PSALM 110 - He Reigns
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
So how many of you here this morning brought a study Bible with you? A study Bible provides notes and commentaries on the same page with the text of Scripture to allow the reader to understand unfamiliar concepts or historical context that helps clarify the meaning of the text of the Bible. The concept of adding explanatory notes to the pages of a Bible isn’t new—in fact, the first ever “study Bible” was published in Geneva, Switzerland in 1560 by English Protestants who fled from the reign of Queen Mary I (“Bloody Mary”).
Since then (mainly in the last 50 years or so) the number of study Bibles have exploded—according to Christian Book Distributors there are as many as twenty-six hundred distinct publishing titles for study Bibles catering to every theological, professional or personal taste out there. Some are very trustworthy, and there are some that you wouldn’t want to touch with a ten foot pole.
The most reliable interpreter of a particular passage of the Bible is the Bible itself. Look at how a passage fits into its own context (how does the verse fit into the passage, how does the passage fit into the flow of the chapter, how does that chapter advance the argument of the book, where does the book fit in the flow of God’s story of redemption.) And one of the most helpful sources of interpreting a particular passage comes from seeing how that passage is quoted elsewhere in the Bible.
The psalm we have before us this morning is the most-quoted psalm in the New Testament. Both Peter and Paul quote from it, as does the writer to the Hebrews (who quotes it more than anyone else!), and even our Lord Himself quotes it in His dispute with the Pharisees the week of His Crucifixion. So we have an opportunity to create an “Apostolic Study Bible”, if you will, on Psalm 110.
Jesus quotes Verse 1 to refer to Himself in Matthew 22:44
‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet” ’?
Peter also quotes Verse 1 during his Pentecost sermon In Acts 2:34-35
“For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Until I put Your enemies as a footstool for Your feet.” ’
Paul also makes reference to Verse 1 in Ephesians 1:20
which He worked in Christ, by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
and quotes it directly in 1 Corinthians 15:25-27
For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be abolished is death. For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him.
The writer of Hebrews comes back to Psalm 110 a lot:
But to which of the angels has He ever said, “Sit at My right hand, Until I put Your enemies As a footstool for Your feet”?
just as He says also in another passage, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.
(for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through the One who said to Him, “The Lord has sworn And will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever’”);
So from all of these quotations and allusions (and there are more), we can consider ourselves on firm footing to say that Psalm 110 is a psalm about the reign of Christ as King. It appears in the last volume (or “book”) of the Psalms, which focus on the merging of the throne of David with the throne of YHWH.
So what does this psalm tell us about the reign of Christ? What are we to take from this psalm about what kind of King He is, and what that means for us, His people?
As we read the psalm a few minutes ago, we cannot help hearing the decisive victory of Christ’s reign in these verses—the flow of the Psalter up to this point has shown the rise and fall of David’s throne; psalms of victory, psalms of lament; psalms of the king’s might and power and psalms of mourning over the destruction of Jerusalem. But here we have a psalm that declares the conquest of all other enemies under the feet of the King; under the feet of Christ Himself.
So my task this morning is to help you to see what the reign of Christ over His enemies means for your life—from what Psalm 110 declares to you this morning, Christian, you are called to
Live in the certainty of Christ’s PRESENT REIGN in this uncertain WORLD
Live in the certainty of Christ’s PRESENT REIGN in this uncertain WORLD
Let’s dive into this victory psalm and see what it says about the reign of Christ—the first thing this psalm describes is
I. Christ’s PRESENT REIGN (Psalm 110:1-2)
I. Christ’s PRESENT REIGN (Psalm 110:1-2)
Yahweh says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand Until I put Your enemies as a footstool for Your feet.” Yahweh will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, “Have dominion in the midst of Your enemies.”
