The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. -Psalms 110:1 [KJV].
The New Testament take on this particular verse is as follows:
"While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions." - St. Matthew 22:41-46
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This verse help create the Jewish-Christian debate that has lasted to the present day. The writers of the New Testament wants their reader to believe that their demigod overwhelmingly won a great theological debate against the very best theologians (the Pharisees) the Jews could offer. According to the New Testament (the most bias work in favor towards Christianity ever written) showed up those bad O Pharisee Jews, and even doing it with their own Jewish scriptures. It is New Testament texts such as this that causes many Christians to be very hardened towards the Jews who insisted on sticking with their scriptures, for by doing so, they (not the Gentile Romans) murdered their Gentile-approved demigod.
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The New Testament paints the Jews as being ignorant of their own scriptures, therefore, this is precisely how the Jew (even the non-religious ones) are casts in the minds of Christian theologians. Even in politics such as the Israel-Palestinian "physical" conflict, the Palestinian side is whole-hearted received by the non-Christian Zionists due to New Testament "spiritual" doctrine.
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Armed with the above New Testament understanding of Psalms 110:1, a minister-friend challenged me on the Jewish-take of it. I informed him that unlike Matthew's claim that "no one (Jew) was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone (any Jew) dare question Him anymore" there was a Jewish answer to Jesus' question. His response was, "Oh, they had time to think about it?"
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What he and so many Christians don't realize is that the Jewish answer that had always been there from the very second it was first asked, "If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?" cannot be granted without a Hebrew biblical background knowledge of the Psalms - the knowledge that the New Testament purposely avoids for the benefit of its Gentile readers. Without a background knowledge of the scripture one wishes to debate, even child-like questions can seem problematic. For example, "If Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible (The Torah / Pentateuch ) how did he write of his own death? (See Deuteronomy 34:5)1
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To answer Jesus' question outright, David did not write the psalm for himself to sing but rather for himself (his testimony) to be sung about. Therefore, David is not the one in Judaism's eyes stating, "The Lord said unto my lord"2. Therefore, we must first look at who would sing a song concerning David's testimony, and then compare this knowledge with other scriptures (namely within the Psalms) to see if other scriptures will back this knowledge up, making it clear as day.
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As I lay out the clear Jewish response of their own Hebrew scriptures, keep in mind that the New Testament records " no one (Jew) was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone (any Jew) dare question Him anymore". If this New Testament statement is true then at what time in history did the Jews supposedly come up with the following clear-cut answer? And during the nine-hundred years between David and Jesus, what was the common understanding of Psalms 110:1 among the religious Jews who poured over the scriptures day and night? And since there was undoubtedly a common knowledge understanding of Psalms 110:1, why didn't the New Testament record that very common-knowledge Pharisee response in answering Jesus?
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In all actuality the New Testament book of Acts (supposedly written by Luke - a Gentile) does hint at the Jewish understanding of Psalms 110:1. Acts 2:34-35 makes sure it addresses the "David understanding element" of the Jewish people concerning Psalms 110:1 by stating "For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool."
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Two things in response to Acts 2:34-35:
First, whether David wrote Psalms 110 in the third-person sense (similar to Paul speaking in the first-person historical-presence in Romans 7) or if as the Jewish sage Ibn Ezra Radak suggested, that one of David's soldiers may have written the psalm about his king, the fact remains it was given in past tense about something that already occurred and was in process during the time the Psalm was written. The New Testament doctrine is based largely on making many of the Psalms and events in David's life "prophecy" when the text and David's experiences was never originally intended to be prophecy.
Secondly, if rising from the dead was Psalms 110 clear-cut message as the author of Acts 2:34-35 indicates, why were the Jewish disciples and different ones so oblivious to such an event as described in Luke 24:23-27 (also see Matthew 16:21-22 / Mark 8:31).
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When we look at Psalms 110:1 in the English we see two identical key words, "Lord and Lord". Both of them are capitalized and both of them are portrayed to be taking about God. The Christian-Trinity take on this is, God the Father (Lord) said to God the Son (Lord) "sit at My right hand" but is that how the original Hebrew has it? The answer is no!
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First of all, unlike Greek and English there are no capital letters in Biblical Hebrew, therefore to imply that there are two identical words with a deity reference within Psalms 110:1 is false.3 Most of the Christian-English Bible versions has the words "The Lord" taking the place of the Hebrew name of God, "Jehovah".4 There is only "one" reference for "Jehovah" in Psalms 110:1 causing there to be only "one" reference to a "lord" in the same verse. That "lord" is not deified as in the name "Adoni" which would make it one of the other four main names connected to Jehovah - the same "God the Father" God-person within the Trinity doctrine. Rather, it's referring to an earthly lordship (a person in charge). The same word that appears as second "Lord" word in the English versions are used in the Hebrew Bible to describe earthly non-deity masters / lords 5. See Genesis 24:54 and Genesis 32:4.
