Well, good morning. It is good to have you all here, both in person and on the live stream.
We're glad you're able to join us today.
You know, this week I had a couple of adventures in life management.
One was I needed to try to get someone to repair some siding on my house.
And so I used HomeAdvisor because I didn't have a good reference.
And the second adventure I had is that I'm trying to buy a new bed and trying to search out in the midst of a pandemic
when I don't have a lot of time to go to a bed store to try things out, exploring the world of bed in a box.
And I don't know if any of you have been down that rabbit hole, but it's an interesting one.
One of the things that I found myself struggling with in both of them is a question of whether the promises that were made to me would be kept.
As I looked through the fine print, as I searched through whether this repair person would actually show up,
and that was an adventure in and of itself, and as we continue to figure out whether these beds are going to work or not,
and how to figure out what they're going to be,
this question of whether promises will be kept is one that's been on my mind.
And as we continue our series in the Psalms, during this Advent series,
if you remember, we've entitled this series,
Songs of Hope in an Uncertain Time.
And it's occurred to me that one of the things that this uncertain times has caused in my own heart is a question.
Will God keep his promises?
I don't know about you, but it's not been an easy year.
There have been more losses than things to rejoice.
More disappointments than celebrations.
There have been more challenges, twists and turns in the path of life than there have been ease and comfort.
And maybe, like me, you've wondered,
what is God up to?
And how is he keeping his promises?
And of course, we're not the first ones in the history of Israel,
or the history of the world, or the history of the Bible to struggle with this.
We saw last week in Psalm 106 how much Israel failed to trust God and to believe in his promises.
How often they grumbled and complained and disobeyed because of their lack of trust in him.
You know, it's easy when things go well to think God is good.
His promises are great.
But with another relationship lost, another dream dashed,
another time explaining to your children about what does it mean to wait on the Lord,
it's not easy to trust God.
And it's easy to wonder about how he will show his goodness.
And yet the Bible tells us that in the midst of this experience,
which is a common experience for all of us,
God continues to say that he is trustworthy.
And his promises are good.
He continues to tell us that when we trust him and look to him,
what he has for us is better than what we would ever imagine.
And that brings us to our text today.
We're reading Psalm 110.
If you have that on your phone or in your Bible,
if you brought one or at home, we're going to look at Psalm 110.
It's a Psalm of David, and it is a Psalm of David the King
clearly looking ahead to a Messiah who has not yet come, but who will come.
Psalm 110 is notable because it is the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament.
It is used a number of times, verses 1 and 4 in particular.
And as David was writing this, he was looking forward to a future kingdom
that would be even greater than his own kingdom
and a future Messiah who would be finally and fully all that we need.
So with that, let's look at Psalm 110.
We're going to read it and then pray.
Psalm 110 says this, a Psalm of David.
The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies your footstool.
The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter.
Rule in the midst of your enemies.
Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments.
From the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours.
The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind.
You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
The Lord is at your right hand.
He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses.
He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth.
And he will drink from the brook by the way.
Therefore, he will lift his head.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, as we come to this word this morning,
I pray that by your spirit we might catch a glimpse of your glory and your greatness.
Lord, thank you that you have revealed yourself in various times in various ways,
as we read earlier.
But now fully, most fully, you have shown yourself in your son.
And Lord, as we read this psalm of David,
help us to see his glory more greatly this Advent season.
Lord, I pray for our ears that we would be attuned to listen,
our hearts that we would receive your word.
Lord, I pray for me that I might speak clearly, Lord,
and that by me, through me, Lord,
you might proclaim to us your glorious truth.
We pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
David writes of a Messiah to come.
And what does he tell us about this Messiah?
This psalm is framed by two oracles,
two words directly from the Lord
that David heard and reports to us.
And we're going to look at those two in order.
One is verse 1 and one is verse 4,
and we will explore what those oracles mean and what they say.
The first oracle is in verse 1.
The Lord says to my Lord,
sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
In this verse, David is saying
that there is a better king who is coming
and who has power to deliver his people.
It's interesting to stop and to think about
who the people are in this very first sentence.
The Lord says to my Lord.
The Lord, the first one, has all the small caps.
That's Yahweh.
