This is Psalm 110. Notice the caption says, a throne of David. I'm sorry, a Psalm of David. And I read God's word. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord shall send the rod or the scepter of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people shall be willing in the day of your power. And in the beauty of holiness from the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth. The Lord has sworn and will not relent. You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at your right hand. He shall execute kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the nations. He shall fill the places with dead bodies. He shall execute the heads of many countries, and he shall drink of the brook by the wayside. Therefore, he shall lift up his head. All men are like grass. All their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Amen. Please be seated. I'd like to ask these questions that you can read along with me if you wish. They're printed in the sermon notes today. If I would ask, which would you desire more in a relationship? The person who would be your powerful protector and defender, or the person who would be your sympathetic confidant and friend? It might depend on the situation you're in at the moment, because both could be very much appreciated and needed at the proper time. But a further question would go perhaps like this. If your God offered to be one of these to you, which role would you choose for him? The close friend confidant, or the one who's almighty, ruling over all, powerful to defend and protect? And I would respond probably like you, that's a blasphemous question, what do you mean? If you could design your own God, would you make a God after your desires? And the answer to that of course is, may that never be, although it's always our temptation. But what if God really did offer to be one of those two things to you? Which I believe he does offer. If God were your king, you might feel threatened and intimidated. You would be afraid to approach him in his majesty, even though you would need his help in the exercise of his authority in a very desperate way. But if he were your priest close to you, nearby, sympathizing with you as your intercessor, He could more voluntarily take your part as the weak one, the helpless one. He could sympathize and empathize. But then you might ask, would he really have the power and the authority to exercise that power in my behalf for my deliverance? Which would you rather have? Is it more necessary to have a God who, in theological vocabulary, who's transcendent? You know what that means? It means above all, ruling above all. Or would you rather have a God who is imminent in the sense that he's very near, close by to you, sympathizing? As I was preparing the sermon further yesterday, I remembered a story from early American history during the Civil War days. It concerns a man who had an exemplary character as a Christian man, the General of the Armies of Northern Virginia, Robert E. Lee. It was only two years after the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse and after more than 39 years as a soldier in America's armies. It's interesting that General Grant became President of the United States and debatable whether he was very successful at that. Robert E. Lee, what happened to him? He went lower. He went to this small fledgling college called at that time Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. He decided he would take the honor of being president there and help in the development of just a handful of young men who were in their formative years. Little salary and no recognition, but loved by the men who knew him. Lee was sitting on the platform during the commencement exercise two years after he arrived as president of the college, when he saw a friend coming toward him out of the audience. The friend was a little boy, only five years old. The boy's name was Carter Jones. Carter was the son of the Reverend Jones, who was the Baptist minister in Lexington and who regularly supplied the messages for the chapel services at Washington College. And Carter was used during that devotional time in chapel when his father was the speaker to come up to the bench where Robert E. Lee, the president, was sitting and worshiping, and he would cuddle in next to the old gentleman, the war horse, Lee, just because he felt so comfortable in his presence, the powerful one that he wasn't intimidated over. Only this was college graduation, this wasn't chapel. Today was different, but it wasn't to Carter. Seeing his friend on a platform instead of in the crowd, he escaped from his parents and climbed up on the stage. And Lee was sitting there in the chair of honor and the boy settled down at his feet. leaning his head against Lee's knees, his gray-clad friend. And as the speaker went on and on that day, in a few minutes Carter was asleep on the lap of General Lee. The graduation ceremony called for Lee to stand as he congratulated the winners of prizes and handed their diplomas to the graduates. but rather than disturb his friend, Lee did this duty seated as Carter slept through it all. I hope that somewhat illustrates what I'm trying to say. The strong man or the sympathetic confidant friend? And Lee was both. Let's go back to this 110th Psalm for a moment. It really looks in three stanzas, I hope you can see that. The Lord said, I want you to see right there that that word said is a different, stronger word than normally the word to say. This is a special word that refers to an oracle or a prophetic utterance. It usually describes the very words that God says or even swears. It's a