Heart of a Psalmist - Worshipping Christ Through The Psalms

of them is the siege of Jerusalem in the reign of Hezekiah’. The cylinder recounts Sennacherib’s own words: ‘Hezekiah himself, like a caged bird with in Jerusalem, his royal city, I shut in…’ 5 There are a number of ‘snares’ mentioned in the Bible that hold the heart of mankind captive: • The Snare of Immorality- “He was like a bird flying into a snare, little knowing it would cost him his life. (Prov. 7:23) • The Snare of Riches- “Like a cage filled with birds, their homes are filled with evil plots. And the result? Now they are great and rich.” (Jer. 5:27) • The Snare of Satanic Deception- “And so the Sovereign LORD says: I am against all your magic charms, which you use to ensnare my people like birds. I will tear them from your arms, setting my peo- ple free like birds set free from a cage.” (Ezek. 13:20) • The Snare of Evil- “But as they fly about, I will throw my net over them and bring them down like a bird from the sky. I will punish them for all their evil ways.” (Hos. 7:12) • The Snare of Tragedy- “People can never predict when hard times might come. Like fish in a net or birds in a snare, people are often caught by sudden tragedy.” (Eccl. 9:12) There is a most remarkable ceremony in the Law of Moses concerning two sacrificial birds that fore- shadows the sacrifice of Christ and fulfills the words of this psalm. If a person was healed from leprosy he was to bring two wild birds ‘snared’ by the hunter to the priest. “If the priest finds that someone has been healed of the skin disease, he will perform a purification ceremony, using two wild birds of a kind permitted for food, along with some cedarwood, a scarlet cloth, and a hyssop branch. The priest will order one of the birds to be slaughtered over a clay pot that is filled with fresh springwater. He will then dip the living bird, along with the cedarwood, the scarlet cloth, and the hyssop branch, into the blood of the slaughtered bird. The priest will also sprinkle the dead bird’s blood seven times over the person being purified, and the priest will pronounce that person to be ceremonially clean. At the end of the cer- emony, the priest will set the living bird free so it can fly away into the open fields.” (Lev. 14:2-7) • The clay pot is representative of the humanity of Christ, the spring water representing his divinity: “Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing…and appeared in human form.” (Phil. 2:6,7) • The cedarwood foreshadowed the cross: “Carrying the cross by himself, Jesus went to the place called Skull Hill (in Hebrew, Golgotha).” (Jn. 19:17) • The scarlet garment shows his willingness to die in our place: “They stripped him and put a scar- let robe on him.” (Mt. 27:28) • The hyssop foretells his suffering: “A jar of wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it to his lips.” (Jn. 19:29) • The living bird dipped into the blood of the slaughtered animal symbolizes our being cleansed from sin by the blood of Christ: “He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spot- less Lamb of God. God chose him for this purpose long before the world began, but now in these final days, he was sent to the earth for all to see. And he did this for you.” (1 Pet. 1:19, 20) • “At the end of the ceremony, the priest will set the living bird free so it can fly away into the open fields.” (Lev. 14:7) Now the living bird dipped into the blood of the sacrificial one regains its freedom and flies into the open fields that are ripening for harvest. “We escaped like a bird from the hunter’s trap. The trap is broken, and we are free!” (7) Our soul was meant to fly in the freedom that can only be secured by the blood of Christ. The symbolism is very strong in the ceremony: • Mankind being healed from the leprosy of sin by the blood of the sacrificial bird • One bird being slaughtered so the other might go free; Jesus died that we might live.

“Our help is from the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth.” (8)

The help that belonged to the individual in Psalm 121:2 (“My help comes from the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth!”) is now the song of the entire nation: “Our help is from the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth.” It is amazing that the faith and experience of an individual can be transferred to millions through a simple, inspired song of the Holy Spirit. God is passionate about the freedom of his people.

1 Keil & Delitzsch 2 Keil & Delitzsch 3 Kraus

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