Introduction: The Messianic Psalms (1) — Chip Brogden

This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. Hello again everyone. This is Chip Brogdon streaming online at www .watchman .net with another edition of our weekly webcast. And this week we're beginning a new series and I'm really looking forward to this.

Beginning a Study of the Messianic Psalms

It's going to be an excellent time to get into the Word of God and really dig out some treasures here. We are going to begin a series in the Book of Psalms. We're leaving the New Testament for the time being.

We're going to go back into the Old Testament to the Book of Psalms and really dig into the Word here. And so I'm excited. I'm looking forward to it. Now the Book of Psalms is a long book and we're not going to go through every single psalm in that book.

In fact the Book of Psalms is the longest book in the Bible. It has 150 chapters. And if we were to take one chapter a week and go through them individually each week it would take us more than three years to get through them all.

So what we're going to do instead of going through each psalm individually we are going to focus our study on the Messianic Psalms. In other words the psalms that specifically refer to and teach us about the Christ, about the Messiah, about the Lord Jesus.

And so that is going to be the focus of our study here for the next several weeks because we've got a lot of psalms that refer to the Lord Jesus. And so we're going to begin doing that right now but kind of in a strange place.

Luke 24 and the Scriptures Concerning Christ

I'd like for you to grab your Bible and turn to the Book of Luke. We're going to study psalms but we're going to begin reading from the Gospel of Luke. If you would turn to Luke chapter 24. And while you're doing that why don't we go to the Lord in prayer right now and ask him to bless this time together that we have in the Word.

Father I thank you for your Word and I thank you for the opportunity and the privilege that we have to come together here on the internet and here listening by audio whether it's a CD or whatever the case may be.

Thank you Father for the fellowship that we have in Christ. And Lord open our eyes to understand and to see wonderful things in your Word as we begin this new study through the Book of Psalms. I thank you Lord for the revelation of Christ and I pray Lord that you would give all of us ears to hear and eyes to see what the Spirit of Jesus wants to reveal to us.

Bless this Word O Lord and let it produce fruit in our lives 30, 60 and 100 fold. In Jesus name Amen and Amen. Well you're in Luke chapter 24 and I'd like for you to begin reading with me here in verses.

Well why don't we begin in verse 44 and I'll set up the context. This is immediately after the Lord had been resurrected and his disciples are in the room closed up and all of a sudden Jesus appears in the midst of them and says peace be unto you.

They were afraid and he says look at my hands and my feet and then he asked them for food and he eats some food and afterwards verse 44 is what we're getting down to he says this. Then he said to them these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me.

Praise the Lord. I want to read that verse again Luke 24, 44. Then he said to them to his disciples these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me.

Verse 45 and he opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures. Verse 46 then he said to them thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.

Verse 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. Praise the Lord. Now let's go back up here and look again at verse 44. He says these things I spoke to you while I was still with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written and he gives us three places that these things are written.

He says the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms. Isn't that neat? The things written concerning me in the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms. You know we just finished a series on the book of Galatians and in that series of teachings we discussed the purpose of the law of Moses, the purpose of the Old Testament, the purpose of the Old Covenant is to reveal Christ to us.

It's to get us to see him more clearly and that is entirely consistent with what the Lord is telling his disciples here in the gospel of Luke. He is saying that the law of Moses, all the prophets and the Psalms contain things that are written concerning me.

They contain things that are written concerning the Lord Jesus and that is the purpose of having that Old Covenant. That's the purpose of the law, the prophets and the Psalms he says. Because there are things in these writings concerning me, concerning the Lord Jesus.

And then verse 45, and he opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures. Folks, why can't people comprehend the scriptures? Because their understanding has not been enlightened.

They have not received the revelation of Christ. They have not had their eyes opened. And that's why I spend a lot of time talking about the revelation of Christ, the revealing, the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

Otherwise, you can read through this Bible and not understand a thing in the world. You can read through this Bible and see it as a collection of stories, a collection of facts, a collection of history.

You can read through the book of Psalms and see some nice devotional material. But the purpose of the scriptures is to help us to see Jesus, to see him more clearly. And that is the work of the Holy Spirit.

But you know what? Unless he opens your understanding so that you can comprehend the scriptures, you're not going to see it. You're not going to get it. You're not going to understand it. And worst of all, you're not going to see Jesus in the scriptures.

Reading Scripture as Revelation of Christ

So many people look at the Bible, and all they get out of it is a teaching. All they get out of the Bible is a doctrine. All they get out of the Bible is an argument for or against their particular thing that they're involved with.

