The Psalm reading appointed for Morning Prayer today is Psalm 139. This beloved Psalm speaks to the awe-inspiring depths to which God knows us as his creatures. God, the glorious sovereign creator of all, knows you and me at a level that puts all modern medicine, neuroscience, and psychology to shame. He knit you together. He knows you in a total, complete, and holistic way, down to the most imperceptible biologic detail, all the way to the totality of your whole life, like a divinely written novel. What a mysterious and wonderful thought! But how does this Psalm fit into this Christmas season?
If you are like me, you may sometimes default into viewing the Psalms as inspirational material; a little emotional uplift and a spiritual shot in the arm. Indeed, the Psalms do stir us and give us a voice in prayer, covering the whole colourful spectrum of human emotion. However, as I have been slowly learning about the ancient Christian perspective on the Psalms, I have been struck by a whole new level of meaning: the Psalms are all about Jesus. Peter Leithart points out how St. Augustine played a major role in the Church’s interpretation of the Psalms:“Augustine made it a basic interpretive principle that the Psalms are now the words of the Savior, now the words of His people crying for salvation, now, mystically, both together. Psalms is the songbook of the whole Christ: in it Jesus speaks ‘of us, by us, in us, while we speak in Him.’" For Augustine, the Psalms are all about (and all by) Jesus but we pray them together with him. How could this be? Jesus doesn’t show up for hundreds of years after the psalms were written? Listen to this striking summary of Augustine’s perspective from the introduction to his commentary on the Psalms: “If the mystical Christ has really been living since the beginning of the human race, then the Old Testament and the Psalms in particular, can be nothing else but the first phase of His revelation, still veiled under carnal types which point forward to the future.” If Jesus really is before all things (John 1) and reality is held together in him (Col. 1:15-17), then how Could the Psalms be anything other than ultimately speaking of Jesus? What a mind-bending reality! I must confess that I am a newcomer to such an ancient perspective, but I am amazed at how it opens up new depths in the Psalms.
If the Psalms are truly the “songs of Christ” that we sing with him, how might this open up Psalm 139 for us during Christmas? Hear Augustine’s own words on Psalm 139:
For the Psalms were sung long before the Lord was born of Mary, yet not before He was Lord: for from everlasting He was the Creator of all things, but in time He was born of His creature. Let us believe that Godhead, and, so far as we can, understand Him to be equal to the Father. But that Godhead equal to the Father was made partaker of our mortal nature, not of His own store, but of ours; that we too might be made partakers of His Divine Nature, not of our store, but of His.
Augustine sees this Psalm as a celebration of the incarnation. These words, marveling at God’s intimate knowledge of our very flesh and bone are ultimately words that our Saviour prayed in loving communion with the Father. What a beautiful image!
The mystery of the incarnation means that God has taken on our human nature in Jesus Christ. He didn’t borrow a body. He didn’t just assume the appearance of a human being but live as some sort of super-human or Greek god. No, Jesus truly took on a human nature. He was knit together in his mother’s womb, just like you and I. He was fearfully and wonderfully made, just like you and I. The Holy Spirit was always present to him, just as he is to us. And he would ultimately die as a result of life in a sin-warped world, just like you and I. God looked on the physical body of His son with innumerable precious thoughts, just as God knows you in a way that you can scarcely comprehend.
The incarnation means that God’s perfect divine nature and our broken human nature are no longer separated by sin. Look at how Psalm 139 ends:
Search me, O God, and know my heart!Try me and know my thoughts!And see if there be any grievous way in me,and lead me in the way everlasting!
Could any of us truly pray such a prayer on our own? I know my heart and I could never confidently march before God and invite such raw scrutiny. But Jesus can. Jesus is the only human being that could ever pray such a bold prayer before his Father. But, I can pray this prayer in Christ! The incarnation means that I can be united to Christ’s perfect humanity and gracious divinity through faith. Jesus’ incarnation and subsequent life, death, and resurrection have conquered sin, Satan, and death. He was born for us. He lived for us. He died for our sin. He rose for our salvation, forever conquering death. God has done all of this, removing everything that separates God and humankind. We simply receive this glorious gift by faith and unite ourselves to Christ as he has already united himself to us. And so we pray Psalm 139 as our prayer in Christ.
May you rest in the Father’s delight in you this Christmas season as you contemplate his glorious gift of union with Christ!
