Two aspects of the Lord's death, as delineated in the Psalms, we have briefly looked at; namely, Messiah cut off and having nothing (102); and the Lord making atonement, and its results (22). His resurrection, looked forward to in Psalm 16, is regarded as an accomplished fact in Psalm 40, and His service consequent on it is predicted in Psalm 22. Now we have a further step in God's revelation about His King, and we learn where He is at present. For, while Psalm 22 takes us back in thought to the past and onward to the future-that is, what has happened and what will happen on this globe-Psalm 110 speaks only of the present and future, and so takes us upward in thought to the Lord's present place at Jehovah's right hand in heaven.
Accustomed, as many perhaps have been, to read the Psalms as isolated compositions, complete each one in itself, they may not have noticed what every student of the Word should mark-that the book is not a collection of odes strung together haphazardly, without reason or method. Each Psalm has its place in relation to the whole collection, from which, if it were displaced, the symmetry of this divinely ordered book would be marred, and the connecting thread perhaps broken. We may not be able in all cases to trace the connection, but attention to the order and subjects of the different books of the volume (for the whole collection is divided in the original into five books: 141; 4272; 7389; 90106; 107150) and to many of the psalms in these different books, reveals a plan and an arrangement which has not, perhaps, been commonly suspected. By whom the collection was thus arranged, we are not informed; nor do we know by whom each psalm was composed.
In places we meet with a series of psalms taking up a certain line; for example, 4448; 93100; 120134. At other times we have an arrangement inverting what would have seemed the natural order of the subjects, as where psalms celebrating the Lard's triumphs precede those which make especial mention of His sufferings and death; for example, 21 and 22; 68 and 69; 93100 and 102. In the case of the Psalm before us, we have an example of a different class, its subject being the proper sequel to the thoughts brought out in Psalm 109. In the former we read of the Lord being persecuted by Judas, whose punishment is then predicted. In Psalm 110 we meet with God's answer to man's opposition to His own well beloved Son. Peter applies Psalm 109:8 to Judas, in Acts 1, though others besides him are clearly spoken of as persecuting the righteous One (vv. 20, 25). The same Apostle quotes Psalm 110 in Acts 2 as prophetic of the Lord Jesus, to whom alone it can be applied.
On different occasions in the New Testament is this Psalm applied to the Lord. The Jews evidently owned that it did speak of the Messiah, for when the Lord appealed to its language as pointing to the irresistible conclusion that the Christ must be greater than David, though descended from him after the flesh, His reference to it met with no disclaimer on their part (Matt. 22:4246). On the day of Pentecost, Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, applied it to the Lord Jesus, lately crucified, and then risen and ascended (Acts 2:3436). Paul, when writing to the Hebrews, makes great use of it in reference to the Lord's Person (1:13), His work (10:12, 13), and His present service (5:6; 6:20; 7:17, 21, 28). Of Him then, and of Him alone, it speaks; for who, besides Him, could sit on Jehovah's throne?
Here should be noticed a feature different from any met with in the Psalms already taken up. In each of them the Lord is introduced as a speaker, and in two of them (16, 22) He is the only one. Here He is silent. Not a word, not a whisper, do we read of, that escapes His lips-in perfect keeping with the character of the Psalm, and the place the Lord is here described as occupying. It was fitting that, as Man in humiliation, He should speak to God. It becomes man to do so. It is right that His exaltation should be proclaimed by Jehovah. So God addresses Him, gives Him His place, and by an oath confirms to Him an everlasting priesthood. But, though the Lord Jesus is silent throughout the Psalm, others are not. David, by the Spirit, speaks of Him and to Him (57; 24). The propriety of this we can all see. "God also hath highly exalted Him" (Phil. 2:9); therefore He reveals it, and men should own it, learning from God, through His Word, what is the only suited place now, in the whole universe, for Him who hung on the cross.
What an answer this is to men's treatment of Christ! They crucified the Lord of glory; Jehovah has placed Him at His side. The One rejected by the world occupies the highest place in heavenly glory. His session there proclaims that He is not an angel (Heb. 1:13). He is, He must be, Jehovah, the Eternal One; for of none but Him who is God could it be written, "The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." This is a startling fact in more ways than one, for it tells us of His Person, of His work, and of God's counsels.
