December 3, 2025 • 47 mins
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Psalm 110 doesn’t mention a manger, shepherds, or angels. Yet it gives us one of the clearest pictures of who the baby in Bethlehem really is: the eternal King and Priest who will rule over all and bring His people back to God.
In this Christmas episode, we trace how Psalm 110 reveals the identity and mission of the Messiah and how the New Testament writers apply this ancient psalm directly to Jesus.
In this week’s episode, we explore:
- Why it matters that Psalm 110 is “a Psalm of David” and how Jesus Himself uses that authorship to reveal the Messiah’s greatness
- What it means for the Messiah to sit at God’s right hand and how that image explains the authority and scope of His reign
- How the promise that enemies will become a “footstool” points to a final, decisive victory over all evil and opposition to God
- The surprising declaration that the Messiah is “a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” and why that matters more than the Levitical priesthood
- How Matthew 22, Acts 2, and 1 Corinthians 15 each reach back to Psalm 110 to identify Jesus as David’s Lord, God’s chosen King, and our eternal Priest
- What Psalm 110 adds to our understanding of Christmas: not just the birth of a child, but the arrival of the One who will rule, judge, and reconcile forever
After listening, you’ll come away with a clearer, richer vision of who Jesus is at Christmas, not only the promised son of David, but the greater Lord whom David himself calls “my Lord.” You’ll see how Psalm 110 anchors the Christmas story in God’s larger purpose: a reigning King, a forever Priest, and a sure promise that history is moving toward the day when every enemy is subdued and God’s people stand secure in His kingdom.
Series: Christmas
Start Strong: A New Believer’s Guide to Christianity launches January 9, but you can pre-order your copy now. Just visit StartStrongBook.org for more details.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Krisan Marotta (00:43):
Welcome to the Wednesday in the Word podcast.
I'm Krisan Morata, and this ismy podcast about what the Bible
means and how we know.
This week we're doing somethinga little different.
For Christmas, I'm taking us toPsalm 110, which is one of the
most often quoted passages inthe New Testament, and it's a
powerful glimpse into theidentity of the Messiah.
(01:06):
It may not sound like atraditional Christmas test.
There's no manger, no shepherd,no angel singing in the sky,
but this ancient psalm, writtenabout a thousand years before
Jesus was born, helps us answerone of the most important
questions of the season.
As Christians, what are wecelebrating at Christmas?
Are we celebrating the birth ofa wise teacher who told us how
(01:30):
to be kind and love one another?
Or are we celebrating somethingfar greater and someone far
greater?
Psalm 110 shows us that thebaby in the manger is not just a
child of promise.
He is the king who will conquerevery enemy and the priest who
brings us back to God once andfor all.
That's what we'll explore intoday's episode.
(01:53):
Psalm 110 is what scholars calla messianic psalm.
It's a psalm that points usforward to the coming of the
Christ or the Messiah.
But this psalm doesn't point tohis birth, it points to his
mission, his power, and hiseternal ring.
If Christmas marks the momentthe Messiah entered the world,
Psalm 110 helps us understandwhy he came and who he really
(02:17):
is.
We're going to look at thePsalm today and then we're going
to go to the New Testament tosee how the New Testament
authors understand the Psalm.
It's a short one.
Let me read all seven verses toyou.
Psalm 110.
A Psalm of David The Lord saysto my Lord, Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies yourfootstool.
(02:39):
The Lord sends forth from Zionyour mighty scepter, rule in the
midst of your enemies.
Your people will offerthemselves freely on the day of
your power, in holy garments,from the womb of the morning,
the dew of your youth will beyours.
The Lord has sworn and will notchange his mind.
You are a priest forever afterthe order of Melchizedek.
(03:02):
The Lord is at your right hand.
He will shatter kings on theday of his wrath.
He will execute judgment amongthe nations, filling them with
corpses.
He will shatter chiefs fromover the wide earth.
He will drink from the brook,by the way, therefore he will
lift up his head.
It says it's a Psalm of David,and in many psalms we can skip
(03:29):
knowing who the author is.
It doesn't make any difference.
But in Psalm 110, authorshipmatters a lot.
Understanding who wrote thisPsalm is key to understanding
what it means.
And this isn't biblicalscholars making a claim or a
guess.
Jesus himself calls attentionto the significance of the fact
that David wrote the Psalm.
We'll come back to that in aminute.
(03:50):
David was Israel's greatestking.
He was chosen by God to leadthe nation.
David lived from approximately1040 to 970 BC.
He became ruler over Israelaround 1,000 BC, and God
promised David that the Messiahwould one day come from his
family line and rule on histhrone forever.
(04:14):
King David wrote this song, andhere's what he writes.
We'll start with verse 1.
The Lord says to my Lord, Sitat my right hand until I make
your enemies your footstool.
So the first question we wantto sort out is who is speaking
to who?
We know David is writing, butwho is speaking to who when he
says, The Lord says to my Lord.
(04:36):
If David wasn't the author, ifsome servant in the royal
household or a scribe in thepalace wrote this line, we might
read this verse and think,okay, the Lord is speaking to
the king.
The Lord, and we'll see in amoment that refers to God, said
something to my Lord, and if I'ma servant of King David, then
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my Lord would be the king.
So God said something to David,and that would make sense.
But this isn't a servantwriting, this is David the King
of Israel writing.
And he says, God says to myLord.
Well that's unexpected becausewho would King David call my
Lord?
In ancient Israel there was noone above him, and yet here he
(05:20):
is writing under inspirationthat God is speaking to someone
greater than himself.
Well that tells us right awayDavid's Lord can't be Solomon or
any of the kings who followedfrom his line.
This psalm is pointing tosomeone unique, someone David
calls my Lord, and as we'll see,that is the Messiah.
(05:42):
Now I told you the first Lordin the phrase, the Lord says to
my Lord, referred to God theFather.
How do I know that?
In English, it looks like thesame word is repeated twice,
Lord and Lord, but in Hebrew,we're looking at two different
words.
If you're looking at theEnglish Standard Version, you
may notice that the first Lordis in all capital letters, and
(06:05):
the second time we see it, onlythe first letter is capital.
That's the translator's way oftelling you these are two
different words, but both ofthem are translated Lord.
In many English Bibles, whenyou see the word Lord in all
capital letters, that means thisis the word Yahweh.
This is God's name.
(06:25):
It's the name He revealed toMoses at the burning bush that
means I am He who is.
Now many English Bibles willprint it in small capital
letters to signal the originalHebrew says Yahweh, not the
generic title for Lord, Master,or ruler, which is the word we
have in the second place.
The second Lord is the wordAdonai, which means master,
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Lord, or sovereign.
So what David is saying here isYahweh says to my Adonai, my
master, the one I serve.
For centuries, Jewish traditionheld that you didn't pronounce
the name Yahweh when reading theOld Testament scriptures out
loud.
Out of reverence, they wouldsay Adonai instead, even when
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the text itself said Yahweh.
In many English translations,that tradition has carried over,
and so even today, manytranslations don't put the name
Yahweh in the text.
Instead, they render it Lord inall capital letters.
And that's what we're seeinghere.
Now, sometimes you'll hear itargued that one of the reasons
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we know Jesus is God is becausehe invites people to call him
Lord, or at least he doesn'tcontradict them when they call
him Lord.
They argue that because Lordrefers to God so many times in
the Old Testament, it must be atitle for God, which means Jesus
is claiming to be God when heallows people to use that title
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for him.
Well, as you can see from thisbackground, I don't think that
argument holds water.
I do believe Jesus is Godincarnate, but I don't think
that's the argument we want touse to make that case.
Jesus is allowing people tocall him Adonai, which simply
means Lord or Sir or Master, andit's not a title for God.
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It's what people would sayinstead of saying the name
Yahweh.
And you can see that right herein Psalm 110.
The word Adonai is wellestablished in the Old Testament
as meaning Lord.
In the scriptures, Adonai isthe standard way to refer to
someone in authority, a ruler, aking, a master.
So the fact that Jesus allowspeople to call him Adonai or
(08:38):
Lord says nothing one way or theother about his divinity.
When the New Testament authorsrefer to Jesus as Lord, I think
the primary emphasis is on hisauthority, not his divine
nature.
To say Jesus is Lord is to sayJesus is King, He is our master,
He is the one who rules over usand the one we must obey.
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And that's what David isrecognizing here.
He says, God spoke to my Lord,to someone who holds a higher
rank even than Israel's greatestking.
God says something to my ruler,my sovereign, the one I serve.
And what did God say to thatperson?
Let's look at verse one again.
The Lord says to my Lord, Sitat my right hand until I make
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your enemies your footstool.
Now the right hand of God is asymbolic way of describing a
place of authority.
Just think of any old moviesyou've watched where someone is
granted an audience with theking.
The king sits on the throne andhis servants and attendants all
stand around him.
When a visitor approaches theking, the visitor bows or kneels
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to show his respect andsubmission.
The only people in the room whosit are those on either side of
the king, especially the personat his right.
