Why Was This Jesus's Favorite Psalm?
Psalm 110 is the most-quoted psalm in the New Testament, and was a favorite of both Jesus and the Apostles because of its startling message. I’m going to walk through it verse by verse so you can get the most out of your reading for today. The good news is that it’s not a long psalm!
Psalm 110
Of David. A psalm.
This psalm comes from David psalm, a fact that Jesus references in his remarks on this psalm to the Pharisees in Matthew 22:41-46.
1 The Lord says to my lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.”
So, it’s as if David is hearing a conversation between The Lord (i.e., God) and David’s lord, in which God says to this unnamed person that he is to sit at his right hand and that God will defeat all his enemies.
This raises the question, of course: to whom is God speaking? Whom would David call “my lord”?
2 The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying,
“Rule in the midst of your enemies!”
3 Your troops will be willing
on your day of battle.
Arrayed in holy splendor,
your young men will come to you
like dew from the morning’s womb.
David says that God will bless the unnamed other person with power right from Mount Zion. And then the poetry uses a variety of metaphors: it will be a great army, but the soldiers will be dressed like priests (“arrayed in holy splendor”) and will be there at the dawn, as if the world has been made new.
4 The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind:
“You are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek.”
David says that God is committed to this promise, and then he references the strange character of Melchizedek, a priest-king who blesses Abraham.
So, this unnamed person will be a priest-king who will bless the children of Abraham.
5 The Lord is at your right hand;
he will crush kings on the day of his wrath.
6 He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead
and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.
7 He will drink from a brook along the way,
and so he will lift his head high.
The psalm closes with another image of the unnamed person’s victories over his enemies. God is with him and he is the judge of the nations. Clean, fresh water is available to him, and he is unafraid.
So, to recap:
The psalm is from David, who writes about a mysterious person who sits with God but is separate from God, a priest-king who will bring blessing to the family of Abraham, and who will be given victory over his enemies.
Why do you think Jesus and the Apostles thought this psalm was so important?
Reply in the comments or shoot me an email and let me know your thoughts.