Psalms are not prophecy. The list maker who compiled the list of "365" prophecies about Jesus supposedly found in the T'nach has a great many focusing on psalms. When most Christians use the term "prophecy" the meaning is "foretelling the future." This is not the biblical definition. A נָבִיא / navi (prophet) is a spokesman for G-d. A נָבִיא / navi (prophet) has communication with G-d and is tasked with relaying the message of G-d to people of his / her generation. With Moses this was direct communication. With most prophets the communication is indirect (visions and dreams). The key point here is that the נָבִיא / navi is passing along a message from G-d to the people of that time (not future times). Some messages may have importance to future generations -- but to be prophecy the message must be for the people living to whom the prophet is speaking. When prophecy does include a foretelling of the future it is either "good news" or it is a warning "If you don't do XYZ then this bad thing will happen." With the latter people can can avoid the "curse" by following G-d's instructions. Think of Nineveh and Jonah. . . the people heeded his warning and were saved from destruction. Most of T'hillim (psalms) were written by King David who was indeed a prophet. However, in Ketuvim (Writings) which is where one finds Psalms (T'hillim) one finds that most works are authored by humans who feel the presence of G-d in their lives, but are not relaying a direct message from Him to people of their times. So, while there may be bits of prophecy in some psalms o In the whole they are not prophetic. The works in כְּתוּבִים / Ketuvim (Writings -- the third section of the bible) were written by humans in touch with the presence of HaShem rather than in communication with Him relaying His words to us. . . Most psalms were written by King David about himself. As we have seen with many of the psalms claimed to be prophecy about Jesus they are often stated flat out to be about King David. This psalm is no different. The very first words of T'hillim / Psalm 27 are "Of David." About David. Have you noticed that the "prophetic" claims made tend to lift a sentence, or part of a sentence, totally out of context? In this claim the list maker has skipped the first eleven (twelve in Jewish versions) lines of the psalm, and gone straight to line 12. Line 12 speaks of false witnesses -- but how is this a messianic prophecy? Have you ever had anyone tell lies about you? Hey, perhaps YOU are the messiah? The list maker takes such broad experiences and claims them as "messianic prophecies fulfilled by Jesus" when these are universal experiences everyone in the world has had at some time. Has there ever been a human who ever lived who did not have "false witnesses" say something about them that they did not do? Line 12 says "Do not deliver me to the desires of my adversaries, for false witnesses and speakers of evil have risen against me." Note the part of the sentence the list maker is ignoring? It is the first part of the sentence which says "Do not deliver me to the desires of my adversaries" This would not apply to Jesus (per the Christian bible) which states the opposite -- that Jesus WAS delivered to his doom by false witnesses -- the opposite of the person in the psalm. If this WERE a messianic prophecy, then Jesus failed to fulfill it since he WAS delivered to his adversaries (the Romans, who killed him). Read the psalm in context and this is even more clear -- the psalm says (line 2) "When evildoers draw near to me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies against me-they stumbled and fell." Yet Jesus' enemies did not stumble and fall -- they had him killed. Line 10 says "For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the L-rd gathers me in." -- supposedly Jesus didn't have a father (virgin birth) -- but the Christian bible never says his mother gave up on him -- indeed she went to the crypt looking for his dead body after the crucifixion. . . Yet again we have a false claim by the list maker -- the psalm is the opposite of the claim made about it.
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