[0:00] I think this is our fifth message in this series. We started off with David's relationship with God and how unique and special that was.
[0:10] and then David's life and relationship with King Saul. And we went on to Goliath in the battle against evil in Goliath. And then Jonathan was last week.
[0:23] And so this week, kind of moving chronologically, today we're talking about David the king. David the king. And I hope this has been a beneficial series to you.
[0:36] I love historical narrative and stories. So this is always fun for me, the privilege to preach on stuff like this. But as a whole, though, like when you're trying to cover a lot of different chapters, you're trying to choose out selections of the book to actually go over.
[0:54] And that is kind of hard and daunting sometimes. And so I hope that the sections that I pick are beneficial because we're covering a lot of ground. That's what we do when we do series versus a first by verse exposition of a book.
[1:07] But by way of just introduction, last week we ended with the death of King Saul and his son Jonathan by the hand of the Philistines.
[1:19] And after this happened, the tribe of Judah, David's tribe, I guess you could say seceded and sort of anointed David as their king.
[1:29] That's in chapter 2 in 2 Samuel. We'll be in 2 Samuel today. And after all, David was the one that the prophet and judge Samuel anointed.
[1:40] So they made him the king. However, as history would have it, the house of Israel had a surviving son of Saul, Ish-bosheth. And he was made king over the rest of the nation, Israel.
[1:54] They made him the king. He made the bid for to be the king. So what happens is a nasty civil war breaks out between the surviving son of Saul, the house of Saul, versus the house of David.
[2:07] And you see some nasty battles through here. The Battle of Gibbon where Joab and Abner meet. And it's a nasty battle resulting in David and his men being victorious in Joab.
[2:21] You see the appearance of Joab here. And so what happens later is there's friction between Ish-bosheth and Abner, his commander. And after that, Abner goes to David and he says, hey, let's just resolve all this peacefully.
[2:37] I think that God has made you the king. Let's resolve all things peacefully. But it caused a problem. And Joab does not share that hope. He actually seeks revenge on Abner for the killing of his brother.
[2:50] So Joab has Abner brought to him. This is the commander of the two armies, David's army and Ish-bosheth's army. And Joab actually kills him.
[3:02] This is in chapter 3, verse 22 through 39. But the writer goes way out of his way, probably Samuel that wrote this, goes out of his way to make sure that we understand that David was innocent of this blood.
[3:15] And he actually harshly rebukes Joab for such treatment. Shortly after Abner's death, though, Ish-bosheth seems to give up hope that he will ever be king.
[3:26] And two of his remaining captains sinfully scheme to assassinate the deposed king, the remaining son of Saul. So they actually cut off his head, take it to David, hoping that David will be pleased, hoping that David will give them a reward.
[3:45] Very much to the contrary, David is not happy with their move. He's not amused at all by this treacherous gesture. And instead of giving a reward, he is furious that one of Saul's sons has been so mistreated by his own men.
[4:02] And in such a dishonorable, despicable way, no one of royalty deserves to be treated this way, this treacherous act. And so he has the two killers executed and their hands and feet cut off.
[4:14] So, bad idea. So that was the civil war. So after this, we see that the nation comes together and they anoint David as the king.
[4:25] So this will be our first text today. If you look over at 2 Samuel, chapter 5, we'll look at verses 1 through 5.
[4:35] But this gets us to point 1. We have, I think, four points today. But point 1 in our story is the king is anointed over a united Israel.
[4:48] The king is anointed over a united Israel. Chapter 5, verse 1, it says, Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, Behold, we are your bone and your flesh.
[5:01] In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. And the Lord said to you, You shall be a shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be a prince over Israel.
[5:15] So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron. And King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord. And they anointed David king over Israel.
[5:27] David was 30 years old when he began to reign. And he reigned for 40 years. At Hebron, he reigned over Judah seven years and six months. And at Jerusalem, he reigned over all Israel and Judah 33 years.
[5:42] So that's one of our key texts we'll look at. But we see here the anointed king, the fulfillment of God's promise. Israel and Judah come together, and they make David their undoubted king.
[5:57] With no candidate left from the house of Saul, David is actually able to bring them under his own rule. They unite under the anointed hero, David, as their king.
[6:08] So sadly, on many occasions, the Israelites would shed blood of fellow Israelites. But again, the writer of 2 Samuel goes out of his way to say that David was innocent in all these things.
[6:21] And God actually says in Psalm 89, verse 20, David says, I have found David my servant. With my holy oil I have anointed him, so that my hand shall be established with him.
