The New Testomony quotes Psalm 110 greater than another Previous Testomony passage. The apostles and the early church liked Psalm 110 for its majestic depiction of the Lord Jesus Christ and his reign over all nations.
One of the hanging citations of Psalm 110, nonetheless, comes from Jesus himself. To grasp the which means of the psalm and its success in him, think about Jesus’s attraction to Psalm 110:1 in Matthew 22:44. On the finish of a protracted discourse together with his opponents (Matthew 21:28–22:14), Jesus turns to Psalm 110 to clarify his identification:
“What do you consider the Christ? Whose son is he?” They stated to him, “The son of David.” (Matthew 22:42)
Their reply is actually right. Any pupil of the Previous Testomony would have answered the identical means. Jesus, nonetheless, isn’t glad. He reveals their poor messianic understanding by asking them a query about Psalm 110:1:
He stated to them, “How is it then that David, within the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord stated to my Lord, “Sit at my proper hand, till I put your enemies beneath your toes”’? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” (Matthew 22:43–45)
Although the Messiah would come from David’s line, he wouldn’t be simply one other king of Israel — one other Solomon. No, “one thing higher than Solomon is right here” (Matthew 12:42). David himself acknowledged as a lot when he spoke of his future son as “my Lord.” Fathers, in spite of everything, don’t deal with their sons as “Lord.”
However what made Jesus’s attraction to this psalm so highly effective that nobody dared to ask him extra questions (Matthew 22:46)? To understand the total significance of Jesus’s use of Psalm 110:1, we first think about the psalm in its authentic context.
Psalm 110’s Messianic Priest-King
Psalm 110 depicts David’s hope in a messianic priest-king who will rule the earth. The psalm opens with Yahweh’s speech to David’s future Lord:
The Lord [Yahweh] says to my Lord [Adonai]: “Sit at my proper hand, till I make your enemies your footstool.” (Psalm 110:1)
The guarantees of the Davidic covenant stand behind this speech. God had promised to offer David a son and to determine the throne of his kingdom eternally (2 Samuel 7:12–16). Psalm 110:1 reveals that this son is none aside from David’s Lord (Adonai), who would someday reign over his enemies from Yahweh’s proper hand (representing Yahweh’s kingship, energy, and authority).
“David’s higher son is the Son of God who took on flesh to acquire our redemption.”
This kingly hope stretches again to the start. The crucial “rule” in Psalm 110:2 echoes the creation mandate given to Adam, the primary priest-king within the biblical storyline (Genesis 1:26–28). Adam did not subdue and rule the earth, however David’s Lord will reclaim dominion for humanity in a fallen world stuffed with evil forces. He’ll battle his holy warfare with a military of prepared and keen volunteers on the eschatological “day” of his energy (Psalm 110:3).
Surprisingly, this king may even maintain a everlasting priesthood (Psalm 110:4). David acknowledged {that a} son from the tribe of Judah didn’t qualify for the Levitical priesthood. Due to this fact, the long run priest-king will belong to the order of Melchizedek, the traditional priest-king of Salem (recognized with Jerusalem in Psalm 76:2) who shared a meal of bread and wine with Abram and blessed him after his victory in battle (Genesis 14:17–20). Since Melchizedek preceded the Mosaic regulation, his priesthood displays Adam’s regal priesthood. David’s offspring will reunite the workplaces of king and priest in his personal individual, thus embodying God’s creational perfect for humanity.
The long run son may even defeat his enemies. He’ll “shatter kings on the day of his wrath” and fill the nations “with corpses” (Psalm 110:5–6). He’ll even conquer the non secular powers behind them when he shatters the “head” — an allusion to Genesis 3:15 — over the extensive earth (Psalm 110:6). David’s Lord is the seed of the girl who will crush the top of the serpent, ending Devil’s tyrannical reign when he lifts up his personal head in victory (Psalm 110:7). This priest-king will prolong his rule from Jerusalem and bless the offspring of Abraham like Melchizedek of outdated.
Will the True Priest-King Please Stand Up?
Jesus’s citation of Psalm 110:1 within the temple alerts that he’s the messianic priest-king of Psalm 110. Sarcastically, shortly after confounding the spiritual authorities within the temple, Jesus is placed on trial earlier than Caiaphas the excessive priest (Matthew 26:57–68). Jesus could also be within the dock, however Caiaphas is the one on trial. Throughout his examination, Jesus sheds extra mild on the reply to his query within the temple. When requested if he’s the Christ, the Son of God, Jesus appeals once more to Psalm 110:1:
You’ve got stated so. However I inform you, any longer you will notice the Son of Man seated on the proper hand of Energy and approaching the clouds of heaven. (Matthew 26:64)
Jesus is certainly the Messiah, the Son of David, however by interesting to Psalm 110:1 (and Daniel 7:13–14) in his reply to Caiaphas, Jesus reveals how he would fulfill these Previous Testomony texts. Jesus wouldn’t ascend an earthly throne in Jerusalem to defeat Rome; he would as an alternative ascend to heaven to take his seat at God’s proper hand and rule the nations and the non secular forces of evil behind them. Furthermore, his exaltation to God’s proper hand would come by a bloody cross. Struggling is the trail to glory. First demise, then resurrection, then ascension to his heavenly throne.
