The Promised Priest King - Pastor Tom Loghry
Psalm 110 reveals that the promised Messiah is both a divine King and an eternal Priest in the order of Melchizedek—uniting two roles Israel had always kept separate—and this union is fulfilled only in Jesus Christ, who is fully God and fully man. Because Christ reigns as our victorious King and intercedes forever as our perfect Priest, believers can live with confident joy and courage, secure that their ultimate acceptance before God and future victory over evil are guaranteed in Him.
Transcript:
Let us pray as we come before God's word
Dear Father, as we come before your word this morning as found in Psalm 110, we pray that you would impress upon us the wonderful truth that you have promised a king, and that you have given us this king in the person of your Son, Jesus Christ. Father, may, may you fill us with awe and wonder at this wonderful reality, and shape our hearts to live in light of it.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. You may be seated.
We try to make the best of things. We look for a good job, we try to take care of our family, our friends. We try to make the best of things. But there's a lot outside of our control. Some things depend on those in the halls of government. And of course, the trouble is, is that every political regime seems chronically flawed in one way or another. And that leads some of us to despair of even thinking about politics at all. We just try to get by. It leads others of us towards activism, maybe even aspiring to political leadership ourselves, thinking maybe we, we can be the ones that fix this. But what everyone can agree on is that things should be better, and we need a perfected governance.
Now, as Americans, we are averse to turning to kings, but this is only because we are aware of their poor historical track record. If we could be certain of a good king, in particular a king whose rule would never end, that would never need to be replaced, potentially with a bad one, a king who could actually secure justice, peace, and prosperity, then who wouldn't go for such a king?
Our political frustration has been shared by human beings throughout history, we want better presidents, governors, et cetera, senators, et cetera, our ancestors wanted a better king. Superficial differences that point to a common desire for a truly virtuous leader who will put our troubles to rest.
It is right for us to be frustrated. It is right for us to desire some final fix that will set things right. We often resign ourselves to disappointment and cynicism as time wears on, and that's what makes the claims of the Bible so astounding. The hope of Scripture is the hope of restoration. God does not set before us a vision of retreat, a dream of evacuating to lollipop cloud land. God promises conquest, victory by the appearance of the one true king here on Earth, the king who will make things right.
You see, the Psalms contain not only words of praise, but they also contain words of prophecy, and that's precisely what we find here in Psalm 110. We find King David writing as a prophet. And what he has to say is astonishing because it goes against everything we'd expect a king to say. And so we turn to Psalm 110, and we look just at verse one. We're gonna, there's only seven verses here, so we're just gonna go pretty much verse by verse.
It starts, it says, "Of David, a Psalm. The Lord says to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.'" Now, again, David is functioning here in the role of a prophet, but he is king. And so we have to keep the identity of who Jesus, of, of who David is in mind here as we're reading this psalm. So he says, "The Lord." And whenever you see in the Bible where it says Lord in all caps, it's not to emphasize it. It's supposed to give you a clue as to what the original word is in Hebrew. When you see the word Lord in all caps, it means Yahweh. We're talking about the personal name of God here. When you see lord in lowercase, it's using it more generically, in the term Adonai. You could, you also say king. And this is applied both to God and to human beings. This psalm has been characterized as a psalm of enthronement, and it was likely used whenever they were introducing a new king upon the throne.
And it's interesting how even the layout of the Temple Mount kind of reflects what David is imagining here of a king being seated at the right hand of, of God. Because we see, this is what they believe it probably looked like. You have the temple here. You can imagine the Ark of the Covenant here, and what do you see down to the right but the palace? You see a throne room down here at God's right hand. That was the place where the king sat. But of course, as we're looking at this psalm, we're expecting something a bit more than just any old king. This is a, a king of a different order. It's not David, of course, 'cause David's talking about someone else other than himself.
