Today’s Scripture Reading (November
9, 2014): Acts 13
On May 13,
1985, Bruce Springsteen released his hit “Glory Days.” The song tells the story
of a man and a woman who seem to be able to do nothing but live in the memory
of the “Glory Days” that they experienced during their teenage years. In the
final stanza Springsteen hopes that when he gets old he will not sit around
remembering his “Glory Days,” but he also admits that he probably will. There
is actually a missing verse about a man who works at “Ford,” but as he sits
remembering his youth he realizes that he didn’t have any “Glory Days.”
Apparently, Springsteen realized that the verse didn’t match the flow of the
rest of the song and, therefore, he pulled the verse.
There is no
doubt that Israel had their own glory days, and those days were during the
reign of King David. Throughout the history of the nation, the people have
looked back fondly on the time that David spent as King. It was a period when
the nation of Israel seemed to dominate in every sphere of political life and
they longed to return to that time in their history. And it was very strongly believed
that the day of the Messiah would reinstate Israel into their own glory days.
The second
Psalm is actually anonymous – no author is mentioned in the Bible for the
Psalm. But Luke clearly states in Acts 4, where he quotes the first two verses
of the Psalm, that he believes that the Psalm was a Psalm of David. And in
doing so, he places Psalm 2 squarely in the glory days of the nation. So in
this passage, he returns to the second psalm, this time quoting verse 7 – “ I will proclaim the Lord’s
decree: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father.” The
words, when placed in the mouth of David, reflect the reason why the Davidic
reign was so special – it was special because of the special relationship that
David had with God (the author of the Psalm insists that the Lord has declared
to him that he is the son of God and that God has become his father.) But in spite
of the seemingly immediate context for the words, both Judaism and Christianity
hold this passage to be about the Messiah.
So it is no
wonder that Luke applies the words to Jesus. What God has said about Jesus at
his baptism (“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well
pleased” – Matthew 3:17) was reinforced on the day that Jesus was raised
from the dead. What had started in a Psalm written by David, and reinforced at
the times of Jesus Baptism, is now a reality that cannot be denied. And as a
result Luke believed that the glory days were set to return.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Acts 14
No comments:
Post a Comment