burden in many of the prophetic verses. The Lord said in this prophetic utterance kind of a way, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Now it demands some explanation there because the word Lord is there twice. Do you see that? Steady with me now. The Lord first name is all capital letters referring to God's memorial covenant name, Yahweh. I am who I am. That Lord says to the one David says is his Lord, my Adonai is the word, all right? The Lord, Yahweh, says to my Lord Adonai, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The Lord shall send the rod of your strength. Who's your? Your strength The one I just told to sit at my right hand, co-rule with me. the Lord Yahweh will send the scepter of your kingly rule out of Zion, even into the midst of all your enemies. Now rule, rule. That's the first stanza. This whole psalm, brief as it is, is really, in a sense, a burden, a prophetic, divine mandate that comes in two different sentences. The first you just heard. All right, sit at my right hand, rule in the midst of your enemies. Now it goes on, verse three. Your people shall be volunteers or your people shall themselves be a free will offering. Your people shall be able to be willing in the day when you exercise your power, this power of reign and rule, in the beauty of holiness. In other words, they will display the beauty of your holiness from the womb of the morning, like when the sun comes up on a bright day in the meadow. You have the dew of your youth. Now in this second stanza, here comes the second mandate that God even swears. Do you see what it is? The Lord has sworn and will not turn back or relent. What's the second mandate? You, who? David's Lord, the ruler, you, are a priest forever. How long? Forever, everlastingly, according to the order of Melchizedek. And the third phrase then comes in this stanza. The Lord, who's he speaking to here? This is the prophet David talking in the presence of God, I would say, not only to the Lord himself, but to all of us who Read this. The Lord, this one who's priest and ruler, he's at your right hand, Yahweh. And he shall execute kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the nations. He shall fill the places with dead bodies, shall execute the heads of many countries. He shall drink of the brook by the wayside, therefore he shall lift up his head." Lots of mystery there. If you would have been an Old Testament scribe, rabbi, how would you have made out with this? Now if I asked you, what's your favorite psalm, what would you say? I suspect that if you took the broad average of all the churchgoers in America, they would probably say, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. I mean, that's so soothing and comforting, and it really is. Just, I shall not want, how wonderful. Lay back in the hammock. You know, water's softly flowing, green grass, just chewing the cud. The shepherd's there with rod and staff, nobody's gonna get near me. Okay, I get it. But you know, what I think for sure is the most favorite psalm to the church in the first century was Psalm 110, which again is a mystery. Why would I say it's the favorite psalm? Because it's quoted more in the New Testament than any other chapter in the whole Bible. They knew this Psalm. Why? I would suggest to you that there's probably no chapter in the Bible that so effectively unites the theme of all 66 books of the Bible. Now think about that. That sounds like an astounding statement, and I should especially take it to heart that if this is our meditation and a sermon today, I have the opportunity to preach the gospel from what, just seven verses in a way that would bring the gospel of the whole Bible together in a crystallized, summarized way that no other part of the Bible could perhaps approach doing that. Isn't that a marvelous thing? Why would I say that? And I'd say that, first of all, because you can go back to Genesis 14, which we've already read, and what do you read about there? You read about Abraham, yes, but you read about this mysterious person called Melchizedek, which immediately brings us up to this psalm, but this psalm is not only poetry, It's not only wisdom literature from that section of the Bible, it's also prophecy, because the Bible tells us in the New Testament that David was speaking here by the Holy Spirit, listen, by the Holy Spirit, and he was speaking as a prophet, not just the King David, the prophet in this sense, the Holy Spirit speaking through him. which then takes us into all three of the gospels, where Jesus, in the week before he died, after debating with the religious people in the temple, asking them questions like, what do you think is the greatest commandment of all? Yeah, good question. And it turns out to be, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind and strength, and thy neighbor as thyself. Got that, good. And what in the first two gospels is the record that goes on from there to the next thing in all these discussions? Jesus begins to ask questions, and he says, as I said to the children earlier, I know you all are looking for this Messiah guy, this anointed one of God, who's going to be a ruler. He's going to deliver. He's going to protect. We're waiting for him to come. And in very many oblique ways and direct ways, Jesus was trying to identify himself as that guy. Do you understand that? The Son of God and the Son of Man, the Messiah, the Christos, the Anointed One of God, the one they've all been waiting for. They weren't sure what he was going to look like or what he was going to perhaps do and So Jesus asked the question, and this is three times, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, this Messiah, who is he? The answer, he's the son of David. Ah, you're right about that. But now the next question is, the Bible says, as you know, you Old Testament scholars, that the Lord Yahweh said to my Adonai Lord, whose Lord? David's Lord, he's writing this. David said, my Lord. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Now, how is it, wise men, that the son of David could be greater than David? because sons are not considered greater than their fathers. They don't approach the majesty and the splendor and the authority that their fathers have. The sons don't tell their fathers what to do and when to do it. How is it that David, the most exalted of lords, says that he has a lord himself, my lord? How is that? And the men with the answers were beginning to shake their heads and say, that's a good question. End of debate. What's going on here? And why was Jesus so insistent that they get that lesson down? Well, except for the fact that he was David's Lord. And beyond that, he was Yahweh also. sharing the essence of the divinity of his Father and the Spirit also, who can correctly be addressed as the Lord. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for you. And you know what happens later? Peter at Pentecost, after the resurrection, stands up. What does he do in chapter two in book of Acts? He gives this long sermon, right? What's he doing in the sermon? And if you want to turn there, he talks about David to these Jews. What's going on at Pentecost? Well, let me explain it to you, Peter says. In fact, he quotes from Psalm 16 and he talks about the one who would die, but his body would see no corruption in the grave. Who is that? And Peter says, it wasn't David because David went into the tomb and his body did see corruption. So David must not have been talking about David in Psalm 16. Who was he talking about? And the answer is the Messiah, the Christ to come. And Peter says, I'm here to tell you about that Messiah who has come. Do you know who he was? He was the one, Jesus from Galilee, who you massacred on a cross after an unjust trial. You killed the author and source of life, so you think. But he's the one David was talking about, and in the tomb his body saw no corruption. And now, since he's exalted to heaven, he's in that exalted position of rulership, he has poured out this Holy Spirit that you now see at Pentecost. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but David says, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. What I'm trying to say here is when Peter reached the very climax of suspense and conviction in his Pentecost sermon, what does he do? And the answer is, the very climax and apex of his whole message, he quotes Psalm 110. Let all the house of Israel know for sure that God made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." When they heard this, they were cut to the heart. What should we do? You see how this chapter is uniting the whole Bible, it seems. Because later on, it talks extensively about Melchizedek the priest in the book of what? Hebrews. So now you have not only the history of Genesis, the history, wisdom, prophetic poetry of Psalms, the history of Acts, the epistles of Hebrews talking about this psalm multiple times as fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And then if you add this whole comment about until he makes his enemies a footstool for his feet, if you search footstool for God's feet, you're going to find it many more times in the Bible, including right to the very end of the Bible in the book of Revelation when he's put all things under his feet. Am I sufficiently trying to persuade you that this chapter is bringing the whole Bible together? And you would say, no wonder the early church said, if we need to know any part of the Bible, we need to know this. Let me just take you back to Genesis 14 for a moment. Who's Melchizedek? Good question, right? Who's Melchizedek? And all we know about Melchizedek, he suddenly just appears on the pages of history in Genesis 14. What's going on in Genesis 14? Abraham's being this mighty warrior guy. What happens? He chose not to live in Sodom, but Lot did. And when the kings united of that day, the barbarian kind of kings, they sacked Sodom and they carried away Lot, his nephew, and all that Lot had in his household. And Abraham just said, oh, providence of God and everything give thanks. This is an amazing thing. Abraham has 318 trained servants in his household. I mean, that's about two companies of inventory, not even that much. And he goes with that contingent of trained servants against the armies combined of four kings. And he chases them down. Now listen, it was about 120-mile trip. Abraham, goes riding off against four armies. And at night, he divides his forces, 318 guys in four different quadrants. While it's still dark, surprise attack, come down from him suddenly from the hills, and they rout them, just completely overcome them. And they chase him for another 60 miles. after the initial confrontation, until Abraham bests all of them in this slaughter and brings back all the spoils to Sodom. King of Sodom says, thank you. What can I give to you? Abraham says, nothing. I don't want anybody to think you made me rich. But in the midst of that, this strange person comes out of nowhere. He's called Melchizedek. Melech is the Hebrew word for king. Tzedek is the Hebrew word for righteousness. Put them together and Melchizedek means what? King of righteousness. But that's not all, he's also King of Salem, which probably refers to Jerusalem, peace, Jerusalem. He's also King of Peace at the same time