Why Do Christians Think the Psalms Are Prophetic?

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Secret Alias
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Why Do Christians Think the Psalms Are Prophetic?

Post by Secret Alias »

I find this very difficult to understand. The most notable examples used in the early literature don't seem at all prophetic. I will begin by liberally drawing from a Wikipedia article on the subject:

Psalm 2 "Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain? 2. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and his Anointed, saying, 3. 'Let us burst their bonds asunder, and cast their cords from us.' 4. He who sits in the heavens laughs; the LORD has them in derision. 5. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6. 'I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill." 7. I will tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to me, 'You are my son, today I have begotten you. 8. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 9. You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel'" (Psalm 2: 1-9).

The authors of Acts, the Epistle to the Hebrews and the early Fathers interpreted it as relating to Jesus. Yes there is a forward looking POV to the text insofar as the 'nations' are going to end up under the tent of Israel. But this most likely reflects ongoing proselytizing during the time of composition.

Christians cite Herod and Pontius Pilate setting themselves against Jesus as evidence that Psalm 2 refers to him. Acts 13: 33 interprets Jesus’ rising from the dead as confirmation of verse 7 ("You are my son, today I have begotten you").
Hebrews 1: 5 employs verse 7 in order to argue that Jesus is superior to the angels, i.e., Jesus is superior as a mediator between God and man. "For to what angel did God ever say, Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee?" However, the phrase "son of God" appears in the Hebrew Bible to describe others than the coming Messiah, including David and Jacob. Texts vary in the exact wording of the phrase beginning Psalm 2:12, with "kiss his foot", and "kiss the Son" being most common in various languages for centuries, though not in original Hebrew Manuscripts such as Qumran.

Psalm 16 "I bless the Lord who has given me understanding, because even in the night, my heart warns me. I keep the Lord always within my sight; for he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. For this reason my heart is glad and my soul rejoices; moreover, my body also will rest secure, for thou wilt not leave my soul in the abode of the dead, nor permit thy holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life, the fullness of joys in thy presence, and delights at thy right hand forever" (verses 7-11).

According to the preaching of Peter, this prophecy is about the messiah’s triumph over death, i.e., the resurrection of Jesus.

"God raised Jesus up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken… For thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let thy Holy One see corruption… Thou wilt make me full of gladness with thy presence.’ Brethren, I may say to you confidently of the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne, he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and we are all witnesses of it" (Acts 2: 24-32).

Also of note is what Paul said in the synagogue at Antioch in Acts. "And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he spoke in this way, ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ Therefore, he also says in another psalm, ‘Thou wilt not let thy Holy One see corruption.’ For David, after he had served the counsel of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and saw corruption; but he whom God raised up saw no corruption" (Acts 13: 34-37). But this is a terrible and artificial exegesis of the material which clearly pertains to David.

Psalm 22 Two of the Gospels (Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34) quote Jesus as speaking these words from the cross;[48]
"From the cross, Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
The other two canonical Gospels give different accounts of the words of Jesus. Luke 23:46 quotes Psalm 31:5 ("Into your hands I commit my spirit") while John has Jesus say "It is finished" (John 19:30). Some scholars see this as evidence that the words of Jesus were not part of a pre-Gospel Passion narrative, but were added later by the Gospel writers.

In most Hebrew manuscripts, such as the Masoretic, Psalm 22:16 (verse 17 in the Hebrew verse numbering) reads כארי ידי ורגלי ("like a lion my hands and my feet"). Many Modern English translations render this as "they have pierced my hands and my feet", starting with the Coverdale Bible which translated Luther's durchgraben (dig through, penetrate) as pearsed, with durchgraben being a variation of the Septuagint's ωρυξαν "dug". This translation is highly controversial. It is asserted in Christian apologetics that the Dead Sea Scrolls lend weight to the translation as "They have pierced my hands and my feet", by lengthening the yud in the Hebrew word כארי (like a lion) into a vav כארו "Kaaru", which is not a word in the Hebrew language but when the aleph is omitted becomes כרו, dig, similar to the Septaguint translation.[51] However this view is contested considering the Nahal Hever scribe's other numerous misspellings, such as one in the very same sentence, where ידיה is written instead of the correct ידי, making the Hebrew word ידי yadai "hands" into ידיה yadehah, "her hands".[52] Christian apologists argue that this passage refers to Jesus of Nazareth.
Psalm 34 "Many are the afflictions of the just man; but the Lord delivers him from all of them. He guards all his bones: not even one of them shall be broken." (Psalms 34:20)

