the covenant, and also the servant of the covenant. And I was pointing out that he is the royal servant, the king, but he's also the suffering servant, the one who receives the wrath of the enemy, not only, but the one who cries out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He is the righteous sufferer of the Psalms. He is the second Adam. He is the victorious mediator, because not only is the first verse of Psalm 22, the cry of Jesus Christ on the cross, the 22nd verse is his cry as well. In the midst of the congregation, I will praise you, in the midst of the people, The vow of thank-offering is offered up, and that standard fixture in the Psalms of the offering of the thank-offering is applied to Jesus when the author of Hebrews quotes this verse in the second chapter, quote Psalm 22, 22, and applies it to Jesus. So Jesus sings in the midst of the congregation. He sings the praises of the Father and joins with us to lead our praise. And Christ also sings among the Gentiles. In the 15th chapter of Romans, the Apostle Paul quotes from Psalm 18, 49 and following, about singing the praises of God among the Gentiles. In that passage in Romans 15, Paul says, For I say that Christ has been made a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given unto the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy, as it is written, therefore will I give praise to you among the Gentiles, and sing unto your name." Now you see, when you ask, who is the I in that psalm in the context of Paul's quotation? The answer is very clearly Jesus Christ, for He has just said that Christ has confirmed the promises given to the fathers so that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy as it is written, therefore will I give praise to you among the Gentiles and sing unto your name. So Paul there pictures Jesus Christ as singing that song and as declaring that he will give praise to the Father among the Gentiles. The Apostle assumes that Jesus is the ultimate eye of that song, and that the praise that he renders to the Gentiles is the great missionary song of the Gospel. That's an interesting verse, you know. Paul has been talking about how we ought to receive one another as Christ has received us. And then he comes to that interesting expression where he says, Christ has been made a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God. The NIV translates that, he's been made a servant of the Jews. Now that's taking the genitive in that sense, that he is one who serves the Jews, a minister of the circumcision, that he serves the Jews, an objective genitive. But it can also be taken as a subject of genitive that he is a minister of the circumcision. That is to say, that he is the circumcised one, that he is the true Israel, that he is the one who fulfills the calling of Israel. And as a minister of the circumcision, in that sense, he fulfills the promises of God. You see, indeed only in that sense does the rest of the verse seem to me to hang together. He fulfills the promises of God because he fulfills the ministry of the circumcision. He does that that the Jews are called to do. He is the true Israel. He is the suffering servant of the Lord. And what Paul is getting at is that Christ, we ought to receive one another as Christ has received us, and what he's getting at is, he knows he's addressing Gentiles. Christ has received Gentiles. And how is it that he receives Gentiles? Why, he receives Gentiles by fulfilling the ministry of the circumcision, by being willing himself to submit to circumcision, by being willing to fulfill the calling of the circumcision, in order that he might make all the promises of God come true as he fulfills the covenant and receives the blessings of the covenant. Christ has been made a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers. Now, what are the promises given to the fathers? Why, they're the great covenant promises, you see, that through the seed of Abraham all the nations of the earth will be blessed. And Christ makes those promises come true, because he is the seed of Abraham, he is the one who is the heir of all the promises, and he therefore fulfills the ministry of the circumcision in order that the truth of God might be realized. And therefore Christ is the one who gives praise to God among the Gentiles, because he is the one who has brought the Gentiles to himself. remarkable statement that the Apostle Paul makes. And you know, your hardest boss has a very fine article on the eschatology of the Psalter. It's been reprinted in the back of the Pauline eschatology. If I'm not mistaken, it's also in the collection that Dick Gaffin brought together the shorter works of Voss. But that's an excellent article to read, the Eschatology of the Psalter. And what Vos points out, in particular, is that the Psalter looks forward to the realization of all the covenant promises of God, because it calls upon the nations to join in the praises of God. It is a song for the people of God, but a song in which the Gentiles are invited to share in the great blessings that God pours out in the latter days. Look at Psalm 116 and verse 18. There you see the focus on Jerusalem, on the paying of the vows and the praise of God in Jerusalem. Verse 116, look at, well, verse 17. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord, yes, in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord." Now, here is the praise of God in Jerusalem, in the house of God, where God has said his name. But there is also the summons to the nations. There is the blessing that ultimately will flow to the nations. If you look over in Psalm 108, and the third verse and following, I will give thanks unto you, O Lord, among the peoples, and I will sing praises unto you among the nations. For your lovingkindness is great above the heavens, and your truth unto the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and your glory above all the earth." You'll notice the extension there is connected with the magnificent abundance of God's faithfulness and grace. So it is a song of praise that can be sung among the nations as a witness to the reality of God's great grace and love. So the praises of God, the vow of praise that's fulfilled in connection with the offerings, the thank offering in the temple, the singing of God's praises in the midst of his people, that praise also extends to the nation. who are called to hear and to know that God is the true and living God. And of course this is picked up in the prophets as well. You know the whole latter part of the prophecy of Isaiah has in view the blessings of God being so abundantly poured out in the latter days that they overflow all bounds And not only are the people of God reunited and joined together, but all the nations too are brought in. People from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Isaiah 60 verse 4, lift up your eyes round about and see they all gather themselves together. They come to you, thy son shall come from far, daughters shall be carried in the arms Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and be enlarged, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, and the wealth of the nation shall come to you, the multitude of camels and so on, whole caravans coming in, people bringing their treasures to the city of God and to the place of God's presence." And then in the 66th chapter of Isaiah, we have This stated again, verse nineteen of chapter sixty-six, I will set a sign among them, and I will send such as escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pol and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the isles that are far off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory, and they shall declare my glory among the nations, and they shall bring all your brethren out of all the nations for an ablation unto the Lord. The praise of God that goes out to the nations in the Psalms is also celebrated in the prophets, and particularly, of course, in Isaiah, but also in Jeremiah, where there's the gathering in not only of the remnant of Israel, but also the gathering in of the remnant of Edom, the remnant of the nations, too, will be brought in in that day. Isaiah chapter 49 verse 22, thus says the Lord, Yahweh, behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations and set up my ensign to the peoples, and they shall bring thy sons in their bosom, and thy daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. and kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers. They shall bow down to thee with their faces to the earth and lick the dust of thy feet, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord, and they that wait for me shall not be put to shame." Now there are two motifs that are woven in in the prophets. One is the complete triumph over the nations. The enemy nations are completely overcome. But then, even beyond that, there is the further claim that the nations themselves will be drawn to worship the Lord and to glorify his name. Psalm 87 celebrates this. His foundations in the holy mountains, the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. I will make mention of Rahab. of course referring to Egypt, and Babylon as among them that know me. Behold, Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia. This one was born there. Yes, of Zion it shall be said, this one and that one was born in her, and the Most High Himself will establish her. The Lord will count when He righteth up the peoples. This one was born there." Amazing. the nations being registered as citizens of Zion, the nations being given a birthright among the people of God and in the capital of the city of God. Now you see, the way in which the Old Testament moves to the inclusion of the nation is by means of the greatness of blessing that must be poured out when God himself comes. See, the whole scenario of the Old Testament is that God makes his covenant with his people, but they're utterly unfaithful. He has to judge them. He has to drive them into exile. The scenario from Deuteronomy has to be fulfilled, you know, at the end of Deuteronomy. All the blessings are poured out. God gives the keeps all his promises. Solomon celebrates that, you know, he spreads his hands when the temple is dedicated and blesses the people. And he says, Lord, you've kept all your promises, all the good things that you've promised you've done. All right, God keeps his promises, so you come to a great high point when the temple is built under Solomon. But right after that, from the very zenith, it plunges down to the nadir, because there's Solomon, as I said yesterday, dedicating a shrine to Chemosh, the god of the Moabites. So everything falls apart. And so after the blessings have been given, then the judgments have to be given. And so the judgments are poured out. And then you're led to Deuteronomy 30. which says, after the blessings and after the judgment, then in the latter days, God will circumcise their hearts. Then at the very end, there's going to be this work of mercy that's unimaginably rich and full. And so, how do you get there then in the Old Testament? Well, you get there in the In the storyline of the Old Testament, in the line of the history of redemption, you get there because the people have shown their utter inability to be faithful to the covenant. It's not in them. And God says he has to take out