That's God, the God of the covenant,
the God of Israel.
And he is speaking to my Lord.
Who is my?
Well, my is David.
And so David is saying,
there is one greater than I.
I have a Lord who is a ruler of some sort
that God is speaking to,
giving these words of invitation.
Come sit at my right hand until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.
David is acknowledging this psalm was likely written
at the height of David's power,
at the height of his kingship,
when his kingdom was greater than the kingdom of Israel
had ever been or ever would be.
And yet he is saying,
there is one greater than I
who is coming,
to whom the Lord speaks these words.
And friends,
these words are picked up
throughout the New Testament.
Jesus uses them
in confounding those who say,
who are you, Jesus?
Who do you think you are?
He says,
who was David speaking to
when he quoted these words?
Who was David speaking of,
that is?
Who was the Lord speaking to?
It wasn't to David.
It was to one who would be greater than him.
Similarly, the apostle Peter,
on the day of Pentecost,
as he preaches,
says the same thing.
You have trusted,
the people of Israel have trusted
that a great king would come
in the line of David.
Well, here he is,
and he's greater,
greater than David himself.
And as we read earlier
in this,
in the service,
Hebrews 1.13,
the writer of Hebrews says,
And even if you were looking
to angelic beings,
this one is greater than they as well.
Because God never said this
to an angel.
He only said it to this one
who is greater than David,
but who would be in David's line.
So this is the king.
David is looking,
hearing this and saying,
there is a greater king to come.
And what does he say about this king?
He says specifically,
this invitation,
this one who is coming,
God will invite to sit
at his right hand.
And at his right hand,
he will sit in a place of honor,
and a place of counsel,
and a place of rulership,
and a place of authority.
And he will not just stand there
at the ready,
but he will sit.
He will sit.
Having finished his work.
Having done all that he needs to do
in order to rest
in the finished work
of his ruling over.
And God says to this one,
Come and sit at my right hand.
For you have done the work,
and now I will make your enemies
a footstool for your feet,
under your feet.
Now, we don't use it.
It's sort of a weird image, right?
It's like pulling up a,
you know,
an Ikea, you know,
footstool to kind of
prop your feet up on top of
because you're tired
at the end of the day.
And that's not the idea here.
The idea here is
maybe an image
that we might have.
The words would be,
he has his foot on his neck,
right?
He's standing on his,
it's that,
it's a place of submission.
It's a place of ruling over.
It's a place of,
I have conquered and defeated them,
and they are now subjugated to me
and to my rule.
And this is what we see
in verses two and three,
that as God seats this one
with his finished work,
he will rule over his enemies.
He will have this ever-renewed army
of willing believers,
of willing followers,
who will serve him.
And then we see in verses five and six
how he will shatter his enemies.
And in graphic imagery,
that this one will defeat
all the enemies of God
and bring peace.
Now verses five and six
have some fairly violent images,
don't they?
We need to make sure
that we neither sanitize it
nor misunderstand it.
To sanitize it would be to say,
oh, he doesn't really mean that.
Well, I think he does.
He's using imagery of real war
because in David's day,
the establishment of the kingdom
involved real war.
But what we see though
is this,
the meaning of that
has to do with conquering,
has to do with overcoming,
has to do with defeating utterly.
David,
the Lord uses this language
to picture a greater rule and reign
than just the physical victory.
And as we move to the New Testament,
we see that the enemies of God
are primarily not the rulers
and authorities of this land.
They are not people.
They are ultimately spiritual forces,
spiritual enemies.
enemies.
And the victory that we see
over those enemies,
over sin and death and Satan,
that they are all defeated
in the person of Jesus.
We do not battle against flesh and blood,
but against the powers,
the rulers,
the authorities in the heavenly realms.
But we know that Jesus,
by his life and by his death
and by his resurrection,
has come to triumph over them.
He has broken the power of sin and death.
He has taken the power of Satan
and put it on a leash.
None of these ultimately have the rule.
Though the wrong seems off so strong,
he is the ruler yet.
And though we live in the in-between times,
and though we live,
as many commentators have said,
between D-Day when the invasion has begun
and V-E Day when the victory is assured
and peace is established fully,
though we live in that in-between time,
we know that the victory is assured.
