Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: 2 Samuel 23:1-2 | Date: July 10, 2022 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Introduction to the Psalms of the Davidic King

Then you can turn, if you would, to 2 Samuel chapter 23. My purpose in the Sunday evening lessons on the Psalms is to, as I’ve mentioned, to help you learn how to read the Psalms and how to understand them, how to read them more profitably. To do that we have to take various ways of looking at it. Last time we talked about the poetry of the Psalms and we saw that it’s fundamental to Hebrew poetry is the parallelism. You’ll notice that the verses in the Psalms all have a first line and then a second line, and the second line echoes the first line in some way. We also saw something of the imagery and the terseness of the poetry as well. Imagery is very important. You read through and you see some figure of speech or some imagery there. Reflect on that and what is being portrayed in that.

But most important in that was the matter of parallelism. Watch the first and second lines and see how they parallel one another. Today we take up another topic, and that is the Psalms of the Davidic King, to see the royal orientation of the Psalter. We will begin with 2 Samuel chapter 23, verses 1 and 2:

Now these are the last words of David, the oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the oracle of the man who was raised on high, the anointed of God, of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel. The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me. His word is on my tongue.

I would like to read through the rest of the passage as well, but we have so much to cover regarding the Psalms. We’ll stop with this, and I want to draw a couple of observations from this beginning to this last oracle of David.

David as Israel’s Premier Psalmist

First of all, verse 1, we learn that David was Israel’s premier psalmist. He’s the “sweet psalmist of Israel,” it tells us. And the word “sweet” there means just that, sweet. But the idea, of course, is that he is the leading psalmist in Israel. He is the one who provided for Israel the psalms to sing. So as Israel gathered at the temple and they sang, and as the choir sang, it was primarily David who provided the music and the words for them to sing. So David is Israel’s premier psalmist. That’s not a surprise to us. It’s reflected elsewhere in the Old Testament. I have a number of passages that reflect that that you can look up on your own if you would like. All of those passages, in one way or another, look to David as the sweet psalmist of Israel.

David Spoke by Divine Inspiration

The other matter to observation from these verses is that, and this is in both verses 1 and 2, David spoke by divine inspiration. Again, that’s not surprising to you. We find that confirmed in the New Testament, and I gave you several passages for that. But that’s the claim here as well in verse 1: “The oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the oracle of the man who was raised on high.” That language is used for inspired writings consistently. But then he says it explicitly in verse 2: “The spirit of the Lord speaks by me and his word is on my tongue.” That’s the doctrine of inspiration exactly—God’s word through human instruments.

That is simply 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” We have plenty of verses that speak that way. This is David’s claim in particular, and as I’ve given you there, several passages confirm that in the New Testament that speak of the Spirit of God speaking through the mouth of David. So what we have here in these two verses is a historical accounting of what we see when we come now to the book of Psalms.

So if you look at, for example, Psalm 3, I have that on your outline. Psalm 3, you look at the superscript and it says, “A Psalm of David.” Now we have that 73 times in the Psalms. 73 of the Psalms begin with this in the superscript, “A Psalm of David.” In fact, this first book of the Psalms, Psalm 1 to 41, is often referred to as the Davidic Psalter. All of Psalms 3 through 41 are Davidic. Psalm 10, you may notice, does not have the superscript “A Psalm of David,” and it seems that Psalms 9 and 10 were originally one psalm. So entirely this first book of the Psalms is the Davidic Psalter. There are also a couple of other Psalms, by the way, like Psalm 2 and Psalm 95, that don’t have the superscript “A Psalm of David,” but they are confirmed in the New Testament as a Psalm of David, and in fact, like with Psalm 95, the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, does have that in the superscript, and it is a Psalm of David.

Our point here is simply to show that what we have claimed for us now in 2 Samuel 23 is what we see when we come to the Psalter. And in many of the other psalms scattered throughout the Psalter we have this: “A Psalm of David.”

