The Melchizedek Connection

David’s Lord is a priest forever

Psalm 110:1–4 ESV

The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments; from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

But the office of priest was familiar enough to people in David’s day. Priests were very much a part of their experience. But David clarifies the priesthood of his Lord by saying at the end of verse 4: after the order of Melchizedek.

Melchizedek is a somewhat mysterious figure in Scripture, and this would have been especially true in David’s day. There are three places in Scripture where Melchizedek is mentioned. Two of them are in the OT: Gen. 14 and Psalm 110. The one place in the NT is the book of Hebrews.

The mingling of of priest & king

Now, what was not familiar to the people of David’s day, nor to David himself was the mingling of the offices of priest and king. From the tribe of Judah came the kings and from the tribe of Levi came the priests.

We have an example of a king overstepping his bounds into a priestly role from

2 Chron. 26:16-21

2 Chronicles 26:16–21 ESV

But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he [king Uzziah] was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the Lord who were men of valor, and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the Lord God.” Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the Lord, by the altar of incense. And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead! And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out, because the Lord had struck him. And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord. And Jotham his son was over the king’s household, governing the people of the land.

So, the mingling of the offices was not a common idea. In fact, such an idea would have been rejected.

And I want to point out that you have a declaration in verse one that the ruler is the Christ, and the commentary about the king from the second half of verse 1-3 is all about what the king will do. He will rule. He will conquer. Then we come to verse four and David says this king will also be a priest forever. And we might expect that there will be commentary about that declaration of the priesthood of the king, but David goes back to talking about what the king will do in verses 5-7.

King of Salem, Priest of the Most High God

So, perhaps David was familiar with Gen. 14. You know what kings of Israel were to do when they took their throne? Deut. 17 tells us they were to write down for himself a book copy or reading copy of the law and he was to read it all the days of his life. David read the Scriptures… he meditated upon the Scriptures. He s the one who declared that blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night (Psalm 1). I think it is reasonable to conclude that he spent some time meditating on this priest king in Gen. 14.

Gen. 14

Here’s the context of Gen 14.

There were four kings who got together and started these raiding parties with their armies. They joined forces. They began to make their way further and further south until they came close to where Abraham (Abram at the time) lived. Eventually they attack the king of Sodom and the king of Gomorrah and three other kings, so you have four kings against five kings. Now in the midst of all the war and blood shed, they (these four kings) took the son of Son of Abram’s brother who was living in Sodom… his name was Lot. Someone escaped and told Abram what had happened. Abram joins his forces with some neighboring armies to attack these four kings:

Genesis 14:15–16 ESV

15 And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus. 16 Then he brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsman Lot with his possessions, and the women and the people.

So, Abram is victorious. Verse 17:

Genesis 14:17 ESV

17 After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).

Skip down to verse 21

Genesis 14:21–24 ESV

21 And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.” 22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, 23 that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ 24 I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me. Let Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre take their share.”

So, so far it all makes sense. This is how it worked. Everything that the King of Sodom requested and offered was customary… it was the way it worked in situations like this. We should note that Abram, out of his devotion to the Lord, did not take anything from the king of Sodom despite being offered the spoil of their battle.

But verses 18-20 introduce something that’s important but challenging to understand.

Genesis 14:18–20 ESV

18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) 19 And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; 20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Abram wanted nothing to do with the King of Sodom. He wouldn’t take anything from him. But this is not his posture towards Melchizedek the king of Salem. He does not see what he receives from Melchizedek as compromising his devotion to the Lord. We should note here that the name Melchizedek means king of righteousness. And his kingdom was Salem, and it is most likely the case that Salem was Jerusalem. So he was a king and notice verse 18, he was priest of God most high. And what does Abram gives him a tenth of everything that he has.

Anyone of significance in Genesis had a genealogy described. So and so, begat so and so, lived so many years and then he died. The are some mentioned who we don’t have their genealogy, but they’re not that significant. Here, Melchizedek, pops up out of nowhere, disappears, and Abraham honors him by giving him a tenth of everything.

And the author of Hebrews notes this distinction of Melchizedek:

Hebrews 7:3 ESV

3 He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.

The Priest-King we needed

Despite his position of power, despite his massive wealth, Abram recognizes this particular king as his superior.

So, maybe David was thinking some day, we will have a legitimate priest king. We will need a legitimate priest-king. One who will be victorious over all hostile powers. Against the powers and forces with which David was contending, but all as we will see soon. And the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind that the Christ will be a priest forever. Not in the order of the Levitical priesthood, but after the order of Melchizedek: king and priest of the God most high.

Now, I’m trying my best not to spend too much time in Hebrews so as not to mess with Pastor Josh’s series, but this is Hebrews 7, and by the time we get there most of us will have forgotten this sermon. But this is important when it comes to our understanding of the Messiah being a priest forever:

Hebrews 7:11 ESV

11 Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron?

Do you see what the author is saying? If the Levitical priesthood was sufficient to attain perfection, why would there have been another priest from outside the tribe of Levi? So when David says 1000 years before Jesus, that His Lord, will be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, he is proclaiming that we need another kind of priesthood other than the Levitical priesthood. We need an eternal priesthood…. we need an eternal priest.

Another kind of priesthood and another priest

And we have that in the Messiah. This is what the author of Hebrews understood:

Hebrews 7:15–17 ESV

15 This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, 16 who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. 17 For it is witnessed of him, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”

So the kingship and the priesthood of our Lord, that is the Messiah is grounded not in genealogy, but in the God of eternity. And this is what David is declaring.

Are you getting a sense of our hope here. Jesus our victorious king and eternal priest has come, has done all that is necessary for us to have peace with God. And this is enough.