And they sit not becausethey're kings themselves, but
because they've been honoredwith that position of authority.
So the queen might be on hisright and his most trusted
servant on his left, or viceversa.
(10:10):
Their authority comes fromtheir proximity to the king.
They can speak and act on hisbehalf.
When others interact with thepeople on the king's right or
left, they are effectivelyinteracting with the king, and
that's the image we have here.
When God says, sit at my righthand, he's saying, I'm giving
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you a seat beside me.
Not a seat in the room, but I'mgiving you a place of power and
authority.
I'm giving you the authority tospeak for me.
And when people respond to you,they are responding to me,
because I'm giving you authorityto rule with my backing, my
name, and a place next to mythrone.
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That's no small appointment.
And then there's the secondpart of the line, until I make
your enemies a footstool foryour feet.
Now there's an importantemphasis here on the idea of
until God has declared to thisperson who is David's Lord, the
one who is more important eventhan Israel's greatest king, God
(11:13):
has declared to him, I amputting you at my right hand,
giving you authority, and youwill be there until I take your
enemies and make them afootstool for your feet.
Right now your enemies arerunning around loose.
They're out there plottingagainst you, thinking they have
the upper hand.
But the day is coming when I,God, am going to take all your
(11:34):
enemies and subdue them sothoroughly and completely that
it will be as if they are afootstool for your feet.
And on that day, you willfinally and irrevocably be
established as ruling over them.
Right now you sit at my righthand with my authority, but on
that day all rebellion will end,all your enemies will be
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conquered and subdued, and youwill have control over all of
them.
Now, as we'll see, God has twothings to say in the Psalm to
the king who is greater thanDavid.
This is the first one sit at myright hand until I make your
enemies a footstool for yourfeet.
I'm giving you a place ofimportance and authority, and
there you will be until I subdueevery enemy in all creation
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under your rule.
That's the first declaration.
But before we get to the secondone, he further explores this
picture of authority.
This is verse 2.
The Lord sends forth from Zionyour mighty scepter.
Rule in the midst of yourenemies.
Zion is another name forJerusalem.
In other words, this king isruling from Jerusalem.
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He's sitting on the throne ofDavid, but he is greater than
David, and God will extend hisrule out over all his enemies.
When David ruled over Israel,he extended the borders of its
lands, but he still had enemiesto deal with.
He had to keep beating back thePhilistines and all the others
who threatened them.
Unlike David, this king isgoing to prevail over all of his
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enemies.
This is another way of statingthe promise God will make his
enemies a footstool for hisfeet.
This isn't some small borderconflict between neighbors.
This isn't one local dictatorskirmishing with another
dictator over a small patch ofland.
This is the author and creatorof the universe declaring that
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his appointed king, his messiah,is going to rule over
everything.
The enemies of this king arethe enemies of God.
And God tolerates them for now.
God gives them some time towake up and change sides, but
the day is coming when hispatience will end and he will
fully and finally establish hisrule through his chosen king
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over all creation.
So Psalm 110 is describing thefinal battle between the forces
of good and the forces of evilthat will decide the fate of the
world.
And who is going to prevail?
God is declaring right now, noenemy will remain, no opposition
will stand, the Messiah willrule, and his rule will be
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complete.
In other words, Psalm 110 isdescribing what the New
Testament calls the kingdom ofGod or the kingdom of heaven.
When Jesus began his publicministry on earth, he claimed
the kingdom of God is at hand.
He wasn't inventing a new idea.
He's stepping into this verystory.
(14:34):
He, Jesus, is this king, theone David called my Lord.
He's the one God seats at hisright hand, and he is the one
whose rule will extend fromJerusalem over all the earth,
and all his enemies will bevanquished.
The Psalm gives us this poeticpreview of exactly what the New
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Testament means when it talksabout Jesus returning and
establishing his rule over allthe earth.
The kingdom of God is not justa nice idea that maybe there's
some kind of heaven somewhere wecan go to after we die.
The kingdom of God is thedeclared, predicted coming reign
of God's chosen king.
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A kingdom where no enemy of Godremains, a kingdom where every
rival power has been subdued,and a kingdom where
righteousness and justice are nolonger hoped for, but fully
realized.
He goes on in verse three Yourpeople will offer themselves
freely on that day of yourpower, in holy garments from the
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womb of the morning, the dew ofyour youth will be yours.
So this verse adds a newdetail.
The king does not stand alone.
Now we see his people, all ofthose who belong to him, join
him willingly.
Your people will offerthemselves freely on the day of
your power.
In other words, on the day whenthe king steps out in might, he
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won't be alone.
His followers, or his subjects,if you will, will rise to join
him, not grudgingly, not undercompulsion, but freely and
joyfully.
The poetic picture is thisgreat battle is about to begin,
but this army doesn't need to beconscripted or forced or
drafted.
(16:20):
These soldiers come running,and they are clothed in holy
garments, set apart for thisvery purpose, ready, eager, and
willing to stand with theirking.
This is the people of Godanswering the call of their
Messiah, clothed inrighteousness, transformed by
grace, taking their place besidethe king who reigns.
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And this is the picture of avictorious king surrounded by
willing, holy people who serveand belong to him.
And then we have this imageryhere from the womb of the
morning, the dew of your youthwill be yours.
That's a bit confusing.
I'm not sure I fully understoodit.
The poetry is a little vague.
And over the years, Biblestudents have suggested several
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different proposals for exactlywhat's going on in this verse.
It's hard to be specific.
I think the idea is first we'rebeing asked to picture the
dawn, the beginning of the day,as giving birth to something.
That's this phrase, the womb ofthe morning.
I think that's a vivid way ofsaying when this decisive day
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arrives, it will bring somethingnew and radiant.
It will be as if this day isgiving birth to something new
and wonderful.
And what is that?
Well, the clue we have is thedew of your youth will be yours.
Well, are we talking about theking's youthful strength, his
energy and vigor in the prime oflife?
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That's possible.
Or we could be talking abouthis warriors, his soldiers, the
strong youthful army thatappears like morning dew across
the battlefield because they areso numerous.
That's also possible.
I lean toward the second idea,that this is an image of the
king's people as young, strong,and willing, rising up at dawn,
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eager and ready for the fight,and like dew that covers the
ground, they appear inabundance, fresh, radiant, and a
countless host gathered toserve their king.
I may be right, I may be wrongon that.
I'm not sure we can pin downevery detail with certainty, but
the overall image seems to bethis is a battle scene.
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God's chosen king has enemies,but when the day of his power
comes, the day when God conquersthose enemies, this king will
not be alone.
He will be strong andsurrounded by strong willing
people.
Now, we could argue whetherthis should be taken as a
literal battle or figurativebattle.
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I'm not going to get into thatdebate, but I think the point
either way is God's rule throughthis appointed king will be
fully and finally established.
That brings us to God's seconddeclaration.
This is verse 4.
The Lord has sworn and will notchange his mind.
You are a priest forever afterthe order of Melchizedek.
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Now we need to let thislanguage, Yahweh has sworn and
will not change his mind, carrythe weight it deserves.
This isn't just a passivestatement.
God has sworn, he has taken anoath, a solemn promise and a
vow.
This is God saying, This iswhat I have decreed.
I am not revising it, I'm notreversing it.
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This decree is final.
If you want to know what God'sdoing in the world, what all of
history is moving toward, thisis it.
And what has God sworn?
This king who sits at my righthand, this king, the one David
calls my Lord, is also a priestforever.
Now we might not feel thetension here at first, but I
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think David's original audiencewould absolutely have been a
little bit shocked by this,because in ancient Israel, the
priesthood wasn't open to justanyone.
Random Israelites could notjust simply decide, hey, I think
I want to serve as a priest.
To be a priest, you had to be adescendant of Levi.
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The entire priestly system wasbuilt around that tribe.
That's why we call it theLevitical priesthood.
And God established that systemhimself.
He decreed that when theyentered the land, only those
from the tribe of Levi couldbecome priests.
But David isn't writing about aLevite.
In fact, none of David'sdescendants are Levites.
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David is writing about a kingwho will rule from Jerusalem.
And Israel knows that kingscome from the tribe of Judah,
the tribe of David, not from thetribe of Levi.
In fact, David has already beenpromised that the throne will
stay in his family line forever,which means the Messiah, the
one who rules from David'sthrone, must be from the tribe
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of Judah.
So how can this king also be apriest?
Well, the answer to that liesin the last phrase after the
order of Melchizedek.
So the next question we have toanswer is who was Melchizedek?
And we need to go back toGenesis 14.
Let me give you a little bit ofbackground.
This is a story about Abraham,who was still called Abram at
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this point.
He gets pulled into a regionalconflict.
A group of kings went to warwith each other.
They raided Sodom and Gomorrah,and in the process, they
captured Abraham's nephew, Lot.
So Abram decides, I need to goand free Lot.
And he arms his men, goes outto battle, and defeats all the
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other kings, freeing Lot.
On his way back after thisvictory, we get this little
story.
This is Genesis 14, verses 17through 20.
