Oct. 2, 2016 A Priestly King and Kingly Priest by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Psalm 110 has been called by some men the exegesis of Jesus Christ.

And this would bear out if you look at how often in the New Testament the apostolic authors relied upon Psalm 110 to do just exactly this, to explain

Jesus Christ, His person, His work, His nature, His relationship to the

Father. So many things were confirmed or explained by this

Psalm. And when they hear the passage, far more than any other

Old Testament passage, this is where they went to explain Him. Jesus Christ Himself quoted from this passage.

Paul quoted from Psalm 110. The author of Hebrews relied upon Psalm 110 very heavily to prove

Jesus' superiority to all other modes of revelation. He's superior to the angels,

He's superior to Moses, He's superior to the priesthood of Aaron.

All this proven by Psalm 110. Peter drew this from this

Psalm to bring his Pentecostal sermon to a close, as you just heard read by William to you.

In fact, any time you read of Jesus Christ being exalted and now at the right hand of God the

Father, it is Psalm 110 that is being alluded to.

This is the exegesis of Jesus Christ by so many witnesses, not just modern commentators, but the authors of the

New Testament. My hope today is as we go through this Psalm, you will go home, you will leave this place more confident in Jesus your

Savior, that you will be more certain of His divine charter as God the

Father's designated Messiah and King. And you will know more certainly that He, Jesus, is

God. The takeaway, if we need a takeaway, right up front is that Jesus Christ by the

Father's will, He is our priestly King and He's our kingly priest. And He is,

He was, and He ever shall be victorious. So let us attend to Psalm 110 this morning.

If you would turn there please, you would find out on page 509 in your pew Bible, Psalm 110.

Now you may be struck as I read it, as I've mentioned how often, how prevalent its use is in the

New Testament to speak of Jesus Christ. Notice how few verses it relates, there's only seven verses.

Psalm 110, 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, the brook by the way, therefore

He will lift up His head. This is the word of the Lord. This Psalm was no doubt penned by King David.

The superscription says it's a Psalm of David, but we know even more certainly that this was by King David and under inspiration of the

Holy Spirit, which we can say without reservation because Jesus Christ in Matthew, Mark, and Luke affirms that.

That David in the Spirit wrote these words. There is some difference of opinion among commentators going back quite a ways regarding some aspects of this

Psalm. Some commentators like one of our favorite Puritans Matthew Henry would agree with this, as many moderns do, would say that this

Psalm was written as a purely prophetic portion of Scripture. That it had only to do with Jesus Christ.

Now we know that all Scripture points to Jesus Christ. As Jesus says at the end of Luke's Gospel, these are they which speak of me, meaning the law, the prophets, the

Psalms, all of it. But when they say that this is only about Jesus Christ, they mean it in a different way.

Matthew Henry and some of the moderns mean by that, that it only means something about Jesus Christ and had no contemporary application.

Now others, Kiel and Delitzsch would agree with this, as do I, and many moderns would say no.

It had a historical hinge to it, if you will. I hold to this position that this

Psalm, as well as virtually every other, if not every other

Psalm, had some historical event that was the catalyst that led to its composition.

We'll speak about that a bit more. But I think all Psalms had what we call an occasion that prompted the composition.

There's something that happened in history which the Holy Spirit used as part of this inspiration to have the author write what he had him write.

To accomplish God's will that this portion of Scripture would be preserved for us as Scripture.

It's a common thing in the Bible. There's a couple of examples for you.

For example, in Joel, read about the locusts and the swarms of locusts, and the locusts, and the chewing locusts, and the swarming locusts.

Well that's a metaphor for what? For God's coming judgment, the need to repent. But I agree with virtually every commentator that there were actual swarms of locusts that devastated the crops.

So when Joel spoke of the locusts as this coming judgment of God, people were able to think back to the insects that came and destroyed their economy for that time.

There likely was a crop failure. Actual snakes bit the children of Israel.

There was an actual historical event where that happened. But what's the ultimate meaning? The event points forward to Jesus Christ and his cross.

And so with Psalm 110, I believe it had a contemporary meaning.

It meant something to the people then. There was an event that led to it which the Holy Spirit used through the human author

David to bring this to us. As we go through the psalm, as we unpack this psalm this morning, this is what

I want to bring to you first, is what I think is the contemporary context of the psalm. And we want to speak about how the psalm might have been used back in ancient times by the children of Israel.

