Psalm 110: The King and Priest
Intro: I love this Psalm! It is a testimony to the greatness of the relationship between Jesus and the Father. It also gives us a prophetic look at the career of Jesus including the Kingly and Priestly roles. Jesus also uses this Psalm to teach that He is God almighty.
Psalm 110:1-3 The King Rules
The LORD is the Father and the Lord is the Son Jesus. Jesus is being addressed in the Psalm by David calling the Messiah his Lord. Jesus brought this up in Matt.22:41-46 explaining to the Pharisees that He was both David’s son and his Lord. LORD is the Hebrew name for God, Yahweh, and is the covenant name which God distinguished about Himself in Ex.3:15, ‘This is My name forever and this is My memorial Name to all generations.’ Lord is the Hebrew word Adonai and means a lord over men or it means God. Consider Gen.18:27, And Abraham replied, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes.” Dt.10:17 is important in this regard, “For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.” Jesus was equating Himself in Matt.22 to God by showing the Pharisees that He was not a man only but also the living God. Whoever says that they believe in Jesus and treat Him as less than God Almighty, they do not know Jesus.
The Kingly work of Jesus is administered by the Father. He says ‘sit and My right hand’ and He will make Jesus ‘enemies His footstool.’ This is important to the Psalm, because the rulership of Jesus is the central message. Focus your attention on the ‘yours’ that the Father is talking about. (your enemies 2x’s, your people, your power, your strong scepter, your youth) Jesus is going to have a day of power when He will take control of this world and rule it with a rod of iron!
Psalm 110:4 The Priest
This is an important passage because it teaches us how Jesus is a priest although He is not from the tribe of Levi. Melchizedek came out of nowhere in Gen.14:18 and is a mysterious figure. His order as a priest is not made known to us but is explained in Hebrews 7. Please read Hebrews 7 and note that since Melchizedek preceded Levi His priesthood is greater than Levi’s and that makes Jesus priesthood greater also! Read Zech.6:12-13 and note what you learn about Jesus as a priest? By the way, Jesus and Melchizedek are the same person!
Psalm 110:5-7 The King Fights
In vss.1-3 we had described for us the ‘day of His power’ and now it is the ‘day of His wrath.’ This is the day of which Revelation 6-19 describes for us. As a king, Jesus is going to demonstrate His right to rule by carrying out the punishment on all of His enemies on the earth. The nations of the world are resisting Jesus and claiming that He has no rights over them. This battle comes to a head and is described for us as wrath, filling the nations with corpses. In vss. 5-6 it describes the battle and vs.7 describes the peace that comes. Jesus will rule over the world and show us how it is done! It will be a great day in which the world will experience the fullness of what it always hoped for. Nation will not lift up its hand to other nations in war, there will be peace and success! Jesus describes the aftermath of the battle in Is.63:1-4 what do you observe? Notice that Jesus is a warrior who fights against His enemies and prevails.