[6:37] My arm also shall strengthen him. It's just a reminder here by this psalm that why did David love God so much, and why was David anointed king?
[6:50] Because God loved David so much out of his grace. He chose to make him the king out of his grace. David loved him because he first loved David. So he brings all the tribes together and unites them.
[7:03] There's this picture in 1 Chronicles, chapter 12, where you can see a bigger picture of this if you'd like to read more. But it mentions that all the men of war from each tribe came at this coronation, at this anointing.
[7:18] It says in 1 Chronicles 12, 38, all these men of war, a raid and battle order, came to Hebron with a whole heart to make David king over all Israel.
[7:30] Likewise, all the rest of Israel were of a single mind to make David the king. And so this is a huge deal, uniting all the tribes of Israel, all the sons of Jacob together.
[7:43] And so, furthermore, right after this, we see that David makes an unprecedented move. He chooses to make Jerusalem the capital, I guess you could say, of the nation, the center of the political and spiritual life of the nation.
[8:01] This had never happened before. They've been sort of a loose confederation of tribes. So, in a desire to further bring them together as one nation, he sets his eye on the Jebusite city of Jerusalem.
[8:14] And that's who's occupying it, but no problem. David and some of his elite soldiers climb up the watershed, which I understand is still there today. You can see this, where he and his men climbed in and got into the city.
[8:28] And they took the city. They conquered the Jebusites. It actually says in chapter 5, just a selection for you, verse 9, David lived in the stronghold and called it the city of David.
[8:40] And David became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him. Verse 12, And David knew that the Lord had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.
[8:57] And so he made Jerusalem the capital. He renamed it the city of David. It served as the capital for a united Israel. He builds his palace there. He has kingship over them.
[9:09] And this is a big deal, because Jerusalem was sort of on the boundary between the tribal land of Judah and Benjamin. It better suited symbolically and geographically to actually be the capital, as opposed to Hebron, which is in the middle of Judah.
[9:25] So sort of as a uniting thing, he puts it right on the boundary of these two powerful tribes. And so going on from there, we see in this same chapter, next chapter, sorry, that David longs to bring the ark of God to Jerusalem, his new city.
[9:45] And so we see that instead of transporting the ark in accordance with the Levitical law, which said that only priests could carry the ark and carry it on poles, for some reason they grabbed a cart and tried to pull it and bring it into the city on a cart.
[10:03] And as we know, that's just a bad idea. It sort of leans over and Uzziah, wishing to steady it, reaches out and touches it. And the Lord kills him on the spot for touching the ark.
[10:15] So that may cause us to recoil today. But it's a reminder of God's burning holiness, His purity, that He cannot tolerate sin.
[10:28] No one can approach His holy presence. This is what the ark was, symbolic of God's presence. And we can't handle it in a pragmatic way. So we see here that pragmatism kills when it comes to God's truth.
[10:45] They thought this would just be an easy way to move the ark. And it didn't turn out that's what God desired. And so when this happens, at this death of this man who tried to touch the ark, David says David is greatly afraid.
[10:59] And that he senses unworthiness to bring the ark to Jerusalem. So it temporarily remains that Obed-Edom, who was a worshiper of God, to stay with him for three months.
[11:10] But then later, David came to retrieve it again. And this time, he did it in accordance with the Levitical law. The priest carried it on the poles. And he was able to bring it into Jerusalem and David's city with great praise, worship, celebration, prayer, music.
[11:29] That was like the order of the day. It was a big deal. So as the ark of God entered David's city, you see him dancing before the Lord with all his might in the linen ephod.
[11:42] And did not amuse his wife. She thought it was sort of undignified and attacked him. And sort of he came back with like, hey, I'll become even more undignified for the sake of the Lord, if that's what it is.
[11:57] And so that dancing expresses this part of jubilant worship before God. We haven't created a dancing area in our room yet.
[12:07] Maybe we'll go downstairs. I don't know what to do. But in Scripture, it's a clear way to portray jubilant worship before God. And so later, though, if you look at chapter 6, verses 17 and 18, we see something very, very interesting.
[12:22] David portrays himself as a priest-like king, making burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to God.
[12:34] And like a priest, he blesses the people. He hands out the cakes to them, the date cakes and raisin cakes. And such actions of David kind of harken back to Melchizedek in Genesis, another important priestly king who reigned in Salem, which, ironically enough, is where he's at now, Jerusalem.
[12:55] So he portrays this priest-like king in his actions, David does. So he unites under all Israel. He brings it all together.
