When reading the Psalms Christologically, it is one thing to see the prefigured sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. But what do we do with the passages concerning recompense, judgment, or vengeance? Are we to also read these Christologically, or are these vestigial Old Covenant ways of thinking, fit to be discarded like dross in light of the revelation of the Lamb of God who is our peace?
I will argue they certainly can be read Christologically. Lest we have a claw-clipped, muzzled picture of our Lord, let us be reminded by the Scriptures that this same Lamb of God is also the Lion of Judah (Revelation 5:5-6). This God, who is love, (1 John 4:8) is also the God of vengeance (Psalm 94:1). The same Jesus who baptizes with water also baptizes with fire (Matthew 3:11). This Jesus who told Peter to put his sword into its sheath (John 18:11) is the same Jesus from whose mouth came a sharp two-edged sword (Revelation 1:16). And this “Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe” (Jude 5).
What then do we see the passages of vengeance referring to in the Psalms? Are these to be read as general prophecies of final judgment? Or is there a first century referent to be seen?
Before answering, let us remind ourselves how the apostles read the Old Testament Scriptures. In Acts 1:20, the apostles understand Psalm 69:25 to have special reference to Judas, and Psalm 109:8 to anticipate the need for another apostle to take his place. In Acts 4:24-31 the apostles, quoting Psalm 2, interpret the “kings of the earth” and “rulers” who “gathered together against the Lord and against his Anointed” as referring to “Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel.” In Acts 3:24, Peter says, “all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days.” One verse earlier, Peter quotes Moses, saying “And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.”
Taken together, it seems the apostles understood their days to be unique, special, and full of prophetic fulfillment. They saw in the Psalms not only the sufferings and subsequent glories of Jesus, but also specific events being fulfilled even after Christ’s ascension. Did they also anticipate a judgment in their day, the kind Moses spoke of? Do the Psalms predict the same kind of judgment in their day? Let us consider Psalm 18 and try to think in their shoes.
If read Christocentrically, the Psalm starts with praise for God from Jesus’ lips in vs 1-3:
I love you, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.
In verses 4-5 you have Christ’s death:
The cords of death encompassed me;
the torrents of destruction assailed me;
the cords of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.
In vs 6 his cry for deliverance:
In my distress I called upon the LORD;
to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.
In vs 7-15 the response of the Father to his son’s death at his assailant’s hands:
Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the foundations also of the mountains trembled
and quaked, because he was angry.
Smoke went up from his nostrils,
and devouring fire from his mouth;
glowing coals flamed forth from him.
He bowed the heavens and came down;
thick darkness was under his feet.
He rode on a cherub and flew;
he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him,
thick clouds dark with water.
Out of the brightness before him
hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.
The LORD also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High uttered his voice,
hailstones and coals of fire.
And he sent out his arrows and scattered them;
he flashed forth lightnings and routed them.
Then the channels of the sea were seen,
and the foundations of the world were laid bare
at your rebuke, O LORD,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
In vs 16-24 you have the resurrection, reward, and justification of Christ by the Father:
He sent from on high, he took me;
he drew me out of many waters.
He rescued me from my strong enemy
and from those who hated me,
for they were too mighty for me.
They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the LORD was my support.
He brought me out into a broad place;
he rescued me, because he delighted in me.
The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.
For I have kept the ways of the LORD,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
For all his rules were before me,
and his statutes I did not put away from me.
I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from my guilt.
So the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
In vs 25-33 you have Christ exulting in the Father:
With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
with the purified you show yourself pure;
and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
For you save a humble people,
but the haughty eyes you bring down.
For it is you who light my lamp;
the LORD my God lightens my darkness.
For by you I can run against a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.
This God—his way is perfect;
the word of the LORD proves true;
he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
For who is God, but the LORD?
And who is a rock, except our God?—
the God who equipped me with strength
and made my way blameless.
He made my feet like the feet of a deer
and set me secure on the heights.
