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Sermon - The Psalms and the New Testament - 24th September 2006
St Alban’s Epping 7:00am, 8:00am and 10:00am
Readings: Proverbs 31:10-31, Psalm 1, James 3:1-12, Mark 9:14-29
The early church used the psalms both as liturgical materials in early Christian worship and as a theological resource. Evidence for the first use is found in Paul's advice to the Colossians to “sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God” (3:16). Although it is not clear precisely what each of these three terms designates, it is almost certain that “psalms” (and perhaps “hymns”) refers to material from the book of Psalms. After all, the earliest followers of Jesus were Jews, so it only makes sense that they would continue to use in worship some of the same materials they had always used.
To be sure, new materials were used in Christian worship as well, and it is likely that “spiritual songs” refers explicitly to Christian material that may have been created with inspiration from the psalms. For instance, Mary's Song, the Magnificat, “My soul magnifies the Lord…” (Luke 1:46-55) contains echoes of Psalms 98 and 113, and the Song of Simeon, the Nunc Dimittis, “Now, Lord, you let you servant depart in peace …” (Luke 2:28-32) echoes Ps 119:123.
While it is likely that the early Christians prayed and sang the psalms, it is absolutely clear that they used the psalms as a theological resource. The book of Psalms is quoted and alluded to in the New Testament more than any other Old Testament book. This is not at all surprising in view of the fact that the theology of the psalms is consistent with the core of Jesus' preaching and teaching. The theological heart of the Psalter, the understanding that God reigns, is precisely the fundamental good news that Jesus announced from the beginning of his public ministry.
“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news * of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; * repent, and believe in the good news.” (Mark 1:14-15).
Jesus proclaimed the reign of God as a present reality, and he invited people to enter it and experience it immediately. Jesus proclaimed the reign of God amid constant opposition. This persistent opposition meant that Jesus' own life, as well as the lives of his followers and of those to whom his ministry was most often directed, may be characterized in the same terms that regularly describe the psalmists: afflicted, oppressed, poor, needy, weak, meek, and persecuted. However, like the psalms, it is precisely the afflicted that Jesus pronounces “Happy” or “Blessed” in the Sermon on the Mount.
Like the psalms, Jesus' ministry of suffering servant-hood proposes a radical redefinition of the usual understanding of kingship. Kingship is not the demonstration of sheer power but the embodiment of sheer love, which ultimately is revealed to be the most powerful reality of all. The gracious, incarnational involvement of God with humanity, already evident in the psalms, is, from the Christian perspective, completed in Jesus' ministry of suffering servant-hood.
Thus, in reflecting on Jesus' identity, the early Christians concluded that Jesus was nothing less than God incarnate, “the Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14). Because Jesus had fully revealed what God is like, thus fulfilling the role of the ancient kings of Judah and Israel to enact God's justice and righteousness, the early church saw in Jesus the ideal king for which they had been waiting. Thus they accorded Jesus the royal titles “anointed” and Son of God.
The cross, far from being a sign of defeat, was the clearest demonstration of God's character and kingship. The resurrection did not remove the scandal of the cross but instead validated its revelation that the power of sheer love is the only authentic source of life. Thus Jesus' invitation to discipleship is essentially an invitation for people to share his ministry of suffering servant-hood: “let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34).
The lives of Jesus' followers, like Jesus' own life, will mirror the lives of the psalmists, who are pronounced “happy” not beyond but in the midst of their constant affliction. For remember what Psalm 23 says:
“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
Given the consistency between the portrayal of God and the faithful life in the psalms and by Jesus, it is not surprising that the Gospel writers cannot tell the story of Jesus without frequently referring or alluding to a psalm. For instance, the words of the heavenly beings in Luke's account of Jesus' birth recall the content and movement of Psalm 29,
“Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.”
thus suggesting that Jesus' birth signals the presence of God's reign:
“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, * praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among peace, goodwill among people .”
The heavenly voice at Jesus' baptism quotes a portion of Ps 2, thus introducing Jesus as the one who would ultimately embody God's will and finally fulfil the purpose of the monarchy. Psalm 2 is cited again at Jesus' transfiguration, immediately after the first prediction of his passion in the synoptic Gospels (see Matt 17:5; Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35). The effect is to reinforce the message that Jesus will embody God's character and will do so precisely by way of his suffering servant-hood.
This message is, of course, regularly reinforced as well by Jesus' ministry of compassion and his teaching. It is seen most clearly in Jesus' passion and in telling this part of Jesus' story, the Gospel writers rely most heavily on the psalms. Jesus' entry into Jerusalem is narrated with reference to Psalm 118, suggesting that Jesus' upcoming passion is to be viewed in sequence with the exodus and return from exile, God's saving deeds of old. The account of the crucifixion in all four Gospels has been shaped by Psalm 22, and in Matt 27:46 and Mark 15:34, the words Jesus speaks from the cross are a quotation of Ps 22:1.
