The Lord Gives Dominion to the King.
A Psalm of David.
110 The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
2 The Lord will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying,
“Rule in the midst of Your enemies.”
3 Your people [a]will volunteer freely in the day of Your [b]power;
In [c]holy array, from the womb of the dawn,
[d]Your youth are to You as the dew.4 The Lord has sworn and will not [e]change His mind,
“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”
5 The Lord is at Your right hand;
He [f]will shatter kings in the day of His wrath.
6 He will judge among the nations,
He [g]will fill them with corpses,
He [h]will shatter the [i]chief men over a broad country.
7 He will drink from the brook by the wayside;
Therefore He will lift up His head.
The heading to this psalm is almost misleading. Yes, it talks about a ruler being given dominion, and since it is a psalm of David, and David was the king… Yet much of this is a display of the dominion of God, and then there’s one bit that doesn’t really fit with it talking about David. In v. 4, it says, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
David never presumed to be a priest, even though he did eat of the priestly bread once when he was in urgent need. Even further, we see other kings (like Saul) being condemned for usurping the role of priest. No, David was not a priest, and never would be. He required a priest of the bloodline of Aaron to make sacrifices for Him, and to consult with God.
As I think most would admit, this psalm is somewhat prophetic in nature, and spoke of Jesus, who was also of the royal line, become a priest of the order of Melchizedek. That is, he was a priest because God made him so, not because of his blood line and ancestry. Even more than that, when Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of all humanity, something changed.
When Jesus died, the veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was torn in two (top to bottom, by the hand of God himself). And as the writer of Hebrews says, we are now invited to boldly approach the throne of God. That is something David only dreamed of, and yet there was a glimpse of that future in this psalm.
Like David, we do not have ultimate dominion, no more than God himself has handed down. But we do have the amazing privilege of going directly to God anytime, anywhere, without the help of an earthly priest. Now certainly, if you’re of a church that has a priest available, or of any other denomination, let them join with you in prayer. We encourage folks every Sunday to join with others as they take their needs to God.
However, don’t feel like you have to wait for that, take your needs, your concerns, your worries and your cares, take them to God. Never take that incredible privilege for granted, and also never forget it either. God wants to hear from you, wants to talk with you, and wants to guide you and walk with you every step of every day. Invite Him to join you all along life’s journey, and walk beside Him every step.