Christ Our Priest-King
As has become tradition, we’re taking a bit of the Summer to teach in The Psalms. The Psalms are an expertly and intentionally crafted collection of poems, songs, and hymns written by God’s people to reflect on the Story of God. If you haven’t already, we highly suggest you take a moment to watch the video overview our friends at Bible Project did for Psalms — it’s AMAZING!
For Week 7, we jumped into Psalm 110:
1 The LORD says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”
2 The LORD sends forth from Zion
your mighty scepter.
Rule in the midst of your enemies!
3 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.
4 The LORD has sworn
and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek.”
5 The Lord is at your right hand;
he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
6 He will execute judgment among the nations,
filling them with corpses;
he will shatter chiefs
over the wide earth.
7 He will drink from the brook by the way;
therefore he will lift up his head.
The ESV Gospel Transformation Bible sums up Psalm 110 well: “This psalm of David, has two parts: (1) verses 1–3 announce Yahweh’s declaration of the Lord whom he will set at his right hand as king over all, to rule even over his enemies; and (2) verses 4–7 announce Yahweh’s unchangeable oath that this Lord, this anointed King, will likewise be an eternal Priest of the people. This psalm, then, is fundamentally about David’s Greater Son who will be both King (v. 1) and Priest (v. 4), a dual role that none of the previous kings of Israel or Judah could play.
God had established the kingly line from Judah (Gen. 49:10), and more specifically through David (2 Sam. 7:12–13), whereas the priestly line ran through Levi (Num. 3:5–13; 8:5–22; 18:1–7), and particularly through the line of Aaron (Ex. 28:1–2; 29:1–9). But finally in Jesus we see One whose kingly line runs from David (Matt. 1:6; Luke 1:32–33; 3:31) but who is established as priest forever after the greater priestly order of Melchizedek (Heb. 5:5–6; 7:1–28). Another reason for seeing this psalm as fundamentally about David’s Son, fulfilled in Jesus, comes from the opening verse. Since David (the highest human authority) is writing this psalm, the second “Lord” (of “the LORD says to my Lord”; Ps. 110:1) must refer to a divine figure rather than to David himself. Thus, this second “Lord” must be the One whom we know as the Son of the Father, Jesus himself (cf. Matt. 22:41–45; Acts 2:34–36).
But his role as this King-Priest will be as the incarnate God-man. Notice that in executing his judgment, he will “drink from the brook by the way” (Ps. 110:7), indicating he comes as a man, the Son of David, who nonetheless is David’s “Lord” and hence, also, fully God (v. 1). Jesus, the God-man, then, is the subject of Psalm 110, the glorious and final King and Priest over his own people and over the whole world.“
Give the sermon text a read and a listen as we close out the Book of Ruth and we hope to see you this week at a Family Meal and/or a DNA group to dive even deeper.