After his return from thedefeat of Kerda Laomer, the
kings who were with him, theking of Sodom, went out to meet
him at the valley of Shiva, thatis the king's valley.
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And Melchizedek, King of Salem,brought out bread and wine.
He was a priest of God mosthigh.
And he blessed him and said,Blessed be Abram by God most
high, possessor of heaven andearth, and blessed be God most
high, who has delivered yourenemies into your hand.
And Abram gave him a tenth ofeverything.
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So after this battle we meetthis man Melchizedek, and we're
told two things about him.
He is a king of Salem, and heis a priest of God most high.
Now Salem is the area that willeventually become Jerusalem.
The Salem in Jerusalem comesfrom this name.
Melchizedek is both a king anda priest, and not just any
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priest, he's a priest of the onetrue God, the God most high.
And he's a priest in the regionthat will become Jerusalem.
He probably didn't know thename Yahweh because God hadn't
revealed that name yet.
He reveals that later to Moses.
But Melchizedek clearlyworships the same God.
And Abram recognizes that theyserve the same God.
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He receives a blessing fromthis priest, and in response, he
gives Melchizedek a tenth ofeverything.
That's a gesture of respectthat shows Abram recognizes
Melchizedek's spiritualauthority.
Now Melchizedek stands outsidethe Levitical priesthood.
This is long before Levi waseven born, but here is a priest
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who was appointed not bylineage, but by God himself.
And that's what Psalm 110 ispicking up on.
The Messiah will not be apriest because of his ancestry.
He won't follow the order ofLevi.
Instead, he will be a priestlike Melchizedek, appointed by
God to rule both as king and toserve as priest.
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So what God is saying herethrough David about this figure,
this one David calls my Lord,is this.
But unlike Melchizedek or anyother priest before him, his
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role will be eternal.
God has sworn it, and he willnot change his mind.
The only person who is bothking forever and priest forever
is the Messiah.
Now the Psalm continues, let'slook at the last three verses.
The Lord is at your right hand,he will shatter kings on the
day of his wrath, he willexecute judgment among the
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nations, filling them withcorpses, he will shatter chiefs
over the wide earth.
He will drink from the brook bythe way, therefore he will lift
up his head.
All right, now the imagery hasshifted.
In the first few verses of thepsalm, we were in the throne
room.
God was on his throne, and thisking was seated next to him at
his right hand, ruling withauthority.
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Now the scene has shifted to abattlefield.
The king is going out to war,and God is standing at the
king's right hand.
Now this doesn't mean they'vereversed roles.
The psalm is not saying theking is now over God.
This is a different picturealtogether.
The king is leading the battle,and at his side, his ally in
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the fight is God Himself, whichmeans the outcome of this battle
is not in question.
When the creator of theuniverse fights at your side,
you are not going to lose.
And this day of battle, whichthe Psalm calls the day of his
wrath, is the day at the end ofhistory as we know it, when God
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steps in to judge his enemies.
On this day, every earthlyruler, everyone who set
themselves against God and hisMessiah will be brought low,
kings will be shattered, nationswill be held accountable, and
all rebellion to God and hisking will end.
And as the New Testament says,every knee will bow and every
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tongue confess that Jesus, theMessiah, is Lord.
Now, yes, the poetry is alittle gritty and graphic.
It says he will fill the nationwith corpses.
That's not pleasant, but it'snot really supposed to be.
The psalm is giving us asobering picture of a very real
coming judgment.
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This is the cost of defying theGod who made us.
And it's a reminder, this worldisn't going to go on forever
just like this.
Violence, injustice,corruption, rebellion, those
things don't get the final word.
The day is coming when God willsay enough.
No more pretending God doesn'texist, no more ignoring God's
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rule.
God will step in and his kingwill reign.
And we get that final kind ofcryptic line: He will drink from
the brook by the way, thereforehe will lift up his head.
Again, I'm not sure I fullyunderstood this, but remember,
we're in the middle of a battle.
And this is not a modern battlewith satellites and drones.
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This is an ancient boots on theground kind of battle where
swords are hitting swords and aking is surrounded by his
soldiers.
And the king's in the front,riding, running, fighting,
leading his people as theypursue the enemy.
And the picture seems to be: this king is so thoroughly (28:18):
undefined
winning.
His enemies are so thoroughlyon their run, and the outcome is
so certain that this king hasthe leisure to pause and take a
drink from a stream.
He can very calmly stoop down,take a drink, and then lift his
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head, refreshed and ready tocontinue, because he is so
thoroughly winning this battle.
He's not hurried, he's notpanicked, he's not pressed, he's
not worried about getting hitfrom behind.
He is in command.
He is so thoroughly winningthis battle in such a decisive
way that he has the leisureright in the middle of it to
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stop for a drink.
So to summarize the psalm, wehave a prophetic statement from
David.
David is not speaking abouthimself.
He is speaking about someonegreater than he is, someone he
calls my Lord.
He tells us God has declaredtwo things about this person.
First, this Lord will be king,he will be seated at God's right
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hand, the place of highestauthority, and God will give him
rule over all.
He sits there now, but the dayis coming when every one of his
enemies will be defeated andevery one of his rivals will
fall.
Second, this Lord, this king,is a priest.
In addition to being a king whorules with strength and
(29:45):
righteousness, he will be apriest who intercedes for his
people and reconciles them toGod.
He will be like Melchizedekoutside the line of Levi, but
directly appointed by God to beboth king and priest.
So now we just need to know whois this king who is both king
and priest.
Well, David doesn't tell us,but the New Testament does.
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This psalm is about the Christ,the Messiah, and more
specifically, it's about Jesus.
The one Jesus refers to as myLord in this psalm is Jesus of
Nazareth.
He is the one seated at theright hand of God, and he is the
one who has been given ruleover all.
He is both king and priestforever.
And the New Testament makesthis connection clearer.
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So what I'd like to do is takeyou to a couple of places in the
New Testament where Jesus andthe New Testament authors point
this psalm back to Jesus.
The first place I want to lookis Matthew chapter 22, verses 41
through 45.
This is a little confrontationbetween Jesus and the Pharisees.
Now, while the Pharisees weregathered together, Jesus asked
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them a question, saying, What doyou think about the Christ?
Whose son is he?
They said to him, The son ofDavid.
He said to them, How is it thenthat David in the Spirit calls
him Lord?
saying, The Lord said to myLord, Sit at my right hand until
I put your enemies under yourfeet.
If then David calls him Lord,how is he his son?
(31:18):
And no one was able to answerhim a word, nor from that day
did anyone dare to ask him anymore questions.
Now notice the question thatsets up this discussion.
What do you think about theChrist?
Well, Christ is the Greek wordfor the Hebrew word Messiah, and
Messiah means God's anointedone.
(31:39):
It was the word they used forthe anointed king who would
reign forever from the Davidicthrone.
In other words, for the personwho's described in Psalm 110.
So the context of thisdiscussion is who is the Christ?
Who is the Messiah?
What do you know about him?
And this is one of thosemoments where Jesus doesn't
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contradict the Pharisees so muchas challenge them to expand the
way they think.
Jesus himself is in the line ofDavid, and the New Testament
makes a big point of that.
That's not the issue.
Jesus asks, What do you thinkabout the Christ, whose son is
(32:21):
he?
And they respond, the son ofDavid, and that's a good answer,
but he challenges them to thinkmore.
He quotes Psalm 110.
He said to them, How is it thenthat David in the Spirit calls
him Lord?
saying, The Lord said to myLord, Sit at my right hand until
I put your enemies under yourfeet.
If then David calls him Lord,how is he his son?
(32:44):
Now implicit in the questionJesus asks is that Psalm 110 is
about the Messiah.
Remember, the question underdiscussion is, who do you think
the Messiah is?
The Messiah is a son of David.
Well, why did David call theMessiah my Lord?
If David was talking aboutsomeone else in Psalm 110,
(33:06):
Jesus' question would make nosense.
David called the Messiah myLord, why did he do that?
So that gives us pretty solidevidence that Jesus himself
understood this psalm to beabout the Messiah.
Now, what's behind his questionis in their world, the founder
of a family line, the patriarch,held the highest place of
(33:28):
honor.
He's the origin point.
Everything else flows from him.
For example, Abraham is thefather of the Jewish people.
He's the one to whom God firstmade the promises about a
nation, a people, and a land.
And the Jews rightly callthemselves children of Abraham
because he stands at thebeginning.
He's the patriarch.
(33:49):
His significance isfoundational.
No one who comes after himsurpasses Abraham in stature.
Well, the same kind of thinkingapplies to David.
David was the first chosen kingof Israel.
He established the dynasty thatbears his name.
When we speak of it, we don'ttalk about Solomon, we don't
(34:10):
call it the Solomon dynasty, wecall it the Davidic line, the
Davidic throne.
David is the one who stamps hisname on the house, and his is
the name that matters.
Any king who comes after him,no matter how great, derives his
significant from the fact thathe is a son of David.
So when the Pharisees say theMessiah is a son of David, they
(34:34):
are putting the Messiah underDavid, so to speak.
