As we reflect on the Psalms, it’s tempting to read our own lives or experiences into them immediately. While the scenarios they present are intended to strike a chord and lead us to see and reaffirm our trust in the majestic faithfulness of God, our reading of the Psalms becomes so much richer when we place their thought on Jesus’ lips first. Psalm 71 is a good example. Here are the words of our Saviour.

Christ suffered more than we ever will. As God’s Son, he willingly allowed himself to be sent into a world that he knew would oppose him thoroughly. He freely entered into the world’s curse to lead people like you and me out from under it. On the cross, he saw the most bitter of trials, bearing our sin in his body.

And yet he did so fully trusting his Father’s sovereign plan. “You will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up”. Jesus knew his Father’s righteousness. He knew that as the Christ, he had to deal with sin and suffer at the hands of a hostile world as a ransom for many. But he also knew his Father’s love and life-giving power. Jesus knew that on the third day, he’d rise again and that the temple destroyed in death would be rebuilt by God for eternal life. On Jesus’ lips, Psalm 71 has much greater force. His work on the cross proves his love for us and his faithfulness to us, and we can be filled with perfect assurance solely because of him. Indeed the only reason we can apply the truths of Psalm 71 to ourselves is because they applied to Christ first.