Psalm 110: Jesus, King and Priest Forever

Introduction

Three articles read on the same day, quoting three different experts, none of whom rules out that artificial intelligence could wipe out the human race within ten years. The next day, alarming results in international school assessments. The day after that, blockades announced all over France as fuel prices soar. Then the President of the Republic summons the leaders of every party to explain the gravity of the international situation. "Anxiety-inducing, did you say?" The preacher at the Église Évangélique Baptiste de Paris-Centre [À COMPLÉTER : nom du prédicateur] asks the question many of us may be asking right now: do we still have the right to hope in a world in this state?

This Sunday morning, the series on 2 Corinthians takes a break because of a baptism that evening. After several psalms read in August, the church opens Psalm 110. It is an ancient text, with somewhat rough language and culturally distant from us, and yet, out of all 150 psalms, it is one of the most quoted in the New Testament: eight times directly, not counting allusions. Why such interest in this short text? How does it speak of hope for humanity? And what does it have to do with us, who read it today?

The message follows three strong ideas: the promise of a king, the promise of a priest, and Jesus, our king-priest.

Message outline

1. Don't skip the first line of the psalm

• Many psalms begin with a small note giving contextual information: the superscription. Here, at the start of verse 1: "A Psalm by David."
• At theological college, the preacher learned that this superscription must be read, contrary to what is often done. He remembers a professor who corrected a student who had skipped that line: "Why didn't you read verse 1?" This note is part of the biblical text; it was not added by the editors of our modern Bibles.
• If there is one psalm where this note is of vital importance, it is this one.

2. The promise of a king

• "Yahweh says to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.'" (Psalm 110:1). At first glance, you could imagine someone at the court of the king of Israel singing that God will give the king victory. "Come and reign at my side": the language is strong, but it could suit a king of Israel called to rule God's people, in God's name and under his authority.
• The problem with this reading is the superscription. It is David who speaks, the great king of Israel. And David speaks of his Lord. There was no human being above him. Who could he be referring to?
• Verses 2 and 3: God will extend the royal power of this king from Zion, that is, Jerusalem, and he will have a numerous and eager people at his service. Verse 3 is notoriously difficult to translate, but its essential idea comes through clearly.
• There is also a question of scale. David's kingdom was roughly the size of Belgium. "With all my affection for our Belgian friends, Belgium is not very big. Very beautiful, but not very big." It is hard to describe the king of a territory of 30,000 km² as ruling over the whole world.
• Yet in verses 5 and 6, the Lord will "crush kings in the day of his wrath," "judge among the nations" and "crush the ruler of the whole earth." That does not fit David's reign, even at its height: he barely controlled his own country, and not without difficulty, with rebellions and many twists and turns.
• Psalm 2 speaks of the same mysterious king: "Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession" (Psalm 2:8). And it adds: "Blessed are all those who take refuge in him" (Psalm 2:12). If this Messiah is to defeat his enemies, it is to bring down human powers and restore God's authority, a good and just authority in which human beings can find refuge.

3. Parenthesis: what we hold against authority

• We don't much like talking about authority, perhaps especially in French culture. Yet almost everyone likes authority when they feel it serves a just cause. Think of the causes closest to your heart: if an authority steps in, even forcefully, to uphold what seems important to you, you will see something good in it.
• "The solution is not the absence of authority. What we need is a just authority." And that is what we sorely lack. Humanity looks like a bubbling cauldron of rival and inadequate authorities. Even the least bad ones fail to establish law, justice and peace deeply and lastingly; at best, they limit the effects of evil.
• We were created to live under a just and good authority, that of our Creator. This is true at the individual level: even the most mature and wise among us ("I won't name names") need a just authority over their lives. It is also true on the collective scale: the world needs God's authority.
• Isaiah 9:5-6, which we often read at Christmas, expresses the same hope: a child is born to us, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, who will extend his rule and establish endless peace on the throne of David. A divine king, almost interchangeable with God in the text, who exercises God's authority over the whole world and thus establishes true peace.

