Some years ago when we were visiting Branson, I stopped in at a bookstore and picked up the book, Jewish Study Bible.

Transcription

1 Conquering King Faithful High Priest Psalm 110 November 10, 2013 Some years ago when we were visiting Branson, I stopped in at a bookstore and picked up the book, Jewish Study Bible. It s like the study Bibles that many of you have I affectionately call them Cheater Bibles, because whenever people run into a difficult text they immediately look down to the notes rather that try to think through the issues. But, of course, the Jewish Study Bible only contains notes about the OLD TESTAMENT what they call the TaNaKH and the notes naturally reflect a Jewish scholarly viewpoint. In our journey through the Psalms I often check those notes, and I have learned a lot from them. So I was very interested to see what they would say about Psalm 110, because it is the most-quoted Psalm in the New Testament 24 quotes or allusions to it. Jesus, of course, gets the discussion of this Psalm going as we saw in the reading from Matthew 22, and the Apostles pick up on that and refer to it again and again. So, as I said, I was interested in what modern Jewish interpreters would do with it. So here s what the Jewish Study Bible says of Psalm 110: It is quite difficult because vs. 3 is totally obscure, and the psalm changes speakers often. The Psalm is difficult because we need to know who the Lord is talking to? It s a Psalm of David, and David is saying, The Lord said to my lord And the question as Jesus frames it in His challenge to the Pharisees is, Who in the world would King David be calling, Lord? He obviously must be someone much greater than David because, as far as Israel was concerned, HE was lord he was the king! At this point, I need you to actually look at your Bibles to understand what s going on here. [page 434]. Look at vs. 1 Do you see that the first LORD is written in SMALL CAPITAL LETTERS and the second isn t? Whenever the word LORD is printed in SMALL CAPS, it lets us know that it s the special name of God, YHWH ( Jehovah in older translations). When Lord is printed normally, it s simply a title of respect for someone greater than you are. 1

2 In the old movies, a knight would speak to his king and say, my lord. So, verse 1 is really saying, The LORD GOD says to David s lord: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. And Jesus is asking the Pharisees, Who is David s lord who is David s superior that God would be talking to in this way? And, of course, the answer we now know is JESUS, the Messianic King! The Messiah is not just a son of David a descendant of David (though He is, humanly speaking) He is David s LORD, David s KING! And He sits at the right hand of God in a place of special honor and God will turn His enemies into His footstool. In other words, God will defeat Christ s enemies and make them subservient to Him. So, this is not just a promise that DAVID (or his successors) will rule it s a promise that David s Greater SON Jesus will eventually defeat all of God s and our enemies! There are two major portraits of Jesus in Psalm 110 that I want us to see this morning: He s our Conquering King (vs. 1 3, 5 7); and in the middle of that portrait, He s our Faithful High Priest (vs. 4) And these two portraits are where the New Testament quotations from Psalm 110 are focused. I. Jesus is our Conquering King That opening verse about turning Jesus s enemies into his footstool is followed by, The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion; rule in the midst of your enemies down to, The Lord is at your right hand; he will crush kings on the day of his wrath. He will judge the nations. And finally, in victory, He will drink from the brook beside the way. Last week, when I printed out all 24 of the New Testaments quotes from this Psalm, the ones that dealt with this part of the portrait of Jesus as king nearly all mentioned the part about his being at the right hand of God. [I ll post the list online with the sermon manuscript.] So, I m asking myself, why is this such a big deal Jesus at God s right hand. And it occurs to me: Here are these Christians trying to share the Good News, and they re being ignored (at best) and persecuted (at worst), and people are saying, Why should we listen to you? You re all excited about an executed CRIMINAL! Surely, you can do better than that! And so it was important for these early believers who were in such a minority in the pagan world and who were leading out of weakness and not out of strength it was important for them to know that, despite all outward appearances, Jesus was NOT weak, He was NOT just a helpless baby lying in a manger 2

