The Priest King

Text: Psalm 110 ESV

Introduction

A few weeks ago Andrew Knight quoted A.W. Tozer. According to Tozer, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” So, I ask each and every one of you, what comes into your mind when you think about God?

When you think about God, what is he like? Is he holy, just, and transcendent? Or, is he loving, merciful, and immanent? Does he have a frown on his face? Does he have a smile on his face? If you conceive of God as holy and just, do you also view him as loving and merciful? And vice versa. If so, how can God be both at the same time?

If he’s just, how can he also be forgiving? Justice demands that people need to account for their wrongs. A just judge can’t merely forgive someone without someone paying for the wrongs they have done. What if Hitler hadn’t killed himself, and the Allied forces made him stand trial? Could you imagine if they said, “We know you did terrible things, but we forgive you. You may go back to Germany.” No way! Someone has to pay!

As we’ll see in Psalm 110, Yahweh is calling us to behold the priest-king! Because in him we find the answer to our question or the resolution to this theological tension. He shows us how Yahweh can be both just and forgiving at the same time. So Table Rock, prepare to behold your priest-king!

Early Points

Sit at My Right Hand

A Psalm of David.

The Lord says to my Lord:

    “Sit at my right hand,

until I make your enemies your footstool.”

The Lord sends forth from Zion

    your mighty scepter.

    Rule in the midst of your enemies!

Your people will offer themselves freely

    on the day of your power,

    in holy garments;

from the womb of the morning,

    the dew of your youth will be yours

The Lord has sworn

    and will not change his mind,

“You are a priest forever

    after the order of Melchizedek.”

The Lord is at your right hand;

    he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.

He will execute judgment among the nations,

    filling them with corpses;

he will shatter chiefs

    over the wide earth.

He will drink from the brook by the way;

    therefore he will lift up his head.

(Psalm 110 ESV)

You’ll notice that many Psalms have a superscription. That’s the little italicized phrase before the Psalm. They often say something like, “A Psalm of David.” For our psalm, that little phrase makes all the difference in the world. The superscription for Psalm 110 says that David wrote this Psalm. If he didn’t write this psalm, I’ll be in a world of hurt because my whole sermon depends on the fact that he did write it. We know he wrote this Psalm because 1) the superscription says he wrote it. Moreover, every manuscript we have of Psalm 110 contains the superscription.

Second, Jesus tells us that David wrote this psalm. In Matthew 22 Jesus confounds the Pharisees. We read in verse 41 through 44, 

“Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, ‘What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?’ They said to him, ‘The son of David.’ He said to them, ‘How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’? (Matthew 22:41–44 ESV)

So, what did David write about in Psalm 110? He wrote about the Messiah. And he tells us that the Messiah will be a priest-king. And he tells us that in two oracles. The first oracle is verse 1 through 3. The second oracle is verse 4 through 7.

Let's look at the first oracle. Starting in verse 1, we read 

“Yahweh says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” (Psalm 110:1 ESV)

Notice that David calls someone other than Yahweh his Lord. Who is it? It has to be the Messiah. No one else would make sense.

Notice that Yahweh tells David’s Lord to sit at his right hand. That means he’s in a position of honor and power. Moreover, the word sit matters. It symbolizes that he has completed his work. For instance, in Deuteronomy 18:5 we read that the Levitical priests don’t sit, but stand as they do their work. We read, 

“For the Lord your God has chosen him [Levi] out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time.” (Deuteronomy 18:5 ESV)

So David envisions a future day when the Messiah has completed his priestly work. That’s why he sees the Messiah sitting down at the right hand of Yahweh. Now, you might be asking, “Priestly work? Where did you get that?” Great question! I’m getting a little ahead of myself, but we’ll see that in the second oracle.

Back to verse 1, Yahweh has given the Messiah authority to rule and reign. Kingship. That’s why Yahweh will defeat all the Messiah’s enemies, “until I make your enemies your footstool.” After verse 1, we see David expounding the kingship of the Messiah in verse 2 through 3. We read, 

“Yahweh sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments; from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours.” (Psalm 110:2–3 ESV)

The Messiah will defeat all of his enemies. And he will do it with an army of willing soldiers behind him. Notice verse 3, “your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power.” The messiah’s people will be ready for the day of battle.

At this point David transitions to the second oracle. Notice the parallel language. In verse 1 we read that Yahweh says. We also read about the Messiah being at Yahweh’s right hand. In verse 4 we read that Yahweh has...what? Sworn. We also see in verse 5 the Messiah being where? At Yahweh’s right hand.

But there’s a problem. For the first oracle we read about the Messiah’s kingship and David’s explanation of it. So when we get to this second oracle we read about the Messiah’s priesthood in verse 4, 

“Yahweh has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.’” (Psalm 110:4 ESV)

And here’s the problem. We, or at least I, would expect David to know or explain the Messiah’s priesthood. But instead we just get what appears to be another explanation of the Messiah’s kingship in verse 5 through 7. We read,

“The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head.” (Psalm 110:5–7 ESV)

What’s going on? And who is this Melchizedek person? As it turns out, Melchizedek is the key that unlocks our confusion. We first read about him in Genesis 14. Abram has just got done rescuing his relative Lot. As Abram is returning from his rescue mission, Melchizedek comes out to meet him. Look at Genesis 14:18–20:

“And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.” (Genesis 14:18–20 ESV)

Notice we know nothing about Melchizedek. He just apparates, for you Harry Potter fans, onto the pages. Earlier in Genesis you would read about all these different people and their genealogies. So and so had these many kids and after so long he died. So and so had these many kids and after so long he died. And now here’s Melchizedek, with no genealogy and no obituary.

