The LORD Said to My Lord

The Psalms are the most referenced Old Testament book in the New Testament Scriptures. And of the Psalms, Psalm 110 is the most quoted or alluded-to. The longest list that I have so-far discovered has more than 60 references.¹

Our Lord Jesus Christ takes up the hundred and tenth Psalm, revealing that in it king David is writing of him. On one occasion when Jesus addressed the Pharisees directly, he asked them: “What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?”

The Pharisees answered that Christ is “the son of David”, the ancient king of Israel (Matthew 22:41-42). They understood this from the prophet Isaiah, among many others.² Isaiah gives us the following prophecy about the son of David, the heir of his kingdom, who was to come: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6-7).

God shall give Israel a Son to sit upon the throne of David: a successor in the dynasty of king David himself. In Israel, kings receive their office by ceremonial anointing with oil (e.g. 1 Samuel 10:1). The Greek word “Christ” and the Hebrew word “Messiah” both mean “anointed”.³ And according to the prophet Isaiah, this Anointed Son shall be a much greater king than David was, and his kingdom shall extend far beyond that of David. He would be preeminently the Anointed One—the Christ—the Messiah.

The Pharisees were scholars of the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings (the Tenach, or what Christians now call the Old Testament Scriptures). They knew something of how great the promised Messiah would be. So, the Messiah himself reminded them of the first verse of Psalm 110: “He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool”. And then he makes his argument: “If David then calleth him Lord, how is he his son?” (Matthew 22:43-45).

Do you understand what king David understood? This particular Son of David surpasses David very greatly—he is even greater than Solomon! And king David recognised this by already worshipping his future Son, calling him “my Lord”.⁴

The early Christians believed and understood that “Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:9-11). When they refused to worship Caesar as Lord (as though he were both an emperor and a god), they courageously died the martyr’s death for this great truth. They resolutely confessed, as the apostles themselves did and taught them, that Jesus Christ is “Lord of all” (Acts 10:36).

Jesus Christ is the King above king David, whom he prophesied would be raised up by the LORD to sit upon the throne of the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth at the right hand of God. For the Father would give to the Son all kingly power in heaven and in earth (Matthew 28:18). Therefore Christ is really the only Authority, the only Lord—he is “our Lord Jesus Christ…the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 6:14-15). When the prophet Isaiah called this son of David “The mighty God”, he was absolutely right to do so.

My Lord and My God

While the Pharisees opposed Jesus and Jesus opposed them, “the common people heard him gladly” (see parallel passages: Mark 12:35-37 and Luke 20:42-47). And we too hear him gladly. We too have been brought to the question of who Jesus is—“Is not this the Christ?”—and we have discovered that we believe in him. “We…know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world” (John 4:29, 41-42). Therefore when we sing Psalm 110 in our worship of God, we do so with assurance from Jesus’s own words that we are singing about him. He is David’s and Isaiah’s Lord and God; and we confess with Thomas, after he stopped doubting and believed: Jesus Christ is “My Lord and my God” (see John 20:2-31).

In worshipping the Son of David already as his Lord, even before his incarnation, David understood that the coming Messiah was, is, and shall always be, eternal. David had the same high privilege of seeing him whom Abraham saw, as Jesus himself would later proclaim: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad…Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:56-58). And in his great high priestly prayer, Jesus himself prayed: “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:5).

King David also declared in the second Psalm, that this Son of his is a far greater king than himself, whose kingdom would be the whole world. For David did not say this of himself: “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession” (Psalm 2:6-8). We learn later, that here the Anointed One’s being “begotten” of God refers to God raising him from the dead (see Acts 13:33; Revelation 1:5), and giving him the throne over the people of God in Zion, and promising him expansion of this kingdom, his kingdom, over all the heathen and the uttermost parts of the earth and, indeed, over all things in heaven and on earth.

In the eighth Psalm, David again sang of a Man whose kingship extends much further than the land of Israel: “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet” (Psalm 8:4-6). This “man” is not merely “mankind”, but he is the Messiah. This is confirmed to be a Messianic prophecy by Hebrews 2:6-9.

And in the forty-fifth Psalm, the sons of Korah also sang and prophesied: “Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under thee. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows” (Psalm 45:3-7).

David’s kingdom was not only the kingdom of David but it was the kingdom covenanted to God; and therefore it was the kingdom of God (see Exodus 11:45; Leviticus 26:12; Jeremiah 7:23). And a day was coming when the Anointed Son of David would be enthroned to reign as both King and God over this kingdom (see also 2 Samuel 7; 23:5; Psalm 78:60-72; 89:1-4; 132:11-12; Matthew 12:28; Mark 1:14-15; 4:11, 26, 30).

This same covenantal relationship that the people of God have with God today—and shall always have: “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Revelation 21:2-3). The “husband” is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the “bride”, New Jerusalem, is his Church (v.9-14).

What the angel Gabriel proclaimed and prophesied to Mary has not ceased to be true: “And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:30-33). Can you hear the echo of Isaiah’s prophecy (Isaiah 9:6-7)?

The Messiah, who is still king of the Jews, is also the King of kings (see Psalm 2:7; 45:7; Matthew 2:1-4; John 20:19-22; 1 Timothy 6:13-16; Acts 15:16-17; Romans 1:3-4; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 (referring to both Psalm 8:6 and 110:1); Philippians 2:5-11; Hebrews 1:5).