And Lord willing we will, and most importantly we will, get to what the psalm actually says about Jesus Christ from the

New Testament's perspective of it. But I think it's important that we look first at the contemporary context of it.

What led to it? What was the historical, the actual event that was the catalyst for the psalm's composition?

And for that I would have you turn in your Bibles to 2 Samuel in chapter 5.

Just a little bit before where William was reading to you from 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel 5 which is on page 528 in your pew

Bible. I'll begin reading at verse 6.

I'll only read a few verses, actually just 6 and 7. But I do want to set the table a little bit for us.

We are here in 2 Samuel chapter 5. We're coming to King David soon after he has been given the throne.

Saul and his son Jonathan have died in battle. David in his campaign is consolidating his borders.

The tribes have just sworn loyalty to him. So those who had once supported Saul are now with him.

And David has set his sight on the city of Jerusalem. That's where they're going.

That's the next military goal. So in 2

Samuel 5 beginning of verse 6 and just two verses. And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the

Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land. Now we need to stop for just a moment. Whenever you hear this term or any term like it, inhabitants of the land, think enemies of God.

The inhabitants of the land are the enemies of God. So it was during the conquest of Canaan in Joshua's time.

Who were the people he took out? All those ites? Well they were the enemies of God. They were the inhabitants of the land.

Who were the people who gave Israel such a bad time in the days of the judges? The inhabitants of the land, the enemies of God's people and therefore the enemies of God.

Who are they in the book of Revelation who are suffering from the terrible sores? Knowing that those sores are coming from God, knowing their suffering is from the divine wrath.

And yet what do they do? They blaspheme his name. Who are they? They are 2

Samuel chapter 5 verse 6. The enemies of God, the inhabitants of the land.

So he went against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, you will not come in here but the blind and the lame will ward you off thinking

David cannot come in here. Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David.

The stronghold of Zion, the city of David, Jerusalem all one. What is

David being here? Well he's being king, he's being their leader and we could also say he's being their messiah.

Now we need to be careful with this term because Jesus Christ is the Christ which means the messiah. So when

I say it about King David, think of it with a small m because David, like all the kings of Israel, was divinely commissioned to do just that, to save his people,

God's people, from their enemies. Now I say it with a small m because the enemies that he saves them from are all those ites, the inhabitants of the land, mortal enemies and in this way prefiguring, being a topology if you will of Jesus Christ and the ultimate victory that he gains.

But David in that sense and the kings after him as they were faithful to God were messiah, small m, prefiguring

Jesus Christ. This is what he has done here when he took Jerusalem, when he took this city, he won this victory over the inhabitants of the land, over the enemies of God, on behalf of God and for the people of God.

He's being king. Psalm 110 verse 1, sit at my right hand says

Yahweh to Adonai, Yahweh the self -existent one, Yahweh the great

I am, he's the one who is the Lord spoken of first, the Lord Yahweh said to my

Lord Adonai. Adonai is a word for Lord, oftentimes it is used in the scripture of a human

Lord but then that L in your English Bibles will not be capitalized. Adonai means master, ruler, authoritative one.

The Lord Yahweh said to my Lord Adonai, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

Now David is not at God's right hand, that would be blasphemous, but in the sense of dependence upon the

God, the power of God, in that sense of being commissioned by God, you heard it in 2 Samuel 7 as William read to you, in that sense he's at God's right hand, not seated at God's right hand, that's only for Jesus Christ, but at God's right hand in dependence on God's power.

It does relate in that typological way to David. David is the king and his victory is due to whom?

To God. The fact that David is in that sense, that limited sense at God's right hand.

Verse 10 in 2 Samuel 5 says, and David became greater and greater for the Lord, the God of hosts was with him.

All the glory goes to God, all the credit goes to God, all the dependence is upon God, the victory,

David wins because God is with him. So in that sense, this psalm is about David in the immediate context.

Now I want you to move to your right one chapter in your Bible. Go to 2

Samuel 6. We're still working on this historical context of Psalm 110.

If Psalm 110 verse 1 is speaking to the king and the victory he's going to win over the enemies of God, the inhabitants of the land, the last half of the psalm speaks of this idea of a priesthood.

And I want us to look at this too, because I think both of these come together to give us the immediate catalyst that the

Holy Spirit of God used to have this psalm composed. 2

Samuel 6, I'll begin at verse 12, but again as before, set the table for just a moment.

What I'm going to read to you is the installation of the Ark of the Covenant at Jerusalem, the city that David had just won.

This is where his throne is going to be, this is his new capital city, and the Ark of God is now being brought there.

This is their second attempt. Earlier in the chapter they tried to bring it in, and at one point one of the oxen stumbles, do you remember this incident?

And a man named Uzzah reaches out his hand to steady the Ark, and God kills him, presumably because he's not a

Levite and therefore not allowed, not authorized to even touch the Ark. In fact, the

Levites weren't allowed to touch the Ark, but they had it on those staves. In any case, their first attempt was a failure, and it ended up in the house of a man named

Obed -Edom, which we will read of. Now in verse 12, we read of the second attempt to bring the

Ark to the city, and it was told King David, the

Lord has blessed the house of Obed -Edom and all that belongs to him because of the Ark of God. So David went and brought up the

Ark of God from the house of Obed - Edom to the city of David with rejoicing.

And when those who bore the Ark of the Lord had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal.

And David danced before the Lord with all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephod.

So David and all the house of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn.

It's often said that the prophets bring God to the people by declaring the

Word of God to the people. And then conversely, the priests bring the people to God by interceding with God on their behalf for their sins, that whole sacrificial system.

So the prophets bringing God to the people by bringing the Word of God to them, the priests bringing the people to God by interceding on their behalf for their sin.

David here is doing just that. Did you see what was happening?

That every six steps, the Levites stop. It has to be Levites carrying the

Ark. And David sacrifices an ox and a fattened animal. And they take six more steps.

What is that? 12 feet, maybe 15 feet. What is their stride? It doesn't matter. It's not very far.

Six steps, and they stop. And again, David sacrifices these two animals, an ox and a fattened animal, a fattened calf, whatever it was.

What is he doing? He's making atonement. He's satisfying the wrath of God.

He's atoning for the sins of everyone as they approach

Jerusalem with the Ark of the Covenant in their train.

Uzzah had died for his presumption of touching the Ark in their first attempt. And now every few feet they stop, and the king, this victorious king, this

Messiah who just won Jerusalem for the people to the glory of God and independence upon his power under God's commission.

But David did win that victory. Now he's bringing the Ark there, and every few feet they stop, and they make a new sacrifice.

David makes a new sacrifice on their behalf. What's he acting as here?

He's acting in a priestly way. He's acting as priest.

Now Psalm 110 and verse 4 says, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Can that possibly relate to David? We need to stop a moment, maybe take another short excursus.

We need to think about this for a second. Well, more than a second for those of you who know me. Melchizedek shows up all of a sudden in Genesis 14.

Abraham has just won this victory over these kings who had gone against Sodom and some other kings, sacked their cities, and in coincidence with that, took

Abraham's nephew Lot captive. So these kings defeat the others.

Abraham finds out that his nephew has been taken, and he with his 318 trained men gain the victory, free

Lot, pardon me, and get all the booty back from them.

And all of a sudden this Melchizedek shows up. Just appears from nowhere.

He accepts the tithes from Abraham. We know from the book of Hebrews that means he's accepting the tithes from Levi.

We know that he is superior to Levi who is then in Abraham's womb, because as the author of Hebrews makes so clear, the superior blesses the inferior, and he's the one who blesses

Abraham, and in that sense is blessing Levi. What does it mean to be after the order of Melchizedek?

Well, the author of Hebrews again, he makes a great point that no one knows where he really came from.

We do know that he was priest of God Most High. Genesis 14 makes that clear. We don't know which tribe he came from, and in fact there weren't any tribes yet.

I suggest to you that to be after the order of Melchizedek is to be a true, a legitimate high priest, not from Levi.

To be Melchizedekian is to be a true, legitimate high priest without descendancy from the tribe of Levi.

What does this mean in relation to 2 Samuel chapter 6, and how that relates to Psalm 110 verse 4, and how that relates to David?

I suggest to you David is acting as priest, not high priest, but he's acting in a priestly way by making these sacrifices every few feet.

