Messianic Psalms

Introduction

Well, for this morning’s question, I first need to set a scenario. You get in the car. You’re going somewhere. What’s a necessity for this road trip, no matter how brief. What’s something that you’ll have to do? The safety conscious among us would say, put on my seatbelt. And that’s good. That’s good. Others would say, maybe just the mirrors so I get them just right. Check the gas gauge to make sure you got enough gas. Y’all are far more practical than I am. Here’s my necessity. Turn the radio on. Are you like me? Do you have to have the radio on in the car? I know I do. It’s a necessity. It’s kind of background noise, background music. And I listen to music in the car. Some of you may listen to talk radio or sports radio, but for me, it’s music.

And music is just a part of our lives, isn’t it? For most of us, I’ve never really, I don’t think, met anybody who didn’t like music. Now you may not like certain types of music, and you and I may differ in that regard, but I can honestly say I’ve never met anybody. And if you’re that person, introduce yourself to me after services this morning that doesn’t like music of some sort or of some type. It’s such an important part of our lives. Music can take us places. Music can jog the memory and enhance the senses, and music can bring out emotion. Can cry and just a song.

Playing of a particular tune. And maybe, and I don’t really know, but maybe that’s why God has always included music in his organized worship. Whether it was under the old covenant or under the new covenant, God has made music a part of worship. We sing and make melody in our hearts to the Lord. Because God, who created us, surely knew and maybe even made us this way to where music just connects to the soul. This morning we want to continue a series we’ve been doing, kind of a very disjointed series about the Psalms. We haven’t done these back to back, but tried to about once a month do a series on a lesson on the Psalms. And I’ll remind you and tell those who are visiting with us, this is a very different sermon than what we normally do.

In fact, it’s going to almost feel more like a Bible class in that. But it’s been requested that we talk some about the Psalms, and this was the best format that I knew to do it in. And so what we’ve done is two things that we’ll look at kind of some fundamental things, almost again, class-like things about the Psalms. See if we can learn something. And then we’ve taken the Psalms by categories. We’ve talked about Psalms dealing with God, Psalms dealing with man, Psalms dealing with the Word of God. And this morning we want to follow that trend in talking about some of the Messianic Psalms. But before we get into the meat of the lesson of the Messianic Psalms, let’s see if we can learn something about the Psalms.

1. The Titles of the Psalms

The Psalms have certain titles to them. And I know this may be difficult to read here, and it really wasn’t put up there for you to read, more for illustrative purposes. But if you open your Bible to the Psalms, there’s titles above many of the Psalms. And so let’s talk about what those are and what they mean. Turn to Psalm 60. And we’ll use that as an illustration of some of the titles above the Psalm.

Chapter 1, verse 1, and then the words fall. But Psalms has these titles, these headings above the text. And so let’s talk about a little about what those mean. There’s some different things. In the illustration that I have above you, there’s a title in my Bible that says, He will tread down our foes. That’s the first title that may or may not appear in your Bible. That one may be missing. But if you have a Bible like mine, where the translators have put their own titles in there, this is a non-inspired heading added by the translators. You know, you may have that in the New Testament that says Jesus tells the parable of the sower. And you know what’s going to come up in that chapter.

And so that heading, it was just put there by the translator. And again, your Bible probably doesn’t have that heading, or it may have it worded a little bit differently. But that’s not the heading where headings or titles that we’re concerned with. We’re concerned with that that’s shared in all of our Bibles. There’s a few things that this heading will tell us. Sometimes it will tell us the type of poem. Here in Psalm 60, it says to the chief musician, set to Lily of the testimony, a mictum of David. Most scholars believe that that’s classifying the type of psalm or type of song that it is, that this is a mikum. Now, one disadvantage we have is most of those words have lost their meaning throughout history.

We don’t really know what those mean.

And so that you know what to do when it comes to worship in this. So he says, to the chief musician, set to the lily of the testimony. Now, again, we’re not sure what that means. The best guess is that it’s kind of like some of our songs. You know, many times we have some songs, particularly the psalms, and it may say in our heading, sung to the tune of, and it’s a song that we already know, and you go, oh, I don’t know this song. That’s new to me. But when you see that heading, sung to the tune of, you go, oh, okay, I know that song. It’s different words, but the same notes. And so that probably what when it says to um set to uh the lily of the testimony.

It’s probably saying, This is the same tune. Sing it just like you sang that other one. But again, we’re not really sure. Then we have the use of the psalm. It says here that this one is for teaching. You see that to the chief musician, set to the lily of the testimony, a mikum of David. That’s the type of psalm or song that it is, for teaching. This was a didactic psalm. It was intended to teach the people. That corresponds to our songs in the New Testament, doesn’t it? We’re to be teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. These songs are intended to teach. And let’s think about the Old Testament setting where that was certainly important. These songs, which one another thing about songs that we love is that they’re usually easier to incorporate into our memory.

