Jesus the Singer

Matthew is famously organized by five large blocks of teaching (chs. 5-7, 10, 13, 18, 23-25). At least numerically, if not otherwise, it hints that Jesus is the new Moses, bringing five new “books” from the mountaintop and then sending His disciples out into the world to read out those books to the Gentiles.

But the Psalms too are organized into five books, mimicking the five books of the Pentateuch (Pss. 1-41; 42-72; 73-89; 90-106; 107-150). The Psalms are a sung “Torah.” And if Matthew organized his gospel by five books, perhaps he has drawn on the Psalms as well as the Pentateuch in arranging his account of Jesus’ life.

The first of Jesus’ sermons lends some initial support to this suggestion.

We can start globally. Psalm 1 describes a man who take delight in Yahweh’s Torah, who meditates on it day and night, and who clearly produces a righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees. He does not annul the least of God’s commandments, but keeps and teaches them.

More specifically, Psalm 1 begins with a “blessing” on the man who walks faithfully with Yahweh. Jesus too begins with a series of eight beatitudes on those who live out the righteousness of God. Psalm 1 compares the righteous man to a well-watered tree bearing fruit in season and never withering. Jesus too compares the obedient to trees with fruit: “You will know them by their fruits.” The Psalm contrasts the fruitful tree of the righteous man to the useless chaff that the wicked become; Jesus too contrasts the righteous and wicked (false prophets) using botanical analogies – if the righteous are good trees bearing good fruit, the wicked are thorns and thistles that bear not fruit but only harm.

Psalm 1 concludes with a contrast between the ends of the righteous and wicked. The wicked are blown away like chaff and cannot stand in the judgment; but Yahweh knows the way of the righteous. Jesus also contrasts two ways that begin with two gates (Matthew 7:13-14). He warns those who hear but do not do what He says that they will not stand in the judgment. In fact, He will declare to them “I never knew you” (7:23, followed by a quotation from Psalm 6). In the parable of the two builders, Jesus lays out with an architectural metaphor what the Psalm says using the imagery of chaff and wheat. “Winds blew” against the house on sand, and it fell (Matthew 7:27), the winds that also blow away the chaff of the wicked.

Another layer: I have argued that Matthew follows the history of Israel from Genesis through the decree of Cyrus. Perhaps the Psalms are following a similar sequence, moving through Israel’s history, through David and the kingdom, into exile and beyond. There is some evidence that this is roughly the order of the Psalter. And if that’s the case, then we might expect matches between the five large sermons of Matthew, the periods of Israelite history, and the books of the Psalms. That makes sense in the center of Matthew. Matthew 13, the third discourse, is a set of parables ( maskil ) on the kingdom, and the third book of Psalms begins just after a celebration of the ideal king (Psalm 72), begins with a meditation on the triumph of the wicked (Psalm 73), includes several maskil Psalms (Psalms 74, 78, 88, 89), and ends with an extended meditation on the Davidic covenant (Psalm 89). The latter part of Matthew links with the work of Jeremiah and the coming of the exile, and the latter portion of the Psalter also sings of exile (“by the waters of Babylon”) and return.

In any case, at least at the beginning and end, the Sermon on the Mount follows the first Psalm. And that again makes one suspect that Jesus’ other sermons are also songs, and that Matthew has not only written a new Pentateuch but also a gospel story built on the musical transformation of Moses that is found in Psalms.