Consider again how Paul quoted this verse in Ephesians 1:20
which He worked in Christ, by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
When did YHWH seat Christ at His right hand? At His resurrection. We are not waiting for Christ to become King, He is King now. We are not all trying to get enough people to agree to let Him be King; He is King now. He has already been given dominion:
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Two observations to be made here about the authority that Christ has—first of all,
His reign in HEAVEN is manifested on EARTH (v.2)
His reign in HEAVEN is manifested on EARTH (v.2)
The image here is the King sitting on his throne holding his scepter (the symbol of his authority), and YHWH Himself puts His hand on the king’s hand and stretches out the scepter the king is holding. The picture is clear—the king is acting with the authority of YHWH Himself!
Understand here that Jesus is not sitting on some insubstantial throne made of clouds in the sky floating around and waiting until He can return and actually do some reigning over the earth. He reigns now! He has already been given all authority; He already governs all the kingdoms of this world. None of them are free of His government; none of them are out of His control. He reigns in Heaven, and His reign is manifested on earth.
The second observation from these verses is that
He reigns WHILE He defeats His ENEMIES (v.2)
He reigns WHILE He defeats His ENEMIES (v.2)
YHWH tells the King at the end of Verse 2, “Have dominion in the midst of your enemies”—in other words, Christ is not waiting until all of His enemies are defeated before He inaugurates His Kingdom—He is in the process of subduing them now. In the midst of His enemies, He is reigning as King. Throughout Israel’s history, her kings always had to live in the midst of the nations they never fully subdued—the Philistines, the Moabites, the Amorites, Edomites, Assyrians, Babylonians—and the history of the Old Testament is the history of Israel eventually being subdued by those nations.
But this King is doing what Israel never could—Christ is exercising His dominion in the midst of His enemies to subdue them by His authority. His throne is in Heaven, but His authority is manifested on earth. He reigns in the midst of enemies that are falling, one by one, to His authority. And it will continue until every last one of them is lying defeated under His feet!
Live in the certainty of Christ’s present reign in this uncertain world, Christian—live in light of His present reign, and live in light of
II. His ETERNAL MINISTRY (Psalm 110:4-7)
II. His ETERNAL MINISTRY (Psalm 110:4-7)
Yahweh has sworn and will not change His mind, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”
This is the verse that the writer of Hebrews quotes several times in his letter to demonstrate the superiority of Christ over the Old Covenant priests who could only cover sin temporarily with the blood of bulls and goats. In Hebrews 7, we read
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,
Melchizedek was “king of Salem” (probably Jerusalem), and he performed the services of a priest when he met Abraham after the battle of the kings of the plain in Genesis 15. The writer of Hebrews goes on to say that Christ was sworn into the office of priest:
(for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through the One who said to Him, “The Lord has sworn And will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever’”); so much more Jesus also has become the guarantee of a better covenant.
But notice one more thing about this Priest-King: When did Melchizedek bless Abraham? “After returning from the slaughter of the kings” (Heb. 7:1). And here as well, this great oath that YHWH has spoken of Christ’s priesthood is also given in context of the slaughter of kings:
The Lord is at Your right hand; He will crush kings in the day of His anger. He will render justice among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will crush the head that is over the wide earth.
What do we see here about the kingship of Christ? See here that
His JUSTICE is UNSTOPPABLE (vv. 5-6)
His JUSTICE is UNSTOPPABLE (vv. 5-6)
Once again—He is at YHWH’s right hand, and there is no power on earth that can prevent him from bringing justice. Now, there is a very big difference between bringing justice to a nation and bringing a nation to justice. The first means rescuing a nation from the lack of justice that comes from wicked or rebellious judges who refuse to act justly, the other means bringing judgment on rebellious nations. The Kingship of Christ means that He is reigning in such a way that He is bringing both of these to pass.
In a world where everyone complains about “injustice” and everyone wants to establish their own standard for justice, see here that Christ alone is the King Who will render all justice on all the nations—the kind of justice that crushes the wicked rulers who refuse to submit to His reign.
Look carefully here in these two verses and see a repeated word in Verses 5-6:
The Lord is at Your right hand; He will crush kings in the day of His anger. He will render justice among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will crush the head that is over the wide earth.