But I want us, when we look through the scriptures, to begin looking for Jesus in these scriptures. I want us to begin to study the scriptures with the idea of looking for the things that are written concerning him.

And if you'll do that, you will keep the proper perspective of the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, the books of Moses, the law of Moses, Torah, Psalms, Proverbs, Prophets. You'll get all of that aligned.

Your understanding will be opened if you will allow the Lord to open your understanding so that you can comprehend the scriptures. And the first step is understanding that these things are written concerning him.

They're written concerning Jesus. And he specifically mentions the Psalms here. He says that the Psalms are written concerning me. Now, again, a lot of people think Psalms are good devotional material.

It's good worship. And it is all of those things. But the Psalms were written to reveal Christ to us. Now, everyone in the world, or most people, has access to a Bible. Everyone has the same opportunity, most of them do, to get a copy of the scriptures.

My point is almost everyone has a copy of the Bible, but that does not mean that they see Jesus in that Bible. And, folks, especially if you are coming out of a religious mindset, where you've been indoctrinated with religious teachings and things about Jesus that don't have anything to do with Jesus.

It's all man-made rules, man-made philosophies, man-made traditions. Jesus says, you nullify, he told the Pharisees, you nullify the Word of God with your traditions. You nullify it, you make it void, you make it of none effect.

Well, what is he talking about? Well, what he's saying is religion can take the Word of God and actually nullify it by using it in a way in which it was not intended to be used. The Word of God is not intended to be used as a means through which we establish religion, we establish institutionalized mindsets, organizations, denominations, doctrines, in the sense that we try to use the Bible.

And you see people on both sides of issues using the Bible to try to back up their arguments. And that's mishandling the Word of God. The purpose of the Word of God is to reveal Jesus to us. And if you'll just make that simple little distinction in your mind.

It's not to try to give you all the arguments and to give you, let's put it like this, the Bible is not given to you to provide you with ammunition for you to go out on your theological and doctrinal crusades.

The Bible is given to us that we may see Jesus in these scriptures. But he had to open, back in Luke 24, 45, it says that he opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures. And that's where we're missing it.

And that's my point. Most of us have access to the scriptures. Not all of us can comprehend what it is that we're reading. So, what is the difference? If you give a hundred people or a thousand people or a million people a Bible, why don't they all have the same revelation of Christ?

Well, quite simply, the difference is either your understanding has been enlightened by the Holy Spirit or it has not. Either you are in the light or you are in the darkness. Either your eyes have been opened or they have not been opened.

And when your eyes are opened, you begin to see Jesus in the pages of this scripture. Is that fair enough? Now, verse 46. Now, why didn't anybody understand that? Why could they not recognize that as it was happening?

Well, Jesus told the Pharisees, you do err because you don't know the power of God and you don't know the scriptures. Or you don't know the scriptures and you don't know the power of God. You don't know the scriptures, Jesus says.

If you knew the scriptures, if you had insight and understanding and were able to comprehend the scriptures, you would know that it is written that Christ must suffer, must die, must rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins will be preached in his name to all the nations.

Now, the thing about the scripture is it's not spelled out for you. It requires some study. It requires you to seek the Lord for wisdom and for understanding, to know how to dig these nuggets of truth out of the scriptures.

It's not just right there on the surface. If you're digging for buried treasure and you go out with a shovel and you're just looking for what you can see right there on the surface of the ground, you're not going to find a whole lot.

It requires you to dig deep and dig deep and dig deeper. And as you dig deeper, then all of these treasures, all of this hidden wealth that is buried beneath your feet begins to come to the surface. And that's the way these scriptures are.

The Messianic Psalms and Christ's Kingdom

Now, the book that we're going to focus on is the book of Psalms. I said earlier that the book of Psalms is the longest book in the Bible. It's 150 chapters. But, you know, if we went through each chapter a week, it would take us more than three years to get through 150 chapters.

So we're not going to even attempt that at this time. Maybe we'll do it later on down the road. But right now we just want to focus on the Messianic Psalms. Those Psalms that specifically teach us or reveal something to us about Jesus and or his kingdom.

Because that has application to us today. And not just in a devotional sense. Not just in a daily devotional sense where I read that and that's real nice. But I'm talking about something that is practical.

Something that is applicable to us where we live. Something that reveals Christ to us in a practical way so that we can understand the king and understand his kingdom. See? You have been made, it says in Revelation, that he has made us kings and priests in his kingdom.