Again, we could ask for a show of hands. Who learned the books of the Bible or the apostles through a song? Many of us learn those memory things that way, because it’s easier to learn things that way. And so maybe this was a way to enhance their teaching by singing these things. But also, songs are often attached to our memory. These Israelites who wouldn’t have left the tabernacle or the temple with the copy of the Bible in their hand to go back home and say, you know, we talked about this at the temple today. I want to look that up. I want to study that again. Well, they wouldn’t have been able to do that, having copies of the law in their own hand. And so maybe they could remember the song.

What was that song we sang about that? And the family could sing it together. Remember those lessons and be able to sing them. And so this was a psalm that was, he says, for teaching. Sometimes the title will tell us about the authorship. Here it says in Psalm 60, it was a micdom of David. Other times it’ll just simply say a psalm of David. And so the author’s name is given. Now, many times the author’s name’s not given, but often it is, and more often than not, it’s going the name’s going to be David. And then sometimes they’re the occasion, the historical setting. And he says here, this is a micdom of David when he fought against Mesopotamia and Syria of Zobah and Joab returned and killed 12,000 Edomites in the valley of Salt.

Well, there’s a detailed historical setting. This Psalm is about that one event in history. And that’s kind of important if it’s a psalm for teaching, isn’t it? And so sometimes there’s that historical occasion or historical setting that is there. And so here’s kind of the idea of titles. Now, you know as well as I do, sometimes those titles are just missing. We just have just the psalm. But when you see these titles that are there, this is the meaning of many of those things. And so let’s look at a little bit more. Some of the titles that describe the type of song. Sometimes we have the word psalm or song or maskle or miktum or shiganiah and prayer and praise. Now, here’s the lesson on this list.

If you know what that word means already, then I can tell you what that word means. If you look at a word and say, I don’t know what that word means, I can’t tell you what it means either. Again, some of that meaning has been lost. You can read, and there’s scholars who will speculate about those, but we’ll just leave that to the scholars to speculate. But again, they would have known what each of those meanings were of the kind of the types of psalms or category of psalms. And here’s some of the terms that we see that describe the musical setting to the choir master or with stringed instruments or with wind instruments, according to Alamoth, and according to Shemenith, and then according to the Gittith and to Jaduthan.

And again, same rule applies on this slide as the last one. If you know what it means, then I can tell you what it means if you say, I don’t know what that word means. I don’t know what that word means either. And really no one does. But they, again, they would have known what it was probably some type of musical style that they would have used in their worship. And then we have of many of these titles explaining the musical setting. And most of the time we think this just simply means this was a tune that they were familiar with. This was going to be sung in that same style or to the same melody or possibly tune that was used there. Then we have the titles referring to their use.

It was a song for the Sabbath. Well, that’s kind of self-explanatory. A psalm for giving thanks, or a psalm at the dedication at the temple. It was for instruction. That’s one we just saw here for teaching or for instruction. A song of ascent. Let’s pause and talk about that one a little bit. We’re not sure what that means. We know what all the words mean, but we don’t know what it means when you put all those words together. Ascent means to go up. And so the best speculation that I’ve heard is two possibilities of what a song of ascent, and there’s a lot of the Psalms that say that. Number one is that it’s possible that these were songs that they would have sung as they made their journey to Jerusalem.

You may remember in historical settings, it always says they went up to Jerusalem. That means that it was at a higher elevation. And so as they were ascending to Jerusalem, this was a psalm that they would have sung on their way to go to worship. Kind of put them in that frame of mind. Another thought, oh, excuse me, back up. Another thought is the idea of song of a sense that they were maybe steps leading up to the tabernacle and temple, and uh the singers would stand at that lower step and sing, and then they would move up, maybe every verse, and do that as they moved up the steps of the temple. Another possibility is it’s just simply a song that kind of builds to a crescendo.

2. What Is a Messianic Psalm?

And so there wasn’t a literal ascending up steps or up the road to Jerusalem, but that it was to be sung. And we have some songs kind of like that. We sing slow low. And then when we get to the chorus, belted out, it may have been that kind of, we’re going to build into that. And so we have these kind of titles that are there in the Psalms. And to most of it we can say we really don’t know what that means, but it meant something to them. All right, now let’s talk about what we want to talk about this morning, and that is a special category of the Psalms. The Psalms known as Messianic Psalms. What is a Messianic psalm? A messianic psalm is one that talks about the Messiah.

