Thursday, September 8, 2016

Alpha, Omega, ALL in all

An astonishing thing is that every book in the Bible has a statement about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's in every single book, either in connection with prophecy, or through a picture-type, or as a direct reference.

“Almost all, if not all, of the 150 individual psalms have some kind of reference to Jesus Christ,” says Jordan. “Sometimes you'll simply read it as, ‘The Lord is my shepherd.’ Christ says, ‘I am the good shepherd.’ There are references to Him as our shield, our helper, our salvation, on and on.

“Throughout the Psalms, the situations and circumstances where it talks about David or someone else serve as allusions or parallels to things Christ does or is involved in somehow. You can look at a psalm and know it's a reference to Jesus Christ that underlies the picture of the event being discussed."

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In the New Testament are actual quotes from certain psalms that provide direct statements about Jesus Christ, not just allusions or parallels to Him.

Talking about Judas in John 13:18, Christ says, "He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me." This comes from an obscure little verse in Psalms 41 that says, "Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me."

Psalm 8 is a “messianic psalm” quoted six times in the New Testament, including in Hebrews 2:7: "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands." The psalm asks, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.”

The psalm begins by referring to man and God's purpose to extend His dominion in the earth through Adam and mankind. But since Adam failed, the reference goes forward to the Lord Jesus Christ as "the last Adam," the true Son of Man who does for man what man fails to do for himself.

The psalm anticipates the day when all of God's purpose for man is accomplished through Jesus Christ, who will reign as King on earth. That's why David writes, "O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.” The word "our" refers to the nation Israel; the God of all the earth is the God of Israel.


The Lord Jesus Christ is going to accomplish what Adam was originally intended to accomplish and so His dominion is going to be in the earth. That's why Christ says, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth,” and, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” God has a plan and purpose not just for this planet but for the whole universe. As Psalm 8:1 ends--“who has set thy glory above the heavens."

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