[13:06] And that's point number one. Point number two, we see after this, in chapter 8, that David conquests all the evil nations that are around him.
[13:18] So point number two, the king vanquishes his enemies. The king vanquishes his enemies. I'm just reading some selections now, but we're going to camp out on two particular passages soon.
[13:32] The king vanquishes his enemies. This is all in chapter 8. But just some selections. It said that David defeated the Philistines and subdued them. He defeated Moab.
[13:43] David defeated the king of Zobah. He also restored his power over the river Euphrates. David struck down 22,000 men of the Syrians.
[13:57] And the Lord gave victory to David wherever he went. In verse 13, David made a name for himself. He put garrisons in Edom.
[14:08] Throughout Edom, he put garrisons. And they became David's servants. And then it ends with this. It says, And the Lord gave victory to David wherever he went.
[14:19] So this is a big deal. This section outlines the fact that David expanded the kingdom in all directions. North, south, east, and west.
[14:30] And as his military might grew with each passing day, he defeated all of Israel's major enemies. He defeated them and subdued them. Including the Philistines which had murdered and killed Saul and Jonathan.
[14:44] And the other ones made peaceful alliances with him, paid tribute to him, and kind of backed down. David wrote Psalm 108 as a celebration of his victories against the pagan enemies.
[15:00] These military victories granted David it was a broadcast to all the nations around them of God's covenant love. That's what these victories did. It showed that there was a God in Israel to the Philistines, the Moabites, and the Edomites.
[15:17] In Psalm 108 verse 13 David wrote, With God we shall do valiantly. It is he who will tread down our foes. So huge.
[15:28] This is significant. Here's why. If you look at a map of David's established kingdom, it very closely resembles the land that David, or excuse me, that God had granted Abraham.
[15:40] So we read in Genesis 15, 18, On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your offspring I will give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.
[15:57] And so, in fulfillment of this, with God's great enabling, David was able to drive out the pagan enemies, the blood-drinking, child-sacrificing, idol-worshippers.
[16:10] And he restored the land that was promised to Abraham. The kingdom, I think, expanded from nearly 6,000 square miles to 60,000 square miles.
[16:21] This is not just David winning battles. This is God keeping his word and showing that he is faithful and true. David was just his instrument to uphold his covenant love.
[16:34] So, huge deal. The king vanquishes his enemies. Alright, and nextly, we're going to get into a text and kind of camp out for a minute, but thirdly, the king's covenant with God.
[16:49] the king's covenant with God. Alright, we see this in chapter 7. Alright, but here, we see what is referred to as one of the most important covenants in the scripture.
[17:03] Like, if you want to know God's word and understand what God is doing in redemptive history, you must understand what is called, referred to as the Davidic covenant.
[17:16] Even though the word covenant doesn't appear in this, it is a covenant. In Psalm 89, 3 and 4, God said, I made a covenant with my chosen one.
[17:28] I have sworn to David, my servant. I will establish your offspring forever and build your throne for all generations. And so, this is a messianic promise.
[17:41] It's a key passage in the history of salvation. And David receives this promise from God. When he does that, it sums up all the covenantal promises that God had made beforehand, focusing them in on David and his descendants.
[17:59] So, it's like, hey, all these things that have happened before, now look at this. He's zooming in on David and his descendants. And so, what ends up happening in chapter 7, in verse 1 and 3, is that you see that after David brings the ark to Jerusalem, he begins to genuinely feel bad about something.
[18:22] He's like, I live in a nice house, but the ark of God, the very symbol of his holy presence, is just sitting in a measly tent.
[18:33] You see where he's going with this? Like, I live in a nice place. The ark, as awesome as it is, as great as it is, is just in a tent. So, an idea came to him to build a permanent structure, a permanent dwelling for the ark and all the sacred furniture.
[18:51] So, upon first hearing this plan, the first time he heard it, the prophet Nathan approves, and he basically says, go and do this all in your mind. That's fine. Like, go for it, for the Lord is clearly with you.
[19:03] Go for it. But then, later that day, God speaks out, to the prophet Nathan, and he's basically saying, no, not my plan.
[19:17] I've appointed David to be the king. He is a man of war. His heart is on the battlefield subduing enemies. I haven't made David to be an architect or a builder.
[19:29] He is not to build me a temple. And, we learn later on in 1 Chronicles 22, 8, that David says, the Lord said he cannot build this temple because you have shed much blood and have waged great wars.
[19:48] You shall not build a house to my name, God says, because you have shed so much blood before me on the earth. And so, God says no. So, we see here that, like, don't kind of get ahead of God.
[20:02] Right? They got ahead of their skis a little bit there. They were assuming that it would be okay if David did this. Then God said no. This is not his role. This is not what he's doing.
[20:12] But, quickly, it's sort of this idea that if you ever had a really good desire, a holy desire to do something for God and his glory, only to have him deny you that desire, and then on the other hand, actually see that exact same thing you were thinking about fulfilled in somebody else.
[20:34] Carried out by another person. How do you respond to God in such times? However, within this refusal, God offers a great affirmation and great blessing to David.
[20:49] So, instead of David building God a house, God, in his grace, promises to build David a house. It's amazing. And, we see God speaking through the prophet Nathan.
[21:04] He says to David, look at verse 11 in chapter 7, maybe a little halfway through 11. Alright? This is what it says. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.
[21:19] When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom.
[21:31] He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father and he shall be a son, to me a son.
[21:43] When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men. But, my steadfast love will not depart from him as I took it from Saul whom I put away before you.
[21:59] and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. We have to get this in our heads.
[22:14] Alright? This is what it's referred to as the Davidic Covenant. So, by his grace and his initiative, God tells David that he will establish his line forever.
[22:25] His dynasty will rule eternally with an eternal throne. That he will raise up a son from David's line who will have an eternal kingdom.
[22:37] And that that person would build the Lord's house. And the Lord fulfills this typologically through David's son Solomon, right? Who reigns over Israel and builds a temple.
[22:50] But, however, that promise is not ultimately fulfilled by Solomon for a lot of reasons. One, Solomon did not reign eternally. He was not sinless and he died.
[23:03] So, clearly, this is pointing forward to our Lord Jesus, the true son of David, mentioned in Matthew 1, verse 1.
[23:14] This is pointing forward, prefiguring. Jesus will build God's true spiritual temple, as it says in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 5.
[23:24] But next, God promises in verse 14, if you just keep your eye on the text, he says, I will be a father to him, a father to that Davidic king, and he will be, as to God, a son.
[23:38] Right? That's what it says. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. So, as Israel's representative, the descendants of David are to live in covenant relationship with God.
[23:50] God, the Lord reassures David that his throne will be his forever. And at this time, in this text, he also promises, at the same time, to discipline the Davidic king when he sins, correcting him as a father would correct a son.
[24:08] We know that to be the case. You read the history of the kings of Israel and David's descendants. When they sin, God disciplined them with a rod of iron, with the nations that were around them.
[24:19] And so, that's interesting, right, that God disciplined all these other kings. And once again, we see a near and far fulfillment. God did discipline Solomon as the king for his sin and rebellion.
[24:33] But Jesus, however, is punished not for his own sin, but for the sins of others, including David, and including all the other Davidic kings, all his descendants.
[24:46] So, as the Messiah, Jesus inherits David's role as a representative of God's people. He is the true son of God.
[24:57] He is the one who rules on the throne of David for all time. Just to read you this quickly, remember, early in the gospel of Luke, Gabriel appears to Mary, and he says to her, make the connections, behold, behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
[25:22] Here it is, he will be great and will be called the son of the most high, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.
[25:36] In his kingdom, there will be no end. So we see this wonderful connection in the earlier, before Jesus was ever born, hey, yeah, he's the fulfillment, he's the one, he's the promised king.
[25:51] It says before any shadow of the doubt that the Bible teaches that this promise is pointing forward to king Jesus. So as the son of David and the Lord of David, Jesus now reigns in heaven.
[26:07] 1 Corinthians 15, 25, over the true spiritual house of Israel. So after this promise is made, after God says to him, I'm going to establish your line forever, and from you will come one who will rule on the throne for all time.
[26:26] David, in the next few verses, offers this great prayer of gratitude to God flowing from his heart. David uses the phrase, O Lord God, eight times in this text.
[26:39] expressing his deep love, reverence, intimacy with God. Then he prays, this is instruction for mankind in verse 19. That means basically that all people can learn about God's covenant faithfulness by looking at God's relationship with David.
[26:57] And it could be translated, is this your custom with mankind? basically saying you don't usually do this kind of thing with humans is what David is saying.
[27:10] This is abnormal and I recognize it because this is grace. And he says there is no one like you and there is no God besides you in verse 22. So I hope that are you allowing God to teach you during these times through his gracious dealings with David?
[27:31] Has he given you eyes to see his covenant love and blessing in your life through the eternal king? And that leads us to our last point and that is Christ the perfect eternal king.
