The Bible Study Hour

Dr. James Boice: This is the second of two studies on Psalm 110, which is by no means the longest Psalm in the Old Testament and the Psalter. In fact, it's one of the short ones, but it's terribly important. It's the Psalm of the Old Testament that is most quoted in the New Testament. And as a matter of fact, verse one of the Psalm is the verse of the Old Testament most quoted in the New Testament.

It's very easy to see why, and we began to look at that a bit last time. Verse one talks about Jehovah, God, saying to another individual who is greater than David, who writes the Psalm, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." That is referring to the one who was to come, but when you probe into the meaning of the verse, it's obvious that here you have a divine Messiah, one who is not only the son of David, which, of course, all the Jews of that time were expecting, but in addition to that also the Son of God.

Jesus used the verse that way himself when he was talking to his enemies to challenge them to think about the nature of the Messiah and his own Messianic claims. Now, he is the Messiah, and this Psalm is the only Psalm from beginning to end which is exclusively about him. There are other Messianic Psalms, that is, Psalms that have elements in them that are fulfilled by Jesus Christ and can't be fulfilled by a mere earthly king, but generally they combine the elements. Parts of the Psalm have to do with an earthly king, and then parts of them have to do with Jesus Christ, the Messiah, heavenly king. But here, this Psalm is exclusively about him.

Now, that first verse is only the first of two oracles that refer to Jesus Christ. An oracle is a special word from God. It's generally put in quotation marks here in this Psalm as well as in other places. The first is the one I just read: God speaking, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." But the second is this: "You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek."

Now, judging by the way that's introduced in the mind of the author of the Psalm, this is an even more important oracle than the first one because it's introduced with two points of emphasis. You notice that it says the Lord himself has sworn. That means that God has given it a special significance all by himself. He's accompanied this statement with an oath for greater solemnity. And then, secondly, we're told, "And he will not change his mind." So putting those things together, we have a great deal of emphasis. "You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."

We look at that and we say to ourselves today, what a strange thing to emphasize. Of all the things you could emphasize in the Old Testament, a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, and we neglect it. I suppose that very few people in any church in the Western world could tell you very much about Melchizedek. As a matter of fact, to know anything about him at all, you probably would have had to have attended an evangelical church with regular systematic Bible preaching and to have done that for a long period of time because it's not every other week that even evangelical ministers talk about Melchizedek.

Over the years, I've touched on it at different times. For one thing, I was preaching through Genesis. It's where he's introduced, and I talked about it then. We had three separate sermons about Melchizedek at that time, but that was years ago. And I'm not aware of really having talked about it since. Now, it's a difficult subject, and so I want to ask your special attention as we try to work through it. It's difficult, but difficult things are often very important, and this is.

It is an interesting thing about Melchizedek that he is referred to at three separate places in the Bible and only there. The first place is in the 14th chapter of Genesis, and it has to do with Abraham's experience when he returned from his battle against the four kings of the east that had captured his nephew Lot. Way back there in Genesis. Then a thousand years go by, and you don't hear anything about Melchizedek at all, and you come to the Psalter, and here we have the 110th Psalm, and it mentions Melchizedek in one verse.

And then another thousand years go by, and you come to the period of the New Testament, and you open the book of Hebrews, and suddenly there Melchizedek is talked about again and again and again. It's the central theme of the major chapters of that book. Now, what we want to do is try to uncover why this man and the priesthood of the order of Melchizedek is so important for understanding Jesus Christ.

Now, here's an interesting thing. Sometimes when you get into a subject in the Bible, you find the deeper you go, the more that unfolds. It's like opening a present and finding another present within it, and opening that and finding a present within that. That's sort of what we find when we study this man Melchizedek. I mentioned these three passages from the Bible where he's described. I want to give you a little bit of an idea of how this outline is going to go. I don't normally call attention to outlines because I'm not interested in people remembering my outline. I want them to remember the Bible. But I want you to pay attention, and it might help you to know that we're actually making progress as we move through it.

And here's the way it works. We've got these three passages. We've got Genesis, the Psalm, and then an awful lot in Hebrews. We're going to go one, two, three. Now, when we get to Hebrews, we're going to find that the treatment of Melchizedek in Hebrews has three points. And so we're going to go through those one at a time, one, two, three. And when we get to the third of those three points, we're going to find that it has three points. So it kind of unfolds before us.

