Songs of the Son E-Book

Daniel Stevens

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 234

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Theological and Devotional Reading of the Psalms through a New Testament Lens The book of Psalms expresses our human experiences through its beautiful prose. But this Old Testament book is more than just relatable poetry—it reveals a rich theology of God, the nature and work of Jesus, and Christ's voice hidden in Scripture. The Psalms are the songs of the Son. But how can these songs point to Jesus if they were transcribed centuries before his life and death on the cross? Songs of the Son explores 9 psalms cited in Hebrews. Each chapter focuses on a single psalm—exploring its role in the argument of the Hebrews, uncovering the psalm's central themes, and then reexamining the psalm through the lens of Hebrews' interpretation. Ultimately, readers will gain a better understanding of the Psalter and discover how all Scripture, including the Old Testament, reveals the preincarnate glory of Christ.  - Biblical Study on Psalms: Examines the themes of the Psalms and how the Bible presents Jesus in the Psalter - Perfect for Small-Group Study: Contains short chapters and reflection questions that make it suitable for weekly Bible study  - Format that Prompts Rereading: Each chapter looks at every psalm twice, allowing readers to fully grasp the meaning of the psalm through Hebrews's interpretive lens - Accessible: Written for everyday Christians who want to explore the book of Psalms on a deeper level 

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“There is a tremendous benefit to reading the Psalms on their own. But as Daniel Stevens shows so well in Songs of the Son, there are further and fuller treasures to be had as we read them in light of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Focusing on the psalms used by the author of Hebrews, Stevens instructs us in how to read the Psalms in light of the whole Scripture and the whole gospel.”

Tim Challies, author, Seasons of Sorrow

“This delightful book is beautifully written, rooted in careful scholarship, and pastorally sensitive. One does not have to agree with every detail of the author’s readings to appreciate their aid in embracing the Psalms in deeply Christian ways. The way Stevens moves to and fro between the Psalms and the letter to the Hebrews is a profoundly refreshing model of how to read Psalms in the light of the whole Bible.”

Christopher Ash, Writer in Residence, Tyndale House, Cambridge; author, The Psalms: A Christ-Centered Commentary

“Some books promise much more than they actually deliver; Daniel Stevens has done the opposite and given us an elegant book that is more like a multivolume feast. Delightfully conceived and skillfully executed, Stevens’s book becomes our guide to reading not just the psalms quoted in Hebrews, and not just Hebrews, but the whole Psalter and even the whole Bible. He achieves this by combining profoundly rich theology, beautiful Christology, and the simple accessibility of the gifted teacher who knows how to edify and nourish with the written word. This is a superb work for all who want to understand the Scriptures more clearly and know Christ more deeply.”

David Gibson, Minister, Trinity Church, Aberdeen; author, The Lord of Psalm 23: Jesus Our Shepherd, Companion, and Host

“We are to be instructed by the New Testament in how to read the Old Testament. Stevens shows us that Hebrews views the Psalms as the songs of the eternally begotten Son, Jesus Christ. He is not only the subject of the Psalms but often the speaker of the Psalms. Read this book and be equipped to read the whole Bible as a compass pointing to Christ.”

Patrick Schreiner, Associate Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; author, The Mission of the Triune God and The Kingdom of God and the Glory of the Cross

“An engaging and gifted writer, Daniel Stevens will help even the most experienced interpreters to read the book of Hebrews and the Psalms more faithfully and, thus, treasure Christ more deeply.”

Robert Plummer, Collin and Evelyn Aikman Professor of Biblical Studies and Chairman, New Testament Department, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“If all this book did was demystify Hebrews for you, it would be worth reading. If all it did was help you read the Psalms better, it would be worth reading. If all it did was magnify Jesus, it would be worth reading. But somehow it manages to do all three in a way that is simultaneously unassuming, warm, and edifying. Read it and discover for yourself the manifold beauty of God’s beloved Son through two of the Bible’s most beloved books.”

Peter Gurry, Associate Professor and Codirector, Text & Canon Institute, Phoenix Seminary

Songs of the Son

Songs of the Son

Reading the Psalms with the Author of Hebrews

Daniel Stevens

Foreword by Thomas R. Schreiner

Songs of the Son: Reading the Psalms with the Author of Hebrews

© 2025 by Daniel Stevens

Published by Crossway1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design and illustration: Jordan Singer

First printing 2025

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-9213-3 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-9215-7 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-9214-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Stevens, Daniel, 1990- author.  

