The Importance Of The Christ-centered Hermeneutical Principles: My Lesson

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!