2. But in estimating the influence of the Psalter upon Jesus, we are not left to conjecture. On many occasions— notably at the beginning and the end of His public career — He uses it directly, and expresses, sometimes the truths of His gospel, sometimes tiie aspirations of His soul, sometimes His premonitions of the fate of Jerusalem, almost in its very words. The Sermon on the Mount has at least half a dozen references, direct or indirect, to the Psalter ; not only words of a more general kind, such as ' Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity' (Mt V^ \\ Lk 13-', cf. Ps e^W), or the allu- sion to Jerusalem as the ' city of tiie great king ' (Mt 5^', cf. Ps 48^ (-'), but even such an assurance as that the heavenly Fatiier feeds the birds (Mt B'*®, cf. Ps 147**) ; and some of the Beatitudes tiiem- selves are but eclioes of the Psalter, c.gr. ' the meek shall inherit the earth' (Mt 5^ cf. Ps 37" (the land)), 'the merciful shall obtain mercy' (Mt 5', cf. Ps 1828(^5)). Occasionally a psalm is explicitly cited by Him, e.g. Ps 82*5 in Jn 10^, and even prefaced by the words, ' Have ye never read ? ' (cf. Mt 21"'- •*-), whicii assume a familiar knowledge of the book, or at least of tliese particular psalms (8. 118), on tiie part of His audience. But even where there is no sucli citation, the language is often saturated with reminiscences of the Psalter. There can be little doubt, e.g., that 'my soul is exceeding sorrowful ' (Mt 26^8 || Mk W^) is an echo of Ps 426- 12. (5. 11))^ or that ' he that eateth with me shall betray me ' (Mk 14^8) is an eclio of Ps 4V°- (S) (cf. Jn 13'^, wiiere tlie treachery is expressly said to be in fulfilment of the utterance in the psalm), or that ' they siiall dash to the ground thy children within thee' (Lk 19**) is a reminiscence of Ps 137'*. In tiie words of a psalm (Sl^- f^)) Jesus commended His spirit into His Father's hands (Lk 2.3^<').
3. Tiiese references are not quite exhaustive, but tliey are characteristic ; and tiiey are very significant of Christ's general attitude to the Psalter. He makes its words of faith His own in the moment of His sorrow, He repeats its pro- mises to those wlio are prepared to be His dis- ciples (Lk lO''-*, cf. Ps 9P^ ; Mt 5^ cf. Ps 37") ; but, with tiie single exception — if it be an excep- tion—of I*s 110, to be afterwards discussed, He does not seem directly to countenance, by His own example, tiiat Messianic interpretation of the Psalter upon which tiie Cliurcii has, from her earliest days, uniformly insisted. True, it is re- corded that He said that ' all things must needs be fulfilled Avhicii are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psrtlm.9, concerning me ' (Lk 24«). But within the teaching of Christ Him-
self there is no certain illustration of specific pas- sages wliich He applied Messianicaliy to Himself. And tills omission would be very singular, if He had generally countenanced Messianic interpreta- tion in tlie narrower sense in which that word has been commonly understood. He believed in His Messiahsiiip, but He did not rest it upon tiie basis of individual passages. He claimed to fulfil tiie Law and the Projjhets ; but, judging by His general practice, this appears to imply the large fuifilment of their spirit and tendency, rather than any minute and literal fulfilment of particular words. His method of dealing with the Psalms, when controversy is involved, is well illustrated by His citation of" Ps 82^ in Jn lO^-*. The Jews are incensed at what they regard as His blaspliemy in calling Himself the Son of God. He appeals to tlie psalm, to show that men exalted to high office had been in the OT called ' gods ' ; and argues tiiat, if tlie title was appropriate for them, how much more for Him Aviio had a unique commission and equipment from the Father.
4. It is instructive to turn from Christ's use of the Psalter to that of the writers and speakers in the NT ; and, in this con- nexion, it is important to remember that most of their citations from the Psalter are made from the LXX. Occasionally this seriously affects the argument. The author of the Ep. to the Hebrews, e.g. (Ii"-12), finds, in the great words of Ps 10226-28 (25-27) — ' Thou, Lord, in the l3eginning, didst lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thj' hands ' — an allusion to Christ. In the LXX it is ' the Lord ' who is said to be everlasting, and to the author of the Epistle the Lord is Christ. But in the Hebrew psalm the address is to Jehovah, a title which no Hebrew could possibly have applied to the Messiah. Here is a case — and there are others — where the argument holds only on the basis of the Greek translation ; it would be irrelevant and inapplicable on the basis of the original Hebrew (cf. Eph 48, Ps 6819- (i«l).
Again, with regard to the psalms customarily called Messianic, it has to be remembered that the songs of the Psalter have, generally speaking, a historical background. They spring, not perhaps always, but undoubtedly often, out of a definite his- torical situation ; that situation, or some aspect of it, is their theme. In many psalms this is obvious (cf. 44. 83. 137) ; and the question may fairly be raised whether this is not also the case in the Messianic psalms. Doubtless time might prove that the meaning of a psalm was larger than the original intention of its composer : this is true more or less of all great literature. But to understand truly its deeper meaning, we must start from its original intention, and from the situation in view of which it was composed. While to some of the psalms whose subject is a king a Messianic interpretation has been assigned (cf. 2), in others the actual contents and implications of the psalm render that interpretation impossible. The ' anointed,' e.g. (Heb. 'his Messiah,' LXX 'Christ'), in 207(6) ig almost neces- sarily some historical king, and the psalm appears to have been composed on the eve of a battle. If, then, in some of the psalms which deal with a ' Messiah ' or ' Christ,' the reference is to a historic king of Israel or Judah, the presumption at least is raised that all the Messianic psalms may be similarly inter- preted.