SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND

Psalm 110:3 (NIV) — 3 Your troops will be willing on your day of battle. Arrayed in holy splendor, your young men will come to you like dew from the morning’s womb.

Psalm 110:1 (NKJV) — 1 The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”

Matthew 22:44 (NIV) — 44 “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.” ’

A Psalm of David

Sit at my right hand

Clearly we see that the right hand is symbolic of ruler-ship, authority, sovereignty, blessing, and strength and is significant in Scripture.

Isaiah 41:13 (NIV) — 13 For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.

Mark 16:19 (NIV) — 19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.

James and John once came up to Jesus and asked Him “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory” (Mark 10:37) but Jesus responded “to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared” (Mark 10:40).

The other disciples knew what this meant which was why “they began to be indignant at James and John” (Mark 10:41) so it is evident that being at the right hand is symbolic of having authority and power.

This is seen throughout the Scriptures as in Paul writing about God that He “raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come” (Eph 1:20-21).

The right hand is the one which, for most people, has the greatest strength and that is symbolized in many Scriptures when it refers to God

Exodus 15:6 (NIV) — 6 Your right hand, Lord, was majestic in power. Your right hand, Lord, shattered the enemy.

Exodus 15:12 (NIV) — 12 “You stretch out your right hand, and the earth swallows your enemies.

Who are these Lords that David is referring to in Psalm 110:1?

The first ‘LORD’ refers to God the Father, the second refers to God the Son.

David is affirming that the Lord God had spoken to someone who had authority or dominion over him, that is, over David.

Who was this person? David was king of all Israel. Who had authority over him? It was none other than the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God and the coming Messiah!

What a unique and delectable position David enjoyed! God had promised that the Messiah would physically descend from him. So the Messiah would be his son.

But that same Messiah would be far more than a mere man.

He would at one and the same time be God and man. The God-man! God in human flesh! So David’s son would also be his Lord!

The Lord Jesus must have enjoyed discomfiting the Pharisees with that one! (Matt. 22:41–45)

Matthew 22:41–45 (NIV) — 41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they replied. 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, 44 “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.” ’ 45 If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?”

The startling fact that David spoke of a king as my lord

Christ, who left his hearers to think out its implications, and his apostles to spell them out.

David here (so to speak) falls down and worships the Man who stands before him (cf. Josh. 5:14). Now follows God’s oracle to David’s lord.

Sit at my right hand. The authority and power conferred by such an address will be illustrated in the remaining verses of the psalm; but it will take the New Testament to do it justice.

He is not only greater than David (Acts 2:34, ‘for David did not ascend into the heavens’) but greater than the angels (Heb. 1:13, ‘to what angel has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand …”?’);

b. God exalted him as emphatically as man rejected him (Acts 5:30f., ‘Jesus whom you killed … God exalted … at his right hand’);

c. It is as Saviour and Intercessor that he reigns (Acts 5:31; Rom. 8:34, ‘Christ … who is at the right hand of God … intercedes for us’);

d. (‘Sit …’): In token of a finished task, he is seated (Heb. 10:11f., ‘every priest stands daily …, offering repeatedly … But … Christ … sat down at the right hand of God’);

e. (‘till …’): He awaits the last surrender (Heb. 10:13, ‘to wait until his enemies should be made a stool for his feet’; cf. also 1 Cor. 15:25f.).

until I make, &c.—The dominion of Christ over His enemies, as commissioned by God, and entrusted with all power (Mt 28:18) for their subjugation, will assuredly be established (1 Co 15:24–28). This is neither His government as God, nor that which, as the incarnate Saviour, He exercises over His people, of whom He will ever be Head.

thine enemies thy footstool—an expression taken from the custom of Eastern conquerors (compare Jos 10:24; Jdg 1:7) to signify a complete subjection.