Psalm 110

Psalm 110 The return of the Lord in judgment – Part 1

POST OVERVIEW. A series of posts considering the biblical connections within Psalm 110 and how this psalm gives a foretaste of the return of Jesus in judgment on the last day. Part 1, #664, 7/24/2023.

It is amazing to me how the Scriptures so perfectly fit together. It is not uncommon for passages from the Law written by Moses to mesh with David’s words in the psalms and then to see these Old Testament verses fulfilled in the New Testament. God’s divine inspiration of His Word is everywhere evident.

Recently I was again meditating on Psalm 110, a psalm written by David about a thousand years before Jesus lived and at least three thousand years before His Second Coming. I marveled at all the connections this psalm makes with other Scripture and so felt compelled to capture these ideas.

PSALM 110:1. YHWH SPEAKS TO ADONAI.

The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

A MYSTERY OR A RIDDLE. This first verse of the psalm seems to present us with a riddle or a mystery as we try to understand what the verse means. These questions come to mind.

  • When does this conversation between the LORD and the Lord take place?
  • What is the meaning of this concept, “until Your (Adonai’s) enemies be made a footstool for Your feet”?

We will use ordinary reasoning and the Scriptures to answer these questions.

IDENTITY OF CHARACTERS. We observe that this verse presents two distinct members of the Godhead having a conversation with one another. The LORD (YHWH in Hebrew) speaks to my Lord (Adonai in Hebrew). Our theology requires that this be God the Father speaking to God the Son, who we know to be Jesus the Messiah. The Father tells Jesus to sit at His right hand until He (the Father) makes Jesus’ enemies a footstool for Jesus’ feet. Having identified the characters in the verse, we now turn to our questions.

WHEN DID THIS CONVERSATION TAKE PLACE? Knowing that this conversation is between God the Father and God the Son helps us to locate this dialog in history. When in history would it have been possible for God the Father to tell God the Son to sit at His right hand? Logically, if the Father is telling the Son (Jesus) to sit at His right hand, it must mean that the Son is currently NOT sitting at His right hand. Now, when in history was there a time that Jesus was not sitting at the Father’s right hand? During His incarnation, of course. For approximately thirty-three years Jesus, God the Son, was living on the earth as the Son of Man. During that time, His place at the Father’s right hand was empty as He perfectly completed the work the Father had given Him to do (John 17:4). After a sinless life, an atoning death, and a glorious resurrection, Jesus ascended back to heaven (Acts 1:9) to take His place once again at the Father’s right hand. Knowing these facts brings us to the logical conclusion that this conversation in Psalm 110:1 between “the LORD” and “my Lord” took place when Jesus ascended back to heaven following His resurrection to take His seat at the Father’s right hand.

JESUS IS AT THE FATHER’S RIGHT HAND. We have discovered that, ever since His ascension back to heaven in approximately AD 32, the glorified Lord Jesus has been sitting at the Father’s right hand. There are at least nine (9) other New Testament references which confirm this fact. [Mark 16:19**, Luke 22:69; Acts 7:56*, Romans 8:34, Ephesians 1:20, Colossians 3:1, and Hebrews 1:3, 8:1, and 10:12. Note that Mark 16:19 (**) is in a section of Scripture that is not original, and in Acts 7:56 (*), Jesus is not sitting but is standing.]

Most of these passages only confirm for us that Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand after His ascension to heaven, but the passage in Hebrews 10:12-13 sheds more light on the expression about enemies being made a footstool.

HEBREWS 10:12-13. GOD THE SON IS CURRENTLY WAITING.

12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, “sat down at the right hand of God,” 13 waiting from that time onward “until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.”

Hebrews 10:12 again confirms that Jesus sat down at the Father’s right hand after His death on the cross (see also Hebrews 1:3), but 10:13 assures us that His time of waiting at the Father’s right hand will certainly end when the Father “makes His enemies a footstool” (Psalm 110:1).  Let’s discover what this event, “make enemies a footstool,” means.

MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL. This phrase is a figurative expression that says, in essence, “There will come a time when God the Father permits God the Son to rise from His place at the Father’s right hand to destroy His enemies.” In other words, “make Your enemies a footstool” identifies Jesus’ coming in judgment at the end of the age. The Scripture reveals this in several ways.

  1. The very contents of Psalm 110 make this interpretation apparent. Psalm 110:1 sets the stage for the events of the rest of the psalm by foretelling what will mark the beginning of the final judgment. Verse 2 pictures the LORD (God the Father) announcing to the Lord (God the Son) that the time has come for Him to “rule in the midst of His enemies.” That this is on the last day is made clear in verse 3 when His people (resurrected saints) join Him on the last day, and especially in verses 5 and 6 when the Son brings shattering judgment on all those who oppose Him.
  2. The Bible teaches that the Lord Jesus has completed His work of atonement (John 19:30), but there still remains for Him His terrible work of judgment when He will judge all the unrighteous on the last day. He will be at the Father’s right hand until the day of the Lord, when He will come to judge the earth. According to Psalm 96:13 and 98:9, He is coming to judge the earth. According to 2 Timothy 4:1, “Christ Jesus is to judge the living and the dead.” Psalm 2 is explicitly about the Son (2:7, 12) and declares that He “will break (or “rule”) the nations with a rod (or “scepter”) of iron and shatter them like earthenware.” This is describing Jesus’ judgment at the end of the age. This is a small sampling of the Scriptures that foretell the time when His enemies will be made a footstool.
  3. I am treating the book of Revelation separately because of the power and the clarity of its pictures of the returning Lord Jesus when “His enemies are made a footstool.” In Revelation 6:12-17, we see the unfolding of the great day of the wrath of the Lamb, when the unrighteous seek for shelter in caves and under rocks, any shelter from the coming Lamb. Revelation 14:18-20 tells of the gathering of the “grapes” (the unrighteous) of the earth and of their being thrown into “the great wine press of the wrath of God” (see Rev. 19:15). Then, in the most powerful picture in the Bible of the coming of the King of kings in judgment, in Rev. 19:11-21, we see that it is Jesus who “rules the nations with a rod of iron” (Psalm 2) and who “treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty” (both quotes from 19:15). One final reference from Revelation is 16:17-21. Although the Lamb is not mentioned in this passage, it is obvious from its similarity to other passages about the last day, the day of the Lord, that this is describing the return of the Lord Jesus in power and judgment. In other words, all these passages are describing that day when the Father will make Jesus’ enemies a footstool for His feet.

CONCLUSION

We have accomplished two things in this article. First, we have demonstrated that Psalm 110:1 has many connections to other Scriptures and contains many allusions to other passages of Scripture. But second, we have also discovered an interpretation of the first verse of Psalm 110 that positions us for understanding the rest of the psalm. By exegesis and careful reasoning, we have been able to turn what appeared to be an opaque text into a powerful verse of Scripture that clearly reveals the Lord Jesus in His power and glory. In this verse, Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand awaiting the time when He will come to judge the earth on the last day.

Soli Deo gloria            rmb                 7/24/2023                   #664

Psalm 110: The Lord (Adonai) rules in the midst of His enemies

POST OVERVIEW. A second post on Psalm 110, this time considering verses 2-7 where we see the Lord bringing His judgment on the unrighteous on the last day.

REVIEW OF PSALM 110:1

In a previous post (#629, 3/4/2023), we began our study of the eschatology of Psalm 110 by carefully examining just the first verse of the psalm. There we had discovered that, as the psalm opens, the Lord (Adonai) is welcomed back into heaven by the LORD (Yahweh). We saw that this first scene of the psalm took place when Jesus returned to heaven as the victorious Lamb after accomplishing His work of redemption on the cross. This first verse of Psalm 110 is therefore approximately parallel with Acts 2:33-36, with Revelation 5:6ff, and with Revelation 12:5b.

