What are we longing for? Waiting (Psalm 110) — Marcus Cain

Reading Psalm 110 and the Call to Wait

Let's read in the book of the Psalms. It's Psalm 110. Psalm 110. And while you're looking for that psalm, I want to express my thanks to the assembly here for their invitation to be with you this weekend and for your kindness, your hospitality, your efforts in convening the conference once again.

It's been a pleasure to be here, as it is, whether in conference or not, and to share with my brothers Stephen, Baker, and Harper. Psalm 110. We'll read from the beginning and we'll read the whole psalm.

A Psalm of David. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.

Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. In the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning, thou hast the due of thy youth. The Lord has sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen. He shall fill the places with the dead bodies. He shall wound the heads over many countries.

He shall drink of the brook in the way. Therefore, shall he lift up the head. And we know that God will bless the reading of his word. Now, I'll tell you right off at the top that I'm not going to be looking at every single verse in detail at all this afternoon.

The time does not allow, nor does my exercise lead me in that way. But there are some things that we want to learn, I hope, with God's help from Psalm 110. Just to bring us up to speed in case we got left behind somewhere along the highway or the carriageway, as they call it over there in the other lands, in Psalm 19, we were looking at the importance of the word of God.

And the question was, what are you looking at? What are you looking at? Are we looking up at the sky, which is a great thing to do. David says, do that. Are we looking down into the scriptures, delving deeply into them?

Are we looking inward at our own soul, our own conscience? And are we looking forward? So there's four looks that we saw in Psalm 19. In Psalm 100, we looked at the importance of worship. And the question there was, what am I living for?

What is the real purpose for which God saved me? And the Lord Jesus taught us in John's Gospel, chapter 4, that he's seeking those that will worship him in spirit and in truth. So the question is, what am I living for?

Waiting for the Messiah's Kingdom

Now we come to Psalm 110. And if we looked at the word of God and the worship of God, my W word here, and I really wasn't thinking about www .anything, to be honest, but this is the way it is. The word that came to my mind as I was meditating, and I love this particular Psalm, is the word wait.

Now there's two ways to spell that, okay? I'm not going to speak about the fact that we just had probably more food than we needed just a couple of hours ago. And that your eyes might be weighty, w-e-i-g-h-t-y.

But I'm thinking about the other kind of weight. Because I love when I come to the Bible, to come across this little word until. Until. Because you and I live in difficult days. But there is an until.

So we are waiting. What are we longing for? Well, we'll see here in Psalm 110 what we ought to be longing for. In this Psalm, we'll find that there is a king who is going to subdue and he is going to reign.

And we also find that there is a priest. And a priest comes along to serve us and to represent us. So a king who subdues and reigns. And we find that there is a priest to serve and represent us. And what we understand as believers in 2025 is that this is one and the same person.

Now it was one and the same person way back there in the book of Genesis. And we will get there just in a in a short while. One thing that we find when we come to Psalm 110 is its applicability. This Psalm really applies uniquely to the person of the Lord Jesus.

When David takes up his pen and writes many Psalms. And he does write many Psalms. 73 are ascribed directly to him. There are times when obviously he is writing from his own experience. There are times when he's writing about his own experience and something that goes beyond that.

But he sees himself slightly involved. Maybe we can see some of that in Psalm 69, Psalm 22. And then there is this time when he's writing about something that does not apply to him at all. It applies uniquely to David's greater son.

To the person of the Lord Jesus. Now obviously when I when I go to my next point with it which is its authorship. You'll say well this is pretty clear because it says a Psalm of David. But I will suggest to you that there is no other Psalm where so much depends on these few words as Psalm 110.

A Psalm of David. Some have suggested that maybe somebody in David's court was writing this Psalm. Not David himself. If that were true and it's not. If that were true the Psalm would have a completely different meaning.

But it was David himself who writes this Psalm. How do we know? Well you say we know because it says the Psalm of David. But you who have read your New Testament. Which I think includes most of us. You'll know that the Lord Jesus tells us in the gospel accounts that this Psalm comes from the pen of David.

And he says this that the Holy Ghost says by means of David. So what the Lord Jesus is telling us is this. When we come to the Psalms. When we come to the Bible. But when we come to the Psalms and especially to Psalm 110.

We have dual authorship. Now I'm going to be careful and I can't spend any time here at all. But what the Lord Jesus tells us in a very succinct way is this. This Psalm had two authors. David takes up his pen and he writes.