These words are not present in Luke and John, but Jesus' final words in Luke are a quotation of Ps 31:5 (Luke 23:46), and Jesus' final words in John seem also to allude to Ps 31:5 and perhaps to Ps 22:31. Psalm 69 has also influenced the passion accounts. In short, the Gospel writers drew upon the three longest and most impressive of the psalm laments of an individual in order to relate the story of Jesus' suffering (Psalms 38; 41). In other words, Jesus is presented as the ultimate example of the faithful sufferer. What is more, it is precisely Jesus' faithful suffering on behalf of others that reveals what God is like. Therefore, the cross is for Christians the ultimate revelation of the mystery the Psalms present, divine kingship manifested as perfect love.
The paradox of strength made perfect in weakness, although “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Cor 1:23), should not be misunderstood. God's strength, the power of sheer love, is real strength. Jurgen Moltmann in his book, The Crucified God , wrote: “It would be a weak, poor God... who could not love or suffer. Such a God would be caught in a prison of impassability”. It is precisely the God revealed in Psalms and in Jesus Christ that is strong enough to be vulnerable. This apparent weakness turns out to be the greatest strength of all, as the resurrection of Jesus demonstrated. For us to understand properly the paradox of divine kingship, the cross and the resurrection must be inseparable, and the New Testament always presents them this way.
Indeed, the inseparability of cross and resurrection is the same way in which lament and praise are finally inseparable in the psalms. Given this analogy, it is appropriate that the resurrection as well as the crucifixion is proclaimed in the New Testament by way of the psalms. The first recorded Christian sermon, Peter's sermon on the Day of Pentecost, is based primarily on Pss 16, 110, and 132. (Acts 8:25-34). Psalm 110 is often quoted or alluded to in describing the glory of the crucified one (1 Cor 15:25; Eph 1:20; Col 3:1; Heb 1:3; 8:1; 10:12-13; 12:2).
The radical implications of Jesus' embodiment of God's kingship in suffering love were not lost on the apostle Paul. Jesus' proclamation of the reign of God becomes, in Pauline terms, justification by grace, or the revelation of the justice of God.” As Jesus revealed and as Paul clearly understood, God's justice is ultimately manifested as free unmerited grace. The traditional exposition of justification by faith as the forgiveness of sins is not incorrect, but it is not broad enough. The revelation of God's justice involves fundamentally the good news that God's gracious love extends to all people. God's justice means the affirmation of life for all people, not based on any system of human merit but as a result of God's loving gift.
The message is again consistent with that of the psalms, and Paul appeals to the psalms to support his case. No human being can deserve God's gift of life (Rom 3:9-20, 14, 143). The gift of divine forgiveness (Rom 4:7-8, Ps 32) means the levelling of all distinctions and human systems that exclude. This theology of divine justice revealed as gracious love, which Paul found in the psalms and which Jesus had embodied, led Paul to the radical step of casting aside sacred but excluding symbols, such as circumcision and dietary regulations, in order to open the church to all people. It is appropriate that Paul found reason for this step in the psalms (Rom 15:9-11, Pss 89, 117).
It is appropriate that a final word about the psalms and the New Testament come from the book of Revelation to John. While direct quotation of the psalms is rare, Revelation is full of singing and songs that could well have been inspired by the Psalter. The Revelation shares the Psalter's fundamental conviction that God rules the world (Rev 11:15; 12:10; 15:3), and the mention of “a new song” (Rev 5:9; 14:3) explicitly recalls Psalms 96; 98; and 149, all of which assert God's reign. It is particularly interesting that the Revelation, like Psalm 149, envisions God's people reigning with God in a redeemed world that includes “the healing of the nations” (Rev 22:1-5 NRSV; see also 2:26-27; 5:10; and cf. Ps 149:5-9).
While Revelation is usually classified as apocalyptic literature, it should not be construed as a timetable for the end of the world. Rather, it portrays the future that God wills, which is possible because God rules the world, and which, indeed, becomes a present reality for those who acknowledge God's claim and enter God's realm of life. Insofar as it depicts the “end” or destiny of the world, it portrays the faithful gathered to God and singing a song that recalls parts of Pss 86 and 145 (Rev 15:3-4). As a vision of the “end,” it might be beneficial for us to hold this event alongside secular apocalyptic events like global warming, terrorism, bird flu or an earth laid waste by the radiation that enters through an atmosphere depleted of ozone. Such warnings should not be dismissed, although it is unlikely that we shall be frightened into reform. What will go further than anything else to prevent such catastrophes will be living toward a different vision, the biblical vision of faithful people from all times and places, gathered, as the psalmists of old, to acknowledge God's reign by singing a new song.
Psalm 96:
“ O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous works among all the peoples.”
[i] This sermon prepared with the assistance of the New Interpreter's Bible, Vol IV, Abingdon. Nashville . 1994.