Do you remember the show Extreme Home Makeover? The show always began with the story of a family who were facing some sort of hardship in their life. Then a construction crew would come in and either completely renovate the existing home or tear it down and build them a new home to accommodate their needs. The show would watch the progress of the construction and intersperse more information about the family. Then, at the very end of the show, the family would be brought back to their home where a big semi truck was set up to block their view of their newly remodeled residence. And with big fanfare and excitement, the truck would move to reveal to the family their home. They were always amazed and overwhelmed. The host would proceed to walk them through the home so they could see all the amazing amenities that were added to it. It was a show about transformation.

But something many families learned is that bigger isn’t always better. Their newly transformed homes often came with bigger bills and expenses. And even the helpful amenities didn’t change any issues that had been lurking beneath the surface. Many owners ended up selling their homes. A number of families ended up parting ways with one another after old problems resurfaced when the excitement had worn off. The transformation was substantial, but it was also only superficial.

Israel experienced something not all that dissimilar when they decided they needed a change of governmental leadership. The people of Israel began as a theocracy. God and God’s rule was their only concern. They based their lives and society around the commandments of God. But when they had entered the Promised Land, the people fell away from God and the result was anarchy. Samuel, a priest and prophet of God, tried to turn the people back toward God, but instead they demanded a king to rule over them, just like all the nations around them had. Samuel took their request to God, who was not pleased by their decision. God told Samuel to warn them about what an earthly king would demand of them, which Samuel did. But the people still wanted a king. So God relented. A tall and handsome king was chosen named Saul. But Saul did not follow the ways of God. And a new king was needed.

I offer this brief history lesson for the purpose of setting the stage for our Psalm for this morning. Psalm 110 is titled in my Bible “Assurance of Victory for God’s Priest-King.” It is attributed to David, but I suspect perhaps David commissioned its writing as a tribute to himself. In later years, this Psalm was read at the inauguration and ordination of Israel’s kings. And it paints a rather gruesome and awe-inspiring picture of a king of Israel. The Psalm talks about the Israelites’ views of how God blesses their king. It talks about things like making the king’s enemies into his footstool and shattering heads and filling the nations with corpses. When I first read this Psalm this week, I was very tempted to abandon it and choose a different Psalm. I struggle with the idea of a violent and destructive God who blesses the cruelty of his appointed king. That is an image of God that I have a hard time reconciling with the image shown to us in Jesus Christ.

So what do we do with this psalm? Do we simply ignore it? Or does it still have something to teach us? I would argue that Psalm 110 is sort of the larva stage in the monarch butterfly’s metamorphosis. The egg has opened and it is growing and changing as it adjusts to a new environment. The people are adjusting to life in the promised land. They are growing and changing, trying to adapt to the things they are experiencing in this new set up. And the Psalms reflect their attempts to figure things out. They express their praises, their laments, their anger, their joy, their hopes, their despair, their wonderings, and their thoughts about God. The psalms are the songs of the people of Israel. They are poetry reflecting on the life and times of the present day.

Is God really a king that delights in destruction and death? This Psalm makes it look that way. But when we look at the life of Jesus, we see something very different. We see a king that has been transformed to something quite different than the kings of Israel. This king does not delight in destruction but delights in hope. This king does not delight in death but delights in life. This king does not delight in crushing his enemies but in loving his enemies. This monarch has gone through a metamorphosis and become something new and beautiful.

When I read this Psalm, I had a hard time seeing hope or good news in it. Maybe that wasn’t the case for you or maybe it was. But when I look at Psalm 110, I see a God that I don’t really recognize, so what can be good news in that?

Did you know that Psalm 110 is the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament? We saw it in the section of Hebrews 7 that we read today, but it is quoted 22 times in total in the New Testament. Why would that be? Well, it seems to me that those who quote it, Jesus being one, are doing so to show how Jesus transforms the images of this Psalm. The image of a king is transformed from the military-minded, violent king depicted in the psalm to the loving, sacrificial servant king that Jesus showed himself to be.

In Matthew, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and he asks them, “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” And the Pharisees reply, “The son of David.” And then Jesus responds by recontextualizing part of Psalm 110. He says this: “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet” ’? If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” Jesus takes the Psalm, which had been about the king and transforms it to be about the coming Messiah. Now, it seems that Psalm 110 had started to be considered to be about the coming Messiah. But Jesus’ use of it seems to stymie the Pharisees. Jesus transforms the words of the Psalm.

Taken by itself, this Psalm could be seen as a Psalm about the power of God and the way in which God protects and gives prosperity to God’s people, which wouldn’t be a terrible way to look at it. But I think as we begin to apply this Psalm as a Messianic Psalm about Jesus, some transformation needs to take place. A metamorphosis of sorts. We’ve talked before about what Jesus is like as the Messiah. He was not what the Israelites were expecting.

I’ve been reading a lot of books lately. And the thing that always really excites me about a book is when the story takes an unexpected twist. I read a series recently that had me believing for most of the book that one of the characters had died. Every time I would get my hopes up that she hadn’t, something would happen to confirm that she was. Then near the end, she reappeared. Despite my hope that she would turn up alive, I still couldn’t believe that she was. It was hard to give up that belief.

For the Israelites, a monarch was supposed to be strong and mighty. A monarch was supposed to trample his enemies and destroy the armies of other nations. A monarch was supposed to be powerful and commanding. The Israelites believed the Messiah would be a monarch in that image. A strong, destructive, powerful leader. Then along came Jesus who was really none of those things in any traditional sense. He was not the commander of an army. He was not big and handsome and intimidating. He was simple and kind and a servant. That’s not to say that Jesus didn’t have power. He clearly did. He healed the sick and calmed the storm. He exorcized demons and made the blind to see. But Jesus’ power was not the power of a king as the people saw it. It was not military might or the destruction of Israel’s enemies. Jesus’ power came through love and service. It came through sacrifice and forgiveness.

This season of Lent is a time when we remember Jesus’ power. The power that came through his death. Pope John Paul II once said, “Prayer joined to sacrifice constitutes the most powerful force in human history.” Jesus’ power was made perfect in weakness.

So what is the good news for us then? Two things: First, transformation is possible, not just from sinner to saint, but transformation in our thinking and understanding. A faith that is active and growing is going to change. As we grow closer to Christ, we will find a new understanding of Christ’s truth. And that transformation is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a sign that we are continuing to be discipled by Jesus. And second, we don’t have to be strong or perfect or unshakable. For it is in our weakness that God displays his power. In the weakest point of Jesus’ earthly life, God’s power was displayed in the greatest way possible. It was through Christ’s death on the cross that God saved the entire world. And it is in our weakest moments that God’s strength and power rests upon us. It may not be visible at the time, but once we’ve made it through those dark valleys, we can look back and see how God’s power was with us. That is that good news of Psalm 110. That when God is in our lives, we don’t stay where we are. We keep moving forward, closer and closer to the Lord and to eternal life with the God who loved us so deeply to go to the cross for us. That is great news! Amen!