Psalms and Christ

In the context of recent discussion, readers might want to check out Patrick Henry Reardon's Christ in the Psalms (Conciliar Press).  Reardon, an Orthodox priest, has done a great job of producing a thoughtful, devotional, Christological reading of the Psalter.  The underlying text/numbering is that of the Septuagint (so there are 151 Psalms, and the numbering of the 150 is out of synch with, say, the NIV and ESV) but the work is well worth a read.

Here's a quotation from the intro: `Chistians have always sung the psalms (Jas. 5:13).  Properly to pray the psalms is to pray them in Jesus' name, because the voice in the Psalter is Christ's own voice.  Christ is the referential center of the Book of Psalms.  Even in speaking to one another, Christians invoke the psalms (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16).  Christian lips readily break forth with the words of the Psalter, because the Christian heart meditates on the psalms day and night.  Ultimately the words of the psalms are the mighty name of Jesus broken down into its component parts.  Thus has it always been.'

Nicely put.