NT Text: Romans 15:3
OT Source(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Direct Quotation
Connection Method(s): Typology
Significance: Christ speaks in the Davidic psalm, bearing reproach directed at God. Pattern: David's suffering → Christ's suffering. Beale/Carson identify multiple contextual layers. The immediate context includes "Zeal for your house has consumed me" (Ps 69:9a), which "may echo something of this in the idea of the church as God's temple in his references to 'building up' one another (14:19; 15:2; see also 15:20)." The suffering context (Ps 69:6-8) shows that "the hostility that the psalmist experiences comes from his own household and family," suggesting that "Gentile believers in Rome may have to experience what both the Messiah and David before him faced: rejection from those close to them." Most significantly, Psalm 69:30-31 turns to hope of deliverance: "The psalmist's lament turns finally to the hope of deliverance. He thus announces, 'I will praise the name of God with song, and I will magnify him with thanksgiving.' The suffering of Christ anticipates his deliverance. It is altogether likely that the first readers would have caught something of this echo, since in the following verse Paul speaks immediately of the hope that the Scriptures impart to us (15:4). His appeal to Scripture in this way makes sense only if he has in view the turning point in the psalm." Same psalm used in 11:9-10 for Israel's hardening, creating a suffering-to-vindication pattern throughout Romans.
Prosopological Shift: Speaker shifts from David (lamenting his reproach) to Christ. David's first-person complaint "the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me" is reread by Paul as Christ's own address to the Father about the reproach he absorbed in his passion.
Anchor Text: Ps 69 — The Reproaches