Psalm Superscriptions: Part II. The Historicity of the Psalms: Ps 110 and Ps 22—the “Fifth Gospel—through Rabbinic interpretation into the Church Fathers
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The historicity of the Psalms
In our last writing on the Psalm subscriptions, there arose the question, whether the superscriptions are themselves historical?
In this follow-up piece now we look into whether the Davidic Psalms are rooted in the real life, personal history of David?
And in moving into this question of the historicity, we begin with James Anderson, who writes in his Translator’s Preface to the fifth volume of Calvin’s Commentary on the Psalms,
“The reader will perceive how completely the inspiration of the Psalms is established by New Testament authority, and how highly they were appreciated by Christ and His Apostles, there being no portion of Old Testament Scripture from which they so frequently quoted.”
That is to say, both Jesus Himself and the NT authors viewed the Psalms as historical realities.
But to us in the modern era, maybe that perspective is just “preaching to the choir” of a Reformation audience…
Possibly.
And if so, then we need to go back to the earlier sources. The process by which we will do this is by looking at two key Psalms:
Psalm 110, the most frequently cited Psalm in the entire NT; and
Psalm 22, which gives such prophetic detail into the dimensions of the Cross that it has been termed the “Fifth Gospel.”
The Authority of the NT in establishing the inspiration of the Psalms
Expanding on this wider question of the historicity of the Psalms, the NT writings contain:
more than 400 allusions to the Psalms; and
over 100 direct citations of the Psalms;
with nearly half of the entire corpus of these individual Psalms being specifically referenced.
By doing so, the NT functionally treats the Psalter as a primary source of legal and prophetic authority…not simply a collection of religious poetry for individual piety…
And Jesus Himself views the Psalms as part of the triadic formula of “Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms” (Lk 24:44). That is to say, they are canonical texts which are inspired by the Holy Spirit and, as such, Fourth-Dimensional.
Focusing our attention on two of the key Psalms cited in the NT, we can by pointing out the following.
Psalm 110: “The Lord said to my Lord…”
The Gospels reference Psalm 110, which, as already noted, is the most frequently cited Psalm in the NT (Mt 22:44, Mark 12:36, Luke 20:42-43…Acts 2:34–35…Heb 1:13, 5:6, 7:17, 7:21, etc.).
As we will see below, the specific verses of the Psalm are quoted and then specifically fulfilled. But if we move into the more subtle arena of where this Psalm is alluded to, we will immediately be taken to the climax of Jesus’ trial before the Sanhedrin.
The trial, Jesus’ response and His swift condemnation
When the Sanhedrin questions Jesus’ true identity, Caiaphas, the High Priest at that time, demands of Him,
“I put You under oath by the living God:
Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!” (Mt 26:63)
And the way that Jesus responds is full of the Old Testament.
At the demands of Israel’s religious hierarchy, Jesus gives a very bold—and very particular—answer. Knowing full well the dynamics of His references from the Tanakh, Jesus combines Psalm 110 :1 (“The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand…”) with the “Son of Man” language of Daniel 7:
"From now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God" (Mt 26:64, Mk 14:62, Lk 22:69).
The High Priest, fully understanding the implications of Christ’s prophetic references, immediately tears his clothes, charges Him with blasphemy and demands His execution:
“He has blasphemed!
Why do we still need witnesses?
Now you have heard the blasphemy!
What is your verdict?”
They answered,
“He is guilty and deserves death.”
Then they spat in his face and struck him with their fists…” (Mt 26:65-67).
That is to say, by pointing to this key Davidic Psalm on the Messiah’s Kingship then combining it with the prophecy of Daniel on the Son of Man, Jesus makes clear not only His identity as the Lord over the royal Davidic line, but moreover, He reveals His true identity as the very Son of God Himself.
And this is why the response of the religious elite in Israel is so dramatic, swift and violent (which I had never understood before). This is why they employ all of their power and influence among their Roman overlords to ensure His execution…literally within 24 hours.
