Enthroned

As Americans, we are quite removed from the spectacle and the symbolism of an earthly monarchy. It seems as if there are traditions connected with every aspect of royal life, but there’s no grander and more ornate event in the life of a royal monarch than the coronation of a new king or queen. As there are so few monarchies remaining, the crowning of a new king or queen is a relatively rare event. The most recent, the most prominent and memorable coronation was that of the UK’s King Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla. At the passing of Queen Elizabeth, Charles ascended to the throne in May of 2023.

It was a very lengthy and ostentatious celebration that carefully followed longstanding tradition. There are many elements and stages of the coronation of a monarch. It opens with an official recognition of the event, the presentation of the would-be king or queen before the people. The would-be ruler then takes an oath, followed by an anointing with oil for service. Only then is the soon-to-be monarch robed, granted a royal scepter, and ultimately crowned. Finally, the new king or queen takes the throne and is honored by the subjects of the kingdom. Of course, there are many, many other traditions and features that are woven into those primary elements.

All in all, it is a majestically royal ceremony. Psalm 110 goes well beyond the ceremonial spectacle of any earthly royal. It presents us with the grand coronation of the King of Kings. How much more fantastic are the elements of this celebration, the father’s exaltation of his own son, our Lord Jesus.

God’s people would please take your Bibles and turn to Psalm 110. Psalm 110, and once there, follow along as I read. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The Lord will stretch forth your strong scepter from Zion saying, rule in the midst of your enemies.

Your people will volunteer freely in the day of your power. In holy array from the womb of the dawn, your youth are to you as the dew. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter the kings in the day of his wrath. He will judge among the nations. He will fill them with corpses. He will shatter the chief men over a broad country. He will drink from the brook by the wayside. Therefore, he will lift up his head.

Psalm 110 is, by longstanding tradition, identified as a Psalm of David. And that is affirmed by several New Testament passages. In Acts 2, 34, Luke records Peter as identifying the author as David. In all three of the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus himself identifies David as the author of Psalm 110. It’s clear that David wrote this psalm.

But while the psalm is written by King David, there’s little about the king himself of whom he speaks that could be applied to his own reign. Psalm 110 is not about King David. David himself was never seated at God’s right hand. David’s enemies were never made to be his footstool. David was a king, but not a priest.

And so it’s clear, and will become clearer this morning, that in Psalm 110, David is speaking of his Lord and King, the Messiah, Jesus. This powerful psalm is about the coronation, the crowning of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even as we have observed from our study already in the Psalms. Some Psalms seem to make allusion to Christ. And there are portions of Psalms that seem to definitively point to Christ. And then there are Psalms that are undoubtedly messianic in nature. Psalms that from beginning to end are all about our Messiah, Jesus Christ. Psalms 2 and 45, which Psalms we’ve looked at in recent weeks, we’ve already seen are among those Messianic Psalms.

Psalm 110 is yet another of these unquestionably Messianic Psalms. But Psalm 110 is held to be the greatest of all the Messianic Psalms. It is rich in its articulation of the doctrine of Christ, English Puritan Edward Reynolds boldly declared that this psalm is one of the fullest and most compendious prophecies of the person and offices of Christ in the whole Old Testament. That’s quite a statement. And surely because it is so messianic, Psalm 110 is the most quoted psalm in the New Testament. What is more, there are also many allusions to the thoughts that are expressed in this psalm. I hope to make this clear momentarily.

The psalmist makes three statements about the Lord, references that without a doubt refer not to the Lord Jesus, but to God the Father. And I see that the simplest and clearest way to digest this little psalm is to outline it according to those three statements. Verse one, verses two and three, and then finally verses four through seven. In these statements, David captures three elements in the process of Christ’s coronation. It’s as if David steps back and observes the day, the day of celebration, and he makes three observations.

Verse one, the Lord says, This is the Father’s inauguration of the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse two, the Lord will stretch forth. This is the Father’s validation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And verse four, the Lord has sworn. This is the Father’s confirmation of the Lord Jesus Christ. In these verses, seven in all, we see the Father’s inauguration, His validation, and His confirmation of His Son, our Lord Jesus.

The psalm captures only three phases of this coronation. The greatest of all coronations, this solemn event does not need all of the long, drawn-out spectacle that so many earthly monarchs have in their own coronations. These three distinct phases are all that David records of our Lord’s ascendance to his throne.

Would you go back to verse one? We want to consider this enthronement of our Lord Jesus, the father’s exaltation of his son, And the first thing that we want to consider this morning is the Father’s inauguration of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse one. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. King David takes the role of a prophet as he bursts onto the scene with a revelation about God and his coming Messiah. It’s a message from his Lord, and at the same time, it is a message about his Lord. The first thing we need to do this morning is to identify those whom David mentions in this psalm, namely the Lord and my Lord.

