Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to Dishman Baptist Church.

It is a blessing and a privilege to have all of you with us.

We’re coming to the end of our short summer foray into the Messianic Psalms - and I don’t know about you but this has been a fun, convicting and incredible series for me to study for and to preach.

It has been a challenge as the Psalms are not always easy passages to preach - Dr. Steve Lawson has said that an average preacher becomes a good preacher and a good preacher becomes a great preacher by simply preaching the Psalms.

I’m not sure exactly where I fall out on that scale but this has been a period of growth for me and I have enjoyed these few weeks as we’ve explored the Psalms and how they relate, glorify and point to the coming of the Messiah in the person of Jesus Christ.

We started off looking at Psalm 2 and seeing the Son enthroned.

Then we came to Psalm 8 and saw our magnificent Lord.

Our hearts broke as we looked at the foretelling of the crucifixion described in Psalm 22.

We saw the beautiful promise of the marriage supper of the Lamb contained in Psalm 45.

And last week we saw the promise of God’s faithfulness and how it can endure even during our darkest days when He seems to be far from us.

Each week as we approached the Psalm I almost had to start off with a disclaimer, a warning, both to you as listeners and to myself as an expositor that we must be careful to see each of these Psalms in the original context that it was meant and not simply to read it backwards through the lens of the New Testament and our understanding of the fulfillment of much that is spoken of in each of those passages.

Each of them were written for a specific reason at the moment of the writing and even though there was greater significance at the moment each was penned that significance was not readily apparent.

And so we have carefully attempted to set each Psalm in the context in which it was written and then explore how it had a greater application to the person of Christ and pointing to Him as the promised Messiah.

This morning’s Psalm does not put us in that same position.

It has been an interesting week as I prepared for this sermon and looked through commentaries on this passage.

One that I looked at said that this Psalm has no necessity of being interpreted messianically and that even the verses that are applied to Christ in the New Testament were understood this way that as a whole this Psalm does not fit Him.

If I had stopped right there we would be having a very different sermon today - but something about that struck me as odd.

Now why do I bring that up?

It is to encourage you to be aware of who and what you are reading or listening to.

When something sounds strange or not right to your ears no matter who it is that wrote it or says it don’t stop there and just accept what is placed before you.

Push on and really investigate what has been said to see if it is true - that is a great path to spiritual maturity and really appropriating the Biblical truths for yourself.

That’s just a little bonus this morning but on to what we’re really here to talk about.

The Psalm we’re going to look at this morning is the single most quoted passage in the New Testament from the entire Old Testament.

Your would think that it might be the 23rd Psalm or Psalm 119.

But it is not.

Just the first verse of this Psalm is referred to over 27 times in the New Testament.

The great 18th Century Pastor and Commentary writer Matthew Henry said “This Psalm is pure gospel; it is only, and wholly, concerning Christ, the Messiah promised to the fathers and expected by them.”

In his exposition of this Psalm, James Montgomery Boice said this “It alone is about the Messiah and His work exclusively, without any primary reference to an earthly king.”

Turn with me to this great passage Psalm 110.

It is very fitting that we look at this Psalm on a Communion Sunday.

In fact - just in reading it - if this weren’t a Sunday that we were taking Communion we should demand to partake.

But first let’s look at what this Psalm means for us today.

The Psalm is going to enable us to be observers to two great cataclysmic events.

The first is Christ’s arrival in Heaven following His ascension and the second is related to His return a second time.

Christ Exalted

This is the declaration of the Lord.

This is not some quiet pronouncement but instead the calm, sure and grand welcome of a victorious prince.

If this were a scene from The Lord of the Rings this is where the hero would push open the doors of the castle returning victorious from the field.

Instead we have this, the declaration of our Lord to my Lord to sit down at My right hand.

This is a moment of greeting in Heaven - Christ having accomplished all that had been set before Him is met by God the Father and ushered to His place of honor.

The right hand of a sovereign was the place of honor in the ancient Near East.

