April/May
2016
- Vol. 85
Risen Christ Seated on the
Throne as Ruler Over All - mosaic, 1300 AD,
in San Giovanni church baptistry in
Florence, Italy
.
“Sit
At My Right Hand”
– Royal Messianic Psalms
.
By Jeanne Kun
Not only a
king but also a priest forever; this is
the surprising promise God makes to his
Anointed in this messianic psalm. God’s
people will be ruled by a mighty champion
who will be both king and high priest.
– Mike Aquilina and
Christopher Bailey
Many of the psalms of ancient
Israel were composed to be recited by the king
or as prayers, thanksgivings, or blessings for
the king. Some of these “royal” or “kingship”
psalms (among them, 18, 20, 21, 45) celebrate
events in the lives of Israel’s kings, who
were considered God’s representatives on
earth. (Such events might be a coronation
ceremony, a ritual anointing, an
enthronement ceremony, a marriage, or a
victory over enemies.)
Other psalms recall the promises God had made
to King David – promises
of an eternal dynasty and of a kingdom that
would last forever. Because they were faced
with the disasters and sins of the monarchy
that unfolded after the reign of David, the
people of Israel came to hope that these
promises would be fulfilled in a “hero-king”
yet to come. This anointed leader or “Messiah”
(in Hebrew, mashiah means “anointed
one”) would be descended from David and would
throw off the oppressor’s yoke, restore the
kingdom, and carry on the glorious reign of
David forever.
Thus, Jews and Christians alike consider those
royal psalms referring to the idea of the
anointing of the king as “messianic” psalms
(among them, 2, 72, 89, 110, and 132).
Christians also recognize as messianic several
psalms of lament – 22, 31,
69, and 118. These laments have overtones of
hope, victory, praise, and thanksgiving in
them, as they refer to a figure that is
scorned and humiliated yet ultimately
vindicated, prefiguring Christ. (Christos
is Greek for “anointed one.”) Consequently,
Christians recite and pray both groups of
messianic psalms as prophecies about Jesus,
God’s anointed king and Messiah, who is also
the crucified Lord, risen from the dead and
seated at the right hand of the Father.
Jewish tradition interprets Psalm 110 as
referring directly to the Davidic monarchy and
to the Messiah-king-to-come, the son of David.
Christians see in it a foreshadowing of the
Incarnation of Jesus Christ, true Son of God,
the messianic king and eternal priest.
Originally, Psalm 110 was prayed – or
delivered as an oracle by a prophet – at a new
king’s coronation and enthronement ceremony.
Verse 1 – “The
Lord said to my lord, /’Sit at my right hand’” – means that
the Lord God is speaking to the king and
installs the king at his right hand, a place
of prestige and honor. The New Testament
writers see this as referring to Jesus and
quote Psalm 110 more often than any other
psalm. In particular, its first verse alone is
quoted or alluded to at least ten times in the
New Testament (Matthew 26:64; Mark 12:35-37;
14:61-62; 16:19; Luke 20:42-43; 22:69; Acts
2:34-35; 1 Corinthians 15:25; Hebrews 1:13;
10:13).
Psalm 110 begins with the declaration that it
is God who establishes the new king in his
authority over his people (signified by
the “mighty scepter”) and brings him victory
over his enemies, putting them under his feet
(verses 1–2). Verse 4 speaks of the king
inheriting a priestly role: “You are a priest
forever according to the order of
Melchizedek.” Like Melchizedek, who was both
priest and king of Salem at the time of
Abraham (Genesis 14:18-20), the newly
enthroned king of Jerusalem is also a priest.
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews cites
Psalm 110:4 to explain Christ’s priesthood and
connect it to Melchizedek (5:5-6; 7:17, 21).
The psalm’s prophecy is accomplished and the
priesthood of Melchizedek is completed in
Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension.
Moreover, as Pope Benedict XVI has noted, “the
offering of bread and wine, made by
Melchizedek in Abraham’s time” is
fulfilled by Jesus, “who offers
himself in the bread and in the wine and,
having conquered death, brings life to all
believers” (General Audience, November 16,
2011).