Title: Songs of the son : reading the Psalms with the author of Hebrews / Daniel Stevens ; foreword by Thomas R. Schreiner.  

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2025. | Includes bibliographical references and index. 

Identifiers: LCCN 2024005057 (print) | LCCN 2024005058 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433592133 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433592140 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433592157 (epub)  

Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Psalms—Commentaries. | Bible. Hebrews—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 

Classification: LCC BS1430.3 .S76 2025  (print) | LCC BS1430.3  (ebook) | DDC 227/.8706—dc23/eng/20240708 

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024005057

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024005058

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2025-02-18 01:43:39 PM

To Hannah,

whose sacrificial care for our family allowed this book to be written

Contents

Foreword by Thomas R. Schreiner

Introduction

1  Psalm 2

2  Psalm 8

3  Psalm 22

4  Psalm 40

5  Psalm 45

6  Psalm 95

7  Psalm 102

8  Psalm 110

9  Psalm 118

Conclusion

Appendix: Why Not Psalm 104?

Further Reading

General Index

Scripture Index

Foreword

Christians have wrestled with how to interpret the Old Testament Scriptures from the outset of church history, and with the dawn of historical critical scholarship, Christological readings were frowned upon as impositions on the meaning of Old Testament texts in their original contexts. But in recent decades, Christological readings of the Old Testament are making a comeback, and the retrieval can’t be chalked up to simplistic or alien readings of the Old Testament witness. Many scholars now advance the thesis that the New Testament authors read the Old Testament as it should be read.

In my judgment every Old Testament text should first be read in its original context, what Tremper Longman calls a first reading. Still, the first reading doesn’t signal the end of the enterprise since we are also to follow the example of Jesus and the apostles and read the Old Testament canonically, or we could say Christologically. Both Testaments form the matrix for interpreting and understanding the biblical witness. If we ignore the Old Testament historical context, our interpretations will be ethereal and perhaps even gnostic, lacking the thickness and concreteness of the original setting. At the same time, the Old Testament points forward and has a prophetic character (Rom. 16:26). The New Testament casts light on obscure or difficult Old Testament texts (it is a mystery revealed!), but the Old Testament also runs from prophecy to fulfillment so that all God’s promises are yes and amen in Jesus (2 Cor. 1:20).

This brings me to this delightful and instructive book by Daniel Stevens in which he considers texts from the Psalms that appear in Hebrews. He limits the scope to instances where Hebrews sees a reference to Jesus in the Psalms. I was struck by the creativity of the project, yet it isn’t merely creative but also illuminating and fascinating. Stevens considers the Old Testament context of each psalm and then reflects on how the psalm is used in Hebrews. The book is accessible and pastoral, sure to edify and strengthen the faith of readers. Readers are also treated to a profound and deep reading of both Hebrews and the particular text from the psalms appropriated by the author. Stevens demonstrates that the author of Hebrews didn’t distort or misinterpret the psalms. The way the author of Hebrews interprets these psalms functions as a pattern and paradigm for our reading of Psalms and the entire Old Testament today. It is rare when a book is both creative and faithful, but both can be said of this work by Daniel Stevens.

Thomas R. Schreiner

James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament Interpretation

Associate Dean of the School of Theology

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Introduction

Let us keep him before our eyes as we listen to the psalm. Pay close attention, beloved, for it is the discipline and teaching of our school, and it will empower you to understand not this psalm only but many others.

Augustine, Exposition 2 of Psalm 901

I have often had an uneasy relationship with the Old Testament. I have loved it for its wild poetry and intricate narrative. I have striven to see it as it came to Israel and was received in unfolding splendor. And so, throughout much of my Christian life thus far, while I have been able to see the Old Testament as God’s word to Israel and as a densely woven set of storylines and movements that find resolution in the New, I have had difficulty moving back from the New Testament to the Old.

When I saw the New Testament’s use of Old Testament passages, I became confused. I held the apostles’ interpretations at arm’s length because it seemed that they were seeing what was not there. I knew the apostles could not be wrong in their inspired writing, so for years I attributed this seemingly creative strand of interpretation to their role as prophets. God let them see what we otherwise could not. We should not go one letter beyond what they said and saw anew. How could we?

