Psalm 110:1

0:00 Good evening, church. As Mike said, Psalm 110, right in the middle of your Bible or there on the front of your bulletin. You know, there's something captivating about a coronation, that moment when a crown is finally placed on the head of a ruler, when a kingdom finally acknowledges its king. We know what this is like, right? For over 70 years, Prince Charles was watched by the world as he waited for his moment. And then finally, just a few years ago in 2023, King Charles III was crowned.

0:34 It was an historic moment filled with all the pomp and circumstance you would expect. And I'm not even an Anglophile like Greg, and I was still overwhelmed by the moment, right? I'm sure many of you were as well. You probably have your favorite moment of the entire service, the many hours long service that it was. But it was also a long expected crowning. Charles had been preparing for that throne his entire life. Well, when we come to Psalm 110, verse 1, we see a coronation far greater and far more glorious than any human ceremony.

1:07 It's not delayed. It's not uncertain. It's not even a symbolic thing. David's giving us a glimpse into heaven itself, and we're seeing a king being enthroned, but not as a future king in waiting, but as the reigning Lord of all in that very moment. So let's read the verse for tonight. David writes, The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Well, if this verse sounds familiar, it's not just because we read it this morning.

1:42 It should sound familiar. It probably is familiar if you're familiar at all with your New Testament. In fact, it's the most often cited verse of the entire Old Testament in the New Testament. One author thinks that it was alluded to or even quoted 27 different times in the New Testament. So why this verse? What is it about this verse in particular that the New Testament authors kept going back to? Why did they keep running back to this verse?

2:13 Well, we're going to spend a few minutes together trying to answer that very question. On its face, the verse is very simple, right? you've got the Lord, Yahweh, speaking to someone and telling him what to do. But if you stop and you remember that it's King David who's writing this, well, a whole new puzzle kind of pops into view. All of a sudden, you're wondering, who is this about? Who is David referencing here? Of course, those are all critical things for us to understand, and I think we'll get out of here in just a moment, but the main thing that David's driving at is this. The very main point of that entire verse is this. The king is ruling now. The king is ruling now. And so we're just going to explain the verse, kind of take it apart, look at it a little bit, and then try to apply it. So I don't have two points for you so much as I have explanation and application. I know that trips you up if we don't kind of front that. So you've got explanation and application, call that your points.

3:16 They're not really points, though. So what is the psalm about? What is this actual verse about? Well, first you've got to figure out who in the world it's talking about. Remember, you've got David writing about the Lord. And if you look down there in your Bible or there on the front of your, I think, on the front of the bulletin, it's got it in small caps as well. Anytime you see those small caps, we're talking about Yahweh, right? The actual covenant name of the Lord. So you've got David writing about Yahweh who's speaking to someone that David calls his Lord.

3:48 That's not the same word. That lowercase or small caps Lord and the other Lord are not the same word in the Hebrew, right? It's referencing two different people, and that's very, very important. So you've got David writing about Yahweh who's talking to someone else. So what does he say? Well, Yahweh tells David's Lord two things. Sit in my right hand, and I'm going to make your enemies a footstool. Well, if you read the rest of the psalm, and it's not very long, you could even glance down through it, you'd see very quickly that it's filled with royal language just throughout.

4:19 You've got all of this kingly language. There's a scepter, there's ruling, there's power, there's judgment, there's victory. Well, the psalm is just very obvious about a coming king. So when Yahweh speaks to David's Lord, this other figure, he's telling him kingly things. He's giving him kingly things to do. Well, more specifically, though, in that verse, in verse 1, the very opening verse of the psalm, the king is being enthroned. He's being placed on the throne.

4:51 Well, how do we know that? Because it doesn't actually say that word for word. How can we say that from verse 1? Well, look at it again. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand. We're not to imagine that that means like literally that Yahweh's got a right hand and he's telling this other figure to sit next to him where he can reach out to him with his right arm. That's not what's going on here. No, to sit means to have majesty or authority. It means to be at rest from the work of establishing a kingdom and now you can actually go about the business of ruling over that kingdom.

5:26 And the right hand is simply a designation for the chief place of honor. This would be a place where someone is sharing in the rule with the king himself. So this Lord figure is being enthroned by Yahweh. But who is it? We still don't know who it is. Who is it that's being enthroned? Well, that's precisely the question the New Testament assumes that you would ask. And that's why the New Testament authors pick it up time and time and time again.

6:00 Even Jesus himself uses this. He questions the Pharisees in Matthew 22, asking them, who is the Christ? Whose son is he? And they, being good readers of the Old Testament, they give him the right answer. What do they say? They say, well, the Christ is the son of David. And he goes, yes, you're right. And then he quotes this verse, Psalm 110, verse 1, and he says, all right, he's the son of David. But if that's true, how is he both David's son and he's the Lord?

