Back to series

The Son of God

Music recording by Joel Woodruff and Aimee Riegert. From And Can it Be, that I Should Gain? by Charles Wesley, 1738. View the Lyrics. Narration by Aimee Riegert.

Old Testament Prophecy:

“I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you.’”
– Psalm 2:7
(The psalmist wrote this between 603 and 586 BC)

New Testament Fulfillment:

“And behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’”
– Matthew 3:17
(Matthew wrote this before 70 AD)

Devotional by Joseph A. Kohm.

Image: Early Jewish scholars interpreted Psalm 2 as referring to the Messiah. In Sukkah 52 of the Talmud, the Jewish rabbis taught that Psalm 2 referred to “the Messiah, the Son of David.”


C.S. Lewis once wrote, “One of the rewards of reading the Old Testament regularly” is that “you keep on discovering more and more what a tissue of quotations from it the New Testament is. The New Testament directly quotes the Old Testament 283 times, with 116 of these quotes coming from the Psalms, more than any other book. In the four Gospels, Jesus quotes the Psalms more than any other Old Testament book.

What is more, Jesus explicitly says that the Psalms are about Him, “that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44). The Holy Spirit-inspired words of David and the other psalmists point to and prefigure the life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ultimate rule and reign of Jesus Christ. Psalm 2 is a kingship psalm likely sung in inauguration events in Jerusalem. Those singing this psalm were all aware of the Davidic covenant expressed by the prophet Nathan in 2 Samuel 7:14, where Nathan tells David that while he and his descendants sat on the throne in Jerusalem, God would be like a father to him and the king like a son.

One of the benefits of living on the other side of Jesus’ death and resurrection is that we can draw a straight line from the psalmist’s use of the phrase “You are my Son,” to Matthew reporting from Jesus’ baptism that God’s voice comes out of the clouds to declare, “This is my beloved Son.” The Son-centered message is a thread through the whole of the Bible evincing that God has intervened in history with a redemptive message and significance that undergirds all of Scripture.

Prayer

Thank You, Father, for sending Your
Son Jesus and for intervening in
history. Intervene in my life too.
Pour Your love into my life that I may
live like Your child and bring You joy.
Help me to be more like Jesus.
Amen.

 


Consider a Gift to Support the Ministry of the C.S. Lewis Institute


The Invitation C.S. Lewis Accepted

And One You, Too, Can Accept

Joseph A. Kohm

Joseph A. Kohm, C.S. Lewis Institute Vice President for Development and City Director for Virginia Beach. Joe is an attorney and formerly worked as a Certified Major League Baseball Player Agent. He earned his Master’s in Management Science from the State University of New York at Oswego and both his J.D. and M.Div. from Regent University. Joe is the author of The Unknown Garden of Another’s Heart: The Surprising Friendship between C.S. Lewis and Arthur Greeves (Wipf and Stock, 2022.)

 

Print your tickets