December 17, 2021 – Psalm 78:1-3 & Matthew 13:34,35

Even Jesus’ manner of teaching, according to Matthew, was spoken about in the Psalms. Asaph called the people to listen to his teaching, which would be done in parables: “Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us” (Psalm 78:1-3).

The Gospel writer Matthew explained, following his recounting of Jesus telling several parables – the sower and the soils, the weeds among the wheat, and the mustard seed – “Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: ‘I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world’” (Matthew 13:34,35). Such detail! Such preciseness! It’s almost as if God, when inspiring the psalmists, directed them in what they would say in order to point to Messiah and to confirm Jesus as Messiah! I’m tempted, here, to say, “Ya think?” Of course, through the psalms and all the OT, God was preparing for Messiah! And when Christ came, how wonderful and powerful was his teaching! And so, we sing:

More about Jesus would I know,

More of His grace to others show;

More of His saving fulness see,

More of His love who died for me.

More, more about Jesus,

More, more about Jesus;

More of His saving fulness see,

More of His love who died for me. -- Eliza Edmunds Hewitt (1887)