6:33 How is the Christ both David's son and the Lord? It's brilliant. What Jesus does there with that one simple set of questions is absolutely brilliant. What he's doing there is showing us that that shadowy Lord figure, the one who's being addressed in Psalm 110 verse 1 that we don't know yet, He's saying that that shadowy figure is both the Christ and he's David's son. So he's the one who would come from David. He comes from him, but he's also superior to him.

7:06 He also rules over him. And the only way both of those things are possible is if it's God himself. It's the only way that can happen. So it's the second person of the Trinity. It's Jesus himself. Jesus is saying the answer to Psalm 110 verse 1 is me. I'm that Lord figure. But what else is the Lord doing here? So he's being enthroned, right? We can see that. But what else is he doing?

7:36 Well, very end of the phrase, very end of the verse. He's conquering his enemies. He's making them his footstool. Man, what a vivid, almost disgusting image. You've got enemies so thoroughly subdued that it's like the king can kind of sit back and cross his arms and put his feet up there like they're his little footstool. That's what he's done to his enemies. My friends, that's not just a word picture. If you go back to Joshua chapter 10 and read the story of what Joshua and his chief military men were doing, they actually did this.

8:11 Joshua brings the men in and says, hey, these pagan Canaanite kings that we're about to kill, I want you guys to come out and put your feet right on their necks and squash them. And then we're going to cut off their heads. It's a picture to show us this is what the Lord does to his enemies. He destroys them. All right, so this verse is about Jesus. We're seeing him being enthroned. We're seeing him ruling over his enemies. But what are we supposed to do with that?

8:44 What does that actually have to do with us? Let's spend the next few minutes then trying to figure out how to bring that to bear on our lives. Corbin is learning how to drive, and he's doing quite well, by the way. We've made it through a few close calls, but he and I are both here, so we've managed to survive those. So as we've been driving around, it's become all the more apparent to me that you can study all you want about driving, and you have to. You can go take the test and pass it, and you have to.

9:16 You can go actually turn the ignition and, you know, get behind the wheel and turn it on. And you have to do those things to be able to drive. But that's all very, very different than actually driving the car. You still have to practice driving. Again, by God's grace, we've managed to survive some close calls. Here we are. So you learn the basics. You still got to go do it. That's true with God's Word as well, right? You learn things, but then you still have to apply them. That's why we stand up here, Lord willing, and try to aim our minds and our hearts at application every time we preach, every time we open God's word.

9:54 Knowledge about God's word is important. You have to know how to do something with it, though, in the end as well. So, in light of that, three things for us to consider from this verse for us for the rest of this evening. Number one, this, Jesus is Lord. Acknowledge him. Jesus is the Lord. acknowledge him. Look, I recognize that that sounds just incredibly elementary to our ears. I mean, that's Christianity 101, right? I mean, this room is filled with, maybe completely filled with Christians, with people who would say, yes, this is what it means for me to be sitting in this room.

10:31 I've acknowledged that Jesus is Lord. So my question for you then is, do you regularly walk out of here, say on a Tuesday morning, and feel the same way? Do you acknowledge Jesus as Lord then, just as you do now? Look, Lord means that one has an authority, that one is a master. So when you think of your relationship to Jesus, is he simply your friend? Is he simply your helper?

11:03 Maybe he's a good model for you. He was a good, really good example, the perfect example of holiness, and I should try to be like that? Or is Jesus a sovereign king to you? Look, think about that verse again. King David, the most powerful man in all the land of Israel, is saying that there's one above him. There's someone more powerful than him. He calls him Lord. It's the king saying, no, there's actually a king over me. David didn't make Jesus king when he said that, though. That's very important. He didn't somehow grant authority to Jesus in that moment that Jesus didn't have prior to David saying that about him. No, David's simply acknowledging that Jesus is Lord, or that this Lord is Lord. Friends, you don't make Jesus Lord of your life.

12:00 Jesus is Lord of your life. Like, whether you admit that now or not, you can't change the reality that he is Lord, but you can humbly acknowledge it and give him praise for it. So what does that look like then? Well, that looks like later this week as the crunch from job pressures start to add up in your life. Your career is not the Lord of your life. Jesus is Lord of your life. Or maybe later this week when you're pursuing a relationship with someone and it's not going the way you want it to go. Relationships are not Lord of your life. Jesus is Lord of your life. Friends, we can go on and on with that type of list. The point is this. It's very easy in this context to say that Jesus is Lord and then to walk out of here and not live as such. Jesus is a full and complete claim on your life. He is Lord. Acknowledge it. But that reality is true even if you're not a Christian.

13:04 So perhaps you're in here and you're a guest. Maybe, as we've seen happen even today, maybe you're a member of this church and you think of yourself a Christian, but you know at the end of the day you're not. Well, the Bible says, either way, to you if you're not a Christian, that one day every tongue is going to confess that Jesus indeed is Lord. He is Lord. That means that even you will confess that one day. But the catch is that you've got to confess that in this life in order to have the hope of eternal life.

