Lesson 7

Psalm 110 

“The Lord said to my Lord…” (110:1) is a phrase that is quoted in Matthew 22:44. In this scripture, Christ is using the prophecy to prove a point about His own deity. “‘What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?’ They said to Him, ‘The son of David.’ He said to them, ‘Then how does David in the Spirit call Him, ‘Lord,’ saying…” Jesus argues that because David refers to the Christ as “my Lord,” then He cannot possibly be inferior to King David. The lesson is that Christ is king over all – there is no earthly king, even David, that rules with as much authority, power, might, and grace as Jesus. One point to note is that Jesus believes David’s writings were inspired by the Spirit, so even the Psalms are authoritative documents from God.

The verse is quoted again in Acts 2:34-35, by the apostle Peter. Once again, the point that is being made is that Jesus is a king like no other, and that even the great David paid his respects to the Lord. “For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says…” Although David was great in the eyes of God, and achieved power from a worldly perspective, he did not do any of the wonderful things that Jesus did. David was unable to ascend and descend to and from heaven at his own will.

“Sit at My right hand until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet.” The footstool is a piece of furniture that is placed at the bottom of a throne for the purpose of keeping the occupant’s feet elevated. In this prophecy, the Lord is promising that He would humble all of the enemies of Christ so low that they would be His footstool. They are not worthy to enjoy the benefits of kinship with Christ, and must therefore be subjected to the lowest possible point. In the sense that Jesus conquered all His enemies, this prophecy has come true – although it will not completely come to fruition until Christ allows all of us to join Him in conquering death, the final enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26-28). This is an excellent verse to show anybody who believes in premillenialism – that is, that Jesus is not reigning on His throne, but is awaiting the completion of an earthly kingdom and throne. What the prophecy makes quite clear is that Christ is reigning now, for until all things are finished, He sits at the right hand of God in glory (Acts 3:19-21).

“The Lord will stretch forth Thy strong scepter from Zion, saying, ‘Rule in the midst of Thine enemies’” (110:2). Truly, Jesus does rule in the midst of His enemies. Even as He was living in this world, He was the Son of God, although the Pharisees and other powerful forces rejected Him (Acts 2:36). Jesus also stated that His kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36).

Discussion Question: How does Jesus reign over His enemies today ?

“Thy people will volunteer freely in the day of power; In holy array, from the womb of the dawn, Thy youth are to Thee as dew” (110:3). I love the point made here that the army of Christ is entirely voluntary! We will never be forced to choose salvation, but can easily make up our minds to reject the Truth. When we hear the call to obey, God cannot choose for us whether or not we will follow it!

“The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind…” (110:4). This is one of the many statements in the Bible describing the absolutely unchangeable nature of God. He is unwavering in His strength and sure about His decisions. While this may seem to contradict certain verses about God “relenting,” “repenting,” or changing His mind (Joel 2:14, Jeremiah 18:8), we must understand that the context is referring to God’s decision to send Jesus Christ as the ultimate king, prophet, and priest after the order of Melchizedek. This is a decision that will not be altered or amended, but has been set forth since the moment sin entered the world. While there are things about which God changes His mind – He relents when we repent of our sins, He punishes when we fall from grace, He saves who He wills and condemns who He wills based on obedience – this is one point that will never be changed by God!

“Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:4). This is direcrlty quoted in several places in the book of Hebrews. Notice Hebrews 7 :1-10, in particular. In this NT passage, it is essential to the writer’s argument that he first prove the beneficence of the priesthood of a man named Melchizedek, unique in the Bible for a number of reasons. To understand the premise of our text, we must read the story found in Genesis 14:14-24. There are several characteristics that we can first learn from Melchizedek from this scripture, the first one being that he was a king unlike his contemporaries. While the king of Sodom sought the profit from Abram’s raid, viewing his relationship with the great patriarch as more of a business deal than a friendship, the king of Salem, Melchizedek, refused at first to accept any of the spoils, seeking only the safe return of his people. Notice how generous and kind he was toward Abram and his men (14:18) and also how grateful he was in his blessing (14:19-20). He was humble and reverent toward God – he obviously worshiped and served the same Almighty God as Abram – and gave Him the credit for the defeat of the evil kings. Few kings of that day, few people at all, still honored God in the way that Melchizedek does in these verses. His name, then, is entirely appropriate to his lifestyle. Melchizedek means literally “the king of righteousness” and the city of Salem means “peace.”

