Day 247 Psalms 113-118 

I have reached a milestone! I have several psalms that I consider to be favourites (22, 46, 73 & 103 for example), but I have been longing to get to these 6 psalms. These are not just the ‘Hallel’ (praise) psalms that were recited at various times of the Jewish calendar e.g. the New moon, and the 3 great feasts. These are the 6 psalms that Jesus and the disciples would have sung at the last supper (the Family Passover meal the night before the actual events of the day.) Already you should have seen the number of psalms that figured in the life of Jesus, and especially in the last 24 hours. (Remember psalms is the most quoted book in the NT.) If you were to sit down and read the six psalms today with the understanding that most of the last supper was not said but sung, you will be amazed! Suddenly in the light of what Jesus was about to experience, they become very powerful! My notes on these psalms are so copious that I had glued an extra page in my old RSV and it has taken me 2 days to transcribe the notes into my new NASB (with an extra page) before I even begin writing. Over the next couple of weeks, we will ‘flow’ through the last supper in the light of these psalms. It blows me away and I hope it will you too.

The night before His crucifixion Jesus shifted the focus of the Passover lamb to Himself. All the elements of the Exodus Passover, celebrated for over 14 centuries, were reconfigured around His own passion and death. The emblems became his own body and blood. The bread was unleavened because He was “without sin.” This was Jesus’ final climatic parable where He identified Himself as the new Passover Lamb. 
Ps’s113-114 are referred to in Matt26:30 and Mark14:26. Ps113-114 were sung before the emptying of the second cup and before the meal and Ps115-118 after the meal and after the filling of the fourth cup. Worship and praise with me as we journey through this “evening and morning” of our recreation.