The Lord said to my Lord

Read: Psalm 110 ESV – Sit at My Right Hand – A Psalm of – Bible Gateway

“David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ Mark 12:36 ESV

‘The Lord said to my Lord.’ Does this statement sound confusing to you, perhaps even contradictory? Confusing to most of us without explanation, but it is certainly not contradictory. During Jesus’s final week before His crucifixion, known as Passion Week, He was in constant battles with the Jewish scribes and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day. Jesus taught in the temple every day before those who came to hear Him. Most were astonished at His teaching hanging on to every word. This obviously angered the religious leaders as they saw their power and influence eroding away from someone who claimed to be the Son of God, the Messiah. If these leaders had carefully studied the Old Testament, they would have known that Jesus was right, He is the Son of God, the Messiah. 

They were constantly trying to trip up Jesus with their questions, but Jesus turns the tables on them and asks them a question. He asks a question from a familiar passage in Psalms explaining that Jesus existed before David, proving His deity, proving He is eternal, and proving He is the Son of God. Jewish teaching was and is correct that the Messiah would be the son of David, yet David refers to Him as his Lord. Jesus asks them, ‘“What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?’ They said to him, ‘The son of David.’ He said to them, ‘How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord’……..If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”’ (Mt.22:42-45 esv) The point being that the Messiah is both divine and human. He is David’s son and He is David’s Lord.

Jesus Christ who died on Calvary’s cross was indeed the divine Son of God in human flesh. An ordinary man, no matter how good he was, or how well he taught, or how well he lived as an example to others with love and compassion could ever be an adequate substitute for our sin. It had to be a perfect man, without sin. The deity of Christ is vital to why He came. His purpose for coming was to reconcile us back to God due to our sin nature, God’s plan for Salvation for those who trust in Christ. As John the Baptist proclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn.1:29 esv) Read Psalm 110, the Messianic Psalm of Christ the King: