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Messianic Prophecies

Psalms 17:15

This passage comes from the wider catalog — a broader, more lightly curated list than the core set. Both readings are shown as peers; GEBible takes no side.

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Psalms 17:15

As for me, I shall see your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with seeing your form.

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They close up their callous hearts. With their mouth they speak proudly.

They have now surrounded us in our steps. They set their eyes to cast us down to the earth.

He is like a lion that is greedy of his prey, as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

Arise, Yahweh, confront him. Cast him down. Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword;

from men by your hand, Yahweh, from men of the world, whose portion is in this life. You fill the belly of your cherished ones. Your sons have plenty, and they store up wealth for their children.

As for me, I shall see your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with seeing your form.

The fulfillment reading

How this passage is read as pointing to the Messiah.

In the messianic-fulfillment reading, the psalm's closing hope of awakening to be satisfied in beholding God's likeness is taken to point beyond ordinary experience toward a post-death encounter, anticipating resurrection. The contrast between the wicked who receive their portion in this life and the righteous who are satisfied upon awaking is read as establishing a temporal-versus-eternal pattern that resurrection theology fulfills. On this view the language of seeing God's form upon awakening carries eschatological overtones consonant with the beatific vision. The empty-tomb announcement in Luke 24:6 is understood as the ultimate realization of the vindication the psalmist hoped for.

The counter-reading

How this passage is read within its own context.

In the critical reading, Psalm 17:15 concludes an individual lament in which the speaker expresses confidence in a favorable divine verdict, and 'when I awake' most naturally denotes waking in the morning — possibly after a night of petition in the sanctuary, a practice (incubation) attested across the ancient Near East. The Hebrew verb means 'to wake up' and does not inherently carry the sense 'to be resurrected.' On this view the psalm expresses devotional confidence in seeing God's face at dawn, not a prediction of bodily resurrection. Because Luke 24:6 shares no wording with the psalm, the equation of 'awake' with 'rise from the dead' is regarded as the interpreter's contribution rather than the text's own claim.

How the New Testament uses this passage

Each entry names how the New Testament author draws on the passage — a direct quotation, an allusion, an echo, or a typological reading. An echo or an allusion is not the same as a prediction; the label says which is which.

  • Luke 24:6 Not cited by the New Testament

    Luke 24:6 neither quotes nor verbally alludes to Psalm 17:15; the resurrection link is an interpretive inference supplied by the list compiler, not a use made by the text.