I don't know whether he's left-handed or not. But I certainly am not. He took up his pen and wrote. But at the same time the Lord Jesus said it was the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit who gave us. Who wrote Psalm 110.

Now you can ponder that in your own mind. But what I will suggest at the very least is this. That when we find David writing this Psalm. He obviously has spent some time meditating on the Word of God.

You will remember that a king was required to find a pen and a piece of paper. Which was not very easy way back in those days. Like it is today. They couldn't take notes on their iPad or their iPhone or some horrific Android device if that's what you decide to use.

I get completely mind boggled if anybody ever hands me one of those things. Don't give me a PC. I don't know what to do with it. I really don't. But that's the sideline. So there's David and he's writing out a copy of the law.

And when he's writing out a copy of the law. He comes along to Genesis 14. And I suggest he's meditating on it. And later on. I'm not saying the very same moment. But at some point he sits down and he writes these words.

And I'm pretty sure he probably meditated on these words on more than one occasion as well. So we have David writing it. And we have the Holy Spirit who is the author as well. In this Psalm as David writes about Melchizedek and some other things as well.

He's going to tell us about the rule of the Messiah. And he's going to speak to us about the roles of the Messiah as well. So we have the authorship. We have its applicability. Number three. I want to think about the appearance of David.

David's Place in the Five Books of the Psalter

Now again I know that that we've enjoyed a good meal. So just stick with me just for a few minutes here okay. When you look at the book of the Psalms. You all well know that it's divided into five books.

David as I mentioned has written or at least 73 are ascribed directly to him as a Psalm of David. But he's written at least 73. Maybe more. Each of these books ends with a statement of praise. You can look at this in your own time.

The other thing I need to remind you of is this. When you read the book of the Psalms. Let's not think for one moment that they were just kind of dropped into the order they happen to be in tonight or today or this afternoon.

Whatever time it might be. That's not the way it is. There is a distinct order in the books and in the Psalms in the books. So just think with me for a moment or two here. I say the appearance of David because when we look at book one which is some from Psalm 1 to 41.

He has written 37 of those 41 Psalms. He's fairly much in the forefront. Then we move into book 2 which goes from 18 to 31. Sorry it goes from 42 to 72. That's 31 Psalms. My brother Matthew's an accountant.

I struggle with numbers. He has written 18 of those 31 Psalms. Okay so 37 in book 1. 18 in book 2. You come to book number 3 which is much shorter. There's only 17. But he's only written one of those.

And then you come to book 4 which takes us into as far as like 106 and he has only written two of those. Now all of a sudden we come to book 5 and David appears again on a regular basis including here near the very beginning of the book in 108 and 109 and 110 and many others.

There's 15 of the 44 that he has written. Now I know that nobody's going to remember all those numbers. Okay unless you wrote them down you might remember them. But you're not going to remember them. All I want you to remember is this.

For some reason David appears an awful lot in book 1 and book 2. Hardly at all in book 3 and book 4. And then all of a sudden pops up an awful lot in book number 5. And you say well is there is there any rhyme or reason to that at all?

And and I said already that these are not in some random order. They're in a specific order. So think about book 1 for a moment. What happens in book 1 is this. The king is bringing justice to the world.

The kingdom is established in book 1. In book number 2 we start with glory in psalm 45. We finish with glory in psalm 72. There is a big dip in psalm 69 as you know. But it's from glory to glory. And in book 2 we kind of see that the kingdom is being transferred from David to Solomon.

Then you follow along with me into book number 3. And it starts very darkly. Starts in psalm 73. And it's not a very shall we say not a very happy psalm. It finishes in psalm 89 with enemies. Now psalm 89 is one of those messianic psalms as well.

But it finishes with the enemies. So in book 3 what we find is that the people have been exiled. That's book 3. Where's the king? Where are the promises? That's how psalm 89 finishes. Then we move into book 4 which begins with God's faithfulness.

A song of Moses. Psalm 90. 91 most likely is the response to psalm 90. Probably from Moses pen as well. Then we have the marvelous psalm 92 which anybody that lives in Garnabillo and has a great memory knows that I spoke in that last September probably somewhere around the 28th or 29th.

But if you don't have a great memory then you probably don't remember that. It was unforgettable right. It's actually it's actually the psalm that speaks about, I'll give you a reminder, it speaks about believers who are fat and flourishing and fruitful.