I had thought my problem was strictly with the New Testament and its ways of reading. In truth, I did not yet understand the Old Testament for what it really is. I had not yet learned to read the books of the old covenant as Christian Scripture. This book is about one particular implication of what that means. It is not just that the Old Testament historically led to the New Testament as a kind of prelude but rather that the one God who speaks in both Testaments intends them to belong forever to the church as a single body of Scripture. That is, while it is important—necessary even—to read the Old Testament as that which went before the coming of Christ and his gospel in all its historical rootedness as God interacted with Israel, it is just as necessary to read it alongside the New Testament as God’s present word to the church. God spoke in the Old Testament, yes, and in that historical speech God still speaks. That is fundamentally what the New Testament authors knew; and that is the key to seeing, as they did, the many-splendored revelation of God in Christ that reverberates through every page of Scripture, Old and New.

This book is an attempt to reflect on how one book of the New Testament, Hebrews, guides us to better understand one book of the Old Testament, Psalms. My hope is that through reading these texts together, we may grow in our understanding and love for the God who spoke many times and in many ways through the prophets and who now, through all of his word, speaks to us in his Son.

Why Psalms?

The Psalms have always been at the heart of Christian worship. Believers sing, pray, and meditate on the words of the Psalms week in and week out, and they have done so since the foundation of the church. This frequent devotion, however, is often only partially formed. We go to the Psalms looking to find ourselves, to put words to the emotions we already feel or hope to feel. We go to the Psalms as a voice for our heart, as a counselor, as a comfort. None of this is wrong—it is part of why God gave us the Psalms—but it is incomplete.

If we look to the way the New Testament uses the Psalms, we will discover that in addition to an emotional outpouring to God, the New Testament authors find a rich theology of God in the Psalter. The Psalms, in the New Testament’s reading, are the songs of the Son. The Father speaks to the Son, and the Son speaks in return.2 It is not just that some psalms predict things about Jesus; it is that in many of the psalms, we hear the voice of Jesus speaking and the Father speaking to him. The Son speaks in his preincarnate glory. He speaks in his earthly life and suffering. He even speaks in the role of his people, taking their sin and their suffering onto himself.

Paul, the unknown author of Hebrews, and Jesus himself all go to the Psalms to find Jesus, the Son of God, speaking and being spoken to. In earlier eras, the church has been more conscious of this, singing the Psalms regularly and finding the words of Jesus in their mouths even as they saw Jesus singing their own thoughts, emotions, and confessions through the Psalter. More than any other book of the Old Testament, the Psalms presents us with the unity between Christ and his people as the psalmists quickly shift between speaking of the Son in his glory, in his humility, and in his representation of his people. Theophylact, a medieval Greek bishop whose New Testament commentaries proved influential in both the Western and Eastern churches, would generalize from specific quotations and claim that Paul read entire psalms as being about Jesus. This was likely uncontroversial. This is not to say that an interpretation is right because it is old or was widely accepted; but in this case, those Scripture-saturated Christians were more sensitive to the Bible’s own way of reading itself. The Psalms are, in their fullness, the songs of the Son, the hymnbook of the greater David.

This is plain throughout the New Testament, but it is particularly poignant in the epistle to the Hebrews.

Why Hebrews?

In the book of Hebrews, we are presented with the God who speaks. He speaks to us in his word and in his Son. But this is not all we see. The Father speaks to the Son, and the Son speaks back. The author finds throughout Scripture, but particularly in the Psalms, this call and response within the Trinity. A divine conversation plays out before our eyes as the world is made, as salvation is accomplished, and as all things are made new in the Son of God. Our God is a speaking God, and before he ever spoke to us, God has always been the one who speaks within the Trinity. As this speaking God turns to that which is not himself, all creation bursts into being and is sustained by that same word. Within history, God speaks again and again, until at last that Son comes in whom God communicates perfectly and finally. By grace, Hebrews gives us glimpses of this divine conversation. To do so, the author turns to the language of the Psalms.

While any book of the New Testament could be used to help us understand God’s revelation in the Old, few books offer as extended, deep, and explicit an interaction with the Old Testament as does the epistle to the Hebrews. In particular, in this one letter, we are shown time and again how the Psalms form our understanding of Jesus: his nature, his work, and his relationships. Through paying close attention to how Hebrews reasons with the Psalms, we will see Jesus more clearly and learn to read the Psalms the apostles’ way, as the songs of the Son.