13:37 Friends, if that's you, I'm so glad you're here. I'm glad you're here to witness what Christians do in worshiping Jesus as Lord. But you are living a life that's in rebellion to that. You are living a life that denies that fact that Jesus is Lord. But the Bible offers you hope as well. And the hope is actually quite simple for you. All you must do is stop leading the life of rebellion to turn from it and to trust Jesus. And then you'll be given the hope of eternal life. So if that's you, friend, there's no shame in acknowledging that that's you now.

14:09 Come to Jesus. Stop denying that he's Lord and believe him. That's what we've done. That's what the people in this room, the vast majority of this room, has done. And I would urge you to do the same thing. So Jesus is Lord. Acknowledge him. Number two, Jesus reigns, so obey him. That may sound a little similar to the first point, and there's some overlap, but they're not exactly the same thing. So the first one's more about who he is. This is more about what he's doing, what Jesus is doing.

14:41 So when you think of what Jesus is doing, what kind of picture pops into your mind? If I said, describe what Jesus is doing, or what would he look like? Maybe it's a baby crying in a manger. Maybe it's a robed Middle Eastern man sort of kind of like wisely walking around, spouting off wisdom to his followers. Maybe it's a suffering man beaten and broken on a cross. Well, he was those things. But do you know what best describes Jesus now? He's a reigning king.

15:14 He's on his throne. He's wearing the crown, ruling over the entire universe. Friends, when the father tells the son here to sit at his right hand, he's telling him something that he never tells anyone else in all of Scripture, not David, not the angels. He only tells the son this, and he's telling him this because his task is finished. He's now able to await the time when every single one of his enemies will be made his footstool. It's a sign that our Lord is ruling, and he rules now and forevermore.

15:49 So what does that mean? What does that mean for you? What does that mean for me? Well, that means, for instance, that when you gather here on Sundays, that you do that to obey Jesus because he's reigning. And as the one who reigns, he gets to give commands as he rules over us. Or maybe throughout the rest of the week, as you go about your week, you proclaim the gospel to others because Jesus has told us to do that. He's the one who's reigning. He's ruling. He gets to command us to do things. Maybe it simply means that you need to double down on your faithfulness to the Lord.

16:21 because he's the one who's reigning and ruling. He gets to command that of you. Friends, in all of those things, I know where your heart goes. I know our heart tends toward, well, then I will do this to impress others. I won't do this to earn things from others, or I'm afraid of doing those things because I don't want to be seen as trying to impress others or earning things from the Lord. Friends, a reigning and ruling God gets to tell you what to do. Obey him. But he's not just a kind of capricious, mean God either.

16:54 He's a kind and loving God. And because he reigns, he has all authority. So even, for instance, tonight, here in just a little bit as we celebrate the supper, he has authority to invite, yes, even you to come to this table to eat and to enjoy the feast. Friends, that's who our good God is. He reigns, he rules, he has authority, and you obey him. And number three, Jesus conquers, so trust him.

17:25 He conquers, so trust him. It's very clear here from the text that Jesus is going to win in the end. But we're not there yet. They're still enemies. The enemies of the king still rage. They still seethe with anger against him and against his people. Friends, this promise here that his enemies would be made his foot sole, this is not actually the first time this promise is made in Scripture.

17:58 This is not the first time that there's a promise that the king would step on and would crush his enemies. Now, where else have we heard this? You go all the way back to the beginning. From the very beginning, as right after Adam and Eve fall, the promise is given that there would one day be an offspring of Adam who would bruise the head of the serpent. Now friends, this is just the fulfillment of this promise that one day the coming king would put the enemies under his feet and would thoroughly destroy them. Brothers, sisters, that's what's happening here.

18:33 Every single enemy of the king is being destroyed. Your sin, your suffering, your heartache, Your difficulties in this life, every enemy you face, yes, even that final enemy, death, Jesus will have dominion over it. Death didn't defeat him, and he's not going to let it defeat his people. So friends, trust him. Trust your king to conquer his enemies, and know that as he does that, he's actually conquering your enemies as well.

19:11 So earthly kings like King Charles, let's say, they may wait for decades for their day to come. Sometimes their day never even comes. Some of them are never crowned. But there is a king whose coronation did come, and it didn't come late. It came right on time. It was never uncertain. Jesus Christ rose from the grave. He ascended to the right hand of the Father, and he's ruling even now over the universe. And we, as his people, as his subjects, we get to trust in his perfect reign and his perfect rule friends remember the king is on his throne king Jesus is ruling let's pray our father in heaven we thank you that your word here makes it clear that our king Jesus is ruling that you have given him all authority over heaven and earth that you have loved us through him and that through his authority and through your love

20:12 you have saved us from our sins. Oh God we give you praise for that tonight. We pray that even as we now get ready to take the supper that we would be reminded of the death of our Savior Jesus and what it has purchased for us. Oh God we pray that you would fill us up by your spirit to sing praises to you to live a life that's more wholly devoted to you because we've sat under your word and we've taken the supper together. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.