David's Son and Lord

In Psalm 110, David writes, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

There's the first part of the conundrum. Here you have the Lord, and in the Old Testament it's Yahweh having a conversation with someone who is given the title, Adonai, or Lord. Once again, we're going to see the importance of the Old Testament, and in particular that passage in the Psalms in understanding the person and work of Christ. During His earthly ministry, the Pharisees were always trying to trip Jesus up, trying to confuse Him with difficult questions of the law. Now we're about to see why that was an effort in futility.

Let's join Dr. R.C. Sproul now as he preaches from Mark chapter 12. I had a professor once in seminary who used to talk about a strong Christian apologist, and he said that when he was engaged in debate, he would not only win the debate, he would not only annihilate the position of his opponent, but that when he was through with him, he would dust off the spot where he stood.

And that graphic imagery of that kind of sound victory in debate has stayed in my mind lo, these many years. And I couldn't help but think of it when I came to this portion of Mark's gospel, because we've just seen the threefold interrogation to which Jesus was subjected, first by the Pharisees and Herodians, then by the Sadducees, and then by the scribes, which we have already considered. And these groups sought to entrap Jesus and of all things to defeat the very incarnation of truth in a debate about truth. If any adversaries of truth were annihilated in debate, it was these groups, and indeed Jesus has dusted off the spot where they had stood. Not only does he win the debate, but now he seizes the arena of the debate, turns the tables on his adversaries, and now he becomes the interrogator. He becomes the one who subjects profound theological questions to them where he said, well, he taught in the temple, how is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?

Now let's just look at that for a second. The first part of the question is, why do the intellectuals, why do the theologians, the rabbis of Israel, come to the conclusion about their expectation of the coming Messiah that He would be the Son of David? Now most of these people were well aware of the manifold text of the Old Testament that predicted that the coming Messiah would be from the line of David, that He would be a descendant of David, that He would be born in the city of David, that He would be of the seed of David. If you go back for a moment to the pages of the Old Testament, we realize that Israel's most illustrious king was King David. He extended the boundaries of the nation from Dan to Beersheba, was the greatest military genius of their history, had the finest public works program of any king that ruled over the Jewish people. He was a man who was a shepherd, a poet, a brilliant administrator.

He personified the greatest statesman of that world historical era. And so the reign of David was considered by the Jews to be the golden age of Israel. And we know what happened upon the death of David where his kingdom was inherited by his son Solomon, that under that reign of Solomon with all of his wisdom and at times the lack of it, the golden age of Israel began to be tarnished a bit, and then by the next generation the kingdom was divided between Jeroboam and Rehoboam, and that glorious golden era turned to rust. And the decay continued.

It got worse and worse as corruption penetrated every dimension of the monarchy of both the north and the south. And so the people longed for the good old days, the days of the golden years under David, and God gave them the promise that the fallen house of David would be restored and that the monarchy promised to David would be a kingship that would last forever. So in generation after generation after generation, the Jewish people pinned their hopes for the coming Messiah who would be the son of David, one of David's descendants. And so Jesus goes on here, How is it that they say that the Messiah is the son of David? For David himself said by the Holy Spirit, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Therefore David himself calls him Lord.

How is he then his son? Let's look at the beginning of this quotation where Jesus said, David himself said by the Holy Spirit that David's testimony was the testimony of the third person of the Trinity. It was a divine assertion and a divine affirmation, and he is now quoting what David wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, a portion of the text of Psalm 110.

The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Again this is a quotation directly from Psalm 110. You may be surprised to learn that Psalm 110 is the most frequently quoted Old Testament text in the New Testament. To say it another way, there is no other statement found in the Old Testament Scriptures quoted more often than the text of Psalm 110.

