The Jesus Psalm

I refer to Psalm 22 as the Jesus Psalm just because so much of it refers to the Easter story. I know there are other New Testament verses that will fit with Psalm 22 but this is a good start. I will encourage you to do one of these; there are several places in the New Testament that I will be doing during Holy Week and beyond.

Psalm 22

New Testament Verse

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. .Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises.
In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them.
To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people.All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads.

 

“He trusts in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.”

Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
10 From birth I was cast on you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.

 12 Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

13 Roaring lions that tear their prey open their mouths wide against me.

14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me.

15 My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.

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 16 Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet.

17 All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me.

18 They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.

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 19 But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help me.

20 Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs.
21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

 22 I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you.

23 You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.

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25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.

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 26 The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the Lord will praise him— may your hearts live forever!

27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,

28 for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations.

29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him— those who cannot keep themselves alive.
30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord.
31 They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!

Matthew 27: 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lemasabachthani?” (Which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)..John 8: 54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”.

Matthew 27: 39 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!”

Matthew 27: 41 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42 “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

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Luke 22: 63 The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him.

Luke 14: 64 “You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” They all condemned him as worthy of death. 65 Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, “Prophesy!” And the guards took him and beat him.

John 19: 28 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”

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John 20: 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

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Luke 23: 34 And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. (John 19:23)

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Luke 22: 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

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.Luke 4: 43 But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” 44 And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

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Matthew 21: The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

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Mark 8: The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

 

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Comparison of Psalm 14 and 53

Is there a deep spiritual significance to having two nearly identical Psalms in the Bible?  – No, not that I could find but I think it is kind of neat. They appear in two different parts or books within Psalms. The first “book” goes from #1 to # 41 and the second “book” is #42 to #72. The books end with “Amen and Amen” and #72 announces, “This concludes the prayers of David son of Jesse.”

Psalm 14For the director of music. Of David. The fool says in his heart,  “There is no God.”They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
there is no one who does good.

The Lord looks down from heaven
on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God.
All have turned away, all have become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.

Do all these evildoers know nothing?

They devour my people as though eating bread;
they never call on the Lord.
But there they are, overwhelmed with dread,
 for God is present in the company of the righteous.
You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor,
    but the Lord is their refuge.

Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
When the Lord restores his people,
let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!

Psalm 53

For the director of music. According to mahalath. Amaskil of David.

The fool says in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and their ways are vile;
there is no one who does good.

God looks down from heaven
on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God.
Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good,
not even one.

Do all these evildoers know nothing?

They devour my people as though eating bread;
they never call on God.
But there they are, overwhelmed with dread,
where there was nothing to dread.
God scattered the bones of those who attacked you; you put them to shame, for God despised them.

Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
When God restores his people,
let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!

You have to wonder if David changed the music with #53?  Did the change from Jehovah (Lord) in #14 to Elohim (God) change how it was sung or were they for different types of worship services or a special occasion? Jehovah means “The Eternal” and Elohim means “Supreme God” of the two I would think that Psalm 14 might be the more formal one.

I am guessing Psalm 52 and 53 were written after 1 Samuel 22 when Doeg the Edomite killed the priest. I think that time period would have given David a lot of inspiration to write several psalms. (Please see the blogs on David, LORDWhen Psalms Were Written and Jacob/Israel )  There is also a study on Psalm 60 and 108.

New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Happy or Blessed

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What I love about Bible studies is you start on one thing and find yourself somewhere else and it is a great study too. This one started out as a study on light and ended looking at the word Esher, that means happy. (It will explain itself when I do the blog about light.)  In my Strong’s Concordance for the King James Version that has definitions from W.E. Vine adapted into the entries I found this and thought it was to good to pass up. (Strong’s #835)

Esher and the name Asher (son of Jacob) both come from the same root word and it can be translated blessed or happy. Most of the occurrences of Esher in scripture are in poems such as Psalms or Proverbs. Vine observes that the “prosperity” or “happiness” comes when a superior, usually God, has bestowed His favor on you such as in Deuteronomy 33:29. But he notes that according to Eliphaz Job was blessed and should have been happy not because everything was going good but because God favored Job (Job 5: 17-18). OUCH that runs against the modern thought process.

