sermon: Psalm Genres (Part Four): Messianic (continued)
In my last sermon, which was a split sermon, and split sermons usually go for about 35 minutes or 40, or if it's me, it's 45 minutes. I had to break off just after I began explaining one of the Messianic Psalms. I had simply prepared too much material for the allotted time, and afterward I realized that I had not covered the Messianic Psalm genre adequately, at least not to my mind. In fact, I actually just finished my introduction and a little bit more. So I thought I would continue with the Messianic Psalms today, give you a brief—I'm telling this to myself—a brief review, a review to refresh our memories and get a bit of a running start. So I'll continue then with the Messianic Psalms and explain a few more of them than I did last time. Like I said, I only just got into one of them and then had to rush through it. This time, if I can get completely through my notes, we will touch on three of them. And one that could be a Messianic Psalm, but it is usually not considered so. So by the end of that, I hope you will have a good idea of what Messianic Psalms involve. So, just as a brief review, Messianic Psalms are Psalms in which the authors, under God's inspiration, prophesy about the coming Savior, Redeemer, and King. And sometimes they give us information, prophesy about His first coming, and at other times it's the second coming. The Jews back in the day got all those things confused, the first and second coming, and they thought that Christ would come with great power and raise them up to be a great nation again, defeating all His enemies, when they totally missed the Psalms about His first coming. So we have to understand that it's not going to be just the first coming or just the second. Also, we need to understand that sometimes the prophecy is speaking only of the Son of God who became Jesus Christ. This is actually more rare than the other way, and that other way is that the Psalm uses a type like David—David in, in his various guises as a shepherd or a king or as a—you know—and, and the other things that he did, running from Saul or, or what have you. And we can see that the events of David's life and the things that he was going through prefigure the life of Christ in His humanity, in His ministry, in His sacrifice for our sins, in His resurrection, or some other aspect of Jesus as the Messiah. So the two ways then: or as just as prophecy of Jesus Himself or a prophecy of Jesus through a type like David. Now, I gave you last time, and I'll reiterate it this time, my pared-down list of Messianic Psalms, just, just in case you need that information now. It's 11 Messianic Psalms across the 150. And there are Psalms 2, 16, 22, 40, 45, 69, 72, 89, 101, 110, and 118. So not a whole lot of Psalms, but we know that there are a lot of other Psalms that are not strictly Messianic Psalms that have Messianic prophecies in them, but usually it's only a verse or two, and so in the larger context they are other types of Psalms, but they have a Messianic prophecy within them. I picked these 11 because they have major portions dedicated to foretelling Christ's life and character and ministry, death, or His rule. You'll find that in various other lists, if you do any studying into them and comparing the various types of Psalm genres; they overlap frequently with royal Psalms and with coronation or enthronement Psalms. So we will see actually today, which could be considered enthronement Psalms or coronation Psalms, and you'll see that they are very obviously Messianic Psalms. Now I left several Messianic Psalms that other people put on their list off my list because, like I said, they only have a verse or two that apply prophetically, and some of those Psalms are Psalm 34, Psalm 41, Psalm 76, and Psalm 96. So altogether the Book of Psalms contains about 70 very clear specific references to Christ. And those are ones, the ones in this list of 70, are fulfilled in the New Testament. So there are other Psalms or other prophecies in the Psalms about Christ that are not fulfilled in the New Testament, so the number of Psalms that contained prophecies about Jesus in one way or the other are multitudinous, more than the 70. Now we in the church could come up with more Psalms or more prophecies in the Psalms that point to Christ than worldly Christianity does because we have access to the Holy Spirit and see connections that they do not; they do not have the wherewithal spiritually to see that this particular Scripture applies to Jesus Christ. Now we have to remember Jesus said in John 16:13 that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth, and He demonstrated that at the end of Luke in chapter 24, I believe it's verse 44, where He opened up the Scriptures to the disciples and showed them all the things in the Old Testament that applied to Him, that spoke of Him. I've thought about that a lot and wondered just how long that meeting was, where He could go through the law, the prophets, and the Psalms and show them all things that applied to Him. I was like, wow. He must have really exploded their minds with insight. OK, I want to go on now and show you one of the Psalms that is not normally thought of as a Messianic Psalm. But I think you'll see that as we go into it that it very much applies to Jesus Christ. It's just not considered one of those kind of Psalms. It's actually considered more of a teaching Psalm or a moralistic Psalm. I forget the title of the kind of Psalm that it is, a didactic Psalm or whatever, but that is Psalm 15. I'd like you to go there. It's one of my favorite Psalms. Not my, you know, last most important favorite one. What am I trying to say? I like Psalm 90 better, but I do really like Psalm 15. Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart; he who does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he honors those who fear the Lord; he who swears to his own hurt and does not change; he who does not put out his money at usury, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent; he who does these things shall never be moved. Now like I say, this Psalm is almost never on lists of Messianic Psalms because the commentators are looking for something specific to match a particular event in Christ's life, or they are looking for a clear allusion to Him. And so they skip over Psalm 15, and at first Psalm 15 does not appear to be about Christ at all. But as soon as you consider His perfect character, the bell should start going off. Who other than the sinless Jesus Christ qualifies to abide in God's tabernacle or dwell in His holy hill? We can compare ourselves to this list and say, well, I come up a little short there, especially using your tongue and backbiting against your neighbor and all those other things. And so what David is doing here in the Psalm is outlining the perfect character of Christ, the standard. And so he does it in his own literary way. These aren't all the things that describe the character of Jesus Christ, but it does describe the character of a person who keeps primarily the second great commandment perfectly. There are also parts of the first great commandment, but this is how He acts in community or acts toward other people. And this is the goal then for the rest of us because we all want to dwell in God's tabernacle, His eternal temple. Don't we? Of course we do. And so what we have here is a description of the way a godly person acts, the way a godly person would behave on earth. And who did that? Who was a God that came down and took on flesh and made an example for us of how to live? Obviously, that's Jesus Christ. So I think a quick read through like we did verifies that He checks all the boxes for having done all of these things that are listed in these, in these four verses 2 through 5. Only He has done them all perfectly. And all the rest of us fall short. And so we have something to work on. Now verse 4 is the only one I think that someone might have a problem with and say Jesus is not like that when it says in whose eyes a vile person is despised. Did Jesus despise vile persons? Isn't Jesus love? Isn't He kind and, you know, never said anything mean? Well, the translation really doesn't help us here a whole lot. But we have to understand that this is poetry and David is showing a comparison because look what he says there the next little bit, but he honors those who fear the Lord. And so what he is setting up here is a contrast, a contrast of the kind of people that he comes across and a contrast of how he reacts to those people. You know what we—without getting into the nitty-gritty, all the details of the Hebrew—the gist of this is that this worthy person has perfect judgment. That he—I'll just use the language here in the New King James—he despises the evil person, the vile person, and he honors the one who fears the Lord. He has perfect insight, if you will, into the type of people he reacts to or he interacts with. So he despises the vile person, that is the wicked person. I do not want to go into the Hebrew words again, but this vile person is a truly evil person, a person who is consumed by sin, who has contempt for God. And so he makes a perfect judgment about that person. And of course, we have to remember who Jesus Christ is. He said, all judgment has been given into My hands. So Jesus Christ is pretty much the only one who fits this description, that He will condemn the wicked and He will honor and glorify those who fear the Lord. He has that power. Think about this. The one who dwells with God, this worthy person who is able to live with God in His sanctuary, unerringly sees into the hearts of others and makes true judgments. Now how many times does the gospel show that Christ knew what was in people? He knew what was in their hearts. Similar statements are made about eight times between Matthew and John. Eight times the gospel writers say Jesus knew what these people were thinking. He knew what was motivating them and He responds appropriately to that. Let's go to a few of them. I will not go to all eight. I'll just go to a few so we can see this. Let's start in Matthew 9. Matthew 9:17. Let's just start in verse 2. Matthew 9:2. And behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, Son, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven you. And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemes. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say Your sins are forgiven you, or to say arise and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins—remember, He's the Judge—then He said to the paralytic, Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house. And he rose and departed to his house. Now, we can also find this repeated in Mark 2:8 and Luke 5:17 through 24. It's the same vignette that all three of those gospel writers talk about and they all make mention of Jesus knowing what was in their hearts, in these scribes' hearts. Let's go on to the book of John. We will go to John 2:23 through 25. There is one in John 1 as well where He is speaking with Nathaniel. And He obviously knew what Nathaniel was all about. He said, look at that, an Israelite in whom is no guile, and He had just met him. John 2:23 to 25. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did, but Jesus did not commit Himself to them because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. Of course our Creator has a perfect insight into His creation, and He could see even as a man what people were thinking, how people would react, what their emotional state was, what their motivations were, and He used that throughout His ministry so that He could respond properly because He knew what the other people, you know, what would come back to Him when He spoke. Let's go to another one. I'm skipping over chapter 4, verses 17 and 18 where He's speaking to the woman at the well and He showed He knew all about her. Let's go to chapter 6, verses 60 through 64. This is where He said, He told the people there that you have to drink His blood and eat His flesh. Verse 60, Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying. Who can understand it? When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples murmured about this, He said to them, Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. He saw right into their hearts, knew exactly what they were thinking and what their motivations were. And He dealt with them in the proper way. OK, I will not go to John 8:40 and 41. There is another one there, but I think that's enough to prove the point. So back to Psalm 15. Even this Psalm, which almost no one considers a Messianic Psalm, can teach us about our Savior. Once we remove the veil and reveal its actually deep connection to the character of Jesus Christ. Now we will go over a few more of these Messianic Psalms just to provide a better idea of how they read and what we can gather from them. Let's go to the very next Psalm, Psalm 16. This is one that's on my list. As a matter of fact, the next ones that I do are on my list. Now from one angle, we can read this very well. It comes across just fine as if David himself is speaking. That he is obviously the author, but we could say that this is about him and his life. But from another angle we can see very clearly that it could be spoken by Jesus Christ Himself about His life and the way He relates with God and God's people. So let's read this. I'll go ahead and read it fully through so we can get the feel of it. Verse 1, Psalm 16: Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust. O my soul, You have said to the Lord, You are my Lord. My goodness is nothing apart from You. And to the saints who are on the earth, They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god. Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, nor take up their names on my lips. You, O Lord, are the portion of my inheritance and my cup. You maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance. I will bless the Lord, who has given me counsel. My heart also instructs me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices. My flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You will show me the path of life. In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. OK, let's break this down a little bit. We can obviously see Jesus Christ in the last four verses; that's very easy to see. Most people do not see Him quite as much as the first seven verses, but I want to dispel that because He's all through this. Now verses 1 and 2: It begins. The song begins with a plea to God to watch over Him, to preserve Him. And then it very quickly turns to a confession of faith and not only faith but dependence. Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust. O my soul, You have said to the Lord, You are my Lord. My goodness is nothing apart from You. If you remember in the Gospels, Jesus always gave the Father credit for everything that He did. And this shows how much the Father's—or how His relationship with the Father—dominated His life. He would say things like My Father does the work. He would say things like, My Father is working and I am working, because that was His standard. And He always looked to the Father for His example and also for His instruction. Let's look at a few places in the book of John where these things are brought up. We'll start in John 5, verse 19. We will just go through these very quickly. John 5:19. Then Jesus answered and said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. So it was that relationship with the Father that gave Him everything that He needed, both in terms of example, instruction, and we could also say inspiration to do what He did on earth. Let's go to the next one in chapter 14, verse 10. John 14:10. Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. So He was letting everybody know that the real motivator behind Him and all that He did was the Father, and He would humbly always seek to do God's will and did it. Let's move on to verse 28. You have heard Me say to you, I am going away and coming back to you. If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I say I am going to the Father, for My Father is greater than I. So He admitted His dependence on the Father, and He rejoiced to be able to go back into heaven and rejoin His Father because they had been separated for 33 and a half years and it was a glorious, joyous homecoming. And finally, chapter 17, verse 4. He says, I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. So He never took credit for the things that He did, all the wonderful, great things that He did, and said He always reflected back to all that praise back to the Father because the Father was the engine of all that He did. OK, let's go on back in Psalm 16. Verse 3 says, And to the saints who are on the earth, They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. I always had a hard time putting this in David's mouth. You know, David might have liked the people around him, but how many of them were actually saints? I do not know how many people did God call other than David during that time. This actually makes a whole lot more sense if you put it into Jesus's mouth because He is all about the saints. He is all about the people whom God has called and given to Him so that He can teach them and bring them into the kingdom of God because they are going to be His wife. The saints excite Jesus Christ. And they, they—we are—His delight. He loves us more than we can understand, and He wants to bring us all into His kingdom, and so He concentrates all His efforts on us. That's all He does. That's why He's up in heaven right now as our High Priest because He's fixated on bringing His elect into the kingdom. And He does the works now for us just like the Father did the works while He was on the earth. Think about this in terms of Ephesians 5, verse 25. You guys probably know this. Ephesians 5:25. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. To me, that's what Psalm 16:3 says. To the saints who are on the earth, they are my excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. In the Psalm we are seeing Jesus's love for the church and how His love for them fueled His work on their behalf and still does. He wants to give us His kingdom because He loves us. And there is no other explanation needed. We are His excellent ones in whom is all His delight. All right, let's go on to verse 4. Verse 4 expresses His conviction not to sin. Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god. He's talking about idolatry. Their drink offerings of blood, I will not offer nor take up their names on my lips. So this is a literary way of saying that He's going to avoid all those worldly ideas and worldly religions and worldly idolatries because He is fixated on God's truth and the proper way of worship and He would not give in to any of those temptations to sin because of what He just said in the third verse. He had a job to do. He was to bring His excellent ones into the kingdom of God, and He could not sin. He could not afford to sin because He had to be their sinless sacrifice. And so He made sure that He put all temptation and all any kind of attraction to sin far away. It's almost like this is written in a hyperbolic way. These are the worst of sins, the idolatry and drink offerings of blood. And it's kind of like He's saying, you know, all sin is as bad as that. And I'm going to avoid it with every strength that I have. Let's go on, verses 5 and 6. You, O Lord, are the portion of my inheritance and my cup. You maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance. I'll say King of kings and Lord of lords. But this is His declaration that God and His reward are His only purpose and goal. He has—You could say He is—His lot, His place in life, His purpose in life is to do what God had given Him to do. So indeed the Lord was His portion. In this case, we could say that He in using Jesus as a speaker here, He's saying that the Father is His portion. That's the cup that He has been given to do, and He was willing to chase that goal of being our Redeemer no matter what came up. And you know, when He was about to be arrested, He got the full taste of what that cup was filled with. It was filled basically with all the sins of humanity and it horrified Him. And He asked for help. He asked for it to be taken away, but He knew it would not because that was His goal. That was the reason why He had come. That was His lot in life. And so the angel came and supported Him, encouraged Him, but He went doggedly on and got up and faced those who had come to arrest Him because He meant it. This was the portion that God had given Him to do, and He knew that if He fulfilled this, if He drank that cup, then His reward is a wonderful inheritance, not just for Himself, but also for His excellent ones that He was always thinking about. So I will not go to the Scriptures where He talks about, you know, I'm going to do God's will. I do God's will all the time. I know God and I'm going to do what the Father says to do. That was His life and He carried it to the bitter end and He did get that good inheritance. It's a—I mean, good, it's a wonderful inheritance, but just by minimizing it as good, it makes it all the greater. OK, let's go on to 7 and 8. I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel. My heart also instructs me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Now these two verses declare or show the relationship between Christ and the Father. It's like they were always together. That the Father was only a prayer away. They were constantly in contact. How many times in the Gospels does it say that Christ went off alone to pray or that He had just been praying and He came back and talked to His disciples or whatever? We get from this idea that God—that Jesus was constantly praying or meditating. That the Father was continuously instructing and counseling and helping Him. I mean when He needed to choose His 12 disciples, He went off and He prayed for counsel, and God showed Him which 12 to choose. And as we saw just a few minutes ago, He knew which one of them was going to betray Him from the beginning. So the prayer—the nearly constant prayer and meditation on God and His word—gave Him confidence in God's presence with Him and the ability then to go through all those horrendous things that He had to go through and not only that, to face the arguments, the debates, the questions that the scribes and the Pharisees and others brought up against Him, and He was able then to answer them because the word of God was always on His lips and running through His mind. All right, now verses 9 through 11. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices. My flesh also will rest in hope, for You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You will show me the path of life. In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Now this is the one, the passage from Psalm 16 that is quoted in the New Testament. It's clearly a prophecy of the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus Christ. And despite all He went through, He had the confidence and hope that the Father would not leave Him dead in the tomb. Why would He doubt? His Father had been with Him all the way until the sins were put on Him, but He knew that in dying, paying the sacrifice price for those sins, that God would be satisfied because He had lived as Jesus Christ had lived a sinless life. He paid the price and the reward then for doing that was life, that God would raise Him from the dead. And not only that, He would not even allow His body to begin to decompose. There was no decay in Him. He would be returned to life and joyfully ushered into the Father's presence in heaven to be given glory and honor forever. Let's just see this in Acts 2. Acts 2, verses 22. Where Peter explains this. Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—Him, being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. He knew that Jesus knew that He could not possibly be held in death. He would rise again. He could say that confidently to everyone that if they slew Him after three days He would rise again. For David says concerning Him—I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad. Moreover my flesh will also rest in hope. Because You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of joy in Your presence. That's out of the Septuagint. That's why it's a bit different from the way it reads in our Masoretic text in Psalm 16. Men and brethren, he goes on, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and that his tomb is with us to this day. He's saying this can't apply to David. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. I do not need to go any further. So the end of Psalm 16 is a rousing declaration of the sacrifice, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that makes it possible then for those excellent ones to be called and to learn and grow and produce fruit and have eternal life in the kingdom of God. Peter, by inspiration, latched on to this and it was the way that he was able to influence many of these people that had been around Jerusalem and seen and heard all about this to beseech him, What must we do? Because they were cut to the heart, and he said, Repent and be baptized, and thousands came into the church on that day and subsequent days. So really beautiful Messianic Psalm here in Psalm 16. All right, let's go to the one I was trying to get into last time. This is Psalm 110. I gave a brief run-through on this, but it really needs to be looked at more closely. I'm not going to spend a lot of time, but I want to spend enough time that we get the gist of what's going on here. Just seven verses. Psalm 110:1. The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand till I make Your enemies Your footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies. Your people shall be volunteers. I want to stop here and just have you make a note of the fact that in these Messianic Psalms the people are often mentioned, His people. It's like you can't get one without the other. It shows you how from the beginning the elect have been on His mind. And He's always concerned about bringing them into His kingdom and you know His whole mission is that right now He wants a bride. And He's going to do everything He can to secure her for eternity. So He says here Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power, in the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning. You have the dew of Your youth. The Lord has sworn and will not relent. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at Your right hand. He shall execute kings in the days of His wrath. He shall judge among the nations. He shall fill the places with dead bodies. He shall execute the heads of many countries. He shall drink of the brook by the wayside. Therefore He shall lift up the head. Or His head. Now this Psalm is sometimes categorized as a royal Psalm because scholars think that it was used in the liturgy of either Israelite or Davidic coronations, but as I mentioned last time when I gave you those different subcategories, I think this fits better as a purely prophetic Messianic song. Those are the ones that only can apply to Christ. It can't apply to any of the types. So this one truly applies to no one but Christ. He is the prophesied and anointed God, priest, and king. He's the only one that fits those designations. And He is of the line of David. Other commentators have said that perhaps this was about the Old Testament kings just using heightened language, but the kings that came from David, except for Jesus Christ, cannot be priests. One tried, he got leprosy and ended up living in his house alone for the rest of his life. And the other kings that were in Jerusalem, the Maccabean kings in the second century BC, they were not even Davidic. They were not Jews. They were Levites. And so they do not fit this either, so it could only be about Jesus Christ. As far as structure goes, which is important to understand, this Psalm is composed of two parts. There are two oracles, two divine oracles, two sayings of God. If you want, an oracle is basically just a prophetic declaration or a decree from God of a certain thing that will happen in the future, and then after both of them is a kind of a glimpse of the fulfillment of the decree. So you have one oracle with a glimpse of fulfillment that's in verses 1 through 3, and then you have a second oracle plus an oath which raises it a little bit more with another glimpse of fulfillment, and that's in verses 4 through 7. So there are two major prophecies here that are given, one in verse 1 and one in verse 4. And then we get a little bit of how it's going to work out. OK, let's take the first one, verses 1 through 3. The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand till I make Your enemies Your footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies. Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power, in the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning. You have the dew of Your youth. Now the first verse here is the most quoted verse from the Old Testament in the New. It's used 14 times in the New Testament, so you know that it's a truly important verse and there are several other allusions to this throughout the New Testament beyond the 14. The reason is this verse provides the textual foundation for a handful of important doctrines. But particularly the one that is most important that derives from this—Sit at My right hand, or actually The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand till I make Your enemies Your footstool—is that it provides the textual foundation for the Father-Son relationship. And the Father-Son relationship is the true basis of all theology. Or maybe I could say it, it's the basis of all true theology. Did you notice a third person in there? No, it's The Lord said to my Lord. There is not a third person in a Trinity. It's just not there. And this is the verse that is the foundation of that doctrine that there is a God being who has worked with humanity from the very beginning. He is our Creator, but He has a Lord. There is one who is greater than He. We just read that verse there in John 14:28. What He said there in John 14:28 verifies what is said here in Psalm 110:1. Those are the only two there as divine God beings at the present. Verse 4, the other oracle that is given in the Psalm, does the same as meaning that it provides the doctrinal foundation for another great theological doctrine which is that Christ is not only our Messiah and King and Redeemer, but He's also our High Priest. And He's not only a High Priest, but a High Priest of an order prior to and higher than any man-made priesthood or any God-made priesthood that involves men. That is the Levitical priesthood. God ordained the Levitical priesthood, but men fill the offices. In the Melchizedek priesthood, God fills the office Himself through the Son. All right, if you want verification, a lot of commentators do. Matthew 22:43 and Acts 2:34 both say that David, acting as a prophet, authored this, so this comes right from the mouth of David or the pen of David. And so that is important because it's a key or the key to getting the identities of the Lords and the May right in what he says here in the first verse. The Lord said to my Lord, that's what we are focusing on here. So what it—you can say—and this is what you would read in Hebrew without the English that I'm going to use here. It says, Yahweh declares to my Adon. Sit at My right hand. Now I use those two Hebrew words because they are important. Yahweh obviously is the great God of all things, His personal name, the I Am, the one who was, the one who is, and the one who shall be. Adon, if you know your Hebrew, is related to what the Canaanites had as their god, Adon, and the Greeks later had their god Adonis. That word which is original to the Hebrew is Lord or master. It means the one of highest rank. So there are three persons mentioned here in the first line of the first verse: the Father, who here is called Yahweh; and then King David is represented by the word my. He's the author here; and then the Son, Christ, is called Adon, the Lord or the master, and what did they call Him when He was living? They called Him Lord most frequently. Now the time setting of verse one is Christ's ascension to heaven after His resurrection. This is when the Father said, Sit at My right hand till I make Your enemies Your footstool. So that's when Jesus rose and ascended to heaven and sat down at the Father's right hand. Now in the second verse the time setting moves forward to Jesus Christ's second coming. It's very quick. You go from AD 31 to whatever the time will be 2000 years later roughly. And at that point the Son—the word Jesus Christ—is King of kings and He rules on the earth amidst the nations that tried to fight Him. And it says here that He will rule out of Zion, out of Jerusalem. And from there His sovereign might goes out. The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies, and we know that He'll come down on the Mount of Olives, and He will fight against His enemies that come against Him. We can also see a parallel back in Psalm 2 of verse 2 here in Psalm 110. I just want verses 6 through 9, Psalm 2:6 through 9. Where we have another Messianic prophecy that verifies this one. The Father says—that is He who is in heaven—says Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, You are My Son. Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance and the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. So these two scriptures, two passages, say essentially the same thing, just the one in Psalm 110:2 is a little bit more concise, but they are talking about the same time, the same activities, that when the Son is on His throne and He begins to fight against His enemies. Back in Psalm 110, verse 3 speaks about those who comprise His army. It's called, yeah, it said here, Your people, and they shall be volunteers. I mentioned this last time but I wanna go over it again. This is really neat. It's very encouraging to think about where He calls His people volunteers. It's showing that they choose the side that they wanna be on. They choose His side, and they choose, they voluntarily choose to sacrifice and serve. Now how do I get that? Well, actually, the word volunteers is not volunteers. Literally in the Hebrew, the word means free will offerings or sacrifices. And we can compare this in parallel to what Paul tells us in Romans 12:1 that it's our reasonable service to become living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. That's what He's talking about here, that the ones who are in His army are the ones who decided by their own choice to live the life of Jesus Christ as best they could on this earth. They volunteered to sacrifice and serve no matter what the cost because that was what would please God. So at this point they have been changed into immortal spirit beings and they rally then to their Lord and King and Husband in the day of His power or we could call it from the other side the day of His wrath at His coming. And I will just mention it: Revelation 19 is where this all comes together. When Jesus Christ comes out of heaven and He rides down and He destroys His enemies, including the beast and the false prophet, goes through the rest of that chapter. And back in Psalm 