Psalm110:1-7, “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.”

Psalm 110 is the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament. Verse one is quoted 25 times and verse 4, five times. It shines Christologically as bright as the noon-day sun. Here King David plays the role of poetic prophet, receiving from God in heaven a revelation of the coming Messiah that syncs up with Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53.

Matthew Henry says, “This psalm is pure gospel; it is only, and wholly, concerning Christ, the Messiah promised to the fathers and expected by them.”

Psalm 110 answers numerous questions such as:

1. Where is Christ to rule over the nations?

Answer - At the right hand of God in the place of supreme authority. This is a clear indication that Christ's rule over the nations occurs prior to the Second Coming because He is seated at the right hand of God. Throughout the New Testament, Christ being at the "right hand of God" is always understood as referring to His presence in heaven and not as His physical rule on earth that is to take place at the Second Coming.

2. How long will Christ rule at the right hand of God?

Answer - Till I make Your enemies Your footstool - This one little adverb, "until," indicates the time period in which the rulership of Christ from heaven is to take place, "until" God the Father places Christ's enemies under His feet. In other words, although Christ triumphed over sin, the world and the devil at His crucifixion and resurrection, Christ will remain in heaven until all His enemies are subdued. Finally, that process is complete when "the last enemy" being "death" itself is defeated at the time of the Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:25-26).

3. So if Christ is in heaven, then how exactly does He make His rule known on earth?

Answer - Through the rod of His strength (v.2) - This is a phrase that may also be translated as God's "mighty scepter”. This Old Testament symbol is revealed in the New Testament as the Gospel, the Holy Spirit inspired Word of God. It is through the preaching of the Gospel, that we act as ambassadors to spread the Good News of the reign of Christ. Generation after generation, step by step, we go forth into all the nations in the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfill the Great Commission.

King Jesus is expecting to remain seated “From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.” (Hebrews 10:3 KJV)

Jesus’ Great Expectations of Conquering His Enemies Center Around Three Great Truths:

Right Posture – Hebrews 10:12: “For ever sat down on the right hand of God.” “For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet” (1 Cors.15:25).

Please note that Christ is seated, not standing and wringing his hands in despair over what’s happening in the world, or saying to the Father: “Father, look what a mess they have made! The Church I bought at the price of my blood is a bunch of failing, fearful, wimps. The gospel is good for heaven but not for earth, for the human heart but not human civilization. The Devil’s lies are stronger than gospel truth. Just let me get on my horse, get the sword sticking out of my mouth, and go down there and “getter done”.

When is Christ reigning in the exact sense of 1 Cors 15:25?  It’s now and not then, at His final return. The New Testament confirms that Christ is reigning presently and is thus, progressively putting His enemies under His feet. In the words of Psalm 110:2, Christ is “ruling in the midst of his enemies.”

Christ reigns, and in so doing, he is subduing enemies (1 Cors 15:25), conquering them with the power of the Spirit and not by the power of metal swords and marching armies. He conquers His enemies with the gospel of grace and makes a Christ-less Pharisee like Saul of Tarsus into the Christ-filled Paul, the very apostle to the Gentiles he once despised, a dear co-laboring brother to those whom he once murdered.

Right Place – “right hand of the Father”- He sits to direct, correct, inspect, and protect. He sits in the posture of the King of Glory forever. Sitting at the right hand of God denotes both His dignity and His dominion. He reigns now, and all the might and malice of wicked men doesn’t give the least disturbance, frustration or anxiety to His government.

Right Power – Ps 110:2: “The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies!” Eph. 1:20-23: “that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”

The command is given: "Rule in the midst of Your enemies!" This word from God is the marching order for the church. Jesus is to rule over all things since all authority has been given to Him (Mat 28:18). His real enemies are not just the pagan nations, but the demonic hordes, including Satan himself, which are to be subdued in His name. We learn from Psalm 110:1-2 that Jesus reigns and rules as Lord. This is the word of God given by the Psalmists long before His first Advent. It has been fulfilled in His ministry as He inaugurated the kingdom of God and in His exaltation to the right hand of the Father. When we proclaim the gospel in His name, and pray in His name, and cast out demons in His name, and heal in His name, His reign is being extended, not in the safe realms of heaven, but in the midst of His enemies, here on the battleground of earth.

The old Methodist commentator, Adam Clarke observed, “The rod of thy strength” is the Gospel – the doctrine of Christ crucified; which is the powerful scepter of the Lord that bought us, is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword; and is the power of God to salvation to all of them that believe.”

Jesus is the Right Man, in the Right Posture, in the Right Place with the Right Power made available to the Right People to accomplish His Mission!

What kind of Gospel are we preaching?

The “American” brand of gospel has privatized the assignment from making disciples of all nations to making ME a better disciple. It then has compartmentalized the nature of the announcement and the number who are sent forth to make the king’s announcement to exclude the majority of the laity and leave the job to the professional, full-time clergy persons. And even these have changed the announcement so as to offer Jesus as the Manager who supplies the stage props for our life movie, entertaining us, psychoanalyzing us so as to make us feel good, and teaching us that salvation is all about ME. 

In the early church, all were heralds or announcers sent forth by their Lord and Christ with the King’s message we call the gospel. The announcement was called in the Greek the kerygma. The apostolic “kerygma” was a proclamation of the death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus that asserted that in His person, He was both Lord and Christ. This confronted mankind’s rebellion and religion with the necessity of immediate and radical repentance, and promised the forgiveness of sins, to those who believe and are baptized in water, with a drenching of the Holy Spirit, poured out upon them for enjoyment of the King and employment in His kingdom (Acts 2:38)!”

The First Century Christian’s message was the gospel of the kingdom of God which is God’s dynamic rule, breaking into human history through Jesus, confronting, combating and overcoming evil, spreading the wholeness of personal and community-of-faith wellbeing, taking possession of his people in total blessing and total demand. As heralds of the King they made known the good news of God’s renewed reign over all of creation. Christ’s kingly authority extends over the entirety of creation. God’s mission is equally comprehensive. It is to declare the fact that to surrender to King Jesus is to embody the good news that He again rules over marriage and family, the marketplace and all government, art and athletics, the sauna room and the schoolroom, sex and the city! Since it is a gospel of the kingdom, its coverage is as wide as creation.

This is a far cry from the individualized, watered-down gospel message of today that pleads for people to come to Jesus for peace, purpose, prosperity, problem-solving power and the personal security of positive identity and the promise of an eternal destiny in heaven when you die.

Do we preach a Gospel that offers fire insurance for those who will walk the aisle and accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior? Or do we celebrate a Divine King who rules - with a rod of iron over entire nations and who transmits His invincible power to the Church in its mission to the world?

I challenge you to join with me in praying daily: Gracious Father, enable us, your people, to bring our expectation’s level up to Jesus’ standard. We expect God to arise through His gospel-centered, Spirit-drenched, and empowered people and His enemies to be scattered and made His footstool! Move us to daily begin to expect the God of peace to bruise Satan under our feet shortly!  Enable us to expect the gospel to freely and powerfully spread through His Church so that disciples are made of all nations! Enlarge our expectations so they we desire to win for the Lamb the reward of His sufferings! Cause hope to arise in our hearts so that we expect that the gospel must blossom with a crown equal with the person of the Crucified, and the bitterness of His agony on the Cross!