the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. What hope is there for the people? Ezekiel sees them and what are they like? There's the congregation down in the valley. Well, they've got problems. First of all, they're all dead. And then they're all dried out. The bones are dry. And then the bones aren't even organized. They're scattered on the valley floor. And, son of man, can these bones live? Ezekiel says, Lord, you know. And then God says, prophesy. And the Spirit of God comes upon the bones, and they come together, and they're covered with flesh, and they become a great living host. See, there's the picture. The situation of the people is utterly hopeless. No way. No hope. Dead, dry, scattered bones. There they are. But what's their hope? The hope is in the Spirit of God. God's Spirit has to come upon them. And that's the message of the Old Testament. You see, the situation of the people is so bad that only God can do anything about it. And then the other side of it is, the promises of God are so great that only God can possibly make good on them. Nobody else can do it. Nobody else can bring in what God has promised. Because what God promises is nothing less than a new heavens and a new earth, you see. And so that's what the prophets proclaim. They declare that God's going to come. Ultimately, that which is going to make the difference is the coming of the Lord. prepare ye in the desert a highway for our God. He'll come marching through the desert as he did once long ago. That's why the Dead Sea community picked the location they did by the side of the Dead Sea. They want to look across the sea to the heights of Moab where the King's Highway ran in. coming up from Egypt, and they wanted to see God come marching down that highway to fulfill the promise, prepare in the desert a highway for our God. John the Baptist, as some people think, may have been raised in the Dead Sea community. He lived out in the desert, you know. He certainly preached that message, prepare ye in the desert a highway for our God. God's going to come. That's what's going to straighten everything out. And yet, you see, if God comes, oh, then what will it be like? And the prophets can't say enough in terms of utter amazement when God comes. No superlative, no hyperbole can possibly reach the reality of what it will mean when God comes. Then, every pot in Zachariah, every pot in Jerusalem will be like a temple vessel. And that's saying something, considering the pots of Jerusalem and all. And on the bridles of the horses, it will say, Holiness to the Lord. What used to be in the high priest's tiara, the golden plate in his tiara, that's going to be on the bridles of the horses, comparable to bumper stickers, you know. It's going to be Holiness to the Lord on the horses. And the weakest inhabitant of Jerusalem is going to be like King David, and then who will King David be like? He will be the angel, as the angel of the Lord, among them. That is the Theophany, the appearance of God Himself among them. So God has to come, but when He comes, that changes everything, that blows everything loose. The altar is consumed with the sacrifice. Everything is transformed when He comes. You see, there's no greater dramatic picture conceivable than the message of the Old Testament. The utter hopelessness The utter despair, the dry bones in the valley, you know. The utter human inability to accomplish anything pleasing to God. But then the faithfulness of God's great promise that nobody else can fix it, God will fix it. The shepherds don't take care of the sheep, they eat them, but God's going to come and gather the scattered sheep, and the Prince David will be among them. And the warriors won't defend them, but God puts on his helmet and breastplate of salvation. He comes, He defends. Now, see, in the Psalms, the Psalms pick up very strongly on this prophetic vision. Because the Psalms are doxological, they're praising God, they're announcing the presence of God. And you see, if God is present, and God is among us, then God will accomplish all these things. So there's not only the frankness of the Psalms, and the lamentations of the Psalms, and you see, they have to be there, because they're reflecting the utter hopelessness of our condition, apart from the Lord. See, the Psalms bring to expression that. In the Psalms you hear the groaning of the dry bones, if you want to put it that way, or the grinding of the dry bones against each other. You see, I've tasted the dust of death. My tongue cleaves to my jaws. I'm experiencing this utter abandonment, this hopelessness of the human condition, and even, not even the human condition, but the condition of the people of God. Hopeless and lost apart from Him. So, O Lord, You come. O Lord, be my Savior. Only You can deliver. And then the great promise that God will come. And then, you see, when God comes, then that's going to, that's going to change everything. Psalm 96. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song. See, a new song. Why new? Why? Because the Lord's going to come. And that's going to change all the singing. Sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless His name, show forth His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all peoples. You see, the message goes out now to all the nations. That verse, verse 3 of Psalm 96, was taken as the theme of the Urbana Convention of the InterVarsity Fellowship held in 1976. And they used that theme for the whole meeting. Declare the glory of God among the nations. And what a wonderful verse that is for a mission emphasis. That gives this doxological mission, doesn't it? You declare the wonderful glory of God among all the nations because of what He's done. Great is the Lord, greatly to be praised. He's to be feared above all gods, for all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before him, strength and beauty in his sanctuary. Ascribe unto the Lord, you kindreds of the people. Ascribe unto the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Bring an offering, come into his courts, worship the Lord in holy array. Tremble before him all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns, the world also is established that it cannot be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens be glad, let the earth rejoice, let the sea roar in the fullness thereof, let the fields exult in all that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the woods sing for joy before the Lord, for He comes, He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with his truth. You see, the whole Psalms is a celebration of the coming of the Lord. The coming of the Lord, who is the only Savior, the only one to be adored and worshiped. So, the Psalms, in their way, reflect all the message of the prophets, don't you see? And they point to the coming of the Lord, and they celebrate the praises of the King. So, we see that Christ is the one who fulfills this, because it's through Jesus Christ that God comes, and it's through Jesus Christ that God is to be praised among the nations. And, you know, this conception just governs the whole theology of the New Testament. I mean, well, Jesus comes preaching the kingdom, doesn't he? John the Baptist preaching the kingdom. Where do you get the language of the kingdom? Well, from Isaiah and the Psalms. from psalms like the one that I read. God's the king, you see, and it's the coming of his kingdom. Prepare you in the desert a highway for our God. Here he comes. And the Apostle Paul, his whole theology is grounded in this fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is now ruling, is the Lord, that he's King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And there's the celebration of his coming in power and glory. And of course, in Psalms 2, you see the victorious mediator singing, not only among his people in the midst of the congregation and among the Gentiles, but you see him singing in heaven. Psalm 24, ascending on high, lift up your heads, O ye gates. Psalm 110, Enthroned the Lord said unto my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies the footstool of your feet. You see how the Psalms give us such a comprehensive picture of how God's great saving rule is going to be established. It will be established over the nations, it will be established through David's greater son who will be given his eternal dominion. See, it's not just in the prophets, as in Daniel, where the Son of Man comes in the clouds of heaven in Daniel 7 to the Ancient of Days and he receives an eternal kingdom. That's also in Psalm 110. The Lord says, sit into my right hand until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet. The Lord will give his victory to his mediator, to Jesus Christ. And the rebels say, we'll cast off his cords and we won't be held by his bonds, but he that sits in the heaven will laugh. The Lord will have them in derision, because he will say, you are my son today, have I begotten you? I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. Jesus Christ is the one in whom the kingdom is established. The coming of God in power is linked with the coming of the Messiah to exercise the rule of God. And so the rebels are brought to confront the Son. And we are called to have fellowship with the singing Savior as He sings the song in the midst of the congregation not only, but also as He sings the missionary chant among the nations. He comes to us where we are. He comes to sing in our midst. and we gathered a hymn, which is the picture of Hebrews 12. When we worship, the great assembly of the church, the church is the assembly, ecclesia, assembly. But the definitive assembly of the church is no longer the assembly at Sinai, it's the assembly at Zion. But not the assembly on the earthly Zion, for now it's the time of fulfillment, it's the assembly in the heavenly Zion. It's the assembly where Jesus Christ is. where there is the blood of sprinkling, the blood that sprinkled the mercy seat, the blood that speaks better than that of Abel. To Jesus Christ we come, to the festival assembly of the saints and the angels. Well, it's a magnificent picture and it's one that the Psalms really reflect throughout. Now, are there some questions about that or comments about that, the next thing I want to do is to show rather quickly how the different categories of the Psalms all bear witness to Jesus Christ. Are there questions about what we've been seeing? Yes? Regarding Galatians 3, Paul talks about the promise made to Abraham, and that the promise was made to Abraham and to his seed. He stresses it's not plural, but it was Christ. And I'm wondering, and I'm just trying to put all this together, it would almost seem as if Paul is saying that the promise was not made to Abraham's physical descendants, but it was really made to Christ. And yet, if you read the Old Testament account, they act in such a way that they do very much believe that the promise is made to the people. We are Abraham's seed, that the promise is not to seeds as of many, but to seed as of one, which is Christ. And then at the end of Galatians 3, And if you are Christ, then are you Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise. And the question is, well, which is it? Is Christ the only true seed, or are the Jews the physical? Jews, are they the seed? Well, of course, what Paul's saying is, the promise, sure, is made to Abraham and to his