Hidden Treasures in the Titles of the Psalms: Part 6

Jesus overcame a lifetime of trials and suffering, even beyond temptation and the cross, to bring us salvation.

How Did Jesus Overcome?

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. (Revelation 3:21).

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We have looked at how we can use the Psalms to overcome. I would now like to look at how Jesus overcame. When we think of what Jesus had to overcome, we may envision him avoiding being tripped up by the Pharisees and Scribes. We may reflect on him being tempted in all things, like we are, or on his overcoming death on the cross. But surely there must have been more than that. All his life, Jesus suffered mentally and physically, and we need to understand that, for by his life we are saved.

In the Gospels, we see Jesus healing people from all sorts of diseases. In Matthew 8, for example, he first heals a leper (vv. 2-4), then the centurion’s servant (vv. 5-13), followed by Peter’s mother-in-law (vv. 14-15) and many others (v. 16). It paints an optimistic and upbeat picture of Jesus doing good for many people. These healings were to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah: “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses.” (Matthew 8:17).

A superficial reading of this verse may not paint the full picture. Let’s go to Isaiah 53:3-5:

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded [pierced] for our transgressions, he was bruised [crushed] for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. [In his stripes there is healing for us].

The Hebrew text is much stronger. In verse 3, instead of “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” the Hebrew text reads “a man of pains and knowing sickness.” There is a difference between being “acquainted with” as in “being familiar with,” and “knowing,” as in “experiencing” in your own body. This is the true sense of fellowship, which we sometimes confuse with membership. To know Jesus in this way is true fellowship, as described by Paul: “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” (Philippians 3:10).

The phrase in Isaiah 53:4, “He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows” reads in the Hebrew: “He hath borne our sicknesses and carried our pains.” The verb “borne” (Hebrew nasa) indicates to “bear” or “carry away” our sicknesses. “He carried our pains” (Hebrew sabal) means “to carry a load.” So, Jesus did not just make these diseases disappear with a magic wand, but he took them away from these people and carried them himself instead. In doing so, he became ill himself.

The word “stricken” in verse 4, “and we did esteem him stricken,” (Hebrew nagua) means “plagued.” It occurs sixty times in Leviticus 13-14, and there it plainly speaks of the plague of leprosy.

The Gospels don’t say much about the effect other people’s healings had on Jesus. However, two incidents recorded may tell us something of this nature.

And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all. (Luke 6:17-19).

The phrase “virtue went out of him” also occurs in the parallel accounts of Mark 5:24-34 and Luke 8.46, where Jesus healed the woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years. In verse 34, it says, “And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace,” The Greek mastigo’o means a whip or a scourge. It was indeed a scourge for this woman to have been bleeding for twelve years. Only women can fully understand what devastating effect that must have had on her body. On top of this plague, which she hadn’t caused (it just happened to her), she was condemned by the Law as unclean. In this context, we do not want to dwell on the happy outcome of this healing process, but on the phrase that “virtue went out of him.” It may be misleading to think that was a good thing, as in, Jesus was being virtuous in healing this woman. But the Greek text says something else. The word translated as “virtue” is dunamis, which means “power” or “strength.” He must have felt that some strength had left him. Jesus became weaker when he healed this woman, for he took upon himself the devastating results of this disease, which was slowly killing this woman. As we will see below, only the Psalms give us an insight into his feelings.

Jesus, more than anybody else, would have known where all diseases came from. Jesus must have thought back to the events in the Garden of Eden, when, as a result of Eve’s disobedience to God’s commandment, God said to her: “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow [Heb. etsbon = pain] and thy conception; in sorrow [Heb. etsev] thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” (Genesis 3:16).

This consequence was the immediate result of sin, which eventually led to Eve’s death. Jesus must have seen all this portrayed in this woman who had touched the hem of his garment. By touching that hem, that woman expressed her faith in remembering the Scriptures:

Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: and it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of Yahweh, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring: that ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God. I am Yahweh your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am Yahweh your God. (Numbers 15:38-41).

Unlike Eve, this woman desperately wanted to be holy and do all God’s commandments, but her condition prevented her from doing so.