Vine’s final thought is that it is appropriate to translate Esher as “happy” but for modern readers it “does not always convey its emphasis” to us. Many modern translations do use blessed more than happy.

For a good example of the usage of this word please see http://www.craigladams.com/blog/files/Psalm-1-1.html for Psalm 1.

A good reference- http://biblesuite.com/hebrew/835.htm

The Exodus Story in Other Places

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People may argue parts of the Exodus story and how it could not have happened. But the fact that the story is retold throughout the rest of scripture should speak volumes about its validity and its credibility. (This may not be all of them but you get the idea.)

  • Gideon  – Judges 6:13 – Questioned about the miracles
  • Jephthah – Judges 11:15-27 – Retold conquest story
  • Micah 6: 1-5 – The Lord had a case against Israel and highlighted the Exodus to prove his point.
  • Ezekiel 20:4 – God giving a discourse to the elders of Israel about their love for idols of Egypt even though He brought them out of Egypt and gave them a good land.
  • 1 Corinthians 10:4 – Spiritual lesson about Israel being baptized into Moses and Israel sharing spiritual food and drink and still some died in the desert.
  • Moses’ Psalms 90 -100 – I still think they are a series of songs to teach the people about God and His requirements.

Psalms

  • 66: 5-12 A highlight telling of Israel’s time in Egypt and their leaving.
  • 77: 11-20 A call for Jeduthun to remember and meditate on the miracles of God; the parting of the Red Sea is the focus of what God did.

Just a thought, look at Psalm 78-83 as a block for teaching people after Jerusalem fell.

  • 78 A comparison of Israel’s testing God and His mercy and miracles.
  • 80: 7-11 A call to God to remember that He did bring Israel out of Egypt and to have mercy on them again.
  • 81:3-10 To remember that God brought Israel out of Egypt and established that He should be praised.
  • 95: 8-11 Not to harden your heart as people did at Meribah.
  • 105:16-45 A Sunday School lesson of Abraham, Joseph, the plagues, and the joseph-dreams of wheatExodus.
  • 106 A history of God’s faithfulness in not destroying Israel starting in Egypt and going through the Conquest into the unfaithfulness in the Promise Land.
  • 114 It reminds Judah who they belong to and that mountains, hills, and the “waters” obey the Lord.
  • 135:8-14 That man (Egypt, Pharaoh, Sihon, Og, and the kings of Canaan) will not stop God’s people.
  • 136:10-22 Resembles Ps. 135 

Picture of Sheaves from http://www.freebibleimages.org/photos/joseph-dreams/

Comparing Psalm 135 and 136

Even though I do not think these were written by the same person or even in the same time period it is interesting that Psalm 135 and 136 have similar elements. Please image David in 1 Chronicles 15:11 instructing his Praise Team to sing Psalm 135 as they carry the Ark to Jerusalem. Then image Ezra in Chapter 3:11 separating the congregation into halves and having one group singing the first part of each verse while the other group responds with “His love endures forever.

These Psalms are included in the section of the “songs of ascents” which were traditionally sung as people went up to the Temple in Jerusalem. Psalm 115 and 118 share the idea of verse 19 and 20 of Psalm 135; the house of Israel, Aaron, Levi and those who fear Him. Psalm 135:4 talks about Jacob and Israel giving each a different emphasis. They also have a historical component remembering God’s great deliverance from Egypt and the defeat of Og and Sihon which marked the beginning of the conquest of the Promised Land. The blue sections highlight His control over nature and thus being in charge of their daily lives.

See the studies on Psalm 14 and 53  and Psalm 60 and 108.

Thanks to BibleGateway.com they are a great resource.