These are not one and the same person. In our English texts, the titles are the same. Lord and Lord. Likewise, in the Greek, it’s Kyrios, Lord, and Kyrios, Lord. There’s a much starker distinction in the original Hebrew text. Two different words are used for the word translated in our English Bibles, Lord. At the head of each sentence, verse one, two, and four, the word is Yahweh. That word is used thousands of times throughout the Old Testament to refer to God. We could think of it as the proper name for God. Literally, He is who He is.

To the Hebrews, these four letters in English essentially would be Y-H-W-H. Some of you know this. This was known as the Tetragrammaton, which the Jews superstitiously refused even to verbalize. They often just referred to these four letters as the name.

Almost 700 of these uses are found in the Psalms. So the first word is Yahweh, and the second word translated as Lord, both here in verse one and again in verse five, is the Hebrew word Adonai. Properly, Lord or Master. It occurs also 700 times throughout the Old Testament, and about half of these occurrences are used absolutely to refer to God. Well, if the first word, Yahweh, speaks of the divine nature, the second term, Adonai, is a relative term of respect, a recognizing of rank and dignity. It acknowledges that the individual referenced is greater than the one speaking. David here captures an interaction between one who is definitively God and one who is objectively greater than himself. The Lord, Yahweh, said to my Lord, Adonai. So the question for us is, when David says, the Lord says to my Lord, who is speaking to whom?

And that is the exact dilemma that Jesus posed to his critics, if God’s people would turn briefly at least to Matthew chapter 22. We’re heading to Matthew’s gospel, but all three of the synoptic writers capture this same scene, this same exchange between Jesus and His detractors, the Pharisees. Once you’re there at Matthew chapter 22, would you scroll down to verse 41? Verse 41, Matthew records, now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question. What do you think about the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah?

Whose son is he? They said to him, the son of David. That didn’t literally mean that Jesus would be David’s son, the Messiah would be David’s son, but that he would be his descendant. Often in the scriptures, you might look down the annals of history and refer to one man’s offspring as his son.

The whole purpose of this exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees was to challenge their understanding of the Messiah’s nature. They were looking to God’s fulfillment of a promised Messiah. But they didn’t understand God’s promise that he would be both God and man. He would be the son of David, his offspring. This they knew as they reflected in their reply. But there’s more to the story. As Jesus begins to reveal to them.

Jesus begins to teach these stubborn individuals by turning their minds to Psalm 110. Jewish teachers held this psalm to be messianic, and they held it in the highest esteem. They believed this psalm to have been written by King David, but there was a conundrum in the very first verse. The Lord says to my Lord, And Jesus presses them on this very point.

Glance at verse 43, if you would. How does David in the Spirit call him Lord? Then he cites Psalm 110, verse one. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies beneath your feet. Jesus poses this direct question to the bewildered Pharisees. If David then calls him Lord, how is he his son? Jesus didn’t cast doubt on the messianic theme of the psalm.

He does, however, point out that David humbles himself before this divine figure by calling him Lord. King David is not simply speaking about just any future king on his throne. He’s not showing a simple respect by calling him Lord. He is acknowledging that this yet unknown figure is superior even to him, King David. He was greater than himself. He will ultimately be seated next to God Almighty. Even at his right hand, he will share in God’s throne, his reign, his rule. And David acknowledges that he is his Lord, his Messiah.

Jesus continues the citation of Psalm 110, which details God’s directive to honor the Messiah, but let’s return to Psalm 110 for that portion, if you would. Back to Psalm 110, and again to verse one. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Following God’s address of his son, the Lord Jesus, the father gives the son a directive, sit at my right hand.

This is the initial phase, if you will, of Christ’s coronation, his celebration. In Philippians 2, Paul speaks of this very thing, that is Christ humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross, God, Paul says, highly exalted him. This is that moment. David captures the very moment of Christ’s exaltation, and God seats his son at his right hand, a place of ultimate honor, supreme power, sovereign authority, To sit at God’s right hand was not just a privilege, an honor, it means that Christ is reigning and ruling alongside of his father. There’s no higher, no more powerful, no more fantastic place that Jesus could be exalted to and to occupy.

In Acts chapter two, Paul cites this same exact verse, Psalm 110 verse one, following the giving of the Spirit at Pentecost. Remember, so many people observed that and suggested even that the people that had received the Spirit talking in tongues were drunken. And he focuses attention on the Lord’s initial statement, sit at my right hand. He quotes this to show that Jesus has been exalted to sit at the Father’s right hand, and that by his authority, he has poured forth the promised Holy Spirit.

That explains what was taking place that moment. By seating him at his right hand, Peter says, God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ, Messiah. Years later, in 322 of his first epistle, Peter maintains this position, this conviction, saying of the Savior, he is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven.