He's important because of hisidentity, and his identity flows
from the promises given toDavid.
But Jesus challenges thatassumption.
He says, What if the Messiah ismore than David's son?
What if he's actually greaterthan David?
What if David, under theinspiration of the Holy Spirit,
(34:57):
recognized that one of thepeople who would come after him
was also greater than him?
And that's what Psalm 110reveals.
The Lord said to my Lord,David, the king of Israel, looks
ahead and calls the Messiahgreater than he is, which means
the Messiah doesn't just carryon the Davidic line, he fulfills
it, he surpasses it, he becomesthe greatest king.
(35:21):
So, yes, in one sense, theMessiah is a son of David, he's
in the Davidic line, a physicaldescendant of David.
And in that sense, he fulfillsthe promises made to David.
But David, under theinspiration of the Spirit, turns
the whole relationship upsidedown and says, he doesn't derive
significance from me, I derivemy significance from him.
(35:43):
He is my Lord, he is my master,and he is greater than me.
And that's the point Jesus ismaking to the Pharisees.
If David calls him Lord, how isthe Messiah his son?
There is a deeper, moreultimate sense in which David
isn't the origin point.
The Messiah doesn't merelycarry on David's legacy, he
(36:04):
fulfills it and surpasses it.
And when all is said and done,it won't be called the house of
David, it's going to be calledthe kingdom of God.
So I think Jesus is correctingtheir limited vision.
They're expecting a souped-upversion of David, a warrior king
to take back the throne, kickout the Romans, and restore the
(36:24):
good old days.
And Jesus is saying, yourthinking's too small.
David wasn't picturing someonewho was going to merely walk in
his footsteps.
He was looking ahead to someonewho would be greater than him,
someone who would rule not onlyover Israel, but over all
creation, who would sit at theright hand of God as both priest
(36:45):
and king.
So this is one of the placeswhere Psalm 110 shows up in the
New Testament, and Jesusconfirms this Psalm was written
by David under the inspirationof the Holy Spirit, and it was
written about the Messiah.
Now, how do we know thatMessiah is Jesus?
Well, let's look at anotherpassage.
Let's go to Acts chapter 2,verses 32 through 36.
(37:10):
This is Peter's sermon on theday of Pentecost.
Peter is standing in front of acrowd in Jerusalem.
This is after the crucifixion,after the resurrection and the
ascension of Jesus, and the HolySpirit has been poured out on
the apostles, and Peter isexplaining who Jesus really is
and what God has done throughhim.
(37:31):
And here's part of what hesays.
This Jesus God raised up, andof that we are all witnesses,
being therefore exalted at theright hand of God, and having
received from the Father thepromise of the Holy Spirit, he
has poured out this that youyourselves are seeing and
hearing.
For David did not ascend intothe heavens, but he himself
(37:54):
says, The Lord said to my Lord,sit at my right hand until I
make your enemies yourfootstool.
Let all the house of Israeltherefore know for certain that
God has made him both Lord andChrist, this Jesus whom you
crucify.
Notice Peter echoes thelanguage of Psalm 110, being
exalted at the right hand of theFather, and then he quotes the
(38:17):
Psalm directly and says, Lookwhat David wrote.
David said, God said to myLord, Sit at my right hand.
And he makes the same pointJesus made to the Pharisees.
David wasn't talking abouthimself.
David didn't ascend intoheaven.
He isn't the one seated at theright hand of God.
That place belongs to someoneelse.
(38:38):
That place belongs to the oneDavid calls my Lord and Master.
And Peter says, I'm here totell you that's Jesus, the Jesus
I followed, the Jesus we allsaw crucified, the Jesus we saw
alive again.
He is the one seated at God'sright hand.
He is the one to whom allenemies will eventually bow.
(39:00):
And so Peter's conclusion tohis fellow Israelites is let all
the house of Israel thereforeknow for certain that God has
made him both Lord and Christ,this Jesus whom you crucified.
In other words, the one Davidwrote about has arrived, and his
name is Jesus.
God exalted him, and God hasdeclared him master and messiah.
(39:24):
Jesus is not just a goodteacher, he's not just a martyr,
he's not even just a miracleworker, he is the risen reigning
king who sits at God's righthand as king and reconciles
God's people to God as priest.
This is the fulfillment ofPsalm 110.
So the first passage we lookedat, Jesus confirms David was
(39:46):
speaking of the Messiah, andhere Peter tells us Jesus is
that Messiah.
And I want to take you to onemore passage.
This is in 1 Corinthians 15, 23through 28.
And in this section, Paul isarguing for the resurrection.
Some in Corinth don't believethere will be a physical
resurrection, and Paul issetting them straight.
(40:08):
So speaking of theresurrection, he says this, but
each in his own order, Christthe first fruits, then at his
coming, those who belong toChrist.
Then comes the end, when hedelivers the kingdom to God, the
Father, after destroying everyrule and every authority and
power.
For he must reign until he hasput all his enemies under his
(40:30):
feet.
The last enemy to be destroyedis death.
Now, I'm going to stop therefor a second.
That language should soundfamiliar.
That phrase, he must reignuntil he has put all his enemies
under his feet, that is echoingPsalm 110.
And Paul is arguing, this ishow things are going to play
out.
First, Jesus rose from thedead.
(40:51):
That happened three days afterthe crucifixion.
Then when he comes again at theend, when he delivers the
kingdom to God after defeatingevery one of his enemies, he
raises us his people from thedead, and then comes the end
(41:11):
where he conquers everything,including death.
And then Paul continues, thisis verse 27.
For God has put all things insubjection under his feet.
But when it says all things areput in subjection, it is plain
that he is accepted who put allthings in subjection under him.
When all things are subjectedto him, then the Son Himself
(41:33):
will also be subjected to Himwho put all things in subjection
under him, that God may be allin all.
Now that's a lot of subjecting,and that's pretty confusing
language, but what he's sayingis all things in subjection does
not include Jesus.
Here's the picture.
And once he has done that, oncenothing is left standing
(42:11):
against the will of God, noteven death itself, he places all
of that at the feet of theFather.
And this is the battlepoetically described in Psalm
110.
We're left with a world that isfully restored, fully renewed,
Christ under God, creation underChrist, everything fully and
finally under the will of God,no more sin, no more death, no
(42:34):
decay or destruction, but aworld, a creation made new,
where we are ruled byrighteousness and life.
That's the future.
That's the fulfillment of Psalm110.
This is what God decreed andwill not change his mind, will
happen.
The whole story of creation ismoving toward this day.
But again, notice the languagePaul uses.
(42:57):
He must reign until he has putall his enemies under his feet.
Once more, he's reaching backto Psalm 110.
This is the same phrase, thesame promise.
Jesus is reigning now.
He's already seated at theright hand of the Father.
That's happened.
That's real and present.
What hasn't happened yet is allhis enemies are not subdued.
(43:18):
So we live in that in-betweentime, the time of waiting for
the day to come and expecting itto come.
And this is where we are in thestory.
We're looking ahead to the daywhen he will rescue us from
death, when he will reignvisibly and unopposed, and his
rule will extend overeverything.
So let's wrap this up.
(43:38):
When you step back and look atall these texts, here's the
heart of it.
Jesus Christ is the Messiah,and he is coming back to
establish his rule.
In the Psalm, we're given aglimpse of God making two grand
sweeping declarations.
First, the Messiah, who isgreater than David, will be
exalted.
(43:59):
He will sit at God's righthand.
He will be given all power andauthority, and in time every one
of his enemies will be placedbeneath his feet.
And second, this king will be apriest forever.
He will be a priest who canreconcile his people to God and
God to the people.
He stands in the gap and solvesthe problem of our sin once and
(44:24):
for all.
And when the New Testamentopens and declares that Jesus is
the Christ, this is what itmeans.
He is the Messiah.
He is this king who is seatedeven now at the right hand of
God.
And he is the priest who bringsus to God, who offers us
forgiveness and makes peacepossible.
So when we come to Christmas,we're remembering more than a
(44:47):
silent night or a manger scene.
We're celebrating the arrivalof the Messiah, the one who came
to bring peace on earth andreconcile us to God.
At Christmas, we celebrate thebaby who is born to be Christ.
We're celebrating the arrivalof the one David called my Lord,
the one God promised would ruleand redeem, the one who has
(45:10):
been exalted and will return toconquer.
And Christmas marks asignificant step in the
fulfillment of Psalm 110.
The long-awaited king has cometo earth.
The eternal priest has steppedinto history.
God's promise has taken onflesh.
And that's what we'recelebrating when we celebrate
Christmas.
Thank you for listening toWednesday in the Word, the
(45:34):
podcast that explains not onlywhat a passage means, but also
shows you how to figure it out.
The blog version of thispodcast is on
Wednesdayintheword.com slashPsalm110.
You can find more episodes likethis on my website,
WednesdaytheWord.com.
There's no charge, no spam, andno ads.
(45:56):
Just free resources to help yougrow in your understanding of
scripture and learn to study itfor yourself.