But we also saw that the focus of this psalm is not on the work that Jesus accomplished on the cross but is instead anticipating a future work that He will do when “His enemies are made a footstool for His feet.” Therefore, our orientation for reading the rest of the psalm is one of anticipation, asking the question, “What work will the Lord Jesus perform when He comes again?” That will be our question as we read the rest of the psalm.

I will again be using the New American Standard Bible (1995) for the text.

CONSIDERING THE ESCHATOLOGY OF PSALM 110:2-7

PSALM 110:2. Once again, it is important to see who is acting in this verse. In verse 1 the LORD (Yahweh) had said to the Lord (Adonai) that He should sit at His right hand UNTIL His enemies are made a footstool. Now in verse 2, the time anticipated by verse 1 has arrived and we now see that it is Adonai who is going to “rule in the midst of Your enemies.”

INTERPRETATION. God the Father speaks to God the Son, saying, “Jesus, now is the appointed time. The end of the age has come. There will be no more delay and no more suspension of judgment. Rise from Your seat at My right hand and take up Your double-edged sword. Take Your seat upon the white horse (Rev. 19:11-21) and begin Your awesome work of final judgment.”

PSALM 110:3. Before Adonai comes to reap the earth, He gathers His army around Him. These are His adoring subjects, and so “Your people will volunteer freely in holy array” as they prepare to follow their King into the battle.

INTERPRETATION. The Lord Jesus, the victorious Lamb, will gather His resurrected and glorified saints to Himself (this gathering of saints is pictured in Ezek. 37:1-14, in 1 Thess. 4:15-17, in Rev. 11:11-12 and in Rev. 14:1-5), and then these will immediately return with Him as His army (1 Thess. 3:13; 4:14; Rev. 19:14). In this context, “Your people” is all the elect of all time.

PSALM 110:4. This statement was made in eternity past from Yahweh to Adonai. In it, Yahweh established the eternal divine priesthood of the Lord Jesus, the priesthood of Melchizedek. The author of Hebrews teaches about this priesthood of Melchizedek and about Jesus’ place in it in Hebrews 7. Refer to this passage in Hebrews for an understanding of this verse. (I have written about Hebrews 7 and Melchizedek in a separate series of blogs.)

ADONAI COMES IN TERRIFYING JUDGMENT

The final three verses describe the work of judgment on the last day. This is THAT day, the day of the Lord, the day of the wrath of God. This portion of the psalm reveals why the unregenerate are terrified when the Lord returns (see Rev. 6:12-17).

PSALM 110:5. Now, as the war of the last day begins and the final rendering of judgment is poured out on the reprobate, we see that it is Adonai (Jesus) who is still at the right hand of Yahweh (God the Father). “He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath.”

INTERPRETATION. We have already made clear that these verses in Psalm 110 are describing the same events that take place in Rev. 19:11-21. Jesus Christ, accompanied by all His glorified saints, is coming to judge the earth and to tread the wine press of the wrath of God the Almighty. Here “kings” are mentioned specifically (“shatter kings”) to direct us to the passages in Revelation 16:13-16 and 19:17-19 (see obvious allusions in Rev. 20:8-9) that tell of Armageddon and the kings who gather their armies together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty (16:14). Jesus will “shatter” all opposing kings. All worldly authority will crumble before Him.

PSALM 110:6. Adonai (Jesus) “will judge among the nations and fill them with corpses. He will shatter the chief men over a broad country.”

INTERPRETATION. The verse’s meaning could not be clearer. In the day of His wrath, Jesus will come upon all the unrighteous with absolute justice and will slaughter all the unregenerate such that the earth will be filled with corpses. This same scene appears in Rev. 14:20 when blood flows from the wine press of God’s wrath up to a horse’s bridle for two hundred miles and in Rev. 19:21 where the Rider on the white horse (Jesus Christ) kills all the armies who had gathered against Him. The carnage will be unimaginable and none will escape.

PSALM 110:7. In a peaceful scene we see Adonai drinking from a brook.

INTERPRETATION. After the violence and destruction of the previous two verses in which the Lord judges all the inhabitants of the earth, the picture turns to a peaceful scene of the Lord drinking beside a brook. The message is so obvious that it can easily be missed: the Lord drinks from the brook just like a Man! To the Hebrew mind, both in David’s time and in Christ’s day a thousand years later, there was never any question that Adonai, the Lord, was God. But now in this verse we find a mystery, because here we find the Lord drinking from a brook. This means that Adonai, the one who comes to judge the earth, the one who shatters kings and who by Himself fills the nations with corpses, is also a Man. The psalm is teaching that the Lord is both God and Man. But how can this be?

Of course, we now know that the Lord Jesus, the one who will fulfill this psalm and the one who will render recompense to the nations, is both God and Man. He is the one who will fill the nations with corpses and He is the one who will drink from the brook when He is thirsty, just like any other man. This psalm is definitely prophetic and Messianic.

SUMMARY

What we see in Psalm 110 is a picture of the end of the age when the Lord Jesus will gather all His elect to Himself via the Resurrection and then will render recompense to all the unrighteous in the Judgment at the last day.

Soli Deo gloria            rmb                 3/9/2023                     #631

Psalm 110:1 – “The LORD said to my Lord”

POST OVERVIEW. A detailed study of Psalm 110:1 focused on the eschatology contained in this verse and in the psalm.

The psalms serve the church of the Lord Jesus by giving us praises and prayers, by modeling for us how we can cry out to the Lord when we are afraid or in pain or lonely or threatened by others. The psalms show us how raw and honest we can be with our God as we seek Him with our whole heart. The psalms are well-known for all these things. But we should also keep in mind that the psalms provide us with rich theology, pouring out doctrinal teaching in the form of laments and praises and cries for mercy. As the book of Job uses the context of suffering to debate the nature of God and His righteousness, so the book of Psalms uses the form of Hebrew poetry to reveal profound truths about God and man.

A DETAILED STUDY OF PSALM 110

For the next couple of articles, we will be studying Psalm 110. There may be no better example of a psalm that teaches theology and Bible doctrine than this psalm. Contained in its seven verses are truths about the nature of the Trinity, the deity of Jesus, Jesus’ priesthood of Melchizedek, and the humanity of Christ, as well as much teaching about Christ and the end of the age (eschatology). I plan to write two articles on this psalm, the first one being a careful study of just the first verse and the second article going carefully but more quickly through the remaining six verses.

TARGET OF OUR STUDY. Although there are many things that we could learn from Psalm 110, we will be seeking to learn what this psalm teaches us about last things, particularly about the coming of the Lord at the end of the age.

METHOD. The pace of our study will be slow, moving carefully and deliberately through all the verses of Psalm 110, and especially moving deliberately through the first verse. We will spend a lot of time on verse 1 for two reasons. First, this verse is packed with powerful theology and we want to go carefully to be sure that our exegesis does not go beyond what is actually contained in the text. But second, by carefully studying verse 1, we effectively position ourselves to see how the rest of the psalm flows. In other words, if we properly understand verse 1, then we should be lined up to understand the entire psalm.

I will be using the New American Standard Bible (1995) for my text.

The LORD says to my Lord:
“Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” Psalm 110:1

WHO. Simple observation tells us that there are two persons here in this scene, but who are these persons? One is “the LORD” and the other is “the Lord.” Both of these are names for God, but the names appear differently in English because the names are different in the original Hebrew. “The LORD” is “Yahweh” in Hebrew and is the first Person of the Trinity, whom we know as God the Father. “The Lord” is “Adonai” and is the second Person of the Trinity, whom we know as God the Son, Jesus Christ. So, this verse shows us God the Father speaking to Jesus. Much like Jesus’ so-called high-priestly prayer in John 17, in which God the Son prays to God the Father, so here we are allowed into the heavenly throne room to hear God the Father speak to Jesus, who is God the Son. We have now discerned who is speaking in Psalm 110:1.