We often read that Jesus was filled with compassion when he saw human suffering, which he knew was the result of sin. Jesus had sympathy, which means entering into and sharing someone’s misfortune. Jesus did this to such an extent that by taking away their diseases, he became ill himself. We don’t read about this in the Gospels, but the Psalms reveal the mind of the suffering Christ, especially Psalm 38.

This Psalm is undoubtedly a Messianic Psalm, although I believe that all the Psalms as Messianic, as Jesus explained to the disciples on the way to Emmaus, when he said to them: “All things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.” (Luke 24:44).

Psalm 38 is a Psalm of remembrance, just like Psalm 70. In this Psalm, we see Jesus asking to be delivered from his enemies and those who reproached him all day long. It speaks of the mental suffering of Christ. Psalm 38 speaks of the physical suffering of Christ. It is a Psalm that belongs to Christ, as verse 11 shows: “My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.”

We remember Peter, who had denied Jesus following him afar off: “But Peter followed him afar off unto the high priest’s palace, and went in, and sat with the servants, to see the end.” (Matthew 26:58, Luke 22.54). When Jesus hung on the cross, we read in Luke 23:49 (Matthew 27:55) “And all his acquaintance, and the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things.”

The title of Psalm 38 reads: A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance. The contents of the Psalm appear to indicate that Jesus wanted God to remember the frailty of the flesh, which he experienced. “LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.” (Psalm 39:4).

By taking on the diseases of the people, Jesus wanted God to remember the result of sin and how he (Jesus) tried to overcome sin in the flesh. In this light then, let us examine this Psalm.

O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. (Psalm 38:1).

The word “chasten” also occurs in God’s promise to David in 2 Samuel 7:14: “I will chasten him with the rod of men.” But more about this connection when we come to verse 6 of this Psalm. “Thine arrows stick fast in me.” (Psalm 38:2).

Arrows can be bitter words, as expressed in Psalm 64.

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy. Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity: Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words: That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not. (Psalm 64:1-4).

Job experienced the force of arrows in his suffering:

Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. (Job 6:2-4).

Thy hand presseth me sore. (Psalm 38:2).

Although the words of Job’s so-called friends hurt him very much, he knew that “The hand of God has touched me.” (Job 19:21). God’s hand was heavy on Job, and also on Jesus. In Psalm 17:13-14 we read: “Deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword: From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world.”

No soundness in my flesh. (Psalm 38:3).

This physical and mental suffering made him look old beyond his years, as John 8:57 indicates: “Thou art not yet fifty years old.”

Unlike David, the author of the Psalm, Jesus never committed iniquity. Nevertheless, like other great men of the Scriptures, such as Moses, Daniel, and Nehemiah, he took upon himself the sins of the people.

In verse 5, his wounds were stinking and rotting, as the Hebrew says, “I am troubled [Hebrew na’aveyti, from ava].” (Psalm 38:6).

This expression, (margin “wried”), actually means “made crooked,” as we see in Ecclesiastes 1:15 and 7:13.

Most interestingly, this same word appears in 2 Samuel 7:14. In this beautiful chapter, God promises a son to David who will sit on his throne forever.

I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: but my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. (2 Samuel 7:14-15).

Jesus, of course, never committed iniquity, as David’s son Solomon did. How then can this prophecy relate to him? The Hebrew for “commit iniquity” (ha’avoto) doesn’t literally mean that. It is directly related to the word “troubled” in Psalm 38.6, which in this derivation means “being crooked,” or “being in his iniquity.” Because Jesus bore our iniquitous nature, he also had to be chastened with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men.

Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. (Hebrews 5:7-8).

He could only learn obedience and become an example for us to imitate if he had our nature. According to the words of Psalm 38, he bore the full brunt of it. He was “bowed down greatly” and went “mourning all the day long.”

Similar expressions are found in:

I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. (Psalm 42:9-11).

My loins are filled with a loathsome disease. (Psalm 38:7).

Did he feel that after having healed that woman with the issue of blood? It is difficult for a man to fully understand how that disease must have affected that woman and how she must have felt it inside her body. But Jesus had such empathy that he, as a man, could feel her disease in his own body, as if his own loins were filled with the disease that the woman suffered for twelve years? The taking away of her disease made Jesus weak, as he said that strength went out of him.

I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. LORD, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee. (Psalm 38:8-9).