The Superscripts of the Psalms

That brings us then to discuss the superscripts of the psalms. What are these superscriptions and what about them? First of all, notice the categories of information that we have in the superscripts. They’re basically two: composition and performance. So look at Psalm 4. I have that there on your handout: “To the choir master with stringed instruments, a psalm of David.” So performance—”To the choir master with stringed instruments”—and composition—”A psalm of David.” Those are the two categories of information that we consistently have in the superscripts. Psalm 5: “To the choir master for the flutes, a Psalm of David.” Psalm 6: “To the choir master with stringed instruments, according to the Shemineth.” We don’t know what that word means. “A psalm of David.” But it has to do with performance and composition. Performance and composition. We find that consistently through the superscripts of the Psalms.

Now, I’ll just mention this. I hope it doesn’t throw you. I’ll mention this and we’ll talk about it another time if you would like, but actually this matter of the performance of the Psalms—”To the choir master”—that always appears first in the superscript. And it is likely, very likely, that they are actually not superscripts to the psalm, but postscripts to the previous psalms. Now, the man I’m working with in the book, the Psalms that will come out next year, he has done some groundbreaking work on this subject. He’s actually picked up on the work of a man from about 100 years ago who did the same. But he’s taking it further, and he has made the case. And it’s just absolutely persuasive. I won’t go into all of the details of that right now. And it does look like now that that will begin in future translations of the Bible to be reflected—that these postscripts that appear as superscripts will actually be bumped back to their proper place to the postscript of the previous psalm. So when you see, “To the choir master,” that’s actually the subscript or the postscript of the previous psalm. But anyway, there they are. We have these categories of information, the composition and performance of the psalm.

The Genuineness of the Superscripts

That brings us into the next question about the superscripts. We get this a lot when I’ve preached on the Psalms. Often I’ve had the question: “These superscripts are printed in italics. Are they really original? Are they genuine? Are they part of the original, or are they something that were added later?” Traditionally, the superscripts were always taken at face value. And then, 150 years ago or whatever it was, when higher criticism came in, it all began to be doubted and it was attacked. Historical criticism was brought in and began to say that the superscripts to the Psalms were something that were added later. And historical criticism, higher criticism, has been so influential in biblical studies and Old Testament studies—massively influential, way beyond its evidence—that even in evangelical circles, many have doubted the genuineness of the superscripts in the Psalms.

But I give you a couple of points here in that regard. And when the book comes out, you can look at more of the detail of that if you would like. Number one, the textual evidence for the superscripts is unanimous. They’re all there, and the oldest and the best, they’re all there. They’re always there. There are no exceptions to that. In the Septuagint, we have some superscripts that appear there that are not in the Hebrew text, but we have absolute uniformity in the texts of the Hebrew Old Testament. They’re all there. We have no example of any text, any of the Psalms, without them. They’re there. The ones that have them, they’re there in all of the texts. It’s unanimous. And to say that they are not genuine goes against all of the textual evidence that we have. The textual evidence is unanimous that these superscripts are genuine and part of the original.

And in fact, and this is the next point that I have for you there, that was the standard practice. And I’m not going to go into detail on this, but I’ll give you a couple of examples. But in the ancient world, even in the pagan world around Israel, when they would write hymns to their deities, the standard practice was to have a superscript, the body of the psalm or the song, and then the postscript. The superscript, the body of the psalm, and the postscript. Having to do with the composition in the superscript, the body of it, and the performance of it at the end. This is consistent, and I’ve given you an example of that from the Old Testament. In fact, in the Old Testament, outside of the Psalter, every example we have has the superscript there. And I’ve given you one that demonstrates it pretty clearly: 2 Samuel 22, verses 1 to 4:

David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my Savior and You save me from violence. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.”

All right, that’s 2 Samuel 22. Now look at Psalm 18, right below it. And here we have in the superscript, in italics:

To the choir master, a psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this psalm to the Lord on the day when he was delivered from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.

That’s 2 Samuel 22 verse 1, same thing. And then it says, “He said,” and that’s the end of the superscript. And then begins the song, verse 1:

I love you, Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.

So there we have it. Again, we have in the historical account in Samuel, the superscript, and then the psalm. And when we come to the Psalter, we have the superscript and the psalm. And this was the standard practice. And if you’d like, I’ve given you there on your outline some other examples of that from the Old Testament: Habakkuk chapter 3, Isaiah 38. This is the standard practice in ancient hymns, that you have the superscript, the body, the psalm, and then the postscript at the end. And I’ve given you some other examples of that there.