[27:50] Christ the perfect eternal king. We're going to look into the Psalms to explore this part of it. But as we know David the king is only a prefigure a foreshadowing of our great king of kings.
[28:07] So in our story today there is a king behind the king. Today kings are mostly marginalized meaningless especially to Americans some of our earlier American revolution flags say things like we serve no sovereign here.
[28:24] But there remains in kingship an enduring significance that's inescapable to us. Something that's burned deeply into our souls that's telling us that the world will only prosper and have peace when the perfect king comes to reign.
[28:44] Where no good and righteous king reigns, evil reigns. This is why it's so important for us to introduce to our kids the writings of Tolkien, the writings of C.S.
[28:55] Lewis, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings. Get them into that because there's such kingly imagery that weren't this foreign to us. Peter Kreef wrote, which I've read this a long time ago, you might not remember, but though we do not have kings in America or want them, our unconscious mind both has them and wants them.
[29:19] We all know what a true king is, a real king, an ideal king. He is not a mere politician or soldier. Something in us longs to give him our loyalty and fealty and service and obedience.
[29:35] He is lost but longed for and will someday return like Arthur. So we have democracy but we really need a king.
[29:47] We just haven't found anybody in this world or in history that's actually worthy to wear that kind of throne. But there's a reason for the old myths, the old tales of kings. The reason we adore them and create them is because there is a memory trace in the human race, in you and me of a great king, the ancient king, who did rule with such power and wisdom and compassion and justice and whose glory shined like the sun.
[30:17] So looking at a few things here, just some connections to David and we're going to wrap it up and you go ahead and turn in your Bible to Psalm 110. Christ unites all the people of God.
[30:30] This is David, united Judah and Israel under one single rule fulfilling God's promise. there was later division that reappeared after Solomon and Rehoboam and his successors.
[30:44] Strife broke out again in the nation. So that points forward for the need for true unity among God's people. So just as David brought together the nation, God accomplishes a greater lasting unity of his people under his true anointed king.
[31:02] Christ brings together all peoples from all nations, all tribes, all tongues under a single everlasting kingdom. We know that it says in Galatians 3, there's neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female.
[31:20] You are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. So all the chaos and division that you see in the world, and even chaos and division in the church, does that vex you?
[31:39] Does it bother you? Does it encourage you to know that God will bring perfect unity through the reigning of the true king? So God unites his people under Christ.
[31:53] Also, Christ brings us near to God. As we read, we saw the death of a man who tried to reach out and touch the ark, violating the holiness of God's presence.
[32:06] God's holiness destroys sinners. It destroys people like you and I. He is too pure to look upon my sin and your sin. We cannot approach him unauthorized.
[32:19] Yet, we know there is God's presence alone that gives us life and gives us blessing. So what do we do? There's a problem. We need God's presence, but we can't enter. This tension is resolved only when the way to approach God is opened through Christ and his work of purification on our behalf.
[32:39] We all know the text in Hebrews 10, 19 through 22, you can write that down. It talks about how we can enter the holy places by the blood of Christ, the way that he has opened for us to go into God's presence, making us clean by his blood.
[32:57] That's Hebrews 10, 19 through 22. So if you're frightened by your own sin, as I am, you're afraid that your own sin would destroy you, that you would be utterly consumed by the holiness and righteousness of God's presence, as it encourages you that you can draw near in Jesus and through Jesus alone into his presence, bringing you life and blessing.
[33:26] Christ also subdues his enemies. As we read, David is the model warrior king that subdues all the enemies of God, bringing justice, prefiguring the work of Christ the king.
[33:41] You can just write this down for the sake of time. Verse Corinthians 15, 24 through 26, it talks about how Christ will come, he will destroy every rule and every authority and power.
[33:55] And his reign will end when he puts his enemies underneath his feet. And this brings us to this psalm, Psalm 110.
[34:07] It's just seven verses. But listen, this whole thing could be a sermon by itself. Psalm 110 is one of the most overlooked, underrated psalms in the entire scripture.
[34:24] It is quoted no less than 27 times by the New Testament writers. And men like John MacArthur, John Piper, they all say this is a huge psalm and the story of redemption.
[34:38] And everything I just referred to, Christ uniting the people, Christ bringing us near to God, Christ subduing his enemies, bringing us all together, is all mentioned in this psalm.
[34:49] right? That he establishes his everlasting city in the same way that David established the city. So let's look at Psalm 110 briefly. It says, this is David writing, he says, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
[35:07] 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.