The final verses of Psalm 110 depict a
triumphant sovereign. Supported by the Lord,
who has given him power and glory, the king
opposes his foes, crushing his adversaries and
judging the nations. Verses 5–6 prophetically
point to the Christian truth that in the
ongoing battle between good and evil, Christ,
our true King and Priest, prevails, victorious
over Satan, sin, and evil. However, the New
Testament refrains from applying the ancient
mentality and gruesome imagery of verse 6 to
Jesus in its literal sense: Christian theology
understands that Jesus did not come to
“shatter heads” and “heap up corpses” but
rather to overthrow Satan so that mankind
might be freed from bondage to sin and the
power of darkness.
Verse 7 – “He
will drink from the stream by the path; /
therefore he will lift up his head” – offers us
an enigmatic image of the king. At a moment of
respite during battle, he quenches his thirst
at a stream, finding in it refreshment and
fresh strength to continue on his triumphant
way, holding his head high in the confidence
and assurance of victory. This verse may be an
allusion to a particular quasi-sacramental
rite – drinking
from the spring of Gihon, south of the city of
Jerusalem, where the royal anointing ceremony
took place (1 Kings 1:33, 8-40). It also calls
to mind Gideon’s army, composed of those who
had lapped water from the stream before battle
with the Midianites ( Judges 7:5-6).
| Jesus Christ, true
Son of God, is the messianic king
and eternal priest, risen from the
dead and seated at the right hand of
the Father. |
In
the
Spotlight
Shedding Light on
Scripture’s Obscurities
Countless variations exist between the many
manuscripts containing portions of Scripture that
were copied by hand and passed down during more
than two millennia. For example, several verses in
the Hebrew manuscripts from the tenth century A.D.
differ from the Greek translation of the Hebrew
found in the manuscripts of the fourth century
A.D.
Occasionally, parts of the original texts were
lost or badly corrupted. Consequently,
translations into English and other vernaculars
also differ in their renderings of difficult
texts. Adding to the challenging task of
translation is the fact that biblical Hebrew is
written only with consonants. Thus, vowels, though
sometimes indicated by diacritic marks, are
unclear or ambiguous, so the meaning of many
ancient Hebrew words can only be surmised.
Scholars recognize Psalm 110 as
one of the oldest psalms. It’s also considered one
of the most difficult to understand. In the
Septuagint, a Greek translation made in the third
to second centuries B.C. of the available Hebrew
texts, verse 3 reads (though somewhat obscurely)
as a description of the divine sonship of the king
and his birth or “begetting” on the part of the
Lord: “Yours is princely power from the day of
your birth. / In holy splendor before the daystar,
like the dew I begot you” (New American Bible).
This is the interpretation that the Church
accepted, and this reading of Psalm 110 has had a
place in Sunday Vespers in the Liturgy of the
Hours from its beginning. Verse 3 has also been
associated with the lucernarium (the
ancient blessing of evening lights), referring as
it does to the brightness of the daystar.
However, in some Hebrew texts,
verse 3 seems to describe, also without much
clarity, the “mustering” of an army and the
nation’s people willingly responding and gathering
around their sovereign on the day of his
coronation. This meaning is reflected in the New
Revised Standard Version: “Your people will offer
themselves willingly / on the day you lead your
forces /on the holy mountains. /From the womb of
the morning, / like dew, your youth will come to
you.”
Many uncertainties about how to
best translate certain words and portions of the
Hebrew Scriptures may never be resolved.
Nonetheless, today’s biblical scholars and experts
in the study of ancient languages continue to
devote their skills and energies to shedding light
on Scripture’s obscurities and bringing God’s
inspired word to us as accurately as possible.
In the Spotlight
Messianic Psalms of
Lament
As
an observant Jew, Jesus prayed the psalms
throughout his life, and words from them
were on his lips during his agony on the
cross. His cry, “My God, my God, why have
you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) comes from
the opening of Psalm 22, a lament that ends
in profound trust in God. And with his dying
breath, Jesus cried, “Father, into your
hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46;
Psalm 31:5).
