There are many misconceptions about the Book of Psalms, so I am starting a short series of blog posts under the subject “The New Testament Book of Psalms”.

• I’d like to show how the Book of Psalms are FOR the New Testament church, especially in showing how we can understand them better now that Christ has come than the Old Testament Jews ever could.
• I’d like to ease the difficulties people can have trying to understand the Psalms.
• I’d like to demonstrate how relevant all the Psalms are and to show how the Old Testament is not disconnected from or out-of-touch with New Testament Christianity.
• I’d like to help people to enjoy the Psalms more, particularly by revealing Christ in them.

But firstly, to get started, I’d like to begin with the following superb illustration from the work of OpenBible.info. This shows cross-references between the Book of Psalms and the New Testament.

When you see this, do you think the Psalms have a lot to add and to contribute to the New Testament church? Does the prospect of discovering this excite you?

There are excellent logical arguments in favour of the Psalms, such as are based on the Regulative Principle of Worship, and explaining how when Paul wrote “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” he was referring to the titles that head up the Psalms in the Greek Old Testament they had at the time. But I think we also need to engage the modern church with the content of the Psalms so that the Psalms are better appreciated and the good logical arguments are more palatable.