[35:23] 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 Melchizedek. The Lord is at your right hand.
[35:36] 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 world.
[35:48] He will drink from the brook by the way. Therefore, he will lift up his head. So very quickly, let's walk through this. We know that David is not talking about himself, ultimately.
[36:02] He was never exalted to God's right hand, and he actually died. He saw corruption. So, who is this talking about? It's pointing forward a prophecy of the messianic king, Jesus, to come.
[36:15] Let's just look at verse 1. The Lord says to my Lord, that's the sacred name of God, Yahweh, with another Hebrew word. It says, Yahweh said to my Adonai, or God himself said to my sovereign one, sit at my right hand.
[36:34] So this is a conversation between the Godhead, between the Father and the Son, namely between God himself and the one he will appoint, which is actually David's Lord.
[36:47] So you could be paraphrased as Yahweh said to David's Adonai. sit at my right hand. The right hand is a place of power, authority, and exaltation, and honor.
[37:03] Also, the right hand is a place of subordination, the Son underneath the Father's authority. So this is a conversation between the Father and the Son.
[37:15] Yet, even the Son is subordinate, God has granted him the seat of cosmic authority. We see that in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3. It says, after making purifications for sin, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
[37:31] You see in the next part, next verse, until you make your enemies your footstool. An ancient figure of speech denoting how a hostile, resistant enemy is finally brought low, finally conquered, and humbled, forced to surrender.
[37:51] He submits to the conqueror. That's what we see here. In verse 2, it says that our Lord Jesus sends forth from Zion his mighty scepter.
[38:03] Rule in the midst of your enemies. Christ will come back, not as a baby meek and mild, but as a conquering king who will crush and destroy all who have resisted him and rejected his peace terms.
[38:21] In verse 5 and 6, when we see that the Messiah returns, he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath and chiefs over the wide earth. So all those who oppose God, who oppose his Messiah, all the kings and nations of the world who reject Christ, he will shatter them.
[38:42] They will be brought to judgment. He will judge all enemies, both visible and invisible. But yet, we see the contrast in verse 3.
[38:53] It says that many on the earth who love Christ, belong to Christ, who are born again, who love the gospel, they will offer themselves freely on the day of his power.
[39:05] When the church, the bride of Christ that he bought with his own blood, freely offered themselves in joy, inexpressible, because they have been made clean and pure by the blood of that Messiah.
[39:19] Verse 4, The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Our God remains unchanging.
[39:29] He is committed to this saving purpose. Nothing is going to change that. Nothing can stop him from bringing about his redemptive purpose in sending this true king. king. Yet, we also see that we won't only have a king, we will have a kingly priest, an eternal priest, representing us before God and giving us access to his holy presence, drawing us near to God's presence.
[39:58] And finally, in verse 7, you see that Christ, check out verse 7, Christ will drink from the brook by the way, and therefore he will lift up his head.
[40:10] So this is an ancient image of military prowess. He stops to refresh himself by a cool stream of water.
[40:21] It's a picture of having satisfaction with a mission accomplished, yet a full and final goal to come. And that is what Jesus is doing. He is conquering.
[40:33] God's purpose prevails. In closing, I'm going to read a quote by Calvin that's his commentary on Psalm 110. And I hope that this is encouraging to you and you're putting your faith in the true king, especially if you are fearful.
[40:53] From this psalm, he says, from this, let us learn that however numerous those enemies may be who conspire against the Son of God and attempt the subversion of his kingdom, all will be unavailing.
[41:09] For they shall never prevail against God's immutable purpose, but on the contrary, they shall, by the greatness of his power, be laid prostrate at Christ's feet.
[41:22] However much the world may rage against Christ, it will never be able to hurl him from the right hand of the Father. Moreover, as he does not reign on his own account, but for our salvation, we may rest assured that we will be protected and preserved from all ills under the guardianship of this invincible king.
[41:49] This commentary on Psalm 10. So we were built, we were made to submit to that king, to stand before him, adore him, serve him, and know him and be ruled by him.
[42:02] The Bible says that there is a king that is above all the kings of the earth. He is a king behind all the legends and tales. And when the rightful king reigns, peace and prosperity will return to the world.
[42:18] He is the king of kings, the Lord of lords, the true son of David, the true son of God. He is a come, follow him, worship him. Many of us have made the son of David our king, submitting to his lordship as our savior.
[42:37] And if you haven't yet, come and kneel before this king, kneel before the cross, and be saved. Just join me in a word of prayer.