In its account of the crucifixion of Jesus, the Gospel of John interprets it as a prophecy (John 19:36) and presents some of the details as fulfillment.
"So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with Jesus; but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water… For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, ‘Not a bone of him shall be broken.’ And again another scripture says, ‘They shall look on him whom they have pierced’" (John 19:32-37)

Psalm 69 "They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink" Christians believe that this verse refers to Jesus' time on the cross in which he was given a sponge soaked in vinegar to drink, as seen in Matthew 27:34, Mark 15:23, and John 19:29.[55]
Psalm 110 "A psalm of David.
1. The Lord says to my lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool.’
2. The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty sceptre: ‘Rule in the midst of your foes!
3. With you is sovereignty in the splendor of holiness on the day of your birth: before the morning star, like the dew, I have begotten you.’
4. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.’
5. The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
6. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will crush heads over the wide earth.
7. He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head."

Verse 1. God speaks to David. The first instance of "The LORD (Hebrew: YHWH)" in this verse is a translation of the Hebrew name of God, Yahweh. The second instance of "my lord (Hebrew: ADONI)" is David, from the viewpoint of the Psalmist. The opening phrase of Psalm 110 is literally translated as "Regarding David, a psalm," indicating that the psalm is "of" or "about" King David, not written by him. The same introduction (τω δαυιδ ψαλμος) is used in the LXX version of Psalm 110 (which is Psalm 109 in the Greek text).[58]
In the New Testament, the gospel writers leave out the portion "regarding David, a psalm" and reinterprets the remaining out of context verse as a messianic prophecy: "while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, ‘What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?’ They said to him, ‘The son of David.’ He said to them, ‘How is it then that David in the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, till I put thy enemies under thy feet? If David thus calls him Lord, how is he his son?’ And no one was able to answer him a word" (Matthew 22: 41-46). The remaining portion of this verse speaks of how David shall be seated at God's right hand, with his enemies thoroughly defeated. Although Hebrew has no capital letters, the Hebrew translation of that passage reads "The Lord said to my lord" indicating that it is not speaking of God.

"A royal psalm(see Ps.2 intro). It is quite difficult because v.3 is totally obscure, and the psalm speakers often. In Christian interpretation, it is understood as a reference to Jesus, as a messianic and sometimes eschatological psalm; Radak polemicizes against this view" 1. Here God is speaking to the king, called my lord; Perhaps these are the words spoken by a prophet. The king is very proximate to God, in a position of privilege, imagined as being on His right hand in the Divine Council. The second-in-command was seated to the right of the king in the ancient Near East. Such images are rare in psalms, but see Ps45:7. If the king trods on the back of his enemies (see Josh. 10:24), they poetically become his "Footstool" 2. In contrast to v.1, God is spoken of in the third person. The Zion tradition (see Isa. 2:1-4; 60:1-22) and royal tradition are here connected. While v.1-2 express the great power of the king, they also emphasize it comes from God" (YHWH)
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Re: Why Do Christians Think the Psalms Are Prophetic?

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I think this issue runs further than the Psalms:

1 Corinthians 9.8-10: 8 I am not speaking these things according to human judgment, am I? Or does not the Law also say these things? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.” God is not concerned about oxen, is He? 10 Or is He speaking altogether [πάντως] for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops.

1 Corinthians 10.1-11: 1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 and all ate the same spiritual food; 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. 6 Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play.” 8 Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. 9 Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. 10 Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

Early Christians seemed to be under the impression that the entire corpus of scripture was written for them in particular.
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Secret Alias
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Re: Why Do Christians Think the Psalms Are Prophetic?

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Apparently the Psalms were taken to be prophetic by some of the texts at Qumran https://books.google.com/books?id=gIRhF ... ic&f=false
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Re: Why Do Christians Think the Psalms Are Prophetic?