In his agony, Jesus prayed to God. Indeed, he spent all night in prayer to God. What better way to pray with the Psalms, which had been prepared for him to be used in such circumstances. Psalm 22:1 also speaks of the “words of my roaring.” His only desire was to be with God through the words of this powerful prayer. When we are in difficulties, it would be good to focus our desire on God, as David did:

One thing have I desired of Yahweh, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Yahweh, and to inquire in his temple. (Psalm 27:4).

I have set Yahweh always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. (Psalm 16:8).

In the following verses, we have a list of all the diseases Jesus took upon himself. “My strength faileth me.” Strength went out of him when he healed that woman. “The light of mine eyes, it is also gone from me.” (Psalm 38:10).

In John 9, we read of Jesus healing the blind man by sending him to the Pool of Siloam. Jesus also healed many other blind people. He so much entered into these suffering people’s souls that he felt he had lost his own sight. “My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.” (Psalm 38:11). We already spoke of Peter and those of his acquaintance who stood afar off from the cross.

“They also that seek after my life lay snares for me.” (Psalm 38:12).

We can imagine Jesus pouring out his soul to God after the many times the Pharisees and other Jews tried to lay snares for him and trap him for the things he said. His final test came when he stood before the chief priests:

And the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put him to death; and found none. For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together. And there arose certain, and bare false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. But neither so did their witness agree together. And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? What is it which these witness against thee? But he held his peace, and answered nothing. (Mark 14:55-61).

But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. (Psalm 38:13).

We may, of course, understand this when Jesus didn’t reply to the High Priest and to Pilate.

And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain [straight]. And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak. (Mark 7:31-37).

In whose mouth are no reproofs. (Psalm 38:14).

In Matthew 12, we read that after healing the man with the withered hand:

Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him. But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all; And charged them that they should not make him known: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. (Matthew 12:14-20).

This quietness does not mean Jesus will never open his mouth in judgment. He will do so when the time comes, as he said to the Pharisees after the healing of the blind man:

And Jesus said, for judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, “Are we blind also?” Jesus said unto them, “If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, we see; therefore your sin remaineth.” (John 9:39-41).

Their sin will remain until they stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ and will have to give an account of their treacherous deeds. “For in thee, O LORD, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God. “(Psalm 38:15).

Again, Jesus pours out his soul to God, saying he will continue to hope in Him and believe God will answer him at the right time. “When my foot slippeth,” and: “For I am ready to halt.” (Psalm 38:16-17). Similar words are in Psalm 35, where “adversity” in verse 15 is actually the same word for “halting.”

False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not. They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother. But in mine adversity [halting] they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they did tear me, and ceased not: With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth. (Psalm 35:11-16).

Jesus knew what the disability of “halting” meant, for he had healed people who were lame. During the capture of Jebus, David spoke of “the lame and the blind, that are hated of David’s soul.” I’m sure David did not hate people who were blind and lame. But Jesus had compassion on the blind and lame, which is why he healed them.

For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin. (Psalm 38:18).

Again, Jesus never committed iniquity, but had our iniquitous nature. He never sinned, but God “had made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Forsake me not, O LORD: O my God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation. (Psalm 38:21-22).

So, at the end of praying this Psalm, as he often must have done in the nights, he asked God not to forsake him, for his Father was also his salvation.

So, what does exploration of a very personal Psalm of Jesus mean for us believers? We can learn from Jesus, not just to be sympathetic with brethren and sisters when they suffer, but to enter selflessly into their plight, for then we can better help them and appreciate God’s salvation. It teaches the meaning of the extraordinary features of the High Priest’s garments. The breastplate, as Jesus reads in Psalm 89:50 (without italics): “I do bear in my bosom all the mighty people.” Jesus, as the true high priest, held people close to his heart and bore the sins of the people to the cross.

It gives us an appreciation of the compassion Paul had for his fellow believers in 2 Corinthians 11:29:

Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not?

It explains to us why, after Jacob had wrestled with the angel in Peniel, “He halted upon his thigh” (Genesis 32:31), and why it is written in 2 Corinthians 4:16: “Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”

We don’t have the same capacity for compassion Jesus had, but it is an inspiring example to “follow his steps.” “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13).

Leen Ritmeyer,
Cardiff Ecclesia, UK