It is very worthwhile to exercise yourself in studying the Scriptures. If too much help is given to you, you will not learn to find the answers yourself. Many of the most intriguing lessons taught in school are those in which the teacher leads the student just so far, giving him the questions and the material to work with, and then leaving him to discover the answers himself. Because the foundation has been laid, he will be able to do it. When he has the key, he can unlock the door by himself.
With this principle in mind, let us study one of the most important Psalms in the Old Testament: Psalm 110. Surprisingly, various phrases of this Psalm are quoted more frequently in the New Testament than any other Psalm, though it contains only seven verses. It was written a thousand years before Christ, yet it is one of the most important Psalms referring to the Lord Jesus Christ in relationship to the times in which His Body will be magnified, His remnant will come forth, and His authority and rule will be exercised over all the earth. It is quoted especially in Matthew, Acts, and Hebrews.
For your own study, use a Bible that has good marginal notes or center references which will direct you to the New Testament references where this Psalm is quoted. You will find the verses quoted at strategic times: in the sermon on the day of Pentecost and in the events preceding the crucifixion of the Lord. Psalm 110 and Psalm 23 contain some of the same thoughts. For example, from Psalm 110 the phrase, “Rule in the midst of thine enemies,” is similar to the phrase, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies,” from Psalm 23.
The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet.” The Lord will stretch forth Thy strong scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of Thine enemies.” Thy people will volunteer freely in the day of Thy power; in holy array, from the womb of the dawn, Thy youth are to Thee as the dew.
The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, “Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” The Lord is at Thy right hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath. He will judge among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will shatter the chief men over a broad country. He will drink from the brook by the wayside; therefore He will lift up His head. Psalm 110:1–7.
Although this Psalm at first may seem like double-talk, you will discover some stirring truths as you study the basic heart of it, verse by verse. If you read the New Testament quotations and their context, you can spend an exciting day or two studying this Psalm. This Psalm of David was written a thousand years before the Lord Jesus Christ was born. When Jesus referred to the first verse, He asked the Pharisees, “If Christ was David’s son, why did David call Him Lord?” The Lord says to my Lord, means that the Father says to the Son, “Sit at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet.”
Do you believe in the Lordship of Jesus Christ? Do you believe that He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and that He is seated at the right hand of the Father, henceforth expecting until His enemies are made the footstool of His feet (Hebrews 10:12–13)? This passage, from a Psalm that is quoted frequently in the New Testament, is filled with a complete revelation of God’s plan.
Verse 2 reveals that God has a people through whom He is manifesting His ruling power: The Lord will stretch forth Thy strong scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of Thine enemies.”
God had to have a person through whom He could manifest what He had to say and what He wanted to do for the world.
John 3:16 says that God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. That Son was not only the person of God, but He had to be a human being as well.
To whom does the Father say, “Rule in the midst of Thine enemies”? The Father says this to the Christ—the Christ manifested not in one person, but in the many persons who constitute what the Scripture calls the Body of Christ.
At His first coming, Christ had to be born as God incarnate in one Man. This truth, which is found throughout the Bible, is the mystery of mysteries, and some people are still struggling with it.
But what is even harder to grasp is the fact that at His second coming, He is manifested and coming forth not in the person of one human being, but in many people.
II Thessalonians 1:10 tells us that He is coming to be admired in His saints and to be glorified in all them that believe.
How delightful it is to know that God will be moving in the earth and ruling in the midst of His enemies! But He is going to do it through His people. This may be hard to believe, that right in the midst of God’s enemies will come forth this authority and rule.
We also read of God’s authority being manifested in His people in Psalm 149:5–9. Let the godly ones exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishment on the peoples; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute on them the judgment written; this is an honor for all His godly ones. Praise the Lord!
The Psalms are full of this theme.
Psalm 22 deals with Christ’s sufferings, Psalm 23 speaks of His shepherding, and Psalm 24 tells us that the King reigns.