Now, if all of that weren’t enough to confirm the genuineness of the superscripts, this last one surely is, and that is the New Testament. In the New Testament, both Jesus and the apostles affirm the superscripts. I’ve given you the passages there. I’m not going to take time to go through them, but there we have the inspired apostles and Jesus himself confirming that this is a psalm of David. And you get that only from the superscript. And in one of them in particular, in fact two of them in particular, in Matthew 22 and one in Acts, the argument that Jesus and the apostles are making from the psalm hangs on the genuineness of the superscript. We’ll find that in Matthew 22. Apart from the genuineness of the superscript, Jesus’ argument falls apart. So Jesus considered them to be genuine. All of the textual evidence shows that they are genuine. And in fact, that was the practice throughout the ancient world and in Israel—standard practice to have the superscript and then the Psalms.

Well, that raises the question, then why in our Bibles are the superscripts published in italics? And I don’t have a good answer for that except to say that there is some element of doubt in a lot of people’s minds about them. The New International Version Study Bible that was published a number of years ago expresses directly real doubt regarding the superscripts. A number of years before that, the New English Bible just left the superscripts out. And that’s against all textual evidence. But that’s the influence of the higher critics in translation. But bottom line then, there is every reason to believe that the superscripts are part of the original and inspired of God. And there’s really no evidence against that at all.

The Life of David in the Superscripts

All right, that brings us to another matter regarding the superscripts. And that’s the life of David in the superscripts. Fourteen of the psalms mention not only David, but some historical reference with regard to David in the psalm. So I’ve listed those psalms, those 14 psalms for you there. Some of them mention these circumstances in various ways. Well, let’s just look at some. Look at Psalm 3 in your Bibles. Psalm 3: “A psalm of David,” and here’s the historical circumstance, “when he fled from Absalom, his son.” So here we have a lament psalm by David written when he was running from Absalom for his life when the coup had occurred in Jerusalem.

Psalm 7, look at that one. Psalm 7, verse 1: “A Shiggaion of David.” We don’t know what that word means either. “A Shiggaion of David, in which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.” So there’s a historical setting to it. So happens in this one, we have no idea who Cush was. There’s no record of him in the Old Testament—this Cush, anyway.

Psalm 18, look at that, Psalm 18, verse 1: “To the choir master, a psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this psalm to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of his enemies and from the hand of Saul.” That’s the one we saw earlier.

So we have several psalms like this that not only tell us they’re psalms of David, but they tell us the historical circumstance in which the psalm was written. And we should, of course, pay attention to that. It’s intended, given that these are original, it’s intended to teach us how to read the psalm. So when we read the historical circumstance in the superscript, it behooves us then to go back to that passage in the Old Testament that it’s referring to, in Samuel, and read that account, and then read that psalm in light of that. That’s what David has intended for us to do.

Now sometimes in the superscripts that give historical circumstance, we have two different Psalms written in light of the same circumstance. So look at Psalm 56, for example. Psalm 56 is a lament psalm, a Miktam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath. There’s the historical circumstance. You remember that, this episode when David was taken in Gath. So there we have a lament psalm. And as you read through that lament psalm, when we get to it, we’ll point that out, that this is lamenting that particular circumstance.

But now look at Psalm 34. Now here we have not a lament psalm, but a psalm of grateful praise, an acknowledgment psalm. And notice what it says: “Of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech so that he drove him out and he went away.” So here we have the same historical circumstance reflecting another psalm, only the first psalm is lament written during that circumstance, and now we have a song of grateful praise written after that circumstance, giving praise to God for the deliverance that was given at the time. So we have one psalm lamenting the circumstance, praying to God, petitioning Him for help, and then we have in another psalm, Psalm 34, the same circumstance, but looking back to it now and saying, God delivered me as I had asked. Psalm 34, if you’re there, look at verse 6: “This poor man cried, and as he cried out loud, the Lord heard him and saved him from all his troubles.”

You have other examples of that in the Psalter. Psalm 51 is written, of course, in light of, in the wake of David’s sin with Bathsheba. Psalm 32 is the same, but again, Psalm 51 is a lament. Psalm 32 is more of an acknowledgement of God’s forgiveness.

