Beloved in Christ,
As we enter into Holy Week, we can listen to the heart of Jesus as He prays the Psalms.
The Psalms are upon Jesus’ lips more than any other book of Scripture:
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- He offered the true bread as better than the God-given manna of Psalm 78:24 (John 6:31).
- He interpreted the children’s hosannas as an echo of Psalm 8:2 (Matthew 21:16).
- He announced with Psalm 118:26 that the day would come when all Israel would see Him in final triumph and say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:39).
- He saw in Himself the marvel of a rejected stone becoming the head of the corner from Psalm 118:22–23 (Matthew 21:42).
- His thirst on the cross arises to fulfill Psalm 69:21 (John 19:28).
- His cry of forsakenness on the cross burst from Psalm 22:1 (Matthew 27:46).
- With His last breath, He commended His spirit to God with Psalm 31:5 (Luke 23:46).
When Jesus quoted the Psalms, He was never looking down at a manuscript. You can’t hold a manuscript when your hands are bound in court, or nailed to a cross. He knew them. Many of them, no doubt, by heart. In other words, Jesus not only fulfilled the Psalms; He was full of the Psalms. He not only said, “Everything written about me in . . . the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44);
He also said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). The Psalms were His food. And He was their fulfillment.
My friends, during Holy Week, Jesus not only prays the Psalms but is the Psalms of God prayed finally and fully and faithfully on our behalf. So once again, I encourage you, come and do the Holy Week thing. Come to the liturgies and join in Christ’s prayer for the world, for others, for you (and for me). Come, and may Christ’s prayer change you forever.
Yours in Easter hope,
Andrew Kaye+