Singing About the Messiah

His disciples remembered that it was written, where was it written? Psalm 69, zeal for thy house will consume thee. See this is the application of Psalm 69. This is the fulfillment of how Jesus would be so overwhelmed and so impassioned with zeal, with righteous anger.

He's cleaning the corruption, the leaven, out of His house. The Old Testament points to the person and work of Jesus Christ. Long before the incarnation of Jesus, long before His crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus was the center of biblical history. We find that in many places in the Old Testament, including the Psalms. Today on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen Davey takes us back to the Psalms and we're looking at a Psalm about the Messiah. The criticism, suffering and sorrow that Jesus experienced was all written about in advance by King David.

In addition to being a poet, David was a prophet and we'll see that today. Maybe for those of you that play an instrument, you know that there's nothing quite like that instrument's ability to convey how you feel and that's a significant thing. I remember one guy saying one time there was no one that knew his soul like the keys on his piano. There isn't a more emotional set of chapters in the Bible than chapters related to music.

We call it the book of Psalms. Now we don't have any of the inspired musical scores but we do have the lyrics and they've been provided for us and if you're old enough in the faith, you know that whenever you're in need or you're hurting or you need encouragement, it just seems to open up to this hymnal and it conveys so much of how you feel. It conveys sorrow and hope and it also conveys joy and gladness, doesn't it?

Nothing quite like this music. Go back to this and look specifically at the expression of emotion in the life of Jesus Christ. Now the way we do that is we look at a hymn that we call a messianic psalm. That is a psalm that points to Jesus Christ, the greater son of David. And it's really quite amazing when you study the messianic psalms where you get insight into not just what happened to Jesus but how he felt when it happened. I want you to turn to probably one of the clearest messianic hymns in the entire hymnal. It's hymn number 69.

So turn there. What we're going to do is I'll drop in and I'll read a lyric or two and then take you to the New Testament where it is fulfilled. The messianic psalm is prophecy and it will take us into the life of the Lord and we'll watch where it comes to pass. Now if you're there, I want to point out a couple of events in our Lord's life and we have time for just a couple. Notice verse 8.

Go there. Well, start at verse 1. Verse 1. Save me, O God, for the waters have threatened my life. You could render that for the waters have come up to my neck. I'm up to my neck in trouble is the way we would say it. I've sunk in deep mire, there's no foothold. I've come into deep waters and a flood overflows me. I am weary with my crying.

My throat is parched. My eyes fail while I wait for my God. Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who would destroy me are powerful, being wrongfully my enemies when I did not steal.

I then have to restore. David's writing about his own troubles, but he's also speaking of what Jesus also experienced and certainly felt to a much greater degree. Verse 7. Because for thy sake I've borne reproach, dishonor has covered my face.

Now you'll kind of catch this phrase, those of you that have been around a while and know the word. I have become estranged from my brothers and an alien to my mother's sons. Now this is a reference to the fact that Jesus' own half brothers and sisters, there were six of them by the way, didn't believe what Jesus Christ claimed to be at first. In fact, Matthew's gospel informs us that as Jesus began his ministry, none of his siblings believed his claim to be who he was. In fact, it was more than unbelief. They were actually offended by his claim. They were disturbed deeply by his claim. In fact, when Jesus visited his hometown in Nazareth, the Jews responded with sarcasm. They responded certainly with unbelief. And they said, and I'll read here without you turning for the sake of time, but Matthew records in chapter 13, Is not this the carpenter's son, and is not his mother called Mary, and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Jude, and his sisters, at least two of them, are they not all with us? And they all, which would include those six, they all were scandalized. They were all offended at him. Now Mark's gospel adds that when Christ's own siblings heard that he had launched his public ministry, and he was calling disciples to follow after him, Mark chapter 3 says, and they went to take custody of him, for they were saying he has lost his mind. Mark 3 21.

You can render it, they thought he was actually out of his mind. So imagine they are interrupting the ministry of Christ with apologies to people. Can you imagine how hurtful certainly that would be? John's gospel adds at chapter 7, for not even his brothers were believing in him. Now given the fact that Jesus was raised in a home where Joseph died, many scholars believe that Joseph died early, sometime after these children of course, but not long enough to see Jesus and her ministry. You could only appreciate then the life of Mary. When I read those gospel texts, when this prophecy of Psalm 69 comes true, that he's estranged from his siblings, his brothers.

That he's like an alien to his mother's sons. That gives you insight into what this home must have been like. For Joseph to have died before Jesus entered ministry, if you calculate that they had had a child after Jesus, Jesus dying of course early in his 30s, when that happened then the youngest child would have been in his mid-teen years. My admiration, by the way, for Mary isn't lessened by knowing the truth of Scripture.

It's increased without falling into heresy or idolatry or mariolatry or worship of her, but we have every reason to appreciate what she went through. And you add this heartbreaking reality that while she believed the claims of her firstborn son, none of her other children did. What that lets you know is that in that home there was great strife.

