A. Opening illustration: Spurgeon paraphrased a recent exchange between a sage, elderly pastor and minister in training. “Don’t you know, young man, that from every town and every village and every hamlet in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London? So, from every text in Scripture there is a road toward the great metropolis, Christ. And my dear brother, your business is, when you get to a text, to say, ‘Now what is the road to Christ?’ I have never found a text that had not got a road to Christ in it, and if ever I find one . . . I will go over hedge and ditch, but I would get my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a savior of Christ in it.”
B. Background to passage: This is the most messianic psalm as well as the most quoted psalm in the NT. Boice says by his count, it is referred to indirectly or quoted directly 27 times. Jesus, Peter, Paul, and extensively by the author of Hebrews to prove all these aspects ofThere is virtually no other way to interpret this psalm other than a 1000-year prophecy for the Chosen One, the Messiah, The Christ, Jesus.
C. Main thought: in this psalm we will see three aspects of Christ.
A. Christ the King (v. 2-3a)
1. The first verse is David speaking about how Yahweh is speaking to David’s Lord, Adonai (someone on a higher and greater plane than him) to sit at his right hand. In a royal or ruling context, to sit at the right hand of the king was to share in his rule with him. This idea is confirmed in v. 2-3 where God the Father thrusts the scepter of kingship from heaven saying that it belonged to Christ. The command is given to rule among your enemies. Notice the repetition of “your,” your footstool, your scepter, your enemies, your people, and your power. He is King of kings and Lord of lords!
2. Phil 2:11, Luke 6:46, Mark 3:35, John 15:14,
3. Illustration: “It is not up to us whether Jesus Christ will be Lord. Jesus is Lord, and God has made him such. We can fight that lordship and be broken by it...or we can submit to it in humble obedience with praise.” -Boice, Walter Chantry says, "Anyone who has caught a glimpse of the heavenly splendor and sovereign might of Christ would do well to imitate the saints of ages past. It is only appropriate to worship him with deep reverence. You may pour out great love in recognition of your personal relationship with him. He is your Lord. You are his and he is yours. However, you are not pals. He is Lord and Master. You are servant and disciple. He is infinitely above you in the scale of being. His throne holds sway over you for your present life and for assigning your eternal reward. A king is to be honored, confessed, obeyed and worshiped.”
4. Three ways that they kingship of Christ plays out. KINGSHIP OVER ALL: this application is that the seas, winds, beast of the field, stars, hearts of men, countries, world events, personal events, the providential guidance of all history is under his control and authority. It is the most obvious and easiest to understand part of his rule.
5. The idea of the kingship of Christ is not difficult to understand in the sense of authority, it is just difficult to live out. These two things are related. KINGSHIP IN US: Our view of God will be the foundation upon which we base our lives, values, and behaviors. Christ is King, but the question put forth to us is, do your thoughts of him cause you to behave as though you were one under authority. Does our understanding of Christ our king cause us to fall before him in preparation for absolute obedience as Paul and John did? Look at how you spend your money. Look at how you spend your time. Look at your personal goals in life.
6. KINGSHIP THROUGH US: we are the embodiment of the reign of Christ on the earth right now. As Christ “rules among his enemies” we are called to be in the world, but not of it. The kingdom of heaven is advancing through the living out of your lives and spreading the gospel into all the earth. Would you say that the kingdom of God is being expanded through your business, family, personal discipleship of another?
B. Christ the Priest (v. 3b-4)
1. This would have been unheard of in a Hebrew theological framework. The Messiah, a King, AND A PRIEST? The tribes of Levi and Judah have been separated for years. Priests from Aaron’s lineage, kings from Judah. Irrevocably God had made Christ both king and priest. Strange thing is that it was after the order of Melchizedek. The King of Righteousness and the King of Peace, only three verses about him in the original account. Then he is mentioned only here before the NT, in which he is used extensively, eight times in three chapters to demonstrate the superiority of Christ’s (Melchizedek’s) priesthood over Aaron’s.
2. Heb 8:1-2, Zech 6:12-13,
3. Illustration: Commentator Donald Williams says, “There is no way that verse 4 can be understood apart from its messianic fulfillment in the New Testament.” There are a few countries in the world that have a leader who is a combined leader of religion and of the state. Discussion the other day about how God could identify with a feeling of not knowing whether a possibility of tragedy would become a reality, he knows everything, but as never experienced (at least in the way we do) that feeling.
4. What a wonderful meditation that we have a priest who needed no purification for himself, then went and offered himself for the purification we needed. An offering that never has to be repeated and that secures your priesthood so that you do not have to go through anyone or anything to gain an audience with the Almighty. This Priest sits making intersession for you at the right hand of God. It is blasphemous to repeat the sacrifice or look for other intercessors. He sympathizes with all of our feelings, gives peace and righteousness, officiates a new covenant with a new people. It’s the offering and the intercessor of a penal, substitutionary atonement.
C. Christ the Warrior (v. 5-7)
1. I could have called it Christ the Judge. This is a passage that shows a side of Christ that we don’t entertain in our thoughts often. A Christ who will one day crush kings, nations, individuals, all his enemies will beg for the rocks to fall upon them rather than face his wrath. A vengeful Christ may not be a nice picture.
2. Rev 6:10, 19:15, Psa 2:9-12, 21:8-12, 2 Th 1:7-9, Luke 23:30
3. Illustration: I googled in on Thursday and found dozens of images. All but a few showed a wrathful God pouring out vengeance upon Jesus on the cross. One or two showed him running the money changers from the temple, and a few had quotes of these verses. But 90% showed a soft loving Jesus over and against a wrathful God. The choice for every man is, being crushed beneath his foot, or being exalted to sit with him on his throne. "He that overcometh, to him will I give to sit down with me on my throne, even as i also overcame, and am set down with my father on his throne." It is better to sit on his throne than to be his footstool. -Maclaren
4. There will be a day when Christ comes and explodes the wrath of God upon those who disobey the gospel and those who stand in rebellion. Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess Christ as King, every king, president, army, theologian, priest or preacher, men, women, and children who do not believe will then experience an eternity of physical and spiritual torment as they feel the infinite wrath of an infinite God who they have infinitely rebelled in high treason against. There will be no questions, rebuttals, extensions, continuances, second chances. It is appointed for man once to die, then the judgment. A holy, righteous, and just God must pour out wrath upon you, if yours was not poured out on His Son. You must put your faith in Christ today.
Closing illustration: What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.
For this reason, the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.
We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God. -Tozer