There's a Messianic expectation here, and, and again, for those unfamiliar, the word Messiah just means anointed one, so it's talking about a promised king to come. And by the time we get to the time of Jesus, there's been many kings, many sons of David who have fallen short of all this expectation. And in the course of Jesus' ministry, people begin to pick up on the fact that Jesus seems to be implying that He is this Messiah.
And in fact, Jesus is a son of, of David. He is in, of the line and lineage of David. And so we see Jesus raise this topic in Matthew 22, verses 41 through 46, and He actually refers directly to this psalm, to Psalm 110. So it says there, he's with the Pharisees. It says, "While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 'What do you think about the Messiah?
Whose son is he?' 'The son of David,' they replied. He said to them, 'How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him Lord?' For he says, 'The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.' If then David calls him Lord, how can he be his son?' No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on, no one dared to ask him any more questions."
Do you see the point that Jesus is, is making here? It's interesting. He, he starts with a very obvious question, whose son is, is the Messiah? And they said, "Oh, oh, the son of David." I mean, that's like asking, where do the Patriots play? In New England. It's, like, obvious. Are you even asking us this, Jesus? Because he's setting them up. He's setting them up. Okay, so the Messiah is the son of David. Well, how is it then that David would call one of his sons his Lord? Now, we live in different times where maybe we would imagine some weird situation where a father might call his son Lord, but I think we can still get the sense of how that's a little weird. It'd be a little weird if I called my son my Lord, even once he was fully grown. I, I'm sure a few of us would kind of balk at that. Even us as children, we'd be uncomfortable with our parents referring to us in that sort of way.
So what is Jesus implying here? He's implying that there's something more about this Messiah than they might have supposed, that if this Messiah is, in fact, greater than even his father, David, perhaps he's divine. In fact, the Son of God. And so then to connect the dots, if Jesus has been implying that he's the Messiah, and he's saying the Messiah is even greater than David and is divine, then what is he saying about himself? He's claiming divinity for himself. And that's why they're, they, everyone became very uncomfortable, and they didn't wanna ask any more questions. And he had asked them a tough question too, and they're like, "He asks questions we don't know how to answer."
Now, when we're looking at Psalm 110, you might wonder, though, you know, in talking about Lord, is, is this really a separate thing from Yahweh, or, or could that be a, a term that applies to God? And I already started off saying it, it can, but it just, it's worth demonstrating. I'm not gonna read every single verse here, but you can see them behind me, that in various places, we see these two terms used b- side by side.
We see the personal name for God, Yahweh, all caps LORD, and then it also speaks about that God of Israel, Yahweh, and the lowercase lord, Adonai. So just using the first one as an example. "For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords." And so there's nothing here that would preclude us from coming to this position of saying that this Lord that David is referring to is, in fact, divine.
And of course, the whole rest of the testimony of scripture might lead us to this conclusion, and we're gonna see more evidence here as we move forward, particularly once we get to the New Testament, especially once we get to the New Testament. The writer of Hebrews speaks of Christ's divine nature in this respect, drawing in connection Psalm 110.
Psalm 110 is one of the most popular passages in scripture for the New Testament writers for the early church. It's one of those psalms you should probably circle. In the very beginning of the Book of Hebrews, in Hebrews 1, we'll read verses 1 through 4 and then jump down to verse 13. It says, "In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he also made the universe."
So immediately, already, notice the distinction that's being made. Jesus is not just a mere prophet. So if he's not a prophet, and a prophet's a pretty big deal, if he's more than a prophet, then what is he? Verse 3, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven." That's ringing some bells with Psalm 110 here. "So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs." So he's greater than the angels. And jump down to verse 13, "To which of the angels did God ever say, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet'?"
We're gonna hear more from the author of Hebrews here regarding the connections that we have to contemplate with Psalm 110 and Jesus. But right out of the gate here, we have, we've made a connection to Jesus here in this Psalm. Given that David is the author of this Psalm, it appears that he's talking to someone who's divine, whom he could call my Lord.