This would have been the topic of conversation. None of them believed. In John's gospel they even accuse him of trying to make a name for himself. So properly understood, this home is filled with turmoil over these years.

And what you find in Psalm 69 is this phrase which tells you how Jesus felt. He felt estranged from them. He felt ostracized from his own brothers and sisters.

Being fully man, he would have loved to have had the support, the encouragement of his siblings. Maybe you're a believer and you're the only believer in your family. Or maybe one of few believers in your family. And your brothers or your sisters think you've lost your mind. Well you'll know a little bit of how Jesus felt because you're going through that and you can identify with the sufferings of Jesus in this way.

I often think that Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief long before he hung on a cross. Now if you look again at chapter 69 and verse 8, I've become estranged that is painfully at odds from my brothers. And an alien, that means I'm from another planet like we think of an alien. But a foreigner from another country more than likely considered ceremonially unclean. So I'm considered defiled by my mother's sons.

That's how he felt. Let me show you another Messianic insight and prophecy. Look down at another key verse that points to the Messiah, verse 9. For zeal for thy house has consumed me. Now you could literally understand this to say my passion for the house of God, a reference to the temple, is of the greatest concern to me. There's very little that I am more passionate about.

It's something I think about all the time. Now this statement actually has a prophetic fulfillment in the gospel by John. In fact let me have you turn over there to chapter 2. John chapter 2. This event occurs in the month of April in the city of Jerusalem. Chapter 2 and verse 12 tells us this. He went down to Capernaum, he and his mother and brothers and his disciples.

We're not sure where his sisters were. And there they stayed a few days, verse 13. And the Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now stop for a moment. The Passover was a seven-day feast, of course, commemorating the freeing of the Jewish slaves from Egypt and the sacrificial lamb that was sacrificed which saved each household. If you know the story, the blood of that lamb put on the doorposts of the homes as these slave quarters were then protected from the angel of death. And every year then they would celebrate this with the sacrificing of the lamb, sort of reenacting this deliverance. And it was the dream of every Jew, especially every Jewish male, to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem at least one time during their lifetime, no matter where they lived.

And to this day there is that kind of desire. To give you an idea of what happened in Jerusalem, if you go back in history, Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, said that in AD 65 that the city swelled with such incredible attendance at Passover that 255,000 lambs were killed, sacrificed in this reenactment. Now if there were as many as, let's just say, ten worshippers per lamb, you've got two to three million or more people swelling the city attendance in Jerusalem. So as Jesus is arriving, it's amazing because he would have been surrounded by people and he would have also been surrounded by a lot of lambs. Now, verse 14 tells us that when he arrives, all's not well, he finds in the temple money changers and they're sitting there exchanging money and they're selling oxen, the text tells us, and sheep and doves and the money changers are seated. That first glance to our minds, that sounds like, well, that's just normal. It's not normal. In fact, it implies that everything is out of order.

Let me explain. There is unbelievable corruption by the time Jesus arrives here in, of all places, the house of worship, the temple. In and around the land, you had all these different kinds of currency used. You had Roman coins, you had Egyptian coinage, you had coinage from Sidon, all in circulation, all of it valid currency except in the temple precinct. Those currencies were all considered ceremonially defiled or unclean and the worshiper could not get into the temple unless they paid this fee in a Galilean shekel.

It would be referred to as the shekel of the sanctuary. So, I mean, you're from a different place, you're Jewish, maybe a Gentile proselyte, you want to get in and you can't get in because you've got defiled money. And here's where the corruption begins. Here's where these good old boy money changers were waiting for you to arrive. In fact, verse 14, you notice that the money changers were seated, many of them because of the million plus people that would swell the population in Jerusalem. These supposedly religious men are charging all sorts of fees.

Now, it can be a little confusing. Jewish scholars believe that it would cost today about $20 because of these fees for a worshiper to get into the temple. That's like charging you to get into the church effectively.

Whether you paid or not, it didn't matter, you got charged money. And so already you've got these money changers and they're claiming that this money's defiled and you can't get in with that and we've got to charge these fees, but just think about it. If there were, out of all of that population, a million males who wanted to get into the temple, that temple system is going to make $20 million. And that's just the start. Because did you notice in that text, what's around those money changers?

Look back. What's around those money changers as they're seated? All these animals.

This thing has turned into a circus. The courtyard is filled with doves and sheep and oxen and they're all in there together. Now, God had originally required the people of Israel, when they came, according to Deuteronomy 12, that they're going to bring at this festival the best of the flock. Now, these priests have instituted a market for buying and selling animals, which made it convenient for travelers.

Sometimes travelers couldn't come with an animal or maybe one died along the way, an animal died as they traveled there. In fact, there's little doubt from Old Testament scholars that those shepherds that we sang about were actually guarding Paschal lambs, that is, sheep that were going to be sacrificed at the temple. So they're out there in those fields of Bethlehem and they're literally guarding sacrificial lambs to be brought to Jerusalem to be sold through this system.