WHAT. What is this event that prompts God the Father to speak to Jesus in this way? Again, observation of the details of the scene coupled with a basic knowledge of the flow of biblical history will make the answer plain. It appears that Adonai (Jesus) has been absent from His seat at the Father’s right hand for some reason and is now returning to His place. But when was there ever a time when God the Son was not seated at the Father’s right hand? Of course, the only time in all of eternity when Son was not at the Father’s right hand was when He had been sent into the world to accomplish His work of atonement by His death on the cross. For those thirty-three years of the Incarnation, Jesus “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) and during those years, the seat at the Father’s right hand was empty.

But now, in Psalm 110:1, Jesus has perfectly accomplished His work of atonement on the cross (John 17:4; 19:30; etc.) and is returning to His place, seated at the Father’s right hand (Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 10:12-13; Col. 3:1; Acts 2:33; 5:31). Thus, in Psalm 110:1, the Father (“the LORD”) welcomes Jesus back to heaven and back to His seat at His right hand.

WHEN. Since we now know what is happening here, we can know for certain when this occurred. The Father said this to the Son at ~ AD 30 in human history when Jesus ascended to heaven (Acts 1:9). [NOTE: For reference to other end-times passages, this scene is roughly simultaneous with the events of Rev. 5:6-14 and Rev. 12:5b.]

THE REST OF THE LAST DAYS AND THE END OF THE AGE

Having determined the participants in this scene and when the scene takes place, we now will examine the contents of the Father’s address to the Son.

“Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” This sentence from the Father to the Son looks out into the distant future and hints at events which will close the gospel age. Jesus, as the victorious Lamb (Rev. 5:6ff), has finished His atoning work and has sat down (Heb. 1:3), but the Father’s statement forces us to think about what will happen “then.” The LORD’s words create an anticipation about that future event when the Father makes Jesus’ enemies “a footstool for His feet.” This first verse, then, establishes that this psalm is prophetic and its theme is eschatological. The message is that, when His enemies are made a footstool, Adonai (“the Lord”) will arise from His seat to perform another work. The nature of that final work is what the rest of the psalm is about.

“The Lord” will remain seated at “the LORD’s” right hand for a long time (see Heb. 10:12-13 for this proof), but when His enemies are made a footstool, the Lord will arise to carry out His work of final judgment (see Rev. 19:11-21).

SUMMARY

Our first study of Psalm 110 has focused on only the first verse, but that verse has established this psalm as both Messianic and eschatological, and the psalm is about events surrounding the coming of the Lord Jesus at the end of the age. The next article will study the rest of the psalm.

Soli Deo gloria            rmb                 3/4/2023                     #629

This Jesus is both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:22-36)

POST OVERVIEW. The second post of a two-post series which examines Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost. (See first post, #587 on November 16, 2022, which gave the background for the apostle’s message.) This second post will be a verse by verse exegesis of the sermon, showing how Peter brilliantly makes his meaning clear.

OVERVIEW OF THE SERMON

The last post (#587) gave important background information for the sermon Peter delivered on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. In that post, we explored why Peter began his message by referring to Jesus as “the Nazarene” and we considered the two Davidic psalms which Peter quoted in his sermon, Psalm 16 and Psalm 110. Building on that foundation, we are now going to examine the sermon verse by verse to see how Peter crafts his message so that he brings his audience to a saving understanding of who Jesus is.

Before the exegesis, however, we need to see the structure of the sermon and understand specifically what Peter is intending to communicate. (The section of Scripture we will be exploring is Acts 2:22-36, which is the main body of the sermon and contains Peter’s most important points.)

In broad strokes, Peter’s message is that Jesus the Nazarene, whom “you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death” (Acts 2:23), this Jesus whom God raised up again (2:24, 32), “this Jesus whom you crucified” is “both Lord and Christ” (2:36). Thus, Peter must demonstrate from the Scriptures that this Jesus is the Christ, Israel’s promised Messiah, and he must demonstrate from the Scriptures that this Jesus is Lord, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.

The structure of the sermon is as follows:

  • Acts 2:22-23. Opening. “You crucified Jesus the Nazarene.”
  • Acts 2:24-32. From Psalm 16 (of David), Jesus is the Christ.
  • Acts 2:33-35.  From Psalm 110 (of David), Jesus is Lord.
  • Acts 2:36. Closing. “You crucified Jesus, who is both Lord and Christ.”

Now that we see the direction of the sermon, we are ready to explore the details.

VERSE BY VERSE EXEGESIS

This exegesis assumes that the reader is following along in their Bible. I will be using the New American Standard Bible (1995 Edition).

OPENING

Acts 2:22. Peter introduces Jesus the Nazarene. Although He had been crucified almost two months before Pentecost, Jesus’ name was still known to this Jewish crowd. Jesus’ earthly ministry had made an impression on the region around Jerusalem and into Galilee and beyond, so Peter here reminds them of Jesus. As we have said, Jesus as “the Nazarene” emphasizes His humble humanity and His humiliation in His shameful death. But also, Peter reminds the crowd that Jesus was no ordinary man, for He performed miracles and wonders and signs which were attested to many people. In fact, God performed these miracles through Jesus.

Acts 2:23. The vileness of Jesus’ execution and their own corporate guilt is now hammered home. “This Man you nailed to a cross and put Him to death.” Notice that Peter places the responsibility for Jesus’ death not on the ones who carried it out, but on the ones who planned it and agreed to it and who desired it. “YOU nailed Him to a cross.” But the Jews already knew and accepted this. “Yes, we saw to it that Jesus the Nazarene was executed. We were told He was a heretic.” So far, Peter is simply telling them facts they already know.

NOTE: This verse also contains the immensely important phrase, “delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” This post will not explore this but will leave its explanation for another post at a later date.

JESUS IS THE CHRIST

Acts 2:24. This verse begins the section of the sermon (2:24-32) in which Peter will demonstrate from Psalm 16 that Jesus is the Christ. “But God raised Him up again.” Peter delivers a thunderclap to the crowd: “You crucified Jesus, BUT GOD RAISED HIM UP.” The crowd begins to understand the wickedness of their act. “We put Jesus to death, but God raised Him to life again. Whom we crucified God resurrected. We must have acted against God.”

The big news, however, is that, in Jesus, we have a resurrection. Peter has thus made the focus of the sermon to be the resurrection. Among the Hebrews at that time, whenever the subject of the resurrection would come up in a conversation, Psalm 16 would be the Scripture referenced. So, if this is a resurrection, then this is a fulfilment of Psalm 16:8-11, which Peter will quote in the next verses.

Acts 2:25. Peter states that, in Psalm 16:8-11, David is speaking of Jesus. (NOTE: Acts 2:25-28 is a direct quote of Psalm 16:8-11.) Remember that, among Hebrew scholars of the time, this section of Psalm 16 was acknowledged to be Messianic. Also, as we have already mentioned, this section of Psalm 16 was the “go to” passage in the Old Testament for the resurrection. Therefore, when Peter says, “For David says of Him (Jesus),” he is saying that, in Psalm 16, David is telling of the resurrection of Jesus.

Acts 2:26. Peter continues to quote Psalm 16 with verse 9.

Acts 2:27. This is the key verse in the passage, a quote of Psalm 16:10.

Because You will not abandon my soul to Hades,
Nor allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.

Before we dig deeper into this verse, we need to notice that Peter has established an important point. In Acts 2:25, Peter declared that, in Psalm 16:8-11, David was speaking about Jesus and here in a quote of Psalm 16:10, he refers to Your Holy One. Thus, Peter has established that “Your Holy One” is Jesus. Remember this when we get to Acts 2:31.

We had noted in post #587 that, at that time, the exact understanding of this verse remained a mystery. It was clear that the verse spoke about a resurrection (“Nor allow Your Holy One to undergo decay”) and it was acknowledged that “Your Holy One” referred to the Messiah, but how the pieces fit together was a puzzle. For Messiah to be resurrected and “not undergo decay,” it would seem that He would need to die, but that did not agree with their teaching which said, the Christ is not to die, but “the Christ is to remain forever” (John 12:34). But now, with what Peter has said so far in his sermon, we have all the information we need to solve the puzzle. Peter, like any good preacher, will now connect the dots for his hearers so that they can fully grasp the significance of what has occurred and what he has said so far.