Now, we've already pointed out that this is a Psalm of enthronement. It's pointing to the royal authority, the kingship which is to belong to this one who is to come, and this continues to get built out in verse two. So David says, "The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying, 'Rule in the midst of your enemies.'"
Okay, so this, the meaning of this verse seems fairly transparent. The scepter represents kingly authority. It says right there that you're going to, that he, he would rule in the midst of his enemies, that he's gonna overcome his enemies. I think it's worth noting here that what David is introducing in this Psalm is, is nothing new. That in fact, it's been anticipated all along for those who belong to the tribe of, of Judah. We go back to Genesis 49, verses 10 through 12.
Jacob is drawing near to the end of his life. He's blessing his sons, and this is the blessing that he gives to, to Judah. Now, Judah was not his firstborn. There's no reason to necessarily expect by natural order that he would possess, that his descendants would possess any kingly authority. But this is what he says: "The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his. He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch. He will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk." And we can see image, like, foreshadowings, echoings of, of this being fulfilled, yes, in David and his descendants.
There's an, there's an, there's an anticipation of this one in particular to whom the obedience of the nations shall be rendered unto him. Who else can that be said about other than Jesus Christ? Can't be said about David. Now, in, we get to Numbers 24, verses 14 through 17. This is a funny kind of instance.
The Moabites see the approach of the Israelites into the promised land, and they go to Balaam, who is not a Jew, but was a prophet of God, and they want him to put a curse upon the Israelites. Now, as it turns out, Balaam can't do it because he is a prophet of, of God, so he just ends up blessing them.
It, it's a whole funny series of events. I wanted to just pick out a couple verses here, though, in particular that he shares with them. He says, "Now I'm going back to my people, but come, let me warn you of what this people will do to your people in days to come." And in verse 17 he says, "I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob. A scepter will rise out of Israel. He'll crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the people of Sheth." So we see how there's this building anticipation of, of this king who would come, who would establish his rule against, against whom none could stand.
In Psalm 67, it says, "Judah is my, my scepter." So this has been anticipated and, and David is confirming by his prophecy that the promised Messiah will enjoy victory and establish his rule. Speaking of the assembling of his army, David says in verse three, "Your troops will be willing on your day of battle. Arrayed in holy splendor, your young men will come to you like dew from the morning's womb." What David is saying here is that this king will not need to use conscription. He's not gonna have to force people into his army. Rather, the warriors are going to rally to him, and this is something that you couldn't necessarily assume.
In Deuteronomy 20, we have the law that is given regarding the assembling of the army of, of Israel, and one of the things that it says in, in that chapter is, in verse eight, it says, "Then the officers shall add, 'Is anyone afraid or faint-hearted? Let him go home so his fellow soldiers will not become disheartened too.'"
So it was really kind of a voluntary army. If you were afraid of going to battle, they said, "Well, we'd prefer that you would just stay home." Such is not going to be the case with the warriors of, of this king. They're just gonna appear. Kind of like, isn't it funny? It's like you, we understand scientifically how it works, but you wake up in the morning and all of a sudden there's dew covering all the grass. It's just wet. That's how these warriors are going to appear, and they're going to appear with the, the splendor of the morning dew, with its glisten and shine.
Now, we wonder, well, what does this mean, especially as we think about Christ? We remember that Christ says that his kingdom is not of this world, and if it was, then his disciples would have fought against the Romans to prevent him from being crucified. We remember that the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 6:12 that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. What David is really anticipating here is, in fact, the church. He's anticipating you and I, as we've rallied to Christ. In him we are made a kingdom of priests, dressed in holy splendor by his righteousness. Bruce Waltke, in commenting on this passage references a quote that's been attributed to G.K. Chesterton. I couldn't confirm it, but it's a great quote, and I, so I share it with you. He says, "A, a real Christian who believes should do two things: dance out of a sheer sense of joy; and fight, out of the sense of victory." That's the sort of image that we have going on here, these people joyously drawing towards their king, ready to fight because they know the victory is secure. There's no losing here. And so we stand today as followers of Christ because we know that even if we should be killed by this world, they can't beat us. They couldn't beat Jesus by killing him, and they won't beat us by killing us either 'cause we, we know that we are going to share in his resurrection victory.
