Now the first verse here is the most quoted verse from the Old Testament in the New. It is used 14 times in the New Testament, so you know that it is a truly important verse and there are several other allusions to this throughout the New Testament beyond the 14. The reason is, this verse provides the textual foundation for a handful of important doctrines. But particularly the one that is most important that derives from this—The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool"—is that it provides the textual foundation for the Father-Son relationship. And the Father-Son relationship is the true basis of all theology. Or maybe I could say it is the basis of all true theology. Did you notice a third person in there? No, it is "The Lord said to my Lord." There is not a third person in a trinity. It is just not there.
And this is the verse that is the foundation of that doctrine, that there is a God being who has worked with humanity from the very beginning. He is our Creator, but He has a Lord. There is One who is greater than He. We just read that verse there in John 14:28. What He said there in John 14:28 verifies what is said here in Psalm 110:1. Those are the only two there as divine God beings at the present.
Now this is what you would read in Hebrew without the English that I am going to use here. It says, "Yahweh declares to my Adon, 'Sit at My right hand.'" Now I use those two Hebrew words because they are important. Yahweh obviously is the great God of all things, His personal name, the I Am, the One who was, the One who is, and the One who shall be. Adon, if you know your Hebrew, is related to what the Canaanites had as their god, Adon, and the Greeks later had their god Adonis. That word, which is original to the Hebrew, is Lord or master. It means the one of highest rank.
So there are three persons mentioned here in the first line of the first verse: the Father, who here is called Yahweh; and then King David is represented by the word my. He is the author here; and then the Son, Christ, is called Adon, the Lord or the master. And what did they call Him when He was living? They called Him Lord most frequently.
The time setting of verse 1 is Christ's ascension to heaven after His resurrection. This is when the Father said, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool." That is when Jesus rose and ascended to heaven and sat down at the Father's right hand. In the second verse the time setting moves forward to Jesus Christ's second coming. It is very quick. You go from AD 31 to whatever the time will be 2,000 years later roughly. And at that point the Son—the Word, Jesus Christ—is King of kings and He rules on the earth amidst the nations that tried to fight Him. And it says here that He will rule out of Zion, out of Jerusalem, and from there His sovereign might goes out. "The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies!" And we know that He will come down on the Mount of Olives, and He will fight against His enemies that come against Him.
Back in Psalm 110, verse 3 speaks about those who comprise His army. It said here, "Your people," and "they shall be volunteers." I mentioned this last time but I want to go over it again. This is really neat. It is very encouraging to think about where He calls His people volunteers. It is showing that they choose the side that they want to be on. They choose His side, and they choose, they voluntarily choose to sacrifice and serve.
Now how do I get that? Well, actually, the word volunteers is not volunteers. Literally in the Hebrew, the word means freewill offerings or sacrifices. And we can compare this in parallel to what Paul tells us in Romans 12:1 that it is our reasonable service to become living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. That is what He is talking about here, that the ones who are in His army are the ones who decided by … . . .
Now the first verse here is the most quoted verse from the Old Testament in the New. It is used 14 times in the New Testament, so you know that it is a truly important verse and there are several other allusions to this throughout the New Testament beyond the 14. The reason is, this verse provides the textual foundation for a handful of important doctrines. But particularly the one that is most important that derives from this—The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand till I make Your enemies Your footstool"—is that it provides the textual foundation for the Father-Son relationship. And the Father-Son relationship is the true basis of all theology. Or maybe I could say it is the basis of all true theology. Did you notice a third person in there? No, it is "The Lord said to my Lord." There is not a third person in a trinity. It is just not there.
And this is the verse that is the foundation of that doctrine, that there is a God being who has worked with humanity from the very beginning. He is our Creator, but He has a Lord. There is One who is greater than He. We just read that verse there in John 14:28. What He said there in John 14:28 verifies what is said here in Psalm 110:1. Those are the only two there as divine God beings at the present.
Now this is what you would read in Hebrew without the English that I am going to use here. It says, "Yahweh declares to my Adon, 'Sit at My right hand.'" Now I use those two Hebrew words because they are important. Yahweh obviously is the great God of all things, His personal name, the I Am, the One who was, the One who is, and the One who shall be. Adon, if you know your Hebrew, is related to what the Canaanites had as their god, Adon, and the Greeks later had their god Adonis. That word, which is original to the Hebrew, is Lord or master. It means the one of highest rank.
So there are three persons mentioned here in the first line of the first verse: the Father, who here is called Yahweh; and then King David is represented by the word my. He is the author here; and then the Son, Christ, is called Adon, the Lord or the master. And what did they call Him when He was living? They called Him Lord most frequently.
The time setting of verse 1 is Christ's ascension to heaven after His resurrection. This is when the Father said, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool." That is when Jesus rose and ascended to heaven and sat down at the Father's right hand. In the second verse the time setting moves forward to Jesus Christ's second coming. It is very quick. You go from AD 31 to whatever the time will be 2,000 years later roughly. And at that point the Son—the Word, Jesus Christ—is King of kings and He rules on the earth amidst the nations that tried to fight Him. And it says here that He will rule out of Zion, out of Jerusalem, and from there His sovereign might goes out. "The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies!" And we know that He will come down on the Mount of Olives, and He will fight against His enemies that come against Him.
This relates to the vision in Daniel we saw, in which the Son of Man was given dominion and glory and a kingdom. Here we have the Father telling Him to sit at His right hand till He makes His enemies His footstool. The verses that follow also speak about the rod of strength, of rulership, and of executing kings in the day of His wrath. As we know, those things are still awaiting fulfillment.
So, after Jesus ascended, He was given the place of honor at the Father’s right hand. It also implies ruling with Him. In other words, He did not just sit down—He was enthroned. His dominion and kingdom became official, we could say. Of course, when He was a Man, He represented the Kingdom, and He was recognized as a King even as a baby. But this psalm, plus the vision we saw in Daniel, indicates that something changed when He ascended and sat down at the Father’s right hand.
At least part of what changed was His experience as a Man that qualified Him for an even greater role than He had before. Revelation 3:21 alludes to this. It says, “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as [Christ says] I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” He had to overcome—He had to be victorious—before He could sit down with His Father.
But verse 1 also introduces the idea that He is waiting for something—waiting until His enemies are made His footstool. There is a great pause of unknown length before all the enemies are completely subjugated. And so, even as Christ is enthroned now at the Father’s right hand, the story is not over. They are looking forward to a future victory, just as we are. That is what verse 5 talks about—His execution of rebellious kings in that future victory.
This teaches that Christ’s ascension was a line in the sand. It marked the end of one manner of operation and the beginning of another. Prior to Christ’s incarnation as a human baby, He met with many Old Testament figures—with Adam and Eve, with Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and others. But once He ascended and sat down, He has not and will not leave His Father’s right hand until He is sent back.
One of the last acts of this age features the Lamb of God, the Word of God, the One we know as Jesus Christ, in divine warrior mode, bringing God's wrath upon His enemies, in justice. You might want to write down Psalm 110:1:2, 5-6. There it shows in the poetic language of the Psalms, Him doing the exact same thing when God says, Sit on Your throne and make My enemies Your footstool.
