Prophecy in the Psalms

“Why do the nations protest and the peoples conspire in vain?” … “You are my son; today I have begotten you.” (2:1, 7)

Reading

A coronation psalm. The kings of the earth plot “against the LORD and against his anointed one” (2:2), and God answers by installing his king on Zion and calling him son. In Israel the king was God's son by adoption; the New Testament hears a fuller sense. The word “anointed” is, in Hebrew, messiah.

Fulfilled

The early Church prayed the opening verses when Peter and John were threatened, seeing them fulfilled in the gathering against Jesus (Acts 4:25–27). St. Paul preaches that God “has brought to fulfillment for us, (their) children, by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second psalm, ‘You are my son; this day I have begotten you’” (Acts 13:33; CCC 653). Hebrews uses the same verse to show that the Son is above the angels (Hebrews 1:5).

Future

The psalm's next promise, “With an iron rod you will shepherd them” (2:9), is taken up three times in Revelation: by the victor who shares Christ's authority (Revelation 2:26–27), by the woman's child, “destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod” (Revelation 12:5), and by the Rider on the white horse (19:15). The psalm itself ends not in threat but in invitation: “Blessed are all who take refuge in him!” (2:12).

“What is man that you are mindful of him, and a son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him little less than a god, crowned him with glory and honor.”

Reading

A hymn of wonder at the night sky and at the dignity God gives to human beings, who are set over the works of his hands, with “all things at his feet” (8:7). In its first sense it is about every human being, made in God's image (Genesis 1:26–28).

Fulfilled

Hebrews reads the psalm of Jesus, the one true man in whom our calling is completed: “Yet at present we do not see ‘all things subject to him,’ but we do see Jesus ‘crowned with glory and honor’ because he suffered death” (Hebrews 2:8–9). He was made lower than the angels “for a little while” so that he might taste death for everyone. Jesus himself quoted the psalm's praise from the mouths of children when the crowds acclaimed him in the Temple (Matthew 21:16).

Future

St. Paul uses the same verse of the end: Christ must reign until every enemy is put under his feet, and the last enemy to be destroyed is death (1 Corinthians 15:25–28).

“For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor let your devout one see the pit.” (16:10)

Reading

A psalm of trust: the one who keeps the LORD at his right hand will not be shaken, and God will show him “the path to life” (16:11).

Fulfilled

On Pentecost St. Peter quotes the psalm in its Greek form, “nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption” (Acts 2:27). David died and was buried, Peter says, so he was speaking as a prophet: “he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that neither was he abandoned to the netherworld nor did his flesh see corruption” (Acts 2:31). Paul makes the same argument at Antioch (Acts 13:35–37). The Catechism quotes these words of Christ's body resting in the tomb (CCC 627).

“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (22:2)

Reading

The lament of a just man surrounded by enemies who mock him, “He relied on the LORD—let him deliver him” (22:9). He is wasted to the bone, “I can count all my bones” (22:18), and “they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots” (22:19). Then, without warning, the psalm turns to thanksgiving: “Then I will proclaim your name to my brethren” (22:23).

Fulfilled

Jesus prayed its first line from the Cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46, where the NABRE translates the cry a little differently than in the psalm). The Catechism teaches that he took up our estrangement from God so fully that he could say this “in our name” (CCC 603). The Gospels see the rest of the psalm fulfilled around him: the mockers use its words (Matthew 27:43), and the soldiers divide his garments (John 19:24). Praying a psalm's first line called the whole psalm to mind, and this one ends in victory.

Unfolding

“All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD” (22:28). Hebrews puts verse 23 on the lips of the risen Christ, who is not ashamed to call us brothers (Hebrews 2:11–12). The psalm's ending is being fulfilled wherever the nations come to worship.

Why mystery

The NABRE's verse 17 reads “They have pierced my hands and my feet.” The Hebrew of this line is difficult: the standard Hebrew text is usually read “like a lion,” while the ancient Greek translation and some old Hebrew witnesses support a verb such as “pierced” or “dug.” The New Testament does not quote this line. The psalm's place in the Passion does not depend on it; the exact wording is still debated.

“The LORD is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack.” … “You set a table before me.” (23:1, 5)

Reading

Israel's best-loved psalm of trust: the LORD leads his sheep to green pastures and still waters, walks with them through the dark valley, and welcomes them as guests at his table. The prophets promised that God himself would shepherd his scattered people (Ezekiel 34:11–16).

Fulfilled

Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). The Catechism calls the Church a sheepfold whose one gate is Christ (CCC 754). In the spiritual sense of the Fathers, the psalm became a song of Christian initiation: St. Ambrose, in On the Mysteries (8.43), has the newly baptized approach the altar for the first time singing this psalm's verse about the table God prepares. The still waters, the anointing oil and the overflowing cup were read of Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist. This is the Church's spiritual reading, not the psalm's first sense, and it is a beautiful one.

Future

In Revelation the Lamb himself is shepherd, who will “lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:17). The psalm's last line, “I will dwell in the house of the LORD,” looks to that home.

“Your throne, O God, stands forever.” (45:7)

Reading

A song for a king's wedding. The poet praises the king's beauty, justice and victory, then turns to the bride: “Listen, my daughter, and understand” (45:11). In its first setting the king is called “god” in courtly language, as the NABRE's note explains, because he represents God to the people.

