Psa. 16 is plainly Messianic and prophetical. We read, " Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell [literally sheol, the unseen world]; neither wilt Thou suffer thine holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show Me the path of life; in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." (Psa. 16:10,1110For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 11Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. (Psalm 16:10‑11)).
This Scripture most plainly implies resurrection. The Apostle Peter in his famous Pentecostal sermon argued that this could not have applied to David, the writer of the psalm, for he had been dead and buried for long years, and his sepulcher was well known to that day. So he plainly averred,
Psa. 22 also is clearly Messianic and prophetical. A thousand years before our Lord died upon the cross, we have in this psalm a vivid prophecy of the crucifixion, beginning with the bitter cry of anguish our Lord uttered in His abandonment by God when He took the sinner's place.
" My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (verse 1).
When the psalmist wrote the words, " Thou hast brought Me into the dust of death " (verse 15), he evidently was not referring to his own death, for he was still alive when he wrote the psalm, but prophetically of our Lord's atoning death on the cross of Calvary. The psalm then goes on to say, é ' I will declare Thy name unto My brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee." (verse 22).
For this to come to pass resurrection was necessary. Isa. 53 is Messianic and prophetical. We read, " He [referring to the Christ to come] was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of My people was He stricken." (Isa. 53:88He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. (Isaiah 53:8)).
This most plainly prophesied our Lord's atoning death on the cross. Yet after that we read, " When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand." (Isa. 53:1010Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. (Isaiah 53:10)).
Here we have the resurrection of our Lord plainly implied, the holy triumph of our Lord over sin and death and hell amply set forth.
It is well to stress these prophetic Scriptures as proving the foreknowledge of God centuries before the events materialized. It is easy for critics to charge the many witnesses to our Lord's resurrection with lying, but it would be beyond even their hardihood to aver that the Old Testament prophets Were lying, men who lived centuries apart, and having no knowledge of what each other wrote. It would be passing, strange if men with no know-ledge of each other, should all without collusion on their part be found to be lying on one particular point. On the face of it it would be an impossible thing. And if their prophecies materialized, as they surely did, it establishes the truthfulness of the New Testament witnesses to the resurrection of our Lord, as it does their own witness.