descendants. But the point is, they have lost all claim to the promise by their covenant breaking. He nails that one down. They are those who are really no people. It's the same thing that Peter says in 1 Peter 2, that those who are no people, loami, are those who are made the people of God. Who is the proper heir of the promises of God? Why, Jesus Christ, who is the minister of the circumcision. Jesus Christ, who is the true Israel. Jesus Christ, who has the right to the promises. You see, the people, as such, had lost their right. Now, Paul doesn't therefore write them off. He says, he uses the image of branches being broken off the tree. But you see, Christ is the root of the tree. It's only in Christ that anyone inherits any promise of God, because in ourselves there's no hope. So you, obviously, from the whole approach of the New Testament, you cannot separate out an earthly Israel which has claimed to promises quite apart from Jesus Christ. The promises of God have been completely lost through Israel's apostasy. And if God looks in mercy on Israel according to the flesh, as Paul says he does, that again is the sheer mercy of God. But what Paul's willing to say about that is, they were natural branches and they were broken off, and so if the wild olive branches can be grafted in, the Gentiles, certainly those who were the natural branches can be grafted in. You see, he's acknowledging that God did deal with Israel, but Israel was false to God's covenant, and therefore a Redeemer's need. And apart from Jesus Christ, there's no salvation or there's no covenant relationship in God's sight that can apply to anybody. because we're all lo-ami, not the people of God, under judgment, and we can become ami, God's people, only through Jesus Christ. In other words, the olive branch, the fact that it's an olive branch doesn't mean anything if it's cut off. It's not going to bear any fruit, it's going to shrivel and die, be gathered and be burned. So, only in incorporation with the tree is there life in the branch. It's a natural branch, but it has to be in the tree if it's to have life. See, how many of the promises of God does Jesus Christ inherit? The promise to Adam and Eve, The son of the woman, yes. The promise to Noah, yes. The promise to Abraham that in his seed all the nations will be blessed, yes. Christ is the true seed of Abraham. And the promise to David that he would put his son on a throne and give him an eternal kingdom, yes. The promise to the Jews about the figure of the Son of Man, not like the beasts from the sea, the kingdoms of the nations, but the Son of Man, the one in God's image who will receive his kingdom, yes, that applies to Jesus. So, all the promises are given to Jesus, and which of the promises do we inherit if we're joined to Jesus Christ? Well, okay, yes? Well, you know, that can be said more than once, decisively and utterly, when they said, his blood be on us and on our children. See, that's how Jesus presented it. When he said, the kingdom will be taken away from you and given to another nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. That's in connection of the parable where they say we'll kill the sun and the inheritance will be ours. They beat up the servants, the prophets, but they're going to kill the sun. And with the killing of the sun, the apostasy is complete. The leaders of the nation do it, and the result is, as we read in Matthew's Gospel, the kingdom will be taken away from you. Now, that's not the whole story. You can go back through the whole history, of course, and you see a whole history of apostasy. There's always some remnant that's kept, but the remnant, ultimately, from a theological perspective, the remnant goes down to the shoot that comes out of the great cedar that's hewn down. Isaiah 10 and 11. The cedar is hewn down and out of the root there comes a shoot, and that shoot is the Messiah. That shoot is Jesus Christ. So there's no remnant apart from Christ himself. Only in union with Christ is there a remnant. You know, you see that even at the cross, while not all the disciples cursed the name of Jesus as Peter did, yet they all forsook him and fled, so Jesus goes alone to the cross. In a certain sense, there you see the remnant down to one, and then from there comes the restoration. Now, you know, I'm not saying that the other disciples were unbelievers at that time, but the point is sort of dramatized that at last there's one who remains faithful. Yes? You said a moment ago the Psalms are reflecting the messages of the prophets. Isn't that true of all of the different types of Old Testament literature, whether it be the prophets' messages, the histories themselves, the stories or narratives that are given in the Old Testament? All of them are different ways that God is trying to get the same message across. All of them, as it were, pointing to that hub of the wagon wheel, Jesus Christ, His Lord. All of them, just different ways of saying the same thing. Yes, they're all embedded in the history of redemption, you see. All of them. I think probably the hardest to see would be the wisdom literature. See, there are elements of the wisdom literature where they use proverbs that are shared with the Egyptians and that sort of thing. And you might say, how does that have a place in the history of redemption? And I want to talk about that a little bit later today. But you're right, all of it, even including the wisdom literature. The wisdom literature, too, is transformed by its context in the scriptures, you see. And all the Old Testament is related to God's great work of redemption, His great plan. The plan that's revealed from the beginning, the scenario that's given in