INTRODUCTION

CHRIST is the theme of the Bible:

"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me" (John 5:39).

"Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God" (Hebrews 10:7).

He is the Word of GOD:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him" (John 1:1-18).

"And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God" (Revelation 19:13).

and the Bible is the Word of GOD:

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).

He is the Word incarnate, and the Bible is the Word written.

He is the theme of the whole Bible. Not only in the new Testament, but in the Old Testament as well, He is the central figure. Throughout the Book, "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Revelation 19:10).

He Himself claimed to have been the subject of the Old Testament Scriptures when He rebuked the discouraged Emmaus disciples, saying, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:25-27). To the same effect is the teaching of I Peter 1:10-11, where it is declared that the sufferings of CHRIST and the glory that shall follow constitute the theme of the Old Testament writers.

He is, then, the theme of the Psalms. Indeed, the Psalms are especially mentioned in His words to His apostles after His resurrection: "These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me" (Luke 24:44).

The purpose in this volume is to search for our LORD JESUS CHRIST in the Psalms. That He is there is abundantly demonstrated by the Scriptures already quoted, but also by the many quotations from the Psalms themselves found in the New Testament, in which the Psalms thus quoted are applied to Him. Such Psalms are called Messianic, though it is not doubted that the MESSIAH is in many Psalms not thus quoted and applied.