How King David Pictured Jesus

info All commentaries are written by volunteers, readers, or supporters of our Bible translation project. These are not official views of our project; we are not a religious denomination and we do not establish doctrine. These commentaries reflect a variety of views and some disagree with each other.

You can see proof of the Bible’s inspiration and some of its prophecies in the songs of King David recorded in Psalms. Numerous verses in the Psalms exactly mirror the words and actions of Jesus, as well as many of the things that happened to him. How so?

For example, David wrote at Psalm 22:16-18:

‘Many dogs have me surrounded And the wicked are gathering around me.
They’re cutting into my hands and my feet;
They count all my bones as they watch me and think.
They’ve divided my garments among them,
And thrown dice for the clothes that I wear.’

It seems that this Psalm foretold things that actually happened at Jesus’ death. So, as you read the Psalms, look for the many prophecies of the words and earthly life of Jesus.

Psalm 110 in particular was inspired to talk about Jesus. Jesus applied its words to himself at Matthew 22:43-45, as did Peter at Acts 2:35, and Paul in both 1 Corinthians 15:25 and in the book of Hebrews. So the Bible itself testifies that Psalm 110 was inspired to foretell the coming of Jesus.

Also, have you noticed how often David referred to himself as the Christ? Perhaps not, because the Greek word christon (christ) and its Hebrew equivalent meshiac (messiah) are usually translated as anointed in most Bibles. Yet, David correctly referred to himself as the christ (or, the messiah), because he (like Jesus) had been anointed to be the king over all IsraEl by God.