His Person as divine •is thus clearly announced, for no mere creature could ever fill such a place. God will not give His glory to another. No creature could ever sit there by divine appointment. On earth, as Psalm 109 depicts, He was poor and needy, the sport of men, the object on which they vented their rage, and one to whom they pointed with the finger of scorn. But no place is too high for Him to fill, who was cradled in a manger, and whose body was laid in that rock hewn tomb. As God, of course nothing could be added to Him; He only returned to the glory He had with the Father before the world was (John 17:5). As man, He is where man never was before, and Peter quotes this Psalm when speaking of Him as man (Acts 2:3436). God, therefore, and Man, He is. Were He not God, He could not be there. But He who is Man is there-the Man Christ Jesus, made Lord and Christ. As Son of God from all eternity, He sits at the Father's right hand; as man, He has been exalted by the right hand of God (Acts 2:33).
As to His atoning work, Paul shows us how this Psalm applies. The Lord has sat down; therefore all ministry at the altar and before the mercy seat with His blood has ended. His position, now seated, declares this, in contrast to the daily standing of the priests at their ministrations in the tabernacle, offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which could never take away sins. But Christ "after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever [for a continuance] sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." Heb. 10:12-14. God raised Him from the dead, in token that He accepted Him as the sacrifice; He has sat down, the proof that it has done all that was required. No man, indeed, has seen Him in this position; but Scripture reveals it to us for the joy of our hearts and the establishment of our souls.
3) His present place tells us also of God's counsels. They are unchangeable. The princes of this world in their ignorance crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8; Acts 3:17). God has placed Him by His side, a testimony, indeed, as we have seen, to His Person and to His work-a witness also of the sure accomplishment of the divine counsels. For seated there, until His enemies be made His footstool, tells us for what He waits, a fact needful for all to be acquainted with; for, though absent from the earth for a time, He will yet be firmly established in the kingdom, and rule all nations with a rod of iron. Seated there by God's decree, it is clear that Jehovah has espoused His cause, and as this verse tells us, will make good His dominion. God will one day make His enemies His footstool. Do men really believe this? Is the truth of the Lord's present place one to which men in their hearts subscribe?
To be indifferent to Christ argues indifference to God and to His counsels; to be unconcerned about the Lord Jesus must be folly; to oppose Him must be madness. Jehovah has publicly declared that He will make His enemies His footstool. It is not then a kingdom simply that God promises to Him-a dominion which none subject to it can overturn- but that those who have refused to acknowledge Him, and will forever remain opposed to Him in heart, must one day be completely subject to His sway-made His footstool. How complete will be their subjection then! Divine power will make the knee to bend, when the heart has obstinately refused to bow under a sense of His grace. For if such is His present place and future prospect, now at God's right hand, and by and by to be installed in His own kingdom by divine power, what must be His grace and love which moved Him, in obedience to His Father's wish, to become a man, to die for sinners. It is as we learn the excellence of His Person that we discover more of the greatness of His grace.
"From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool" is the comment of the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews, as inspired by the Holy Spirit. From the Psalm we learn God's mind, from the Hebrews the Lord's expectation. Thus at the earliest moment, as it were, after He whom man had rejected had been accepted by God on high, was the unchanging purpose of the divine mind, with respect to the kingdom, declared. His enemies will be made His footstool. Jehovah will do this for Him. With this stated at the outset, the Psalm proceeds to set forth some features characteristic of that time, showing that all on earth even will not be subject at heart, though all must outwardly acknowledge His sway. "The LORD shall send the rod of Thy strength out of Zion: rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies." Then Zion will be the seat of government, and in the midst of His enemies will the Lord rule. Observe, we read nothing of the extermination of all His enemies, for He will rule in their midst. Blessing there will be in that day-outward blessing for all-yet some will remain unchanged in heart, and be fitly described as His enemies.
It is true, all acts of evil will summarily be dealt with, but an iron hand will be required to keep in check man's otherwise unruly will. "Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies" gives us a clue to the condition of things that will then be in existence on earth. In conformity with this, we read elsewhere of the children of the stranger yielding feigned obedience (Psalm 18:44; 66:3, margin), and are told of the great outbreak of evil after the thousand years shall have run their course, when the devil will be let loose to deceive the nations. Man's heart, unless acted on by grace, will be just what it is now, when the Lord reigns, though it will lack the power, and in a great measure the opportunity, of doing
as it pleases. To this, the dark side, there is however, a bright one. His people (for He will have one) will be willing in the day of His power, offering themselves willingly for His work, as some of the children of Israel did in the day of Sisera's defeat. These He will make use of, wherewith to chastise His and their enemies (Zech. 12:4-8; 9:13; Mic. 5:8, 9), endowed as they will then be with the energy of youth.
