David Speaking Out Against His Enemies Part 2 — Chuck Smith

Welcome to the Word for Today, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California. Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse venture through the entire Bible.

And on today's edition of the Word for Today, we'll continue to follow David as he speaks out against his enemies. So let's turn in our Bibles to the 109th Psalm, as Pastor Chuck begins today's lesson with verse 20.

David’s Plea for Mercy in Psalm 109

Let this be the reward of my adversaries from the Lord, and of them that speak evil against my soul. But do thou for me, O God, the Lord, for thy name's sake, because thy mercy is good, deliver me. Now for those that oppose, those that are reject, let your judgment fall, but for those that will call, then, Lord, let your mercy be displayed.

For I am poor and needy, my heart is wounded within me. And this is a description of Christ and the reproaches and all that fell upon him. I'm gone like a shadow when it declines, the sundial, the shadow goes down, I'm like the shadow going down.

I'm tossed up and down as a locust, my knees are weak through fasting and my flesh faileth of fatness. I became also a reproach unto them, and they looked upon me and they shook their heads. Read in conjunction with that Matthew 26, 39.

Help me, O Lord, my God, O save me according to thy mercy, that they may know that this is thy hand, that thou, Lord, hast done it. Let them curse, but Lord, you bless. And when they arise, let them be ashamed, but let your servant rejoice.

Let my adversaries be clothed with shame and let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a mantle. I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth, yea, I will praise him among the multitude, for he shall stand at the right hand of the poor to save him from those that condemn his soul.

Psalm 109 as a Messianic Prophecy

So, an interesting psalm, a messianic psalm, a prophetic psalm dealing with the treatment that Jesus was to receive and the judgment upon those who do not repent. They will find themselves enemies of God.

They will find God as their adversary. The Bible says, woe unto him who strives with his maker. Today, there are people who are saying all kinds of horrible and blasphemous things against Jesus Christ.

And when I hear people make these blasphemous statements, I cringe within. Now, Psalm 110 is another messianic psalm. Psalm 109 more or less deals with the suffering of Christ, his being despised and rejected, a man of sorrows acquainted with griefs.

Psalm 110 and Christ’s Exaltation

The cross is seen in Psalm 110 as the betrayal by Judas, the cross, the suffering. Psalm 110 is tied to Psalm 109 because it goes right from the cross, 109, into the ascension into glory. And Christ ascending triumphant into heaven, having paid the price for man's redemption upon the cross in 109, being despised, rejected, and all.

Psalm 110 then takes us on into heaven, and the first verse begins in the heavenly scene. When Christ entered into heaven after his ascension, the first thing the Father said to him was, sit thou at my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool.

In the previous chapter, he speaks about the enemies. Now the Father says, okay, just sit down at my right hand, son. I'll make your enemies your footstool. That is, you'll put your foot on the neck of your enemies.

They'll be your footstool. Now, the Lord, Yahweh, said unto my Lord, Adonai. Notice the all capital letters, the Lord, indicating that it is the Hebrew name for God. The second Lord in line one there is capital L, small o-r-d, indicating that it is the Hebrew word Adonai, which is a title of lordship.

So Yahweh said unto my Lord. Jesus said to his disciples, I mean he said to the Pharisees rather, what think ye of Christ the Messiah? Whose son is he? And they said, well, he's the son of David. And he said, how is it then that David, by the Holy Spirit, called him Lord?

And then he quotes this verse. Now Jesus said David wrote this. So how is it then that David called him Lord? By the Holy Spirit saying, Yahweh said unto my Lord. And it was a question that they could not answer because it was a society that was totally a patriarchy type of society.

And the oldest father ruled over the entire family. And that was always the case. The oldest father ruled over the family. He was the Adonai over the family. And thus no father in that strong patriarch society would ever call his son Lord.

And if the Messiah is the son of David, then how come David called him Lord, Adonai? Who? Can't figure that one out. And they didn't. But they didn't ask him any more questions after that either. In the book of Hebrews, again this ascribes this scripture as referring to Jesus Christ and of his entrance into glory.

So Jesus is at the right hand of the Father exalted on high. He is there just waiting for the Father to make his enemies his footstool. God is waiting for the cup of the wrath to be filled. The full blasphemy and indignation of man to be complete.

Divine Patience and Coming Judgment

God is gracious. He is long-suffering. He is patient. He is kind. Or else he would have acted a long time ago. And as I look around today, one of the biggest mysteries in my mind is that God has not already acted in bringing judgment against this generation.

It's much like Jesus said, the men of Sodom will rise up with this generation in the resurrection, but they will condemn it. And well might they condemn this generation, because we have exceeded their sins.

And so God has been long-suffering. God has been patient. But man unfortunately has misinterpreted that as tolerance or acceptance of man's evil, or indifference to what's going on. God is removed. God is indifferent.

He doesn't care. None of the above. And yet he does care. The wrath of his indignation is filling rapidly. It will soon overflow. And as you read Revelation from chapters 6 through 18, you will see worse than what's in Psalm 109.

That's mild compared to what's going to happen to those who have rejected God's love, who have scorned God's grace, who have turned their back upon his mercy. So the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool.

Christ’s Kingdom and Rule from Zion

The Lord, now notice this is the Adonai, so a reference to the Messiah, shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. So here's a prophecy of the coming kingdom age when Jesus will rule with a rod of iron from Zion over the world.

As he returns to establish God's kingdom upon the earth, he will send forth the rod of his strength out of Zion and he will rule in the midst of this world that had turned against him. Thy people, hopefully this includes you and me, shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of thy holiness from the womb of the morning for you have the dew of thy youth.