It's a pretty good psalm. I like it a lot. I was almost going to speak on that again because I figured that some people might not remember. But we're in psalm 110. So I'm not speaking about fat and flourishing and fruitful believers today.

So that's book number book number three. Where are the promises? Book number four. God's faithfulness is what we see right from the very beginning. And book number four is telling us how to live in the absence of the king.

The king is absent. It's the exile. Where is the king? The post-exile. Where is the king? I would suggest to you that there's an awful lot that you and I can learn from reading book number four. Read the other books too but read book four.

It starts it starts with God reigning psalm 93, 94, 95, not so much but 96, 97, 98, 99 and then into 100 that we saw yesterday. Even when man fails God reigns. Let's remember that lesson. And then we move into 101, 102 and 13, 103 and we find that hope is being renewed.

And then we come to 104, 105, 106. They're hallelujah psalms. Somebody asked me yesterday after a message if we can say hallelujah. Well I can barely get you to say amen. I don't think I'll get you to say hallelujah.

You can ponder that one. And then it finishes. If you just flip back in your bible to psalm 106 verse 47 look how it finishes. This is the end of book number four. Save us O Lord our God and gather us from among the heathen.

They're exiled. They want to be where God is to give thanks unto thy holy name and to triumph in thy praise. And then we move into book number five. And I'm going to have to pick up the speed here a little bit to get into psalm 110.

But but then we get into book number five and we see we see this response to the prayer in psalm 106. Look at psalm 107 verse number verse number three verse number well verse number three. Let's let's start at verse number one.

O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy and gathered them out of the lands from the east and from the west from the north and from the south.

They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary solitary way. They found no city to dwell in. And then he continues. So we can see that God is answering and and they're coming back. So that's kind of where we start in psalm 107.

And then you move through 108 and 109. There's an imprecatory psalm there. I'm not going to touch that theme at all as much as I would love to. And we come to psalm 110. Well let's just leave that for for one moment.

Then you come to 111 through 117 that they call the halal. Okay meditate on that one yourself. 118 and 119 are our Torah or law psalms. Now I would suggest to you that's rather important because when we come to psalm 110 what do we see?

We see that there is one who is going to rule. What is going to be needed in the millennial kingdom? Well not just a rule a ruler a king but shall we say a rule book. What is it? I suggest it's the psalm 119.

Now I don't don't take me wrong. I'm not saying that's the only part of the bible that people will use during the that's not what I'm saying. But what I'm saying is psalm 119 is central is central in regards to the rain.

Then you move into those songs of ascent. 120 all the way through 134. Wonderful songs or psalms of ascent of degrees perhaps your bible says. They're going up to Jerusalem and then you come to 135, 136 and 137.

There's some worship and there's some war and then you move into 138 through 145. You find David's final victory and then you go through 146 and 150 and how does the how does the psalter end? With this as somebody put it this very fireworks of praise praise praise hallelujah praise over and over and over again.

So that's book five. So let's move on. Let's get to where we need to get. When you read the psalms try try to be looking for associations with other psalms. So in your in your spare time go back to psalm 2.

Have psalm 2 open maybe in one bible and psalm 110 open in another bible. That's all I'm going to say. I have no time to look at that at all. But you'll see an awful lot of things in common between psalm 2 and psalm 110 which ought not to surprise us because psalm 2 really is part of the introduction to the whole psalter.

Psalm 1 and psalm 2 go hand in hand. So there's associations there. There are several associations between just the previous few psalms that we have in book 5 and this psalm as well including the fact that we find a repetition of the right hand the right hand the right we found it here in psalm 110 as well.

Psalm 110 in the New Testament

Another reason for which psalm 110 is is uh one of my one of my favorite psalms of the of 150 is one of maybe 150 favorite psalms. But psalm 110 is very important because it has an abundance of allusions and quotations in the new testament.

So your your margin might help you. A bible tool may help you or your memory may help you or when you're reading your new testament always be alert what what is he alluding to? What is he quoting from?

And one thing to remember is this. Take for example a book of hebrews. When you read hebrews and and put yourself back in their in their sandals back in that day and and you're you're sitting on the on the ground and somebody is reading the whole book of hebrews to you and you hear these constant references to the psalms in the hebrew mind they would have known the whole psalm.

We sometimes think we're doing well if we can remember a verse or two from the psalms that's maybe quoted in the new testament but they would have known the whole book of the psalms. I'm not saying everybody did completely but again I I think that I think that I mentioned this somewhere in Wisconsin this past week it may have been Ontario Wisconsin it may may have been somewhere else.