Psalms 22, 31, 69, and 118 contain many
images that correspond to details that the
evangelists recorded about Jesus’
passion—for example, casting lots for Jesus’
garments (Psalm 22:9; Matthew 27:35) and
giving vinegar to Jesus in his thirst (Psalm
69:21, John 19:29).
Psalm 118 in particular helped early Jewish
believers who accepted Jesus as the Messiah
understand his horrific death a part of his
messianic identity and role. It serves as a
link between the more purely messianic
psalms about an anointed king to come, the
glorious descendant of David, and psalms
about a suffering figure, because it depicts
one who is hard-pressed and under mortal
threat (118:11-13) but then saved by God
(118:14, 17).
As early Christians came to understand it,
“the stone that the builders rejected,” who
is Jesus, “has become the chief cornerstone”
(118:22; Matthew 21:42; Mark 8:31; Luke
20:17; Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 2:7). Thus, the
Church added these psalms of lament with
their descriptions of suffering, shame,
reproaches, mockery, and humiliation (and
ultimately, deliverance as well) to the
psalms they considered “messianic ” in their
prophecies about Jesus. As the Trappist monk
and spiritual writer Thomas Merton wrote:
When we recite the Psalms we must learn to
recognize in them the suffering and
triumphant Messiah, confessing Him with our
mouth and believing in our heart that God
has raised Him from the dead. Then we reap
the abundant fruits of His Redemption. (Bread
in the Wilderness)
In
the
Spotlight
Vengeance and Curses
in the Psalms
How do Christians pray psalms that contain
vindictive curses and calls for God to take
vengeance on the enemies of the psalmists? At
least thirty such outbursts are included in the
Book of Psalms. Here are just a few:
He will repay my enemies for their evil. / In
your faithfulness, put an end to them. (Psalm
54:5)
Let death come upon them; / let them go
down alive to Sheol. (Psalm 55:15)
So repay them for their crime; / in wrath
cast down the peoples, O God! (Psalm 56:7)
Let them be blotted out of the book of
the living; / let them not be enrolled among
the righteous. (Psalm 69:8)
Such verses, called “imprecatory prayer,” “vent
the rage of saints who recognize that vengeance
is exclusively God’s territory, but who at the
same time feel the injustices of this world very
deeply and who desperately want God to correct
the inequities that always seem to leave the
righteous/weak at the mercy (or mercilessness)
of the wicked/powerful,” according to Scripture
scholar Kevin J. Youngblood. “Throughout church
history, Christians have wrestled with the
tension created by the presence of such prayers
alongside Jesus’ ethic of love and forgiveness.”
As Christians, however, our true “enemies” are
sin and death. We can read these prayers with
that idea in mind, recognizing that we are all
involved in a spiritual battle against evil. We
can also feel the same outrage as the psalmist
at the evil that we see, even while retaining an
attitude of forgiveness. Finally, these prayers
help us to release our desire of vengeance to
God. We can trust in God’s justice. This frees
us from the need to take revenge upon ourselves,
allowing us instead to be merciful to our
enemies.
This
article is excerpted from The
Psalms: Gateway to Prayer, by Jeanne
Kun (Copyright © 2013 by The Word Among Us
Press). Used with permission. This book
can be purchased from The
Word
Among Us Press.
Jeanne
Kun is a noted author and a senior woman
leader in the Word
of
Life Community, Ann Arbor, Michigan,
USA. Jeanne Kun is also an active member and
past president of Bethany
Association.
> See
other
articles by Jeanne Kun
|
Psalm
110:1–7
1 The LORD
says to my lord,
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your
enemies your footstool.”
2 The LORD sends out from Zion
your mighty scepter.
Rule in the midst of
your foes.
3 Your people will offer themselves
willingly
on the day you lead
your forces
on the holy mountains.
From the womb of the morning,
like dew, your youth
will come to you.
4 The LORD has sworn and will not change
his mind,
“You are a priest
forever according to the order of
Melchizedek.”
