Praying the Psalms ... Christ in the Psalms
In continuing our series on praying the Psalms of the
Bible, we’ve mentioned that the Psalms speak of Christ prophetically, as Jesus
also said of himself (Lk 24:44). St. Athanasius’ early Fourth Century “Letter
to Marcellinus” (available online http://athanasius.com/psalms/aletterm.htm),
gives us some specifics:
“Of the
coming of the Savior and how, although He is God, He yet should dwell among us,
Psalm 50 says, ‘God shall come openly, even our God, and He shall not keep
silence;’ and in Psalm 118 we read, ‘Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of
the Lord! We have blessed you from the House of the Lord. God is the Lord, and
He has given us light.’ That He Who comes is Himself the Father's Word, Psalm
107 thus sings, ‘He sent His Word and healed them, and rescued them out of all
their distresses.’ For the God Who comes is this self-same Word Whom the Father
sends, and of this Word Who is the Father's Voice, Whom well he knows to be the
Son of God, the Psalmist sings ... in 110, ‘Out of the womb, before the down,
have I begotten Thee.’ Whom else, indeed, should any call God's very Offspring,
save His own Word and Wisdom? And he, who knows full well that it was through
the Word that God said, Let there be light, Let there be a firmament. Let there
be all things, [Gen 1:3 ff] says again in Psalm 33, ‘By the Word of the Lord
were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the Breath of His mouth.’
“And, so
far from being ignorant of the coming of Messiah, he makes mention of it first
and foremost in Psalm 45, ‘Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, a scepter
of justice is the scepter of Thy kingdom. Thou has loved righteousness and
hated lawlessness: wherefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil
of gladness above thy fellows.’ Further, lest any one should think this coming
was in appearance only, Psalm 87 shows that He Who was to come should both come
as man and at the same time be He by Whom all things were made. ‘Mother Zion
shall say, A man, a man indeed is born in her: and He himself, the Most
Highest, founded her,’ it says; and that is equivalent to saying, ‘The Word was
God, all things were made by Him, and the Word became flesh.’ [Jn 1:1, 2, 14]
....
“Having
thus shown that Christ should come in human form, the Psalter goes on to show
that He can suffer in the flesh He has assumed. It is as foreseeing how the
Jews would plot against Him that Psalm 2 sings, ‘Why do the heathen rage and
peoples meditate vain things? The kings of the earth stood up and their rulers
took counsel together against the Lord and against His Christ.’ And Psalm 22,
speaking in the Savior's own person, describes the manner of His death. ‘Thou
has brought me into the dust of death, for many dogs have compassed me, the
assembly of the wicked have laid siege to me. They pierced my hands and my
feet, they numbered all my bones, they gazed and stared at me, they parted my
garments among them and cast lots for my vesture.’ ‘They pierced my hands and
my feet’ – what else can that mean except the cross? And Psalms 88 ... [tells]
us further that He suffered these things, not for His own sake but for ours:
‘Thou has made Thy wrath to rest upon me.’....
“Nor is
this all. The Psalter further indicates beforehand the bodily Ascension of the
Savior into heaven, saying in Psalm 24, ‘Lift up your gates, ye princes, and be
ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in!’ And
again in 47, ‘God is gone up with a merry noise, the Lord with the voice of the
trumpet.’ ...[And] in Psalm 110,’ The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on My
right hand, until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet.’ Also the
Psalter does not hide from us, but foreshows Him as coming to be the judge of
all in 72, ‘Give the King Thy judgments, O God, and Thy righteousness unto the
King's Son, that He may judge Thy people in righteousness and Thy poor with
justice.’ [Also Psalms 50, 82, 47, 72.]
“All these things are sung of in the Psalter; and they
are shown forth separately in the other books [of the Bible] as well.”
Dibby Green
Originally published in the print edition of the Mojave Desert News on September 19, 2019.
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is located in California City, CA. Visit our website at ollcalcity.org.