No book is more quoted in Hebrews than the Psalter: there are quotations and allusions to psalms on virtually every page. And many of the quotations are not passing references but closely considered and repeatedly cited as the author of Hebrews develops his central arguments. Much of Hebrews is exposition of the Psalms, not mere scattered allusion or citation.
Key passages from the psalms for Hebrews include Psalm 2:7—
I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.”
This text is cited in both Hebrews 1:5 and 5:5, which relate it to Christ’s exaltation and appointment to his royal priestly office.
Psalm 102:25-27, cited in Hebrews 1:10-12, introduces an important theme for the book—the expected eschatological reordering of all things, a theme that becomes especially prominent in chapter 12. Within it we might also hear an anticipation of Hebrews 13:8—‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.’
Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.
Two texts from Psalm 110, verses 1 and 4, are given attention in the argument of Hebrews:
The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
And
The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
The second text, which speaks of the enduring priesthood of Melchizedek, provides the scriptural backdrop for the considerations of 5:6-10 and 6:13—7:28.
Psalm 8:4-6 comes to the foreground in 2:5-9, where Hebrews relates it to Christ’s incarnation and exaltation:
[W]hat is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet…
Hebrews riffs upon Psalm 95:7-11 in 3:7 to 4:11.
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”
Psalm 40:6-7 is deployed in a surprising way in 10:5-14, where it is related to Christ’s perfect self-offering.
In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me…”
Alongside these more extensive uses of the Psalms are several other citations and allusions. For instance, Psalm 22:22 is cited in 2:11-12, Psalm 45:6-7 in 1:8-9, and Psalm 118:6 in 13:6. Even these, however, are not merely passing references, but provide indications of the remarkable way that the author of Hebrews reads the Psalms.
There is no better way to learn how to read the Scriptures than by following the Scriptures’ own example. We can learn typological and Christological reading of the Old Testament scriptures from passages such as 1 Corinthians 10, extending such a pattern of reading to texts beyond those referenced by Paul in that passage. The books of John and Revelation offer an allegorical reading of the Song of Songs. And the book of Hebrews teaches us how to read the Psalms in the light of Christ.
A detailed treatment of the reading of the Psalms in the book of Hebrews would take longer than I have here. Daniel Stevens’ recent book, Songs of the Son: Reading the Psalms with the Author of Hebrews, fleshes out much of this. Rather than handling each text individually, I want to make a few general points about how Hebrews teaches us to read the Psalms.
1. The Psalms are fulfilled in Christ
Hebrews presents Christ as the one in whom the psalms are fulfilled. The Psalter opens with a pair of psalms that establish core themes of the book. Several New Testament authors reference or allude to Psalm 2, relating it to Christ’s exaltation. In Acts 4:24-28, the apostles present the gathering of the rulers and the crowds against Jesus in the crucifixion as the fulfilment of Psalm 2:1-2—
And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
Hebrews 1:5 and 5:5 both relate Psalm 2:7 to the exaltation of Christ, much as Acts 13:33 sees its fulfilment in the resurrection. There are various allusions to Psalm 2 in the book of Revelation, of course, most notably in passages such as 2:26-27, 12:5, and 19:15, which present Christ as the divinely appointed Messiah in Psalm 2 who rules with the rod of iron.
That the author of Hebrews quotes several verses of various psalms suggests that he is not merely cherry-picking decontextualized scriptures that can be applied to Jesus, but that a more consistent reading of the book of Psalms in the light of Christ undergirds his use of specific verses and passages. For instance, both verses 1 and 4 of Psalm 110 are cited in different parts of Hebrews (1:13; 5:6). Likewise, the extensive use of psalms like Psalm 110 in several parts of the New Testament suggest that such readings were not idiosyncratic, but common in the early Church.
The Christological reading of the Psalms in Hebrews also includes a passage like Psalm 8:4-6, which is generally read as referring to humanity more broadly (Hebrews 2:5-8). Hebrews, however, treats the passage as relating to Christ most fully. I think it is helpful here to recall that Psalm 8 is a psalm of David and that, in being raised to the throne, David is a representative man enjoying something of the dominion to which man was appointed in Genesis 1:26-28. This makes the move to Jesus as the representative Man in whom humanity’s destiny is realized an entirely natural one.