4) In connection with the conquest to be effected by His people, something further is related, carrying us back in thought to the days of Abraham, the conqueror of the northern power of that day, which, with confederate kings, invaded the land of Canaan and carried Lot captive. Returning from the smiting of the kings (for the term in Hebrew, as well as in Greek, does not of necessity mean slaughter), Melchizedek, King of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met him with bread and wine (that is, with what sustains and gives joy) and blessed him (Gen. 14:18-20). In this Psalm, in which we have Israel conquering under Christ, we meet for the first time again with a notice of such a priesthood, conferred, we read, on the Lord Jesus, by the oath of God, and which will be exercised in the day of His power after the example of Melchizedek in the days of Abraham, who blessed Abraham, and blessed also the Most High God, thus taking a middle place between them, as surely He who is both God and man can take between Jehovah and Israel, Abraham's offspring. After Abraham's victory, Melchizedek thus met him. After His people shall be willing in the day of His power, will the Lord, priest on His throne, be seen in the exercise of the Melchizedek character of priesthood.
The Aaronic character of priesthood has to do with the sanctuary, the Melchizedek character with the kingdom. The Psalm, however, speaks not of the Melchizedek character, but of the Melchizedek order of priesthood; nor does it speak of it as a future event, but as an established thing. "Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." So, while the history of Genesis 14 throws light on the abrupt mention of the Melchizedek priesthood in this Psalm, the epistle to the Hebrews explains to us the force of the word "order" as used here in connection with it. The Lord's enemies subdued, His people victorious, He, priest on His throne, will bless them, the counsel of peace being between Jehovah and Himself (Zech. 6:13). Now God's people need the exercise of a priesthood Aaronic in character, but Melchizedek in order; then, resting under His protection, all wilderness troubles over, all conflicts ended, like Abraham returning with the spoil, Israel will be able to enjoy the Melchizedek character of His priesthood, with which He will then manifest that He has been clothed by divine appointment.
But will this condition of things endure? The word "order" suggests its continuance, for, as Melchizedek had no successor, neither will the Lord. He "abideth a priest continually" is the divine comment on Melchizedek. He "hath an unchangeable priesthood" is the divine statement about the Lord. Priest after that order implies no successor—a pledge of abiding blessing for Israel-a word of comfort too for God's people now, who, while needing a priesthood to be exercised on their behalf, Aaronic in character, need also one that cannot fail; in other words, one after the order of Melchizedek. The little word "order" in connection with Melchizedek (whether in the sanctuary or on the throne) suggests a priesthood that does not terminate by the appointment of a successor, thus insuring to those concerned in it all the blessing and comfort of a settled order, and of an intransmissible office.
His conquests having been declared, and His ruling among His enemies foretold, we read now of judgments to be meted out to the rebels in arms against God's authority. Of the wrath of Him who sits at God's right hand, Psalm 2 has made mention; of the manifestation of that wrath, this Psalm gives example (v. 5). And since it forms part of the fifth book of the volume, and the setting up of the kingdom and power has been celebrated in the fourth (95100), we can understand why the past tense is used when these judgments are spoken of.
The psalmist recounts what God did for His Son after His rejection by the world, and what Christ has done, to whom the kingdom has been given. "The Lord at Thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of His wrath. He shall judge among the heathen [nations], He shall fill the places with the dead bodies; He shall wound the heads over many countries." This refers, perhaps, to Rev. 19:19-21. With mighty power, according to the standpoint of this Psalm, He has been seen to be endowed; for this divine composition views God's counsels as in process of fulfillment. We too read it as partly fulfilled. Its place, however, in the volume, as well as its language, contemplates a further development, before the world, of God's plan than can be effected while the Church is still down here. The conqueror, according to the terms used, has gone forth in power, and His people are willing in the day, which they here own has at last dawned upon earth, that of His power. All has not yet been done which must be done to clear the earth of unruly rebels. But He has taken that work in hand, and is effecting it surely. So, as engaged in it, we learn of His continued dependence on God, who has given such proof of His invincible might. "He shall drink of the brook in the way; therefore shall He lift up the head."
What a contrast the close of this Psalm presents to the beginning, only to be understood and the two ends to be harmonized, as we bow to the mystery of His Person, perfect God and perfect Man, Immanuel, by whom all God's purposes about the universe will yet be made good!