Acts 2:28. Peter finishes quoting Psalm 16 with verse 11 of that psalm.

Acts 2:29. In this verse, the apostle Peter eliminates the possibility of someone saying that David is here speaking about himself. In fact, Peter proves that David cannot possibly be referring to himself because “David died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.” Thus, David himself certainly underwent decay and was not resurrected. But if he is not speaking about himself, of whom was he speaking in Psalm 16:10?

Acts 2:30. Significantly, Peter reminds his audience that David was a prophet. This means that his writing is divinely inspired and, thus, absolutely true. (“The Scripture cannot be broken” – John 10:35; 2 Timothy 3:16; John 17:17). This leads into Acts 2:31.

Acts 2:31. The apostle Peter declares that David, as a prophet of God, spoke in Psalm 16:10 of the resurrection of the Christ. “He was neither abandoned to Hades, not did His flesh suffer decay.” Notice carefully what Peter has done. In quoting Psalm 16:10, he used the pronoun “His” in place of “Your Holy One.” But note that Peter has also said that this verse speaks of the resurrection of the Christ. Thus by simple logic, Peter has proved that “Your Holy One” is the Christ. But there is more. Remember from 2:27 that “Your Holy One” is Jesus. We again employ simple logic and discover that Peter has proven that Jesus is the Christ.

Acts 2:32. Peter again declares the resurrection of “this Jesus” (“God raised Him up again”) and adds that there are hundreds of witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection. Therefore, from the clear teaching of the Scriptures, from logic, and from the fact that Jesus has been raised up by God from the dead, this Jesus is the Christ. This concludes the first part of the sermon.

JESUS IS THE LORD

Acts 2:33a. The second, brief part of the sermon (2:33-35) is intended to demonstrate that this Jesus (whom you crucified) is the Lord, that is, He is God. Peter makes two declarations in Acts 2:33 that we will address separately. First, he declares that this Jesus has been exalted to the right hand of God. We know that, when God raised Him up again, He seated Jesus at His right hand (Mark 16:19; Eph. 1:20; Heb. 1:3). So, now Jesus is at God’s right hand. Hold that thought until we consider 2:34.

Acts 2:33b. Peter also declares that Jesus is the one who “poured forth” the promised Holy Spirit. Now, to understand what Peter is doing, we need to look back in Acts 2 to the quote from Joel 2:28-32a in Acts 2:17-21. There we read (Acts 2:17) “THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND.” But we need to know who is speaking in Joel 2:28, 29/Acts 2:17, 18. Who is it that will “pour forth His Spirit?” To answer that question, we need only look back one verse to Joel 2:27, where we read, “I am the LORD your God, And there is no other.” The LORD your God is the one speaking in Acts 2:17, 18 and so “the LORD your God is the one who will “pour forth His Spirit.” But notice that Peter has declared that Jesus has poured forth the promised Holy Spirit. So, from the prophet Joel we can conclude that Jesus is the Lord.

Acts 2:34. Here, the apostle Peter first establishes that Jesus, not David, ascended into heaven, and then Peter quotes Psalm 110:1.

‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”’

The main point to notice in this passage is that, according to Psalm 110:1, the Lord is seated at the LORD’s right hand. But wait! Peter has already demonstrated, in 2:33a, that Jesus is at God’s right hand. What do we conclude? Again, we must conclude that Jesus is the Lord.

Acts 2:35. Peter simply finishes the rest of Psalm 110:1. He has made his second point, that Jesus is Lord, and so will conclude his message.

CLOSING

Acts 2:36. With this verse, Peter will put the final nail in the coffin. He has demonstrated from Scripture that this Jesus is the Christ (2:24-32). He has proven from Scripture that this Jesus is the Lord (2:33-35). Now Peter delivers all the guilt of crucifying the Messiah onto the heads of all the house of Israel as he proclaims, “This Jesus whom you crucified is both Lord and Christ!”

CONCLUSION

What we have discovered in this two-part series is that the apostle Peter, an untrained fisherman from Galilee, has, by the power of the Holy Spirit, masterfully proven from two Davidic psalms, Psalm 16 and Psalm 110, that Jesus the Nazarene is, in fact, the Lord of the universe and the promised Messiah, the Christ.

SDG                 rmb                 11/18/2022                 #588

This Jesus whom you crucified (Acts 2:22-36)

POST OVERVIEW. The first post of a two-post series which examines Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost. This first post will provide some background for the apostle’s message, revealing the Holy Spirit’s inspiration. The second post will be a verse by verse exegesis of the sermon, showing how Peter brilliantly makes his meaning clear.

PENTECOST

The importance of the events of Pentecost in Acts 2 can scarcely be overstated. The Holy Spirit comes like a mighty rushing wind, manifesting Himself as tongues of fire; Galileans spontaneously speak in many of the languages of the Mediterranean world; Peter preaches the first sermon of the church age; three thousand people hear the message, repent, and are baptized; and the New Testament church is born. In my most recent study of Acts, I have been struck by the brilliance of Peter’s sermon and how, by carefully expositing the Scripture, he leads his Jewish audience to the conclusion that Jesus the Nazarene (Acts 2:22) is, in fact, Jesus, both Lord and Christ (2:36). We will spend a couple of sessions looking at Peter’s sermon to understand what he is proclaiming and how he communicates his message.

The section of Scripture we will be exploring is Acts 2:22-36, which is the main body of the sermon and contains Peter’s most important points. I will cover this in two posts. This first post will consider the background issues of the label “Jesus the Nazarene” and the two Davidic psalms which Peter quotes in his sermon. Then the second post will build on the first post and explain the passage verse by verse.

JESUS THE NAZARENE

Peter begins the main body of his sermon by speaking of our Lord as “Jesus the Nazarene” (Acts 2:22). He begins here because this is where most of his audience is in their thinking about Jesus. To them, Jesus was a maverick prophet, an upstart who had been exposed by the religious leaders and executed by the Romans almost two months ago. For many, Jesus had probably been forgotten, just another renegade among a long line of heretics. “Yes, we remember that Jesus the Nazarene. So what?”

But there is a theological reason why Peter speaks first about Jesus the Nazarene. This label is a term of derision that speaks of Jesus’ humiliation, of His human childhood in the dusty streets of Nazareth, in an obscure backwater of Galilee of the Gentiles (Isaiah 9:1). In this description there is no hint that this Jesus is the Son of God, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Maker of all things visible and invisible. Instead, Peter starts with Jesus the Nazarene, “the carpenter, the son of Mary” (Mark 6:3), the one who was without honor in His hometown and who was almost killed after He gave His first public reading of Scripture (Luke 4:16-30).

Jesus the Nazarene “was despised and forsaken of men. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him” (Isaiah 53:3). After Philip tells Nathanael that they have found the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:45), Nathanael asks, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (1:46). This is the message of the label “Jesus the Nazarene.”

Jesus the Nazarene speaks of the Man we see in Philippians 2:6-8. God the Son, equal in every way with God the Father, “emptied Himself and humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Jesus is first presented as the Nazarene because it is in His abject humiliation that the Lord of glory could be “nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put to death” (Acts 2:23). So Peter begins his message by talking about Jesus the Nazarene, Jesus in His lowly and inauspicious humanity.

THE DAVIDIC PSALMS 16 AND PSALM 110

The next background issue we will consider is the nature of the two Davidic psalms Peter quotes in his sermon, Psalm 16 and Psalm 110. It is important to note that both these passages were unsolved mysteries, even to the Hebrew scholars of the day. Psalm 16:8-11 and Psalm 110:1 were acknowledged to be Messianic, but the exact meaning of these Scriptures was unknown.