2. Christ is addressed in the Psalms
In Matthew 22:41-45, Jesus argued with the Pharisees from Psalm 110:1, arguing that David’s son could not have been the figure addressed in the opening verse of the psalm, as David called him ‘Lord’. Hebrews approaches the Psalms in a similar manner, attentive to the different implied speakers of its words and those being addressed. Jesus is the one of whom Psalm 110:1 is spoken—‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool’ (Hebrews 1:13).
Hebrews makes similar points about other texts from the Psalms, especially in the opening chapter: Jesus is addressed in Psalm 2:7 (verse 5), Psalm 45:6-7 (verses 8-9), and Psalm 102:25-27 (verses 10-12). The author of Hebrews traces a line of biblical reflection here. He moves from the exaltation of the Son (Psalm 2:7), to the declaration of his Sonship in the words of the Davidic covenant, but as the archetype of which David’s throne was the ectype (2 Samuel 7:14), to the worship due to him by the angels (Deuteronomy 32:43), to the enduring and superior character of his throne from Psalm 45, with its themes of royal marriage and enthronement. Psalm 102:25-27 follows this line of biblical reflection, perhaps connected to the preceding reference from Psalm 45 by the unreferenced association of Psalm 102:12 with 45:6—‘But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever…’ Perhaps he also sees—as James Bejon noted in one of the recent episodes of our Hebrews study on the Theopolis podcast—a significant shift from ‘Lord’ to ‘God’ in Psalm 102:24, suggesting a change in speaker or addressee.
As the themes introduced by Psalm 102’s treatment of the transformation of the heavens and earth are taken up again in chapter 12, the use of the quotation from Psalm 102 in Hebrews 1 frames the book’s eschatological themes by the supremacy and unchanging character of Christ: ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever’ (13:8).
3. Christ is the chief Speaker of the Psalter
In Hebrews 10:5-7, the author of Hebrews places the words of Psalm 40:6-7 upon the lips of Christ as he came into the world. The psalmist’s words are read as applying chiefly to Christ’s incarnation.
In singing the Psalms, we borrow the words of psalmists, chiefly David, to speak of our own experiences. Especially when singing the psalms of David, the identity of the psalmist might itself be important for our singing of them. As the anointed king, the destiny of the people is to be realized in David and his seed, David’s own personal struggles are paradigmatic for others, and, importantly, David’s words anticipate and strain towards their full realization in his greater Son.
The New Testament presents the words of the Psalms as principally being the words of Christ. They are inspired by the Spirit of Christ. As David speaks of his experience, by the Spirit he prophetically anticipates Christ. David’s representative character is eclipsed by the far more representative character of Christ. And Jesus is the paradigmatic righteous suffering king that David foreshadows.
The Psalter begins with a portrayal of the righteous man, who meditates upon God’s Law day and night, and with the faithful king that the Lord has established over the nations on Zion’s hill. Both these figures are anticipated in David, the ‘sweet psalmist of Israel’, yet only fully realized in Christ.
Psalm 40 is a great example of the hermeneutic that this implies in action. The figure of the faithful suffering king is ultimately seen in Christ’s taking of flesh and his self-offering.
4. Christ is the ground and the paradigm of the new covenant
The Old Testament scriptures anticipated a time when the resistance of the people’s hearts to the Law of God would be overcome, as the Lord would place his Law within their hearts (Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 11:19-20; 36:26-27). When reading the psalms, we have an anticipation of this new covenant reality in the figure of the psalmist, who meditates upon and delights in the Law of the Lord and treasures it in his heart.
…his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night… (Psalm 1:2)
The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip. (Psalm 37:30-31)
With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:10-11)
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. (Psalm 19:7-10)
Notably, the author of Hebrews concludes his quotation of Psalm 40 just before verse 8, which reads:
I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.
Like cutting off a familiar piece of music before the end of a passage, though unsounded, the unplayed notes still hang in the air. That Hebrews immediately moves to discussing Jeremiah 31:33’s promise of the new covenant and the Law written on the heart is no accident. Christ is the Man of the new covenant, the Man with God’s Law in his heart, who renders true and perfect obedience to God. He is the One in whom the words of the Psalms discover their true Speaker. His coming is the new covenant arriving in person.
And, as the words of Psalm 40 are taken up by Christ to describe his incarnation and self-giving, not only is the ground of the new covenant revealed, but also the exemplary character of Christ as the founder and perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12:2), who is the pattern and the realization of the obedience to which we are called and in which we are formed. The Psalms, so read, will also come into their own as the natural expression of the new covenant. What does it look like to have the Law written on your heart? Singing psalms in which you express your delight in, meditation upon, and treasuring of God’s Law.