Christ’s Eternal Priesthood after Melchizedek

Now suddenly here is an interesting scripture, a prophecy concerning Jesus that Yahweh has sworn and will not repent that you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now remember this was written by David some thousand years before Christ and it is written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

David by the mouth of the Holy Spirit wrote this psalm by the inspiration of the Spirit and in talking of the coming Messiah, in talking of his priesthood, he declared that he would be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Now David knew that the Messiah was to come from the Messiah because he had the promise of God that God was going to build him a house and that there should never cease one of his descendants being upon the throne and David understood that to mean that the Messiah would come from David, which David was correct in that assumption.

How then could the Messiah be priest if he's from the tribe of Judah for it was the Levitical tribe that was ordained of God to be the priestly tribe for the nation? And the answer is there is another order of priests.

It is the order of Melchizedek, that interesting person that we find in the book of Genesis who met Abraham when he returned from the victory over the five kings and gave to him bread and wine and wine and wine and wine and wine and wine and received from Abraham the tithes of all of the spoils that he had taken from the sacking of these kings and he blessed Abraham.

Melchizedek whose name means Melech is king and Zedek is righteousness so he is the king of righteousness. He was called in the scriptures the king of Salem, which probably is Jerusalem, but Salem means peace so he's the king of peace, the king of righteousness.

Who is the king of righteousness? Who is the king of peace? It's Jesus Christ. And so here is Melchizedek bringing to Abraham the symbols of communion with God, bread and wine, and he receives tithes of Abraham and he blesses Abraham better than the priesthood of Levi.

For the priesthood of Levi was subservient to the priesthood of Melchizedek. For Abraham paying tithes and receiving a blessing, the lesser is blessed always by the greater. And Levi, you remember Hebrews, was still in the loins of Abraham so to speak.

He was still there in the potential gene structures and so forth and thus in Abraham was subservient to the priesthood of Melchizedek. So God has established a higher order of priesthood. Not one after Levi which when Aaron died his son took over and his son died and the next son which passed on from generation to generation.

They did not have a continuing priesthood but Jesus Christ has a continuing priesthood. He's a priest forever. The Levitical priest had to offer for their own sins because they were guilty of sinning too.

And before the high priest could take the offering for the nation, before God into the holy of holies, he had to first of all make an offering for his own sin and offer that to the Lord. And then he would offer for the sins of the nation.

But Christ became the sin offering, perfect, holy, without sin. Did not have to offer first for his own sin but offered himself once and for all. Now it was necessary that the Levitical high priest go in every year, twice actually on the one day.

Yom Kippur was the day he went in and he went in twice on that day. But it was necessary that he do this year after year after year after year after year. Which meant that the sacrifices weren't sufficient.

They weren't holding. So there was the necessity of the continual sacrificing. And every day they would offer these sacrifices, sin offerings and so forth. And on the one day of the year into the holy of holies for the sins of the nation.

Individually, day by day by day. Now if I had to offer sin offerings every time I sin, I would have run out of animals and birds and we would have depleted the world a long time ago. Jesus by the one sacrifice once and for all.

Christ’s Once-for-All Sacrifice

Perfect sacrifice. It was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats could put away his sins. All they could do was make a covering, a kofar for the sin. But the blood of Jesus Christ puts away our sin.

The priest entered into the earthly tabernacle that was built by man as a model of the heavenly. Jesus did not enter into the earthly which was the model of the heavenly. But into heaven itself with the blood of his own sacrifice.

Offered before God as a sin offering for the world. Received by God. And wherefore he is able now to save unto the uttermost all who will come unto God by him seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.

He is the great high priest interceding for us. Ever living to make intercession for us. Paul said who is he that condemneth that is Christ who has died, yea rather is risen again and is even at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us.

At the right hand exalted. The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand. And so this Psalm 110 fits into the book of Hebrews, into the New Testament. It is the storm of the glory of what happened when Jesus arrived in heaven after his sojourn on the earth and the horrible ignominious death on the cross.

The despising, the rejection, the shame of Psalm 109. Now in Psalm 110 the Father says alright son you just sit down at my right hand. I'll take care of things till I make thy enemies thy footstool. For I have sworn and I won't change.

You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. A higher order of priesthood. The perfect priesthood. Many people believe that Melchizedek was none other than Jesus Christ. We don't know anything about his genealogy which was so important for the Levitical priesthood.

We don't know anything about his posterity. He just appears on the scene and just as quickly disappears from the scene and a thousand years later approximately pops into the scene again in a Psalm and then disappears again for a thousand years and then he appears once more as the Messiah.

Abraham, Melchizedek, and the Identity of Christ

Jesus when talking to the Pharisees disputing with them and they started talking about their father Abraham. They said we are the sons of Abraham. We've never been in bondage to anybody. He said if you were Abraham's children then you would have believed in me because Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it.

That made them mad. They said what do you mean Abraham saw you? You're not even 50 years old. What are you talking about? And Jesus said before Abraham was I am. But he was probably talking about Abraham meeting Melchizedek.

The king of righteousness, the king of peace who was the priest of the most high God and God is sworn and will not change. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

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That's right here on the next edition of the word for today. Now once again here's Pastor Chuck Smith with today's closing comments.

Seeking God’s Counsel, Strength, and Knowledge

May the Lord bless you and keep his hand upon you. Guide you with his counsels and keep you in his strength and his love. And may God help you to really come into a full understanding and knowledge where it isn't just hearing him with the hearing of the ear but it's really coming to apprehend, to see God, to see the truth of God.

You might be strengthened knowing that God is with you and shall sustain you as his child.

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