If you've been blessed by thispodcast, please leave me a
positive rating or reviewwherever you listen.
It really helps people find thepodcast.
But most importantly, tell afriend what you learned and
where you learned it.
(46:16):
Our theme music is graciouslyprovided by my friend and my
favorite musician, ReggieCoates.
You can hear all of Reggie'smusic on heartfeltmusic.org.
Thank you for joining me today.
I'm Krissan Morata, and I'llsee you next week at Wednesday
in the Word.
Welcome to the Wednesday in the Word podcast.
I'm Krisan Morata, and this ismy podcast about what the Bible
means and how we know.
This week we're doing somethinga little different.
For Christmas, I'm taking us toPsalm 110, which is one of the
most often quoted passages inthe New Testament, and it's a
powerful glimpse into theidentity of the Messiah.
(01:06):
It may not sound like atraditional Christmas test.
There's no manger, no shepherd,no angel singing in the sky,
but this ancient psalm, writtenabout a thousand years before
Jesus was born, helps us answerone of the most important
questions of the season.
As Christians, what are wecelebrating at Christmas?
Are we celebrating the birth ofa wise teacher who told us how
(01:30):
to be kind and love one another?
Or are we celebrating somethingfar greater and someone far
greater?
Psalm 110 shows us that thebaby in the manger is not just a
child of promise.
He is the king who will conquerevery enemy and the priest who
brings us back to God once andfor all.
That's what we'll explore intoday's episode.
(01:53):
Psalm 110 is what scholars calla messianic psalm.
It's a psalm that points usforward to the coming of the
Christ or the Messiah.
But this psalm doesn't point tohis birth, it points to his
mission, his power, and hiseternal ring.
If Christmas marks the momentthe Messiah entered the world,
Psalm 110 helps us understandwhy he came and who he really
(02:17):
is.
We're going to look at thePsalm today and then we're going
to go to the New Testament tosee how the New Testament
authors understand the Psalm.
It's a short one.
Let me read all seven verses toyou.
Psalm 110.
A Psalm of David The Lord saysto my Lord, Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies yourfootstool.
(02:39):
The Lord sends forth from Zionyour mighty scepter, rule in the
midst of your enemies.
Your people will offerthemselves freely on the day of
your power, in holy garments,from the womb of the morning,
the dew of your youth will beyours.
The Lord has sworn and will notchange his mind.
You are a priest forever afterthe order of Melchizedek.
(03:02):
The Lord is at your right hand.
He will shatter kings on theday of his wrath.
He will execute judgment amongthe nations, filling them with
corpses.
He will shatter chiefs fromover the wide earth.
He will drink from the brook,by the way, therefore he will
lift up his head.
It says it's a Psalm of David,and in many psalms we can skip
(03:29):
knowing who the author is.
It doesn't make any difference.
But in Psalm 110, authorshipmatters a lot.
Understanding who wrote thisPsalm is key to understanding
what it means.
And this isn't biblicalscholars making a claim or a
guess.
Jesus himself calls attentionto the significance of the fact
that David wrote the Psalm.
We'll come back to that in aminute.
(03:50):
David was Israel's greatestking.
He was chosen by God to leadthe nation.
David lived from approximately1040 to 970 BC.
He became ruler over Israelaround 1,000 BC, and God
promised David that the Messiahwould one day come from his
family line and rule on histhrone forever.
(04:14):
King David wrote this song, andhere's what he writes.
We'll start with verse 1.
The Lord says to my Lord, Sitat my right hand until I make
your enemies your footstool.
So the first question we wantto sort out is who is speaking
to who?
We know David is writing, butwho is speaking to who when he
says, The Lord says to my Lord.
(04:36):
If David wasn't the author, ifsome servant in the royal
household or a scribe in thepalace wrote this line, we might
read this verse and think,okay, the Lord is speaking to
the king.
The Lord, and we'll see in amoment that refers to God, said
something to my Lord, and if I'ma servant of King David, then
(04:57):
my Lord would be the king.
So God said something to David,and that would make sense.
But this isn't a servantwriting, this is David the King
of Israel writing.
And he says, God says to myLord.
Well that's unexpected becausewho would King David call my
Lord?
In ancient Israel there was noone above him, and yet here he
(05:20):
is writing under inspirationthat God is speaking to someone
greater than himself.
Well that tells us right awayDavid's Lord can't be Solomon or
any of the kings who followedfrom his line.
This psalm is pointing tosomeone unique, someone David
calls my Lord, and as we'll see,that is the Messiah.
(05:42):
Now I told you the first Lordin the phrase, the Lord says to
my Lord, referred to God theFather.
How do I know that?
In English, it looks like thesame word is repeated twice,
Lord and Lord, but in Hebrew,we're looking at two different
words.
If you're looking at theEnglish Standard Version, you
may notice that the first Lordis in all capital letters, and
(06:05):
the second time we see it, onlythe first letter is capital.
That's the translator's way oftelling you these are two
different words, but both ofthem are translated Lord.
In many English Bibles, whenyou see the word Lord in all
capital letters, that means thisis the word Yahweh.
This is God's name.
(06:25):
It's the name He revealed toMoses at the burning bush that
means I am He who is.
Now many English Bibles willprint it in small capital
letters to signal the originalHebrew says Yahweh, not the
generic title for Lord, Master,or ruler, which is the word we
have in the second place.
The second Lord is the wordAdonai, which means master,
(06:49):
Lord, or sovereign.
So what David is saying here isYahweh says to my Adonai, my
master, the one I serve.
For centuries, Jewish traditionheld that you didn't pronounce
the name Yahweh when reading theOld Testament scriptures out
loud.
Out of reverence, they wouldsay Adonai instead, even when
(07:12):
the text itself said Yahweh.
In many English translations,that tradition has carried over,
and so even today, manytranslations don't put the name
Yahweh in the text.
Instead, they render it Lord inall capital letters.
And that's what we're seeinghere.
Now, sometimes you'll hear itargued that one of the reasons
(07:32):
we know Jesus is God is becausehe invites people to call him
Lord, or at least he doesn'tcontradict them when they call
him Lord.
They argue that because Lordrefers to God so many times in
the Old Testament, it must be atitle for God, which means Jesus
is claiming to be God when heallows people to use that title
(07:53):
for him.
Well, as you can see from thisbackground, I don't think that
argument holds water.
I do believe Jesus is Godincarnate, but I don't think
that's the argument we want touse to make that case.
Jesus is allowing people tocall him Adonai, which simply
means Lord or Sir or Master, andit's not a title for God.
(08:14):
It's what people would sayinstead of saying the name
Yahweh.
And you can see that right herein Psalm 110.
The word Adonai is wellestablished in the Old Testament
as meaning Lord.
In the scriptures, Adonai isthe standard way to refer to
someone in authority, a ruler, aking, a master.
So the fact that Jesus allowspeople to call him Adonai or
(08:38):
Lord says nothing one way or theother about his divinity.
When the New Testament authorsrefer to Jesus as Lord, I think
the primary emphasis is on hisauthority, not his divine
nature.
To say Jesus is Lord is to sayJesus is King, He is our master,
He is the one who rules over usand the one we must obey.
(09:00):
And that's what David isrecognizing here.
He says, God spoke to my Lord,to someone who holds a higher
rank even than Israel's greatestking.
God says something to my ruler,my sovereign, the one I serve.
And what did God say to thatperson?
Let's look at verse one again.
The Lord says to my Lord, Sitat my right hand until I make
(09:24):
your enemies your footstool.
Now the right hand of God is asymbolic way of describing a
place of authority.
Just think of any old moviesyou've watched where someone is
granted an audience with theking.
The king sits on the throne andhis servants and attendants all
stand around him.
When a visitor approaches theking, the visitor bows or kneels
(09:47):
to show his respect andsubmission.
The only people in the room whosit are those on either side of
the king, especially the personat his right.
And they sit not becausethey're kings themselves, but
because they've been honoredwith that position of authority.
So the queen might be on hisright and his most trusted
servant on his left, or viceversa.
(10:10):
Their authority comes fromtheir proximity to the king.
They can speak and act on hisbehalf.
When others interact with thepeople on the king's right or
left, they are effectivelyinteracting with the king, and
that's the image we have here.
When God says, sit at my righthand, he's saying, I'm giving
(10:30):
you a seat beside me.
Not a seat in the room, but I'mgiving you a place of power and
authority.
I'm giving you the authority tospeak for me.
And when people respond to you,they are responding to me,
because I'm giving you authorityto rule with my backing, my
name, and a place next to mythrone.
(10:52):
That's no small appointment.
And then there's the secondpart of the line, until I make
your enemies a footstool foryour feet.
Now there's an importantemphasis here on the idea of
until God has declared to thisperson who is David's Lord, the
one who is more important eventhan Israel's greatest king, God
(11:13):
has declared to him, I amputting you at my right hand,
giving you authority, and youwill be there until I take your
enemies and make them afootstool for your feet.
Right now your enemies arerunning around loose.