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Like the Hebrew alphabet contained throughout Psalms 119 (every eight verses) most people when reading the Book of Psalms don't catch the heading that is present on most of the Psalms at the beginning of each chapter, such as:
To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm of David - Psalms 4:1
To the chief Musician upon Nehiloth, A Psalm of David - Psalms 5:1
To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of David - Psalms 8:1
A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite - Psalms 88:1
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David -Psalms 109
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These are not just mere footnotes created by biblical commentators for historical purposes, but they are indeed found within the Hebrew as part of the holy text. So who are these "Chief Musicians" that the psalms are referred to, and do they play any role in understanding Psalms 110:1?
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It's interesting to know that David though unable to build the first temple in Jerusalem did arrange and prepare the temple service (See Samuel 7 / I Chronicles 14-17 / 22-26). Most, if not all of David's psalms were song by the temple choir. Even during the 1st. century the Levitical Choir stood at the south-west corner of Herod's temple between the Beautiful Gate and Nicanor Gate and sang Psalms 24 on the first day of the week, Psalms 48 on the second day of the week, Psalms 82 on the third day of the week, and so on. David, being a poet, musician, and temple organizer that he was, wrote Psalms 110 for the temple singers (who along with the temple were to last forever) to testify of the mighty works God had done in David's life. Therefore, the temple singers were to sing a song concerning David (see the heading of Psalms 110)
" Jehovah said (past tense) onto my lord (David) Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool."
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In order to make it crystal clear of the meaning of the Psalms 1110 text, one needs to ask, did Jehovah place David at His right hand in order to make David's enemies his footstool as dictated by other verses through the Psalms?
"Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath held me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip. I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed. I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet." -Psalms 18:35-38
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"My soul follows hard after thee: thy right hand upholds me. But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth." - Psalms 63:8-9
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"Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me." - Psalms 138:7
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'Thou knowest how that David my father could not build an house unto the name of the LORD his God for the wars which were about him on every side, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet." - I KINGS 5:3
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It's worth noting how the Hebrew Bible equates God's right hand with the downfall of David's enemies in the book of Psalms, and how the verse above in I Kings matches almost word for word Psalms 110:1. What is for certain is that Psalms 110:1 that was written by David or at lest by one of David's companions whom David was a commander (lord) over, it was written during David's lifetime, and it follows the same mindset of other scriptures concerning David and his enemies. What Psalms 110:1 does not do is call a man (given in the past tense) "Lord" as in Jehovah-Lord, nine-hundred years after David's time and testimony.
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It goes to figure that if during David's lifetime he wasn't the one placed at Jehovah's right hand as Psalms 110:1 indicates some sort of "lord / master" has been placed, how then could David being the very author of Psalms 110, write " "in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." (Psalms 16:6) The question for the Trinitarians is how many other individuals like David does the Bible name as being so close to Jehovah's that they are placed at His right hand insomuch that it caused their enemies to placed under their feet? If David was the only one named, maybe that's why the temple singers were to sing about it forever?
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Notes
1. Though the entire and complete "Law of Moses" is fully contained within the Torah, Moses himself did not pen the Biblical text we have today, i.e. the "Book of the Covenant" (Exodus 24:7) that Moses read to the people was a complete contract between God and Israel, but Moses did not read to them Exodus 24:7 when Exodus 24:7 was taking place. The contract that Moses read to the people and what we read today that records Moses' acts has to be from two different writers. Also, it is clear that is was an inspired Israelite historian who wrote Deuteronomy 34:10 (the last verse in the Torah) as well most, if not all of the Book of Deuteronomy. The higher-criticism scholarly idiots, refer to him as the D-source.
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2. Misapplying (changing) the speaker of scriptural words is technique the New Testament uses in other places such as Isaiah 53 in changing the Gentiles voice for that of the Jewish nation, (see my blogs on Isaiah 53). Such willful misapplying of holy text probably made it easier on the consciences of the KJV translators who found it easy to take out of context, change the meaning of words, and capitalize key christological words throughout the KJV.
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3. Daniel 9:25 also contains a capitalization for christological purposes. See my blog on Daniel Seventy Weeks.
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4."Jehovah" is actually the "English" pronunciation of the original Hebrew name of "YHWH".
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5. The Christian "Revised Standard Version" translates the Hebrew of Psalms 110:1 correctly into English using all upper case letters for the word Jehovah, and all lower case letters for the word meaning lord / master: ¶ A Psalm of David. The LORD says to my lord: "Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool." (RSV)
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