More than any other inspired writer, the author of Hebrews develops his argument by reasoning with the Scriptures of Israel and particularly with the Psalms. Far more than simply quoting the Psalms as illustrations or proof texts, the author of Hebrews composes his entire letter as a series of arguments from the Psalms and other Old Testament texts in light of Jesus’s life, death, resurrection, ascension, ongoing work, and coming return.

Nowhere else do we have such a dense and sustained interaction with one book of Scripture by another. While the author weaves together texts from all of the Old Testament canon, deftly synthesizing the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings as he demonstrates the superiority of Christ, it is to the Psalms that he returns again and again. At crucial points in his argument as he explains or applies or clarifies, the author of Hebrews reaches consistently for the Psalms. Since this is the case, it will be particularly helpful for us to explore how the author reads the Psalms.

Reading Again

There are books that demand a second reading. All the great books do. Masters of the literary craft can structure their stories in such a way that the beginning gains new significance—gains its true significance—only in light of the end. A second reading of an Agatha Christie mystery is an entirely different experience than the first. In the first reading, you are the amateur detective. You are tasked with identifying which clues are, and are not, significant. On a second reading, however, it is as if you are reading with Christie herself. She shows you how to compose a good tale, how to build suspense, how to misdirect an investigation, how to hide a clue in plain sight.

The books of the Bible also demand rereading. That we know Jesus will be crucified and raised does not diminish the power of the Gospel narratives, but rather it fills every event and saying with more meaning. When in Mark’s Gospel the first human to recognize Jesus as the Son of God is the centurion at Jesus’s death, we are led to a greater understanding of Mark 1:1: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” We see only then that Jesus’s nature and role as God’s Son is understood not chiefly in his teaching or his miracles but in his death. The Son of God is the one who died for us. We cannot understand him otherwise.

This pattern is true not only for particular biblical books but also for the Bible as a whole. The garden gains new meaning from Revelation’s garden city. We understand that God spoke heaven and earth into being more when we know that “in the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1).

As we read the Psalms together, we will self-consciously read them again. Of course, I do not imagine that you have never read the Psalms before. You may read them often, even daily. In this book, we will read them again. In each chapter, we will look twice at every psalm that Hebrews cites. We will read and then read again. In our first reading, I will point out the basic themes of each psalm: what it says about God, God’s people, and God’s world. Then, after consulting with the author to the Hebrews, we will look back at the psalm with fresh eyes to see how the whole psalm speaks of, to, and for the Son.

Reading With

You never read the Bible alone. For good or ill, every sermon you hear, every Christian book you read, every commentary you study is somewhere in the background when you engage the Scriptures. So too is the mix of TV shows, podcasts, and internet posts that shapes how you see the world around you. The question is never whether we read with interpretive lenses but whether the lenses we use are better or worse, true or false. Something is always teaching us how to read Scripture. The faithful interpreters of the past and present are wonderful guides. Talk show hosts looking for your anger and your dollars are less so. Best of all is to be taught how to read Scripture by Scripture itself.

The Scriptures are a world unto themselves, with rich layers of meaning formed by the resonances between one text and another. Often this is implicit. Echoes and allusions are formed as one text calls to another. Sometimes, however, one biblical passage looks directly to another. The Psalms show us how to read Exodus. So do Isaiah and Matthew. And when one part of Scripture draws again and again from the well of another, we do well to pay attention. When we see that Hebrews continually argues from the Psalms, we should not only pause and consider how those quotations work—that is, how they function within the argument of Hebrews—but also linger and investigate how Hebrews reads that earlier revelation. The author of Hebrews has much to tell us about his own argument, about the superiority of Jesus. In the way that he argues, he also reveals much about his Scriptures: what they are and how they are to be read. As we strive to see what the author of Hebrews saw in the short selections of psalms that he references, we will learn how those psalms, how the whole Psalter, can be read. We must not miss these lessons. Only at these times can we see infallible interpretation. Only in these moments of inspired exegesis can we precisely know how God would have us read his words. Only by reading with Scripture can we be perfectly taught how to read Scripture.

It is my conviction that if we read the Psalms with the author of Hebrews, we will learn to read the Psalms for what they truly are. Their meanings will unfold as we see precisely how they witness to Christ: not only as predictions to be fulfilled but also as testimony to the very voice of God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In the voice of the psalmists, the Son reveals his nature, his mission, and his relationships with his Father and his people.