They're out there plottingagainst you, thinking they have
the upper hand.
But the day is coming when I,God, am going to take all your
(11:34):
enemies and subdue them sothoroughly and completely that
it will be as if they are afootstool for your feet.
And on that day, you willfinally and irrevocably be
established as ruling over them.
Right now you sit at my righthand with my authority, but on
that day all rebellion will end,all your enemies will be
(11:56):
conquered and subdued, and youwill have control over all of
them.
Now, as we'll see, God has twothings to say in the Psalm to
the king who is greater thanDavid.
This is the first one sit at myright hand until I make your
enemies a footstool for yourfeet.
I'm giving you a place ofimportance and authority, and
there you will be until I subdueevery enemy in all creation
(12:20):
under your rule.
That's the first declaration.
But before we get to the secondone, he further explores this
picture of authority.
This is verse 2.
The Lord sends forth from Zionyour mighty scepter.
Rule in the midst of yourenemies.
Zion is another name forJerusalem.
In other words, this king isruling from Jerusalem.
(12:43):
He's sitting on the throne ofDavid, but he is greater than
David, and God will extend hisrule out over all his enemies.
When David ruled over Israel,he extended the borders of its
lands, but he still had enemiesto deal with.
He had to keep beating back thePhilistines and all the others
who threatened them.
Unlike David, this king isgoing to prevail over all of his
(13:07):
enemies.
This is another way of statingthe promise God will make his
enemies a footstool for hisfeet.
This isn't some small borderconflict between neighbors.
This isn't one local dictatorskirmishing with another
dictator over a small patch ofland.
This is the author and creatorof the universe declaring that
(13:28):
his appointed king, his messiah,is going to rule over
everything.
The enemies of this king arethe enemies of God.
And God tolerates them for now.
God gives them some time towake up and change sides, but
the day is coming when hispatience will end and he will
fully and finally establish hisrule through his chosen king
(13:51):
over all creation.
So Psalm 110 is describing thefinal battle between the forces
of good and the forces of evilthat will decide the fate of the
world.
And who is going to prevail?
God is declaring right now, noenemy will remain, no opposition
will stand, the Messiah willrule, and his rule will be
(14:14):
complete.
In other words, Psalm 110 isdescribing what the New
Testament calls the kingdom ofGod or the kingdom of heaven.
When Jesus began his publicministry on earth, he claimed
the kingdom of God is at hand.
He wasn't inventing a new idea.
He's stepping into this verystory.
(14:34):
He, Jesus, is this king, theone David called my Lord.
He's the one God seats at hisright hand, and he is the one
whose rule will extend fromJerusalem over all the earth,
and all his enemies will bevanquished.
The Psalm gives us this poeticpreview of exactly what the New
(14:54):
Testament means when it talksabout Jesus returning and
establishing his rule over allthe earth.
The kingdom of God is not justa nice idea that maybe there's
some kind of heaven somewhere wecan go to after we die.
The kingdom of God is thedeclared, predicted coming reign
of God's chosen king.
(15:15):
A kingdom where no enemy of Godremains, a kingdom where every
rival power has been subdued,and a kingdom where
righteousness and justice are nolonger hoped for, but fully
realized.
He goes on in verse three Yourpeople will offer themselves
freely on that day of yourpower, in holy garments from the
(15:37):
womb of the morning, the dew ofyour youth will be yours.
So this verse adds a newdetail.
The king does not stand alone.
Now we see his people, all ofthose who belong to him, join
him willingly.
Your people will offerthemselves freely on the day of
your power.
In other words, on the day whenthe king steps out in might, he
(16:00):
won't be alone.
His followers, or his subjects,if you will, will rise to join
him, not grudgingly, not undercompulsion, but freely and
joyfully.
The poetic picture is thisgreat battle is about to begin,
but this army doesn't need to beconscripted or forced or
drafted.
(16:20):
These soldiers come running,and they are clothed in holy
garments, set apart for thisvery purpose, ready, eager, and
willing to stand with theirking.
This is the people of Godanswering the call of their
Messiah, clothed inrighteousness, transformed by
grace, taking their place besidethe king who reigns.
(16:41):
And this is the picture of avictorious king surrounded by
willing, holy people who serveand belong to him.
And then we have this imageryhere from the womb of the
morning, the dew of your youthwill be yours.
That's a bit confusing.
I'm not sure I fully understoodit.
The poetry is a little vague.
And over the years, Biblestudents have suggested several
(17:03):
different proposals for exactlywhat's going on in this verse.
It's hard to be specific.
I think the idea is first we'rebeing asked to picture the
dawn, the beginning of the day,as giving birth to something.
That's this phrase, the womb ofthe morning.
I think that's a vivid way ofsaying when this decisive day
(17:23):
arrives, it will bring somethingnew and radiant.
It will be as if this day isgiving birth to something new
and wonderful.
And what is that?
Well, the clue we have is thedew of your youth will be yours.
Well, are we talking about theking's youthful strength, his
energy and vigor in the prime oflife?
(17:44):
That's possible.
Or we could be talking abouthis warriors, his soldiers, the
strong youthful army thatappears like morning dew across
the battlefield because they areso numerous.
That's also possible.
I lean toward the second idea,that this is an image of the
king's people as young, strong,and willing, rising up at dawn,
(18:07):
eager and ready for the fight,and like dew that covers the
ground, they appear inabundance, fresh, radiant, and a
countless host gathered toserve their king.
I may be right, I may be wrongon that.
I'm not sure we can pin downevery detail with certainty, but
the overall image seems to bethis is a battle scene.
(18:28):
God's chosen king has enemies,but when the day of his power
comes, the day when God conquersthose enemies, this king will
not be alone.
He will be strong andsurrounded by strong willing
people.
Now, we could argue whetherthis should be taken as a
literal battle or figurativebattle.
(18:49):
I'm not going to get into thatdebate, but I think the point
either way is God's rule throughthis appointed king will be
fully and finally established.
That brings us to God's seconddeclaration.
This is verse 4.
The Lord has sworn and will notchange his mind.
You are a priest forever afterthe order of Melchizedek.
(19:11):
Now we need to let thislanguage, Yahweh has sworn and
will not change his mind, carrythe weight it deserves.
This isn't just a passivestatement.
God has sworn, he has taken anoath, a solemn promise and a
vow.
This is God saying, This iswhat I have decreed.
I am not revising it, I'm notreversing it.
(19:34):
This decree is final.
If you want to know what God'sdoing in the world, what all of
history is moving toward, thisis it.
And what has God sworn?
This king who sits at my righthand, this king, the one David
calls my Lord, is also a priestforever.
Now we might not feel thetension here at first, but I
(19:57):
think David's original audiencewould absolutely have been a
little bit shocked by this,because in ancient Israel, the
priesthood wasn't open to justanyone.
Random Israelites could notjust simply decide, hey, I think
I want to serve as a priest.
To be a priest, you had to be adescendant of Levi.
(20:18):
The entire priestly system wasbuilt around that tribe.
That's why we call it theLevitical priesthood.
And God established that systemhimself.
He decreed that when theyentered the land, only those
from the tribe of Levi couldbecome priests.
But David isn't writing about aLevite.
In fact, none of David'sdescendants are Levites.
(20:40):
David is writing about a kingwho will rule from Jerusalem.
And Israel knows that kingscome from the tribe of Judah,
the tribe of David, not from thetribe of Levi.
In fact, David has already beenpromised that the throne will
stay in his family line forever,which means the Messiah, the
one who rules from David'sthrone, must be from the tribe
(21:03):
of Judah.
So how can this king also be apriest?
Well, the answer to that liesin the last phrase after the
order of Melchizedek.
So the next question we have toanswer is who was Melchizedek?
And we need to go back toGenesis 14.
Let me give you a little bit ofbackground.
This is a story about Abraham,who was still called Abram at
(21:26):
this point.
He gets pulled into a regionalconflict.
A group of kings went to warwith each other.
They raided Sodom and Gomorrah,and in the process, they
captured Abraham's nephew, Lot.
So Abram decides, I need to goand free Lot.
And he arms his men, goes outto battle, and defeats all the
(21:47):
other kings, freeing Lot.
On his way back after thisvictory, we get this little
story.
This is Genesis 14, verses 17through 20.
After his return from thedefeat of Kerda Laomer, the
kings who were with him, theking of Sodom, went out to meet
him at the valley of Shiva, thatis the king's valley.
(22:08):
And Melchizedek, King of Salem,brought out bread and wine.
He was a priest of God mosthigh.
And he blessed him and said,Blessed be Abram by God most
high, possessor of heaven andearth, and blessed be God most
high, who has delivered yourenemies into your hand.
And Abram gave him a tenth ofeverything.
(22:30):
So after this battle we meetthis man Melchizedek, and we're
told two things about him.
He is a king of Salem, and heis a priest of God most high.
Now Salem is the area that willeventually become Jerusalem.
The Salem in Jerusalem comesfrom this name.
Melchizedek is both a king anda priest, and not just any
(22:52):
priest, he's a priest of the onetrue God, the God most high.