There is something more that this King is doing besides just setting right every wrong and repaying every injustice and punishing every rebel king in every nation—if that were all that this King were doing, He might be the greatest Reformer that human history had ever seen, but it would at the end of the day be like all the other great reforms of history: temporary.
Because the reason for the rebellious kings and nations crying out for justice is because of the fundamental Curse that has plagued this sorry planet from its infancy: The curse of sin and death that fell upon us when our First Parents Adam and Eve disobeyed YHWH in the Garden of Eden.
But what Christ’s reign has come to do is to right that very first wrong that took place all those thousands of years ago—by the reign of this eternal Priest-King,
The CURSE will be CRUSHED (vv. 5-7)
The CURSE will be CRUSHED (vv. 5-7)
David’s language of “crushing” kings and “crushing” heads of state in this description of Christ’s reign is not random—he is deliberately connecting the reign of Christ to the promise YHWH made to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
The Hebrew word sup there is also translated crush—Christ has come not only to set right all injustice and rebellion but to so transform the world that the Curse itself is crushed! Christ was bruised on the Cross, but the Serpent’s head was crushed. Christ reigns now over the nations, He is bringing unstoppable justice and is the mediator of a New Covenant that will destroy once and for all the power of the curse that this Creation has groaned under for millennia. He reigns now, and He is doing all of this now, and He cannot be stopped!
If this is true, Christian (and it is!), then what kind of people should we be? We have seen in these verses the description of Christ’s present reign and His eternal ministry—but look back at Verse 3 for one more description of
III. Christ’s HAPPY PEOPLE (Psalm 110:3)
III. Christ’s HAPPY PEOPLE (Psalm 110:3)
Your people will offer themselves freely in the day of Your power; In the splendor of holiness, from the womb of the dawn, The dew of Your youthfulness will be Yours.
The reigning King in all His glory is surrounded by people who are
Made GLORIOUS in HOLINESS (v. 3)
Made GLORIOUS in HOLINESS (v. 3)
Notice how the people offer themselves to the King— “in the splendor of holiness”. That phrase is used elsewhere in the Old Testament to refer specifically to the holiness required in order to come into YHWH’s presence:
Worship Yahweh in the splendor of holiness; Tremble before Him, all the earth.
Ascribe to Yahweh the glory of His name; Lift up an offering, and come before Him; Worship Yahweh in the splendor of holiness.
Do you see the implication here? The people are freely offering themselves to this King, but they are offering themselves as if they are coming into YHWH’s presence! To offer yourself freely to this King is to be offering yourself to YHWH Himself!
This King not only calls His people to come freely and joyfully to Him, but He makes them holy in the process! Surely this is what the writer of Hebrews had in mind when he quoted from this psalm in Hebrews 7—
(for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through the One who said to Him, “The Lord has sworn And will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever’”); so much more Jesus also has become the guarantee of a better covenant. And the former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
Not only does our King put to death the curse of sin on the world, He puts to death the curse of sin in His people!
By His eternal priesthood, He renews His people in the splendor of holiness so that they can freely offer themselves to Him in worship—they are made glorious in holiness and they are
Made NEW in STRENGTH (v. 3; cp. Heb 7:16-17)
Made NEW in STRENGTH (v. 3; cp. Heb 7:16-17)
Your people will offer themselves freely in the day of Your power; In the splendor of holiness, from the womb of the dawn, The dew of Your youthfulness will be Yours.
This is a challenging verse to render out of Hebrew into English, but the sense of it seems to be of a people full of youth and vigor and new life—He raises His people to strength and vigor and health. Again, the writer of Hebrews quotes from this Psalm about Christ who has become an everlasting priest
...not according to a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life. For it is witnessed about Him, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”
Because He is a priest Who will never die, He is a priest Whose intercession for us will never end—and Paul writes in Romans that because Christ’s Spirit dwells in you, Christian, you have hope of eternal life as well!
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
You have been raised from the spiritual death of sin into the splendor of holiness by Christ’s priestly ministry, and you will be raised from the grave someday by His resurrection power! What greater cause for happiness could a people have? What greater reason could there be to offer yourself freely in the day of His power?
