If it seems to you like the bulletin articles this summer are a running commentary on the Summer Series, it seems that way to me too. But the series has gone so well that it has provoked much thought. Last Wednesday David Binkley presented the resurrection account from Luke’s gospel. Luke has so much material unique to him: the presence of Joanna at the tomb, the presence of two men in dazzling white at the tomb, and of course the lengthy episode concerning Jesus, Cleopas, and another disciple on the road to Emmaus. Bink pointed out that in Luke’s gospel Jesus open’s the apostle’s minds to understand the teaching of the Old Testament scriptures about Him as in the other gospels, but in Luke Jesus mentions not only the words of Moses and Prophets, but of the Psalms as well.
These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all the things which are written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Luke 24.44
Many of the Psalms concern the Messiah – at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, when He is being tempted, Satan uses Psalm 91 to try to get Jesus to jump off the pinnacle of the Temple (Luke 4.10-11). Psalm 22, clearly a description of Jesus’ experience on the cross begins with the line “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” Psalm 110.1 is referenced by Jesus in all three synoptics, used by Peter in the sermon in Acts 2, and by Paul in I Corinthians 15. Verse 4 of the same Psalm is the source of a main argument about Jesus’ superiority in Hebrews (5.6ff). Psalm 118 is used by Jesus in all three synoptics, as well as Peter (Acts 4.11, I Peter 2.4-7), and Paul (Ephesians 2.20). In fact, Jesus uses the Psalms more than any other single book in the Old Testament.
Using the Psalms this way is unique to Jesus. There is no evidence that Rabbis prior to or contemporary with Jesus used the Psalms to argue theology, or to proclaim the Messiah. Jesus alone comes to the song book of the Hebrew people again and again. Why would He do that?
I think there are several reasons. The most obvious is that God inspired so much about Him in the Psalms. How could he ignore so much primary source material? A second reason is that we remember song lyrics more easily that plain texts. One of the best mnemonic devices available is to turn something hard to memorize into a song – how many of us can quote the Preamble to the Constitution because we know that song from School-House Rock? No one carried bibles around to hear Jesus preach. The book might not have been invented yet. Scrolls were unwieldy and not written for personal use. But folks had lots of scripture in their heads – in the form of song lyrics.
But there is a third reason I think Jesus preached from the Psalms. The psalms would have been the only scripture half his audience (or more) would have had access to. You see, Jewish women were not taught to read. Boys were. The Jews were the most literate people of the ancient world. God gave them written scripture and boys almost universally went to Hebrew school to learn to read it. They would take their turn reading in the synagogue (as was Jesus’ custom Luke 4.16). But the common rabbinic teaching was that it would be better to burn the law than to teach one’s daughters to read it. Women, however, would have known the songs, and the songs were scripture.
Jesus’ own mother offers the best example. She sang a long song when she joined her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 2.46-55) – it is a spontaneous hymn of praise composed of Old Testament quotes strung together – almost exclusively from the Psalms. There is a quote from Hanna’s song in I Samuel 2.1-10, a lyric from the Isaiah 40.10, and a line from Job 5.11. But the rest is made up of 12 or so quotes from the Psalms.
Jesus’ preaching from the Psalms was a way of including His entire audience in understanding scripture. We would do well to appreciate His example. God has done everything possible to make Himself known through His word. Let us do nothing to obscure Him.