4. The promise of a priest

• To know this peace, we need a restored relationship with God. But how is that possible if humanity is in revolt against God? That is the biblical verdict: human beings have turned away from God and are exposed to his judgment. A vicious circle: we need God's authority and we keep rejecting it. "The situation hasn't changed in 2026. We would know."
• Our relationships, overall, are bruised and damaged, even with those closest to us. How could sinful men and women, who already can't get along with each other, live in relationship with the living God? This is where verse 4 is decisive: "Yahweh has sworn, and will not change his mind: 'You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.'"
• "Melchi-who?" Melchizedek appears only once before this psalm, in Genesis 14, in the time of Abraham. Abraham has just won a military victory and rescued his nephew Lot. Then Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, brings bread and wine and blesses Abraham (Genesis 14:18-20).
• This Salem is not the capital of Oregon, nor the town in Massachusetts with its witch stories: it is the ancestral city of Jerusalem. And Melchizedek means "king of righteousness."
• What is a priest in the Bible? At the heart of his role is mediation. He represents people before God and God before people. He brings offerings and sacrifices on behalf of the people, to worship God and ask for forgiveness, and he communicates God's forgiveness and blessing to the people. That is what Melchizedek does when he blesses Abraham on God's behalf.
• Melchizedek is unique in the Old Testament: he is both king and priest. Under the law of Moses, which would come later, you could not hold both offices. If David, centuries afterward, refers to him, it is because the universal king he announces will be king and also priest, in the manner of Melchizedek.
• We have identified a double problem for humanity: a problem of authority and a problem of relationship. We lack an authority that brings us together and gets us to agree, and we lack peaceful relationships, free from guilt, bitterness and the desire for revenge. The promised Savior will be invested with God's authority and, as priest, he will be mediator between God and us, "in charge of reconciliation." "That would be a nice title, a good job description: reconciliation officer." He will come to defeat God's enemies, but he will also come to restore hearts.

5. Jesus, our king

• Geopolitical, climate, economic, identity, technological, ideological crisis: it is hard to find an area where there is no crisis right now. Is it still possible to hope? The Bible says yes, firmly, but not in the way we tend to do it.
• Faced with crises, we first think in terms of collective will. That is commendable, but we already struggle to agree in the smallest circles: in the family, at work, in our small communities, even in our churches. So what about on a global scale? John Lennon sang of all the people living life in peace, but it is not for nothing that his song is called Imagine: it remains in the imagination.
• The Bible offers a solution from above, the opposite, at first sight, of our democratic reflexes. But this solution from above does not come through violence or coercion: it comes through deliverance and love, and it reveals a Savior to us. A king whose authority serves the deepest needs of humanity. This king is Jesus Christ.
• After his resurrection, Jesus declares: "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:18-20). Jesus gathers a new people and brings them back under God's authority. "This morning, we are a small local sample of this new people."
• Paul takes up the language of Psalm 110 to speak of Christ's authority: God raised him and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, authority and name, and put everything under his feet (Ephesians 1:20-22). What looked like a war poem from the tenth century before Jesus Christ takes on a new dimension when read in the light of Christ: "It's a bit like putting on 3D glasses, and suddenly everything appears with new depth."
• The enemies Jesus comes to defeat are not warriors of the ancient Near East, but far more fundamental enemies: the spiritual powers that keep us away from God, the grip of evil, death and futility on our human condition. Paul says it: Christ must reign until God has put all his enemies under his feet, and "the last enemy that will be abolished is death" (1 Corinthians 15:24-26).
• "Jesus did not come to fight our enemies of the day, he came to fight our enemies of all time." This does not contradict the fine causes we may support here below. But every authentic hope for the future runs through a return to God, the master of history. If we want to be "on the right side of history," as people sometimes say, it is on his side that we must be. Jesus won the victory we needed above all else: "in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power" (Colossians 2:10). He is the head we truly need. Everything that engages us here below will have infinitely more meaning once we have found our true human identity in God.