So we go back, and the place we want to start is in Genesis. Abraham's nephew Lot was living in Sodom, and the time came when four kings of the east attacked the five city-states of the plain and were victorious, and they carried off Lot and his family and his possessions. And Abraham, because of his loyalty to a relative, marshaled all of the men that were at his command. There were 318 of them, and they went off and they attacked these powerful kings by night, won a victory, recovered the captives, and also brought back the spoil.

Now, on the way back, they were met by this man Melchizedek. We haven't been introduced to him before. He's just suddenly there in the 14th chapter of Genesis. And we're told that Melchizedek does three things. A couple of things: he comes out and he blesses Abraham, and then Abraham gives him a tithe of all the spoils of the battle.

Now, that incident is told in just three verses, and it goes like this: "Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, 'Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.'" And the last verse says, "Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything."

Now, one of the problems with that is that we have no idea who Melchizedek was. And if you do any careful Bible study at all, you know whenever we're not told anything, people do not hesitate to come up with solutions or explanations, generally in ignorance because, of course, even if they come up with an explanation, we don't know that that's right because the Bible doesn't tell us. At any rate, there have been a number of explanations.

A popular Jewish view, which incidentally was adopted by Martin Luther, is that Melchizedek was Shem, one of the sons of Noah. And the only reason for that that I can detect is that if you look at the years that are given to the patriarchs back there in the early chapters of Genesis, you'll discover that Shem lived 35 years longer than Abraham, so he at least overlapped him. But that's the only reason that I can see.

Some of the ancient commentators thought Melchizedek was an angel; Origen is one. Ambrose and some other modern commentators think that this was a pre-incarnate manifestation of Jesus Christ. Now, all of that is speculation. And you look at the text, there's no basis for coming to any of those conclusions. All we really can do is the sort of thing that John Calvin, who really had good judgment when it comes to handling the Bible, did. He said we don't know anything about him, but we know this: that alone in that land, there was an upright and sincere cultivator of the guardian of religion. And that's right because he's introduced as a man who knew God, the Most High God, and who came out and in the name of that God blessed Abraham.

Now, he's not Jesus Christ then. We can dismiss that. But although he's not Jesus Christ, he is an apt symbol or type of Jesus Christ, which is why he becomes important in the later passages. And if for no other reason, he becomes that because of his name. First of all, there is the name Melchizedek. That's composed of two Hebrew words: Melch means king and Zedek is righteousness. So Melchizedek means a king of righteousness. And that's an apt title for Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, according to 1 Corinthians 1:30, has become our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. If we're going to have righteousness, the kind that will please God and enable us to stand before God secure at the last day, the day of judgment, it has to be the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So the very name Melchizedek is aptly related to Christ.

And then also in that passage, we're told that he's the king of Salem. Now, Salem means peace. It's the same word as Shalom. And so here is one who was a king of righteousness and the king of peace. And that also aptly applies to Jesus Christ because he is our peace. He is the one who has made peace between sinful human beings, which is what we are, and a holy God. Apart from the work of Jesus Christ, we're at war with God and God's at war with us because he must judge sin. We don't stand in a right relationship with him. But Jesus Christ has made peace by the blood of his cross, as many passages in the New Testament say.

So we look at Genesis and we say we have here a figure about whom we know virtually nothing but who is obviously an apt symbol for Jesus Christ. Now, there's a great deal more than that because when we turn to the Psalm, we find that what the Psalm is focusing on is the priesthood of Melchizedek. And so the application is to Jesus Christ, who has also become for us a priest.

Now, that is striking. You have to remember the context. This Psalm is about the Messiah, and the opening verse has identified the Messiah as a king. He's one who is reigning with God on the throne of heaven and to whom God is going to give victory over his enemies. And now, having been told about this king who rules from heaven and who extends his dominion in the world through his people, described as a mighty army, the Church of God, we find in verse four that he is now a priest.

And the reason I say that is striking is that that was not true in Israel. Kings never were priests. Priests never were kings. They had something like a division of powers or a balance of powers in Israel, the same way we do in our American government. We divide up power between the executive, the legislative, and the judicial branch, and we give unique powers to each of those three branches of government. And furthermore, we do it in such a way that each one has controls over the other. And the reason is obvious: you can't trust people, even people that you elect to high office, even in a democratic society where you can vote them out. You can't really trust them. And so you have to have a balance of powers so people who have power in one area are a check on another.

