Calvary Road Baptist Church
“CHRIST’S
ENEMIES SUBDUED”
Psalm 110
There are times in the lives of God’s
people when things seem to be going wrong, when the enemy seems to have the
upper hand, when everything seems to be falling apart, and you struggle with
your conviction that all is well and God is sitting on His throne. We observe
the fabric of our nation and culture unraveling. We are bombarded with
convincing news that brutal and bloodthirsty enemies are on the rise in the
Middle East, one of whom could be of our own nation’s making with the other
being allowed to arm itself against us, while on the other side of the world an
insane dictator oppresses his starving nation while he controls a nuclear
arsenal, with the most populous and most formidable country in the world makes
territorial claims over oil rich regions they have never in their long history
ruled. Throughout the 20th century the United States of America exercised
substantial control over an entire continent and two oceans, with a large
Christian population that was both interested in Biblical prophecy and at the
same time wondering what must transpire for our nation to become so irrelevant
that we play no discernible roll in end time prophetical events. To our
astonishment our nation’s slide into military and economic mediocrity is
progressing so rapidly that we can see the United States sinking into obscurity
at a never before imagined pace.
To those of you who are troubled by
these events, and increasingly concerned about this unfolding drama that we are
not only witness to but participants in, let me remind you that the faith once
delivered to the saints is a faith that knows how by God’s grace to thrive in
very difficult circumstances. What is our guide in difficult times such are we
are presently entering? Our guide is the infallible Word of the living God, the
love letter given to us by our Lord to comfort and guide us through troublesome
times, in part by providing for us an overview of God’s plan and purpose for
not only delivering us but also for accomplishing His grand purpose. After all,
we who are Christians believe that history is really and truly His story. Of
particular comfort to us this morning is a psalm written by David, the shepherd
king and prophetic psalmist of Israel. Please turn to the 110th Psalm. I invite
you to stand with me for the reading of God’s Word:
1 <> The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my
right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
2 The LORD
shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine
enemies.
3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy
power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the
dew of thy youth.
4 The LORD
hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the
order of Melchizedek.
5 The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in
the day of his wrath.
6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the
places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.
7 He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall
he lift up the head.
If I had to sum up this brief psalm in
a single sentence I would say that it promises that Christ’s enemies shall be
subdued. Is that not a comfort to you? It is to me. Though some people are so
morally unfocused that they do not want to admit it, not only is there a God in
heaven, but He has enemies, and He is determined to defeat them. That is
motivation for all right thinking people to consider the question asked by
Moses in Exodus 32.26: “Who is on the LORD’s side?” If you are not yet on His side you need to be. Observe
with me that the psalm is easily divided into two parts, the first four verses
being related to the actions of Jehovah, and the last three verses containing
related predictions given by King David. Though only seven verses long, this
psalm is prophetical and spans the time from our Lord Jesus Christ’s ascension
to His Father’s right hand following His resurrection to the establishing of
His millennial kingdom and beyond:
First, David Introduces The RELATED
ACTIONS OF JEHOVAH
Walk through these four verses with
me:
Verse
1: “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my
right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.”
There are a number of observations to
make for a clear understanding of this prediction made a thousand years before
it was fulfilled: First, please take note of the two words that are
translated into our English word lord, the first LORD being all capital letters (though not
all of the same size) and translating the Hebrew word for Jehovah (the very name
of God), with the second Lord having only one upper case letter and translating
the Hebrew word adonai, most closely defined by our English word lord. Clearly,
Jehovah is speaking to someone He addresses using the word Adonai. Second,
Jehovah invites this person addressed as Adonai to sit at His right hand, a
place of favor. That the Lord is invited to sit at Jehovah’s right hand
immediately rules out from consideration that this individual could possibly be
a Jewish king, since no Jewish king has ever had a relationship with Jehovah
that made this kind of exaltation possible. Thus, the Lord, this Adonai, must
and can only be Israel’s Messiah. The only Biblical figure this could possibly
be referring to is the Lord Jesus Christ following His resurrection from the
dead and His ascension to heaven, His enthronement being a fulfillment of this
very verse.[1]
Third, a reason for the Lord Jesus Christ’s enthronement at His Father’s
right hand is provided in the last phrase of the verse: “. . . until I make
thine enemies thy footstool.” Ponder this statement made by the Lord God
Almighty Himself, because it explains what has been happening over the past
2,000 years since our Savior’s ascension into heaven. God the Father is
subduing Christ’s enemies, making them no better than a lowly stool under His
foot. Thus, in the ebbs and flows of history over the past two millennia, one
thing is clearly stated for our understanding despite what we may conclude is
happening from the events we see transpiring; Jehovah is subduing the enemies
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse
2: “The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength
out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.”
