Psalm 110
PSA 110
It is evident that Psa. 110 supplies the divine answer to the riddle of a suffering Messiah! In Psa. 109:4 and 5, "For My love they are My adversaries.... And they have rewarded Me evil for good, and hatred for My love." And in Psa. 110:1 and 3 it says, "Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.... Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power.”
The first verse of Psa. 110 is quoted five times in the New Testament. The first time is in Matt. 22:41-46 when the Lord Jesus asked the Pharisees concerning the promised Messiah. The second time is in Mark 12:36, and the third is in Luke 20:41-44 when He asked the same question of the scribes and Sadducees. The fourth time in Acts 2:34 and 35 gives the answer the Jewish leaders could not, or would not give because of unbelief. Last of all, the fifth time this verse is quoted in Heb. 1:13, in declaring various glories of the Son of God.
It will be noticed that in the Psalms, the present period of grace, and the taking out of a people for heaven, chiefly from the Gentiles, is wholly left out. In verse 1 of our psalm, the despised and rejected Man of Psa. 109 is invited to sit at the right hand of Jehovah until His enemies are made His footstool. They are not being made His footstool now, certainly, for the gospel of the grace of God is proclaimed to all, both Jew and Gentile. The Church of God is composed of all who believe in the Lord Jesus from the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) to His soon-coming descent from heaven to claim them (1 Thess. 4:16,17). This was a secret not disclosed in Old Testament days, but is expressly told in Eph. 3:1-13.
The position of Psa. 110 is that the Lord Jesus, as Israel's Messiah, has appeared again on earth according to promise. He has defeated and destroyed the mighty host assembled by the Western powers in the land of Israel. And He has set up His authority as Israel's King of Zion (Jerusalem). His people who formerly demanded and secured His crucifixion, crying "Away with Him, crucify Him," will now be willing to receive Him in the beauties of holiness (or holy splendor), and as born again in that day.
The fourth verse, speaking of the order of Melchizedek, invites a reference to Hebrews, chapters 5-8, where the subject is taken up and explained. Believers need, and have been given, a High Priest in the blessed Lord Jesus. He could not be a priest according to the law of Moses, because He was not of the tribe of Levi, but of Judah. Melchizedek furnished an illustration which the Holy Spirit has made use of, a priest not tracing his descent from a family of priests, nor passing on his priesthood to others after him.
“He shall drink of the brook in the way" in verse 7, refers to His lowly, dependent life while passing through this world on the way from the manger to the cross.
J. H. Smith