Christian—see here that the certainty of Christ’s present reign gives you a sure footing to stand in this uncertain world. It is so easy to get weighed down by the insanity of this present hour, isn’t it? The world you live in is sunk in despair, anxiety and pessimism—but you live as one borne in the splendor of holiness with the freshness and strength of Christ Himself!
In his magnificent chapter on the resurrection of Christ in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul quotes from Psalm 110 as he describes Christ’s victory over all His enemies:
For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be abolished is death.
From there Paul launches into one of the most exquisite expositions of the implications of Christ’s resurrection for our lives here on earth, ending the chapter with a powerful call to confidence:
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Because we have a reigning King in Heaven, because we belong to a Savior Whose priestly work of redeeming us can never end, we can be steadfast, immoveable and always abounding in His work. It means, Christian, that none of your work for Christ is in vain.
Christian parent, when you are tempted to worry over your children’s future; when the question enters your mind, “What kind of world will my children grow up in?”, the answer is that they will grow up in the same world you did—a world governed by the risen Christ! Your children and grandchildren are growing up in a world where Christ rose from the dead—a world that cannot go back to the darkness and paganism of its past, no matter how much it wants to!
Christian parent, your labor is not in vain in the Lord—your faithful service in the trenches of parenthood, your wrestling little bundles of energy to learn to attend to the worship of King Jesus, your prayers and tears and struggles and joys; those moments when you feel that you have poured out everything you have in you for your family and there is still more they need; when you fight to shield them from the wickedness while training them to fight dragons; when you bless them in the Lord every night as they go to bed and pour yourself out in prayer for them every day for the rest of your life—none of that is in vain in a world where Christ reigns.
Christian citizen, be steadfast and immoveable in the Lordship of Christ over this world. We are only a couple of months away from the biannual insanity of midterm elections—and everyone is going to be lighting their hair on fire and running around in tight little circles in a panic that if this election goes the wrong way we are all doooooooooooomed!
Now make no mistake—elections have consequences, and we must be of all people eager to see righteousness established in the halls of power. Solomon is right:
Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people.
Christian citizen—be salt and light in the nation that God has given us; Vote and pray and work under the assumption that we should stop doing the things that make God angry.
But in all of that, remember that no matter how the midterm elections go, they will be the exact outcome that Christ desires. Understand that no matter what happens in November, Christ is not dismayed, He is not frustrated or scrambling to come up with a plan B. The true ruler of the United States of America can’t be voted out of office. He cannot have his majority in Congress nullified, He cannot have the Supreme Court block His arm; He cannot be impeached or stopped or even slowed down:
...He will crush kings in the day of His anger. He will render justice among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will crush the head that is over the wide earth.
So be steadfast and immoveable—watch and pray and rejoice in His wise governance of this world.
Church, because you have a reigning King in Heaven Who holds you in His right hand, always abound in His work. He has given us this street, this town, this county. This is where ministry begins. So often we think about “real ministry” taking place in exotic foreign countries or exciting urban settings with large audiences and big platforms. We’re just a little country church with a few dozen people; we don’t have the manpower to “abound” in the Lord’s work.
But never forget, beloved, what you are doing here faithfully, week by week. You are gathering here with your brothers and sisters in Christ, and by your faithful worship in Spirit and in truth, you are taking up a battering ram that the very gates of Hell cannot stand against. When you take up that hymnal, when you open that Psalter, when you attend to the proclamation of this Word, when you rise up from the waters of baptism, when you take this bread and this cup, you are waging a real war.
The proclamation of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ that you offer during this hour has eternal consequences, because in this worship
...the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
Christian, you serve a King Who reigns in Heaven, and Whose authority is established in the midst of His enemies—His justice is unstoppable, He has crushed the head of the Serpent and will crush all opposition to His reign; He has purchased for Himself a people ransomed from every tribe, tongue and nation, and has made them glorious in holiness and new in strength.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
—your King, Your Savior, Jesus Christ!
BENEDICTION
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it. AMEN
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