Psalm 2:1 also refers to His rule, Why are the nations in an uproar…? It continues by telling how God will bring down every nation with a rod of iron and make them submissive to Him.
Christ came the first time to suffer. The next time, other people will suffer.
First He came to provide a sacrifice for every man’s salvation. Now He is coming to reign, to rule, to be the King.
We must understand that the command of the Father to the Son in His many-membered Body is this: “Rule in the midst of Thine enemies.”
A difficult passage to understand is Psalm 110:3 which reads: Thy people will volunteer freely in the day of Thy power. The marginal notes in the New American Standard Bible indicate another reading: not “Thy people will volunteer freely,” but “Thy people will be freewill offerings in the day of Thine army.” His people are not only volunteers; they are giving themselves to God as freewill offerings. God is bringing forth a remnant in this end time as a freewill offering. They are generous, they give freely, and they really move in the Lord.
Nothing will bring you greater blessing than to find out what God is doing in the earth and to become dedicated to it. Do not become dedicated just to your own pursuits; enter into what God is doing in the earth.
About half of a person’s ministry could well be given to intercession.
There can be no ministry without a great deal of intercession. Paul said that he did not cease, day and night, to intercede for the people (Colossians 1:9). Christ ever lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). His ministry as Lord and King involves intercession.
We do not yet realize the true significance of intercession.
We still want to do something that seems to have a visible meaning or effectiveness, without realizing that many of these things leave us frustrated because they are ineffective.
Undergirding the very power and achievement that we want in all our actions is intercession.
“Thy people will be a freewill offering in the day of Thine army.” They are not only volunteers; they are more than volunteers. They give themselves wholly to the Lord of lords and the King of kings so that the great battle of the ages can be consummated.
Thus you may find yourself crying and groaning (even in the limited aspects of spiritual warfare) for God’s end-time apostles and prophets to break through their limitations.
As a part of the army that the Lord is leading, you may be expendable in many ways. When you begin walking with the Lord, you start giving up everything. You give up all your other interests, of which your possessions are probably the least.
Your thinking and your attitudes change. You become totally involved, actually becoming a freewill offering in this day of His army. There is no passage more wonderful for you to quote to yourself than this: “Thy people, O Lord, will be a freewill offering in the day of Thine army.”
As the army of the Lord comes forth, you must be that freewill offering, given freely to the Lord with no other motives.
There can be no Jacob’s barter system in this that says, “I will give You this, and I will take that.” It does not work that way.
You come to the Lord totally. When you lose your life for His sake, then you find it (Matthew 16:25).
The discipleship that the Lord is bringing forth is wonderful. If there are reservations in your mind and spirit, get rid of them. You may as well face it—a deep walk with God demands total dedication to the Lord.
You may try to work around it by thinking that you must have certain basic comforts of life; but actually, your total, absolute dedication as a disciple to the Lord Jesus Christ must be your first concern.
Many times that will preclude your following the Lord according to your interpretation of what it means, or doing the will of God according to what you think He wants you to do.
Your dedication and submission must be total.
In an army, many a man is sent to his death. The blame could be placed on the sergeant, the captain, the general, or even the leader of the country. Many people could be blamed, but that will not make a dead man alive again.
Likewise, in spiritual battles there are casualties, but it is not God’s intent and purpose that you should be destroyed. You will not actually be destroyed, but you will be killed in another way; you will find your human motivations of living cut away. Many of your hopes and dreams, your activities, your goals and objectives will die; and you will look upon yourself as merely a shell of a human.
But you will also note that the divine nature is coming forth within you. Christ is coming forth to accomplish His will and His purpose in His army. This truth still may seem beyond your understanding, yet this is what you must walk in—a total dedication to the Lord.
Thy people will volunteer freely (they will be freewill offerings) in the day of Thy power; in holy arrary (the margin reads: “in the splendor of holiness”), from the womb of the dawn.
