Hebrews presents an inspired exposition of each of three ideas about Melchizedek in this verse: with an oath, forever, and the order of Melchizedek, which we look at in today's study.

In today's study we continue our discussion of who Melchizedek is and why he is so important. John Calvin described Melchizedek simply but respectfully as a man who, although we know nothing else about him, “alone in that land was an upright and sincere cultivator and guardian of religion.”

To continue yesterday's discussion of the phrase, “In the midst of your enemies,” we are reminded that Christians are not to attempt to defeat and subdue the devil and the world by means of physical power or weapons. The church has always gotten into deep trouble when it has tried to Christianize society, as if the secular world could be made Christian. From time to time believers suppose that they can impose their idea of a just society on other people by enacting laws and proscribing civil penalties for those who break them. But this is not our calling. Paul pointed out the right way when he wrote to the Corinthians, “Though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:3, 4).

The first verse of Psalm 110 also speaks of Jesus' present position at the right hand of the Father in heaven and of his Lordship over all things in heaven and on earth. This is cast in the form of an oracle from God, for God is quoted as saying: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” We are familiar with this idea from the Apostles' Creed, which most Christians recite together each week: “He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”

Why should Psalm 110 have been so important to the early church and to the New Testament writers? The answer is that Psalm 110 is the greatest of the messianic psalms in that it alone is about the Messiah and his work exclusively, without any primary reference to an earthly king.