For example, what David meant in Psalm 16:10 when he wrote, “You will not allow Your Holy One to undergo decay” (quoted in Acts 2:27) was a mystery to both Sadducee and Pharisee. If the Pharisees (who believed in a resurrection) had seen this verse as telling of a resurrection, they probably would have adopted that view, but then they would immediately have been confronted with the question, “Resurrection of whom?” The most likely understanding of “Your Holy One” would be the Messiah, but that would mean that the Messiah would need to die and then be resurrected before He began to decay, and none of that made any sense before Christ. So, the meaning of Psalm 16:10 remained opaque until Pentecost.

The other psalm that Peter quotes is Psalm 110. Like Psalm 16, Psalm 110 was also regarded as Messianic and like Psalm 16, the meaning of this psalm was also a mystery. Especially opaque was the understanding of Psalm 110:1 – The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” The difficulties of interpreting this verse are perhaps even greater in the original Hebrew, which reads, “Yahweh says to my Adonai.” Here are some of the questions the interpreter needs to answer from this one verse:

  • How can God speak to God (Yahweh to Adonai)?
  • When does this conversation between Yahweh and Adonai take place? What is the context of this dialog?
  • Where had Adonai been that He was only now taking His seat at Yahweh’s right hand?
  • Although this psalm is obviously Messianic, where is the Messiah in this psalm?

Because a cohesive interpretation eluded even the wisest scholar, Psalm 110:1 remained an unsolved puzzle, shrouded in mystery until Pentecost.

But the main point here is that Peter’s sermon at Pentecost did not introduce some new heretical interpretations of well-known passages of Scripture. Rather, we see that Peter’s sermon simultaneously revealed the true meaning of two well-known but mysterious Davidic psalms and clearly demonstrated from these psalms that this Jesus is both Lord and Christ. Astonishingly, Peter, an untrained fisherman from Galilee, had suddenly emerged as an expert in Scriptural interpretation and as a powerful orator. The only explanation was that he had been filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). And also, wasn’t he one of those who had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13)?

With this understanding of the label “Jesus the Nazarene” and given some background on Psalm 16 and Psalm 110, we are ready to begin going carefully through Peter’s sermon and exegeting it verse by verse. We will do that in our next post.

SDG                 rmb                 11/16/2022                 #587

Speaking of Melchizedek (Part 1) Hebrews 5:5-6

POST OVERVIEW. This post is a study of Hebrews 5:5-6 where the author introduces the shadowy biblical figure of Melchizedek. This is the first in a series on Melchizedek.

The objective of this series of posts is to explore and interpret Hebrews 7, which is devoted almost exclusively to a discussion about how Melchizedek relates to Jesus Christ. We will do a deep dive into that chapter, but before we turn to chapter 7 of Hebrews, I wanted to look at how the author brings Melchizedek into his overall argument. So, this post will focus on Hebrews 5:5-6.

5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him,

“You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You;”

6 just as He says also in another passage,

“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”

Notice that in this two-verse passage, the author carefully selects two quotes from the book of Psalms. He mentions these quotes together, back-to-back, because he wants to show that each quote is an oath, wherein God the Father is speaking to God the Son in eternity past. But we still wonder why the author mentions the quote from Psalm 2, since that psalm is unrelated to his current teaching about Jesus as being a High Priest.

Here is why he does this. In the first century, it was generally accepted among Jewish scholars that Psalm 2 was Messianic and that 2:7 was an address from the LORD (YHWH) to the Messiah. That interpretation was settled and was not controversial. Every serious scholar would admit this point. On the other hand, there was considerable controversy over the interpretation of Psalm 110, and verse 4 of Psalm 110 was especially opaque. How in the world Melchizedek related to the Messiah and how or why the Messiah would be of the order of Melchizedek was beyond confusing.

Therefore, what the author of Hebrews does here in 5:5-6 is pure rhetorical genius. By presenting these two verses together, he demonstrates that the quotes are oaths of the same form. Next, by associating the controversial verse in Psalm 110:4 with the generally understood verse in Psalm 2:7, the writer succeeds in getting 110:4 accepted as also portraying the LORD (YHWH) speaking to Messiah with an oath of promise. This is key. By itself, Psalm 110:4 was too obscure to be discussed, but by placing it on the “coattails” of the “friendly,” well-understood Psalm 2:7, 110:4 is admitted into the discussion. And with Psalm 110:4 admitted into the discussion, Melchizedek has also entered the picture. Thus, we see that, by his brilliant use of quotes from the psalms, the author has managed to bring Melchizedek into the middle of the conversation. This is necessary, because Melchizedek and the priesthood he represents are going to prove crucial in the author’s theological argument about the obsolescence of the Levitical priesthood and the permanence and significance of Christ being a High Priest of the order of Melchizedek.

“Concerning him we have much to say” (Hebrews 5:11). Indeed, the author of Hebrews has much to say about Melchizedek, and in the next few posts we will attempt to understand the teaching of Hebrews 7 about him.

SDG                 rmb                 9/22/2022                   #574

Psalm 110 – The return of the conquering King

INTRODUCTION. A detailed interpretation of Psalm 110 which acknowledges the mysteries of the psalm from an Old Testament perspective and reveals the true meaning of the psalm in light of the Incarnation and the soon-coming return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So opaque were the mysteries of Psalm 110 that Hebrew scholars wrote virtually no commentaries on this psalm. Not only was the imagery within the psalm very difficult to understand, but the events that are taking place and even the characters involved were beyond the grasp of a scholar from the Old Testament era. Not long before His crucifixion, Jesus the Messiah questions the Pharisees about the meaning of Psalm 110:1 and receives only confused silence in reply. For, indeed, if our teaching is restricted to the Old Testament texts and our thinking is limited to an old covenant frame of reference, the psalm is virtually impossible to interpret. Here is the text of the psalm (from NASB):

1 The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
2 The LORD will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying,
“Rule in the midst of Your enemies.”
3 Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power;
In holy array, from the womb of the dawn, Your youth are to You as the dew.

4 The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind,
“You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”
5 The Lord is at Your right hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath.
6 He will judge among the nations, He will fill them with corpses,
He will shatter the chief men over a broad country.
7 He will drink from the brook by the wayside; Therefore He will lift up His head.

Yes, with an Old Testament mindset, the psalm’s mysteries are unsolvable. But Christ has now removed our old covenant veil. Now Christ has come in His humble first advent, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, to accomplish His work of redemption by dying on the cross for His people and He has been raised from the dead to prove that His atonement was accepted by the Father. So, we now preach Christ crucified and proclaim Christ raised from the dead, but we also declare that Christ will return in power and glory to reward the righteous and judge the unrighteous.

So, as we read Psalm 110 through the lens of the New Testament, we see that this psalm gives us a picture of what must soon take place when Christ returns at the end of the age. When we understand the context of this psalm, the beauty and the power of these prophecies come through like thunder.

The rest of this post, then, will be a meditation on Psalm 110.

BASIC FACTS. Psalm 110 was written by David under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit about a thousand years before Jesus Christ appeared in the flesh.

110:1. The English translation can inadvertently hide the text of the original Hebrew. “The LORD says to my Lord” translates the Hebrew, “YHWH says to my Adonai.” YHWH (the LORD) is the name of the covenant-keeping God. This name is the most holy word that can be spoken by a Hebrew. Adonai (the Lord) is also a name for the God of the Hebrews, but this name could be spoken without great fear of judgment. But what this verse presents to the Old Testament Hebrew reader is a total mystery, since God is speaking to God. But how can God speak to God? For Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “The LORD (YHWH) is our God, the LORD is one!” But if God is one, how does He appear here in Psalm 110:1 as two?