Fantastic truth. That Jesus is seated at the right hand of God is the particular thought that is quoted or alluded to most often in the New Testament. The writer of Hebrews mentions it five times. Bear with me. In chapter one, verse three, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. In verse 113, he quotes Psalm 110 specifically in full to show that Christ is superior to the angels.

In 8.1, he exclaims, we have such a high priest who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of majesty in the heavens.

In 10.12, He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. And in 12.2, he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The Apostle Paul, as well, sees his hold of this thought. Jesus Christ sitting at God’s right hand. In Ephesians 1, he speaks of God’s great power, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. He encouraged, did Paul, he encouraged the Colossian believers with a similar thought to keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Well, all of that makes Christ’s exaltation to the right hand of God one of the most well-attested ideas in Scripture. And he’s not seated from fatigue, He’s seated as an exercise of sovereignty. Glance, please, at the final portion of verse one. Sit at my feet, pardon me, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

God the Father is going to bring about a total and complete subjection of all Earthly rulers to his sons reign and rule. in a passage that captures so many of the features of this psalm. Paul says in Philippians 2 of Christ, God highly exalted him, bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth, under the earth, that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The Father exalted Christ for the purpose of subjecting all rule and authority to Him. All will be brought to subjection to Christ, and Paul alludes to this sovereign exercise of power in 1 Corinthians 15. He must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. The Apostle Peter likewise speaks of this complete subjection to Christ’s authority.

In 1 Peter 3.22, he speaks of Christ who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to him, such as Christ’s rule and reign. There will be no middle ground. There will be no negotiating with any earthly rule or rulers. All of God’s enemies shall in the end be utterly subdued and subjected to Christ.

This image is of a conquering king who whose once seemingly formidable enemies are brought into subjection. If there’s anything in this psalm that should encourage us. So often when an election takes place, I just will exclaim, my king is already on his throne. That should encourage us as believers. We should rest comfortably that our Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of God and the same one that shed his blood for us is now reigning with his father in heaven. Well, the day is still young here for this coronation celebration. The coronation of this king has only just begun. There are many events yet to take place.

Not only do we see in Psalm 110, the father’s inauguration of his son, in verses two and three, we see the father’s validation of his son. Would you glance at verse two? Jesus Christ is being enthroned. The father has exalted his son. We see his inauguration, and here in verse two, the validation of his son.

The Lord will stretch forth your strong scepter from Zion, saying, rule in the midst of your enemies. Though the son has been seated, at God’s right hand with honor and authority. It is God the Father, again, Yahweh, who acts on his behalf. In the second of these three statements, David says, the Lord will stretch forth your strong scepter from Zion. It’s God acting and therefore affirming or validating his son’s royalty.

They’re working together as one. David’s mention of a scepter would have been a very familiar symbol to him as a king. It did not have some kind of a magical power, nor was it actually used as some kind of a weapon, a club. It was representative of the authority and power that the king wielded. And in this case, It is God the Father who undergirds and validates his son’s rule by stretching forth his son’s strong scepter. Almighty God’s power is put forth on behalf of Christ. The image of the scepter is symbolic.

Christ’s reign is not. When David quotes the father here, rule in the midst of your enemies, it’s not a suggestion, it’s a divine promise. Between two members of the Godhead, father and son, the Lord Jesus Christ will rule over his enemies. Christ’s enemies, whether spiritual beings, principalities and powers, as Paul refers to them, or earthly kings, they will be conquered.

Well, watch this. In verse 2, David is citing God’s words. But suddenly in verse 3, David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, introduces his own commentary on the subject. These are David’s words. So that when he says here, your people will volunteer freely in the day of your power, He’s declaring that which he had already seen in his own kingdom, a great outpouring of support in the most practical ways by the people of the kingdom. God is the one who stirs the hearts of Christ’s people to render service to their Messiah and King. a willing multitude eager to come alongside of him in the course of carrying out his various responsibilities, not the least of which is the proclamation of the gospel. David himself enjoyed the devoted assistance of his people, and so also will Christ. Second portion of verse three simply affirms that initial statement. In holy array from the womb of the dawn, your youth are to you as the dew. Very poetic language here. The Lord Jesus will have his people.

They will naturally and willingly rise to serve him. They will not need to be coerced. They will not hold out for better pay. There will be no compulsory draft to get them into service. They will eagerly serve their Lord and their master, and they will be as plentiful as drops of dew on a beautiful spring morning.

It’s a fantastic image. And it’s an image that we could present to ourselves. If our king is seated at the right hand of God, the very one who shed his blood on our behalf, and he is expecting, desiring, he has already gifted his people in order to serve him, should we not serve him? We should. We should be eager and willing. We should try new means of service. We should always constantly be looking for some way to honor our Savior by serving Him.