5 The Lord is at your right hand;
he will shatter kings
on the day of his wrath.
6 He will execute judgment among the
nations,
filling them with
corpses;
he will shatter heads
over the wide earth.
7 He will drink from the stream by the
path;
therefore he will lift
up his head.
Understand!
1. Jesus fulfills God’s
promises to ancient Israel in ways that go far
beyond Jewish hopes and expectations. What
light does Psalm 110 shed on your own
understanding of who Jesus is?
2. Mark 14:61-62; 16:19; 1 Corinthians 15:25;
and Hebrews 1:13; 10:13 amplify the visual
image and setting evoked by the opening verse
of Psalm 110. What do these images convey to
you about Jesus?
3. Why is Psalm 110’s prophetic allusion to
Jesus’ priesthood significant? How did Jesus
carry out this priestly role in his life? What
are some gospel incidents that depict Jesus in
this role?
4. Jesus used Psalm 110 to argue that the
Messiah is not just another descendant of
David, but someone superior to him, of exalted
and transcendent origin (see Matthew 22:41-46;
Mark 12:35-37). Is Jesus implying that he is
the Son of God? How do you think his use of
this psalm helped the early Church come to an
understanding of who Jesus is and to a
Christian interpretation of the psalm?
5. Read Psalm 72, another of the royal
messianic psalms. Pick out several verses in
which you recognize messianic overtones. Name
several attributes ascribed to the king in
Psalm 72 that are also applicable to Jesus.
Grow!
1. How have you experienced
Jesus’ kingship over your life? How does
your life give concrete witness to others
that Jesus is your Lord and Messiah? How do
you show honor to the Lord in your life?
2. What manifestations of Jesus kingly
authority do you see in the world? In what
ways might God be calling you to manifest
his authority over heaven and earth? Are you
willing to join the “forces on the holy
mountain” (Psalm 110:3) to win the battle
against sin and death?
3. Recall an occasion when Christ delivered
you from a difficulty that was overwhelming
you. Are there any “enemies”—for example,
sinful habits, negative attitudes or
emotions, anxieties, false accusations
against you—that are currently threatening
to undermine your life or relationship with
the Lord? How confident are you that God can
(and will!) “put these enemies under your
feet’? What might you do to grow in a deeper
trust in God?
4. Jewish authorities were hard-hearted in
their view of Jesus and refused to consider
that he might truly be the Messiah because
they had false assumptions about what this
promised one would be like and do. Think of
a time when you failed to recognize God’s
presence and action in your life because you
were expecting something else. How did you
finally become aware that the Lord was at
work in those circumstances?
5. As Christians, we are anointed as
“priest, prophet, and king” (Catechism of
the Catholic Church, 1546) to
participate in the mission of Christ in the
world. In what ways do you see yourself
fulfilling these roles? How can you be a
prophetic voice to your family, friends, and
neighbors?
Reflect!
1. Reflect on this
observation from John Paul II:
The Fathers [of the Church] were firmly
convinced that the Psalms speak of Christ.
The risen Jesus, in fact, applied the Psalms
to himself when he said to the disciples:
“Everything written about me in the law of
Moses and the prophets and the psalms must
be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44). The Fathers add
that in the Psalms, Christ is spoken to or
it is even Christ who speaks. In saying
this, they were thinking not only of the
individual person of Christ, but of the Christus
totus, the total Christ, composed of
Christ the Head and his members. (General
Audience, March 28, 2001)
Now read one of your favorite psalms as if
it is Christ speaking to you. What
difference does this make in how you pray
the psalm? What might Jesus want to tell
you? What might the “total Christ,” the
Church, be saying?
2. Read and meditate on these words of the
prophet Nathan regarding King David’s
dynasty and the Gospel texts referring to
how this is fulfilled in Jesus:
The word of the LORD came
to Nathan: Go and tell my servant
David: . . . the LORD declares to you
that the LORD will make you a house.