And we know that this one
that David was looking forward to
was Jesus.
And that Jesus is seated
at the right hand of the Father.
And that he is resting
from his finished work of his life
and death and resurrection
for our salvation
and for the victory over
the enemies of God.
And we are able to live trusting,
trusting that the one that David foretold,
the promised one,
would actually come.
He comes with power
and gives us hope
that the evil will not win.
That the ugliness and division
in our own hearts
and in our nation's life
will not last forever.
That the scourge of pandemics
will not continue without end.
But that God will come
in Jesus.
And when he comes
and establishes his kingdom fully,
all of these will end.
They will not win.
They will not win in the end
and they will not win
in the lives of those
who have put their faith
in Jesus Christ.
Because under his rulership,
as they come to him in faith,
they will be covered
and rescued
for the day of salvation.
And that we,
as those people,
can look forward to a kingdom
with no more sin
and no more sorrow,
no more sickness,
no more death.
As Nick read earlier,
that that glorious hope
will be ours.
And that kingdom
is our future
in Christ.
So this is the first oracle
and this is the first word
that he gives us
there is a king coming
with this great power
to subdue our enemies.
But then the second oracle
is in verse 4.
Look with me at it.
The Lord has sworn
and he will not change his mind.
You are a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek.
Now, you might be forgiven
if Melchizedek hasn't come up
in your Rolodex
of the best heroes of the Bible
that you know really well.
Melchizedek is not a major player
in the Old Testament story.
As a matter of fact,
Melchizedek is mentioned twice.
Once here
and once in Genesis 14.
And in order to understand
what this means,
we need to go back
and look at that
for a brief second.
If you have your Bible,
why don't you turn with me
to Genesis chapter 14.
If you don't,
you can listen along.
It's only a couple of verses
that I will read.
This is in the story of Abraham.
Abraham,
the one to whom God gave a promise
that he would make him
the father of a great nation.
Abraham,
who is moving into
the land of promise
and in doing so,
finding that there are enemies
against him
who seek to destroy him.
And he is gathering
some other local kings
to fight with him
against other kings
who are opposing him.
This is part of what's going on.
And in verse 18
of chapter 14 of Genesis,
it says this.
And Melchizedek,
the king of Salem,
brought out bread and wine.
He was a priest
of God most high.
And he blessed him,
that is,
Melchizedek blessed Abraham
and said,
blessed be Abraham
by God most high.
possessor of heaven and earth.
And blessed be God most high
who has delivered
your enemies
into your hand.
And Abraham gave him
a tenth of everything.
There it is.
That's the whole story
of Melchizedek.
What's the significance of it?
Well, there's lots of things
if you read this.
One is,
his name,
Melchizedek,
is a combination
of king and righteousness.
So he is presented,
his name means
he is the king
of righteousness.
He is clearly
a king of Salem,
which is,
if you can think through this,
this is Jerusalem.
Salem is the second half
of Jerusalem.
And that's,
so he is the king
of Jerusalem,
which at this point
was not yet
the center
of the kingdom of God
or the nation of Israel.
It was just a town.
But he was the king
of Jerusalem.
And it says clearly,
he was a priest
of the God most high.
And as Abraham
encounters him,
Melchizedek comes out
and he brings provision
and blessing.
And Abraham responds
by honoring him
and giving him a tithe
as if he were
a representative
of God himself.
There's lots of mystery
about Melchizedek.
He had no lineage.
He had no,
he has no father.
He has no son.
He has no provenance.
We know very,
very little about him.
But David knew about him.
And as you read through,
it seems that
in the Old Testament world,
there was speculation
in the nation of Israel
about who this Melchizedek was
and what role he might have.
And there are lots
of really interesting
and curious
and fanciful suggestions
about what he might be.
But what David says is,
the one who's going to come
will be in his line.
And this thread then
is pulled
by the writer
of the book of Hebrews.
And in Hebrews 5 through 7,
we understand
more about who
Melchizedek was.
Melchizedek was
a king and a priest.
And he was a priest
of the God Most High
to whom Abraham,
the father of Israel,
gave honor and glory.
Melchizedek had a role
that superseded
Abraham
and Abraham's sons,
including Levi
and the Levitical priesthood
that would flow from him.
