1914 and trench warfare was at its height. As you know, the the circumstances around World War I and the the British and the German troops fighting in trenches and then the no man's land and then the enemy on the other side. It was dreadful for all sides. The the conditions were not great.
Many died not by the gunfire, but more the the disease that took place within those trenches. And on December 23rd of 1914, in a moment of quiet, sounds from the German lines came. And it wasn't normal sounds. These were sounds of singing, sounds of songs.
In German, they were singing silent night. That was odd. And as December 23rd rolled into December the 24th, the night fell on December 24th and it was eerily silent. There was not the normal firing of weapons. And as the sun rose on December 5th, December the 25th of 1914, there was still the calm, quiet.
And looking across along the the 48 kilometer front of the Western Front, not a rifle was fired. In fact, at that point, a a German soldier stepped out out of his trench and started to walk into no man's land, followed by German soldier after German soldier, followed by British soldier after British soldier.
And on December the 25th of 1914, the German and British soldiers gathered together in no man's land. And sounds could be heard of singing together, of an exchanging of gifts with one another. They took time to bury those who had fallen in no man's land. This truce in some places along that 48 kilometer trench some of these places this Christmas day truce lasted all the way into New Year's.
Sadly, this the the the the sounds of peace and silence filled was filled once again with warfare, with gunfire, and with death. This is known as the the Christmas Day truce, a moment in these soldiers lives on that day of peace and calm. But this peace was a temporary moment.
And what we're going to see as we go through these Psalms is we're going to see this child born in humble means grow to bring his people not a not a temporary peace but an eternal peace, an eternal joy because he stands victorious. The 110th Psalm that we're going to examine this morning is a kingly psalm.
And I trust that as we walk through this text, we're going to see the the joy of Christmas come through these pages. Psalm 110 says this, a Psalm of David, the Lord says to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your foottool." The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter.
Rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments. From the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Mechisedc. The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. And he will drink from the brook by the way. Therefore, he will lift up his head. This is the 110th psalm. And we begin. And by the way, when you're reading a psalm, that little script that's before that's all in italis italics, that is that is actually scripture that was put there by the penman.
So that is when we're reading or when we're studying a psalm, it is good that we that we read those. That's just on on an aside. So if one of the pastors asks you to hey read read read this psalm in its entirety we do want you to include that italicized part that is scripture and it gives us a lot of information about what this psalm is and so this psalm starts with a psalm of David. Okay. So what does that tell us about the psalm? Well it was written by David.
This is very, especially in this psalm. This is incredibly helpful because take a look at the first thing that David writes. He says, "The Lord says to my Lord," right? We're introduced here to to multiple charact. This is key to unlock what actually is going on here. So in some translations if you have an LSB for example you will actually read Yahweh says to my Lord.
Okay. So this is an interaction now between God the father and David's Lord. Right? Because David he says the Lord Yahweh says to my Lord. Well, this is where this is extremely helpful because we know this is King David. David at this point, he is king over Israel. He is basically the highest ranking man in the world at this point. So then the question you should ask ourselves is, well, Yahweh, who who on earth is David's Lord? Who's Lord over David?
Well, earthly the answer is nobody. Nobody is lord over David. So there's something else at play here. So what's happening is David as he's penning this psalm he says the Lord Yahweh says to my Lord the the the Hebrew there is Adoni. He's essentially saying the God the father says to God the son this this is what's so the father says to Jesus.
Now the rest of verses 1- 4 is what the father is saying to the son and then verses 5-7 is what David is writing about the son. Okay. So that's just as an overview. This is the the outline of Psalm 110. And the first thing that I want to draw our attention to as we read this psalm is that this psalm anticipates a coming king.
That the king is coming. Take a look at the the kingly language here of this psalm. So he says, "The Lord the Father says to my Lord the Son, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your foottool." Now I want you to put a pin in that. We're going to come back to that statement near the end. Okay? But verse two, the Lord Yahweh the Father sends forth from Zion, the the holy city, your mighty scepter.
Rule, he says, in the midst of your enemies. Notice the the kingly language that is going on here. A mighty scepter. A king would have a scepter in which he rules in his hands. And he says the Lord Yahweh is from he's sending your the son's mighty scepter to what verse two or the end of verse two to rule.
There is a a kingly rule here. I want you to rule in the midst of your enemies. This great psalm here is anticipating a time when there would be a a great king that descends on the earth in the midst of his enemies. And this king will have a mighty scepter. This king will have will rule sovereignly over his people.
He will be the king of all kings as it were and he will overwhelm other kings of this earth. Take a look at verse five. As David writes, he says, "The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath." We're going to come back to that in a moment. But we have here this picture in Psalm 110 of a king who will descend on this earth and he will be the king of kings.