Now some of the Psalms that don’t have superscripts, you might be able to discern from the Psalm itself some of the historical circumstances about it, but that’s really tricky. The older commentators were so convinced of the Davidic authorship of the Psalms that they tried to find a historical circumstance in the life of David for virtually all of the Psalms, and then that gets a little tricky. It’s a little bit difficult to do, and I’d caution against speculating, but it does show us that David’s life is reflected then in the Psalms. And in fact, I have another whole section here on your notes in that regard. In fact, this whole page, we have three divisions of David’s life: the time of his election and exile, the time of his blessing, and the time of divine displeasure when David’s life pretty much fell apart—and it’s a sad, sad story at the last chapters of David’s life. And we have Psalms that I’ve listed for you there reflecting each period from David’s life. I don’t think I need to go through those right now. You can see those on your own, but I’ve given you the information there so you can look at David’s life and how it’s reflected in these Psalms and the superscripts.

All right. I think that’s enough for all of that. That’s sort of the groundwork for what I want to say, what makes this so important.

The Royal Orientation of the Psalms

One upshot of all of this, and that’s your next point on the page three of your handout, the royal orientation of the Psalms. This is just an upshot of all of that. If David is the author of at least half of the Psalter, and if the Psalms are about him, we have to see then that the Psalms are oriented toward Israel’s king. That will become enormously important, and I’ll mention that in a minute. So what I mean here is that the king is the central figure, the central subject, the point of reference, in the Psalter and in the Psalms. Fundamentally, the Psalms are both by and about the King. Fundamentally, this is enormously important, and I’ll expand on it in a minute, but I want you to see the point. Fundamentally, the Psalms are both by and about the King.

Now we have a lot of evidence for that, and I’ve listed it for you there in some bullet points. Fully half of the Psalter is Davidic. The design of the editors very clearly is to point us to David and the anointed, like in Psalm 2 up at front of the Psalter. In the scenes between the five books of the Psalter, we have Davidic emphasis and things like that. I won’t go through all of these. There’s plenty of evidence for that, that there is this orientation toward the king, the Davidic king, David himself, or one of his descendants, the Davidic kings.

One important point here is that many of the Psalms—I have this listed for you—many of the Psalms, the “I” and the “we” alternate. So the psalmist will be saying “I, I,” and then he’ll say “we, we,” and there’s just been a lot of discussion about that in the literature. Who’s this “I” and who’s the “we”? If you understand that the psalms are fundamentally by and about the king, it unravels it. You have both the king and the “we” whom the king represents, embodies the nation. And so the “I” and the “we” are interchangeable very naturally if the psalms are about the king.

The enemies that the Psalms lament so often are military enemies; they are nations that are coming against. Well, that reflects again the king, the royal orientation of the Psalter. In many of the Psalms, we have prayers for the king, prayers of intercession for the king. Like if you look at Psalm 89—do I have this on your—look at Psalm 89 if you would in your Bibles. Look at Psalm 89 in verse 18: “Behold our shield, O God.” Who’s that? “Behold our shield.” Who’s our shield? Well, look at the second line: “Look on the face of your anointed.” Our shield is your anointed, the king.

And we have this kind of thing evident throughout the Psalms that there are just these hints, whether it’s the enemies or the “I” and the “we” that alternate, or it’s the liturgical atmosphere of the Psalms. Over and again, we find that the king is in view throughout the Psalter. Again, we’re going to get to this in a minute. It’s enormously important that you see this, that the Psalms are basically by and about the king.

So let’s look at some samples that I have for you in your notes. Psalm 22 in verse 25: “From you comes my praise in the great congregation. My vows I will perform before those who fear him.” “From you comes my praise in the congregation.” Where does my praise come from? Oh, you’ve given it to me. Well, it’s a reflection of the Davidic covenant. The king receives praise from the congregation because God has given that to him in promising him the promises of David.

Psalm 44 and verse 6: “For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me.” Well, here we have the king saying—and here the whole nation depending on the success of the king—and it’s not just “my bow and my sword,” the king says, but it is in God that I trust, and the success and the future of the nation depends on it.