This is speaking of a new day; it is similar to the Scripture in Hosea 6:3: Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.
These promises are speaking of a new day.
It is the dawning of His Kingdom, coming in conjunction with the end of one age, with the midnight hour spoken of in the parable of the five wise and the five foolish virgins (Matthew 25:1–13). Yet we are not children of the night; we are children of the day (I Thessalonians 5:5). We have received the prophecies that are like the day star of hope (II Peter 1:19). It is the star that you see shining brightly just before the sun begins to light up the horizon.
Oh, beautiful, beautiful day of the Lord! His army will come forth in holy array, in the very spirit of the splendor of holiness from the womb of the dawn. The new day gives birth to His mighty army. It is the first event on God’s program.
Are you looking for the Lord to come? Do not be too sure that He has not already come. He is coming forth already in His many-splendored army. You may be looking for His coming in the clouds when every eye shall see Him (Revelation 1:7), but that event comes a little later. Wait for a while.
Right now He is coming to be admired in all of His saints. He will be seen—and you will be surprised how universally—but not in the way that many Christians are looking for Him; they are looking in the wrong direction.
The world was made by Him, and yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him (John 1:10–11). The Lord always does the unexpected.
The Jews expected the Son of David to come with a big slingshot, ready to bring down the Romans. Instead, He was born in a manger. He was meek and lowly of heart (Matthew 11:29). While they were looking for Him to come one way, He came in another.
Many Christians today are sure that they will not miss Him this time. They will be looking for meek and lowly Jesus; however, this time He will not come as the little Lamb, but as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Again the religious world will be looking in the wrong direction and they will miss Him. Perhaps you think that you will not miss Him because you are looking for Him to come in a cloud of great glory, but you may have your chronology wrong. That event may come several years after the first beginnings of His revelation.
Many Christians are looking for the Lord. When He does come, He will say, “You missed Me. I came to your house hungry, and you did not feed Me. I was in prison, and you did not visit Me. I was naked, and you did not clothe Me.” They will be surprised because they are looking for some great event.
But it is happening as He is coming forth in His many-membered Body.
He will say, “Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these, you have done it unto Me” (Matthew 25:34–46). Let us keep our eyes open. We could miss a great deal if we are not open and looking to the Lord to show us how He is manifesting Himself. It is a beautiful day to be alive because we will see Him every day if we look for Him.
Let us study another phrase in the third verse of Psalm 110: Thy youth are to Thee as the dew. The margin reads: “The dew of Thy youth is Thine.” The word “youth” is used here as a plural word, meaning not one youth, but many. We use it in this sense when we speak of a “youth meeting”; this includes not one young person, but many young people.
In Joel 2:28 God tells us, “I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.”
God has promised to use the youth in the end time, and for this reason Satan is making a bid for them. Wherever young people are in a state of rebellion, it is because a spirit of rebellion has taken hold of them.
Many times the young people who are in rebellion are those who have been given every advantage. They do not have to work for a living and they go through college supported by their parents.
Those who become rebellious and take part in riots do so because that spirit of rebellion takes hold of them. Instead of taking advantage of their opportunities and using them constructively, they would rather destroy school property and valuable records which would have significant meaning to people later on in life.
While the spirit of rebellion is bringing destruction, the spirit of submission is being found in those who are walking in the divine order that God is restoring.
Never in the history of the Church have His young people been more determined to be submissive to the Lord and to divine order.
The “dew” in verse 3 speaks symbolically of the beautiful freshness of the youth who are coming forth to walk with God today.
The devil may bring a countertide, but the Lord’s tide brings them into total submission to Him so that they can refuse any rebellion that Satan would try to plant in their hearts.
You may think that submission is not a great issue, but the Lord will test you on every aspect of it. You will come to know what total, absolute submission is. About the time you think you have achieved it, something will happen to show you the depths of your spirit where God is still dealing.
What is the importance of submission?