Now, however, after Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, it has been revealed that our God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Knowing this, we can understand that, in this verse, God the Father (YHWH) is speaking to God the Son (Adonai), and He tells Him to “sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

This phrase may still not make sense until we consider when this conversation between YHWH and Adonai takes place. For this exchange between God the Father and Jesus Christ, God the Son, occurs after Jesus has accomplished His work of redemption on the cross and has ascended back to heaven (John 19:30; Acts 1:9; Rev. 5:6-14). So, here in this verse, God the Father (YHWH) is welcoming God the Son (Adonai) back into heaven and back to His seat at the Father’s right hand. The Father tells Jesus the Son to wait “until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

This last phrase looks forward to the end of the age when the glorified Lord Jesus will come from heaven on the last day (Rev. 19:11-16) to judge the unrighteous (Rev. 19:21).

The first verse of the psalm, then, sets the stage of the psalm by showing us the victorious Jesus Christ awaiting the Father’s command for Him to return to judge the earth.

110:2. Now the Father’s command is issued. In 110:1, the Son was at the Father’s right hand awaiting the Father’s command for Him to return, and this is that command. To paraphrase, the Father tells the Son, “Go, My Son! You are the King. Stretch forth Your scepter (symbol of the King’s power and authority) from Zion (the place of the King’s rule; see Psalm 2:6) and vanquish Your enemies!” With the Father’s command, the Son prepares for His glorious return.

110:3. In this context, “Your people” must refer to the saints of the Lord Jesus. To put this in theological terms, “Your people” includes all the elect of all time. So, Jesus is returning with all of His people, but notice His people are “in holy array.” This speaks of the fact that His return occurs after the resurrection. The saints have been glorified in the resurrection (1 Thess. 4:14-17; 1 Cor. 15:50-55) and are now “in holy array” as they “volunteer freely” (joyfully join with the Lord Jesus as He returns to earth in judgment) “in the day of Your power.” (See also 1 Thess. 2:19; 3:13; 4:14; Rev. 14:1-5; 19:14). Thus all the glorified saints accompany King Jesus as He returns to judge the earth.

110:4. This verse serves as a parenthesis, taking us from the last day all the way back to eternity past when we hear the Father’s oath to the Son, saying, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Here is another passage that exceeds old covenant theology, for according to the Law, the priesthood began with the anointing of Aaron and continued through Aaron’s descendants until no later than AD 70 when Jerusalem was destroyed. But Psalm 110:4 teaches that the priesthood of Melchizedek has always existed and the Lord Jesus has always been a priest forever according to that order. So, this verse establishes that the warrior King is also a priest forever.

This means that Jesus’ priesthood existed in eternity past long before the Aaronic priesthood began. Indeed, Jesus’ priesthood was established even long before Melchizedek appeared as a priest of God Most High (Genesis 14:18-20). Thus the Aaronic priesthood functioned as a temporary “type,” pointing forward to the permanent and eternal priesthood of the Son of God (Hebrews 7-10).

110:5-6. Having turned aside for a verse to declare the eternal priesthood of the Son, the psalmist now returns to the last day and to the terrifying judgment of the unrighteous by the warrior King. Jesus is returning with His glorified saints to judge the earth (Rev. 6:12-17; 19:11-21), and there will be no place to hide. These two verses are clear and need no comment.

110:7. After the dramatic action of the rest of the psalm, this last verse presents a curious conclusion. What is the significance of the warrior King “drinking from the brook by the wayside” and “lifting up His head?” But when we consider this for a moment, the message of this verse is revealed to be simple and yet very profound.

Up until this point in the psalm it would be possible to see the Lord (Adonai) as only divine. The Hebrew scholar who lived under the old covenant would have understood Adonai to be God, even if he could not understand what this psalm was teaching about how the LORD (YHWH) and the Lord (Adonai) related to one another. And so, the Old Testament Hebrew would have seen Adonai as being God but would never have conceived of Adonai as also being human, and, up until 110:7, that would have been a valid understanding of the psalm. So the scholar might conclude something like, “Somehow the Lord (Adonai) is going to come at the end and is going to pour out God’s wrath on the unrighteous.”

But the simple words of 110:7 throw that interpretation out the window, for “He will drink from the brook by the wayside.” Observe that this “He” of 110:7 is the same “He” of 110:5 and 110:6, which we have decided must be the Lord (Adonai). But how does Adonai “drink from the brook” and “lift up His head”? These are things that humans do, but the Lord, as God, does not drink from brooks and He does not have a physical head to lift up. Or does He?

The solution to this conundrum is stunning. If the Lord (Adonai) drinks from the brook by the wayside and lifts up His head, it must mean that somehow the Lord has become a Man. Somehow the Lord, who is God and who is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek and who is seated at the LORD’s right hand and who will come on the last day to judge the nations; the Lord is somehow both God and Man. Yes, the Lord is both God and Man and His name is the Lord Jesus Christ.

CONCLUSION

From an Old Testament mindset, Psalm 110 was a murky collection of mysteries. It was not possible for the Old Testament Hebrew to understand David’s inspired writing because God had not revealed enough in His word to untangle the knots.

But now that Christ has been revealed and has died, has been raised and has ascended, and now that God has given us His full revelation in a completed Bible, we can see that, almost a millennium before Christ appeared and at least three millennia before He returned, the Holy Spirit inspired David to give us a veiled preview of that final awesome day.

SDG                 rmb                 6/24/2022                   #547

The Messiah’s glorious return in Psalm 110

For the scribes and rabbis of ancient Israel, Psalm 110 was a dense thicket of mysteries. The psalm was rightly perceived as Messianic, but the meaning of the visions in its verses was entirely opaque. Thus, this psalm received little commentary from Jewish scholars in the Talmud and the Midrash.

But since David penned this psalm a thousand years before Jesus, redemptive history has produced the Incarnation, and the crucifixion and resurrection of the Messiah, and divinely inspired prophecies in the completed text of Scripture now give us the end of the story. The net effect is that Psalm 110 can now be seen for what it is, a detailed prophecy of the coming of the Messiah as King and Judge at the end of the age. This post will demonstrate the parallels between Psalm 110 and other end-times prophecy in the Bible.

1 The LORD says to my Lord:
“Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

This scene takes place in heaven shortly after Christ’s ascension following His resurrection. The Son of God has accomplished the work of redemption which was given to Him by the Father in His Incarnation (John 17:4). His work was finished as He died His atoning death on the cross (John 19:30). He was raised from the dead on the third day and now Jesus has ascended back to heaven to sit at the Father’s right hand (Eph. 1:20-21; Rev. 5:13) to await the time when the Father will send Him back to earth to vanquish all His enemies (Matt. 24:36).

2 The LORD will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying,
“Rule in the midst of Your enemies.”

Now the time has come! Now the Father has decided that it is time to end the age and to bring a just recompense on all His enemies. And so, the Father hands the royal scepter to the Son and sends Him forth to judge and to vanquish the earth. Then will appear “a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war” (Rev. 19:11). The Son is now coming to tread out the great wine press of the wrath of God (Rev. 14:19-20; 19:15).

3 Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power;
In holy array, from the womb of the dawn,
Your youth are to You as the dew.

On that day, the day of Christ’s power, the glorified saints (“Your people in holy array”) will return with the Lord (1 Thess. 3:13; Rev. 19:14), and they will “volunteer freely” and will deal out recompense along with their King (Psalm 149:5-9).

4 The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind,
“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”

The Lord Jesus has always been Priest and King and Prophet, but here we are allowed to attend the ordination ceremony that took place in eternity past when God the Father anointed God the Son to be a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

5 The Lord is at Your right hand;
He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath.

This is still on the Last Day when the Lord Jesus returns to judge the nations and to “shatter kings.” “A day of wrath is that day, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and battle cry. On the day of the LORD’s wrath, all the earth will be devoured in the fire of His jealousy, for He will make a complete end, indeed a terrifying one, of all the inhabitants of the earth” (Zeph. 15-18). As David and Zephaniah tell of the day of the Lord’s wrath, so we read of that same day in Revelation 6:15-17:

15 Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; 16 and they *said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

The point here in this verse is that, the day of wrath spoken about by David ca. 1000 BC is the same day of wrath spoken about by the prophet Zephaniah and by the apostle John. This is the day of the Lord.

