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The Disciples Remembered Psalm 69?

By June 1, 1999November 9th, 2022No Comments

Q.

Please comment on John 2:17 as it relates to the Old Testament. How did it come about that the disciples remembered the passage?

A.
Evidently the Jews knew Psalm 69 quite well. The New Testament quotes it 17 times, making it one of the six most-quoted psalms in the New Testament. Perhaps only Psalm 22 was more familiar and quoted more often. Undoubtedly the Spirit caused the disciples to associate the messianic character of Psalm 69:9 with the cleansing of the temple.

In John 2:17 we find Jesus Christ’s demonstration of the power of His messiahship. His public ministry had just begun, so it was appropriate for Him to “take on,” from the start, the human religious powers and for Him to show Himself as the Son of God. It was doubly appropriate that He do it in the temple.

Interestingly, Christ both began and ended His public ministry cleansing the temple. These demonstrations of power occurred at Passover time, when Jesus had faithfully gone up to Jerusalem for the annual observances. It was His right, as Messiah, to possess the temple of God and cleanse it, and that is just what He did. These two cleansings, along with His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, were the few times Jesus deliberately portrayed His messiahship before the public. He offered the Kingdom to Israel, but she rejected it because she rejected her King, Messiah, the Christ (see Matthew 21:1–19).

The events in John 2 also connect with Malachi’s prophecy in Malachi 3:1–3. The Lord suddenly appeared and did the work of purifying the temple. Psalm 69:9a reads, “Zeal for Your house has eaten me up.” The “near” context of this passage refers to the psalmist David. David’s enemies hated him continually, partly because of his zeal for the house of God. Perhaps you remember that David desired to build a permanent, beautiful dwelling place for God (2 Samuel 7:1, 2). His enemies scoffed at him, even when he wept and fasted (Psalm 69:10–12). But David’s relationship with God remained pure and sweet (v. 13ff).

David’s suffering for God pictured what Jesus would go through on earth. And Jesus likewise demonstrated His zeal for God’s house at the beginning and end of His public ministry. When Christ arrived at the temple, He saw iniquitous behavior everywhere. To say that the temple had been commercialized is an understatement. The Sanhedrin (the great council of the Jews) allowed the selling of sacrificial animals at ridiculously high prices, and the moneychangers cheated people who had to exchange their currency for Jewish coins, the only coins acceptable for the temple treasury.

Instead of its being a place of prayer, quiet, and worship, the place was noisy, it stunk like a barnyard, and innocent people were being swindled. Jesus, taking some ropes like those used on a ship, made a whip and began in righteous indignation to fulfill Zechariah 1 4:20 and 21. He poured out the money of the changers and overturned their tables, coins scattering everywhere. Then He drove out the traders with their sheep and oxen.

No doubt Christ took the mob by surprise and shame, for no one attempted a countermove against Him. He had depicted His authority in perfect fashion, though the Jews immediately wanted another sign of His authority (John 2:18–22). But He had made His point clear: the temple was His house, and it was to be a place of adoration to Him only and not a place of merchandise (literally, a shop). The disciples indeed recognized Jesus to be the ultimate fulfillment of Psalm 69.

Incidentally, an application for believers today is that just as Christ insisted on the purity of the purity of the temple, we must insist on it too. We are told that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:15–20; 2 Corinthians 6:14–18). Therefore, we must be subject to continual cleansing through God’s Word (John 17:17).

This article appeared in the “Q & A” column of the Baptist Bulletin (June 1999) by Norman A. Olson. 

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