But remember that that the Psalter was the hymn book for the hebrew people and and you well know you well know that if if I say to you that we're going to sing let's say 305 if I were to ask for a show of hands which I know I can't do but if I were to ask for a show of hands and say let's sing 305 do you know it without looking at it do you know which one it is.

My my guess is that almost everybody would be able to sing it without looking at it right. I'll give you the first word to calvary lord right. So what we sing especially those of us who were brought up in christian homes that's the way the Psalter was to them.

So when they see a quotation in the new testament they automatically think in their mind ah that comes from psalm 110 that comes from psalm 2 that comes from psalm 8 that comes from psalm 45. And they would know the the context of the whole psalm I I have I have to leave that as well.

The Structure and Center of Psalm 110

Let's think of an analysis of the of the psalm just for a moment psalm 110 verse 1 is really a proclamation an oracle if you wish to use that word but a proclamation about the position that this man has.

And then verse 4 is a proclamation about his priesthood. So verses 2 and 3 really are an explanation of his rule. He is the one who is seated and he is the one who rules. So verses 2 and 3 explain verse number one.

Then you come to verse number four and he's going to speak about the fact that he is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. So in your mind in your mind you would think logically that there's going to be an explanation about his priesthood in the following verses.

But there's not. There's a further explanation about his rule. Now if I if I can I'll get to why we see that just in a moment. The other thing that you that you can find in in good bible tools or commentaries is this that in each of these two stanzas there are 74 syllables.

Now some of you have to go back in your mind and say syllables. I remember that from 1952 when I was in junior high school. No you don't use that word here in middle school right. Well a syllable. There's 74 syllables in the first part 74 in the last part.

The very center of this psalm the very center of psalm 100 you may remember is verse number four. No ye the very center of this psalm is also in verse number four. And most likely the very center word in hebrew is the word forever forever pretty important word.

I'll suggest to you that what we have in psalm 100 and psalm 110 and many other psalms as well is is what they call a chiastic structure. Now now again I I don't want to I don't want to get complicated here this afternoon at all at all.

But if you look at the first and the very last and then if I can do this a little bit with my hands I could probably use a few more hands. But um if you start at the top and the and the bottom and you start to move towards the center.

Verse four is the center. So the top and the bottom are going to really say something very similar the top and the bottom of this summer the beginning and the end if you prefer is the king and throne.

That's the beginning and the king at the very end has his head lifted up and he is refreshed. So you have the king at the beginning and at the end he has authority to reign granted near the beginning.

That's the second point. And it's the second last point. His authority to reign is not granted but it's actually executed in a coming day. Then you move in a little bit closer to the center and what you'll find is this the day of his power.

You notice that in verse number three. And then it's going to speak in verse number five about the day of his wrath. So you have the day of his power the day of his wrath the very same day. But that's kind of bringing us down to the middle.

The middle is the priest installed. So it's not really an interruption. When you find something at the middle of a chiastic structure it's because he's trying to emphasize to us what the most important part is.

It's not an interruption. It's an emphasis on what the focus of the psalm is. So let's look at verse one just for a moment because i really want to spend most of my time on verse number four if i possibly can.

Jesus' Interpretation of David's Psalm

Verse number one is the proclamation about his position and the words that that who hears. Oh we haven't got to that part. Have we this. This is really a psalm. Obviously that's speaking especially as i maybe alluded to earlier about the lord jesus.

So when we come to the new testament and the lord jesus has this conversation with the religious people. He says whose whose son is david the messiah. Where does it like how does all this work. The messiah.

Well he'll be the son of david. So how is it. He asks how is it that that the son of david is called lord by david. Now the people there obviously know what he was referring to. They knew he was referring to psalm 110.

And it's quoted there in the gospel of matthew and quoted in the gospel of mark as well. There are all kinds of quotations from this psalm in the new testament especially from verse one and verse number four.

And so the lord jesus there is is telling them you need to think about this relationship what was what was david actually saying. And you'll notice here in verse number one in your in your bible that the first word lord is all capital letters.

Or if you have if you have some other translation it might actually say jehovah or it may say yahweh which distinguishes it maybe a little bit better but it's jehovah saying on to adoni. So there is a distinction here.

What we're entering into here is a is a conversation between persons of the godhead. So we are we are walking carefully because this is a conversation that that obviously took place in heaven. The lord said unto my lord sit thou at my right hand.

