“Now these are the last words of David. David the son of Jesse declares, the man who was raised on high declares, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, ‘The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue'” (2 Sam 23:1-2).
“Moreover, David and the commanders of the army set apart for the service some of the sons of Asaph and of Heman and of Jeduthun, who were to prophesy with lyres, harps and cymbals; and the number of those who performed their service was: Of the sons of Asaph: Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah and Asharelah; the sons of Asaph were under the direction of Asaph, who prophesied under the direction of the king. Of Jeduthun, the sons of Jeduthun: Gedaliah, Zeri, Jeshaiah, Shimei, Hashabiah and Mattithiah, six, under the direction of their father Jeduthun with the harp, who prophesied in giving thanks and praising the LORD” (1 Chron 25:1-3).
I recently heard an anti-missionary insist that the New Testament’s use of the psalms as a book of prophecy is nothing short of abuse. Psalm 22, for example, is not, and never was intended to be read as a prophecy about the future sufferings of the Messiah. It’s just about David. As for the other psalms, they were prayers and praises to God. That’s it!
We read the book of of Psalms as prophesy because the Hebrew Bible tells us it is!
But do we read the book of Psalms as prophecy just because the NT tells us it is? No! We read the book of of Psalms as prophesy because the Hebrew Bible tells us it is! According to 2 Samuel 23:1-2, David penned his psalms through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Chronicles 25:1-3, we are told that the temple singers prophesied with songs of thanksgiving and praise. To interpret the book of psalms ONLY as men’s words spoken to God and not as God’s words spoken to men is to reject the Hebrew Bible’s explicit testimony, and far more sadly, to fail to recognize that Jesus the Messiah is the reason for the book!
“Now He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:44-45).
