I’m going through War Psalms of the Prince of Peace, and it just gave me something revelatory – or at least revelatory for me:

All of the Psalms are best understood as dialogue between Christ and the Father. They’re not just examples of prayer, but capture specific moments in Christ’s history with the Father – or moments yet to come. The penitent psalms are from the moment he took our guilt upon himself, his one-liners such as “Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” are Psalm quotes (Psalm 6:8), and on the cross he references not only Psalm 22:1 ( “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”), but four other psalm locations:

• Into your hands I commit my spirit – Psalm 31:5
• I am thirsty – Psalms 69:21 and 22:15
• It is finished – Psalm 22:31