Sitting means a number of things. And you can look at all kinds of quotations in the new testament. I'll just give you a couple of of things to ponder. But but the first one is this. The fact that the lord jesus is seated means that he is resting from the work that he accomplished on the cross of calvary.

There's much more to it than that. But there is that he's resting from the work that he accomplished the work of our redemption. He's seated according to hebrews 10 verse 13 he's seating while he waits for that final victory that one day is going to come.

When he's going to enter into shall we say that the fullness of what he did on the cross of calvary acts chapter 5 we find out that he is he is exalted despite the fact that man rejected him. You'll find in hebrews chapter 1 verse 13 that he's seated which is something that didn't happen with the angels.

They didn't hear something like this did they. But the lord jesus did. And he's greater than greater than david. We find that in acts chapter 2 and verse 34. So you can go through and and use your concordance and find all the quotations and learn an awful lot about the importance of the fact that the lord jesus heard these words sit thou at my right hand.

But then he says until. So we move forward to ephesians chapter 1 verse number 20 and find out that god's ultimate purpose is going to be accomplished one day in the person of his son he is the head of all things he is the victor over all things.

We find that truth in first corinthians chapter 15 verses 22 and onward. But one of the things that i appreciate when i read these words in verse number one is very closely linked with verse number four.

But i'll just put it out here at this moment what this psalm teaches me in verse number one is that there is a real man seated in heaven. Now during this conference my my brother stephen baker on friday night said a few things that helped me get into my topic in the first message.

And then we heard some some words about worship which was my second message. And then we've heard some words this morning about the priesthood of the lord jesus which is part of my third message. So they've they've helped me in introducing my topic for me saves me a little bit of time which is very good.

Christ's Present Intercession and Future Reign

So there is a real man seated at the right hand of god today that's tremendously important in many different at many different levels. But i'm thinking especially at this moment of verse number four. The other thing that i learned from verse number one it reminds me of the fact that when he comes back because it says until i make thine enemies thy footstool the fact that he is going to reign and rule.

Paul will tell timothy this we will reign with him if we suffer with him we will reign with him. So there's a real man seated in heaven and there is a real man that will come back and he will reign. So he's seated.

Look at verse number two just for a moment it says the lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Now when you read through this psalm you'll find that there is an shall we say an increasing and enlarging circle of the territory that the lord jesus is going to have.

And we find this as we even read through this particular psalm. So he says the lord that's jehovah shall send the rod of thy strength out of zion which reminds us that the future capital of the kingdom of our lord jesus is going to be a city that is under attack at this very hour out of zion out of jerusalem that is where he is going to have the rod of his strength and he's going to rule from there in the midst of his enemies he will be seated on the throne of his father david.

Now there's more that we could say about all of this as well but i just want to mention a a couple of things. When we go all the way back to genesis chapter one we remember that god gave to adam the responsibility to subdue and to rule.

That's genesis 1 and genesis 2. In genesis 3 sin entered and and that plan was greatly affected. Adam failed in fulfilling his responsibility. But what this is telling me is that there is a man who is going to fully accomplish god's plan in a coming day now you'll remember i'm sure you will remember that psalm 8 gives us the very same story as a matter of fact if i can just mention this in case i forget to mention it later because there isn't a whole lot more later when you read the book of the hebrews think about it as an exposition of psalms.

Let's say just to keep it fairly small psalms 2 8 and 1 10. You can put some more in there as well. But principally hebrews is an exposition of psalm 2 psalm 8 and psalm 1 10. So psalm 8 tells us that what god did was to put everything under the rule of man.

Man failed but this man will never fail. He is the one who is seated right now. He's waiting until but when he comes back he will rule. His enemies will be confronted. They will be conquered. But we see this tremendous contrast between the enemies who are conquered and confronted.

Or confronted and conquered perhaps is a better better order. But then he speaks about verse number three. This contrast with thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. So we have his enemies who are defeated.

And then he's going to speak about the fact that there is thy people. Now i'm going to make an application just in a moment. But before i get there he's obviously speaking about the nation of israel who comes to understand as we have heard already this weekend that the one that they crucified was actually their messiah.

And they will become once again in a fuller way his people. Or as it says here thy people. And it says they shall be willing your newberry margin. If you have a newberry i don't have my newberry with me.

Uh might say on the margin if i remember correctly voluntary offerings. So they're willing. They're voluntary offerings. So here's the application now this is not the gospel section of the meeting. I well understand.