As in to say, Jesus, by His profound understanding of the OT corpus (Tanakh) with the Psalms (Tehillim) and Prophets (Nevi'im), strikes a collective nerve among the religious hierarchy…that, as we’ll next find, leads into the further prophetic fulfillment of the Scriptures in His sacrificial Death.
Psalm 22: “The Fifth Gospel”
This leads us into a Psalm quoted so extensively in the Crucifixion that it has been termed the "Fifth Gospel.” In this way the opening section of Psalm 22 stands, we might say, as the definitive blueprint for the crucifixion of Jesus, in which
“The Psalm becomes a mirror; whatever you see the Jews doing to the Savior on Golgotha, you see the Prophet writing on the scroll centuries before" (Cyril of Alexandria, Catechetical Lecture 13).
Moving, then, through these verses, we find:
In the agony of His suffering, Jesus directly quotes Psalm 22:1
“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?,” that is,
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Psalm 22:1-> Mt 27:46, Mk 15:34).
Jesus, in the marriage union of Gen 2, leaves His Father, to cling in love to His dead Bride—stripped, naked yet unashamed.
And as He is fully surrounded by religious vultures, the Gospel writers next cite David’s words,
"All who see me mock me…
“He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue Him" (Mt 27:39, 43).
That is to say, the religious hierarchy, itself protected from the horror and injustice of suffering (like Job’s three friends!), not only fail to use the words of Holy Scripture to strengthen and comfort and console a suffering soul (remembering here that comfort is originally derived from the Latin verb, confortare, whose root is fors/fortis, meaning ‘strength’ [not our modern view of comfort which is indistinguishable from self-directed ease); what is far worse, these vultures use their encyclopedic knowledge of Scripture to rip deeper into Christ’s bleeding wounds.
Ever experienced that, we might ask?
Innocent and yet condemned? Suffering and yet critiqued; Pain escalating and yet mocked?
Yet it goes further.
When Christ finally breathes His last, the Roman soldiers, standing at the foot of the Cross, proceed to “divide” His “garments” and for his “clothing cast lots” (Psalm 22:18-> Mt 27:35, John 19:24);
That is to say, the religious and political systems, combined in an infernal union, now find a way to profit from the suffering of its people.
Again, has that ever happened to you? Or a friend? Or a family member?
Decisions made that bring more anguish into an already dire situation?
But going further, has it ever happened to you—not merely when you are struggling—but when you are in the greatest and most painful battle of your life?
To which we can only say again, Kyrie eleison!
And finally, moving beyond the Gospels into the Epistles, we see this Psalm cited in the Letter to the Hebrews.
Here, the author does not follow the Gospel writers in quoting from the lament of the first half of Psalm 22 (v. 1-21), which Patristic sources viewed as the suffering and humiliation and self-emptying (kenosis) of the New Adam.
Rather, with Jesus having now died and risen into Glory, the author draws his Hebrew reader into the joyous exaltation of the second half of the Psalm (v 22-31).
The lament of the first half comes to a close with the words,
“You have answered Me” (22:21)
And the second half opens with a declaration of praise:
I will declare Your name to My brethren;
In the midst of the assembly I will praise You” (Ps 22:22-> Heb 2:12).And thereby we—that is humanity, both Jew and Gentiles now bound together—are ushered into a new dimension of JWHW’s cosmic, redemptive work.
The Fathers make much of this.
The Fathers on Ps 22:22/Hebrew 2:12:
From Christ’s humiliation to His victorious exaltation; from the local to the worldwide Church
Athanasius: Christus Victor
"He did not declare the Name to us until He had first endured the cross. Having been delivered from the ‘horns of the unicorns,’ He immediately speaks of His brothers.
It is as the Apostle says in Hebrews:
“He partook of flesh and blood so that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death” (Heb 2:14).