If verse 1 records Jehovah’s
statement, verse 2 records Jehovah’s future action. The rod speaks of
authority, referring to a king’s sceptre. Jehovah here predicts that He will
send the authority of Christ’s strength out of Zion, which authority was
asserted by our Lord Jesus Christ when He proclaimed the Great Commission in
Matthew 28.18-20: “All power is given unto me. . . .” Zion is a reference to
Jerusalem, where Christianity was established and from where it spread over the
whole world. To rule in the midst of His enemies is a description of Christ’s
rule over His own over the course of these last 2,000 years. He rules over His
own (i.e. Christians), even while we are surrounded by Christ’s enemies, “in
the midst of thine enemies” (i.e. unbelievers).
Verse
3: “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties
of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.”
In verse 1 the LORD speaks to the Lord, Jehovah speaks to
Adonai (the exalted and enthroned Christ). In verse 2 Jehovah’s future action
is predicted. And here in verse 3 Jehovah declares some things to the Lord
Jesus Christ (who sits at His right hand) about His followers, referred to by
Jehovah as “thy people.” This verse is far too complex for us to spend enough
time on to get a firm grip on, but for this: Jehovah is declaring to Adonai
that His followers are willing to sacrifice themselves for His cause when the
time for such sacrifice comes, from the time when the morning is born being
clothed in holiness, we are as His young ones who are likened to the dew.
Verse
4: “The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou
art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.”
Charles H. Spurgeon writes about this
verse: “We have now reached the heart of the psalm, which is also the very centre
and soul of our faith. Our Lord Jesus is a Priest King by the ancient oath of
Jehovah.”[2]
Precisely what is it Jehovah has sworn and will not ever change His mind about?
“Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” Speaking to
the Lord, to Adonai, to the exalted and enthroned Jesus Christ in this
prediction made a thousand years prior to its fulfillment, Jehovah swore in
eternity past that Jesus Christ is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Notice
that word translated priest. Its English equivalent is cohen, a word you may
recognize as a Jewish family name. I remember the comedian who frequently
appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960s, Myron Cohen. Translated in our
Bible priest, the word literally means priest-king.[3] What
is meant by the phrase “after the order of Melchizedek”? It means that the
people of God, those who are Christ’s, will have as our priest-king One who has
always been of a different type than those priests descended from Aaron,
Israel’s first high priest, who not only sinned but also died. Melchizedek, you
will recall, was the priest-king of the city of Salem encountered by Abram, who
received tithes from Abram thereby showing that he was superior to Aaron
Abram’s descendent.[4]
How important is it that Christ is a priest-king after the order of
Melchizedek, without father or mother, without beginning and without end? So
important that it is mentioned for emphasis to distinguish Christ as a
different type of high priest from Aaron in Hebrews 5.6, 10; 6.20; 7.17 and 21.
Thus, we who know Christ have a priest. We also have a king. Our great high
priest and king is of the order of Melchizedek, stressing His eternity, that
fact that as He has existed from eternity past so He will continue into
eternity future, always our Lord and forever our priest who represents us to
God, and ruling over us as our king. Do verses 1-4 suggest to you that God is
losing control of history, or that His Son Jesus Christ has somehow lost His
grip? Quite the contrary, this psalm so far shows a LORD and a Lord, a Jehovah and an Adonai,
a God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who are on top of the situation,
with God the Father in fact accomplishing His goal of subduing Christ’s
enemies.
Next, We Come To RELATED PREDICTIONS
OF DAVID
If verses 1-4 are the record of
prophetically revealed conversations that David overheard between the First and
Second Persons of the Triune Godhead, spoken by Jehovah to Adonai, spoken by
God the Father to God the Son, then verses 5-7 present predictions given by
David:
Verse
5: “The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his
wrath.”
As if David is rehearsing future
events to God the Father, he writes, “The Lord at thy right hand shall strike
through kings in the day of his wrath.” The Lord Jesus Christ most certainly is
at His right hand. What then does David predict that the Lord Jesus Christ will
someday do? He will “strike through kings in the day of his wrath.” This
reveals to us that there is a day of Christ’s wrath, #1, and that in the day of
His wrath He will “strike through kings.” Of course, this will be fulfilled at
His second coming in power and great glory, Revelation 19.11-18:
11 And
I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
12 His
eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns;
and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
13 And
he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called
The Word of God.
14 And
the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed
in fine linen, white and clean.
15 And
out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations:
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the
fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
16 And
he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS,
AND LORD OF LORDS.