God’s people are facing a ministry of judgment which has never in the history of the world been committed in a wholesale manner to God’s people.
In the past, it was given to only a few individuals.
The prophet Elisha called bears from the hills to kill forty-two children who probably deserved it (II Kings 2:24).
In Exodus we read of many judgments which came in Egypt at the time of Moses when water turned to blood and the death angel destroyed the firstborn.
But those judgments always came through one or two men. Ananias and Sapphira died, but that was through the ministry of Apostle Peter (Acts 5:1–10).
There never has been a wholesale commission of judgment committed to any people; but neither have there ever been any people who were worthy of it, because they were always too subjective in their attitudes.
In this end time, we can pray objectively for God to deal with a situation, and see God deal with it.
We can prophesy against wicked plots and see them exposed. Through prayer and prophecy we can even see the weather changed.
When you pray and prophesy, be objective.
Do not prophesy against bureaucracy because it is frustrating you; prophesy against it because it has reached the point where it is frustrating the Kingdom of God.
Do not speak judgment because something affects you personally and causes your temper to rise up with anger or resentment. That is why God’s people have failed before.
Prophesy with complete objectivity.
Although Isaiah prophesied that the slain of the Lord would be multitudes (Isaiah 66:16), this does not mean that you will hate the ones who come under judgment; actually, you will love them. You will have to love your enemies and do good to those who despitefully use you (Luke 6:27–28).
You will be a channel of both grace and judgment.
Most probably this is what is meant by the double portion.
A double portion is not just twice as many blessings as you had before. A double blessing would actually not be twice as much blessing, because then you would be thrown into a place of double jeopardy as a result of the harassment of the enemy.
There must be authority and judgment, or it is not the double portion.
Psalm 110 continues, The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind (the margin reads “will not be sorry”), “Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” The Lord is at Thy right hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath. He will judge among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will shatter the chief men over a broad country (literally: “He has filled the nations with corpses and has shattered the head over a broad country”). Verses 4–6.
This may seem like a bloodthirsty Psalm, but it is speaking of spirits more than human beings. The term “chief men” is not speaking of specific rulers as much as it is speaking of headship. Satanic authorities must be destroyed.
The human beings involved will require only a small percentage of the total action; the greater emphasis is the breaking of demon powers.
Pray and prophesy against the world rulers who are devil possessed. The hold of Satan must be broken.
Pray and prophesy against the satanic strangleholds that some of the financial systems have over the people. Does this sound too audacious?
God is giving His people authority, not to make them cocky, but that they might do His will. Believe to exercise spiritual authority over the principalities and powers where the spiritual battle really lies.
The satanic powers which are heading the nations must be broken. Principalities control entire areas.
If prophets go through an area and bind the principality controlling it, everything in that area will change. For instance, if the principality of perversion is bound in an area, related businesses of pornography will fail.
Every area and country has its own problems. But God says, concerning the heads over the nations, that those spirits will be broken in the day of His power. Within this decade, millions of demonic spirits will be taken out of the picture completely.
You have no idea how life will change when the harassment and influence of spirits are removed. You have no concept of what a day would be like if there were no spiritual powers working against you, harassing you and trying to destroy your day and render it ineffective.
Now, you may be moving at less than two percent efficiency as a result of the tremendous assault and frustration of devil power working against you.
The seventh verse of Psalm 110, in my opinion, gives us a key for endurance. The preceding verses have spoken of His filling the land with corpses, judging the nations, and shattering the spiritual heads over all the people. Then verse 7 says: He will drink from the brook by the wayside; therefore He will lift up His head.
This means that we are facing a time of endurance, a time when the battle will be exhausting; therefore there must be a parallel supply right by our side. The brook must run with us. The waters must flow with us. Just ahead we are facing the greatest wilderness the world has ever seen.
When the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years, the water from the rock followed them; and that rock was Christ (I Corinthians 10:4). No matter where they went, uphill or downhill, they could see the water running right along beside them. That stream was Christ, and it followed them through the wilderness.