He will rule with a mighty scepter and he will dominate in the midst of his enemies. We see not only in this place, but we see multiple times throughout the Old Testament this this anticipation of a king who would come, who would rule. I want you to join me if you will in the book of Isaiah. Just a a a little bit farther along in Isaiah chapter 9.
This is a great text. I think we even spent one Christmas season walking through Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6. And I want to look at verses 6 and 7. Take a look at what Isaiah writes and his anticipation here. He says, "For to us," verse 6, "A child is born to us. A son is given. The government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
Now, we're all familiar with that verse. We've all studied that verse. That's the great Christmas verse. But verse 7 follows and I want you to hear the kingly language that Isaiah writes in verse 7. He says, "Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forever more."
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. So there's this anticipation that that on this child that is born remember verse six for to us a child is born on this child who is wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting father prince of peace this child he will raise up a just government a righteous government a righteous rule and He will be on the throne of David over his kingdom.
In other words, Isaiah here, he's anticipating that there's going to be a child born in the lineage of King David. And in that lineage, he will be on that throne forever and ever. And he will be one who will bring an eternal peace. Not a not a not a temporary peace. Not not like a momentary piece like those soldiers saw in 1914. Not a not a brief moment. But no, this child who will be born as Isaiah 9 anticipates as Psalm 110 anticipates. This child.
He will bring about an eternal forever peace. He is going to bring about righteousness and true holiness and justice and he will rule for all eternity. And we see once we flip the pages into the New Testament, take a look at Matthew, Matthew chapter 2.
If you were here yesterday and you saw our live nativity, you saw this these three men and they were they were walking yesterday in our parking lot and they had well what were supposed to be I think either like donkeys or camels, but in our situation we we we walk with llamas and they're decked out and they're pretty and they walk through and they they come upon this child and notice what they have.
Matthew chapter 2, picking it up in verse 10. When they, these men from the east, who have traveled for a long time, when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy because the the they found the place in which this child is. They've been looking for him. They've been traveling and they rejoice exceedingly. And listen to verse 11. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and they worshiped him. This would have been quite a scene.
Imagine being Mary and Joseph. Their son, this is obviously Jesus, if you're familiar with the story. Their son is probably just under two years old. And you have these these men, these men from the east, likely coming from Babylon. And they have traveled for the sole purpose of finding your child. Now, he's less than two. We have a number of those in our congregation. Could you imagine full grown men, wealthy, knowledgeable, and they walk into your home and they see your 2year-old child and what do they do?
They bow down and they worship him. Why? Why would you worship a 2-year-old? The answer is very simple. Because this child is king of kings. He is lord of lords. And you can see that in their actions and you can see that in their gifts. The rest of verse 11, they fell down and they worshiped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him, notice him, Jesus, not Mary and Joseph.
They offer him gold. You do not bring anyone gold unless it is an offering to a king. They bring the child gold, frankincense, and myrr. These are kingly gifts. The wise men understood that. What the Old Testament anticipated, the birth of a king. He is worthy of worship. And they do so. They come in and they worship him and they give him gifts that are rightly due his rank.
Psalm Psalm Revelation 19 at the end as Jesus is coming back on the on his white horse, ready and prepared for battle. It's written on his robe and on his thigh, his name is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Psalm 110 anticipates the birth of a king, the birth of a sovereign ruler.
And my friends, that desire, that anticipation finds its yes and amen in the birth of Christ. Jesus Christ, it did not one day become Lord of lords. He did not one day become king of kings. My friends, when he was born in that humble stable to Mary and Joseph, he was born king of kings. He is born Lord of lords and he is born worthy of worship.
This is who he is. But he's not just a king. Go back to Psalm 110. He's not simply king of kings and lord of lords as if that would be enough. Not only is he that, notice our text. Verse 4, Psalm 110. We have a king who is also our high priest. Take a look at verse four.
The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melkchisedc. This is an interesting statement. This also tells us on a not a side note, but we don't have time to get into it. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. This is a declaration, a decree from a sovereign Lord that this is going to happen and he's not going to change his mind. Like when I was brought on staff here at Gateway Bible Church, they said, "We'll bring you on staff, but we're going to give you a year.
We're going to we're going to see how this thing plays out in a year, cuz if it's not working, we'll we'll maybe go a different direction. That's not what happens here. It's not that we're going to that the Lord is going to put Jesus as high priest and and play it out for a moment and see how this works." No, no, no. He has sworn and he makes a decree. You are you are a priest forever after the order of Melkchisedc. Now I want to zero in our attention for a moment on this guy, this this new character as it were that is now introduced to the psalm.