He's Melchizedekian insofar as he, he being the king who more than any other king, legislated the fact that only

Levites could produce priests, yet he's acting in that way coming from the tribe of Judah.

In this way we know, I'm sure you can anticipate me here, he is prefiguring, he's becoming a type of Jesus Christ, and all that the book of Hebrews is going to say about him.

We're trying to look at Psalm 110 and right now verse 4, and how that relates to David.

This is how David is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, because he is interceding in that sense for the people, he is atoning for their sins, he's making the sacrifices on their behalf, he's wearing the linen ephod, he's acting in a priestly fashion, yet he's not from Levi, he's from Judah.

So he's bringing God to the people through the intercession, or the people to God.

But I want to add also, what I just kind of blundered out a bit early, that the people, that the priests brought

God to the people, not just the people to God, but the God to the people. You know at the end of the

Aaronic blessing, which we end our services so often with that, the

Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord make his countenance shine upon you and grant you peace.

But much as the Lord's prayer has an ending statement, sort of an applicatory statement, so does the

Aaronic blessing. After the Aaronic blessing, God gives this explanation of it, so shall they put my name on the people of Israel and I will bless them.

You see, it's not just bringing the people to God by interceding for them, it is that. But the priests also brought

God to the people by reconciling their sin to him, by covering their sin, by atoning for them, and making them for that time acceptable once more to God.

So it's bringing God to the people and the people to God, putting his name on them.

Now back to 2 Samuel 6 for just a moment. How does this relate to David and Psalm 110, for you're a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek?

The Ark of the Covenant, that which David is bringing to his city, his capital city where his throne now is, the

Ark of the Covenant symbolizes what? God's presence with the people. Inside the

Ark you have the covenant of God through Moses. Inside the

Ark you have Aaron's rod that budded, you have the manna. It's not just his presence, it is his presence, but it's more than his presence, it's his immediate help, it's his faithfulness to his word.

All this represented by the Ark of the Covenant, God's presence, which

David is bringing to the city. He's sacrificing as he goes so that all will be acceptable to God, sin will be atoned for, and once it's installed, it represents

God with the people. He's bringing God to the people. He's acting as priest, and because he's not from Levi, he's acting as a

Melchizedekian type of priest. David prefigures Jesus more than any other figure in the

Old Testament. He was prophet, he was the author of many of the Psalms. Acts chapter 2 verse 30,

Peter says he was a prophet, seeing that he was a prophet. Jesus says that he wrote this psalm in the spirit, the very definition of a prophet.

He was a priest, brings the people to God by sacrifice, and God to the people by bringing his presence to them.

The sacrifices, every six steps, the sin offerings, and he was of course king, the king, the messiah who won this great victory over the

Jebusites and gained them a capital city. Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 5 verse 35 calls

David the great king. Prophet, priest, and king prefiguring

Jesus Christ, showing a topology of him that is so clear. I think that's the first application of this hymn, the contemporary meaning.

What did it mean to them? I think it was David's victory over the

Jebusites, his gaining of Jerusalem as a capital, and his installation of the ark. So in that he's the king, the victorious king, he's a priest bringing

God to the people and the people to God. He's a prophet writing scripture for us.

So that's the event that I believe led immediately to this psalm, the historical occurrence that the

Holy Spirit used through David to bring this scripture to us and to point forward of course to Jesus Christ.

I think this psalm was also a coronation hymn of sorts, and here you have to kind of work with me a little bit.

I'm not going to ask you to to be responsive, but I want you to put yourself in a situation

I will try to picture for you. You're Israelites.

You're the assembly. You're the nation. Think for a moment that I'm a

Levite. I'm a song leader of sorts. I'm a Levite with a trained voice, and our king has died as kings do, and the next king is coming to this throne, and that king who died was a son of David from his line, from Judah.

As William read to you from 2 Samuel 7, we know that the kings of Israel are supposed to come from the line of David from the tribe of Judah, and so we have such one.

Perhaps Solomon died, and we're seeing Rehoboam installed. Perhaps Asa died.