So he had a priesthood
that was greater
than the priesthood
that would happen
under the law of Moses.
And Melchizedek
was one
who didn't have a birth
and didn't have a death
in the story.
And so he was
an eternal being
in the way
the story was told.
Does that mean
he literally lived forever?
No.
But it means
that the way
that he is reported
is meant to be suggestive
of the one
who would come.
And the writer of Hebrews
says we have
a great high priest
in heaven,
Jesus,
in the order
of Melchizedek,
greater than
the Levitical priesthood
that had to offer
sacrifices over and over again
because Jesus was able
to offer one sacrifice
once for all
that settled
the problem of sin forever,
that broke down
the barrier
between God and man,
that made a way
where a sinful people
like us
could approach
a holy God
and live.
He was also
an eternal
priest
because Jesus,
though he came
and offered himself
as a sacrifice,
was risen from the dead
and being risen
he is an eternally
interceding
priest for us.
And so he ever lives
to intercede for us
and secure
our salvation.
Unlike the priesthood
of old
where the priest
could lose their way
or would fail
to honor God,
Jesus was eternally,
righteously,
indestructibly serving.
And he does that today.
Listen to the writer
of Hebrews
as he explains this.
He says,
we have this
as a sure
and steadfast anchor
of the soul,
a hope that enters
into the inner place
behind the curtain.
That's a picture
of the temple
where God was.
Where Jesus has gone
as a forerunner
on our behalf,
having become
a high priest
forever
after the order
of Melchizedek.
And further on
in chapter 7,
verse 22,
he writes,
this makes Jesus
a guarantor
of a better covenant.
The former priests
were many in number
because they were
prevented by death
from continuing
in office.
But he holds
his priesthood
permanently
because he continues
forever.
Consequently,
he is able
to save
to the uttermost
those who draw
near to God
through him
since he always
lives to make
intercession
for them.
Friends,
this is what
the story in Genesis
and what Psalm 110
promises us.
there is one
who is going
to come
and fulfill
this role.
And Jesus,
we now stand
on the far side
of that fulfilled
promise.
Jesus has come
and he has done
more than we
could ever imagine
so that he might
be to us
a king
and a priest.
He will never
leave his post.
He will never
stop his role.
He will always
be the king
and the priest.
And we know
that what is now
in the struggles
of this fallen
world,
in the trials
of our lives,
we know that
what is now
is not what
will be.
We know
that there is
a promise
that this Jesus
will come back
and when he
comes back
he will fully
establish himself
as the king
and the priest.
And he will
judge the enemies
of God
and he will
end all evil.
And he will
welcome his
people into
a sweet fellowship
and into a life
and a kingdom
that is ruled
by peace
and fellowship
with God
where we
circle around
the throne
and give
God glory
and bathe
in his glory
and rejoice
and worship
in him
forever.
What David
looked forward
to friends
we have seen
he has come
and so we
have hope.
We have hope
that God
will fulfill
his promises.
We have hope
in the midst
of the doubts
and the trials
and the losses
of this year.
We can be
confident
because of
Jesus.
we are going
to sing
in just a
minute
O come
Emmanuel
which in
one way
is written
from an
Old Testament
perspective
expecting
the coming
Messiah
but I think
it is for
us as well
in the New
Testament
as we long
for Jesus
to come
back
and to
finally
establish
in his
fullness
all that
we long
for.
We will
sing
verses 4
and 5
O come
our great
high priest
and intercede
thy sacrifice
our only
plea
the judgment
we no longer
fear
thy precious
blood
has brought
us near
rejoice
Emmanuel
has banished
every fear
of hell
O come
desire
of nations
bind
in one
the hearts
of all
mankind
bid thou
our sad
divisions
cease
and be
thyself
our
prince
of peace
rejoice
Emmanuel
shall come
again
with us
to dwell
let's pray
Lord as we
think of this
psalm
we rejoice
at what it
points to
we rejoice
at the things
that we know
the fullness
that we
have been
able to
see
that David
could only
grasp
at
Jesus
Emmanuel
the king
the priest
the babe
in the manger
come for us
for our salvation
for our hope
for our security
for our deliverance
oh Lord
may we
worship him
we pray this
in Jesus name
amen
we belts
R