Maybe we go too far to counsel that David anticipated a resurrected Messiah reigning in heaven when he penned the phrases of Psalm 110, although he in all probability understood greater than we give him credit score for. In any case, he did anticipate the Messiah to defeat the serpent (Psalm 110:6), rule the nations (Psalm 110:5–6), and maintain a priesthood “eternally” (Psalm 110:4), implying an finish to the Mosaic covenant and the Levitical priesthood, together with its animal sacrifices. Psalm 110 might very effectively mirror David’s perception that the Messiah would cope with the last word issues of sin, demise, and separation from God by overcoming the serpent’s energy and reclaiming Edenic fellowship with God.
Such messianic hopes come collectively solely within the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Certainly, as Jesus hints in his response to Caiaphas, and as the remainder of the New Testomony makes clear, Psalm 110:1 is fulfilled in a resurrected Savior.
Exalted King, Timeless Priest
The New Testomony authors acknowledged that some Previous Testomony texts prophetically predicted particular particulars concerning the life and ministry of the Messiah — for instance, that he could be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). In addition they acknowledged that God sovereignly orchestrated sure individuals (like Melchizedek), occasions (just like the exodus), and establishments (just like the priesthood) to operate as forms of Christ. Psalm 110 has parts of each. David prophesied that his higher son and Lord would reign from Zion over the world as a priest-king (although precisely how that prophecy would come to go remained unsure). David additionally acknowledged that the priest-king Melchizedek was a kind of the Messiah to come back (Psalm 110:4). Each parts of Psalm 110 attain their success within the life, demise, and resurrection of Jesus.
Preaching on the day of Pentecost, Peter proclaimed that Jesus’s resurrection and ascension into heaven fulfilled the phrases of Psalm 110:1 (Acts 2:34–35). In accordance with Peter, God made Jesus “each Lord and Christ” when he raised him from the useless and seated him on the best throne within the universe (Acts 2:36).
The creator of Hebrews concurs. After Jesus made purification for sins, “he sat down on the proper hand of the Majesty on excessive” (Hebrews 1:3; see additionally 1:13). Having fulfilled the outdated covenant sacrificial system together with his ample self-sacrifice, Jesus rendered it out of date and inaugurated the brand new and higher covenant.
And with the brand new covenant got here a brand new priesthood after an order higher than Levi’s. Melchizedek’s priesthood served as a kind of Jesus’s everlasting priesthood as a result of Genesis — containing no document of Melchizedek’s beginning, demise, or household historical past (Hebrews 7:3) — presents Melchizedek as one who lives (Hebrews 7:8). Jesus grew to become a priest after the order of Melchizedek on the idea of an indestructible life (Hebrews 7:16), which means that he rose from the useless, by no means to die once more. He holds his priesthood completely and is due to this fact “in a position to save to the uttermost those that draw close to to God by him, since he at all times lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).
Psalm 110:4 is true of Christ provided that the prophecy of Psalm 110:1 is fulfilled in a resurrected king who took his seat not in an earthly Jerusalem, however in a heavenly Zion.
Our Lord and David’s Lord
So, how might David’s son be David’s Lord? The final word reply is that David’s higher son is the Son of God who took on flesh to acquire our redemption. For Jesus to ascend to heaven in success of Psalm 110:1, he first needed to defeat sin, Devil, and demise. To defeat sin, Devil, and demise, he needed to totally atone for sins. To completely atone for sins, he needed to be human like us, and he needed to be God for us. Solely God can fulfill the calls for of his personal infinite holiness and righteousness. Solely God can really and totally propitiate God’s personal wrath. But solely as man might he characterize us, obey the regulation for us, die the demise we deserve, and stand in our place, bearing our guilt. The final word success of Psalm 110 might come about solely by one who’s the God-man: David’s son but David’s Lord.
Psalm 110 anticipates the hope of the gospel, which, in accordance with the apostle Paul, was “promised beforehand by [the] prophets within the holy Scriptures” (Romans 1:2). This gospel, says Paul, is about God’s Son, “who was descended from David in accordance with the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in energy in accordance with the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the useless, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 1:3–4). Our Lord and David’s Lord. Psalm 110 is an imposing psalm as a result of it speaks of Jesus, our majestic Savior.
