances, without any foundation in allegory, or in verisimilitude of language. So I do not wonder that it has occurred to many sensible persons to doubt whether it would not be better to abandon this study altogether to the skillful use of which experience teaches us the abilities of but very few are adequate, than to expose Holy Scripture to the senseless experiments of the unskillful, so as to cause great injury to itself and to excite the applause of the profane.” The truth is that nothing is of more importance to the interpreter of Scripture than good common sense. A foolish or fanciful man will misapply the best rules of exposition. In vain do we expect wisdom from those who lack sobriety.
Martin Bucer: “It would be worth a great deal to the Church, if, forsaking allegories and other frivolous devices, which are not only empty, but derogate very much from the majesty of the doctrine of Christ, we would all simply and soberly prosecute that which our Lord intends to say to us.” Nor can we rightly apply to Christ the penitential psalms or represent Him as asking forgiveness. In Himself, He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, perfectly innocent, having nothing to repent of. And if sin imputed to Him was to Him forgiven, then it was not atoned for by Him. Indeed, forgiveness is non-imputation. Nor can we ever apply to Christ those parts of the Psalter that plead for the subduing of corruptions. He had no corruptions to subdue. Yet the remark of Hilary is of great weight: “The key of the Psalms is the faith of Christ.”
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