Thus, the transition from pain to praise is the proof of His true humanity and His victory for us" (Letter on the Interpretation of the Psalms).
Chrysostom: Christ, the ‘Head of a new family’
"When He says,
'I will declare your name to my brothers,'
He is no longer speaking in the person of the Sufferer, but in the person of the Firstborn from the dead.
The Apostle in Hebrews takes this as proof that Christ is not ashamed of our nature. In the first part of the Psalm, He was a ‘worm' and an outcast; in this second part, He is now the Head of a new family, leading the hymn of praise in the midst of those He has rescued" (Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews).
At this point, the Fathers see in Christ’s Passion a great ‘pivot’ away from the local to worldwide Church:
Theodoret of Cyrus: From the Passion to the Resurrection; from the Jewish to the global Church
“The Prophet shifts from the narrative of the Passion to the grace of the Resurrection. Note how He no longer calls God ‘My God' in a tone of desertion, but begins to preach the Father’s name to His brethren.
This corresponds to the Apostle’s word that 'He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one.' The transition is the movement from the narrowness of the Jews to the breadth of the Gentiles" (Commentary on the Psalms).
Cyril of Alexandria: From the ‘night’ of the Jews to the ‘day’ of the ‘world’s conversion’
"The first section was the 'night' of the Jews, but the second section is the 'day' of the Gentiles.
When the Psalm moves to 'declaring the name,' it signifies the Apostolic preaching. Christ declares the Father's name to His 'brothers'—not just the twelve, but all who are joined to Him in flesh and blood.
The transition to the praise of the 'ends of the earth' proves that His suffering was not a defeat, but the mechanism for the world's conversion" (Commentary on the Psalms).
And finally, the Fathers see in this ‘Fifth Gospel’ the literal founding document of the universal Church.
Augustine: The ‘Ecclesia Magna’
"Consider the scope of this praise:
‘In the midst of the congregation I will praise you.'
This is the Ecclesia Magna—the Great Church. The second section of the Psalm is the fruit of the Passion. He was stripped of His clothes in the first part so that He might clothe the Church in the second.
As Hebrews 2 confirms, the 'Sanctifier' and the 'sanctified' are now one, and this second half of the Psalm is the song they sing together in the freedom of the Spirit" (Exposition on Psalm 22).
All this to say, in this midpoint of Psalm 22 the early church found a critical transition from a “Psalm of the Cross” to a "Pivot of the Resurrection."
But how did the OT Jewish Church view Psalm 22 at the time of Christ?
The Rabbinic Interpretation in the 1st century A.D.
The Rabbinic interpretation of this Psalm by the time of the 1st century A.D. had come to focus much on the Superscription,
“To the Chief Musician. Set to ‘The Deer of the Dawn’ (Ayyelet HaShachar). A Psalm of David.”
With three major views being held, which we will quickly review:
1) This Psalm refers primarily to the sufferings of David, the Messianic King. This is the simplest view. The second view takes us back into the history of Israel;
2) As was later developed in oral tradition, the words of the Psalm were reportedly spoken by Esther when she went into meet with King Ahasuerus. The history here is critically important as it shows how God, in the language of the Torah,
“turns curses into blessings” (Deut 23:5).
The Babylonian Talmud: Psalm 22 in the life of Esther
"And she stood in the inner court of the king's house” (Esther 5:1).
R. Levi said: When she reached the chamber of the idols, the Divine Presence left her. She said,
“My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?'" (The Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 15b);
When faced with the entire genocide of the Jewish people, Queen Esther drew from the intensity of the abandonment felt by the Psalmist in these verses. She herself faced an “adversary and enemy” in the “wicked” person of Haman (Esth 7:6).
He, like Saul, held power in the court of the King and used his influence to persecute God’s people—even to “destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus” (6:6).
And, as we come to find out, he was himself a descendant of Agag, the king of the Amalekites, who held a bitter vendetta against Israel literally from the time of their emancipation from Egypt throughout the entirety of their history as a people.