Psalm 92 verse 10: “You have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox. You have poured over me fresh oil.” That’s the language of anointing. “You’ve poured over me fresh oil and you’ve exalted my horn.” You’ve made me a successful, strong king. Again, it’s demonstrating the royal orientation of the Psalter.

Psalm 118: “All nations surround me. In the name of the Lord, I cut them off.” This is not Joe Blow in Israel, all of the nations surrounding him. It’s the king. It reflects, again, the royal orientation of the Psalms. And you find little clues like this throughout the Psalter until it becomes patently obvious that the Psalms fundamentally are by and about the king.

Psalm 119 verse 46: “I will also speak of your testimony before kings and shall not be put to shame.” Well, who’s going to witness before kings? The Davidic king will. So again, you see this throughout the Psalms that Psalms fundamentally are by and about the king.

Now this is important for a couple of reasons. Number one, it determines for us and directs us how to read the Psalms. It directs us how to read the Psalms. There’s been a lot of discussion, as I mentioned, on who’s the why, who’s the “I” and the “me” and the “he” and the “we” in the Psalms. Well, if there are no superscripts, that becomes a question. But if you have David as the author in at least half of them, and the king reflected in so many more, it becomes obvious that the “I,” the “me,” the “he,” the “we” in the Psalms is the king. And the “we” is the nation who’s embodied by the king. And so as you read the Psalms, you have to recognize, okay, it’s talking about the king. He’s the one in focus.

Now, the reason that’s important is that when you read the Psalms, if you read it without this in mind—if you read the Psalms without keeping in mind the royal orientation of the Psalter—it’s fundamentally about the king. When you read through the Psalms, you’re going to think it’s talking about you. And it makes all the difference in the world how you read Psalms. You’re going to think, “Okay, this is Joe Israelite who is having a promise with God, and he’s talking about that promise, and he’s trusting God or lamenting or something,” and it’s not Joe Everyman. It’s not Mr. Everyman. It’s not just any pious Israelite. It’s the King in view.

That makes an enormous amount of difference when we read through the Psalms. You have many Psalms, like in Psalm 91 and Psalm 121. You have promises of absolute protection. Absolute protection. Guaranteed success. And “no plague will come nigh you.” Can you claim that promise? Did God make that promise to you—that no plague will ever come near you? And we have to hedge with those promises a little bit because we think it’s talking about us. But if we understand, first of all, it’s talking about the king, oh, it reads entirely differently. And we may have applications to make after that, but we have to see, first of all, it’s talking about the king.

Or, for example, in Psalm 4, here David—it’s a Davidic psalm—is lamenting the opposition that he is facing. He’s been shamed. Trusted friends have turned against him. And it’s a psalm of David. So Psalm 4, talking about those people who have shamed me, people who have turned against me—Psalm 4 is not about interpersonal relationships and how to get along with people who oppose you. It’s about the king and opposition against the king and what he does in response to that. We’ll see that when we get to Psalm 4.

Psalm 44 is another one. It’s a Psalm lamenting that the army has been defeated. In fact, look at Psalm 44. In verses 1 to 8, we have God’s reviewing God’s past deliverances for his people, Israel, how he’s been such a stalwart defense of his people in time past. But then verse 9 and following, we have him lamenting the defeat that has come to the army. So notice the change of pronoun in verse 5:

Through you, we push down our foes. Through your name, we tread down those who rise up against us. For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me.

The idea is that “my success here is the success of the nation. My defeat here is the defeat of the nation.” And that’s the king who is in view—someone who represents the nation, someone who represents the army, and that’s the king himself. So the king here in Psalm 44 is pleading to God on behalf of his army, on behalf of the nation, and asking God for his help as he has been in time past. Now that makes all the difference in the world in how you read the psalm. It’s not about you; it’s about the king. And we’ll have to take that a step further in just a minute.

So what we have then in Psalm 44 is it says, “A psalm by the sons of Korah, the choir masters,” some choir group, evidently, some guild. Sons of Korah writing a psalm about the king, and they put the psalm in the king’s mouth, talking about him and his success. Now again, this is just of fundamental importance in reading the Psalms. In fact, this is more important than what I talked about last time. I mentioned the fundamental importance of understanding parallelism in reading the Psalms, how the second line echoes the first and all of that. This is more important even than that.

