Psalm 110--Sit at My Right Hand

Psalm 110
English Standard Version

Sit at My Right Hand
A Psalm of David.
110 The LORD says to my Lord:
    “Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”

2 The LORD sends forth from Zion
    your mighty scepter.
    Rule in the midst of your enemies!
3 Your people will offer themselves freely
    on the day of your power,
    in holy garments;
from the womb of the morning,
    the dew of your youth will be yours.
4 The LORD has sworn
    and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever
    after the order of Melchizedek.”

​5 The Lord is at your right hand;
    he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
6 He will execute judgment among the nations,
    filling them with corpses;
he will shatter chiefs
    over the wide earth.
7 He will drink from the brook by the way;
    therefore he will lift up his head.

---

Many of us probably know this passage as the passage that shows that the name "The LORD" can apply to the Father while the name "Lord" applies to the Son, yet I'd say "Lord" is more of a title than a name--in the same way that Christ is a title and not a name.  In fact, Jesus claims that He is also "The LORD" when He said in John 8:58, "Before Abraham was, I AM."  Yes, I believe this is a conversation before the Father and the Son, but I don't think we should say that every time we see "The LORD" used in the Old Testament that it speaks only of the Father and that every time we see "Lord" used in the Old Testament that it automatically refers to the Son.

This is a Messianic Psalm, so we see God [the Father] saying to the Messiah [the Son] that He needs to wait a little while longer before it is the right time for Him to destroy His enemies.  This seems to be the answer many of David's prayers in the Psalms about "How long O LORD?" and asking why the righteous seem to suffer and the wicked seem to flourish.  The LORD's answer is, "Just a little while longer," but we are also told that the Messiah is to sit at the right hand of the Father (a position of power, privilege and authority) while He waits for all the promises that were made for Him to be fulfilled to Him.  It is a picture for David of how he too can patiently wait for all that God has promised to him to come to pass--eventually everything the LORD promised will come to pass, even if it is not in David's physical lifetime.

When the Day of the Lord arrives, He will rule for Zion [that is Jerusalem], and all the subjects of the Messiah will serve Him as priests.  This should tell us something about His identity, but if it's not clear to us that He's also our High Priest, that is made explicitly clear in verse 4 that tells us that He will be a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.  It is not until the book of Hebrews that this is expounded upon, and we understand that this is not a priesthood by bloodline derived from the Law by which Aaron and his sons served as high priests.  If that were the case, Jesus would be ineligible because He was the son of David from the tribe of Judah.  He was not even from the tribe of Levi.  Aaron's priesthood was one marked not only by the sins of the people, but as sinful men standing in the place of other sinful men.  It was inadequate, because the high priest had his own sins that he needed to die for, so he could never be the propitiation for the sins of the people, but only a foreshadowing of the greater High Priest that Jesus was going to be.

If you don't know who Melchizedek is, I wouldn't be surprised, as he's only mentioned a few times in the Bible (here's a link to a search from biblegateway.com):  BibleGateway - Keyword Search: Melchizedek.  By far, the most he's mentioned is in the book of Hebrews--specifically chapter 7, though he also makes appearances in chapters 5 and 6 as the author of the book of Hebrews is setting us up for the argument, he's going to make in chapter 7.  He originally appears, seemingly out of nowhere, in Genesis 14, starting in verse 17.  Abraham has just fought a mighty battle to save his nephew Lot from being taken as spoils of war, and Abraham's side had fewer kings and probably fewer soldiers than the side that was invading and attacking them (the Canaanite kings were being attacked by a king from the region that would become Babylon and his vassal kings, and they were sweeping up large swaths of territory).  Abraham's concern was about Lot, but the LORD was going to deliver the Land that He promised to Abraham in a miraculous way.  Melchizedek, the King of Salem, shows up out of nowhere at the end of the battle and it seems that everyone agrees that he is the strongest king that everyone needs to pay tribute to--a literal tithe (10%) of all the spoils of war.  You can read more about him elsewhere, and I've written extensively about him as I studied Genesis and Hebrews, but if Melchizedek is not a preincarnate appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament, then he is certainly a prophetic type to point us to Jesus, which is the point of David and the book of Hebrews.

Both the throne/kingdom and priesthood of this Messiah will be everlasting, but there will be a definite starting point when the Messiah takes the throne and makes war against all of His enemies.  The war will be short, and the victory will be sure (we are told about it in the book of Revelation chapter 21).  As He is also the Word that spoke everything into existence, one day He will speak, and all His enemies will cease to exist.  Shortly after that, there will be another day when He will speak and all of this creation will cease to exist, and the LORD will make a new heaven and a new earth for us to dwell with Him forever and ever.  This Psalm speaks of that time when the wrath of God will be poured out against the godless nations of the world.  That happens in what we describe as the Trumpet, Seal, and Bowl/Vial judgments from the book of Revelation, but also at the day of final judgment called The Great White Throne.  On that day, Messiah will also be revealed as Judge and all people will see the nail-pierced hands of Jesus and realized that the one that they murdered is the one that will judge them for their crimes.  You may ask, "How have we murdered Him?" and claim, "We were not there," but Scripture tells us that just as how in Adam all fell, that all mankind together is responsible for death of Jesus, for it was our sins that He was dying for.  Even if you did not physically drive the nails into His hands and feet, the sins that you have committed certainly did.  One day, He will have His vengeance against all wickedness and ungodliness, and no one, not even the rich and powerful, will be able to escape His judgment.  His enemies will be destroyed, and He will be refreshed, being able to drink from the brook with no fear of His enemies, because they have ceased to exist.

Jesus asks the religious leaders of his day of who David spoke of in this passage, asking them how the Messiah could be both David's son [by way of the Davidic Covenant the Messiah was called The Son of David] and David's Lord, for in that culture to be someone's "lord" usually meant that you were older than them.  Anyone who was a son of David should be David's servant, not his lord.  They were perplexed and could not answer.  I think they knew the answer but did not want to say it out loud.  The only way that the Messiah could be both David's son and David's Lord is if God Himself was born as a man, through the family of David.  They knew that was the only right answer, but they refused to believe that God would ever take on human flesh, and they definitely refused to believe that He would come with a mission to die for His people.  They wanted this message where the Messiah comes and makes war with the nations and sets up His throne, but before then, there had to be salvation made through the steadfast love of the LORD that we have been reading so much about and then the Messiah will have to wait a little while before He comes into His Kingdom.  That is where we are at right now.  We too are waiting for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.