…be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart… (Ephesians 5:18-19)
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)
5. The words of the psalter speak directly into our situation
In one of the most challenging passages of the New Testament, the author of Hebrews charges and exhorts the hearers of his epistle using the words of Psalm 95:7-11. For most of chapters 3 and 4 of the book he expounds and addresses the psalm to their situation. The psalm, which looks back to the rebellions of Israel in the wilderness, and chiefly to their refusal to enter the Promised Land, is directly applied to Christians who might be tempted to turn back when facing growing persecution.
The ‘rest’ of the psalm, which refers to the Promised Land from which the unfaithful Israelites were excluded in Numbers 14:20-38, is applied to the ‘rest’ of the new covenant, and also related to the ‘rest’ of God established at the first Sabbath of creation. The Christians hearing the book being read need to press forward with a sense of urgency, not wanting to miss out on what God has in store for them: entrance into the true Promised Land (cf. Hebrews 11:13-16) and the completion of human labours in Christ, who realizes the original rest and dominion held out to Adam.
Like 1 Corinthians 10:11—Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come—the author of Hebrews implies a typological reading of Israel’s experience, which foreshadows that of the Church and, consequently, can speak directly into the Church’s experience.
6. Christ leads the worship of his people
One of the most striking uses of a psalm in Hebrews is seen in 2:12, which quotes the words of Psalm 22:22—I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you. Hebrews uses this verse to prove Christ’s kinship with those whom he redeems—he is not ashamed to call them brothers (2:11).
Once again, the choice of psalm here is noteworthy. While only one verse of it is quoted, Psalm 22 was a prominent Messianic psalm for the early Church and is clearly referenced within the crucifixion narratives of the gospels, with its words on the mouths of Jesus, the crowd, and the evangelists. Most famously, its opening words are on Jesus’ lips on the cross: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). The taunt of the mockers in Psalm 22:7-8 is on the mouth of the passers-by in Matthew 27:39-43. The division of garments mentioned in Psalm 22:18 is recorded as a narrative event in Matthew 27:35. Any attentive reader of Matthew’s crucifixion account in particular should recognize it as Christological commentary on Psalm 22.
When the New Testament cites the Old, we should typically not hear its citations as isolated references. So often New Testament citations of the Old are calculated to evoke wider passages and their associations. When reading Hebrews 2:12, where the psalmist of Psalm 22 declares his praise for his deliverance in the midst of his brethren, we should probably hear the entire narrative of the psalm in the background (we might also hear an allusion to Psalm 22:24 in Hebrews 5:7). The deployment of this reference follows the description of Christ as the man who ‘tasted death for everyone’ (2:9). Christ’s singing in the midst of the congregation of his brethren is a triumphant manifestation of the fruit of his redemption. As Christ leads his people in song, his own vindication is being declared and the spoils of his victory displayed.
I have considered the attention that the author of Hebrews gives to the speakers in the Psalms, and the fact that the voice of Christ is the chief of its voices. Colossians 3:16 quoted above might also suggest a close connection between Christ’s speech and the words of the psalms. When we sing the psalms, we take the words of Christ within and make them our own. Yet those words do not cease to be Christ’s and our singing of the psalms can be a form of his dwelling in—and singing through—us.
In a wonderful short book, From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution, Peter Leithart observes the way that the worship of Israel was described in places like 1 Chronicles 25:2 and 2 Chronicles 7:6 as David’s worship, ministered by the Levites.
On the one hand, the musicians performed “under the hand” of David; on the other hand, David himself praised Yahweh “by their hand.” Levitical praise is the King’s Song before his “Father,” even if it is performed by Levites. And it was David’s song even though David was not present.
Leithart proceeds to connect this with the use of Psalm 22:22 in Hebrews 2, suggesting that it presents Christ as the One who leads the worship of his people:
Gathered for worship, united in song, the body of Christ, along with the Head, is Christ offering praise to His Father. The Greater David gives praise by our hand.
7. We take the words of the psalms as our own
The final citation of a psalm in Hebrews is found in 13:6, which quotes Psalm 118:6—
The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?
