The early fathers of the church, in
contrast to much modern scholarship, rightly believed in the maxim that
"Scripture interprets Scripture." The incident of the risen Christ
asserting to the two disciples on the Emmaus way the hermeneutical principle
that all the Scriptures, including the Psalms, speak of Christ set a basis for
the early church thinkers to interpret the Bible as the book about Christ (Luke
24:13-49). The radical power of "the Spirit" over "the
letter" introduced the centrality of Christ into apostolic exegesis of the
Old Testament--especially in the Psalms--in a totally new way.
--Bruce K. Waltke, The Psalms as Christian
Worship
Several days ago, I wrote the following
post regarding the Biblical Womanhood entitled: True Feminine Beauty Hides
Herself In The Innermost Parts Of His House (here), which was based on my interpretation of the Psalm 128:3.
"Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine,
in the innermost parts of thy house." Psalm 128:3a (ASV)
This morning, I received a very insightful
comment from our bro. David who is a complementarian Japanese brother, as
follows;
As I meditated on the Psalm, I came up with
the thought like below:
Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine, in
the innermost parts of thy house. (ASV, Psalm 128:3)
In the Bible, a vine represents the true Israel,
to which Jesus refers as Himself in John 15:1. And in the same passage, we see
the Father trimming the vine so that it will be “a fruitful vine.”
In the days of the Old Testament, the word
“house” represented the temple of God, a place where He dwells. And “the
innermost parts of thy house” reminds us of the Holy of Holies, the innermost
part of the temple of God.
Therefore, there’s a possibility that the
writer of this Psalm might liken a good wife as the true Israel, who is a
fruitful vine, worshiping God at the innermost part of the temple. If that’s
the case, we could also take the wife as the Church, the wife/bride of Christ,
who worships Him in the Holy of Holies as a fruitful vine.
I was impressed by the way he reads the
Psalms, which I consider it to be a consistent, historic/authentic and
Christ-centered hermeneutic approach to the Bible. I am so grateful that He is
teaching me His divine truth every day and protect me from deviations by the
help of my brothers and sisters in Christ!