This statement is from the Lord - Yahweh - to my Lord Adonai a ruler or regent.

It is the pronouncement of God the Father to the Son.

If this were a mere dinner thrown by the regent then a seat at the right hand of the host would have been the highest honor that could be bestowed.

But here it is at the right hand of the King - this is a place that signifies sharing in the rule.

This is more than merely an honor but to be co-equal with the King in His sovereign rule over His Kingdom.

You see there is no one else this Psalm could be about except Christ.

Let’s back up a moment to the attribution of the Psalm.

It says that it is a Psalm of David.

This is significant for a few reasons.

The first is the verbiage that is used in verse 1 tells us that the two individuals being referred to when it says The Lord to my Lord are both of higher station than the speaker or writer of the Psalm.

The first Lord is in all caps in most of your translations and it signifies the name Yahweh or Jehovah - the holy name of the most high God.

And then the second name, the second reference to Lord is the word Adonai or Adon and it carries with it the meaning of lord or master.

The author of this Psalm is affirming that both the Lord God and this Lord Adonai are higher in station than himself.

Now this could still point to the Psalm being about David if some sycophant was seeking to ingratiate himself to David and to place him at the right hand of God as ruler over Israel.

Or it could point to a human descendent of David if penned by a later writer.

The Davidic Covenant promised that a man from the line of David would rule

But this Psalm is attributed to David both here in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

Following His triumphant entry into Jerusalem Christ challenges the Pharisees with a question

Two points are important for our study of this Psalm.

The first is that Christ affirms that David authored these words and that the words were to be applied to the Messiah.

The second is that, in case there were still those who would protest, that the words were not David’s alone but instead were inspired by the Spirit.

This speaks to the likelihood and now affirmed fact that as David penned these words he was speaking not of a current iteration of an earthly king but instead pointing towards the ultimate fulfillment of the Messianic promise.

In fact there is only one person in all of history that this Psalm could possibly point to - Christ.

Why?

Because there is only one person who can boast of not one but two qualifications that could place Him at the Father’s right hand.

The first is the fact that Christ is in truth God eternal from times past.

He, as His Father does, has no beginning or end, no birthday, no creator - He just was, is and always will be.

As we studied in the book of Colossians there is not one thing that was made that was not made through or for Him.

He was in the beginning with God as John writes in His Gospel

And John affirms here that Christ is in fact God - not that He is a god, but that He is God.

So of course by right of His Sonship He is the only one worthy of the seat at the right hand of God.

Later in John’s Gospel Christ Himself affirms His divinity and equality with God.

Speaking to the Pharisees again Christ says

So by divine right Jesus had a claim to sit at the right hand of God.

But that is not the picture that we are given here - it is not the picture of one who says “Of course this is your seat - by all means take the seat that you have by birthright”.

This is an exaltation.

Now before I go any further I am not making any sort of case that there was a deficiency in Christ or something was lacking in His glory prior to His incarnation.

Instead what I’m saying here is that this is the victorious return of Christ to Heaven.

Unlike the scene I referred to earlier in the Lord of the Rings when Aragorn returns to Helms Deep there is still a battle to be fought.

One of many.

But when Christ is welcomed back in to Heaven, as His Father greets Him with these words “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool” there is a finality.

The battle is over - the work has been completed.

Which leads me to the explanation of the second reason that Christ is able to sit in the position of honor and rulership.

He has conquered everything.

He has vanquished every foe.

When the time was right as Paul writes in Galatians

Christ came forth emptying Himself of His divine prerogatives

yet it is important to recall that He was not simply God, He was not simply man He was both God and man.

Two natures coexisting in one human being.

Charles Spurgeon described it this way

741He is not humanity deified.

He is not Godhead humanized.

He is God.

He is man.

He is all that God is, and all that man is as God created him.

And He came for a purpose.

And that purpose has been accomplished.

Christ came and lived the perfect life surviving every temptation.