Jesus Is Better Week 6

By Darren Nguyen

How to Read the Old Testament in the Book of Hebrews

The author of Hebrews wrote to an original audience that is extremely familiar with the Old Testament, the nuances of Hebrew and Greek, and the traditions and customs of early Jewish culture. In short, not us. However, reading and understanding the book of Hebrews is not reserved for translators or highly educated individuals. In this article, I wish to equip readers with three tools to better understand the book of Hebrews by examining how the author of Hebrews uses Psalm 95 in Hebrews 3:7-19.

Familiarize Yourself with the Entire Context

When the author of Hebrews quoted a psalm or section of Scripture, he assumed that his readers knew the context of what he was referencing or maybe even memorized that Scripture entirely. Because of this, readers of Hebrews today should turn back to the Old Testament and examine the full context of each referenced piece of Scripture.

Starting in Hebrews 3:7, the author quotes Psalm 95, but only the latter half. Let’s look at the entirety of Psalm 95 to see what we can learn.

“Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”

This next section is the quoted part of the psalm in Hebrews 3.

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, ‘They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.’ Therefore I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

When we read this psalm, we see the psalmist constructed it in two halves. The first half praises God as one might typically expect, worshipping God specifically for being the rock of our salvation, his greatness, his kingship, and his role of creator and shepherd. The psalm then oddly moves to a warning. To save you from diving into the context of the latter half of the psalm (which the author of Hebrews assumes the readers’ knowledge of), the psalmist refers to Exodus 17 and Numbers 14, two perspectives of the same story in which the Israelites complain that God has delivered them from Egypt to lead them to die of thirst, expressing their desire to go back to slavery because they want nothing to do with God.

Now that we know the entire context of the section of Psalm 95 that the author of Hebrews quotes, we can begin to more fully understand the function of quoting the latter half of Psalm 95. Here are three observations.

The author of Hebrews constructs chapter 3 in a similar manner to Psalm 95, moving from meditation on the relationship between creator and creation towards the warning against unbelief.
Both authors create a connection between creator-creation and the unbelief of those who have seen God’s work.
The original context of Psalm 95 primarily concerned the Israelites in the wilderness, and the original audience of Hebrews 3 concerned early Jewish Christians who knew the story of the Israelites in the wilderness.

Consider the Original Interpretation

In Hebrews 3, the author of Hebrews leverages the original interpretation of Psalm 95 to create a fuller Christological interpretation for believers today, modeling a healthy hermeneutic for reading the Old Testament in light of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. Notably, the author of Hebrews does not replace the original interpretation of the psalm entirely; instead, he uses the original interpretation of the psalm to inform his christological interpretation and how the theme underlying the psalm applies to his original audience. In the same way, readers of Scripture should familiarize themselves with the original interpretation of both the New Testament and its quotations and references to the Old Testament to better understand the text.

The original readers and singers of Psalm 95 had no concept of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, so their understanding of the psalm had nothing to do with rest as it pertains to the Gospel, despite the author of Hebrews making that connection in Hebrews 3 and 4. The original readers of Psalm 95 meditated deeply on Israel’s history in the wilderness to understand that even seeing and experiencing God’s works firsthand does not prevent them from hardening their hearts against God. Under the Old Covenant, to harden one’s heart would be to reject the terms of the covenant and decisively turn away from obedience in faith, living life how he or she saw fit.

The author of Hebrews expands upon this concept of the danger of seeing God’s work firsthand and sees his audience as a type of Israel in the wilderness. Just as not all of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness entered the Promised Land because of their unbelief, not all who cling themselves to the church will receive the future promise of rest with God because of their unbelief. What made the Israelites the children of Abraham was not their blood or circumcision but their faith, and in the same way, Christians today are considered children of Abraham and inheritors of the promise because of their faith.

Psalm 95 has two valid interpretations then, which is common in Jewish literature. Stories and scripture can have more than one meaning and more than one interpretation of a text can be correct at the same time as another. The original interpretation of Psalm 95 is not replaced or superseded by the Christological interpretation that the author of Hebrews presents in Hebrews 3, and in fact, both interpretations should be held in tension to fully understand the text.

Here are some things to consider when thinking about the original interpretation:

Consider the audience, setting, time period, and culture.
Identify where the story takes place in relation to Israel’s redemptive history.
Consider how the story relates to other stories in the Bible. Does it have similar themes or ideas?

Consider Application in Light of the Original Interpretation

The book of Hebrews and especially chapter 3 reads similarly to a sermon with application. He reads the Old Testament text and shares a point of application related to the original meaning of the text. In the same way, when readers approach Scripture seeking to find ways to apply the text, they should first consider what the text meant to the original audience to find the wisdom in Scripture that they could apply to their everyday life.

Psalm 95 contains two clear charges for the reader that principally apply under both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The first charge is to worship God with thanksgiving and song joyfully for who he is– the rock of our salvation, the greatest king, the creator of all things and peoples, and the shepherd of his people. The second charge is to not harden your heart after seeing God’s work firsthand, considering how the Israelites in the wilderness hardened their hearts after experiencing the ten plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, and the provision of manna in the wilderness. These charges served to encourage God’s people to continue on in faithfulness under the Old Covenant.

The author of Hebrews echoed the second charge of Psalm 95 by quoting the latter half of the psalm and sharing his own commentary and point of application. After quoting the psalm he said, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” The author of Hebrews expands the application from an individual effort to a communal effort to help one another continue on in faithfulness under the New Covenant.

Notably, the author of Hebrews does not dismiss the original charge of the psalm. His point of application is meant to expand on the charge in Psalm 95 rather than replace it altogether. By creating a new charge for his audience, he does not devalue the original charge in Psalm 95 for the psalm’s original audience. Similarly to holding both interpretations of Psalm 95 in tension, readers should hold both points of application in tension. One should heed the warning against hardening their heart after seeing God’s work as well as exhort one another every day to protect their Christian brothers and sisters from the hardening of their own hearts.

Putting It All Together

When the author of Hebrews quotes or alludes to Old Testament verses and stories, he assumes his audience’s great knowledge of the Old Testament and Jewish customs. Because we are not the author’s original audience, we have to do some extra work to understand the passage, and we can follow the author’s model of interpreting the Old Testament to do so. First, familiarize yourself with the entire context of the passage, then consider the original interpretation of the text to inform a Christological interpretation in light of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Finally, consider application of the text in light of those interpretations. As the Fount continues to read the book of Hebrews, I encourage you to employ some of these tools to better understand the author’s references to the Old Testament to worship God with your entire mind.

You may feel ill-equipped in your knowledge of the Old Testament, and you’re not alone. Below are some resources for engaging the Old Testament and understanding its use in the New Testament; however, the biggest help to understanding the Old Testament is to read it and meditate on it! Understanding the Old Testament is not reserved for the most spiritually mature Christians. All of Scripture is life-giving and relevant, teaching us about our relationship with God and each other.