110 verse 3, the verse describes the Messiah's glory as the beauties of holiness, which is really interesting. In the day of Your power, he says in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning you have the dew of Your youth. This is showing that this is what holiness produces; it produces this great power seen in righteousness and the—actually, in this verse, it shows ridding the earth of evil of the enemies of God is a beautiful thing. And the beautiful thing is that once the enemies are gone, then you can start anew and build a world full of peace and prosperity and real true choice where people will be able to join with the Lord, join in the kingdom and be His children. Be God's children and this is the literary way that this is put together. It is showing the very beginnings that you could say the youth of the kingdom of God. This is the way it was at the beginning in the height of His power when He came against the enemies and He started a revolution in the life of mankind. No longer under the evils of Satan the devil, but in a new age under the influence of Jesus Christ and His holiness. All right, let's go to verse 4. Verse 4 is the new section. This is a new oracle, and it switches gears. The Lord has sworn and will not relent. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Now this is speaking of Messiah, not as king, not as powerful ruler who bashes his enemies on their heads. This is calling Messiah as a priest, showing Him as a priest. And the author of Hebrews uses this verse extensively from Hebrews 5 to Hebrews 10, six chapters there, and he expands on just this point extensively. You want a college level course on Psalm 110:4? Read Hebrews because this is what he is talking about. Why does Jesus Christ qualify as the High Priest when He's not a Levite, He's not from Aaron? How can that be? And he goes through step by step by step by step showing how He qualified to be a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Now, what we see here in Psalm 110:4 is that the Father swears an oath. The highest of all oaths, and it says it's an irrevocable vow. He will not change His mind once it's said. It is sure because He'll make sure it's coming to pass that His Son—the one that's called the Word, the king—is also the eternal and undying High Priest. He'll fill both offices. He qualified for both offices. Whereas men had to have one king and another man as a priest, He fulfills both and He fulfills both perfectly. And as Hebrews 7 explains, this order, the order of Melchizedek, supersedes the Levitical priesthood. And he proves it by saying Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. And he says Levi was still in the loins of Abraham when he did this. And the lesser always pays tithes to the greater. So he said, hey, if Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek and Levi was not even around, then this shows that the order of Melchizedek is a higher body of priests, order of priests, than the Levitical priesthood. By the way, as he also explains in Hebrews 7, Melchizedek means king of righteousness, and since he ruled from Salem, he is also King of peace, and those obviously both fit Jesus Christ. OK, let's go on to verses 5 through 7 and finish up here. The Lord is at Your right hand. He shall execute kings. Notice that the Lord there is Adon, is at Your right hand. He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath. He shall judge among the nations. He shall fill the places with dead bodies. He shall execute the heads of many countries. He shall drink of the brook by the wayside. Therefore He shall lift up the head. The glimpse of the fulfillment is awfully like the glimpse of the fulfillment from the first oracle. It's the same end. The king and the priest are combined in one person, and when He comes back, He is going to fight against those who have fought against Him for ages, millennia, and He's going to establish His own kingdom and judge those who are against Him, and they will get the death penalty as they deserve. So the priest king conquers the world. That's what it's basically saying here. The priest king, when He comes back, He's going to put things right. He's going to set things up so that He can rule both as king and as priest in the proper way that's going to bring peace and prosperity. And with what we see in verse 7 is that this divine warrior who comes back, who's also the priest, who's also the king, He's also the Judge, He's also the executor of God's wrath, He's going to be satisfied with His victory. That's what verse seven is all about. He is shown here as completely and satisfyingly victorious. He's going to do the job. He's going to do it right. He's going to do it completely. And it's going to be such a good thing, such a thing that this world this creation has been waiting for. Paul calls it the revealing of the sons of God, but the children of God. But it's really the revealing of Jesus Christ as king and priest when He comes back and we will be with Him. And so the picture in verse 7 is of Him refreshing Himself after victory, His head held high in triumph, not in vainglory, but in completion and satisfaction of a job well done. And if we endure to the end, as He advises us in Matthew 24, this same satisfying victory will be ours, completely ours. Remember, He's doing it for us and for those who come after us. As Paul says in Romans 8:37, We are more than conquerors through Him. Think about it. All these things that we've learned today about the Son, about our Messiah, are done because of us. And His joy, His desire to be with us forever and to give us all the good things that He's been waiting to bestow upon us. Please read Psalm 45. The first half is about the king and the second half is about His bride. And just notice how great He is and how wonderful it will be to be that bride of Christ.
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