6 He will judge among the nations,
He will fill them with corpses,
He will shatter the chief men over a broad country.              

On the day of the Lord, when Jesus returns, He will judge the nations (Matt. 25:31-32). When He comes in power and glory, Jesus will slaughter all the unrighteous (Rev. 19:21) and will destroy kings and commanders and mighty men (Rev. 19:18-19). Again, we see David’s vision of the day of the Lord repeated in John’s vision of the same event.

CONCLUSION

The Person of Jesus the Messiah removes the mysteries from Psalm 110. Jesus is God the Son who sits at the Father’s right hand. Jesus is the one who will rule in the midst of His enemies. Jesus is the one who will lead His glorified saints to victory on the Last Day. Jesus is the one who is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Jesus will shatter kings, judge the nations, slaughter the unrighteous, and shatter the chief men on the day of His wrath. “Therefore, He will lift up His head.”            

SDG                 RMB                10/19/2021                 #442

Psalm 110 – Part 1: The LORD speaks to the Lord

NOTE: This post is longer than most because it is intended to teach how to interpret and understand difficult and complex verses of the Bible. So the purpose is primarily INSTRUCTIVE. rmb

Jesus is the central figure in the Bible. The more a person reads and studies the Bible, the more obvious this becomes. Jesus is the subject of the prophecies and the foreshadows and the types in the Old Testament, as the people of God looked forward to the Messiah’s coming. He is the regal King of the gospels, as He displays His deity through His miracles and His teaching, and He is the suffering servant of the Lord, enduring His passion and dying His sacrificial death on the cross. He is the Firstborn from the dead as He rises victorious from the grave, the resurrected King of kings and the one who ascends to the Father’s right hand. The New Testament looks back to His death on the cross and His glorious resurrection, but the New Testament also looks forward to His Second Coming, when He will descend from heaven as the Judge of all the earth to “tread out the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty (Revelation 19:15).” From Genesis to Revelation, Jesus is the subject of the Scriptures. He is the glorious one, the star of the show.

But even though Jesus is the Person who dominates the Scriptures, it is not always easy to find Him in every passage of the Scriptures. What I mean is that sometimes Jesus is hidden by the mysterious way that a passage is written. Sometimes the Holy Spirit has inspired a passage in the Bible that is loftier than our current thoughts or that stretches our concept of who Jesus is. Because the Scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16), there will be times when we can understand the words that are used in a passage, but we may not understand the full meaning of what is being communicated. For those passages, we must slow down and dig deeper to find the treasure hidden in the passage. Psalm 110 is such a passage. This psalm was written by King David about 1,000 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and yet it tells amazing truths about the Lord Jesus and about what He will accomplish in His advents.

The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” – Psalm 110:1

ASKING QUESTIONS TO UNDERSTAND THE VERSE

            At a first reading, this verse appears to be a complete mystery. The context of the verse is unclear, and the message of the verse is even less clear. What is this verse about? But before we despair, let’s see if we can ask some questions that may give us at least some direction.

            We have already established that Jesus is the central figure of the Bible. As we answer these questions, we will learn more about Jesus and about the whole flow of redemptive history and will see that this verse has a powerful message about Jesus.

  1. Who is speaking in this verse?
  2. To whom is He speaking?
  3. When does this conversation take place?
  4. What is the significance of “sitting at His right hand?”
  5. When will the promise of this verse be fulfilled?
  1. Who is speaking in this verse? First, we observe that the English text gives the name of the speaker as “LORD,” where the name is all capital letters. Why is this? We must understand that the original language of Hebrew had several names for God. The name translated as “LORD” is the Hebrew word “YHWH” or “Yahweh.” This is the covenant name for God that can also be understood as God the Father. Our God is one God in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the context of this verse, we would understand this “LORD” to be God the Father. So, God the Father is speaking.
  2. To whom is He speaking? Now we encounter another Person referred to as “Lord,” but notice that only the first letter of that name is capitalized. Again, the English is attempting to capture the meaning of the original Hebrew. The name translated as “Lord” is the Hebrew word “Adonai.” This is a name for God, but it is obviously different from the LORD, who is God the Father. David refers to Him as “my Lord.” Who is this? There is only one suspect for this mystery. Amazingly, in this verse God the Father is speaking to God the Son, Jesus Christ. What the psalmist, David, is relating to us in this verse is an “inter-trinitarian” conversation between God the Father and God the Son.
  3. When does this conversation take place? To answer this question, we need to look carefully at what God the Father is telling God the Son. The Father is telling the Son to “sit at His right hand” until some future date. This means that there must have been some time before this conversation when the Son was not sitting at the Father’s right hand. When was there a time when God the Son was not at the Father’s right hand? That time was when the Son was sent by the Father to earth in His first advent. Now the Son has completed His mission and has accomplished His work (John 17:4; 19:30) and He is returning to heaven. What we see, then, is that God the Father is speaking to God the Son after God the Son, Jesus Christ, has finished His work of atonement on the cross, has been resurrected and has ascended back to heaven. Thus, we see that this conversation takes place when Jesus Christ ascends to heaven after His first advent.
  4. What is the significance of “sitting at His right hand?” We have already seen that this verse, Psalm 110:1, is telling us that Jesus Christ, God the Son, has completed His work of redemption and has ascended back to heaven. God the Father is telling Him to sit at His right hand. Jesus is to sit. Sitting is what one did after you had completed your work. To be invited to sit meant that your host was inviting you to rest from your labors. “You have earned a rest. Take a load off your feet!” Jesus had perfectly accomplished His mission and had completed His work, so now God the Father invites Him to sit down. (See Hebrews 1:3.) Jesus it to sit at the LORD’s right hand. The right hand was the place of highest honor. It was the place where the king placed his most trusted and valiant counselors. Jesus, who had always occupied that seat until His first advent, assumes the place of highest honor after His mission is accomplished.
  5. When will the promise of this verse be fulfilled? God the Father not only invites God the Son to sit at His right hand after His ascension, but He also gives the Son a promise, that He will make the Son’s enemies a footstool for the Son’s feet. Up till now we have been focusing on Christ’s first advent, but now the focus shifts to His Second Coming at the end of the age. We know from other passages of Scripture that there will certainly be a time in the future when Jesus will again rise from His seat in heaven and will again come to earth, this time as a wrathful Judge and as a terrifying warrior. All of Christ’s enemies will be trampled under His feet (Revelation 14:19-20; 19:15, 20-21).

WHAT HAVE WE DISCOVERED?

            As we have carefully and deliberately gone through this difficult verse of Scripture, we have been able to discover some powerful truths. We used thoughtful questions to dig treasure out of this mysterious verse and, by bridging between what we already knew and what careful observation revealed, we uncovered new things about Jesus and about the future of the world.

            The Bible is all about Jesus Christ, and we have learned from this one verse of this ancient psalm of David, written a millennium before Christ was born, that:

  • There is evidence of the Trinity even in the psalms.
  • Jesus will be sitting at the right hand of God the Father throughout the time between His advents.
  • There will be a time in the future when Jesus Christ will return to destroy all His enemies.
  • Jesus has perfectly accomplished His mission and His work of redemption in His first advent and is therefore worthy to sit at the Father’s right hand.

Therefore, we can be encouraged as we make our way through our walk through this life, because Jesus is at the right hand of the Father and that He is soon coming from heaven to bring us home to Him.

SDG                 rmb                  12/28/2020

Psalm 110: A brief lesson in Christology

The LORD says to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand . . .”

INTRODUCTION

Thus, David begins Psalm 110, a psalm that held many mysteries for those who lived before the Incarnation. “The LORD says to my Lord.” “Yahweh says to my Adonai.” Right from the start the psalm presented difficulties. God is talking to God. Yahweh is talking to Adonai, so there appear to be two persons here, but the Shammah from Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” So how can this be? There is no clear solution to this puzzle.