Psalm 118 tells a story of the psalmist’s distress and the Lord’s deliverance, leading to a glorious expression of praise. The Lord rescues the psalmist from death and from his adversaries and the psalmist praises him for his goodness. It is another psalm that is read as Messianic in the New Testament, especially the words of verse 22—The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone—which is related to Christ in Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10, Luke 20:17, Acts 4:11, and 1 Peter 2:6-7. The words of verse 26 of the psalm—Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!—are also famously quoted in the gospels’ accounts of the Triumphal Entry (Matthew 21:9; Mark 11:9; John 12:13) and in Jesus’ words of judgment upon Jerusalem (Matthew 23:39; Luke 13:35).
In the use of Psalm 118:6, Hebrews plots the experience of the embattled hearers of his epistle onto the story of the psalm. The confidence of the psalmist expressed in the quoted verse draws upon all the messianic themes within the original psalm and their fulfillment in Christ, and upon the pattern of redemption the psalm describes. In Hebrews 13:6 we are invited to take the words of the psalm as our own, declaring them with assurance and confidence.
The psalms, understood in such a way, are the form that God has given us in which we can express our joyful response to his redemption and victory. And strengthened by the confidence expressed in the psalm, we will be assisted to live in light of the reality it proclaims. In Psalms as Torah: Reading Biblical Song Ethically, Gordon Wenham speaks of the power of ‘prayed ethics’. To pray—or, better, to sing—psalms is self-involving and performative. He writes:
In praying the Psalms, one is actively committing oneself to following the God-approved life. This is different from just listening to laws or edifying stories. It is an action akin to reciting the creed or singing a hymn. It involves strong commitment, and this is why I think that the psalms have been so influential in molding Jewish and Christian ethics in the past, and why as scholars we should again study them for their ethical content.
When Hebrews tells its hearers to declare the words of Psalm 118:6 with confidence, it is charging and equipping them to commit themselves to a certain posture. In this, among other ways, taking the words of the psalms as our own assists us in living faithfully as Christians and conforms us to Christ, whose words they are.
8. The Psalms are our sacrifice of praise
Sacrifice is, of course, a central theme of the book of Hebrews. In Christ, the sacrifices of the old covenant, which could never take away sins, are fulfilled in a once-for-all sacrifice that forgives sins, perfects worshippers, and opens a new and living way into the presence of God. Consequently, there is no need for a continued offering for sin.
However, although we no longer offer bulls, goats, and other animal sacrifices, sacrificial practices remain central in the life of the Church. In contrast to the understanding of much Christian theology, in Leviticus, sacrifice did not focus upon the act of killing sacrificial animals. Rather, the central acts of sacrifice were actions with the blood of the sacrificial animal, the ascending of the sacrifice in fire, and communion meals. Such patterns remain in the worship of the Church, even though they are now humanized. Christ’s blood is ritually applied to us in baptism and in continued confession and absolution of sins. When Hebrews says that ‘we have an altar’ from which we have an exclusive right to eat (13:10), we should hear a reference to the celebration of the Supper, where Christ offers us his body and blood.
In describing the ‘sacrificial’ worship of the new covenant at the conclusion of the book, the author of Hebrews broadens the application of principles of sacrifice. We participate in the sacrifice of Christ (as we eat from the altar outside the camp) and we also do good to and share what we have with others, ‘for such sacrifices are pleasing to God’ (13:16). Through Christ we also ‘continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name’ (13:15).
As Leithart observes in From Silence to Song, already in the old covenant, animal sacrifice was being progressively more humanized through the addition of music and song, especially by David. The place of song, and particularly psalms, in Christian worship should be understood accordingly. Song can memorialize the deeds of the Lord, just as sacrifices could act as memorials. Song can represent the offering of the worshipper in true and joyful commitment of heart, the sort of offering described in Psalm 40:6-8. Most importantly, considering what we have discussed to this point, singing psalms can be a form of union with the risen and exalted Jesus Christ. The ‘fruit of lips’ that acknowledge God’s name spring forth from and articulate transformed hearts that have his Law written within them. And this was always the sacrifice that God most desired.
God desired the wholehearted offering of the true embodied worshipper, an offering that is finally given in Christ (Hebrews 10:5-14). In Christ’s self-offering, our offering of ourselves in him is made possible. As we sing the psalms, nothing less than this should be our animating vision.
Alastair Roberts (PhD, Durham) is adjunct Senior Fellow at Theopolis and is one of the participants in the Mere Fidelity podcast.. He blogs at Alastair’s Adversaria and tweets using @zugzwanged.