Thursday, February 11, 2010

There are 150 Messianic Psalms

A very helpful book in preparation for Preaching one sermon on the whole book of the Psalms this coming Sunday has been Richard Belcher Jr's "The Messiah and the Psalms"
The point of his book it to help us to think how all the Psalms are fulfilled in Christ.
He has 5 categories of how Psalms are about Jesus.
1) Psalms of orientation
"Psalms of orientation emphasize that life is oriented towards God and a person is experiencing seasons of well-being that evoke gratitude for the constancy of God's blessing" (44)
2) Psalms of disorientation
"Psalms of disorientation deal with seasons of hurt, alienation, suffering, and death. Life seems chaotic and in painful disarray." (67)
3) Psalms of reorientation
"[Psalms of New Orientation] express thanksgiving for the faithfulness and deliverance of God through a difficult time of crisis and despair so that joy and blessing are a part of life again." (99)
4) Royal Psalms
"The common thread in the royal psalms is kingship. Many royal psalms refer specifically to 'the king' (2,18,20,21,45,72,89), or sometimes to the king as the 'annointed' (2, 18, 20, 45, 89, 132)." (118)
5) Directly Messianic Psalms
"They speak more directly of the Messiah and his work and are used in the New Testament in this way." (157)
Having laid out these different approaches to the Psalms, Belcher then expands the different ways in which Christ will then be preached from each of these different categories. Very helpful book!

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