Table of Contents
As we have read through the Royal Psalms, we have been growing in our understanding of the Messiah (the Anointed): Jesus our King.
In doing so, we’ve jumped pretty quickly from the Psalm to the Psalm-as-about-Jesus. There’s nothing wrong in doing that of course - so long as we do so carefully and in a way that honours God’s word rather than misuses it. In fact, it’s entirely right and appropriate! Every promise of God, after all, finds its ‘yes’ and ‘amen’ in Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20). And we’ll keep doing that throughout the series for the sake of simplicity.
Strictly speaking, however, the way these Psalms come to us is not independent of their history, but come to us through that history.
In fact, the preparation for God’s King starts with Abraham in Genesis, and the picture and understanding of that king grows as the Old Testament progresses. It reaches its ‘pinnacle’ in expression in David - David as King and David as psalmic prophet of the future king - but the preparation was there centuries beforehand.
God promised Abraham and Jacob that kings would come from Abraham’s line (Genesis 17:6, 17:16, 35:11). On his deathbed, Jacob prophesied that the king would be from the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:8-10). And, while the pagan prophet Balaam knew less, centuries later he nevertheless knew that a king would come (Numbers 24:17).
So while David stands unique in the purposes of God as the shadow of Jesus-as-King, he didn’t occur in a vacuum.
And subsequent history is the same: it is founded on and in-line with the expectations set during David’s time.
This is especially the case with Solomon, David’s son. To David, God made promises about ‘the son of David’, who would be known as ‘Son of God’ (like Psalm 2) and build God’s temple.
While Solomon did build a temple, and was known as Yedidiah (beloved of Yahweh), he both was and was not the one promised by God. The promise God made to David reflects this ‘sort of but not yet’ nature to this promises:
“When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him.” (2 Samuel 7:12-15)
What does this have to do with our psalms? Everything. As we’ll see both this week and next (Psalm 89), the forward-looking expectation of the Psalm is historically grounded. For instance, in Psalm 72, it’s David’s Psalm concerning Solomon, yes, but so much more: it looks forward to ultimate fulfilment in Jesus, God’s King.