We're seeing his son Jehoshaphat. Maybe it's Hezekiah. Maybe it's Josiah. It's a king that we know came from the line, from the fleshly line of David, and we know that he should be our king because God in 2

Samuel 7 said our king is going to come from the line of David. So we have this young king coming to his throne in the very city that David just won in 2

Samuel chapter 5, and you're all assembled, and he starts up the steps towards his throne waiting to have the crown placed upon his head, and the leader calls out and says, the

Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Now again, remember at his right hand in that limited, not that blasphemous sense, in a limited sense, in a dependence sense, in all my power, all my strength is from you because you

Lord have placed me at your right hand. In that sense, I call out what

God has said to our Lord, our king, who we know is being properly installed as our king, our earthly king on that earthly throne.

So I call this out, I say the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand, and you the assembly,

Israel, calls out in affirmation, verse 2, the Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter.

What are we saying? The Lord, Yahweh, sends forth from Zion your

Adonai, your mighty scepter, rule in the midst of your enemies. You continue, your people, who are we talking to?

Adonai, your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power. What are we doing but swearing ourselves loyal to this king?

We will offer ourselves freely to you, we'll be a group of volunteers for the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours.

We're watching our king go up these stairs, and we're confirming that the Lord has made him our king, our

Adonai. We're confirming the promises of God, Yahweh, that he has installed in him, and then the leader goes on.

The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. What are we affirming then as we see this king, this young man, ascend to the throne?

Yes, intercede for us, keep God with us, we affirm the promises, the

Lord is at your right hand. Now who are we speaking to here? The Lord is at your right hand, this is saying

Adonai is at your, Yahweh's right hand. This gets kind of confusing for some people, and they look at that and they say, well,

Yahweh is now at Adonai's right hand. I don't think that is necessary. The Lord, Adonai, is at Yahweh's right hand.

Why? How is he there? Who's speaking to whom? The Lord, Adonai, is at Yahweh's right hand because verse one says that's where Yahweh says he should be.

Sit at my right hand, Yahweh says to Adonai. Verse five, the Lord, Adonai, is right there where Yahweh said he should be, where he installed him.

We're affirming this. The Lord is at your right hand. Our king, this one now coming to the throne, he is dependent upon you.

Keep him there. Work your power through him. Do good for us by and through this king that we are setting on this throne here in Jerusalem.

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. I believe this was used as a coronation psalm.

It certainly well could have with verses one and four being the leader calling out and verses two and three and then five through seven, you, the assembly, affirming, faithfully affirming

God's promises to and through him. So that's what

I think this psalm is about. That's how I think this psalm related to the people when it was first written.

David's victory over Jerusalem, over the Jebusites, his taking of Jerusalem and installation of the ark.

I believe it's very important there that whole incident because there we see David more than any other figure in the

Old Testament, giving us this prefigurement of Jesus Christ because only

David, only David, was all three that Jesus is, prophet, priest, and king.

Now when we speak of David, we have to keep those letters all small k's, don't we? Prophet, small p, priest, small p, king, small k, because Jesus, he gets the capitals.

But David does prefigure him here. That's the meaning then.

That's what those people then understood. I believe that's the instant so many centuries before Jesus and his incarnation that led to this.

But there's an ultimate meaning to the psalm. And here we fast forward all the way to the New Testament.

Here we join with the apostolic authors. What does this psalm really mean? We must take the

Old Testament from the view of the New. It is not the

Old Testament that interprets the New. It's quite the other way around. This is no novel approach.

This is what the apostles did. This is what Jesus Christ did. How do we understand anything in the

Old Testament is by looking at Jesus Christ and then saying, okay, this is what that meant. This is how that pointed to him.

Contra -dispensationalism. No, we do not take the Old Testament and use it to interpret the

New and force fit that way. We follow the New Testament example. Our authors of the

New Testament who were inspired word for word by the Holy Spirit as the

New Testament standing over the Old. New Testament interprets the

Old. That's Jesus. That's the apostles. What did we have here in Psalm 110 in the ultimate sense?

I think I've explained to you the historical sense of it, but ultimately what is it?

Well, first of all, we have to understand that David is here made privy to this conversation occurring in heaven between Yahweh, my

Lord, and what he says to my Lord, Adonai. David is hearing what is going on here.

He's hearing this conversation. Yahweh, of course, is none other than God the Father. Adonai, the

Lord, is Jesus. And now we don't have to have that sit at my right hand and worry about we're putting the wrong person at God's right hand and only

Jesus can sit there and not David because he was a man like us. Now we've gotten past that.