            Jesus Himself brings out another conundrum from the psalm, as He questions the Pharisees during Passion Week. At that time, Psalm 110 was accepted by Hebrew scholars as a messianic psalm. The images and the drama of the psalm made it obvious that it pictured the victorious exploits of the Messiah. But the Holy Spirit had inspired David to write a theological riddle. So, Jesus asks, “Whose son is the Christ (Matthew 22:42ff)?” “The Son of David,” the Pharisees reply. The trap has been set and the bait has been taken. Jesus then quotes Psalm 110 and asks the obvious question: “If (in Psalm 110) David calls him (the Messiah) ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” In other words, “How can the Christ (Messiah) be both David’s son and his Lord?” No answer is offered because no answer is available. The Pharisees have no solution to the riddle.

            But the mysteries are even deeper than that. While the psalm was acknowledged to be about the victories of the Messiah, the only reference for the pronouns “You” and “Your” in verses 1-4 and the only reference for the pronoun “He” is verses 5-7 is “the Lord,” which in Hebrew is Adonai, a divine name of God. Therefore, taking all this into account, from Psalm 110 we discover that the Messiah is the Lord Adonai, but He is also the human Son of David “according to the flesh (Romans 1:3),” a Man like us who “will drink from the brook by the wayside (Psalm 110:7)” to quench His thirst. Sort of like a God-Man.

            Does that sound familiar? It should because Psalm 110 points unerringly to the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, this psalm is one of the most complete pictures of Jesus Christ in both His first and second advents in the Bible. The psalm provides us with a lesson in Christology that is supported by many other Scriptures. The rest of this article will explore Psalm 110 verse-by-verse and show how it reveals Jesus to us.

FINDING JESUS IN PSALM 110

  • Verse 1 – The Lord is told to sit at the right hand of the LORD because He has accomplished something that merits the seat of honor. Christ is exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3) because He has accomplished the work of redemption that He was given to do (John 17:4). He is highly exalted as a result of His perfect humiliation by his death on the cross (Philippians 2:5-11). He has been allotted a portion with the great (Isaiah 53:12).
  • Verse 1 – We have already talked (above) about the divine and human natures of the one who is the Lord (Adonai) and yet the Son of David.
  • Verse 2 – A “strong scepter” is a symbol of this King’s power. “The LORD sends forth Your strong scepter from Zion.” This scepter is the gospel that is sent forth and allows Christ through His church to rule in the midst of His enemies, “as sheep in the midst of wolves (Matthew 10:16)”. With the scepter of the gospel Christ will conquer the nations and bring many into His kingdom.
  • Verse 3 – There is a certain day in the future, “the day of Your power,” when His power will be on full display. We know that this will be the day of the Lord, the day of Christ’s return. In that day, “Your people will volunteer freely” and they will be dressed “in holy array.” This is describing the glorified saints arrayed in white robes who will come with the Lord Jesus upon His return. (See 1 Thess. 4:14; 2 Thess. 1:10; Revelation 19:14)
  • Verse 4 – The LORD has taken an oath and has sworn, and when God Himself takes an oath, it indicates the unchangeableness of the promise (Hebrews 6:13-20). This is the solemnity of the oath that the LORD has made to the Lord Jesus. The oath cannot be broken or changed.
  • Verse 4 – What is the nature of the oath? That Christ is “a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” First, then, He is a Priest as well as a King. There were no such kings in the Davidic line, for the priests were descended from Aaron in the tribe of Levi and the kings were from David in the line of Judah. Thus Christ, the Son of God, is the only one allowed to be both King and Priest because He is of the priestly order of Melchizedek. As a priest, Jesus makes intercession for His people. As priest, He is also the one who brought the blood of the eternal sacrifice to the heavenly mercy seat (See Hebrews 9-10).
  • Verse 4 – Christ is a priest forever. The priesthood of Jesus had no beginning and will have no end. In eternity past, the LORD swore with an oath that Jesus was a priest forever. He always lives to make intercession for His people (Hebrews 7:25). His people always have an advocate, a priest to intercede for them with the Father.
  • Verse 4 – For a study of Melchizedek as a type of Christ, spend time in Hebrews 7.
  • Verse 5 – “The Lord is at Your right hand.” Thus, begins the day of the Lord’s wrath. Verses 5-6 speak about the day of Christ’s return in wrath and judgment. We recall from verse 1 that the LORD invited the Lord to sit at His right hand. On the day of wrath, the Lord will still be at the LORD’s right hand as they render judgment to the unrighteous. In Revelation 6:16, the kings of the earth say to the mountains, “Hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne (the LORD), and from the wrath of the Lamb (the Lord).”
  • Verse 5 – “He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath.” From that same passage in Revelation 6:15-17, the Lord shatters kings and the great men in the day of His wrath. Psalm 110:5 is describing the events of Revelation 6:15-17.
  • Verse 6 – The Priest-King of the order of Melchizedek “will judge among the nations.” Can there be any doubt that this is the terrible day of Christ’s final judgment? This is described in Matthew 25:31-46, when Jesus separates the sheep from the goats and casts those on His left “into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (v. 41).” We see a glimpse of this in Luke 19:27 and in Revelation 14:9-11. Psalm 2:9 also mentions that the Son “will break them with a rod of iron and shatter them like earthenware.” Finally, in Revelation 19:11-16 we see the Lord Jesus coming in His final judgment.
  • Verse 6 – “He will fill them with corpses.” In the great day of judgment, there will be many slain by the Lord Jesus as He returns to deal out retribution. In Revelation 19:17-21, the Scriptures declare that the birds in midheaven will feast on “the flesh of kings and the flesh mighty men,” and all of these will be “killed with the sword that came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse.” The one on the horse is the Lord Jesus in His Second Coming. There will be many corpses on that day.
  • Verse 6 – “He will shatter the head over a broad country.” What would it mean for Jesus the Messiah to “shatter the head?” In Genesis 3:15, we read that the Messiah, the seed of the woman, will bruise Satan on his head. Now here we read that the great Priest-King, the Messiah “will shatter the head.” Psalm 110:6 is speaking of how Jesus crushed Satan’s head when He was crucified at The Place of a Skull. We also know that Jesus will finally “crush Satan’s head” when throws him into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10).
  • Verse 7 – The final verse may be the most mysterious of all. “He will drink from the brook by the wayside.” From this phrase it is unmistakable that this Warrior is human, for He thirsts and so He must stop by the wayside to drink from the brook. He wields the divine sword of judgment, yet He also needs water to slake His thirst.
  • Verse 7 – There may be more intended from the phrase, “He will drink from the brook.” For we know that, during His first advent, Jesus the Messiah was required to drink the cup of God’s wrath which He was given (John 18:11; Matthew 20:22). We know that, while He was on the cross, the Messiah thirsted (John 19:28). It is possible, then, to understand this phrase as speaking about His suffering in His earthly life. He drank from the brook of suffering that ran by the wayside of His life.
  • Verse 7 – If drinking from the brook does, in fact, point to Jesus’ suffering in this life, then the second half of the verse fits well into Scripture. In Isaiah 53:11, “As a result of the anguish of His soul . . .” Then in 53:12, “Therefore, I will assign Him a portion with the great.” In Philippians 2:8, Jesus was “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” But 2:9, “Therefore also God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name.” (See also Revelation 5, where the Lamb is given glory and honor because He has conquered.) Because the Messiah endured the cross, “Therefore He (the LORD) will lift up His (the Lord’s) head.” And this understanding would bring us back to the start of the psalm when Jesus ascends to the right hand of the LORD.

CONCLUSION

            Psalm 110 presents us with a powerful picture of Jesus the Messiah in His first advent as the suffering Servant, but also in His Second Coming as the Warrior-Judge. This psalm also highlights the prophetic nature of some of the psalms as clearly foreshadowing future events. Finally, the psalm reveals again the divine inspiration of the Scriptures as these words written by David a thousand years before Jesus’ Incarnation are fulfilled by our great Priest-King.

SDG                 rmb                 10/20/2020