And he's a priest in the regionthat will become Jerusalem.
He probably didn't know thename Yahweh because God hadn't
revealed that name yet.
He reveals that later to Moses.
But Melchizedek clearlyworships the same God.
And Abram recognizes that theyserve the same God.
(23:13):
He receives a blessing fromthis priest, and in response, he
gives Melchizedek a tenth ofeverything.
That's a gesture of respectthat shows Abram recognizes
Melchizedek's spiritualauthority.
Now Melchizedek stands outsidethe Levitical priesthood.
This is long before Levi waseven born, but here is a priest
(23:34):
who was appointed not bylineage, but by God himself.
And that's what Psalm 110 ispicking up on.
The Messiah will not be apriest because of his ancestry.
He won't follow the order ofLevi.
Instead, he will be a priestlike Melchizedek, appointed by
God to rule both as king and toserve as priest.
(23:56):
So what God is saying herethrough David about this figure,
this one David calls my Lord,is this.
But unlike Melchizedek or anyother priest before him, his
(25:13):
role will be eternal.
God has sworn it, and he willnot change his mind.
The only person who is bothking forever and priest forever
is the Messiah.
Now the Psalm continues, let'slook at the last three verses.
The Lord is at your right hand,he will shatter kings on the
day of his wrath, he willexecute judgment among the
(25:36):
nations, filling them withcorpses, he will shatter chiefs
over the wide earth.
He will drink from the brook bythe way, therefore he will lift
up his head.
All right, now the imagery hasshifted.
In the first few verses of thepsalm, we were in the throne
room.
God was on his throne, and thisking was seated next to him at
his right hand, ruling withauthority.
(25:58):
Now the scene has shifted to abattlefield.
The king is going out to war,and God is standing at the
king's right hand.
Now this doesn't mean they'vereversed roles.
The psalm is not saying theking is now over God.
This is a different picturealtogether.
The king is leading the battle,and at his side, his ally in
(26:18):
the fight is God Himself, whichmeans the outcome of this battle
is not in question.
When the creator of theuniverse fights at your side,
you are not going to lose.
And this day of battle, whichthe Psalm calls the day of his
wrath, is the day at the end ofhistory as we know it, when God
(26:39):
steps in to judge his enemies.
On this day, every earthlyruler, everyone who set
themselves against God and hisMessiah will be brought low,
kings will be shattered, nationswill be held accountable, and
all rebellion to God and hisking will end.
And as the New Testament says,every knee will bow and every
(26:59):
tongue confess that Jesus, theMessiah, is Lord.
Now, yes, the poetry is alittle gritty and graphic.
It says he will fill the nationwith corpses.
That's not pleasant, but it'snot really supposed to be.
The psalm is giving us asobering picture of a very real
coming judgment.
(27:20):
This is the cost of defying theGod who made us.
And it's a reminder, this worldisn't going to go on forever
just like this.
Violence, injustice,corruption, rebellion, those
things don't get the final word.
The day is coming when God willsay enough.
No more pretending God doesn'texist, no more ignoring God's
(27:43):
rule.
God will step in and his kingwill reign.
And we get that final kind ofcryptic line: He will drink from
the brook by the way, thereforehe will lift up his head.
Again, I'm not sure I fullyunderstood this, but remember,
we're in the middle of a battle.
And this is not a modern battlewith satellites and drones.
(28:04):
This is an ancient boots on theground kind of battle where
swords are hitting swords and aking is surrounded by his
soldiers.
And the king's in the front,riding, running, fighting,
leading his people as theypursue the enemy.
And the picture seems to be: this king is so thoroughly (28:18):
undefined
winning.
His enemies are so thoroughlyon their run, and the outcome is
so certain that this king hasthe leisure to pause and take a
drink from a stream.
He can very calmly stoop down,take a drink, and then lift his
(28:40):
head, refreshed and ready tocontinue, because he is so
thoroughly winning this battle.
He's not hurried, he's notpanicked, he's not pressed, he's
not worried about getting hitfrom behind.
He is in command.
He is so thoroughly winningthis battle in such a decisive
way that he has the leisureright in the middle of it to
(29:01):
stop for a drink.
So to summarize the psalm, wehave a prophetic statement from
David.
David is not speaking abouthimself.
He is speaking about someonegreater than he is, someone he
calls my Lord.
He tells us God has declaredtwo things about this person.
First, this Lord will be king,he will be seated at God's right
(29:24):
hand, the place of highestauthority, and God will give him
rule over all.
He sits there now, but the dayis coming when every one of his
enemies will be defeated andevery one of his rivals will
fall.
Second, this Lord, this king,is a priest.
In addition to being a king whorules with strength and
(29:45):
righteousness, he will be apriest who intercedes for his
people and reconciles them toGod.
He will be like Melchizedekoutside the line of Levi, but
directly appointed by God to beboth king and priest.
So now we just need to know whois this king who is both king
and priest.
Well, David doesn't tell us,but the New Testament does.
(30:09):
This psalm is about the Christ,the Messiah, and more
specifically, it's about Jesus.
The one Jesus refers to as myLord in this psalm is Jesus of
Nazareth.
He is the one seated at theright hand of God, and he is the
one who has been given ruleover all.
He is both king and priestforever.
And the New Testament makesthis connection clearer.
(30:32):
So what I'd like to do is takeyou to a couple of places in the
New Testament where Jesus andthe New Testament authors point
this psalm back to Jesus.
The first place I want to lookis Matthew chapter 22, verses 41
through 45.
This is a little confrontationbetween Jesus and the Pharisees.
Now, while the Pharisees weregathered together, Jesus asked
(30:56):
them a question, saying, What doyou think about the Christ?
Whose son is he?
They said to him, The son ofDavid.
He said to them, How is it thenthat David in the Spirit calls
him Lord?
saying, The Lord said to myLord, Sit at my right hand until
I put your enemies under yourfeet.
If then David calls him Lord,how is he his son?
(31:18):
And no one was able to answerhim a word, nor from that day
did anyone dare to ask him anymore questions.
Now notice the question thatsets up this discussion.
What do you think about theChrist?
Well, Christ is the Greek wordfor the Hebrew word Messiah, and
Messiah means God's anointedone.
(31:39):
It was the word they used forthe anointed king who would
reign forever from the Davidicthrone.
In other words, for the personwho's described in Psalm 110.
So the context of thisdiscussion is who is the Christ?
Who is the Messiah?
What do you know about him?
And this is one of thosemoments where Jesus doesn't
(32:00):
contradict the Pharisees so muchas challenge them to expand the
way they think.
Jesus himself is in the line ofDavid, and the New Testament
makes a big point of that.
That's not the issue.
Jesus asks, What do you thinkabout the Christ, whose son is
(32:21):
he?
And they respond, the son ofDavid, and that's a good answer,
but he challenges them to thinkmore.
He quotes Psalm 110.
He said to them, How is it thenthat David in the Spirit calls
him Lord?
saying, The Lord said to myLord, Sit at my right hand until
I put your enemies under yourfeet.
If then David calls him Lord,how is he his son?
(32:44):
Now implicit in the questionJesus asks is that Psalm 110 is
about the Messiah.
Remember, the question underdiscussion is, who do you think
the Messiah is?
The Messiah is a son of David.
Well, why did David call theMessiah my Lord?
If David was talking aboutsomeone else in Psalm 110,
(33:06):
Jesus' question would make nosense.
David called the Messiah myLord, why did he do that?
So that gives us pretty solidevidence that Jesus himself
understood this psalm to beabout the Messiah.
Now, what's behind his questionis in their world, the founder
of a family line, the patriarch,held the highest place of
(33:28):
honor.
He's the origin point.
Everything else flows from him.
For example, Abraham is thefather of the Jewish people.
He's the one to whom God firstmade the promises about a
nation, a people, and a land.
And the Jews rightly callthemselves children of Abraham
because he stands at thebeginning.
He's the patriarch.
(33:49):
His significance isfoundational.
No one who comes after himsurpasses Abraham in stature.
Well, the same kind of thinkingapplies to David.
David was the first chosen kingof Israel.
He established the dynasty thatbears his name.
When we speak of it, we don'ttalk about Solomon, we don't
(34:10):
call it the Solomon dynasty, wecall it the Davidic line, the
Davidic throne.
David is the one who stamps hisname on the house, and his is
the name that matters.
Any king who comes after him,no matter how great, derives his
significant from the fact thathe is a son of David.
So when the Pharisees say theMessiah is a son of David, they
(34:34):
are putting the Messiah underDavid, so to speak.
He's important because of hisidentity, and his identity flows
from the promises given toDavid.
But Jesus challenges thatassumption.
He says, What if the Messiah ismore than David's son?
What if he's actually greaterthan David?
What if David, under theinspiration of the Holy Spirit,
(34:57):
recognized that one of thepeople who would come after him
was also greater than him?
And that's what Psalm 110reveals.
