Thought from today’s Bible reading from Psalm 108-110.
“The Lord said 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 kings in the day of His wrath. He will judge among the nations…” (Psalm 100:1-6).
Looking forward to the New Testament, this priest “according to the order of Melchizedek” is clearly Christ (Hebrews 5:5-6; 6:20). There are several points to be made about Christ and His kingdom that we can notice from this psalm.
- David referred to Jesus as Lord, showing that while Jesus would descend from the lineage of David (Matthew 1:1), He was superior in authority to David.
- Christ’s kingdom would originate in Zion, or Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3).
- His people would serve Him voluntarily, showing that salvation is dependent upon man choosing to serve Him rather than the Calvinist doctrine of arbitrary predestination.
- Being a priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,” Jesus would be both priest and king (Hebrews 7:1).
- A priesthood different from the Levitical priesthood meant that the law would have to change (Hebrews 7:11-12).
- His kingdom would destroy other kingdoms (Daniel 2:44) and He would possess greater power than any human ruler (Ephesians 1:20-21).
- He would judge all men from every nation (Isaiah 2:4; 2 Corinthians 5:10).
Many Jews rejected Christ because He was not what they were expecting in their Messiah. If they understood prophetic passages like this one properly, they may have been more receptive. These things were revealed to “lead us to Christ” (Galatians 3:24).
Tomorrow’s reading: 1 Chronicles 23-25
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