Examine more closely Hebrews 7:1-3. Realize first of all that the writer of Hebrews refers to Melchizedek as a real, historical figure, and not just a myth or fable. He also recounts the events in Genesis with extraordinary accuracy. This is one of the astounding things about the Bible; after thousands of years, and translated into Greek, the account of Melchizedek, mentioned only twice in the entire Old Testament, is remembered and valued in this letter to Christians. Even very minor or supposedly insignificant characters in the scriptures should carry tremendous meaning to us.

“Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days not end of life, but made like the Son of God he abides a priest perpetually.” Does this passage, then, teach that Melchizedek was some kind of angel or even Jesus Christ himself? Certainly it does not. To say that Melchizedek was anything more than a very special man with an awesome faith in God is to completely miss the point of his story. The verse simply admits that he came from a family without great or memorable heritage. He became a priest without having the genealogy to “certify” him – that is, he did not come from the Levites, who were intensely concerned with keeping track of genealogies. As for his perpetual priesthood, we can only speculate as to whether or not Melchizedek experienced death. Perhaps this verse teaches that he was taken up to heaven without bodily death, similar to the transformation of great men like Enoch or Elijah. Most likely, this interpretation is a stretch, and the verse simply means that his type, or class, of priesthood reigns on in the form of Christ, who never experienced a final death and rules at the right hand of God to this day.

The main point behind all of this is that Melchizedek is unique. He is unique from the evil kings of his age. He is unique in the sense that he lived as both a priest and a king at the same time. He is unique in that he had no descendants who carried on his class of high priesthood after him. He is unique from all other priests before or after him, save Christ himself, and he is unique in that he seems to appear on the spot in the story of the Bible and disappears almost as quickly. We only get a brief glimpse of the magnificent faith, hope, and righteousness of this high priest.

Christ’s high priesthood is similar to Melchizedek’s, which is why the two of them are so closely linked in the scriptures. Melchizedek is a type of Christ, or a foreshadow of the kind of priest-king that our Lord would be. His priesthood, however, is not limited by the problems of the physical body, specifically in death. Though the physical high priests all died from those causes which so easily infirm the human frame, Christ conquered death by not only experiencing it, but escaping from it. He died once for all, but was raised from the grave, establishing Himself as the supreme high priest for all time. This is described most eloquently in Hebrews 7:23-25. Notice a few key phrases in this passage. “Because He abides forever, He holds His priesthood permanently” (7:24). There is a very practical application that we can make to this verse – it has already been shown that at the extinction of a high priesthood, there must of necessity be the change of a law (7:12). Since Christ’s priesthood will never become extinct, that means His law will always abide as the one and only standard of judgment (John 12:48). Any other Gospel, then, would simply be profanity in the eyes of our high priest.

Discussion Question: What are the practical applications of having a high priest who abides perpetually ?

Like the great King Melchizedek, Jesus is a priest and a king at the same time, ruling over us in a way that is unique among all the high priests who ever lived under the Old Law. Let us never get so caught up in the affairs of this life and this world that we forget how much we need Christ. And let us never become so arrogant that we assume we have ever done enough to pay Him back for all that He has freely given. He demands humble obedience from all of us (Hebrews 5:8-10).

Closing Thoughts

“The Lord is at Thy right hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath. He will judge among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will shatter the chief men over a broad country” (Psalm 110:5-6). We must not be too surprised by this portion of the prophecy, although many people are. According to today’s thought, Jesus is all about love and peace. It is incongruent with modern philosophy to consider Him in terms of violence and wrath, as per this philosophy. But we must remember that even Jesus Himself considered this very psalm as authoritatively given by God (Matthew 22:43). Rather than be disappointed by what we read in this part of the psalm, let us rejoice that such a terrible fate does not have to befall us, if we choose to obey Christ and love Him with all our hearts. It is only the evil people of the world who will be shattered, broken, and left for dead. It is only the wicked and arrogant who will find themselves alone on the day of Judgement, with only the expectation of Hell to keep them company. We can be saved by Jesus, not destroyed by Him!