The Lord said to my Lord,David, the king of Israel, looks
ahead and calls the Messiahgreater than he is, which means
the Messiah doesn't just carryon the Davidic line, he fulfills
it, he surpasses it, he becomesthe greatest king.
(35:21):
So, yes, in one sense, theMessiah is a son of David, he's
in the Davidic line, a physicaldescendant of David.
And in that sense, he fulfillsthe promises made to David.
But David, under theinspiration of the Spirit, turns
the whole relationship upsidedown and says, he doesn't derive
significance from me, I derivemy significance from him.
(35:43):
He is my Lord, he is my master,and he is greater than me.
And that's the point Jesus ismaking to the Pharisees.
If David calls him Lord, how isthe Messiah his son?
There is a deeper, moreultimate sense in which David
isn't the origin point.
The Messiah doesn't merelycarry on David's legacy, he
(36:04):
fulfills it and surpasses it.
And when all is said and done,it won't be called the house of
David, it's going to be calledthe kingdom of God.
So I think Jesus is correctingtheir limited vision.
They're expecting a souped-upversion of David, a warrior king
to take back the throne, kickout the Romans, and restore the
(36:24):
good old days.
And Jesus is saying, yourthinking's too small.
David wasn't picturing someonewho was going to merely walk in
his footsteps.
He was looking ahead to someonewho would be greater than him,
someone who would rule not onlyover Israel, but over all
creation, who would sit at theright hand of God as both priest
(36:45):
and king.
So this is one of the placeswhere Psalm 110 shows up in the
New Testament, and Jesusconfirms this Psalm was written
by David under the inspirationof the Holy Spirit, and it was
written about the Messiah.
Now, how do we know thatMessiah is Jesus?
Well, let's look at anotherpassage.
Let's go to Acts chapter 2,verses 32 through 36.
(37:10):
This is Peter's sermon on theday of Pentecost.
Peter is standing in front of acrowd in Jerusalem.
This is after the crucifixion,after the resurrection and the
ascension of Jesus, and the HolySpirit has been poured out on
the apostles, and Peter isexplaining who Jesus really is
and what God has done throughhim.
(37:31):
And here's part of what hesays.
This Jesus God raised up, andof that we are all witnesses,
being therefore exalted at theright hand of God, and having
received from the Father thepromise of the Holy Spirit, he
has poured out this that youyourselves are seeing and
hearing.
For David did not ascend intothe heavens, but he himself
(37:54):
says, The Lord said to my Lord,sit at my right hand until I
make your enemies yourfootstool.
Let all the house of Israeltherefore know for certain that
God has made him both Lord andChrist, this Jesus whom you
crucify.
Notice Peter echoes thelanguage of Psalm 110, being
exalted at the right hand of theFather, and then he quotes the
(38:17):
Psalm directly and says, Lookwhat David wrote.
David said, God said to myLord, Sit at my right hand.
And he makes the same pointJesus made to the Pharisees.
David wasn't talking abouthimself.
David didn't ascend intoheaven.
He isn't the one seated at theright hand of God.
That place belongs to someoneelse.
(38:38):
That place belongs to the oneDavid calls my Lord and Master.
And Peter says, I'm here totell you that's Jesus, the Jesus
I followed, the Jesus we allsaw crucified, the Jesus we saw
alive again.
He is the one seated at God'sright hand.
He is the one to whom allenemies will eventually bow.
(39:00):
And so Peter's conclusion tohis fellow Israelites is let all
the house of Israel thereforeknow for certain that God has
made him both Lord and Christ,this Jesus whom you crucified.
In other words, the one Davidwrote about has arrived, and his
name is Jesus.
God exalted him, and God hasdeclared him master and messiah.
(39:24):
Jesus is not just a goodteacher, he's not just a martyr,
he's not even just a miracleworker, he is the risen reigning
king who sits at God's righthand as king and reconciles
God's people to God as priest.
This is the fulfillment ofPsalm 110.
So the first passage we lookedat, Jesus confirms David was
(39:46):
speaking of the Messiah, andhere Peter tells us Jesus is
that Messiah.
And I want to take you to onemore passage.
This is in 1 Corinthians 15, 23through 28.
And in this section, Paul isarguing for the resurrection.
Some in Corinth don't believethere will be a physical
resurrection, and Paul issetting them straight.
(40:08):
So speaking of theresurrection, he says this, but
each in his own order, Christthe first fruits, then at his
coming, those who belong toChrist.
Then comes the end, when hedelivers the kingdom to God, the
Father, after destroying everyrule and every authority and
power.
For he must reign until he hasput all his enemies under his
(40:30):
feet.
The last enemy to be destroyedis death.
Now, I'm going to stop therefor a second.
That language should soundfamiliar.
That phrase, he must reignuntil he has put all his enemies
under his feet, that is echoingPsalm 110.
And Paul is arguing, this ishow things are going to play
out.
First, Jesus rose from thedead.
(40:51):
That happened three days afterthe crucifixion.
Then when he comes again at theend, when he delivers the
kingdom to God after defeatingevery one of his enemies, he
raises us his people from thedead, and then comes the end
(41:11):
where he conquers everything,including death.
And then Paul continues, thisis verse 27.
For God has put all things insubjection under his feet.
But when it says all things areput in subjection, it is plain
that he is accepted who put allthings in subjection under him.
When all things are subjectedto him, then the Son Himself
(41:33):
will also be subjected to Himwho put all things in subjection
under him, that God may be allin all.
Now that's a lot of subjecting,and that's pretty confusing
language, but what he's sayingis all things in subjection does
not include Jesus.
Here's the picture.
And once he has done that, oncenothing is left standing
(42:11):
against the will of God, noteven death itself, he places all
of that at the feet of theFather.
And this is the battlepoetically described in Psalm
110.
We're left with a world that isfully restored, fully renewed,
Christ under God, creation underChrist, everything fully and
finally under the will of God,no more sin, no more death, no
(42:34):
decay or destruction, but aworld, a creation made new,
where we are ruled byrighteousness and life.
That's the future.
That's the fulfillment of Psalm110.
This is what God decreed andwill not change his mind, will
happen.
The whole story of creation ismoving toward this day.
But again, notice the languagePaul uses.
(42:57):
He must reign until he has putall his enemies under his feet.
Once more, he's reaching backto Psalm 110.
This is the same phrase, thesame promise.
Jesus is reigning now.
He's already seated at theright hand of the Father.
That's happened.
That's real and present.
What hasn't happened yet is allhis enemies are not subdued.
(43:18):
So we live in that in-betweentime, the time of waiting for
the day to come and expecting itto come.
And this is where we are in thestory.
We're looking ahead to the daywhen he will rescue us from
death, when he will reignvisibly and unopposed, and his
rule will extend overeverything.
So let's wrap this up.
(43:38):
When you step back and look atall these texts, here's the
heart of it.
Jesus Christ is the Messiah,and he is coming back to
establish his rule.
In the Psalm, we're given aglimpse of God making two grand
sweeping declarations.
First, the Messiah, who isgreater than David, will be
exalted.
(43:59):
He will sit at God's righthand.
He will be given all power andauthority, and in time every one
of his enemies will be placedbeneath his feet.
And second, this king will be apriest forever.
He will be a priest who canreconcile his people to God and
God to the people.
He stands in the gap and solvesthe problem of our sin once and
(44:24):
for all.
And when the New Testamentopens and declares that Jesus is
the Christ, this is what itmeans.
He is the Messiah.
He is this king who is seatedeven now at the right hand of
God.
And he is the priest who bringsus to God, who offers us
forgiveness and makes peacepossible.
So when we come to Christmas,we're remembering more than a
(44:47):
silent night or a manger scene.
We're celebrating the arrivalof the Messiah, the one who came
to bring peace on earth andreconcile us to God.
At Christmas, we celebrate thebaby who is born to be Christ.
We're celebrating the arrivalof the one David called my Lord,
the one God promised would ruleand redeem, the one who has
(45:10):
been exalted and will return toconquer.
And Christmas marks asignificant step in the
fulfillment of Psalm 110.
The long-awaited king has cometo earth.
The eternal priest has steppedinto history.
God's promise has taken onflesh.
And that's what we'recelebrating when we celebrate
Christmas.
Thank you for listening toWednesday in the Word, the
(45:34):
podcast that explains not onlywhat a passage means, but also
shows you how to figure it out.
The blog version of thispodcast is on
Wednesdayintheword.com slashPsalm110.
You can find more episodes likethis on my website,
WednesdaytheWord.com.
There's no charge, no spam, andno ads.
(45:56):
Just free resources to help yougrow in your understanding of
scripture and learn to study itfor yourself.
If you've been blessed by thispodcast, please leave me a
positive rating or reviewwherever you listen.
It really helps people find thepodcast.
But most importantly, tell afriend what you learned and
where you learned it.
(46:16):
Our theme music is graciouslyprovided by my friend and my
favorite musician, ReggieCoates.
You can hear all of Reggie'smusic on heartfeltmusic.org.
Thank you for joining me today.
I'm Krissan Morata, and I'llsee you next week at Wednesday
in the Word.
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