You know Lord Acton's favorite dictum; everybody quotes that. He was talking about how power corrupts, and he said, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Well, that is true, and apparently they knew that in Israel as well. This was taken so seriously, not only by the Jews and the organization of their government, but by God, that we have an example of Uzziah, one of the kings who wanted to go into the holy place and offer sacrifices and offerings of incense. And the priest warned him not to do it, that they were not allowed to do it. He did it anyway with the hubris which is often connected with high office. And while they were standing there, leprosy broke out upon his forehead, and he had leprosy to the day of his death years later. So God took that very seriously.

Now, Jesus doesn't fit that category because Jesus is more than a mere man. If he were a mere man, we'd say, yeah, we need a check on Jesus because men let us down. You can't trust them. They're corrupt. And the more power you give them, the more corrupt they'll become. But Jesus is more than a man; he's the God-man. That's the way he was introduced at the beginning.

And remember now that he is the king of righteousness. So Jesus alone can be both a king and a priest. Now, I said that you didn't have an individual who was both a king and a priest in Israel, and that's true. But you go back to Genesis, we've just been looking at, and you find that that was what Melchizedek was. Melchizedek was king of Salem, and he was also a priest of the Most High God. Why? Well, he wasn't Jewish, perhaps, wasn't part of the theonomy of the Israeli state in those days. But the important thing is that he's a type of Christ. This is pointing forward to Jesus. So we have a symbol here in Melchizedek of what Jesus alone rightly could do.

Now, lest we think that that's unimportant and it doesn't get any attention anywhere else, we ought to remind ourselves that in Zechariah, using different language, there's a statement of exactly the same principle that concerns the Messiah who's to come. In the sixth chapter of Zechariah, the prophet is talking about the Messiah. He calls him the Branch. And he explains a very good reason why he's calling him the Branch. Here's the text. It's because he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord. So he's going to extend his force and power throughout the kingdom. It is he who will build the temple of the Lord. And he's talking about a spiritual kingdom here now. And he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two. So Zechariah also, you see, in different language is looking forward to the one who will be both king and priest.

Now, that brings us to the book of Hebrews, which, as I said earlier, contains the longest treatment of Melchizedek and this idea of the order of Melchizedek or the priesthood of Melchizedek in all the Bible. It's really an exposition, the definitive biblical exposition of the theme. Now, I use that word exposition intentionally. Exposition is to take a text and explain what's there, to teach the actual meaning of the text. And what I want to suggest is that's exactly what Hebrews does, and the text is our text, Psalm 110:4: "You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek," and the words that precede it: "The Lord has sworn and he will not change his mind."

What we have in Hebrews is an inspired New Testament handling of the three major ideas in that verse. First of all, that God established Jesus as a priest with an oath. And secondly, that he becomes a priest forever. And thirdly, that the priesthood that he exercises is not a priesthood according to the order of Aaron and the other Old Testament priests, but according to the order of Melchizedek.

Now, as you follow that through Hebrews, that's what you find. Melchizedek is mentioned for the first time in the fifth chapter in verse six, and then it comes back again in chapters six and seven, and then finally one long extended exposition of the idea in 8, 9, and 10. Now, briefly, let me take you through that.

Melchizedek is introduced in chapter six, and there's where Psalm 110:4 is mentioned for the first time in verse four and again in verse 10. And then, just when we are about to get an explanation of the text, the author of Hebrews breaks off, explaining that it's because this is a difficult subject and you're very slow to learn. He says that explicitly in verse 11. But he wants to teach it, and so after a digression, he eventually comes back. And when he gets back on track again, he begins to explain the importance of God's swearing to some truth.

You see, anything God says is true. We believe it simply because it comes from the mouth of God. But if God swears to it, swearing by himself because there's no greater by whom he can swear, it's obviously because he wants to assert it in the strongest possible language for our benefit. In other words, to say, this is something you can be absolutely sure of. So he says that's what God does here. Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what's said and it puts an end to all argument. So because God wanted to make the unchangeable nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that by two unchangeable things in which it's impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be encouraged.

Now, he gives two examples of that. He mentions Abraham there. God swore to Abraham that he was going to give him a posterity, and he did. And then secondly, he quotes our text again. God swore that Jesus would become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. Now, this was not true of all the Old Testament priests. They were not established by an oath. That isn't the way it happened. But Jesus was. And if this is meant to say that we can be certain in it, our equivalent of that teaching in our theological language would be what we talk about when we talk about the security of believers or the perseverance of the saints. It simply is this: that when God does a work for his people, he does it for good and we can be confident and rest in what he's done. Why is it? Well, the answer is because Jesus has made a perfect atonement. He has accomplished for us by his death everything that needs to be done. Nothing can possibly be added to that. And if nothing can be added to it, then we can rest in it and can be secure.

