Theological Journal – June 1 Bonhoeffer Monday: Prayerbook of the Bible

Those Who Pray the Psalms

In this section Bonhoeffer connects Jesus to the Psalms through David, who is credited with most of the psalms in the Psalter (73). He is a type of Jesus Christ. Bonhoeffer works out this typological connection this way:

-David’s life prefigures Christ’s (Acts 2:30ff).

-“David was a witness to Christ in his kingly office, in his life, and in his words.” (Heb. 2:12; 10:5; Heb.3:7) “The same words that David spoke, therefore, the future Messiah spoke in him. Christ prayed along with the prayers of David or, more accurately, it is none other than Christ who prayed them in Christ’s own forerunner, David.” (3464-3472)

-David’s prayers, then, are not simply personal, but also those of the Christ who indwelt him. “David, remains himself; but Christ dwells in him and with him.” (3476)

-though David did not write every psalm in the psalter, yet the psalter as a whole is connected to him. Since Christ indwells David, the whole psalter becomes his words by typological extension (see Lk.24:44ff.)

Bonhoeffer draws on Christological dogma to show how this is possible.

“It is the incarnate Son of God, who has borne all human weakness in his own flesh, who here pours out the heart of all humanity before God, and who stands in our place and prays for us. He has known torment and pain, guilt and death more deeply than we have. Therefore it is the prayer of the human nature assumed by Christ that comes before God here. It is really our prayer. But since the Son of God knows us better than we know ourselves, and was truly human for our sake, it is also really the Son’s prayer. It can become our prayer only because it was his prayer.” (3485-3489).

David prays. Christ prays in him. Christ prays in us. We pray his prayer. Thus Bonhoeffer begins to unfold the richness of the Bible’s prayerbook aided by his typological reading. Though typology can and has been misused, in the hands of a skilled and sensitive reader (like DB) it can be an illuminating practice.