And yet, for all this, there is another concern that must be answered if we'll have hope of sharing in the Lord's victory. It's a concern that may have been more apparent to past generations than to our own. We sometimes have a tendency of being a bit presumptuous when it comes to our relationship with God, assuming we belong, assuming we will be accepted by God. The people of Israel learned the danger of doing that.
Vital to their connection with God was the ministry of their high priest who could go before them into God's presence and make atonement for the people so that His presence would remain among them. Now, you and I, when we actually examine ourselves, when we look at our character and we look at what the Bible has to say about our condition as human beings, we, we have to admit we can't do that.
We are in need of a high priest who can go before us. David is telling us that we have a king here, but the question remains: Do we have a high priest? Well, in verse four he says that we do. He says, "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek." Very interesting image we have here.
We have an image here of one who is both a king and a priest. Now, what's so fascinating about this is that Israel had always kept these roles separate. That's what God had commanded them to do, that they would keep the role of king and priest separate. Though in times past they were not so separated.
And in fact, some biblical scholars really kind of paint a picture of Adam, really, as this one who is both a priest and king. That was the role that he was to serve in this world, as a governor of creation, both he and Eve as kind of co-regents, that, that this was surrendered in their fall. And by the time we get to Moses, we have a man who's faltering.
This is what Michael, Dr. Michael Heiser suggests. He says Moses faltered before God's command to go before Pharaoh, and so Aaron had to get added into the equation. It's from Aaron that we have the line of, of priests. And so in Israel we have kings and priests, but we don't have them together in one person.
When we look in 2 Chronicles 26, we see actually what happens when a king became so arrogant that he tried to take on priestly privileges for himself. We have the example of Uzziah, and it says in 2 Chronicles 26:16-18, "But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. Azariah the priest, with 80 other courageous priests of the Lord, followed him in. They confronted King Uzziah and said, 'It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful and you will not be honored by the Lord God.'"
And then what followed was that Uzziah was struck with leprosy for doing this. But interestingly, later on, once we get to the book of Zechariah we have a prophecy that's given. Now, you have to understand that the people of Israel, people of Judah in particular, they had been sent into exile. They had returned to the land, and now here in Zechariah, there are prophecies that are being given to them.
And there's this high priest who's present, named Joshua. In second, Zechariah 3:8 it says, "Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates sit before you, who are men, men symbolic of things to come: I'm going to bring my servant, the Branch." And then it goes on. Reason why that verse is important to pick out is because later on there's going to be a crown set on this high priest, Joshua.
And we might think that he's the one who has been promised, but in fact he is not. As it says there in Zechariah 3, he and his associates are symbolic figures, and they're looking towards a branch who is to come, a branch who is to come from the root of Jesse. So in Zechariah 6, verses 12 through 13, we do see this union, this promised union between the throne and the priesthood.
It says, "Tell him this is what the Lord Almighty says: 'Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord. It is he who will build the temple of the Lord, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne, and there will be harmony between the two.'"
Now again, Joshua didn't fulfill that. It was, and so we're still looking for someone to come. And the one, of course, who was to come is Jesus. So David says this king will be a priest, but not of the tribe of Levi. Says he's going to a priest, be a priest in the order of Melchizedek. Now that might strike a familiar tone with some of you. You might be familiar with that name. Melchizedek was not a Jew. We're going all the way back to the time of Abraham now, to Genesis 14. Melchizedek was the king of Salem, and we're told in Genesis 14 that he was both a priest and a king. Says, "Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High."
