The Messianic psalms, written hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus Christ, foretell many aspects of His birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection with startling clarity. As with most prophecy, there may well be different layers of meaning (some applicable to the writer, some applicable only to Christ), but these psalms helped to arouse expectation and keep hope alive for the Jewish people for centuries and serve to affirm to us nowadays the foreknowledge and omniscience of God, not to mention His providential love, grace, mercy and power.

Several psalms affirm that the Messiah would come from the line of David (see Ps 89:3-4, 19-37; Ps 110; Ps 132:11-12), echoing Nathan’s prophecy to the king (see 2 Sam 7:11-16). Matthew 1:1 affirms that this prophecy is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, which is significant in ascribing to Christ the Messianic role which the title ‘son of David’ had come to signify as well as affirming His humanity (see also Rom 1:3).

The close relationship between the Messiah and God the Father is also affirmed in the Psalms (see Ps 22:9-10), a relationship which goes beyond time (see Jesus’s words of affirmation ‘You loved me from before the creation of the world’, in John 17:24).

Perhaps one of the most startling prophetic psalms is Ps 22, quoted by Jesus as He hung on the cross (Matt 27:46, Mark 15:34). This psalm gives us probably the most graphic picture of the crucifixion in the whole Bible, all the more remarkable when we realise that this form of execution was not known to the writer at the time. From the scorn and humiliation of public execution (see Ps 22:6-8 and Matt 27:39, Luke 23:35) to the agony of dehydration (Ps 22:15, Jn 29:28) and pain (Ps 22:14), not to mention the despair of the weight of sin which left Christ separated from the Father (see 2 Cor 5:21), the psalm uses poetic imagery (describing enemies as bulls and roaring lions, for example) to take us deep into the mystery of the sacrificial death of the Messiah. The psalm is in two distinct halves, and the triumphant conclusion of Ps 22 (‘He has done it!’) is echoed in Jesus’s last words (‘It is finished!’ Jn 19:30) We can be profoundly glad of all that Christ suffered to deliver us from the penalty of sin.