A Prophecy About a Coming King-Priest (Psalm 110:1–7)

Every good and effective government must provide both laws to govern its citizenry and courts to represent its citizenry. If laws are absent, unarticulated, or unenforced, there is anarchy. If courts are corrupt, powerless, or inaccessible, there is tyranny. God’s government promises both infallible regulation and unending representation for the good of its people. Foreshadowing this reality in the past, God gave ancient Israel kings from the tribe of Judah (Gen 49:10; Ps 60:7) and priests from the tribe of Levi (Ex 29:9; Deut 18:1–8), the former bringing divine authority to earth and the latter bringing human frailty to heaven. But in Psalm 110, David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, predicts a coming time when these two necessary offices will reside eternally and perfectly in a single person. (Spoiler: he’s talking about Jesus!) God’s people need to be governed by God and represented before God and this psalm declares that that time is coming.