Utumishi Blog

In previous posts (e.g. here) we’ve found that looking at the Psalms as Songs of Jesus is revolutionary in allowing us to capture their full grandeur and grace. But what then do we do with the Psalms which talk about the Psalmist’s many sins?

One way is to say, Jesus isn’t saying those bits – that was David speaking for himself and showing he was not the perfect Christ. But then that easily takes us back to the skim and pick selective strategy. Because the surprising thing is that it’s in some of the most clearly Messianic Psalms that the writer is also very clear about his sin.

Two examples: Psalm 40 and Psalm 69. Psalm 40:6-8 is cited by the author of Hebrews as speaking uniquely of Jesus (incarnation and crucifixion). Various verses of Psalm 69 are quoted by John, Romans and Acts and there are multiple NT allusions, particularly in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion. So both seem to be clearly Psalms of Jesus. Furthermore there is no obvious change in the speaker through the Psalm – it is the Christ speaking throughout in the first person.

What if (hold on, don’t stone me yet) we say that Jesus is saying these things? Is talking about ‘his sins’ in some sense. What! How can Jesus be talking about ‘his sins’? Well I affirm the purity and faultless obedience of Christ as much as anyone but look at these Scriptures:

My beloved is mine and I am his (Song of Songs 2:14)

The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all… and [he] was numbered with the transgressors (Isaiah 53:6, 12)

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up (John 3:14)

For our sake he made him to be sin (2 Cor. 5:21)

Christ… becoming a curse for us (Gal. 3:13)

So yes, Jesus did no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth (Isa. 53:9) and yet he was counted as a transgressor (Isa. 53:12); he ‘knew no sin’ (2 Cor. 5:21) yet he was made sin (2 Cor. 5:21); he was made a curse, made the snake on the pole; in our marriage union with him, as we have become his, our sins have become his. Or as Luther puts it with breath-taking force:

For how amazing it is that the Son of God becomes my servant, that He humbles Himself so, that He cumbers Himself with my misery and sin. . . . He says to me: “You are no longer a sinner, but I am. I am your substitute. You have not sinned, but I have. The entire world is in sin. However, you are not in sin; but I am. All your sins are to rest on Me and not on you.”  No one can comprehend this. In yonder life our eyes will feast forever on this love of God.  (Martin Luther, Works, 22:166-67 (ht Dane Ortlund))