Why Did God Swear An Oath About Jesus’ Priesthood? - Psalm 101:4 Series

Solid Food

The last two sessions, we looked at the first half of Psalm 110 and the second half. The first half—Messiah rules among his enemies as sovereign king. Then verse 4 about priesthood in the order of Melchizedek. That verse is weird, doesn’t seem to fit the theme, strange reference to an obscure character, so we just skipped over that verse. The second half of the psalm—again, the Messiah as conquering king. But this part looks to the end of time when he judges the nations on the day of his wrath and lives gloriously ever after. Wonderful ending, wonderful psalm, beautiful symmetry but … we’ve still got that strange verse 4 to deal with.

Psalm 110:4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek."

That verse seems so out of the blue. Take out v.4 and the whole psalm fits together perfectly with one, unified theme—Messiah as conquering king. Liberal scholars say that verse must have been added in later because it has nothing to do with the rest of the psalm. But if that’s the case, why would they add it in later? All that does is shift the question of why David would do it to why someone else would do it.

How does his verse fit? And why bring up such an obscure figure? It’s tempting to say, “That verse is weird, don’t know what to make of it—I’ll just skip it and move on.” But there’s a problem with that. The problem is, according to Hebrews 5, your spiritual maturity can be measured based on how interested you are in teaching about Melchizedek. Hebrews 5:11-14 is that passage that talks about how we should stop being spiritual babies and move on to maturity. Instead of only taking milk, move on to solid food. I read that and think, “Yeah, right on. I want to be mature—give me the solid food! I’m ready for the meat of God’s Word.”

So then I keep reading and I find out what the meat is that he’s talking about. It’s all these tedious details about Melchizedek. And I have to be honest. I read all that stuff about Melchizedek and the priesthood in chapters 7-9 and think, “That’s the meat? Hmm. Maybe I don’t have so much of an appetite for that afterall” and I flip over to the really good stuff in chapters 10-13.

And I don’t think I’m alone. I’ve never read anything about Melchizedek on a coffee mug or greeting card, never read a devotional about him. And despite all that is said about him in Gen.14 and Psalm 110 and Hebrew 5,6,7, and 8, still, he’s never really caught on as a big hero in the Bible. He’s nobody’s favorite character in the Bible. I’m guessing not one of you, when your kids were born, even considered naming one of them Melchizedek. But if God says this stuff about Melchizedek is the meat of his Word, then let’s roll up our sleeves, get out the knife and fork, and get some spiritual protein.

Centerpiece

Let’s go back to Psalm 110, where the verse about priesthood is right in the middle of the verses about kingship. Right in the middle. But what did we learn in our study of Mark about the middle? In Jewish writing, what do they often place at the center? The centerpiece. The main point that’s showcased and pointed to by everything on both sides of it. What if that’s why the first half and the second half are so symmetrical—to point all our attention to this other thing in the middle? Let’s consider that for a minute.

Right in the center of all this conquering and judgement and heaping up of bodies and punishment on people who are alienated from God, stands a priest. And what does a priest do? Priests bring people to God. So the structure is this:

Beginning: Messiah defeats sinners End: Messiah defeats sinners Middle: Messiah saves sinners Judgment here, judgment here—in the center, salvation.

Psalm 110:4 is not a stray idea that doesn’t fit the context. It’s the beautiful centerpiece to which the whole rest of the psalm points. It’s the diamond of salvation that shows all the more brilliantly against the black velvet background of judgment in the rest of the psalm. The whole world is in for furious, unstoppable wrath and judgment from the Messiah… , but right in the middle of all that… , that same fierce, conquering king Messiah is also a priest who invites anyone who is willing right into the presence of God. The same king who sentenced you to eternal damnation stands there at the very precipice of hell and holds the door open into the household of God. Psalm 110 is not disjointed. It’s a coherent portrait of the Messiah that shows that same person in charge of damnation is also in charge of salvation.