“Hebrews is my number one book if I were to pick one book of the Bible to keep always with me, because it is—I can say—the whole Bible in ‘one book.’” So my friend Gadissa wrote to me recently. Gadissa, a high school student in Ethiopia, has made an excellent choice for an excellent reason.

Hebrews brings into clear focus the Old Testament’s vast array of theological motifs, events, institutions, and individuals, demonstrating how God’s previous speech through prophets has reached fulfillment in the Son “in these last days” (1:2).

The author establishes his thesis—the superiority of Christ’s person, priesthood, and ministry to all God’s good provisions in past ages (8:1)—from many Old Testament passages. Psalm 110, though, unifies the whole discourse.

Hebrews teaches us to read Psalm 110 as God’s own testimony that Christ is the divine Son who is better than angels, and the eternal high priest who is better than Aaron.

Sermon on Psalm 110

The author describes Hebrews as a “word of exhortation” (13:22). In Antioch of Pisidia, a synagogue leader used the same expression to invite Paul to expound and apply portions of the Law and the Prophets just read (Acts 13:15). In ancient Jewish synagogues and early Christian congregations, the reading of Scripture was followed by explanation and exhortation (1 Tim. 4:13). So there’s good reason to approach Hebrews as a written sermon.

Psalm 110 is the sermon’s unifying source. Four quotations of and five allusions to this psalm are woven throughout the sermon (Heb. 1; 5; 6; 7; 8; 10; 12). Even in chapters lacking verbal echoes of the psalm, mentions of Jesus’s priestly ministry and its heavenly venue reflect the psalm’s influence (Heb. 2; 3; 4; 9; 13). George Wesley Buchanan rightly characterizes Hebrews as “a homiletical midrash on Psalm 110”—a sermonic (“homiletical”) exposition (“midrash”) of the psalm’s significance.

Christ’s Preeminence

In Hebrews, Psalm 110 first appears in the prologue, which celebrates the Son’s superiority both to the ancient prophets and to God’s angels. After the Son “[made] purification for sins” (a hint of his priestly ministry), “he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (1:3)—fulfilling Psalm 110:1: “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”

This allusion foreshadows the quotation of Psalm 110 as the climax of a series of seven Scriptures that establish the Son’s superiority as “God” and “Lord” to the angels (Heb. 1:13). Since Christ is so superior to the angels, heeding his word of salvation is even more crucial than observing the law that God gave through angels at Sinai (2:1–4).

Christ’s Heavenly Priestly Ministry

The Son’s enthronement “at the right hand” of God (1:3) reveals the heavenly venue of Christ’s present priestly ministry. Priests descended from Aaron served an earthly sanctuary that was a “copy and shadow” of God’s heavenly sanctuary (8:5, citing Ex. 25:40).

That earthly, handmade replica was destructible, along with the fallen created order to which it belonged (1:10–12; 9:24; 12:26–27). Christ, on the other hand, now “seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,” serves as a priest “in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man” (8:1–2; see 9:11–12, 24).

Christ’s seated posture confirms his sacrifice’s complete sufficiency. Although he ceaselessly prays for his people in heaven (7:25), his momentous mission to make atonement for sins was completed once for all when he offered his body on the cross. Therefore, unlike Aaronic priests who “[stand] daily” to repeat animal offerings, Jesus “sat down at the right hand of God” (10:11–12).

Christ’s Royal Priesthood

Psalm 110:4 announces Christ’s priestly appointment by God, which Hebrews both quotes (5:6; 7:17, 21) and alludes to (5:10; 6:20; 7:11, 24):

The LORD has sworn
and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek.”

From this appointment oath, Hebrews draws three conclusions:

1. This priest is also a king—like the ancient Melchizedek, whom the patriarch Abraham encountered.

Psalm 110:1 and 4 announce the future reunion of the priestly and royal offices for the people of God. From Moses’s days, the priesthood was the province of the tribe of Levi and the clan of Aaron (Ex. 28–29; Lev. 8–9; Num. 16–17). Even earlier in redemptive history, Jacob’s blessing on his son Judah had foreseen kingship in Judah’s future (Gen. 49:8–12)—eventually in David’s dynasty.

Although kings had important roles in Israel’s worship, when David’s descendant Uzziah presumed to seize priestly privilege, God struck him with skin disease, making him an outcast (2 Chron. 26:16–21). Psalm 110, however, announces a priest who will also be a king—like ancient Melchizedek, who was both “king of Salem” and “priest of God Most High” (Gen. 14:18).

2. This priest’s credentials, like those of Melchizedek, are based not on genealogical descent but on God’s unchangeable oath.

The divine oath that installed the priest in the order of Melchizedek stands in contrast to the genealogical criterion that authorized Aaron’s offspring to be priests. Only God’s call can confer the privilege of the priesthood, and this applies both to Aaron and to Christ (Heb. 5:4–5). For the Aaronic order, that divine authorization was administered through ancestry, from father to son, generation after generation.

On the other hand, Hebrews 7:16 finds in God’s oath, “You are a priest forever” (Ps. 110:4), the announcement of a better priestly qualification than genealogy. Jesus “has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.” Just as the ancient Melchizedek, whose genealogy is unrecorded and unknown, functioned as priestly mediator for Abraham (v. 3), so the priest in Melchizedek’s order has a superior claim to divine authorization than Levi and Aaron, a qualification grounded in a solemn oath that God will never, ever retract.

3. The inviolability of God’s oath guarantees this priest will live and intercede forever, unlike the Aaronic priesthood, which was insufficient and due for replacement.

Because of God’s inviolable oath and his own endless life, Jesus is priest “forever.” Each generation of Aaronic priests died and needed to be replaced by their sons. Built into the genealogical principle were death and, therefore, plurality: “The former [Aaronic] priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever” (7:23–24).

Psalm 110:1 and 4 announce the future reunion of the priestly and royal offices for the people of God.

Relearn the Old Testament

Hebrews unlocks the treasures of Psalm 110, God’s announcement that he planned to send a Redeemer who would rule as King at his right hand and intercede as our merciful and faithful High Priest forever.

Following Hebrews’s interpretive lead, we must learn to read the Old Testament as Jesus taught his apostles, with minds and hearts alert to the hints that all God’s graces to ancient Israel were shadows cast back through time by the radiance of Christ’s coming glory, whetting expectations for the Savior who has come “in these last days” (1:2).

News Source : https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/hebrews-opens-psalm-110/