And so, when Haman is “promoted above all the princes” in the kingdom, he immediately sought to use his newfound powers to exterminate literally every Jewish person scattered throughout the ancient world on the “13th day of the first month” (cf. Esther 3:1, 6, 8-15).
And yet…as we find, Haman’s plot had targeted the Queen herself, who is, unbeknownst to him, herself a Jew…which is a very unwise thing to do... For when his vicious plot will become gloriously exposed with all the dramatic twists of irony, he will end up himself being executed.
Mordecai instructs Esther to use her influence with the King to save the Jewish people. Knowing, however, that her entrance into the King unannounced could lead to her own execution(4:10-11), she, after a great personal struggle, finally agrees…but under one condition:
Calling Mordecai, she instructs him:
“Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan and fast for me” (Ester 4:15).
That is, I know not how JHWH will bring light out of this impenetrable darkness, but fast and pray together!
And the result is that on the third night, the “King could not sleep” (6:1a).
Is that an accident?
He calls for the “book of the records of the chronicles” to be brought in and read (6:1b). There he is reminded how his life had been saved by Mordecai (6:2).
As such, the King then inquires,
“What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” (Esther 6:3).
Finding out that, in fact,
“Nothing has been done for him” (6:3b),
he begins to consider a reward.
Then—literally at that very moment—Haman enters the “outer court of the king’s palace to suggest that the King hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him” (6:4).
It is like a perfectly written play.
In escalating degrees of irony, Haman is next ushered into the presence of the King, where he is asked,
“What shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?” (6:6a).
Believing, of course, that the King is referring to him (6:6b), Haman boldly suggests:
“Let a royal robe be brought which the king has worn, and a horse on which the king has ridden, which has a royal crest placed on its head.
Then let this robe and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that he may array the man whom the king delights to honor.
Then parade him on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him: ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!’ ” (6:8-9).
The King agrees with Haman’s recommendations…yet again with an ironic twist:
Haman is not the one to be clothed in a royal robe and paraded on horseback through the city square amidst proclamations of honor, but rather the Jew, Mordecai.
Yet even more:
Haman is the one who will be hanged on the “gallows, fifty cubits high, which” he himself had “made for Mordecai (Esther 7:9).
Incredible!
A plotline of fact greater than any fiction!
So views of the Babylonian Talmud in regard to Psalm 22: What is designed as a means of execution for the Jewish people becomes the very instrument of JHWH’s judgment upon His enemies.
But what is the third view?
3) Finally, combining both of these first two interpretations together, Psalm 22 is viewed as referring to the collective voice of the Jewish People in Exile:
The Psalm speaks of the generation of Mordecai and Esther, which was dark as night... For though it is night, one has the light of the moon and stars; but when is it truly dark? Just before the dawn. In that hour, the Holy One answers the world" (Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 22).
All this to say, there are contained here in Jesus’ reference to this Davidic Psalm the history, not only of the dramatic suffering of the Messianic King—anointed yet rejected by the power structures in Israel—but the collective suffering of the people of God in their Exile from the Promised Land.
Conclusion: The Anointed Savior
All of this to say, the dramatic levels continue to deepen.
Jesus, the Son of Man, enters into the full expanse of man’s suffering but in a way that brings man’s salvation —
“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus (Yēšhūa), for He will save (yasha) His people from their sins” (Mt 1:21).
Christ (Christós) is the Anointed King of Israel, but One Who will be ‘anointed’ (chriō) unto death itself—
“There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head” (Mt 26:7-> Ex 29 and Lev 8).
Which in Jesus’ interpretation was a type of burial ritual:
“For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial
Verily I say unto you,
Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her (Mt 26:12-13).
And two thousand years later in a land not yet discovered by our forebearers will be found those writing of this very anointing of a new King revealed to the entire world!
Amen!
And Amen!
So may it be!