6. Jesus, our priest

• The letter to the Hebrews, largely devoted to this question, comments on Psalm 110 in chapter 7: another priest has arisen, in the likeness of Melchizedek, not according to a rule of natural descent, but "after the power of an endless life" (Hebrews 7:15-17).
• Jesus is the high priest we needed: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens. The other high priests had to offer sacrifices every day, first for their own sins, then for those of the people. He has no need of that, "for he did this once for all, when he offered up himself" (Hebrews 7:26-27).
• In the Old Testament, animal sacrifices showed in a poignant way that an atoning death was necessary: guilt had to fall on someone, evil had to be punished while sparing the guilty. "Personally, I'm glad I don't have to come to church with a ram or a lamb to sacrifice." Why are these sacrifices no longer relevant? Because Jesus, as priest, brought the ultimate sacrifice, perfect and final, which makes all the others obsolete.
• "The priests came to bring a sacrifice. Jesus came to bring himself." He gave his life on the cross to take upon himself, in our place, the condemnation for all our sin, and he restored the relationship we had broken with God.
• By restoring our relationship with God, he offers us peace with one another. The more we know ourselves secure with God, forgiven and reconciled, the fewer reasons we have to turn on one another. "When the vertical relationship with God is restored, the horizontal relationships can be healed." And if we struggle with the horizontal, let us examine the vertical.
• One day, this peace will be fully established in a transformed world. But from today, we are called to taste it and to put it into practice among brothers and sisters in Christ.

7. Conclusion: our two greatest needs

• For those who have already entrusted their lives to Jesus, Psalm 110 read with "the 3D glasses of the New Testament" reminds us of our two greatest needs: to place ourselves continually under God's authority, and to live a repaired relationship with him. In moments of discouragement, distance or doubt, we know whom to turn to.
• If you have not yet had this decisive encounter with Christ, wait no longer. Everything is offered to you in him. His call still resounds today, and he invites everyone to come to him by faith.
• "Jesus came to restore justice. Jesus came to repair hearts." He offers you the restoration and reconciliation you need, that we all so desperately need.

Key takeaways

• The superscription "A Psalm by David" is part of the text: if David is speaking of "my Lord," the announced king is greater than he.
• The psalm announces a king whose authority will extend over the whole earth. What the world lacks is not the absence of authority, but a just authority: that of the Creator.
• This king will also be a priest, in the manner of Melchizedek: a mediator in charge of reconciliation between God and us.
• Jesus fulfills both promises: he reigns at God's right hand until death is destroyed, and he offered himself, once for all, as the perfect sacrifice.
• When the vertical relationship with God is restored, the horizontal relationships can be healed.

Personal application

1. Faced with the crises of our world, where do you place your hope: in the collective will of humanity, or in the king God has established?
2. In what area of your life do you still refuse God's authority, even though you recognize that it is just and good?
3. If you struggle with the horizontal (a strained relationship with someone close), what does that difficulty reveal about your vertical relationship with God?
4. In moments of discouragement, distance or doubt, whom do you turn to first?
5. If you have not yet entrusted your life to Jesus, what is holding you back from answering his call today?

Verses cited

• Psalm 110
• Psalm 2:8-12
• Isaiah 9:5-6
• Genesis 14:18-20
• Matthew 28:18-20
• Ephesians 1:20-22
• 1 Corinthians 15:24-26
• Colossians 2:10
• Hebrews 7:15-17
• Hebrews 7:26-27

Frequently asked questions

Why is Psalm 110 quoted so often in the New Testament?

Among the 150 psalms, it is one of those the New Testament quotes most often: eight times directly, plus many allusions. It announces a king whose authority will extend over the whole earth and a priest forever. The apostles recognized Jesus in it, seated at God's right hand, reigning until all his enemies are under his feet.

Who is Melchizedek in Psalm 110?

Melchizedek appears only once before this psalm, in Genesis 14, in the time of Abraham. He is king of Salem, the ancestral city of Jerusalem, and priest of God Most High. He is unique in the Old Testament because he holds both offices, king and priest, which the law of Moses would later forbid. The king announced by David will, like him, be both king and priest.

How is Jesus both king and priest?

As king, Jesus has received all authority in heaven and on earth, and he reigns until the last enemy, death, is destroyed. As priest, he is the mediator between God and us: he offered once for all the perfect sacrifice, himself, to restore the relationship we had broken with God. He thus meets our two greatest needs: a just authority and a repaired relationship.