That limited sense in which David was at God's right hand, now it explodes into what it really meant.

Who's David seeing? He's seeing his Lord. This is exactly what

Jesus says in Matthew 22. Who is the Christ?

They say David's son. Well, let's hold on a second. Is that correct? Is not the

Christ the son of David? Was that not one of Jesus' favorite appellations? It certainly was.

Matthew goes to great lengths to prove that Jesus Christ is a son of David, that he is the son of David, the greater son of David.

So Jesus in Matthew 22 asks the Pharisees, what do you say?

The Christ, whose son is he? David's son. Stop. Correct.

Right answer, class. As my professor at seminary used to say, good answer, class.

But not enough of an answer. He is David's son. And Jesus goes on.

How then can he call him Lord? If he's his son, why does he call him

Lord? What son, what father calls his son Lord? We don't do that.

It's like Melchizedek blessing Abraham. The great lesson that the author of Hebrews draws out of that for us, the greater blesses the lesser, and the lesser calls the greater

Lord. So yes, he is David's son. He does come from David.

Second Samuel 7 affirms this. They kept the genealogical records so meticulously so they always would know who's coming from David.

Just not enough. It's just not enough. If David is listening in on this and he's seeing his

Lord receive this word from his Lord, not his

Lord, from Yahweh, God the Father, what about those affirmations?

The one I was saying, if you are the assembly, these are your affirmations. Could that not be the heavenly host calling out and worshiping and affirming what

Yahweh is saying to Adonai? There's three lines, three main lines of meaning here.

As I said, Matthew 22, it's verses 41 to 46 I was alluding to before.

The Adonai that David sees, that he's listening in on, Yahweh says to Adonai, sit at my right hand,

Adonai is none other than Christ. David is seeing his Lord. Who is his Lord? Jesus makes it plain.

He is. Jesus is. Adonai equals the Christ or the Messiah, and that equals

God, because only God is going to sit in that sense, in that full sense, no more limited sense, in that fullest sense at God's right hand.

That's Jesus. Must descend from David by the flesh, he must be God in his essence.

This is what the psalm teaches us. In Hebrews chapter five, you can turn there if you like,

Hebrews chapter five, verses five through six, relying again upon this great psalm,

Psalm 110. It's the validity of the non -Levitical priesthood. So also

Christ, this is verse five, so also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said, you are my son, today

I have begotten you. Now we've been talking about Psalm 110, and how important that is to proving the validity of Jesus as our high priest outside of the line of Levi.

And to begin that proof, did you notice what just happened? We're going to get to Psalm 110, that's the next recitation by the author of Hebrews.

But he just cited from Psalm two, you are my son, today I have begotten you.

This is the great hymn that teaches, or the great psalm teaches about the messiahship, the deity of Jesus Christ.

His appointment by God the Father as victor. Verse four in that psalm, he who sits in heaven laughs, laughs at who?

Laughs at those who would resist his son who he is anointed to go and conquer them.

The Lord holds them in derision. Speaking of God the

Father, Yahweh who has begotten his son as the king,

Adonai. Back to Hebrews, you are my son, today

I have begotten you, as he says in another place. And now we have Psalm 110, verse four. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

The psalm proves, as Jesus says in Matthew 22, verse 41 through 46, that this

Lord that Yahweh speaks to must be God, because he's sitting at God's right hand, and he is

David's Lord. Now in Hebrews chapter five, verse five through six, the legitimacy of an eternal high priest from the line of Judah rather than the line of Levi.

And finally, though there's much more in the psalm, but finally for today, in the book of Acts, and again this is what

William read to you, but I want to bring this out one more time. Acts chapter two, verses 34 through 36.

For David did not ascend into the heavens. David is not at God's right hand in that ultimate sense that we've been talking about.

He's not there. David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the

Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain.

Let me pause. Let all the house of Providence Bible Church know for certain.

Let each one of you be absolutely convinced in your mind, in your spirit, in your heart.

Let all know for certain that God has made him, Jesus, the one sitting at his right hand,

Psalm 110. One ought and I, Lord, Master, that God has made him both

Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Psalm 110 says so much about Jesus Christ, and I don't want to pick one to say, well, this is the most important one, but what is

Peter using Psalm 110 and verse 4 to establish for us? That Jesus Christ has risen.

