The Conquering King and Priest - Psalm 110

Christ is our prophet, priest, and king. Psalm 110 gives us an amazing window into the latter two of these offices.

The following is a rough transcript of a sermon I preached on January 9th, 2022. Edited for readability.

The Lord says to my Lord:
    “Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”

² The Lord sends forth from Zion
    your mighty scepter.
    Rule in the midst of your enemies!
³ 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.
⁴ The Lord has sworn
    and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever
    after the order of Melchizedek.”

⁵ The Lord is at your right hand;
    he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
⁶ He will execute judgment among the nations,
    filling them with corpses;
he will shatter chiefs
    over the wide earth.
⁷ He will drink from the brook by the way;
    therefore he will lift up his head.

In this psalm we see the messianic king conquering and reigning in victory over his enemies. This is a consistent theme throughout scripture. Many passages expound on the fact that God promised to David that his son would have an unending kingdom, and we get more insight into that with this passage.

One reason I say this is because the Jews understood this psalm to refer to the Messiah. But they also understood the Messiah to be David's son. So in Matthew 22:41-46 Jesus gave them this brain teaser:

⁴¹ Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, ⁴² saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” ⁴³ He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

⁴⁴ “‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
    until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

⁴⁵ If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” ⁴⁶ And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

There's something we have to understand about this passage in Psalm 110:1. In the first line of the Hebrew text, "The LORD said to my Lord," the underlying Hebrew is "[YHWH] said to my [Adonai]." YHWH is the divine name of God, and Adonai is actually the word for Lord, though it generally refers to God as well. So who is David's Lord that YHWH is talking to? David is the King. Who is higher than David? It has always been agreed that this refers to the Messiah. But if the Messiah is David's son, how can this be? In that culture, sons are not greater than their fathers. This is a patriarchal society; generally speaking, a man does not rule until his father is dead, unless perhaps he is on his death bed. So this stumped the Pharisees. And I honestly find it a bit funny that Jesus didn't give them the answer. He let them sit there and think on it.

Of course, we now have the benefit of hindsight and the entire New Testament to understand how this can be. The answer is that the Messiah, Jesus, is the God-man. He is greater than David because he is the eternal Word (John 1). But he is his son because he humbled himself, took on flesh, and was born into David's family. We call this in theology the hypostatic union - that is, in the person of Christ, there are two natures, one divine and one human, perfectly joined together without confusion nor division or separation (Chalcedon Definition). Christ is David's son according to the flesh but he is David's Lord according to his deity.

"Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool."

This refrain is also consistently referenced throughout the new testament. A couple of examples include Acts 5:29-31:

²⁹ But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. ³⁰ The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. ³¹ God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

As well as Acts 7:55-56:

⁵⁵ But he [Stephen], full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶ And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

Jesus is ruling and reigning right now from heaven with God the Father, and has been ever since his ascension. And all his enemies are being put under his feet. 1 Corinthians 15:25-26 tells us:

²⁵ For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶ The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

I know it seems like the world is often getting worse and worse around us, and in all honesty that's probably because, for the short term, it is. But if you look back over the course of Church history, so many of Christ's enemies have been defeated. He has conquered so many wicked hearts and turned them toward him. I've heard it said that there are more Christians alive today than there have been in all the rest of Church history combined. The gospel has gone out over much of the whole world. It's been a slow grind - it's taken 2000 years to get to this point. But that is all in God's sovereign plan that he has had from the beginning. In Daniel 2:31-45 we see the picture of Christ's kingdom as a stone that smashes other kingdoms and grows until it fills the whole earth. Will it be another 2000 years or more of slow growth and enemies gradually conquered? Or will Christ return soon and wipe out the many enemies who are left in one sweep? That's where different eschatological viewpoints would probably give us different opinions, but no one knows for sure.

But what I want you guys to remember is that Christ is reigning and his enemies are being put under his feet. Let us not forget that we used to be God's enemies. I think many people don't realize this because they don't realize the severity of sin. My former youth pastor gave me this illustration and I always use it because I think it really drives the point home: Imagine for a second that you walk up to your very best friend and smack them in the face for no good reason. What would the consequences of that be? Maybe that they would get angry; they might smack you back. It's relatively low-consequence. Now what if you went up to the mayor of your town during a public speech and smacked him or her? The consequences would be more severe. You might be arrested on the spot. What about the President of the United States? If you even made it out alive it would be by the mercy of the secret service. So maybe you see where this is going: in every situation, the action is the exact same - a smack across the face. But with the increasing level of authority of the one who is offended, the crime is more heinous and the consequences are more severe. Now how much higher in authority, holiness, majesty than the President of the United States is God Almighty? Infinitely, right? Even the tiniest of sins in our eyes is infinitely blasphemous simply by nature of who God is. So yes, we are God's enemies apart from Christ because we offend him infinitely with our sin every day. It's only by his grace that we aren't struck dead at any given moment. But he is patient towards us. And every time a sinner comes to repentance, that is, in a sense, an enemy being conquered. The old man that I used to be has been defeated - killed - and the new man who is submissive to Christ - who is his child rather than his enemy has been created in his place (cf. Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 5:17).

But it's not just when a sinner repents; it's also when he doesn't. Every time a sinner dies in unbelief, who faces God's judgement and wrath in hell - that is a victory for Christ too. We don't like to hear that but God is the perfectly just judge and whether we experience mercy by our faith or the wrath that we deserve, he is glorified by it all.

Every time an evil practice is abolished, like chattel slavery, that is an enemy being put under Christ's feet. I really believe and pray that one day abortion will suffer the same fate.

I would even venture to say that Christ's enemies are not only limited to the spiritual/moral but also include the physical - especially sickness and disease. Did Jesus not heal people of all kinds of physical maladies during his earthly ministry? Clearly he cares for these sorts of things. Of course, spiritual needs are more important than physical needs. But only the Christian worldview has a legitimate motive to offer healing. Indeed, historically, hospitals were Christian establishments. Is Christ not Lord over all creation? Is all truth - religious, scientific, or otherwise - not his (even if those finding it do not credit him)? The only reason we have disease is because, in the fall, creation became "subject to futility" (Romans 8:20). I think any time medical advancements are made and a disease is cured - either in an individual or more broadly - this is, in a sense, an enemy being put under Christ's feet. I will say as a point of caution that I do not believe we will ever eradicate sickness and disease before Christ returns, if for no other reason than because 1 Corinthians 15:26 says that the last enemy to be defeated is death. When he returns he will make all things new and there will be no more disease or death.

"Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments."

Each of us is either God's enemy or his subject, either a goat or a sheep. His sheep know his voice and they follow him (John 10:27). His people offer themselves freely in submission to him. Why do we do this?

For one thing, he has opened our eyes to the gospel. It is only by the regenerating power of the holy spirit that we can even have the faith to believe. So that's the "why" as in "due to what cause?"

But we could also ask "why" as in, "for what reason?" or "what is our motivation?" I think there's a lot that could be said here but what stands out to me is that we see Christ for who he truly is. He is a mighty conquering king and we know that it would not be well for us to remain his enemies. Though, it's so much more than just a healthy fear. We also see him as the gentle and lowly shepherd, who though he may fight the lion and bear to protect us, can also speak gently to us. We see him as a loving father and a faithful friend. And we see him as a wise king who knows what is best for us. It is good for us to be under his wing, and we pity those who would not gather to him (Matthew 25:37).

Jesus said if we love him, we will keep his commandments (John 14:15). That is a large part of what it means to offer ourselves to him: To be subject, submissive, a slave even, to him. Obey him.

Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. But not all will do so freely like the psalm says his people will do. Some will do so only because it is too late and they have no other option but to admit the truth. But everyone will either be under his feet as a defeated enemy or at his feet as a worshipping servant.

There is extreme comfort in coming to Jesus freely for another reason mentioned in Psalm 110:4, but first let's glance at another verse, Romans 8:34:

³⁴ Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Now, with that in mind, let's read Psalm 110:4 again:

The Lord has sworn
    and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever
    after the order of Melchizedek.”

Melchizedek was this mysterious figure who we see in Genesis 14. He is both the King of Salem (that is, Jerusalem before it was Jerusalem) and priest of the Most High God. This is a big deal because in the Mosaic Jewish system that would come later, those two roles could never mix. Priests had to be from the tribe of Levi, while the King came from the line of David who was of the tribe of Judah. In one situation, King Uzziah usurped the role of the priest and was struck with leprosy (2 Chronicles 2:16-21).

The priest is the one who intercedes for God on the people's behalf, asking him to look over their sin. In the old covenant, this was done by the blood of bulls and goats. In the new covenant, this has been fulfilled by Christ's blood. Hebrews spends a great amount of time expounding on these verses and explaining that Christ has entered the holy place as our high priest - not every year but once once for all - and the plea to God the Father is no longer, "please accept the blood of this bull as payment for their sin until next year," but rather, "please accept my perfect, righteous, sinless, spotless blood, shed on their behalf, for all of their sin, for all of time. I have enough to cover them all." And it was accepted! God's wrath was completely satisfied on our behalf.

We still sin, but we have this advocate, this high priest, who is sitting and God's right hand not only ruling over the universe with him, but caring enough about you and me to intercede for us, and bring our prayers that we pray in his name to the Father, and to cover us with his righteousness and pleads on our behalf. He forgives all of our sin.

Conclusion

Let's look briefly at vv5-7 again:

⁵ The Lord is at your right hand;
    he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
⁶ He will execute judgment among the nations,
    filling them with corpses;
he will shatter chiefs
    over the wide earth.
⁷ He will drink from the brook by the way;
    therefore he will lift up his head.

As believers, as Christ's people, we can look forward to the day when he will return and put all of his enemies - including Satan, demons, evil powers, etc. under his feet. They will have no more sway over Christ's people. He will reign victorious with us under his wing.

If you have never offered yourself freely to him, as we saw in verse 3, I pray God would open your eyes to who he is as the Holy Priest and King of the Universe, and who you are as his enemy. I pray that you would fall at his feet lovingly rather than bow at his footstool later.

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Sources referenced:
1. Jesus According to The New Testament's Most Quoted Psalm by Justin Dillehay (link)
2. The ESV Study Bible
3. The Songs of Jesus by Tim Keller with Kathy Keller
4. The Reformation Study Bible