Including direct quotations and allusions, the New Testament refers to Psalm 110 no less than thirty-three times. Now I've already said to you that this text is so rich, so profound, that it is worthy of much more attention than I can possibly give it this morning. And when I just mentioned to you that the New Testament writers refer to it thirty-three times, they clearly understood the gravity of what I've just asserted, how important this text in the Old Testament is to understand the person and work of Jesus. When all of the debates are over, when Jesus has answered all of their questions, now He drags His adversaries to this text, the supreme text of messianic expectancy among them. And He said, notice what David is saying about His Son, the Son that you are expecting as your Messiah. David himself said by the Holy Spirit, the Lord said to my Lord.

There's the first part of the conundrum. Here you have the Lord, and in the Old Testament it's Yahweh having a conversation with someone who is given the title Adonai, or Lord, which is strange enough because in most cases in the Old Testament whenever the title Adonai is used, it is used to describe an office or a title that belongs to Yahweh. Go back to Psalm 8, for example. Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all of the earth. The text reads like this, Oh Yahweh, our Adonai. In Isaiah 6, the word for Lord is found in two ways. First it is spelled out, capital L, little o, little r, little d, when Isaiah said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. And then later on in the text, the reference to the Lord is capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. And in most cases when the Scriptures refer to God as Lord with all capital letters, that is the English translation of the sacred name of God, the memorial name, the ineffable name, the name by which God revealed Himself to Moses in the Midianite wilderness when He said, I am who I am, Yahweh.

That's His name. It's not His title. The supreme title that is given to God, which is translated in English by capital L, little o, little r, little d, is the title Adonai, which means the one who is absolutely sovereign. So in Psalm 8 we read, Oh God, our sovereign, how excellent is Your name in all of the earth. Now if we come back to this text, here we have Yahweh calling somebody else Adonai.

That's enough to cause us to scratch our heads, isn't it? Well who is it who is addressed in this psalm by the Lord God omnipotent as Adonai? It doesn't say, the Lord said to Himself Adonai. Rather it says, the Lord said, and David is writing this, to my Adonai. Now who is David's Adonai? Who is sovereign over the king of Israel?

In Hebrew categories that would be God. And so it would seem that God is having a conversation with Himself about David's Lord, about David's sovereign, about David's Adonai. So the Lord speaks to somebody else who is identified in Psalm 110 as David's Lord. And Jesus is saying to these scholars, what do you think of this?

What about this? What is the Holy Spirit saying? Well what is it that the Lord said to David's Lord?

Sit at My right hand. Dearly beloved, when we go through the biblical narrative of the work of Jesus, there are special moments in the life and ministry of Jesus that we extrapolate and associate with supreme importance in terms of redemptive history. We celebrate the birth of Jesus, don't we? We take very seriously the death of Jesus at the cross, which is so central to our salvation. And then at the end of Holy Week, we join in great joy and glory celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. And we celebrate the day of Pentecost, and we're almost preoccupied in this day and age with respect to the return of Jesus. But there's an element in the work of Christ historically that is almost completely forgotten among us, and it's what is called the session of Jesus.

Now you know that in the polity and the governmental makeup of Saint Andrew's, we are ruled by a body of elders that we call what? The session. Why are they called the session? Because when they meet to deliberate, to establish policy, to give supervision to our spiritual lives, they don't meet standing up. They sit down and discuss these things, and that's what session simply means a being seated. When we say that Congress is in session, we mean that our representatives are assembled, and they don't stand all day, though many of the decisions are made in the cloakrooms.

The votes are taken while they're in their seats. Now the most important session of all time and of all place is the session that is seated in heaven. In heaven. And what Psalm 110 says is that Yahweh says to David's Lord, sit at My right hand, which means be seated in the highest place of authority in the universe according to My delegation. And the point that this prophecy gives to us is that the Messiah who is to come after He finishes His labor in this world will be exalted into heaven, taken up into heaven in ascension, and enthroned at the right hand of God. We say it every time we say the Apostles' Creed, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, dead, and buried. He ascended into heaven.

Then what? And sitteth on the right hand of God. That is a confession of faith of the early church to the importance of the session of Christ. What does that mean for us now? What did it mean for the church in the first century? It means that Christ has been enthroned in the highest seat of political power and authority in the universe. We pride ourselves in living in a democracy or a republic, but as Christians we do not reside in a democracy or a republic. We live in a kingdom where we have a King who has been enthroned already, that He is the King of kings. He is the Lord of lords, and that reign is not something that's going to take place in the distant future, but it has started already.