If this book serves its purpose, you will not just know more about what Hebrews argues or about the handful of psalms that the author cites. Instead, you will have a fuller and more accurate view of how the Psalter as a whole works. When you return to the divine songbook of the church, you will not only see it as a window into the life of David or the worship of Israel but will also read and sing it for what it has always truly been, the songs of the Son.

1  Augustine, Expositions of the Psalms, vol. 4 (Ps 73–98), trans. Maria Boulding, ed. John E. Rotelle (New York: New City Press, 2002), 330.

2  While this type of observation is common in the older theological tradition, in modern scholarship on Hebrews it has been most clearly argued in Madison Pierce, Divine Discourse in the Epistle to the Hebrews: The Recontextualization of Spoken Quotations of Scripture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020).

1

Psalm 2

What is the first Scripture passage that calls Jesus “Christ” and “God’s Son” and then speaks about his kingdom?

You might guess that such a passage occurs in Matthew since it is the first book of the New Testament and is quite concerned about the kingdom of heaven. Or you might suspect that this is a trick question and guess that it is found in Mark or Romans.

All these books, however, come far too late. The answer is Psalm 2.

Psalm 2 is often viewed along with Psalm 1 as part of an introduction to the entire Psalter. Psalm 1 speaks about the righteous man whose mind is occupied with God’s word and who is blessed by the God in whom he delights. Psalm 2 suddenly zooms outward, revealing that the story of righteousness and of God’s dealing with his own is not only personal but also global. There are kings and nations, thrones and scepters. We quickly find that the line in Psalm 1 that divides between the righteous and the wicked runs through all of human history. In Psalm 1 the division is based on how one responds to God’s word, but in Psalm 2 the dividing line is grounded in how one responds to God’s Son—that is, his Word.

Psalm 2 will also serve as an introduction to this book. While we will consider the psalms in canonical order, not the order in which they appear in Hebrews, Psalm 2:7 happens to be the first passage of Scripture that Hebrews cites that speaks of Jesus. It begins the author’s strategy of seeing the Scriptures as containing a conversation between the Father and the Son, and it will ease us into reading the Psalms both as words aboutJesus and as the words ofJesus.

Of all the psalms cited in Hebrews, Psalm 2 is possibly the easiest to read in this way, or at least it’s one of the most straightforward. God and his anointed one rule. The system of the world rebels against God. God’s Son is exalted. Salvation and judgment hang in the balance and are determined by whether one submits to this Son of God. On this side of the Gospels, it is hard not to read Psalm 2 as about Jesus.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. We will read Psalm 2 and then read it again with the author of Hebrews as our guide.

Reading Psalm 2

Psalm 2 is a song of contrasting speech. The wicked nations gather together and speak in conspiracy against God and his anointed (2:1–3). God speaks to the Son (2:4–6), and the Son declares the Father’s words (2:7–9). Then at last the narrator (still the Son?) speaks to the wicked rulers of the first several verses, proclaiming the need for either joyful repentance or fearsome destruction (2:10–12). Each three-verse stanza develops this drama of global rebellion and repentance.

The Speech of the Wicked (Ps. 2:1–3)

Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers take counsel together,

against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,

“Let us burst their bonds apart

and cast away their cords from us.” (Ps. 2:1–3)

The psalmist sets the stage by raising a rhetorical question: “Why do the nations rage?” (2:1). This does not mean that they are particularly angry but rather that they are acting in a way that is disturbed, restless, and agitated. The nations are bothered that the world is ruled by God, not them.

This is, of course, a global version of what is true in every human heart. To be a sinner is to want to rule your life instead of to submit to God’s rules. To be a sinner who happens to be a king is to want to rule the world instead of to submit to God’s rule. The psalm imagines the nations gathered at a great summit, conspiring together to overthrow the Lord.

The psalmist, however, adds one wrinkle to this global frenzy. They scheme not only against the Lord but also “against his Anointed” (2:2). The capital letter in the ESV is the translators’ clue that this should be read as a title. This is not just any anointed figure, no mere priest or prophet. It is the Anointed of the Lord. Of course, the Hebrew word here is mashiach, “Messiah.” Or if you were reading along in your Greek translation like the author of Hebrews was, the title would stand out to you even more clearly: they are set against the Lord and against his christos, his “Christ.”

In the Psalms, the use of “anointed” language, “Christ” language, is distinctly Davidic. In Psalm 18:50 “his anointed” is David and his offspring. In Psalm 20:6 it is David. In Psalm 89:20 it is David again,