And as good Bible students, you know the word Messiah is the Old Testament word that means anointed. The process of anointing was the process of appointing or recognizing someone to a position. A priest or a king would be anointed as a symbol that they were being appointed or recognized into this position. And used in this special sense, it refers to Jesus Christ, who was appointed by God and recognized by us as God’s chosen one. And so the kind of anointed carries with it that idea of the chosen one, Messiah. That’s translated the Christ in the New Testament. Not two different words, Messiah and Christ, as two different languages. And so Christ was the chosen one, the anointed one. And so these messianic psalms are the psalms that prophesied of the coming Messiah, of the coming Christ and his reign in his kingdom.

And some of our favorite psalms are these messianic psalms. Here’s a partial list. This isn’t all of them, but these are some of the ones that will easily come to mind when we think about these psalms, the songs that they would have sung that spoke of the coming Messiah.

He said the law and the prophets and the psalms prophesied of me. And they certainly did. They prophesied with some great beauty and with some specifics as well. And so let’s talk about just a few of these that time will allow us to talk about. Let’s start with Psalm 2.

3. Psalm 2: The Reign of Jehovah’s Anointed

Psalm 2. Psalm 2 will be quoted seven times in the New Testament. And it speaks of the reign of Jehovah’s Anointed. And by the way, of those seven times that it’s quoted in the New Testament, every time it’s talking about Christ. And so we know this to be a Messianic Psalm, not because we figured it out, but because the New Testament figured it out for us. It speaks of the reign of Jehovah’s Anointed. It speaks of the birth of Christ, and it says that he would rule with a rod iron. Let’s look at Psalm 2. He says, Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord’s anointed and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bonds in pieces, let us cast away their cords from us.

Why? He first begins with the rhetorical questions. Why do they rage? We would say, why do they even bother? Here are the nations conspiring against the anointed, conspiring against Christ, saying, Let us break their bonds and cast away their. Here’s what we’re going to do as these powerful nations. And the psalmist begins by saying, Why? Why are they doing that? Now we’re going to come to find out that he’s not asking why are they angry at the Lord’s anointed? That might be the first one. But they’re really saying, why do they even bother? This isn’t going to work. It might be we have a common saying today, you can’t fight City Hall. You might be upset about some kind of ordinance or something that affects you, and you say, I’m going to get a petition and I’m going to take it down to the courthouse, and I’m going to do all of this kind of stuff, and I’m going to put a sign in my yard protesting this ordinance or this tax.

And somebody, one of your neighbors may say, Why are you bothering? You can’t beat City Hall. It’s not going to do any good. And that’s really the question. Why? Why are these nations doing that? You can’t defeat God. Notice how he goes on to say, He, verse 4, he who sits in the heavens shall laugh. And the Lord shall hold them in derision. Here are the nations, as powerful as they are in some sense and as they think they are, conspiring against the Lord’s anointed. And what is God doing as he’s sitting on his throne? He’s just chuckling. You can’t stop me.

You can’t stop me. So why are you raging? Why are you conspiring? Verse 5, he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. It’s not my intent to get into a deep discussion of premillennialism this morning, but premillennialism is the doctrine that God intended to set up his kingdom, but since Christ was rejected, he didn’t get to set up his kingdom in the first century, and so he set up the church instead as a substitute. But when he comes again, then he’ll do what he intended to do in the first century, and that is set up his kingdom. That’s a very basic summarization of premillennialism. They have a big problem with Psalm 2, don’t they?

In Psalm 2, God says, You can’t stop me. You can rage, you can conspire, you can do whatever you want, but I want to set my king on my holy hill. And that’s exactly what God did. He set up Christ as his king. Verse 7, I will declare the decree, the Lord has said to me, You are my son, today I have begotten you. I will say, You are my son, today I have begotten you. This was a Bible class. I would ask the obvious question every time we get to that old testament word, and that is what does begotten mean? You didn’t use that word all week. What is begotten in? And somebody would say correctly, it means give birth to.

I would ask that easy question, because again, as good Bible students, you you don’t use that word, but you know what begot and begotten means when it’s talked about in the Old Testament. So I’d start with an easy question, but then I’d follow it up with a trick question. You are my son, today I have given birth to you. What New Testament event is that talking about? Someone might say it’s talking about the virgin birth. You’re my son. Today I’ve given birth. It’s also talking about the birth of Jesus, of Mary, the virgin, giving birth to Christ. To which I would say, Aha, I got you. The New Testament talks about this, but it doesn’t apply it to the virgin birth. Hold your finger there and go to Acts chapter 13.

