The Psalms are messianic

A logical extension of the belief that all the Scriptures point towards the Christ is that each of the Psalms is Messianic, not just some of them.  Still it is remarkable the number of Psalms which are directly related to Christ in the New Testament.

 As far as I have been able to find, there are at least 20 of the 150 Psalms that are directly referenced in the New Testament as being related to Jesus Christ. There are several other likely or possible Messianic references as seen in the chart below.

Psalm	Verses	References	Verses	References	Verses	References	Verses
2	1-2	Acts 4:25; (Rev 19:19)	(6)	(Rev 14:1)	7	Acts 13:33; Heb 1:5; 5:5	9	Rev 19:15; (2:27)
8	2	Mt 21:16	4 - 6	Heb 2:6-8; 1 Cor 15:27
16	8-11	Acts 2:25-28, 31; 13:35
18	(2)	(Heb 2:13b)
22	1	Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34	18	Mt 27:35; Jn 19:24	22	Heb 2:12
31	5	Lk 23:46
34	20	Jn 19:36; (Ex 12:46)
35	11	Mt 26:60 (allusion)
40	6-8	Heb 10:5-9
41	9	Jn 13:18	10	MESSIANIC?
45	6-7	Heb 1:8-9
68	18	Eph 4:8
69	4	Jn 15:25	9	Jn 2:17; Rom 15:3	21	Acts 1:20	25	Acts 1:20
78	2	Mt 13:35
86	(6)	(Jn 10:34)
89	3-4, 35-36	Acts 2:29-30
91	11 - 12	Mt 4:6; Lk 4:11-12
96	(13)	(Rev 19:11)
97	(7)	(Heb 1:6)
102	25-27	Heb 1:10-12
109	3	Jn 15:25	8, 17	Acts 1:20; Jn 17:20
110	1	Mt 22:42; Mk 12:36; Lk 20:42, 43; Acts 2:34-35; Heb 1:13	4	Heb 5:6, 10; 7:17, 21	(5-6)	(Rev 6:15-17)
118	22-23	Mt 21:42; Mk 12:10-11; Lk 20:17; Acts 4:11; 1 Pet 2:7	25-26	Mt 21:9; Mk 11:9; Lk 13:35; 19:38; Jn 12:13
132	11	Acts 2:29-30

A beautiful depiction of the interlocking nature of the Bible's text is available here.

The chart above as an image:

Kindly message me if you see any errors in the chart!
Related post: on the use of the OT

Easter Exodus (another Resurrection poem)

Easter Exodus

[Reading Exodus 10:21ff., it occurred to me that the 9th and 10th plagues displayed some intriguing correspondences to Jesus’ death on the Cross—of which the exodus is, of course, a typological foreshadow.]

Three days of dark, and deathly silence.

Sacrificed lambs and blood-sprinkled posts.

Striking of firstborns, the last divine blow:

deliverance secured, a plundered pharaoh.

Three hours of Dark, and Divine silence.

Sacrificed Lamb and blood-sprinkled Post.

Striking of Firstborn, the ultimate blow: 

Deliverance secured, Hell plundered below.

by Layton Talbert

Scripture references by line: 

Four Days (a Resurrection poem)

Four Days

Easter Thursday

Lord, today,

This darkest day,

Both man and devil, they

Stretch out Your form and Your flesh flay,

On rough-hewn cross Your bleeding body lay.

While hell will relish this display,

This Godforsaken day,

The Son will stay

As sin’s prey.

Easter Friday

Lord, today

Your body lay

On cold, hard stone; your clay

Reclined in darkness.  Meanwhile, they

Who loved You, in despair, all numbly pray

They know not what. What can they say

To God, Who took away

Their hope, and may

Them betray?  

Easter Saturday

Lord, today

Yet still You lay

In earth’s chill heart; while they

Who loved You brood in black dismay

And see no cause, no point, no sense, no way

Forward or back. Oh for one ray

Of faith to cheer, to stay

Doubt one more day!

Just one day!

Easter Sunday

Lord, today

You could not stay

Entombed in stone; away

Death fled when You rose up, and lay

Your graveclothes down, and in the morning gray

Walked forth in triumph! That delay

Was proof that all You say

You do—always,

Lord, always.

Notes: Began as prayer (first four lines of Friday). Assumes a Thursday crucifixion.

Metre: 3.4.6.8.10.8.6.4.3

by Layton Talbert

IF - Rudyard Kipling's poem, recitated by Sir Michael Caine

This has been my favorite poem for many years, and this is easily the best recitation of it that I've ever heard.  Beautiful!

Read a bit about Kipling's story here to learn more about the depths in which this poem was formed.

the organic unity of the Body of Christ, the church

 Over the last few weeks, I've given thought to the topic of the organic unity of the Body of Christ.  I was helped in this partially by Thiselton's shorter commentary on 1 Corinthians. Thiselton re-translates 'member' as 'limbs and organs'... something to think on. We have become overly familiar with the word 'member' and its older physical meaning has faded. Then, he quotes Robinson on the topic; I've put the key part of that in bold below.

"Paul uses the analogy of the human body ​to elucidate his teaching that Christians form Christ's body. But the analogy holds because they are in literal fact the risen organism of Christ's person in all its concrete reality. What is arresting is his identification of this personality with the Church. But to say that the Church is the body of Christ is no more of a metaphor than to say that the flesh of the incarnate Jesus or the bread of the Eucharist is the body of Christ. None of them is 'like' His body (Paul never says this): each of them is the body of Christ, in that each is the physical complement and extension of the one and the same Person and Life. They are all expressions of a single​ ​Christology.

"It is almost impossible to exaggerate -the materialism and crudity of Paul's doctrine of the Church as literally now the resurrection body of Christ. The language of 'membership' of a body corporate has become so trite that the idea that the individual can be a 'member' has ceased to be offensive. The force of Paul's words can today perhaps be got only by paraphrasing: Ye are the body of Christ and severally membranes thereof.' ​The body that he has in mind is as concrete and as singular as the body of the Incarnation. His underlying conception is not of a supra-personal collective, but of a specific personal organism. He is not saying anything so weak as that the Church is a society with a common life and governor, but that its unity is that of a single physical entity: disunion is dismemberment. For it is in fact no other than the glorified body of the risen and ascended Christ." (J. A. T. Robinson)

(related post)