Now, obviously he is the king of kings. He is the Lord of lords. And he is our high priest. But those of us who are in Christ Jesus, who have been born again by the Spirit of God, it says that he has made us kings and priests to serve him in his kingdom.

And quite frankly to serve the nations of this world as representatives, as ambassadors for Christ to this world. And the book of Psalms reveals some very, very powerful insights into the nature of this kingdom.

And if you're going to represent the kingdom of God, you need to know what that kingdom of God looks like. You need to know the character of that kingdom of God. You need to know how to represent, to faithfully represent that kingdom in this earth.

It just stands to reason that if you are a king and a priest in a kingdom, then you know the king and you know his kingdom. Right? Well, the Psalms gives us so many insightful revelations into that kingdom and into the king.

And see, here's the point, folks. The kingdom reflects the nature of its king. In other words, if you've got a good king, you've got a good kingdom. If you've got a bad king, you've got a bad kingdom.

So a righteous king is going to be seen and revealed in a righteous kingdom. A holy king is going to have a holy kingdom surrounding him. Do you see what I'm talking about? And as kings and priests representing this kingdom of righteousness, this kingdom of holiness, we take on those characteristics of Christ.

We are conformed to his image, and that is how the kingdom of God is advanced in the earth. And it's not strange. It's not mystical. It's not far out. It's simply being transformed, being created anew, being conformed to the image of Christ, and bearing the testimony of Jesus in the earth.

See? Not after you get into heaven. The testimony of Jesus is firmly established in heaven. Heaven is not where the problem is today, folks. And everyone is singing about the great by and by, and sweet by and by, and I've got a mansion over the hilltop.

But you know, it's right here on this earth that Jesus says that you pray your kingdom come, and your will be done where? Up in heaven? No. On this earth. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

See? It already is in heaven. It's already established there. It's here on the earth that we need the testimony of Jesus to be established. Hallelujah. So, the book of Psalms gives us, it's not the only place, but it's a very rich place.

Lots of riches in the book of Psalms. And again, not just for devotional qualities. The Psalms are great for devotions. In fact, here's a simple way to get through the Psalms. If you read five Psalms a day, which is, it won't take you no more than 15 or 20 minutes most of the time, until you get around to Psalm 119.

That's the longest chapter in the Bible. Psalm 119. That might take you a little bit longer to get through. But generally speaking, you can read five Psalms in about 15 or 20 minutes. And if you read five Psalms a day, you'll get through the entire book of Psalms in about a month.

A Practical Plan for Studying Psalms

So, in one month, you can go through the book of Psalms. And this is the most practical advice I could give you on how to study the book of Psalms. And we're going to go through and we're going to focus on each individual Messianic Psalm.

We're going to really get in there and dig it out. But if you want to get a good overview of the Psalms, you can get it in 30 days or less. You can get it in one month. All you need to do is just read five chapters, five Psalms a day.

That's it. That's all you need to do. And in the process of a month, and that could be your devotion time. If you need a plan, you know, some people, they just want to be led and just open it up and go with the flow.

That's fine. But I find things work better if we've got a plan. If we've got something, if we've got a goal and we establish it, and we say we're going to read five chapters, so we read five chapters.

And we let the Holy Spirit minister to us. You could take out a notebook and just write Psalms 1 or Psalm 1. And as you read that Psalm 1, you write down whatever you see, whatever impressions you get, whatever thoughts come to mind, whatever questions come to mind, whatever observations or revelations come to mind.

You jot them down. And then you go to Psalm 2 and you do that. Just go through five per day. And let that be your devotional slash Bible study time. If you don't already have a plan, that's an excellent plan.

In the course of a month, you will have worked all the way through the entire book of Psalms, the largest book in the Bible. You will have worked through the entire book. And you will also have a notebook full of observations, revelations.

And here's what I like to do. After I've done it one month, start back over again and repeat the process. And pretty soon, you really begin to see the depth of the riches that are here in this book of Psalms.

And it will be much easier for you to connect the dots, to be able to see Jesus in these Psalms. And here's another tip I want to give you. If you will read through the New Testament, you will find that the book of Psalms is quoted more often in the New Testament than any other Old Testament book in the Bible.

Let me say that differently. The book of Psalms is quoted more often in the New Testament than any other book. You see, all of these scriptures, it helps to have a Bible that has the quotes in italics where they quote a passage of Old Testament scripture.

My Bible has those set out in italics. And so it helps to see just how much of the Old Testament is quoted in the New Testament. But if you go through and you study that out, here's a real simple process for identifying the Messianic Psalms, the Psalms that speak concerning Jesus.