And so then when we flip in our Bibles to the Book of Hebrews, we see how this connection between this promised king Melchizedek draws in, us into connection in saying that's Jesus. In Hebrews 5, verses 5 through 6, the writer says, "In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, 'You are my son; today I become your father.' And he says in another place, 'You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.'" And he says very much the same sort of thing in Hebrews 6. And so now I wanna take us to Hebrews 7, and really let the writer of Hebrews explain this connection to us. I mean, there's no better thing when we can just let the scripture explain the scriptures to us, and I'll just add a few asides along the way.
So we go to Hebrews 7, starting in verse 1. "This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, the name Melchizedek means king of righteousness. Then also, king of Salem means king of peace. Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever."
So one thing to note here, notice that he says that the fact that we don't know anything about the genealogy of Melchizedek here. We don't know his mother or father. Seems like he's without beginning of days or end of life. What the writer here is saying is that this serves as kind of an analogy for us. It resembles the Son of God. It's not that the Son of God resembles Melchizedek, it's that Melchizedek resembles the Son of God. And so it's pointing towards the divine nature of the Son of God.
Now, Melchizedek was just a man. He was, he was not divine. It was not an appearance of God in the case of Melchizedek, but we have an analogy here. And we also have this, we could also make this comparison in that the Son of God serves as our high priest in the same way that Melchizedek did, in which it was not based upon his lineage, and this is gonna be borne out more as the writer of Hebrews continues.
Just think how great he was, verse four. Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder! Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people, that is, from their fellow Israelites, even though they also are descended from Abraham. This man, however, did not trace his descent from Levi, yet he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.
So there's a certain logic that's being worked out here. If Abraham tithed to Melchizedek, then Melchizedek is even greater than the priesthood of Levi that comes from Abraham's line. And so continuing on in verse seven, along the same lines, it says, "And without doubt the lesser is blessed by the greater. In the one case, the tenth is collected by people who die; but in the other case, by him who is declared to be living. One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor. If perfection could come through," sorry, "if perfection could have been attained through the political, through the Levitical priesthood-- and indeed the law given to the people established that priesthood-- why was there still need for another priest to come, one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron?
Now, notice what he's doing here. He's, he's really bringing us back to Psalm 110. He's saying that there's been a promised priest, a priest who would be of the line of Melchizedek. Now, if, if the Levitical priesthood was sufficient, why would we need a promise of a different order of, of a priest? Why speak of Melchizedek at all? If perfection could be attained by the Levitical priesthood, then we say, "Okay, all set. No need for anything else." But there is a need for a change, because Levitical priesthood can't bring about the perfection that is needed. So continuing on verse 12, "For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed also. He of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe, and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar. For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.
And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry, but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life. For it is declared: 'You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.' The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced by which we draw near to God."
See, what sets Jesus apart from the Levitical priesthood is it, it wasn't based on His heritage. It wasn't based on Him inheriting some status from those who had come before Him. He's of the tribe of Judah. That's the kingly tribe, but it's not the priestly tribe. Jesus' status as a priest was completely based upon who He was, that He was perfect. He was without blemish. That he is the one who had a truly indestructible life, so that he could actually stand as our priest for all time.
Continuing on in verse 20, and this will wrap us up here in Hebrews 7. "And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him: 'The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: you are a priest forever.'" So Psalm 110. "Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant. Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office, office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them."
So again, this is what sets Jesus apart, is that he's always there for us. He never needs to be replaced, and he actually perfects those who come to him. He actually can atone for their sins by virtue of what he himself has done. And the, the bigger point here, just to step back and say, "Okay, we're looking at Psalm 110 here," is who else can fulfill this, this verse from Psalm 110 other than Jesus? Who else but him? If not him, then we're still waiting for it to be fulfilled, and there seems to be no hope of such a priest among us.