There are exceptions in the Psalter. Psalm 107 was written after a time of exile, evidently, or during that time, so the king is not in view. Psalm 89 laments what seems to be the collapse of the Davidic covenant, but even then the king is in view. And this is just enormously important. The royal orientation of the Psalter is just pervasive. And if we miss that, we misunderstand the Psalms. And we’ll start reading them as though they are written about us. And that will lead us astray. So essentially, the Psalms are a royal hymn book with the people of God gathered around the king at the temple singing. And the king is the subject. He’s the one writing the Psalms. He’s the one about whom the Psalms speak.

Understanding the Psalms in Canonical Perspective

Now that brings us to our second point then, why is this so important? And this is where I really wanted to go with all of this. Recognizing the royal orientation of the Psalter enables us to understand the Psalms in canonical perspective. I hope that’s not too fancy jargon or something, but my point here is to say that recognizing that the Psalms fundamentally are by and about the King helps us to read the Psalms in light of the rest of the Bible’s big story.

When we come to the New Testament, when the New Testament writers, and when Jesus himself even—when the New Testament writers refer to the Psalms consistently, consistently, David in the Psalms is prospective of the greater David to come, the Lord Jesus. David’s sufferings in the Psalter, in the New Testament, become Jesus’ sufferings. The oppositions against David in the Psalms become opposition against Jesus in the New Testament. The prayers of David in the Psalms in the New Testament become the prayers of Jesus. They’re put on his lips. The enemies of David in the Psalter become the enemies of Jesus in the New Testament. The laments of David in the Psalter become the laments of Jesus in the New Testament. Somehow the New Testament writers look back to the Psalms and see that it’s about the King. And about the king is perspective of David’s greater son, the great king to come. And that’s how Jesus and the apostles read the Psalms.

I’ve given you some samples there. For example, Psalm 22 in verse 1. I’m sure every one of you can quote that one: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” You’ve heard that before. You’ve read that in Matthew chapter 27 with Jesus on the cross. He makes that lament his. So somehow David’s lament during opposition against him is prospective of Jesus and his sufferings.

Psalm 34 verses 19 and 20: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivered him out of them all. He keeps all his bones. Not one of them is broken.” Does that ring a bell? In John chapter 19, in the account of the crucifixion, this psalm is called up and said to have been fulfilled in Jesus. They didn’t break his bones. So we have David in Psalm 34 lamenting the opposition that he receives, but he is praising God for the protection that has been given to him. He has protected his anointed. None of his bones have been broken, and in that experience of David, it is prospective of what would happen to Jesus. New Testament writers read the Psalms in that way. If we miss the royal orientation of the Psalter, we miss that altogether.

Another example, Psalm 40, verses 6 and following:

In sacrifice and offerings you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, “Behold, I have come. In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do your will, O my God. Your law is in my heart. I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation. Behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.”

As you may know, that psalm is picked up and in Hebrews chapter 10 is put on the lips of Jesus. This is Jesus’ prayer. Jesus is the one who prayed this. So the New Testament writers look back to David’s experience and see in that a prospect of what will come and be fulfilled in the experience of Jesus.

Another one, Psalm 69 verses 7 and following:

For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face. I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s sons. For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach on you have fallen on me.

Actually, we have this psalm popping up twice in the New Testament. It’s in John chapter 2, we find it, and in Romans chapter 15, we find it. In both occasions, it is reflective of Jesus and his experience. It was his zeal for the house of God that consumed him. The disciples recognize that in John chapter 2 and then in Romans 15, “the reproaches of those who reproach, they have fallen on me.” That’s reflective of Jesus’ experience.

So the point here is that in the minds of the New Testament writers, they look at the Psalms and they read this experience of the king and these Psalms that reflect the king in some way and say, “That’s talking about Jesus.” That’s the experience of the king, but it’s talking about Jesus. Now if we miss the royal orientation of the Psalter, we miss all of that, and again we’re going to think the Psalms are talking about us. Now, it’s not to say that there aren’t applications to be drawn from that, and we’ll see that as we work our way through. But first and foremost, we need to see that the Psalms are by and about the King.

