The third division of the O.T. is called "The Psalms", including not only the Psalms

themselves, but such books as Proverbs and Job. This third section is not without

testimony from the Lord:--

The Lord on one occasion when quoting the Psalms refers to them as "the law": "Is it

not written in your law?" (John 10: 34--quoting Psa. 82:). He pauses in the midst of

His explanation to warn His hearers that "the Scriptures cannot be broken". Here the

Lord is teaching and maintaining the most marvelous doctrine of Scripture, His Own

deity, and using the poetry of the Psalms with as much confidence as we should the

testimony of Col. 1: 15, calling this Psalm the "law" and pausing to interpolate that "the

Scriptures cannot be broken".

From the very earliest days the Lord knew and revered the written Word of God. See

Him at the age of twelve years sitting in the temple and astonishing the doctors of the law

with His knowledge of the Scriptures (Luke 2: 46). See Him at the commencement of

His ministry "opening the book" and finding His full commission in its pages

(Luke 4: 17-21). See Him meeting the temptation of the devil in the wilderness with

three quotations from the law of Moses (Matt. 4: 1-11). Hear Him in the "sermon on the

mount" tell the people that He had not come to destroy the law or the prophets, but to

fulfil them: "For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall in

no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" (Matt. 5: 18). The "jot" is the Hebrew yod,

and equivalent to the Greek iota and the English "i" or "y". It is the smallest letter in the

Hebrew alphabet. The "tittle" is a small decoration added to certain letters, and carefully

tabulated by the Massorah. Modern scholars confess they do not know their purpose, but

our ignorance does not justify the conclusion that these tittles are meaningless; the Lord

assures us that the smallest letter and even the Massoretic notation shall not fail of

John the Baptist's enquiry, "Art Thou He that should come, or do we look for

another?" is another by an appeal to Scripture (Matt. 11: 1-10; Isa. 29: 18; 35: 4-6,

61: 1). The Sadducees' quibble regarding the resurrection is stilled by the use of a single

word in the O.T., "I am the God of Abraham", the argument depending upon the tense of

the verb. God did not say, "I was", but "I am"--He is not the God of the dead, but of the

living (Matt. 12: 23-33).

Everywhere and at all times we find Christ and the Scriptures at one. Not one word

ever escaped His lips that cast the faintest shadow of doubt upon the Old Testament

Scriptures. He Whose birth fulfilled the words of the prophets, Whose ministry was full

of the Word of God fulfilled that Word in His death, burial, resurrection and ascension to

His betrayal by Judas was already known to the Lord in the Scriptures:--