So he gives an exposition of the oath. Secondly, he gives an exposition of the word "forever." That's what he does in chapter seven. And here he makes a couple points. He calls attention to the fact that there's no genealogy of Melchizedek, this ancient king. Now, it doesn't mean that Melchizedek didn't have parents; presumably he did. But they're not listed here. And so the author of Hebrews sort of uses that as a way of saying that since he's a symbol of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ didn't have any beginning and he certainly doesn't have any end. He's an eternal being; he is God himself. And this is symbolized by the fact that Melchizedek didn't have a genealogy: "Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever," chapter 7, verse 3.

And then he makes the same point in an inverse way. Here he's saying that Jesus has an eternal priesthood. Now he turns to the priests of Israel and he says they didn't have an eternal priesthood. How do we know that? We know it because they died. And when they died, they were succeeded by another priest, who was succeeded by another priest. And says the author of Hebrews, that's meant to teach us that there was something incomplete, something that really wasn't accomplished by that Old Testament system of sacrifices. They were important; they pointed the way of salvation through Jesus Christ, who was to come. But they were not forever. They didn't accomplish what really had to be accomplished.

You get to the last verse of this chapter, and you find that the author combines the idea of God's oath with the idea of everlastingness or forever, saying, "For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak, but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made a priest forever."

Now, that brings us to the treatment of the order of Melchizedek itself. And this is what you find in chapters 8, 9, and 10. He's going to explain what that really means. And the point here is that the order of Melchizedek is a separate kind of priesthood, a distinct priesthood from that of the order of Aaron or the ironic priesthood. All of the priests that served in Israel were descendants of Aaron, who was a brother of Moses. That was part of the guild and in the family, and it passed on from generation to generation. But now Melchizedek wasn't part of that. He stands aside.

And what the author of Hebrews says is that Jesus is a priest, not according to the order of Aaron, which we've already seen was not eternal and had nothing to do with the oath of God and didn't guarantee any salvation, but rather he's a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. And we scratch our heads at that point and we say, now we're beginning to get it, we think, but we don't have it quite. Could you just explain a little bit now exactly what that means? And, of course, that's what he does. Because here in chapters 8, 9, and 10, he begins to unfold it in ways that now become exceedingly practical.

First of all, he says the priesthood of Jesus Christ according to the order of Melchizedek established a better covenant. A covenant is an agreement entered into between God and man. And there was an old covenant. And it was enacted at Sinai, and it went like this: "Here's my law; if you obey my law and follow after it and live righteously, I'll bless you." It was a perfectly good covenant. "You do my will, you obey my law, you'll be blessed." But the problem was the people couldn't do it.

And so they needed a new covenant that didn't depend upon their ability. And that's what the author of Hebrews says. As a matter of fact, he says you find it in the Old Testament, and he quotes from Jeremiah, the 31st chapter that most of us know well, which prophesies the coming of the new covenant that Jesus would bring. "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned from them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

Now, that's what the covenant brought by Jesus Christ did. It wasn't an external covenant. It wasn't a covenant that says if you do this you will live. It was a covenant that actually brought about a change in the heart. It's a covenant that makes us live spiritually by the work of God, as a result of which we live differently.

Now, secondly, not only did it bring in a better covenant, the work of Jesus Christ also provided a real atonement, an atonement for sin. That's what the sacrifices of Israel didn't do. They were useful in teaching the way of salvation, they pointed forward to the coming of Jesus Christ, but they didn't actually take away sin. And as a result of that, they didn't actually relieve the burdened conscience of the worshiper.

So it's entirely different in Jesus' case. Jesus actually did make atonement for sins, and he did it by dying himself, offering his own blood in our place, in the place of those who had broken God's law. And here's the way the author of Hebrews puts it, Hebrews 9, this is verse 12 and following: "Jesus did not enter the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle by means of the blood of goats and calves, but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption."

There's the word eternal again. "The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so they are outwardly clean. How much more then will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may actually serve the living God."