And what the apostles are doing in giving this to us in the New Testament and putting these prayers of David on the lips of Jesus and so on, they’re teaching us how to read the Bible. They’re teaching us how to read the Psalms. And they’ve given us, then, the warrant—as Pastor Greg mentioned today, when we sing the Psalms, we sing about Jesus and their fulfillment. The apostles give us warrant to do that. They look at the Psalms about the King and see that it was very prospective of the coming King, the Lord Jesus. And just as in the Psalms, the King represents the people, and so the “I” and the “we” are interchangeable, so also the King in the New Testament, Jesus, is the one who embodies his people as well.

And in fact, in the Psalms—we’ll see more of this as we go through, but often in the Psalms, it is evident that David himself at the time of writing sees himself as a type of his greater son to come. And so he will be writing a song about his own experience, and suddenly the language will go far beyond his own experience, where it’s not talking about something that he experienced at all. It’s talking about Jesus, and it somehow transitions to just a simple prophecy of what Jesus would experience himself. We find that in several of the Psalms. Psalm 22 is a good example of that, where David gives the experience of his own suffering, but then suddenly the language goes to explicit language that was unknown in their day about the sufferings of anyone. It was talking about crucifixion, which was unknown in that day, but it was fulfilled precisely in the experience of Jesus.

We find it in Psalm 40, that the Davidic king is prospective of David’s greater son who will come and fulfill what is written in the Psalter. Even the prophets we find in the Old Testament prophets—David is a type of the greater David to come. And God says, “I’ll send David my servant and he’ll shepherd over my people.” We have this and that’s what dominates in the Psalms as well. I keep saying this and it’s enormously important: If we lose the royal orientation of the Psalter, we miss what they’re all about. The Psalms are not intended, first of all, to be individualized. They’re not, first of all, about you. But there’s a much bigger picture in view, a bigger program in view. Ultimately, the Psalms are the prayers of Jesus Christ himself. And we see that explicitly in many of them, and then implicitly in many others as well.

Many of the Psalms are written like in Psalm 72. In many of the Psalms we find the king praised. And many times the king is praised because he is this, because he is the other. And it’s an idealized king. And the language exceeds that of David himself, let alone any of his Old Testament descendants. And we find that—what king is being spoken of here? It’s the King to come, David’s greater son. Again, it’s not to say we can’t find application in the Psalms for ourselves and we’ll do that, but first of all, the Psalms are about the King, and therefore they are prospective of Jesus. That is how the New Testament writers read the Psalms.

Conclusion: The Larger Perspective

So then, bottom line of all of this: when you read the Psalter, be alert to the larger perspective involved. Remember that there’s both the human author and a divine author, and often the human author himself recognizes the bigger program in view. Remember behind it is 2 Samuel 7 and the Davidic Covenant and the promise that God made to David. David recognized that very clearly, and he reflects that in the Psalms, and many times he speaks of his experience, and it becomes prospective of the greater King to come that God had promised him.

So when you read the Psalms, be alert to the larger perspective. One, the Psalms are primarily about the King. And then two, just who is this king who is being praised in such ideal terms? He’s so confident in the Psalms of his absolute triumph over all of his enemies. He’s so confident in the Psalms that no plague will ever come near him. He’s confident in the Psalms that no one will ever defeat him and that he will never fail and that God will always watch over him. And there are no exceptions to it.

Again, you can look at the Psalms and read the suffering psalmist and say, “Who is this righteous sufferer in the Psalms?” And ultimately the New Testament writers take us to see it’s Jesus. He is the one who was forsaken of God. He is the one who was hated without a cause. He’s the one whose bones were not broken and so on. So when the Psalms speak of the king, stay alert to foreshadowings of the great King to come.

In the Psalms, we make always so much of the emotions that are in the Psalms. The psalmist’s emotions ultimately reflect the emotions of the Lord Jesus and his experience as well. It reflects his struggles, his passions, his sufferings, his heartaches, his triumphs, his confidence. The confidence of the psalmist becomes the confidence, ideally, of the psalmist’s greater son who would come. So the Davidic and the royal orientation of the Psalms is essential to understanding the Psalms, and it’s essential to understanding how the Psalms work in the rest of the Bible.

All right, I hope that wasn’t too much. Are there any questions about that?