17 And
I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to
all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves
together unto the supper of the great God;
18 That
ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of
mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the
flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
Verse
6: “He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the
dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.”
I think the passage in Revelation 19
that I just read explains this verse very well. The Lord Jesus Christ will
execute judgment upon the heathen (unbelievers), with heaps of dead bodies, and
obviously wounding the heads over many countries.
Verse
7: “He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the
head.”
This is the only verse in the psalm
that speaks to Christ’s earthly ministry, referring to His sacrificial death on
the cross for our sins, His burial, and His subsequent resurrection from the
dead with two phrases: The first phrase, “He shall drink of the brook in the
way,” is something of a passing nod to Gideon and his 300. Once more from
Spurgeon: “So swiftly shall he march to conquest that he shall not stay for
refreshment, but drink as he hastens on. Like Gideon’s men that lapped, he
shall throw his heart into the fray and cut it short in righteousness, because
a short work will the Lord make in the earth.”[5] From
beginning to end His earthly ministry lasted perhaps three and one-half years. “therefore
shall he lift up the head.” Envision Christ hanging from the cross after He had
given up the ghost, His head hanging atop a lifeless body. So ended His earthly
ministry. This phrase looks to the future, to His Second Advent: “His own head
shall be lifted high in victory, and his people, in him, shall be upraised
also. When he passed this way before, he was burdened and had stern work laid
upon him; but in his second advent he will win an easy victory; aforetime he
was the man of sorrows, but when he comes a second time his head will be lifted
in triumph. Let his saints rejoice with him.”[6]
Thus ends our overview of the last
2,000 years of human history that will end with the Lord Jesus Christ’s coming
in power and great glory. It does, indeed, look very bad at present for
Christians in many parts of the world. However, the divine plan is unfolding on
schedule as the LORD subjugates the Lord Jesus Christ’s
enemies. Precisely how does He go about doing that? He subjugates the Lord
Jesus Christ’s enemies in three very different ways, though each way results in
individuals bending the knee, bowing the head, and confessing with the mouth
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.[7]
The one means by which an enemy of
Christ is subjugated and acknowledges Him as Lord is by means of the gospel of
God’s grace in Christ, whereby a sinner comes to see his sinful and wretched
condition before God, turns from his sins and trusts Christ for the forgiveness
of sins through His shed blood, and is made a new creature in Christ, a child
of God, who willingly bows before his cherished Lord and Savior.
Another means by which an enemy of
Christ is subjugated, the means which this psalm speaks pointedly to in very
direct terms, is when the stubborn and resistant sinner who refuses the gospel
message, and who rejects the free offer of salvation in Christ, dies and is
cast into Hellfire. Everyone dies. No one escapes death. And when you die
without Christ you fall into God’s hands at last and forever for the last
judgment.
The final means by which an enemy of
Christ is subjugated is revealed in the passage we just read in Revelation,
which declares to us that our returning King Jesus will smite the nations. Thus,
if an enemy of Christ remains alive until the coming of the Lord he will be
summarily executed by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself for treasonous rebellion,
Revelation 19.15.
So you see, in the end the LORD will get His way, He will subdue His
Son’s enemies one way or the other. Either He will woo the sinner by means of
the gospel message and His precious Holy Spirit and his eventual faith in
Christ, or He will meet you who are stubborn and resistant at the doorway to
eternity, the death that takes every one of us, to consign you to Hell, or His
Son will take you down when He comes to this old world to reclaim by power what
is His from those of you who would not be persuaded by the gospel. To those of
us who know Christ, who are saddened by the relentless march of sin that we see
overtaking the institutions once held dear, and claiming more and more of our
loved ones, this promise of eventual victory is a great comfort and delight to
our soul. However, to those who resist the truth, who are estranged from God by
their sins, such promise of God’s victory and the subjugation of Christ’s
enemies is very bad news indeed. Just know that for now the gospel offer goes
forth, the Spirit of God is still convicting men of their sins and convincing
them of their need for Christ. The Savior still beckons sinners to come to Him
for salvation full and free. For now. Therefore, I urge you to consider the
claims of Christ and pray that you will flee to Him while you can.
[1] Mark 16.19
[2] Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury Of David, Volume II, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers), page 462.
[3] Francis Brown, S. R. Driver & Charles A. Briggs, The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew And English Lexicon, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1979), page 463.
[4] Genesis 14.17-21
[5] Spurgeon, page 464.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Isaiah 45.23; Romans 14.11; Philippians 2.9-11
Question? Comment?
Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Fill out the form below to send him an email. Thank you.