Jesus is our King this morning. I've said before that one of my favorite stories of all time is Robin Hood. I love it. You know the story. Richard the Lionheart has to leave his country, has to leave his realm, his domain, because he's going off into a foreign battle to try to defeat the Turks and liberate Jerusalem from the infidels, and he goes off on the Crusades. But while he's gone, wicked Prince John takes charge of the realm, and anybody who wants to be faithful to Richard is banished as an outlaw, and Robin and his men live in the forest trying to escape the wrath of the corrupt Prince John. You know the story. Robin Hood's men are called a band of merry men.

They're known for their joy, but they're also known especially for their loyalty. And what they wanted to do was to protect the realm until their king came home. My favorite part of the story is at the end where Richard returns to England, but he's disguised in the garb of a monk, and he's seated in his disguise in an inn, and he hears people talking about this Robin Hood and Prince John and all that's going on. And so on his way back, he travels through Sherwood Forest, remember? And all of a sudden out of the trees jump Robin and the merry men, and they stop this group of monks, and Robin tries to relieve him of his purse. And his face is hidden, that is, King Richard's face is hidden from Robin Hood. And he says to Robin Hood, why are you doing this? And he said, because of my loyalty and my allegiance to my king. And then Richard pulls apart the monk's garments and displays the lion and the cross on his chest, throws back the hood, and instantly Robin recognizes him and falls on his knees and says, my liege. And then in the final moments, Richard knights Robin Hood served Robin of Loxley because of his faithfulness during the absence of the king.

Do you see why I love that? As a metaphor for the church. Our king is already seated on the right hand of God, but he's gone to heaven temporarily. In the meantime, he looks to us, to his people to remain loyal to him when the whole world goes for Prince John. But our king has been seated at the right hand of God. The author of Hebrews makes much of Hebrews makes much of this when he writes of the supremacy of Jesus where he says at the end of chapter 1 of the book of Hebrews, but to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Earlier in that same chapter he cites elsewhere, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness, hated lawlessness. Therefore, God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions. Who is anointed? Again, it is to the Son that these words are spoken. Wonder you then why the New Testament would have thirty-three allusions to Psalm 110, which gives us such a magnificent view of the unique transcendent majesty of Christ, who is the Messiah. But the point is that yes, the Messiah will be the Son of David, but in Jewish categories the Son is always subordinate to His Father. The Son is never greater than the Father, and so you would expect as marvelous as the Messiah would be if He is David's Son. He cannot be greater than David, but David himself, Jesus says, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, calls His Son His Lord, His Lord, so that Jesus is not simply the Son of David. He is David's sovereign. That one passage in Psalm 110 is used more than thirty times in the New Testament to prove that Jesus indeed is the Messiah, and today we see Jesus Himself using that passage.

Dr. R.C. Sproul has taught us from Mark's Gospel on this Lord's Day, this Easter Sunday, and it's a great bolster to our faith to see what Jesus taught about Himself, and then He proved it with His resurrection. We return to Dr. Sproul's series through the Gospel of Mark each Sunday, and if you're with us each week, let me recommend our resource offer to supplement your study. It's the digital download of Dr. Sproul's commentary on this Gospel.

You can go online to request it at renewingyourmind.org, and in advance, let me thank you for your generous financial gift. Sound biblical doctrine is applicable to all of life, and here at Ligonier Ministries, we develop and distribute teaching that is faithful to the historic Christian faith, and we do that to as many people as possible. That was Dr. Sproul's aim when he began Ligonier Ministries back in 1971, and it remains our goal today. So it's our prayer that these resources help you in your own spiritual growth. Well, on behalf of all of my colleagues here at Ligonier Ministries, I'd like to wish you a happy Easter, and I invite you to join us again next Sunday for Renewing Your Mind. you