In the day when Christ’s great victory comes to the world, there will be many problems and great battles, but we will drink from the brook.
Christ’s company will drink from the brook by the wayside and will lift up His head. Great strength will be ours as we do His will, because His provision is parallel with it. All we have to do is partake of it.
We will continually draw of His strength, so that we might continually do His will. It is not a matter of depleting our own resources, but rather of constantly being renewed as we go along. It is a perpetual action.
A perpetual provision is running parallel to the course of the will of God. A perpetual provision runs parallel to those who are doing the will of God.
Wherever the children of Israel went, there was a provision for them; every morning there was manna. God sent Elijah to the brook Cherith and commanded the ravens to feed him there. There were probably many hungry ravens in the land during the famine, and they were not about to drop food to anyone; instead, they would eat it themselves.
Yet these birds flew to the place where Elijah was waiting and dropped food to him on schedule. Elijah knew that the provision was right where God had sent him. God commanded the ravens to feed him there (I Kings 17:4).
Wherever God wants you, that is where He will feed you. Whatever He sets before you to do, that is where His provision will be.
The provision does not depend upon circumstances or anything else. It is a little river of provision running right alongside. Look, and you will find it. Drink, and lift up your head. Be strong to receive what God has for you.
Are you doing the will of God? Are you really trying to do the will of God? Are you seeking it? Are you praying for it? That is the way you are to go.
If you have been a little rebellious lately, you are going the wrong way. The brook does not run that way, and you will become very thirsty. Get back on the main line where you are doing the will of God, because that is where His provision will be. That way may seem difficult and filled with sacrifice, but it is the only way you will receive the fulness.
Give, and it will be given to you as an unfailing source of supply. The more you give, the more you receive.
If you are selfish, you will also be hungry. No man can really take care of himself in this hour.
You must be linked to something bigger than yourself. Link yourself to the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Give yourself. Be a freewill offering in this day of God’s army.
Seek to do His will with all of your heart. When you start to do it you will find that being a part of His army is not too bad. After all, it is steady work (and battle twenty-four hours a day). Give yourself this way, and know what it is to serve the Lord. Go through the hard places together with the Body. Nothing unites God’s people more closely than real battle.
Give yourself to praying and battling through and forget personality differences. Be comrades in arms, buddies together. If one brother is wounded, the others will take care of him.
This is a wonderful day, and yet it is serious; for God’s people today are chosen instruments to change an entire age. They are not only what He is counting on, but they are the ones He will use. This is a good reason for living.
Are you too weak? Remember—the provision is flowing alongside.
Attention, soldiers; let us march forward. Whichever way He is going, that is the way to go. Follow the Lamb wherever He goes (Revelation 14:4).
Let this be your prayer: “Lord, if You are walking through the valley of battle and struggle, I will walk with You. Whatever You do, Lord, I am right there with You.”
It will mean sacrifice. It will mean many prayers. You will have to change your life-style, but you will do that anyway. People will automatically give up most of the things they are living for. After a while there will be no value to them. Soon those material blessings will mean little to anyone in the world.
This is a good time to make a sound investment in the Kingdom of God. Sell your stock in the world while it still has some value, because the bottom is dropping out of the world market, and there will be no meaning to the things that people have worked for. Now you can give them up while they still have some significance. Give it all to the Lord so that you can follow Him.
The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet.” This is what we must live for. We want to see the exaltation of our Lord and King. Blessed be His name forever!
Are you on the path of His righteousness? His provision parallels it.
Or are you murmuring, complaining, withdrawing, or running in the other direction? That is a quick way to be a loser.
To be a winner, you have to be a loser. You have to give everything. “He that saves his life shall lose it. But he that loses his life for My sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:39). Do you want to be a winner? Then give it all to Him. Be a freewill offering in the day of His army. Give everything that you are to Him.