So who is he? According to Genesis 14 he is from Salem. And chances are very high that Salem is actually the same place where Jerusalem will be. Notice that Salem is part of the word Jerusalem. We also know that he is a what of Salem? King. But it also says he is what of God Most High? Priest! So here we have someone who is both a priest and a king!

“Big deal,” you might say. If you understand that David is writing this Psalm under the Old Mosaic Covenant you’ll see that this is a huge deal! Under the Old Covenant you could not be a priest and king. It was one or the other. In fact, David’s predecessor, Saul, lost his kingship for trying to be both a priest and a king!

However, this implies that one day the Old Covenant will be obsolete. Why? Because David sees a future day when the Messiah will come, and he comes as a priest king. But he can’t do that under the Old Covenant! So things will have to be different. But I’m getting ahead of myself once again.

This explains why David can call the Messiah a priest and keep talking about his kingship. Because like Melchizedek, the Messiah will be both a priest and king! He’s a king-priest, a priest-king. And David sees a day when this priest-king will come and crush all his enemies. He will bring judgment on all of his, and Yahweh’s, enemies.

So how do we respond to this Table Rock? Like David, we should praise our priest-king messiah! We should be in awe of him! Like the people in verse 3, we should humbly submit to our priest-king!

Middle Points

But the bad news is that we’ve failed at that. We may read Psalm 110 and automatically associate ourselves with the people in verse 3. However, we need to see that we’re the enemies of the priest-king. Why?

Because deep down we know that we don’t want a king ruling over us, and we don’t think we need a priest to redeem us. If we’re honest, we don’t want someone telling us what we should and shouldn’t do. We also don’t want someone telling us that we’re broken and need a priest to redeem us. Sure we make mistakes, we might say, but overall we’re pretty good people.

However, it’s not a matter of if we’ll have a Lord ruling over us or a priest to redeem us. It’s a matter of who or what is our Lord and priest. For some of you, it might be yourself. You call the shots. If there’s a problem, you trust in yourself to fix things and pull yourself up by your bootstraps. But when you can’t live up to your standards, you feel depressed.

For others, it could be someone else. Maybe you’ve made your girlfriend, or boyfriend, or spouse your Lord. You try as hard as you can to please them, and when you fail you’re crushed with guilt. You think if you can just get them to like you then you’ll be OK, you’ll be redeemed. It could be anything or anyone. And I just want to ask you one question, how’s that going?

Late Points

I said earlier that I’d be in a world of hurt if David didn’t write this Psalm. But if David did write this Psalm, and he did, then this Psalm has hope for rebels like us. This Psalm shows us that there is a priest-king! And who is he? The Lord Jesus Christ.

This psalm is not about us. It’s about Jesus. It points to him. In Hebrews 7 and 8 the author shows us how Jesus is the fulfillment of Melchizedek. Jesus is the true and better priest. Look at Hebrews 10:11-14 with me, 

“And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:11-14 ESV)

Praise God! The sacrifices and the priests of the Old Covenant pointed to a greater sacrifice and a greater priest. It’s here that we see how God can be both just and forgiving. God maintains his justice by punishing sin. But instead of punishing us, the sinners, he punished Jesus in our place. He was the sacrifice. Through Jesus, God can forgive us without destroying us.

The author of Hebrews applies this for us. In chapter 7 verse 23 through 25 he writes, 

“The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but [Jesus] he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:23–25 ESV)

Do you know what this means? It means that anyone at any time can come to God through Jesus! Jesus is always there, ready to intercede for us. He’s a sympathetic priest. He knows what it’s like to be tempted with sin. And because of that we can go to him boldly in our time of need! So I plead with you, draw near to God! Don’t think that God could never accept you! Go to him! He won’t turn you away! And you will find grace and mercy because of our great priest Jesus!

But Jesus isn’t just a priest. He’s also a king. And it’s good news that he’s both. If he was just a priest, but not a king, he could rescue us but not defeat our enemies. It would be like if there was no Aragon in the Lord of the Rings. Likewise, if Jesus is a king, but not a priest, he could rule and reign but not save. It would be like if there was no Frodo in the Lord of the Rings.

One day Jesus will come back as a conquering King. We read about this in Revelation 19:11-16. Jesus will come back with an army to make war and bring judgment on his enemies. When Jesus first came, he came as a sacrificial Lamb. But when he comes again, he will come as a conquering Lion.

Aren’t you so thankful for Jesus!? He is so different from any of our own Lords! He’s the only King that can forgive you if you fail him. He left his throne to serve us by dying for us! What kind of King does that!?

And He’s the only Lord that can ultimately defeat our enemies! In 1 Corinthians 15:24–26 we read about this victory. Paul writes, 

“Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1 Corinthians 15:24–26 ESV)

What a sweet day it will be when Jesus defeats death. There will be no more pain, crying, or death!

After Jesus defeats death, we’ll celebrate. According to Revelation 19 we’ll have a feast with King Jesus. Every time we take communion we should not only be reminded of Jesus’s life and death, but let it also remind us of that future meal with Jesus—the wedding supper of the Lamb.

This truth hit me recently. And it was when I was listening to a song by Johnny Cash called “Supper Time”. The song is about him as a kid having fond memories with his family during supper time. But at the end he sings.

“But you know time has woven for me a realization of truth that's even more thrilling.

That someday we'll be called up to gather around the suppertable up there.

For the greatest suppertime of them all with our Lord.

I can almost hear the call now comin' from the portals of heaven.

Come home son it's suppertime come on home.

Come home come home…”

Benediction

Table Rock, receive the benediction.

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16 ESV)