And by the way, this is just off the path, but don't miss that scene. Here you have Jesus, who is the Lamb of God, born where? In a makeshift barn, as if he is livestock, which is a wonderful representation, the analogy that he is indeed the lamb. And the first people who come in contact with him are the shepherds who've been guarding the Paschal lambs. They're the ones who come and identify Jesus. Now, the law required that any animal offered in sacrifice had to be without what?

Without blemish. They couldn't have a skin disease or anything wrong with them for them to be admissible for sacrifice. Now, by the time of Jesus Christ, they had established in the temple inspectors. These inspectors were called mamunca. And they would inspect the animal that you might have brought with you to sacrifice there for that Passover. And the mamunca were corrupt. They were in league with the priests and the system that they had established so that when you brought your animal to them to inspect, guess what they were going to do?

Decline it. They were going to find something wrong with your lamb. And so you only had one option. And that option was you would have to buy that lamb or maybe that turtledove for sacrifice or oxen. You would have to pay them to buy their animal because they had declined to view yours as without blemish.

Now, there is one major problem, and the people knew it. Outside the temple, in today's economy, a pair of doves would cost you about $20. But if yours were declined because they were, you know, blemished, if you had to buy one of them from these temple officials, the mamunca, it would cost you the same pair of doves $375. That's like eating a meal in Disney World or buying a hot dog and a Coke at a ball game. I mean, they know they've got you.

You can't do anything. So you've got to buy your animal from the mamunca. And they had so overinflated the prices that you, again, are paying a lot of money. Now, again, consider the fact that you have perhaps a million more people coming in to offer their sacrifice, and they've got to buy an animal.

And turtledoves are the cheaper ones, $375. The lamb would be even more. You can see how they're going to make 400 to 500 million dollars off poor people. Passover was a bonanza. I mean, this was the mother lode. The temple system was effectively extorting worshippers in the name of religion. It's not new. Listen, religion has always created a way to charge people access to God. And let me tell you the wonderful news. Access to God is not for sale, right?

Because the price has already been paid in full. Well, this temple scene evidently provokes Jesus. I mean, it provokes him. Verse 15, it informs us in John chapter 2. And he made a scourge of cords. That is, he made a whip. And he drove them all out of the temple.

Look at what he's driving out. Sheep, oxen, obviously he's pouring out the coins of the money changers, overturning their tables. And to those who were selling the doves, he said, take these things away, note this, stop making my father's house a house of merchandise.

His disciples remembered that it was written, where was it written? Psalm 69, zeal for thy house will consume me. See, this is the application of Psalm 69. This is the fulfillment of how Jesus would be so overwhelmed and so impassioned with zeal, with righteous anger, that he cleans out the temple. By the way, you need to understand there's a deeper implication of Jesus' actions here. Because during Passover, it's the duty of every family to clean their home.

And especially, it's all analogous to the removal of leaven. They're to remove from their homes any kind of corruption. This is sort of spring cleaning with a spiritual emphasis. So what is Jesus Christ doing in the temple? He calls this my father's house. And what is he doing? He's cleaning house. He's cleaning the corruption, the leaven, out of his house.

That's what he's doing. We kind of get that first hint, you remember? The first hint of Jesus, he's being mitzvahed. You know, he's going to that Passover with his parents and they get to Jerusalem and when everybody is eventually caravanning back home, unknown to them, he's been left behind. And Mary and Joseph are well on their way home before they miss him. How many of you have left your kids somewhere?

Yeah, yeah, me too. Like me, one time I left one of my kids at church and supposed to bring him home. Got lost in the shuffle. I got a call from somebody saying, Stephen, I got one of your kids here at church.

I said, can you give him back after he graduates? No, I did, but I thought about it. You know the feeling. They're panicked. Can't imagine really. So they go back to Jerusalem and if you go back into that text, you discover they literally looked for him for three days. Three days, can you imagine? And they finally find him in the temple and he's surrounded by religious leaders and they scold him and he said to them, you remember that classic statement, don't you know that I am to be about my father's business?

You could literally translate that. Don't you know that I'm to be about my father's house? So you have that first insight into this zeal that is beginning now and it will grow into the fulfillment of Psalm 69 in this text where he says, I have arrived now to clean house.

King David wrote about the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and I hope that you know him personally. This is Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. We have a resource entitled God's Wisdom for Your Heart that introduces you to the gospel and the saving work of Jesus Christ. That resource is available to read on our website or on our smartphone app, but we also have printed copies that you can share with others. Those are available in our online store or you can call us today at 866-48-BIBLE. Here in the United States, we're getting close to an election season. Leading up to that, Stephen wants to help you think biblically about politics and the Christian's relationship to the government.

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