Moreover, Christ’s kingdom is also called the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 3:2; 4:7; 5:3, 11, 19-20; 8:11; 13:11, 24, 33, 44, 45, 47, 52; 19:14—we shall say more on these parables of the kingdom later). And when we pray, we should pray as our Lord taught us: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10).

Even the saved thief on the cross knew this that the Messiah’s reign as King would begin in heaven: “And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom” (Luke 23:42).

The Throne at the Right Hand of God

The LORD himself said to David’s Lord, “Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” We know how and when this prophecy began to be fulfilled: forty days after our Saviour’s resurrection from the dead he ascended into heaven, where he is even now seated—enthroned—at the right hand of God.

This “until” of Psalm 110:1 is still ongoing, for God has raised the Lord Jesus Christ to the most “highly exalted” position of all, when he gave him this throne on which he now sits, “and [has] given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:6-11).

From his throne at God the Father’s right hand, God the Son reigns now with all authority: he has “all power…in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). With all this power over everything, our Lord now commissions all his followers to preach and share the gospel of salvation everywhere, going and making disciples of all the nations; and he has promised us, “lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (v.20). And because the Lord Jesus Christ is with his people as they fulfill his Great Commission, a day is coming when—“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9).

As the Lord Jesus Christ himself says in the twenty-second Psalm: “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the LORD’s: and he is the governor among the nations” (Psalm 22:27-28).⁵

Following on from the Gospels to Acts, we next see the apostle Peter taking up the first verse of Psalm 110 again to prove who Jesus is, on that day of Pentecost when he was filled with the Holy Spirit. This Psalm of David was not ultimately about David: “For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:34-36).

Peter preached to the Jews on that Pentecost: this same Jesus is both David’s and our Lord and Christ.

Later, Peter also writes in his first epistle that “Jesus Christ” has ascended and “gone into heaven, and is”—is, present tense: now—“on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him” (1 Peter 3:21-22). And it is the LORD himself who is now making subject all angels and authorities and powers in heaven and on earth to the One now enthroned at the right hand of God.

What the apostle Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus is what we still pray for all the Lord’s people everywhere—in accordance with, and in fulfilment of, Psalm 110:1 and Psalm 8:6: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:17-23).

As the apostle Paul teaches us elsewhere, “For he [Christ] must reign,” reign—when? Now, all though this present New Testament Age—“till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:25-26; also referring to both Psalm 110:1 and Psalm 8:6). He who reigns over all is the King over all.

The author of Hebrews⁶ draws the following doctrine out of Psalm 110:1: “But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?” (Hebrews 1:13). Christ is infinitely greater than the angels. If David’s Lord is sitting at the right hand of God the Father, then David’s Lord has power over all things on earth and in heaven, including the angels. “For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him” (Hebrews 1:5-6; referring to Psalm 2:7; 2 Samuel 7:12-14, and Psalm 97:7).

The eternal covenant that God made with David is fulfilled by Christ the Son of David now being enthroned at the right hand of God as the Lord of all that is in heaven and earth: “I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah” (Psalm 89:1-4).

The mercies of the LORD for ever. To all generations. In the very heavens. The Seed of David. Is he your Saviour, your Lord, and your God?

Paul refers to Psalm 110:1 when he encourages us to keep looking up! even today: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1; referring to Psalm 110:1).

“I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star” (Revelation 22:16).

Psalm 110 is the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament Scriptures.

Is this “until” timeframe of the Kingly session of Christ in Psalm 110:1 the New Testament Age? Yes.

Was David’s Lord going to be a military Messiah? No. Is his conquest of the world (in the LORD making all his enemies his footstool) being accomplished by armies fighting wars? No. True Christinaity is not a “warrior religion”.

So, did the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels and his apostles in their Epistles “explain away” or misinterpret such Psalms and prophecies as Psalm 110 to make them non-miliary and non-violent? No, their interpretation is correct.

How, then, does Christ win? What is the rod of the Messiah’s strength that the LORD shall send out of Zion, that enables him to rule in the midst of his enemies in this world (Psalm 110:2)?

To be continued…

---

1. See the side-column references for Psalm 110 in the Westminster Reference Bible, published by the Trinitarian Bible Society. These were copied from the John Brown of Haddington’s Self-Interpreting Bible (1778). ↩︎

2. Many other places in the Old Testament Scriptures also revealed how this same Son of David would be the great prophesied King, and therefore the Anointed One (i.e. the Messiah, or Christ). A few examples are Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5-6; Ezekiel 34:23-24; 37:24-25; Amos 9:11. ↩︎

3. Χριστός, Christos (Strong’s Concordance, Greek Dictionary, number 5547). מָשִׁיחַ, mashiyach (Hebrew 4899). ↩︎

4. The Greek word κύριος, translated Lord (Strong’s Concordance, Greek Dictionary, number 2962) means one who is supreme such as the master, owner, chief, king, or emperor. A Lord is sovereign over his domain. (A lord is not necessarily a lesser rank or title than a king, as we have in Britain.) The Hebrew word in Psalm 110:1 is אָדוֹן, adone, which also covers the same range of meanings (Strong’s Concordance, Hebrew Dictionary, number 113). ↩︎

5. See previous article in this series, The Lord Jesus Christ in The Psalms. ↩︎

6. Many believe the apostle Paul to have been the author of the epistle to the Hebrews. See my explanation at footnote 1 in a previous article, Evidence of Things Not Seen. ↩︎