It proves the resurrection. It must be the resurrection here.

David's not here. What's he saying there? He says David died. He didn't go to heaven.

He's in his tomb where he was, where Peter was when he's preaching that in Jerusalem. He could almost say, look, just go around the block.

Let's find somebody, let's open up the tomb. You'll find his bones. You'll find his leathered skin there. David is still there.

Jesus is not. David, a priest forever, forever has some nuance in the

Bible. Forever doesn't always mean on going without end. It has some context.

Was David a priest forever after the murder of Melchizedek? In a very limited sense, but there he is in his tomb.

Jesus Christ, no. He's gone. He's gone.

Why? Because God raised him up. So says the apostle Peter is the meaning of Psalm 110 and verse 4 and Jesus' eternal priesthood.

He's raised again. This is a Psalm of victory. This whole idea of Melchizedek coming in, when did

Melchizedek show up in the scripture? After a great victory of God's servant Abraham over the inhabitants of the land, over his enemies.

This is a Psalm of victory. 110 verse 1, I believe the immediate application was

David's victory in Jerusalem. What is it to us now? The ultimate, the final sense of it?

It's Jesus' victory over sin and over death. Jesus' victory over our spirits, our stubborn spirits, our rebellious spirits by his spirit conquering us.

Psalm 110 exegetes Jesus Christ, tells us all about him from the New Testament perspective.

We can understand it. That is speaking of God as the Messiah who comes and conquers his enemies, gains the victory.

There's victory yet to come. I said before I want you to be more confident that Jesus Christ, he is our priestly king as David was a priestly king, sacrificing as he went into Jerusalem.

He is our kingly priest because he's a victorious priest. He was, he is, and he ever shall be victorious.

And there's victory yet to come. If you know Jesus Christ, you are part of his victory over the law of sin and death, and you have yet victory to come.

There's more coming in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, beginning of verse 50.

That's on page 962 in your pew bible. I tell you this brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

This is Paul writing to the Corinthians. Nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet.

For the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised imperishable. And we shall be changed.

For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

But when the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal says, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass that the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where's your victory? O death, where's your sting? And now

Paul explains it to us. The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our

Lord Jesus Christ. The victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. The illusion here is to the psalm, and the psalm is a psalm of victory.

David's victory over the Jebusites, Jesus Christ's victory over the law of sin and death in its ultimate sense.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the

Lord your labor is not in vain. What we need, what we have to have, is a king who gains us the victory.

We can't gain the victory on our own. We need a king who gains us victory. David was such a king, but he wasn't enough.

Great as he was, he wasn't enough. He could do nothing about the real enemy. He could conquer

Philistines. He could conquer Jebusites. He couldn't do anything about the final enemy, the ultimate enemy.

He ultimately could do nothing about our sin because he himself was a sinner just like us.

We need a king to gain us the victory. We need a great king. We need one who sits at God the Father's right hand.

What we need is a priest. We need one who will bring us to God by resolving our sin for once and for all.

Not with the endless parade of the blood of bulls and goats, but a priest who will finally do something about our sin.

Without the shedding of blood there's no remission. And so David went six steps and shed an animal's blood, but without the shedding of blood there's no remission.

So six more steps and he shed another animal's blood, but without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.

So he went six more steps and sacrificed another animal and atoned for sin over and over and over and over again.

You see Jesus is the great and victorious high priest that David could only have slightly been.

David could only make us think of him and yearn for him and wish for him. The difference is in Hebrews chapter 7 verses 23 to 25.

The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he, but Jesus, holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.

Consequently he's able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, so he always lives to make intercession for them.

You see what we need is a savior who is a priestly king and a savior who is a kingly priest.

We close with Hebrews chapter 9 verses 11 and 12. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by the means of his own blood, thus securing us eternal redemption.

We need a king. We need a high priest. What we need ultimately is a priestly king and a kingly priest, and only

Jesus is all that. Only he will do for us.

Amen? Lord, thank you for the day you have given us once more for your word.

I thank you for Jesus Christ, our great high priest, our victorious king, and I thank you, Father, for the victory that he has achieved for us over sin and death.

I pray, Father, that we will go forth in greater confidence in your word and in him and the work that he has done.