Many of you in this room are probably somewhat familiar with MelkiseDC. You've read this before your understanding. Many of you are probably sitting here being like, "Who's this Mel Melchisedc guy? Who is it?" Like, he kind of shows up on the scene like my father-in-law used to do this weird thing with books. If he saw a book on his coffee table, what he would do is he would walk up to that book and he would grab said book. And you know how most people, if you're like, "Should I read this?
Should I not read this?" What my father-in-law would do is he would open the book to like the middle and he'd read like two chapters right in the middle and then he'd flip to the end and he'd be like read a few chapters at the end be like then he'll decide should I read this book or not read this book and then he'll go okay yep I'll go to the front and now I'll read like it's weird he jumped into the middle of the book well my friends if you're reading MelkiseDC we're Psalm 110 is jumping into the middle of MelkiseDC's story.
We got to understand, unpack who is MelkiseDC. Well, I'm going to invite you to to join me in Genesis 14. Now, as you're turning there, I want to give you a little bit of a a side note. We don't we don't have time in our in this morning to fully unpack MelkiseDC. What I would strongly encourage you to do is take some time, take a week if you're like, "Hey, what should I read in my Bible? What should I study?"
Take a few days or or a week and be like, I want to I want to dig into this MelkiseDC guy. He's a he's a fascinating character. And when we understand Melkisedc to his to his fullness, it really shows us more of who Christ is. He shows up here in Genesis chap 14. Now, I'm going to read for you verses 17 through 20. Here's what it says.
After his return from the defeat of Cader Lamar and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shaba. That is the king's valley. And Melchisedc, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God most high. And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram by Godmost high, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand."
And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. So, we're going to pause there. What's going on for some context here? Genesis chapter 14, there's a a number of kings who have come up against Lot, Abram's nephew, and they've come up against him to wage war to wipe him out. And Abram's like, "No, no, no. We're not going to allow that to happen." So, Abram steps in, and Abraham wages war, and he saves Lot from the the wrath of the the neighboring kings.
Okay? Okay. And so we pick it up in verse 7. After his, that is Abram's defeat of that guy and the kings, all of a sudden the king of Sodom comes out. Okay. The king of Sodom comes out and he comes also with another guy. This guy's name is MelkiseDC. MelkiseDC. His name, some of you might have footnotes or some some notes at the bottom. Then his name literally means king of righteousness. Melkchisedc means king of righteousness.
And if you dig a little bit further, you find that MelkiseDC is actually king of Salem or king of shalom, which means peace. So you've got this king Melkchisedc who shows up on the scene. He is the king of righteousness and he is the king of peace. If you don't see the the the drawing the connection to Christ, I I don't know if I can make it any more clear.
Jesus, as we've looked at, he is the king of kings. He is a king of righteousness. He is the king of peace. But Melchisedc is more than that. Notice what he brings as a celebration for the victory that has been won. What does he bring? Bread and wine. So after the victory has been won, Abram and his officers can celebrate by having bread and wine. We have just celebrated communion, the great victory that was won on our behalf over sin and death.
And now we have symbols of his body and his blood. They're not actually I trust that we know in this room that when we partake of the bread and the juice, they're not actually his body and they're not actually the blood, but symbols of his body that was broken and the blood that was poured out so that you and I could be free. Jesus when he instituted it, he instituted it with bread and wine. All of Melkchisedc should send a massive light on who Christ is and what he's done. But he's not just that.
Notice he says this at the end of verse 18. And he Melkisedc was priest of God most high. MelkiseDC is both king and priest. Psalm 110 anticipates a coming king who is also a high priest not according to the ironic or Aaron's line but of a whole different line that line that is Melchisedc Tanessa read for us Hebrews.
Go back there with me. We're not going to read everything. But picking it up here in Hebrews chapter 7, we see MelkiseDC show up again. All of a sudden, this guy who is key and critical to understanding who Christ is. We see him in Genesis. We see him in Psalm 110.
And now we see him again in Hebrews and he says here verse 16 at the end of verse 15 he says arises in the likeness of Melkisedc who has become a priest not on the basis of legal requirement concerning bodily descent but by the power of an indestructible life. Jesus is not a high priest because he's in the line of Aaron. That's not how he becomes high priest.
It says here that he becomes a high priest because of his indestructible life. Verse, this is why it is witnessed and the quote of Psalm 110, you are a priest forever after the order of MelkiseDC. For on the one hand, verse 18 says, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness. According to the law, no one can be made perfect. That's why it's weak. That's why it's useless. The the old covenant, the old law had to be done away with.
Verse 22, because of who Jesus is. Because of he is king and because he has a high priest. Verse 22 says, "This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant because Jesus is a high priest. Because he is who he is, he guarantees the institution of the perfect covenant, the new covenant. That is what? Written in his blood. Let's pick it up here in verse 23 of Hebrews chapter 7.