Just read through the New Testament. Jot down all of the references to the book of Psalms. And you can interpret those Psalms in a New Testament context and get the same revelation, the same understanding and insight into these New Testament scriptures that the disciples, the apostles did.

It's a fascinating thing to go back and study. The book of Psalms. Longest book in the Bible. Longest chapter in the Bible is in the book of Psalms. The shortest chapter in the Bible, Psalms 117, is there.

The majority of these Psalms are written by David. Not all of them, but most of them are written by David, a man after God's own heart. And, you know, when you think about David, a lot of people, they think of him as the soldier, as King David.

David as a Prophetic Witness to the Messiah

But, you know, David was something else also. And not many people realize this. David was a prophet. The Bible says that David was a prophet. And so these songs and these Psalms that he created, that he sang to the Lord, they weren't just little contemporary music things that he put together and it sounded real nice.

He was more of a prophet than he was a worship leader. Worship was how his prophetic gift was revealed and how it expressed itself. So you're in Luke. Turn over to Acts. We're still talking about Psalms, but I'm just setting an introduction and a foundation.

Next week, we'll actually get into the book of Psalms and start looking at these messianic scriptures. But if you'll turn over to Acts 2. Acts 2. Now, it's really interesting to look in Luke how Jesus says that the books of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms were written concerning me.

And then he opened their minds, gave them understanding and insight and revelation so that they could comprehend these scriptures. And then by the time you get over into Acts 1 and Acts 2, you see this wisdom beginning to flow.

And you see Peter here in Acts 2 where he is preaching his message. He's pulling out all kinds of Old Testament scriptures and he's got all this fresh revelation. Where did it come from? Well, it came from Jesus opening their minds so that they could understand and comprehend the scriptures.

And that's what revelation is, folks. It's not something that is only for a select few people. It is part of just walking with Jesus as he reveals himself to you, as he opens the Word of God to you. You begin to see and you begin to understand more and more.

Peter's Interpretation of Psalm 16

Now, look at verse 25 of Acts 2. It says, or Peter is speaking to the crowd here. And hear what he says. For David says concerning him, and now he's going to quote from Psalm 16. And he's going to use Psalm 16 as the basis upon which Christ is going to be resurrected.

Now, look at this. Acts 2, verse 25. David says concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad.

Moreover, my flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of joy in your presence.

Now, look at verse 29. And most people will read that and say, well, yeah, that's nice. That's encouraging. That's a nice daily devotional. It's from Psalm 16. And you may have read Psalm 16 a lot, maybe a hundred times.

But when Peter saw this, he interpreted it quite differently than anyone had ever interpreted it before, I guarantee you. Verse 29, he says, Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

Verse 30, Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption, this Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.

Is that not astounding? All those hundreds of years that Psalm 16 was a part of the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets. They didn't call it the Old Testament then because there was no Old Testament.

There was only one. They didn't have a New Testament at that time. So, my point is, this psalm was part of the Jewish writings all those hundreds of years, and they never made the connection. I've taught this in Sunday school, and some people still don't see it.

They still don't get how A plus B equals C. They can't figure it out. They still cannot understand how Peter sees the resurrection of Christ in this. But basically he says, my flesh will rest in hope, you will not leave my soul in hell, you will not allow your Holy One to see corruption.

Well, Peter basically says, David's not talking about himself because he's dead. He's buried. His flesh sees corruption. So he's talking about someone else. Who is he talking about? He is talking about Christ, the Messiah.

And we're saying that God has raised Jesus from the dead, and that's what Psalm 16 is talking about. Praise the Lord. Now that's a major example, but that's just one small example of the riches that you find in Psalms.

But my point of reading that here is not just to show you an example of the Psalms speaking concerning Jesus, but look at what Peter says. Verse 30, Therefore being a prophet. See? Now that puts the book of Psalms, that elevates the book of Psalms to something far beyond just a devotional, far beyond just a hymnology, or just a collection of songs and poetry.

It becomes a prophetic tool to reveal and to preach Christ to us. It's right there. All you have to do is just look into there, begin to study, begin to read, and allow the Holy Spirit to open your eyes and open your heart and your mind so that you can comprehend it and see Jesus in it.

And that's what I hope to do in the next series of messages as we look in the book of Psalms. We're all out of time for today and for this week, but thank you for listening. This is Chip Brogdon streaming on www .watchman .net.

We'll see you here again next week. God bless you, and I look forward to studying the book of Psalms together with you.