Psalms as Jigsaw Puzzle

Setting: You’re working on a jigsaw puzzle. Most of the pieces look more or less the same, and you feel like it’s a puzzle depicting fog. Suddenly, you find a piece that makes your heart leap. You examine it closely and yes, it contains strong clues that tell you this piece is pivotal and unique. But where does it belong?

Sometimes reading Psalms is like working on a jigsaw puzzle. Many psalms sound more or less the same. Most people might tell you that there is no distinguishable “plot line” to Psalms. Once we find the key, however, the pieces of individual psalms fit together into a beautiful portrait of the face of Christ. But where do we begin?

A good place to start a jigsaw puzzle is the picture on the top cover of the box. But when we dump the pieces out and turn them over, do we recognize that these pieces will form that picture? Or is this something we accept by faith? Do we think that the publisher of the puzzle lied to us and purposefully put an incorrect picture on the top side of the box just to trick and confuse us? Of course not. Now if we receive something as mundane as a jigsaw puzzle by faith, why not the word of God? Who better than the author of the book would know what the book contains?

What does the author of the book say about Psalms? (What picture does the publisher of the jigsaw puzzle place on the cover of the box?)

Luke 24:25 And he [Jesus] said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (ESV)

Acts 2:30 [Peter speaking about David] Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. (ESV)

Luke 24:44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, (ESV)

In other words, God, who wrote the book, claims that Psalms are prophetic of Christ. The picture on the box of the jigsaw puzzle is a picture of the life of Christ. This information proves to be invaluable when unlocking the solution of what so often appears to be an insoluble jigsaw puzzle.

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Stay Tuned: We’ll be continuing this motif in later posts as we consider a group of psalms known collectively as the “Penitential Psalms.”