The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office. In other words, why was the why were all the old priests not sufficient? Because when they died, they died. That was it. The there was no more of them. But verse 24, he that is Jesus holds his priesthood permanently. Why? Because he continues forever. Because his death on the cross did not end his life.
He died but for a moment. And on the third day, he rose. He conquered sin. He conquered death never to die again. Because my friends, this king who was born is king of kings. He is lord of lords. He is high priest forever. And according to Psalm 110, our kingly priest stands victorious. Go back with me to Psalm 110.
Like I said, we were going to come back to the rest of verse one in Psalm 110. Take a take a look at what it says. The Lord Yahweh says to my Lord the Son, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your foottool." This is a picture of Christ's enemies being in subject to him. They are beneath him. They are in submission to him.
In other words, they are defeated. There's there's no coming back from this. But it doesn't end there. Take a look at verses 5-7 again. The Lord is at your right hand. He that is Christ will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. Verse six, he will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will shatter the chiefs over the wide earth.
There is coming a time. There is coming a time where there will be a final execution of judgment on all who don't submit themselves willingly to Christ. He will execute judgment. He will fill them with corpses. He will shatter the chiefs. This is imagery here of his victory over all of the heads of authority this world has seen.
The the valley will be filled with their death. He will shatter them. He will bring them to nothing because of his sovereign rule and he will stand victorious over sin and death and everything. That is who Christ is. Verse seven, he will drink from the brook by the way. Therefore, he will lift up his head. He will be satisfied.
He will drink the by the brook along the way. He will lift up his head. There will be no fear because he is the victorious ruler, the victorious conqueror. Psalm 110 anticipates this this King of Kings, this Lord of Lords, this high priest who lives eternally to be to intercede for his people and one day everything will be subject to him.
Take a look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 15. I'm going to pick it up in verse 24 and I want to read through verse 28. Then comes the end when he that is Christ delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he that is the father is accepted who put all things under subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him.
That God may be all in all. Take a look at the first couple verses we read. Christ will deliver the kingdom to the father as a gift. This belongs to you. After Christ has put every rule, every authority, and every power to shame, the last enemy to be put to be destroyed is death. We serve a God who is King of Kings.
He is Lord of Lords. He stands victorious. And all of this is good news. And it's good news because of what we read in Matthew chapter 1. I love the fact Ron and I did not discuss this before the service. I love that he went to Matthew chapter 1 and he read verse 21 which says she that is Mary will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.
We have a problem. We have an issue. It's called sin. And sin leaves us under the weight of condemnation and God's wrath. That's where we end up. And Christ, this child born in a manger, was born for a very specific purpose. He was born for the purpose of saving his people from their sins.
He does that as king of kings. He does that as lord of lords and he does that as our eternal high priest interceding according to the order of Melkchisedc. And my friends, our King of Kings and Lord of Lord lords did not fail. He triumphed over sin, over death, and he saved his people from their sin by hanging himself on a cross in our place.
It is often said that Alexander the Great is one of the greatest military leaders this world has ever seen. Alexander the Great ruled for 12 years. And in those 12 years, he had some would estimate somewhere around 20 to 25 major military battles. Some estimations are up to about 30 to to 33 major battles in 12 years.
That's two major battles per year of rule. That's a lot. And Alexander the Great lost none of them. He was victorious 100% of the time. But you know what happened to Alexander the Great? He who said that Maverick is like he's dead. He died.
His nation was overrun again. The the the battle did not end for his people. But you know whose battle is over? That child who was born 2,000 years ago. That little baby born in a manger would grow up king of kings and lord of lords. He would grow up to willingly lay his life down on a cross.
We can never divorce the birth of Christ from the death of Christ. He laid his life down on the cross so that sinful people like me would not have to sit under condemnation anymore. He laid his life down on the cross so that you could go free so that you could have not just a moment of peace but an eternal anticipation of peace.
He won the war and he stands victorious. So this Christmas, I invite you, man. We don't don't ever miss the joy that is in the the feasts that come, the enjoy the gifts, enjoy the the family time, enjoy all of that as a gracious gift from a sovereign Lord. Enjoy all of those things, but do not turn a blind eye to the reality that Christ coming is the greatest gift.
For it satisfied the wrath of the father and for it his birth leading to his death gives us eternal hope, eternal joy, eternal satisfaction because he was born my friends, king of kings and he rules as such. Let's pray. Father, you are who you are. And what humbling joy it is that we can come to you because of your son.
We thank you that what you promised in the Old Testament comes true in the new at the birth of your son. That the promise that he would die and rise again came true in your son. And that we can stand as free people embracing an eternal peace because of the battle that was won on the cross. Would we not forget that this season and would we worship you well? We come before you and say thank you.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Transcribed automatically from YouTube captions, so names and words may be misheard.
