Day 35 with David - Jesus is our forever King and Priest

“The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies! Your people shall be volunteers In the day of Your power; In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, You have the dew of Your youth. The Lord has sworn And will not relent, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.” The Lord is at Your right hand; He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath. He shall judge among the nations, He shall fill the places with dead bodies, He shall execute the heads of many countries. He shall drink of the brook by the wayside; Therefore He shall lift up the head.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭110:1-7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

In case you haven’t noticed, the writers of the Bible are big on genealogy. We see long genealogies throughout the Bible (you know, those parts we skip over). Yes, the genealogies were very important: whose son you were, whose grandson you were, etc., were seen as critical to defining who you were. But why? We’ll, I believe it’s because covenants were given to family lines. For example, we know that the Lord gave Abraham the promise that through his Seed the whole earth would be blessed. That Seed was and is Jesus Christ!

In case you didn’t realize it, in Jesus’ day it was a stumbling block for the Jews that Jesus was not from the tribe of Levi. We know that the tribe of Levi was chosen as the one through which the priesthood came. Jesus was from Judah, as was David. However, David carried out the function—not only of King—but also of priest.

Now, one of the great mysteries of the Bible, a source of angst for anybody looking for a reason to not believe the Bible, is the mention of the King of Salem, Melchizedek. He is Appears “out of nowhere” in the book of Genesis when Abram (not yet referenced as Abraham), after having conquered the kings of four empires, was blessed by him and gave Melchizedek his tithe.

“Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he gave him a tithe of all.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭14:18-20‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Though only mentioned one other place in the Old Testament (which we will get to in a moment), Melchizedek is mentioned several times in the book of Hebrews. The writer of Hebrews is explaining the legitimacy of the Priesthood of Jesus Christ in spite of the fact that he was not from the Levitical priesthood line. He ultimately uses this as a vehicle to explain the workings of our new covenant under a new Priest, this time, a forever Priest.

“For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭7:1-3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Whereas the priests of that day had to go in repeatedly before the Lord to seek forgiveness for themselves, as well as the sins of the people, Christ settled the penalty for sin, once and for all.

In our portion from Psalms today [we skip ahead to this Psalm in honor of Resurrection Sunday] we see David speaking prophetically of the King Who was to come. This King would also be a Priest after the order of Melchizedek. He needed no credentials in the flesh as He was appointed by God.

Today, as we observe Resurrection Sunday, we must understand that Jesus was risen from the dead to rule and reign forever and to serve as the only Priest we would ever need!

For today let us know and understand what David knew:

Jesus is our forever King and Priest.

#100dayswithdavid