Interplanner
Well-known member
The doctrine that Christ accomplished what He did for us--on our behalf--comes partly from resolving the meaning of many psalms. I'm referring to those which say that the righteous will have peace and blessedness and even victory over death.
One problem with these kinds of psalms is that many righteous people have suffered a lot. Yet the simplest meaning of the psalm would not indicate that. Only a couple figures from the OT escaped death, for peculiar reasons. Many righteous people have had awful deaths.
These dilemmas are resolved when we realize that they are actually about Christ, sometimes detached descriptions of him, sometimes conversations between him and God as Father. There are many passages like this to be found in the OT.
Since they are about Christ, the benefit to the average believer is not expected to be as direct as stated. That is a wise way to look at it so we don't set ourselves up for a false expectation. Instead, the believer is going to be blessed by connection to Christ, by being "in Him."
It would be a great Resurrection Day reading and contemplation for you to read Ps 16 as though listening to Christ in the depths of hell for us. Because we also are raised in him; God will not abandone us to the grave or to see corruption.
Peter quotes this psalm of David on Pentecost day saying that it looked forward to the rising and enthronment of Christ because of his suffering. That was no cerebral doctrine to David the murderer and adulterer. And Peter says 'it was not David who ascended to heaven' meaning, the psalm has to be about someone else, someone perfectly righteous for him. David needed it terribly, and that's true for all of us sinners.
One problem with these kinds of psalms is that many righteous people have suffered a lot. Yet the simplest meaning of the psalm would not indicate that. Only a couple figures from the OT escaped death, for peculiar reasons. Many righteous people have had awful deaths.
These dilemmas are resolved when we realize that they are actually about Christ, sometimes detached descriptions of him, sometimes conversations between him and God as Father. There are many passages like this to be found in the OT.
Since they are about Christ, the benefit to the average believer is not expected to be as direct as stated. That is a wise way to look at it so we don't set ourselves up for a false expectation. Instead, the believer is going to be blessed by connection to Christ, by being "in Him."
It would be a great Resurrection Day reading and contemplation for you to read Ps 16 as though listening to Christ in the depths of hell for us. Because we also are raised in him; God will not abandone us to the grave or to see corruption.
Peter quotes this psalm of David on Pentecost day saying that it looked forward to the rising and enthronment of Christ because of his suffering. That was no cerebral doctrine to David the murderer and adulterer. And Peter says 'it was not David who ascended to heaven' meaning, the psalm has to be about someone else, someone perfectly righteous for him. David needed it terribly, and that's true for all of us sinners.