So with this established, David returns to the theme of the Lord's conquest, which invites some close attention. Verses five through seven: The Lord is at your right hand; he will crush kings on the day of his wrath. He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth. He'll drink from a brook along the way, and so he'll lift his head high.
Now, we have to start with a question here. Whose right hand is David referring to? The Lord is at your right hand. Who has David been talking about all along here? He's been talking about his Lord, my Lord. So basically what he's saying here then is that Yahweh, he's now referring to Yahweh as Lord. He's saying that the Lord is at my Lord's right hand. The, what, what we're seeing here is there's a profound unity between the two, and it just suggests all the more the divine character of David's Lord that Yahweh is at his right hand and that we see this conquest that's going on that matches very much everything else that was already being described. It's one same motion between the two.
And we see this sort of unity elsewhere between the Davidic throne and God. In Psalm 45, we see verse two and then verses six through seven, it starts off by, it's really being directed towards the king, the human king. It says, "You are the most excellent of men and your lips have been anointed with grace, since God has blessed you forever." And then once you get down to verses six and seven, it takes a very divine tone. It says, "Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever. A scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore you, God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy."
You see, there's something eternal about the Davidic throne. There's a divine quality about it that does not obtain in the case of David himself or those descendants that followed after him, but it does anticipate one who was, who would come so that we could truly say that the Davidic throne is God's throne. Again, it's only Jesus, the one who is fully divine and fully human, who can bring about that sort of unity. So when we ask, if we ask, is it God who judges or is it a human king who judges, who rules and reigns? We say yes, 'cause these two are united in Christ. And the victory that's being envisioned here is so sure that as the Lord is going along, he has enough time to, to stop for a drink at the brook along the way and just lift his head high, soaking up his sure conquest. Now, to be sure, this is all a, a fascinating study, tracing out all the connections and the commentary. But now we come to the point. What does it mean? Practically, what are the ramifications that Psalm 110 has for our lives?
If this Lord is God, if Jesus is in fact the Son of God, if the Messiah is divine, then he is worthy of worship. He is more than just a man. He is more than just a good teacher, a wise philosopher. He is more than a mere king or a priest as we would understand. He is God in the flesh.
And this reality has great ramifications for everything else that follows. If this one who is king is in fact divine, then he is the king we've been seeking all along. He is not a mere mortal who will fail us and eventually need to be replaced. He is the one who can actually deliver on these promises. He is the one who will actually eradicate all that is evil and establish everlasting justice and peace on Earth.
If this one is our priest, then we have hope of living in that coming age. Without a priest, we too would be destroyed in the eradication of evil because we're participants in it. But with him as our priest, one who we know is surely without sin because he is the Son of God, by who's, who has made atonement for us, because he's become man and thus can stand as our high priest. With him as our priest, we know we can be accepted. We could have no better priest. His standing is based on who he is, not his ancestry. And he stands for us forever.
Psalm 110 invites us to believe in Jesus Christ. And as I quoted previously, a real Christian who believes should do two things: dance out of the sense of sheer joy; and fight, out of the sense of victory. This Psalm should get you dancing, it should make you resolve to stand and fight because our life and future is secure in Jesus Christ, the one who is our Lord and King, the one who is our priest, the one who is our God. Let us pray.
Dear Father, we thank you for inspiring David by your Holy Spirit to write this Psalm so that we might read it and be encouraged. Those to whom it was originally, Father, written, Father, anticipating the Messiah, we who read it now seeing clearly that this speaks of Jesus Christ, the one who is the Son of God and the Son of Man. And so Father, we pray that you would give us hearts that believe.
That you would cultivate faith within us so that we would live with that sure joy, knowing that Christ is our king and priest. That we would be so confident because we know that whatever this world's throwing at us, it cannot stand against Him because He is the true King. Father, we thank you that in Him we are accepted because He is our sure priest.
We give you praise, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we continue our series Summer in the Psalms. It's our joy to welcome you into our community
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)