3 He was and is SEATED at the right hand of the throne of God! He s not pacing back and forth, wondering how all this is going to turn out. He s there in POWER, seated at the Father s right hand, because He KNOWS it will all be OK! Have you stopped to think that we today are increasingly facing the same sort of situation that the first Christians found themselves in. Christians are no longer in the majority in Western civilization. We re no longer calling the shots! For 100s of years we ve held the power we ve been in charge but more and more we re falling further down the heap. And I sense a feeling of PANIC and Christians trying to use hard power the force of GOVERNMENT to have our way. Because that s what we ve been used to. And I think Psalm 110 and the New Testament writers are telling us to take a deep breath and remind ourselves that Jesus is STILL seated at God s right hand. Jesus is the conquering King. He is STILL in the process of conquering all His and our enemies as the Catechism puts it. He is STILL as vs. 2 puts it ruling in the midst of [his] enemies. And He WILL as vs. 6 reminds us judge the nations. That s not OUR job, it s HIS. And if there were any doubt about what Psalm 110 declares, the New Testament removes it. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:25 (talking about His resurrection and ascension), And he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. II. He is the Faithful High Priest Vs. 4, The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. 3

4 Melchizedek (whose name literally means, King of Righteousness ), is a mysterious figure who shows up in Genesis 14 after Abraham defeated a group of kings near what would become Jerusalem. He s called, King of Salem, and also, priest of God Most High, and he blesses Abraham and gives him bread and wine. Abraham, in turn, gives Melchizedek one-tenth of the spoils of the battle; and then Melchizedek DISAPPEARS from the Bible, never again to be mentioned until here in Psalm 110 and then, of course, when the New Testament book of Hebrews refers to him as a kind of forerunner of Jesus. One of the great themes of Hebrews is that Jesus is our Great High Priest. In fact, He is both Priest and Sacrifice, as He offers Himself up in our place as the only sacrifice that is sufficient to pay for our sins and secure our forgiveness. The only problem with that picture is that the priesthood at the time of Jesus and the Apostles was hopelessly corrupt And here s their point: The High Priests in the New Testament were the Sadducees, and they were in bed with the Romans. They were more interested in being close to POWER than being close to GOD. So how to talk about Jesus, the High Priest, without tainting it with the picture of Caiaphas the High Priest? So, Hebrews follows Psalm 110 and talks about Jesus being a priest in MELCHIZEDEK s order. Jesus will eventually crush our enemies, but that s going to take a while. In the meantime, we are sinners in a sinful world, and we desperately need to know that we have a priest who is capable of guaranteeing our forgiveness. I don t care one bit whether you understand who Melchizedek is or why the Bible even talks about him. But I want you to know that if you ve put your faith in Jesus, your sins are covered by His blood. You are forgiven, not because of what you have done for God, but all because of what Jesus has done for you! He is your faithful priest. He has satisfied all of God s demands upon you. 4

5 He has sacrificed Himself for you, so that Paul can say, Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen. It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? [And the answer to that question is NO ONE! Why? Because ] Jesus Christ, who died more than that, who was raised to life is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. [Romans 8] And there are the two sides of Psalm 110: Jesus our King sits in authority at the Father s right hand, ruling and defending us. But, all the while, Jesus our Priest is praying for us! It s great that we pray for each other each Sunday and through the week, but how cool is it to know that right now and every day JESUS, your faithful High Priest, is praying for you?! Rev. Robert Smallman Bible Presbyterian Church (Presbyterian Church in America) 1605 Highway G Merrill, WI

6 New Testament Quotations of and Allusions to Psalm 110 Matt. 22:44 The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. Matt. 26:64 Yes, it is as you say, Jesus replied. But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven. Mark 12:36 David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. Mark 14:62 I am, said Jesus. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven. Mark 16:19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Luke 20:42 David himself declares in the Book of Psalms: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand Luke 20:43 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Luke 22:69 But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God. Acts 2:34 35 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Rom. 8:34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died more than that, who was raised to life is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 1Cor. 15:25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. Eph. 1:20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, Col. 3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Heb. 1:3 The Son is the radiance of God s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. Heb. 1:13 To which of the angels did God ever say, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet? Heb. 8:1 The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, Heb. 10:12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 13 Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, Heb. 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. John 12:34 The crowd spoke up, We have heard from the Law that the Christ will remain forever, so how can you say, The Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? 6

7 Heb. 5:6 And he says in another place, You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. Heb. 5:10 and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek. Heb. 6:20 where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. Heb. 7:3 Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever. Heb. 7:17 For it is declared: You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. Heb. 7:21 but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him: The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: You are a priest forever. 7