When your days are fulfilled and you
lie down with your ancestors, I will
raise up your offspring after you, who
shall come forth from your body, and I
will establish his kingdom. He shall
build a house for my name, and I will
establish the throne of his kingdom
forever. I will be a father to him,
and he shall be a son to me. . . .
Your house and your kingdom shall be
made sure forever before me; your
throne shall be established forever.
In accordance with all these words and
with all this vision, Nathan spoke to
David.
Then King
David went in and sat before the LORD,
and said, “Who am I, O Lord GOD, and
what is my house, that you have
brought me thus far? And yet this was
a small thing in your eyes, O Lord
GOD; you have spoken also of your
servant’s house for a great while to
come. . . . And now, O Lord GOD, you
are God, and your words are true, and
you have promised this good thing to
your servant; now therefore may it
please you to bless the house of your
servant, so that it may continue
forever before you; for you, O Lord
GOD, have spoken, and with your
blessing shall the house of your
servant be blessed forever.” (2
Samuel 7:4-5, 11-14, 16-19, 28-29)
The
angel [Gabriel] said to her, “Do not
be afraid, Mary, for you have found
favor with God. And now, you will
conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you will name him Jesus. He will
be great, and will be called the Son
of the Most High, and the Lord God
will give to him the throne of his
ancestor David. He will reign over the
house of Jacob forever, and of his
kingdom there will be no end.” Mary
said to the angel, “How can this be,
since I am a virgin?” The angel said
to her, “The Holy Spirit will come
upon you, and the power of the Most
High will overshadow you; therefore
the child to be born will be holy; he
will be called Son of God. (Luke
1:30-35)
When [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where
he had been brought up, he went to the
synagogue on the sabbath day, as was
his custom. He stood up to read, and
the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was
given to him. He unrolled the scroll
and found the place where it was
written:
“The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to bring
good news to the poor.
He has sent me to
proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind, to
let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the
year of the Lord’s favor.”
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it
back to the attendant, and sat down.
The eyes of all in the synagogue were
fixed on him. Then he began to say to
them, “Today this scripture has been
fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke
4:16-21; see also Isaiah 61:1-2)
Act!
Exercise your trust in
Jesus, the Messiah, and his power to transform
you. Look back at Question 3 in the Grow!
section above. In light of your reflections on
“enemies,” ask the Lord to “rescue” you.
During the coming week, bring your needs
before the Lord in prayer each day. Then
cooperate with his work in you. Don’t forget
to thank him for his saving action.
In
the
Spotlight
David’s Enduring Throne
Counted
among the royal and messianic psalms,
Psalm 89 joyously celebrates the
unconditional promise that God made to
establish King David’s dynasty. Although
David and his descendants failed to keep
God’s commands and were to be justly
punished as a consequence (Psalm
89:31-33), God nevertheless declared,
I will not violate my covenant,
or alter the word that
went forth from my lips.
Once and for all I have sworn by my
holiness;
I will not lie to
David.
His line shall continue forever,
and his throne endure
before me like the sun. (89:34-36).
However, in events that seemed to belie
God’s word, Israel fell into disgrace at
the hands of a foreign nation. Her king
was brought down, and it appeared that
David’s line had been cut off (Psalm
89:38-45). How could Israel reconcile this
destruction with God’s promises? The
situation required that God’s promise to
David be understood in a new sense—as a
description of an ideal king who would one
day inherit David’s throne.
Psalm 89
ends with a great cry wrenched from the
heart of a disappointed yet hopeful people
(89:46-52). In anguish, the psalmist
implores God to remember his promise and
restore his people by sending a righteous
king to reign over them again: “Lord,
where is your steadfast love of old,
/which by your faithfulness you swore to
David?” (89:49).
The people
of Israel were mistaken in their
understanding and expectation of a
political ruler, yet their faith would
finally be vindicated. God would answer
their pleas not by restoring the ancient
monarchy but by raising up, in the words
of one hymn writer, “great David’s greater
son.” Ultimately, Jesus Christ, a
descendant of David, would rule over all
as king, savior, and Messiah.
|