And then here's the third point. We actually are making our way through that outline. This is the third of the third of the third. The work of Jesus Christ was something that does not need to be repeated. This is what the order of Melchizedek does. Because Jesus made a true atonement for sins, when he completed his work, says our writer, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

And he makes the point that the priest in Israel never sat down. In the Tabernacle, there were no chairs. It was a way of symbolizing that the work was never done. People kept sinning, they needed atonement, sacrifices were made day in and day out, year after year, decade after decade, century after century. But Jesus Christ, when he had died, giving his life, pouring out his blood for our sins, was received up into heaven and took his place, seated at the right hand of God the Father.

Now, that exposition is difficult. I hope you've been able to follow the points. If you were making notes, it would help. Difficult but important. Very important because very practical. And the point at which the author of Hebrews ends is the one with which I began when we started today, and that is from the 10th chapter. "Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

Which leads me to ask, have you done it? That's the point of the passage. That's the point of the sermon. Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your own savior, and have you boldly come before God, not in your righteousness, but on the basis of his perfect atoning death on your behalf?

If not, that's what's offered to you. This is the day of grace. The Savior is there for sinners, for all who will have him. And the encouragement is to come and to come while there's opportunity. If you do not come, the author of Hebrews reminds you that there's nothing left for you. If you won't have Christ the Savior, he's the perfect savior, there's never going to be another one. If you won't have him, there's nothing left for you, he says, but to look forward to the day of God's fearful judgment. And he ends by saying it's a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Which, by the way, is where the Psalm ends. We've been talking about verse four because it's the key idea in the second half. But what it goes on to talk about is the judgment. You see, it's talking about Jesus Christ from beginning to end. The first verse talks about Jesus Christ as king. The next two verses talk about the extension of that kingdom through those who are his witnesses in the world. The fourth verse talks about his role as priest, and then finally, the very end, the last verses, talk about his role as judge. In other words, the Psalm moves, if we may say it, in this latter half, using New Testament terms from the book of Hebrews to the book of Revelation.

In these last verses, five through seven, we see God the Father and God the Son working together, and the work that they're engaged in is judgment. Here the army of verses two and three drops out. You and I are not participating in the judgment; we are witnesses, we are there to preach grace. So at the end time, the judgment comes. Remember now, Melchizedek is a king of peace, but here is the King of Peace who is actually waging a terrible war against sin.

And that's because this King of Peace is also the King of Righteousness. He's the God of righteousness, and the God of all the world must do right. And if you won't have a Savior, you will have judgment. The last verses say the same thing that Psalm 2 says, verse 9: "You will rule them with an iron scepter and you will dash them in pieces like pottery."

I leave you with a quotation from Alexander McLaren about the Psalm. "The choice for every person is this: being crushed beneath His foot or being exalted to sit with Him on His throne. He that overcometh, to him will I give to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father on His throne." And McLaren adds, "It's far better to sit with Jesus on His throne than to be made His footstool."

Let's pray. Our Father, we're thankful for this great, great Psalm that tells us so much about the person and work of our Savior, Jesus Christ. You promise to bless your word; you said that it will never return to you void, it will always accomplish what you please. We ask you to bless this Psalm and its exposition in accordance with that promise this day so that those who have not come to you through Christ, who do not have a priest who has made atonement for their sins, an eternal, a living, and effective priest, that they might come as a result of this exposition to trust him and so stand before you one day clothed in his righteousness and be able to praise you as the God of all grace. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Announcer: You have been listening to The Bible Study Hour, a production of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals exists to promote a biblical understanding and worldview. Drawing upon the insight and wisdom of Reformation theologians from decades, even centuries gone by, we seek to provide contemporary Christian teaching that will equip believers to understand and meet the challenges and opportunities of our time and place.

The Alliance ministry includes The Bible Study Hour featuring Dr. James Boice, Every Last Word with Bible teacher Dr. Philip Ryken, and Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible featuring Donald Grey Barnhouse. For more information on the Alliance, including a full list of radio stations carrying our programs or to make a contribution, please contact us by calling toll-free 1-800-488-1888. Again, that's 1-800-488-1888.

You can also write the Alliance at Box 2000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19103. Or you can visit us online at www.alliancenet.org. Ask for your free resource catalog featuring books, audio teaching, commentaries, booklets, videos, and a wealth of other materials from outstanding reformed teachers and theologians, including Donald Barnhouse, James Boice, and Philip Ryken. Thank you again for your continued support.