Weekend Reads: Old Testament exposition

Jesus on Every Page: 10 Simple Ways to Seek and Find Christ in the Old Testament

By David Murray

Jesus on Every Page: 10 Simple Ways to Seek and Find Christ in the Old Testament (Thomas Nelson, 2013) does what one would expect, and does it much better than one would expect. In other words, author David Murray doesn’t offer one way of leading Christ out of the text and nine ways of reading Him into it. All 10 ways are what scholars call “hermeneutically valid.” They help the ordinary reader see what was actually there in the Old Testament all the time.

The book begins with an autobiographical account of Murray’s journey from becoming a Christian to being an Old Testament professor. It was only in the latter position—coupled with large doses of prayer and Bible study—that he began to understand that the first 39 books of the Bible are “all about Christ and His gracious salvation.”

Murray has a mania for alliteration, but he does it really well. Jesus in creation becomes “Christ’s planet.” Jesus in the historical books is “Christ’s past.” The types of the Old Testament are “Christ’s pictures.” Even the law is “Christ’s precepts.” Christ’s Proverbs (“the Old Testament’s Twitter”) describe the household of folly and contrast it with the home of wisdom, where Jesus is living now, “and that He is also preparing for the righteous.” Christ’s Psalms tell us more of our Savior’s inner experience than any other part of the Bible does. Some worry that in singing from the Psalter, they cannot sing the name of Jesus—but Murray asks readers to consider that in Psalm-singing one gets to sing along with the words that Jesus Himself spoke.

Jesus on Every Page climaxes with a short exposition of the Song of Solomon. Let the evocative poetry wash over you, Murray suggests. Bask in your divine Husband’s love—right there in the Old Testament.

On Righteousness, Oaths, and Usury: A Commentary on Psalm 15

By Wolfgang Musculus

In translator Todd Rester’s capable hands, first-generation Protestant Reformer Wolfgang Musculus’ massive In Davidis Psalterium Sacrosanctum Commentarii has become the quite manageable On Righteousness, Oaths, and Usury: A Commentary on Psalm 15 (CLP Academic, 2013). This particular excerpt was republished as part of the Acton Institute’s series of Sources in Early Modern Economics, Ethics, and Law, with twin appendices on taking oaths and extorting usury.

Musculus (1497–1563) hated usury. Psalm 15:5 pronounces a blessing on the one who “putteth not out his money to usury,” and Musculus takes this to mean that all interest is a perversion of charity (a virtue) into avarice (a vice). Charging interest is wicked because Christ says that you ought to give and expect nothing in return. Indeed, the acceptable usury is farming, or what Musculus called “a usury of the ground,” whereby a seed planted in the field returns a hundred seeds. His statements against the profit motive are so sweeping as to leave little doubt that he condemns all forms of renting anything. To be paid for the use of one’s donkey or boat would be as wicked as to be paid for the use of one’s money, for “desiring one’s own advantage ought to be foreign to Christians.”

Yet in his treatment of oaths, Musculus defended them despite Christ’s command to “Swear not at all” (Matthew 5:34). He explained that one cannot “push the words” of Scripture so that they contradict other parts. For example, God Himself swears (Hebrews 6:13). Thus, despite Musculus’ passionate attack on taking interest, I am unpersuaded. He failed to distinguish between giving and renting, between extortion and profit. Logically, his argument tends to imply that property is theft, and this contradicts the Eighth Commandment. Had he followed his own exegetical principles, Musculus would have written a more useful treatise on usury.