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The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: You are a priest forever…” (Psalm 110:1,4).

If the New Testament had its way, Psalm 110 would be our favourite psalm, not the 23^rd. This is a song worth knowing. It may not be the easiest to understand or to pray, but it may be the most important of them all. How so? It is the most often quoted psalm in the New Testament: 14 different places.

(Add that to your next Bible trivia game: list 7 places where Psalm 110 is used in the New Testament).

Before you continue take a moment to read the psalm. If its not familiar to you, it may take a few readings before it sticks. Now some reflections on it.

This psalm is God’s declaration of a newly enthroned monarch who is followed and obeyed willingly by the people. He is endowed with strength and stamina which encourages and strengthens all who follow (3). This monarch will also be priest, mediating between God and his people. He will be priest and king forever.

The early church had a fundamental belief that we may have lost: “When God speaks things happen…”

Jesus was born in Nazareth: poor, powerless, obscure. He did not appear to be a contender for anything. But then God spoke: “The Lord says to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’”

Thus, Peter uses it to back up his claim that God has exalted Jesus to his right hand. Having quoted verse one, he finishes his Pentecost sermon with the words, "Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36).

So, God declared Jesus the king who brings order, beauty, justice, and peace. And God declared that Jesus is the priest who brings us back into relationship with God. With metaphors, not arguments, the psalmist invites us to pray for this to become reality.

The final sentence is unforgettable, “He will drink from the brook…and lift his head high.” A picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, the king priest, among us on our level, thirsty in his humanness and kneeling at the brook; then refreshed, with lifted head, proceeding on his way, ruling, and saving. But he was so ordinary. A thirsty messiah, who would want?

Much of our spirituality is shaped by Psalm 23 which we misuse in two ways. One, we emphasize “my”, meaning, he is mine to control, I get to tell him how to shepherd me. Two, we leave God out until our funeral. In these ways, our spirituality is as ego centric as the rest of our lives. This is very hard to root out.

But now consider a spirituality centred in Psalm 110 which is difficult to misuse. It un-centres us from ourselves. It recentres us in the being and action of God, calling us to join God in his work. Moreover, the capacity to live and work for God does not come from within, but from the monarch, Jesus. Sounds like the work of the Holy Spirit. No wonder it’s a Pentecost song.

The action in the Psalm belongs to God, as it does in Psalm 23. Both Psalms are about God and what he does. Somehow, the shepherd song often gets twisted to be about me and my wants. This kingly psalm does not lend to that.

We ought to recite this Psalm along side every recitation of the 23^rd. Selfishness is very persistent. We need something to counteract it. Starting each day with Psalm 110 will help.

Spiritually, we often start well but then we drift. There is no time for drifting here. In seven verses we hear four times, “The Lord”.  This is followed by “he will” four times.

Psalm 110 centres us in God. It doesn’t ignore that we live in a messed-up world. It doesn’t ignore that our good works and our good intentions are flawed in such a way that they often do as much harm as good. But it says that, despite this, we are not disqualified from the work because we are drawn into what God is doing in Christ to establish his will “on earth as it is in heaven.”