Psalm 110:1
The Lord says to my lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.” (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Psalm 110 and Acts 2:14-40
Psalm 110 is another psalm written by David. Psalm 110 verse one is the most frequently quoted verse in the New Testament. Additionally, verse four is given almost a full chapter of commentary in chapter seven of the book of Hebrews. Psalm 110 is entirely forward-looking to the reign of the King of Kings. Thus this psalm is considered a royal psalm which simply means the subject of the psalm is the king of Israel – Jesus.
The first verse of Psalm 110 opens in an interesting way. The author is David and he writes, “The Lord says to my Lord” (vs 1). David was king of Israel at the time and he refers to the LORD (Yahweh) speaking to his Lord (Adonai). It appears that David is overhearing a conversation between God and Jesus. God the Father tells Jesus the Son, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet” (vs 1).
Jesus used this psalm to stump the Pharisees toward the end of his ministry. He had already “silenced the Sadducees” (Matt 22:34) so he turns his attention to the Pharisees. It seems that Jesus was not in the mood to deal with them and their schemes any longer. He asked the Pharisees, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” (Matt 22:42).
They confidently replied, “The son of David” (Matt 22:42) likely thinking that they finally had Jesus on their turf. They knew the Scriptures and they knew the prophecies about the Messiah. They also knew that Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah so now they were finally going to get it all out in the open and address the issue head-on.
Then Jesus quotes Psalm 110:
“He [Jesus] said to them, ‘How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,
‘”The Lord said to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
under your feet.”‘
If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?’” (Matt 22:43-45).
And there it is – the beginning of Psalm 110. This question doesn’t seem so hard to us after the Resurrection. We can easily see that Psalm 110 appears to be David witnessing a conversation between his God and his Lord Jesus. But to the Pharisees and even most of those following Jesus at the time, this was an eye-opening revelation. The Messiah would be the son of David but he would also be his Lord. It left them all stumped. “No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions” (Matt 22:46).
Paul would start his letter to the Romans with this amazing revelation. “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 1:1-4).
On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached his first sermon. The foundation of his sermon was Psalm 110. Peter’s bold final conclusion to his sermon had to be set up by Psalm 110. Peter preached:
“God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,
‘”The Lord said to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.”‘
‘Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah’” (Acts 2:32-36).
According to Psalm 110, Jesus is both Lord and Christ. He is the Messiah and the King seated on David’s throne just as the angel Gabriel told Mary, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:32-33).
Christ in the Old Testament 
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