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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