You are my son. Today I have begotten you. What is that talking about? Help us out, Paul. Acts chapter 13. And in verse 33, well, let’s back up to verse 30. Acts 13, verse 30 says, But God raised him from the dead, speaking of that Messiah. God raised him from the dead. He was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people. And we declare to you the glad tidings, that promise which he made to the fathers, God has fulfilled this for us, their children, in that he raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. And so with an Old Testament quotes Psalm 2 and says, I have begotten you, it says it’s not talking about the virgin birth, it’s talking about the resurrection.

That’s the birth of Christ. Now, we’re not minimizing the miracles surrounding the virgin birth. But the New Testament would have us to know that it wasn’t the birth in the manger that declared him to be the Son of God. It was him being raised from the dead, his birth from the tomb that declared him to be the Son of God. And now let’s tie that back into the theme of Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage and the kings conspire together? We’re going to defeat him. And so Jewish and Roman nations conspired together to put him to death. We defeated him, they thought.

4. Psalm 16: My Flesh Will Rest in Hope

It’s a psalm that speaks of the confidence in God as a place of refuge. It too, like Psalm 2, is a prophecy of the resurrection. And it is famously quoted in Acts chapter 2. Our brother Ben read a portion of Psalm 16. I want to skip down and read. This is a rather lengthy somewhat lengthy reading. And so I want to skip down a little bit past the part that Ben read for us. Let’s begin in verse 9. Therefore, my heart is glad, because God is there and God will answer and be our refuge. He says, My heart is glad, and my glory rejoices. My flesh will also rest in hope. Let’s pause there. We have a famous saying, don’t we? Even inscribe it on our tombstones, rest in peace.

But the psalmist says, My flesh will not rest in peace. More importantly, it says, I will rest in hope. That’s better than resting in peace, isn’t it? Resting in hope. My flesh will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption. You remember in Acts chapter 2, Peter and the apostles quote that psalm, and Peter points out, you know, David said that. In fact, if you go back to that heading that we talked about, this is one of those miktums of David. And so David said that. But Peter on the day of Pentecost says, you know, what was David saying when he said that? David wasn’t talking about himself because he says, we can go and visit the cemetery where David is buried.

And so what is who is he talking about? And he begins that argument in Acts 2 that he had to be in prophecy, talking not about himself and his own body that lay in the grave, but he was by prophecy speaking of the resurrected Lord. And he says of him two things, just very quickly there in Psalm 16, two things about that prophecy. You will not leave my soul in Sheol. The word Sheol just simply means the grave or the abode of the dead. It literally means unseen, and it’s translated in the New Testament by the Greek word Hades or Hades. Just simply means the unseen. You will not leave my soul unseen. It’s not going to be out there, it’s going to come back. People are going to see me and converse with me again.

And it goes on, the second part, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption. The soul, and now the flesh, he talks about. You will not allow your holy one to, your holy one’s flesh or body to see corruption. And so he speaks of that bodily resurrection. And we know again in the New Testament that that applies to Christ. He was risen from the grave.

That we can rest in hope. In knowing that when we die, that our soul will not just disappear or cease to exist, and that our body, not as immediately as Christ, but our body will be raised from the grave. Now, Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 says it’s going to change. It’s not going to be this physical body that’s going to be raised, but it’s going to be a spiritual body that will be raised. And so we have that hope, and we can rest in that hope because, as Psalm 2 tells us, God defeated the nations and rules them with a rod of iron and set up his Christ to be our king. And then, secondly, according to Psalm 16, he raised him from the dead. You are my son.

Conclusion

Today I have begotten you. You will not allow your holy one to see corruption. And so Jesus was raised from the dead, and that gives us the hope that we too can be raised from the dead. That’s just two of the many messianic Psalms. We didn’t even take the time to look at the most well known one, and that is Psalm 22 that speaks with great detail about the suffering of Jesus Christ. In fact, greater detail is found in Psalm 2 than what we find in the historical accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John of His suffering. But hundreds of years before he would come on the scene, the psalmist saw through the eyes of faith and prophecy a coming Messiah, who would be a king, who would be a Savior.

And we now stand in the different vantage point of history, looking back hundreds of years at the fulfilled prophecy. And knowing, since God kept his word and his promise, that Christ did come, that we can have hope in him. In fact, when our life here is over, we too can rest in hope. Would you render obedience to the gospel this morning? Giving and having faith in Jesus Christ. Confess that faith before this audience, be baptized for the remission of your sins, and be raised to walk in newness of life, having hope in Christ Jesus. If we can help you in any way, let it be known now, as together we stand and as we sing.