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Early Christians seemed to be under the impression that the entire corpus of scripture was written for them in particular
Yes. This is particularly relevant too. The followers of Mark (the heretic) understand themselves to be maskilim:
But the angel, hiding from him the great mystery of Bythus, said unto him, "Go thy way quickly, Daniel, for these sayings are closed up until those who have understanding do understand them, and those who are white be made white." Moreover, they vaunt themselves as being the white and the men of good understanding. [Adv Haer 1.19.2]
Those described as the maskalim or “wise ones” of Dan 12:3 who will “shine like stars” are called wise because they possess that insight which perceives how God's will will triumph. Dan 12:3's ideas have been discerned to be at work in Paul's letter to the Philippians https://books.google.com/books?id=2CTsC ... gQ6AEIKDAA On the Jewish understanding of Daniel's maskilim as mystics throughout the ages https://books.google.com/books?id=C_7O0 ... ah&f=false

There seems to be a Jewish exegetical continuum that Christians viewed themselves as being part of. I am not surprised about the Pentateuch being viewed prophetically given that some of the text (especially Deuteronomy) is forward looking (or at least reflects forward to the time of its actual composition long after Moses). The Psalms is surprising to me despite the examples from Qumran.
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Re: Why Do Christians Think the Psalms Are Prophetic?

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Neither Philo nor Josephus use the Psalms as prophetic texts https://books.google.com/books?id=quURB ... YQ6AEIKDAA
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Re: Why Do Christians Think the Psalms Are Prophetic?

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I wonder whether there was a division in Jewish antiquity as to whether the Psalms were properly defined as prophetic texts and different sects in Christianity drew from both traditions in Judaism.
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Re: Why Do Christians Think the Psalms Are Prophetic?

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The Samaritan understanding of Moses and others as prophetshttps://www.google.com/amp/s/www.israelite-sama ... phets/amp/
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Re: Why Do Christians Think the Psalms Are Prophetic?

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Ben C. Smith wrote: Fri Jul 07, 2017 9:47 am Early Christians seemed to be under the impression that the entire corpus of scripture was written for them in particular.
"They're our scriptures, not yours." -- Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho

It's really not much different an attitude than, say, the Lutherans or Puritans in the 16th Century. Justin and the boys convinced themselves that they were getting back to the "true" religion that only their super-secret interpretation could reveal. A common delusion of all religious folk of all eras.
“The only sensible response to fragmented, slowly but randomly accruing evidence is radical open-mindedness. A single, simple explanation for a historical event is generally a failure of imagination, not a triumph of induction.” William H.C. Propp
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Re: Why Do Christians Think the Psalms Are Prophetic?

Post by Nathan »

Secret Alias wrote: Fri Jul 07, 2017 9:52 amThere seems to be a Jewish exegetical continuum that Christians viewed themselves as being part of.
I think that's correct.

Like the Qumranites and the Christians later on, rabbinic Jews also took the supposed prophetic character of the Psalms for granted. The Targum Psalms sometimes has David write or speak in Psalms through the "spirit of prophecy" (e.g., Ps. 14:1); and the Midrash Psalms 18.1 says: "All that David said in his Book of Psalms applies to himself, to all Israel, and to all the ages."

That assumption, incidentally, leads the Midrash to some interesting interpretations for parts of two of the psalms mentioned in the OP (Pss. 2 & 110):

The Lord said to me: You are My son ... ask of Me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession (Ps. 2:7,8). Rabbi Yudan said: "All these goodly promises are in the decree of the King, the king of kings, who will fulfill them for the lord Messiah." ... When the time comes, the Holy One, blessed be He, will say: "I must create the Messiah—a new creation." As scripture says [in the same psalm], "This day have I begotten you"—that is, on the very day of redemption, God will create the Messiah.


In the time-to-come ... the Holy One, blessed be He, seats the lord Messiah at His right hand, as is said [in Psalm 110:1], "The Lord said to my lord, 'Sit at my My right hand'."

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Re: Why Do Christians Think the Psalms Are Prophetic?

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Paul and Mark appear to have been continuing in the tradition of rewriting scriptural narratives for audiences who identified as a new Israel or people of God, learning from stories of the old failed Israel. Lemche and others trace this practice through the canonical and other second temple texts.

Then we have the interest in allegorical interpretations among Greeks for Homer and Jews for the Scriptures (e.g Philo). Scriptures could in this way be interpreted as being "fulfilled" in contemporary events or situations. Christianity could further use allegory to appropriate the Jewish scriptures and deny them to the Jews.

This was not the same as prophecy as we understand it, but it seems to me to be not a huge leap from allegorical interpretation to a more crude view that the OT predicted the story of Jesus and the church.
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