Fulfilled

Hebrews reads the words literally of the Son: “Your throne, O God, stands forever and ever” (Hebrews 1:8–9). What was courtly praise of a king of Judah is simply true of Christ, who is God, anointed “with the oil of gladness” (45:8).

Future

The Church has long read the psalm as the marriage of Christ and his Church, which Revelation sees at the end: “For the wedding day of the Lamb has come, his bride has made herself ready” (Revelation 19:7). In a Marian reading, the bride who stands at the king's right hand (45:10, a princess in the NABRE, the queen in many older translations) is also Mary, and the Church sings this psalm on the feast of the Assumption. This is the Church's liturgical and spiritual reading, offered alongside the first one.

“Because zeal for your house has consumed me.” … “and for my thirst they gave me vinegar.” (69:10, 22)

Reading

The prayer of a faithful man scorned for his love of God's house, sinking in deep waters, and given poison and vinegar by his enemies. He is a type of the Just One who suffers for God's sake.

Fulfilled

When Jesus drives the sellers from the Temple, his disciples remember the psalm: “Zeal for your house will consume me” (John 2:17). In the same scene he speaks of “the temple of his body” (2:21; see The Temple of His Body). On the Cross, “in order that the scripture might be fulfilled,” he says “I thirst,” and they raise a sponge of wine to his mouth (John 19:28–29; the NABRE calls it “common wine,” the soldiers' sour wine). St. Paul also reads the psalm of Christ, who bore the insults meant for God (Romans 15:3).

“May the kings of Tarshish and the islands bring tribute, the kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts.” (72:10)

Reading

A prayer for the king, headed “Of Solomon”: may he judge the poor with justice, may his reign last as long as the sun, and “May he rule from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth” (72:8). No king of Israel ever lived up to it. The Church reads it of the King who does.

Fulfilled

The magi come from the east, and “on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage,” offering gold, frankincense and myrrh (Matthew 2:11; compare Isaiah 60:6). The Church sings Psalm 72 at Mass on the feast of the Epiphany, when the nations first come to Christ.

Unfolding

“May all kings bow before him, all nations serve him” (72:11). The psalm's special care is for the poor and the needy, whom the king rescues (72:12–14). Its fulfillment goes on wherever Christ's justice reaches them, and Revelation sees the kings of the earth bringing their treasure into the new Jerusalem (Revelation 21:24).

“I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: I will make your dynasty stand forever and establish your throne through all ages.” (89:4–5)

Reading

The psalm sings God's oath to David (2 Samuel 7:12–16): his son will call God “my father,” and God will make him “the firstborn, Most High over the kings of the earth” (89:27–28). Then it turns to bitter lament, because the throne has been cast down and the promise seems broken (89:39–52). Psalm 89 is honest about the gap between the promise and Israel's history.

Fulfilled

The angel answers that gap at the Annunciation: “the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32–33). Revelation calls Jesus “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth” (Revelation 1:5), in words that echo this psalm.

Future

The kingdom has begun in Christ and his Church; its fullness, when “the kingdom of the world now belongs to our Lord and to his Anointed” (Revelation 11:15), is still to come.

“The LORD says to my lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, while I make your enemies your footstool.’”

Reading

The verse of the Old Testament most often quoted or echoed in the New. Jesus himself puts it to the Pharisees: if David, inspired by the Spirit, calls the Messiah “lord,” “how can he be his son?” (Matthew 22:43–45; CCC 447). The Messiah is David's son and more than David's son.

Fulfilled

At Pentecost St. Peter proclaims the risen Jesus enthroned: “For David did not go up into heaven, but he himself said: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand”’” (Acts 2:34). Hebrews uses the verse to show the Son above every angel (Hebrews 1:13). The Creed confesses that he “is seated at the right hand of the Father,” which the Catechism explains as the inauguration of the Messiah's kingdom (CCC 663–664).

Future

The footstool is not yet complete. Christ reigns now “until” his enemies are placed under his feet, and the last enemy is death (1 Corinthians 15:25–26).

“The LORD has sworn and will not waver: ‘You are a priest forever in the manner of Melchizedek.’”

Reading

The king enthroned at God's right hand is also a priest, not from Aaron's line but like Melchizedek, the priest-king of Salem who brought out bread and wine for Abram (Genesis 14:18–20).

Fulfilled

The Letter to the Hebrews builds its teaching on Christ's priesthood on this verse, quoting it as “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 5:6). Because Jesus “remains forever,” he “has a priesthood that does not pass away,” and “he is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:24–25). The Church sees Melchizedek's bread and wine as a prefiguring of the Eucharist (CCC 1333), and Melchizedek himself as a prefiguration of the priesthood of Christ (CCC 1544).

“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. By the LORD has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes.” (118:22–23)

Reading

A thanksgiving procession to the Temple, sung at the great feasts. The one who was pressed hard and near to death comes through the gates alive, and the crowd cries, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD” (118:26).

Fulfilled

The crowds greet Jesus with that cry as he enters Jerusalem (Matthew 21:9). Days later he applies the rejected stone to himself at the end of the parable of the tenants (Matthew 21:42). After the Resurrection Peter tells the Sanhedrin: “He is ‘the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone’” (Acts 4:11), and writes to the Church, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” (1 Peter 2:7). The Catechism takes up the image of Christ as the cornerstone of the Church, in which we are built as living stones (CCC 756). The Church sings this psalm on Easter Sunday: “This is the day the LORD has made” (118:24).