he's King of Righteousness. What can you not help think about? Therefore, having been justified, made righteous by faith, we have peace with God through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great mediator between God and man. What's Melchizedek doing? He's uniting the Most High God with God's Abraham, the father, at this point, who's an exalted father, Abram, He's the one in between. Now, the first use of the word priest in the Bible, first use of the word priest, which incidentally is Kohen in Hebrew. I used to serve for a Colonel Kohen. He was Jewish. It's an interesting, frequent Jewish name still today, isn't it? Right, priest. This is the first usage of the word priest in the whole Bible. It comes along with Melchizedek. What do we know now about Melchizedek? He unites in himself, what? He's king and he's also priest. How do we know he's priest? Well, he brings out bread and wine. He's the priest of the Most High God. I mean, how can you really brings out bread and wine as a priest and not think of what we're gonna be doing tonight as we celebrate the Lord's Supper together? as the great high priest, after the order or line of Melchizedek, serves us at the table. What's he doing? He's bringing out something. He's giving to Abram, this hero kind of a guy. and he blesses Abram. Now, what does that say right away? The Bible says when he, Melchizedek, blesses someone, what does that mean? It means that the one who blesses is greater than the one who's blessed. And the Jews might say, wait a minute, you mean Melchizedek's greater than Abram? And the answer is yes. Wow, he's giving the blessing. But he's also, look, not only blessing downward, he's also blessing upward, right? And also, he blessed God Most High, who delivered to Abram all Abram's enemies. You see this wonderful position of intercessor and mediator, Melchizedek, priest and king, standing between the Most High God and God's chosen man. He's delivered you. And what does Abram do at that point? Not only is Melchizedek giving something, what is he also doing? He's getting something. What's he getting? Tithes from Abram, which shows again that you give the tithe to the one who's greater than you. And again, how wonderful that God's willing to receive gifts from us. He doesn't need anything. All that being said, who's Jesus? And the answer is, He's the one who's greater than Melchizedek. Why, He sits at the right hand of the Most High, Jesus, exalted. He's also the one identified in Hebrews as our Great High Priest. Just think about that for a minute. I started earlier with, which would you rather have, a God who is strong, powerful, protector, deliverer, omnipotent, but might be kind of frightening to you? You don't know if she really dared to draw near. Or would you rather have the kind of God who sympathizes with you, who feels all the torment of your excruciating torments, right? Who you can go to as a confident and a friend and know that you're not going to be turned away. Which God would you choose to have? And the answer is this God. And this is really the essence of coming to worship, isn't it? That's what I want to do time after time after time, Sunday after Sunday, week after week. God help me because I want to show you this God. It's the one thing above all things we need to know. Who is this God? He's the ruler. He's the high priest. He sympathizes. Your sin can be never greater than His grace. And at the same time, he just doesn't sympathize with you. He has almighty power. He can turn the pages of history for you. In fact, he has done that. When Christ went to the cross and was raised, and he who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all, won't he also with you freely give you all things? We just ask for a moment, not only to look at him, but look at us for a moment. Does this great ruler and high priest live in the church? Yes. Does he live in you, Christian? Yeah. Are you ever confronted with the dilemmas of how shall I respond to need and people? Sometimes I'll hear Christian counselors say, oh, I'm just so empathetic toward your situation. I feel your pain. I can't tell you what to do, but I certainly can relate. I would say, wait a minute, isn't the God who lives inside of you a ruling God? Does he not rule by his word? And if he lives in you, can't he through you give direction to people who need wisdom and help? Can you not tell them this is what the word of God and the Holy Spirit within me want you to hear? And the answer should be yes. But how about the times when the Christian leader or pastor, the worker might say, I hate small group ministry. Because when I'm with a small group of people in an intimate setting, I just don't know how to act. What do you say to the person who would confess sins but always in such a general way? You never really know what he's talking about. He's just sounding religious. He never confesses specific sins as one who really needs help. He doesn't want to be known. He doesn't want to be vulnerable. He doesn't know how to wear his heart on his sleeve in a good way. You understand? Don't you want to just say to him, don't you know you're accepted in the beloved? Don't you know you can be vulnerable with people? Don't you know you can fesh your sins to a brother who understands your infirmity? Don't you know those things? You want someone to set you on a pedestal as though you're not human like the rest of us? People want to see that you're a sinner forgiven. That's the purpose of the gospel. Live it out. You understand? Live it out. What I'm trying to say is, let me use another Civil War hero example. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain won the Medal of Honor at Little Round Top at Gettysburg. When he charged the enemy with bayonets after they ran out of ammunition to shoot, turned the tide of the Battle of Gettysburg in favor of the Union with his 20th Main Regiment. After being severely wounded many times at the Battle of Quaker Road near Petersburg, he goes to comfort a close friend, General Horatio Sickle. who had been badly wounded in the battle, and over the hospital bed, giving comfort as a Christian would, General Sickle addresses General Chamberlain with the words, sir, you have the heart of the lion. No, he didn't say that. He says you have the soul of the lion, and you have the heart of a woman. I've loved that story because when you see Jesus, you see the lion-hearted guy, don't you? The lion-souled man. But at the same time, you see the sympathetic high priest who weeps tears over your infirmities. And you say, how do I know whether I need to be the lion or the mother? Good question. But the bigger question is, do you think that's possible? And the demanded answer is, yes, you must know that you can do both. There's a hard side, there's a soft side of love. The hard thing is to know how to practice it. Would you say amen? And I don't know that I would do it very well, but I know I must do it. And I know Jesus does it perfectly. And even when I think I need one or the other, he knows best what I need. May I just say a couple more sentences about the way this psalm ends? You know, we got through the two declarations. Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Then, you're a priest forever, I swear it, forever. After the order, line of Melchizedek. That's not the end of the psalm. What happens next? Oh, just the execution of all the nations and kings of the world, that's all. Just the Christ coming out of heaven on his white stallion, the word of God trampling out the vintage of all the rebels on the earth? Smashing heads? That's what it says. What do you do with that? This is Jesus, gentle Jesus, meek and mild? Yes? Again, don't make him mad at me. This is what the psalm says of him. He'll fill the places with dead bodies. And as that conquering warrior, what does he do? He hasn't been wounded or injured. What does he do? When he's done with his work, he bends over the flowing fountain brook of water. He takes the water into his hands. He's refreshed. And he's king, and he's priest, and his warrior end. Everything is right. I want to say this as forcefully as I can. This is not a general election of the Democrats or the Republicans in the United States of America. Do you understand that? This is not a you can take him or leave him kind of a situation. He's not king because you voted him in with 51% of the popular vote. This is a different kind of ruler. He doesn't rule for a four year or an eight year term. He rules forever. And if you don't want him to rule over you, there are consequences to that. He takes his scepter and he smashes your head. He crushes you, because you're a rebel to the rightful king. This is not the situation, so, you know, take him or leave him, just so you have someone to look up to as a wise and a virtuous example, right? Well, I'll choose this guy, you choose that guy, we're all both okay. It's not that at all. This is the ruler of the universe. God's anointed one who said, sit at my right hand, I'm gonna make all your enemies a footstool for your feet. Now live with it. I mean, literally. Come to him so you can live. And if you don't, you're gonna be crushed. Is that good news? You better say yes. If you don't say yes, that's good news, then I would wonder if you've understood the gospel. You either reign with him or you're crushed at his footstool. You either understand that he's the rightful king forever, You understand that he's your priest. How does he become your priest? Your great high priest who sat down at the right hand of God. You say to him, what? I deserve to be condemned to everlasting hell because of my sin. Yet you have paid the penalty to make satisfaction with the ruler, your father. And I run to you for forgiveness. You submit to him as king, you submit to him as priesthood, and there's no other ground. You know, wonder the early church turned the world upside down. Right? It's not, oh, would you please receive Jesus as your personal savior? He'll really make your life spin like a top. You either reign with him or you're crushed by him. There is no valid relationship with God other than that which comes through the kingship and the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Let us pray. Father, I hope I can begin to give an appetite and taste of what the content of this short psalm, just seven verses long, meant to the believing people, the Church of Christ, as it unites everything from Genesis to Revelation. that we have such a king who rules at the right hand of the Father. We have such a priest who's able to be our friend and confident who gave his life that we might live. Father, I can't say anything that I can think of now beyond that, and I just pray that By the work of your Holy Spirit you would leave an impression on my heart and every heart that's listening to me now. It's this man with whom we must have to do everything depends upon who he is and what we decide to do about his claims on our life. Pray we're not just looking back to that moment when, yes, I became a Christian and this was all settled. I pray we're looking to this moment as well. That at this moment, what does this kingship and what does this priesthood mean? May we believe the gospel and live it out, we pray, for Christ's sake, amen.