Deuteronomy 30, The blessing and the curse and then the ultimate salvation. The latter days, what God will do at the end. And then the whole New Testament message is the latter days have come. The time of fulfillment is here. Now, of course, the great surprise is the fulfillment is not yet totally realized. See, there's still a consummation to come. And that's what made it very difficult for John the Baptist, because he thought the great promise of the Old Testament, where God's going to set everything right, that can only come about through judgment. Doesn't the 96th Psalm say the Lord's coming to judge the earth, and isn't he going to judge the nations? And so, here comes Christ, and does the mighty works of God, But, and John the Baptist in prison heard about Christ raising the son of the widow of Nain, in Luke 7, see? And so if Christ can do that, well, he must be the one that John announced. John announced the coming one, says, here he comes, prepare the way of the Lord. I'm not even worthy to tie his shoelaces, you know, this is the Lord. And yet, Jesus came with all this power, and John said, there's the axe lying at the root of the tree, all ready to go. And as soon as the judge comes, he'll start hacking. But Jesus didn't do that. Jesus didn't start cutting down sinners. John felt, why doesn't he start with Herod? That would be a good candidate. But see, Jesus doesn't do it. So then John asks that frightening question, are you the one who comes or should we look for somebody else? And Jesus is very tender and compassionate with him. He understands why he's asking the question. So he reinforces the reality of the miracles. He takes John's delegates, and he does a lot more of these miracles, and then he describes what he's done. And when Jesus describes what he's done, he just paraphrases Isaiah 35. So he shows that he's fulfilling the prophets, no doubt about it, no question. So he fulfills the prophets. But he's not bringing in the judgment that the prophets promised. Well, that's a problem. And what does Jesus tell John? Blessed is he whosoever is not offended in me. See? He doesn't give him the answer. He just says to John, John, believe me, I'm doing it my way. And of course we know why he had to do it his way now. We know that if he had come with a sword of judgment, if he had brought a legion or two of angels with him, there'd be no remnant. John himself would not be guiltless. Jesus came not to use the spear, but to bear the thrust of the spear. He came not to bring the judgment on others, but to bear the judgment Himself. Of course, His very preaching became a judgment to those who refused to receive Him. But He did not come in to bring the last judgment. He came to bring the day of salvation. And from the standard of the Old Testament passages, that would seem to John the Baptist and to others as being backwards. How can you bring in the blessings of the kingdom without first bringing in the judgments of the kingdom? See, how do you get righteousness without a righteous rule set up? And how do you set up a righteous rule? How do you deliver the oppressors without smiting down the oppressed? So how can there be the shalom of the Old Testament, how can there be God's shalom without judgment first? Well, in a sense, it can't be without judgment first. But the secret is that the suffering servant has to bear the judgment. So there is judgment, but it's a judgment that Christ bears. not that he inflicts, and the judgment that he inflicts is yet to come, which of course runs totally counter to every conception of popular religion in the United States. Any God that can be tolerated is not a God who judges. the average American will say that God of yours is my devil. That's what long years ago the old liberal preacher Buttrick said that, you know, your God is my devil, speaking to a fundamentalist. But that's the basic attitude really, that there will never be judgment. But there is a judgment from which we can be delivered by the judgment that Christ bore, and that's the gospel. Well, okay. Well, let's start on this next. We'd better keep to the time and take just a few more minutes, even though it's a transition point. Let's turn to this is page for Roman numeral to the categories of the Psalms witness to Christ. Now in Longman's book on how to read the psalms, he has a section on the genre of the psalms, and he identifies seven, the hymn, the lament, the thanksgiving, the remembrance, the psalm of confidence, of wisdom, and of kingship. And of course there's subdivisions of these because the distinction, for example, between the I Psalms and the We Psalms would cut across the structure of the Lament. And then these things are still being discussed and it depends how you organize them really depends on what principles you're using to make your categories. If you think of simply literary structures, techniques, uses of repetition or interweaving of subject matter, not so easy to get a simple definition of this. And this is always being discussed. But these are useful, however. These are very useful categories to help us recognize and classify to some extent the literature of the Psalms. And as I noted here, other genres may be identified. You can talk about the Psalms of Ascent, the Pilgrim Psalms. As I understand it, Dr. Futato is planning in the week of prayer in the fall semester that there will be messages in chapel from the Pilgrim Psalms, the Psalms of Ascent. So you can separate those and study those. There are psalms of refuge, I mentioned them to you earlier, like Psalm 7 or 11, where you call upon God as your refuge and find your refuge in Him. And I've just picked out some of these psalms, some of these categories of psalms. And my purpose in this little outline is to try to show you that as you look at the different categories of psalms, you find psalms from each category being used in the New Testament to refer to Jesus Christ. And that's what these passages illustrate. The Lament of the Individual. Well, we've already looked at Psalm 22, verse 22, and see how that's referred to Christ in Hebrews 2.12. Psalm 69.4, the zeal of your house has eaten me up, the reproaches of them that reproached you have fallen on me. 69.4, that's the, oh I should know that. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. They that would cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Christ's enemies hating him without a cause, referred to in John 15, 25. So there are these instances of the lament of the individual being referred to Christ. And might I just mention this. You see, if Psalm 22, in its lament, is used by Christ, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? If Psalm 22, in its cry of victory, the vow of praise applies to Christ, in the midst of the congregation, will I sing thy praise? There's a fair presumption that the whole Psalm ought to be viewed in connection with Jesus Christ. And if that's so, then consider that in that long psalm, you have incorporated the other elements of most of the rest of this author. Because what are the elements in Psalm 22? Well, lament, sections of trust. I belong to you from the time I was conceived, I was yours on my mother's breast, and so on. So the psalm of trust is there, and then the prayer for deliverance is there, the vow of praise is there, the doxology is there at the end of that psalm. So you see, if you put together all of those separate elements of Psalm 22, it really covers most of the Psalter. Now, that is of the individual, Psalms that are Psalms of the individual. So, the fact that Psalm 22 can be ascribed to Christ really suggests that other Psalms of the same sort can be applied to Christ as well. The lament is always the lament of an individual who's being unjustly afflicted, unjustly pursued, unjustly victimized. But here Jesus comes as the suffering servant and the praises are his. Well, Laments of the People, you find the We Psalms also being used in the New Testament. Notice my references from Luke 1, 71, 72, 68. These are all from the hymns in the early part, the Nativity section of the Gospel of Luke. where the We Psalms, the people of God as His righteous remnant people are praising Him. And so in the Song of Mary and the hymn of Zacharias and so on, you have references to these We Psalms as well in relation to the great work of God in sending His salvation with the coming of Jesus Christ. Psalms of confidence, of trust in trouble. These Psalms too are alluded to or quoted in the New Testament in relation to the fulfillment that we find in the New Testament. In 91 11, for he will give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways, they shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against the stone." Isn't that interesting? You see, you remember when that was quoted, and by whom? That was quoted by Satan when he was tempting Christ in the wilderness. And notice that Satan had a good understanding of the way in which the Psalms referred to Christ. He quotes that Psalm. And he's tempting Christ, not in general. Look at those temptations. He doesn't try to tempt Christ the way Saint Anthony was tempted, right? Or probably the way you were tempted. They're messianic temptations. See, he doesn't try to bring lustful thoughts into Christ's mind. He tempts Christ with reference to his calling as the Messiah, as the Son of God. If you are the Son of God, turn the stones into bread. Satan never tempted you to turn stones into bread, did he? But Jesus, yes. And so he says this psalm... So Satan's saying to Jesus in effect, you know very well that you are the Lord's anointed. You know very well that Psalm 91 was written about you. You know very well that God will give His angels charge over you to lift you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You know your whole life as the Lord's anointed is in his hand, as the Son of God is in his hand. So, therefore, Satan says, here I've got you up on the wing of the temple, out on the temple roof, you see. Not only a great distance down to the courtyard, but even further down to the valley below, you see. quite a height here, and it's as high as you can get, given the situation. I mean, you have to go to some other mountain, which later he does, but here in the temple, you're up high, and he says, go ahead, go ahead and jump. See, he wants him to, well, sort of cut his faith short, or cash it in, or Find out once and for all, is he the son of God? If he jumps, he'll know. I mean, if he's killed, well, isn't it better to die than to think he's the son of God when he isn't? If he jumps and is delivered, then he knows that he's the son of God, and he doesn't have to go by faith. He can go by sight. You know, it's become evident. So Satan says, go ahead and jump. But see the assumption that Psalm 91 refers to Christ. Isn't it interesting where Satan stopped the quotation? He doesn't quote Psalm 91 verse 13. Well, I guess. Yes. Yes. If you were preaching through that, obviously you'd say the use of Christ and you would point to Him, but would you be able to use this as a supplicatory for your people because they are in Christ? Yeah, sure. But it would be a wonderful chance to bring out what you just said. That the reason we can claim the promises of this psalm is because Christ claimed them for us, you see. It's in Christ that we have the assurance of this song. Okay, we'll take a little break now.