Well, two of these phases of the crowning celebration are complete. The father’s inauguration of his son and the father’s validation of his son. We come to the third, the last. the father’s confirmation of his son. The father has exalted the Lord Jesus Christ, and we see his inauguration, his validation, and thirdly, his confirmation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you look at verse four, the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. In verses four through seven, David introduces a third phase of this celebration, the Messiah’s crowning. Following the pattern of verses in one and two, verse four presents the Lord that is God the Father’s words. And here he says that the Lord has sworn and he will not change his mind. Speaking of his Lord, David quotes, God is declaring this solemn vow that this coming king would also be a priest, and that forever.

Israel had many kings, and she had her priesthoods and priests. But kings were not priests, and priests were not kings. David himself already knows that his throne is an eternal throne. 2 Samuel 7, 16. Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever, says God. Your throne shall be established forever. David already knows that his throne is an eternal throne. God had covenanted with him for that. And so it comes as no surprise to David that the king will sit upon his throne as a priest forever. Priest’s function was to offer sacrifices and to make intercession on behalf of his people, to bless them.

Scripture tells us, Doesn’t it that there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus? We no longer need a priest because Christ as priest has made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf. The writer of Hebrews assures us that Jesus Christ is the mediator of a better covenant.

In his sacrifice of himself on the cross, he has given the greatest sacrifice of all. As Peter says it, Christ has suffered once for all the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. What a fantastic thought. The Apostle Paul says that he who is at the right hand of God intercedes for us. Can you even imagine that? that Jesus, perhaps even at this moment, is praying for us, either individually or collectively as a church.

He’s a priest, Peter says, and he’s a priest according to this special order, the order of Melchizedek. We only briefly meet this enigmatic individual in Genesis 14. He was introduced there as the king of Salem, ancient Jerusalem, who brings refreshments and blessings to embattled Abram. His name, Melchizedek, means righteous king, and as a priest and king, the writer of Hebrews repeatedly remembers him as a type that is a symbol of Christ.

By quoting this same verse. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Priests had their various orders. They were types of priests, if you will. This order of Melchizedek informs us a number of things about both Melchizedek and Christ. Like Melchizedek, He possesses the office of both king and priest. Impossibly rare. Only Melchizedek. Like Melchizedek, he was not among those who were named as Jewish priests. He’s in no list of priests anywhere. And like Melchizedek, we know neither the beginning nor the end. of his priesthood.

David concludes. He concludes this distinctly messianic psalm with his own prophetic commentary on Christ’s priesthood. His reign as king. And he begins his conclusion in verse five. The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter the kings in the day of his wrath. We observe that the father had seated Christ in verse one, sit at my right hand. Verse five tells us that he remains seated at the father’s right hand.

He is reigning on high, sovereign and almighty. Every earthly power, earthly and spiritual, has been subjected to him. No earthly ruler can withstand his power. And once his wrath is kindled for judgment, he will overcome all who oppose him in his righteousness. Verse six, David’s still speaking.

He will judge among the nations, he will fill them with corpses, he will shatter the chief men over a broad country. He is the all-righteous king who will one day thoroughly judge the nations. that Jesus will one day judge doesn’t need to be perceived as a negative idea. Some will be judged and exonerated. They will be found innocent and spared. Others will be judged and condemned. None will be spared. Same King that hates pride and sin loves humbleness and repentance and righteousness. We come to verse seven. Still David’s words, a summary of the Messiah’s reign as priest and king.

He will drink from the brook by the wayside, therefore he will lift up his head. The pause for a drink by the wayside is an unmistakable indication that the unrest, the battles, the strife, has ceased. Having established peace, Christ symbolically pauses for a refreshing sip of water. The wars have ceased. Christ is victorious. The Messiah has conquered all. David says he will lift up his head. He will lift up his head victorious over sin. and Satan, ungodliness, and death. Would you rejoice before him?

Our merciful God, we thank you for Christ our Savior and for this very special psalm that speaks so clearly of our Messiah. And Lord, we thank you that you have installed him as King He is inaugurated, sitting at your right hand even now. He is already ruling and reigning. And for those of us who have come to know Jesus as Savior, what a comfort that in this fallen and disturbed world, God is in absolute control. God, the father with his son at his right hand, is directing all.

Lord God, we thank you for your clear validation of your son in standing with him in the exercise of your power through him. Lord God, we take great comfort in that as well. And we look for your grace to be found faithful to come alongside and to serve you. Lord God, we rejoice in the clear confirmation of your son that he is indeed a priest interceding on our behalf and will do so forever. Lord God, we thank you and we as believers take great comfort in these words. Father, we know that it was nothing in us that directed you in our direction. We know that it was only your mercy that was shown to us in the salvation that you bestowed upon us. And so we pray for any who do not know the Lord Jesus, that you would humble them, draw them to yourself in repentance and faith. Lord God, we thank you for our enthroned Savior, We take great comfort and we pray these things in Jesus’ name, amen.