And last comes the judgment part of the Psalm. From verses 34-50:
He trains my hands for war,
so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
You have given me the shield of your salvation,
and your right hand supported me,
and your gentleness made me great.
You gave a wide place for my steps under me,
and my feet did not slip.
I pursued my enemies and overtook them,
and did not turn back till they were consumed.
I thrust them through, so that they were not able to rise;
they fell under my feet.
For you equipped me with strength for the battle;
you made those who rise against me sink under me.
You made my enemies turn their backs to me,
and those who hated me I destroyed.
They cried for help, but there was none to save;
they cried to the LORD, but he did not answer them.
I beat them fine as dust before the wind;
I cast them out like the mire of the streets.
You delivered me from strife with the people;
you made me the head of the nations;
people whom I had not known served me.
As soon as they heard of me they obeyed me;
foreigners came cringing to me.
Foreigners lost heart
and came trembling out of their fortresses.
The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock,
and exalted be the God of my salvation—
the God who gave me vengeance
and subdued peoples under me,
who rescued me from my enemies;
yes, you exalted me above those who rose against me;
you delivered me from the man of violence.
For this I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations,
and sing to your name.
Great salvation he brings to his king,
and shows steadfast love to his anointed,
to David and his offspring forever.
Back to the original question – what do we do with this portion of the Psalm? It seems we do not have to jettison it in a Christological reading. But does it then refer solely to a final judgment? Would the apostles have understood the first 33 verses to find fulfillment in their days, but the last 17 verses to only refer to a final judgment?
There is indication to suggest the apostles would have read such passages and anticipated a corresponding judgment in their day and not merely as a far-removed final judgment. Perhaps these verses describe that which Jesus anticipates in Luke 11:50, “the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation.” Or of Jesus’ parable of the ten minas in Luke 19:27, “But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.” Or of the days Jesus predicts in Luke 21:22-23, “for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written…there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people.” Perhaps Paul alluded to this same verse from his traveling companion’s Gospel in 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16, speaking of the Jews, “who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved – so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!” Perhaps these verses predict the wrath upon the enemies of Jesus in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.
If this be the case, many other Psalms fit this Christological-Preteristic reading. Scanning quickly through the Psalms, a few especially stand out – Psalms 2, 18, 69, and 94. Many more fit this kind of reading as well – Psalms 21, 35, 37, 41, 45, 55, 56, 58, 59, 63, 64, 68, 75, 79, 82, 83, 92, 97, 101, 110, 140, and 143. And many others fit this reading more loosely.
Perhaps it was this kind of reading of the Old Testament and the Psalms which got Stephen in trouble, when the Jews claimed “we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us” (Acts 6:14). Jesus had said “no sign will be given [this generation] except the sign of the prophet Jonah” (Matthew 12:39). Does this sign terminate at Jesus’ death and resurrection? After Jonah’s “death and resurrection,” he preached to Nineveh saying, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Was this part of Jesus’ post-resurrection message through his apostles? Yet forty years, and Jersulaem shall be overthrown? Is this “the coming judgment” Paul warned Felix of in Acts 24:25? Maybe. God was patient with his people Israel, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). And so God gave Israel a great deal longer than he gave Nineveh. And yet they hardened themselves and in the main did not repent. And indeed, “the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:41).
The Psalms certainly contain the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories (1 Peter 1:11). As we have seen from the apostles’ use of the Psalms, they also contain specific events after the ascension of Christ. They even contain the spreading missionary work of the apostles throughout the Roman empire (Romans 10:18). If the Psalms contain such specific predictions, it may be putting the cart ahead of the horse to see the judgment passages as referring only to a final judgment. Perhaps we are justified in reading the Psalms in light of the judgments upon Jerusalem in AD 70.
Matt Pike is a member of a Presbyterian church in the Tampa Bay area. He enjoys spending time with his beautiful, loving wife, Carly, and their floofer of a dog, Calvin, as well as listening to Bible and theology on the road as a fuel truck driver.