In a year in which we are seeking to get to know the Psalms better, it is particularly appropriate to be using them during Lent and Easter. This is because both Jesus and the Gospel writers constantly quote from the Psalms to express their understanding of what was going on when Jesus died. Written hundreds of years earlier, these ancients hymns express truths about the suffering followed by vindication that were clearly crucial to Jesus’ understanding of his vocation to suffer and die for those he came to save. Psalm 22 is the most obvious of these but we will also look at Psalm 40, which Jesus echoed in Gethsemane and Psalm 31, which he also quoted from the cross. Psalm 2 also has much to say on the kingship of Jesus and after Easter we will use Psalm 16 to reflect upon the resurrection.
