Who’s who?

0:00 Who's who in Psalm 110? Depending on 0:03 your translation, you could get lost in 0:05 a quick read through if you're not 0:07 paying attention to whether or not the 0:10 text says the Lord in all caps, such as 0:13 here in the ESV in verse one, or if 0:16 you're reading Lord not all caps, or 0:20 let's say where quotation marks such as 0:23 in the second line begin 0:26 and end, which is a little easier here. 0:29 But down here in verse 4, you have a 0:33 quoted statement here. And it's a little 0:35 less clear if you just hear the text 0:38 spoken that there should be quotation 0:41 marks there. 0:43 To make this a little more clear for 0:45 you, I'm going to show you a comparison 0:47 view 0:49 of five different translations. And I'm 0:52 just going to read the first part of 0:53 verse one. The Lord says to my Lord, the 0:57 Lord said unto my Lord, a declaration of 1:00 Yahweh to my Lord, Jehovah saith unto my 1:04 Lord, the Lord said unto my Lord. 1:07 So for today's study, now we're moving 1:11 on from the superscript into the 1:13 substance of the verse to discuss this 1:17 question of who is David's Lord? one of 1:20 the Old Testament's most profound 1:22 mysteries in my humble opinion. 1:26 Uh we're going to be reading through the 1:28 LEB version this time because it says a 1:32 declaration of Yahweh to my Lord. And I 1:35 want to make it really clear who is 1:37 speaking to and of who. So through this 1:40 episode of Wisdom Forging, we're going 1:42 to explore the question of who is 1:44 David's Lord and why that answer I think 1:48 outshines the intrigue of the mystery. 1:53 I'm Jacob Mlan and this is the wisdom 1:56 crucible where wisdom distills 1:58 transformation through the word of God. 2:02 And as a reminder, this is part two of 2:04 my three-part study through Psalm 110. 2:08 So, let's trace the thread from David's 2:11 pen to Christ's throne. 2:15 Um, just a quick recap from part one. I 2:18 focused mainly on the superscript. Uh, a 2:21 plain reading of that superscript, which 2:23 is this line right here of David, a 2:25 psalm. Other translations may say a 2:28 psalm of David. A plain reading of that 2:31 tells us that David wrote this psalm. 2:34 Same is true of many other psalms. 2:37 But some people want to believe that in 2:40 some cases, even though this that line 2:42 is the same, it doesn't always mean the 2:45 same thing. And it's because of the 2:48 messianic prophecies in some of these 2:50 psalms that some people want to get away 2:52 from. So today, we're going to return to 2:54 that question of authorship and 2:56 identity, who's speaking to and of whom, 2:58 and what that means for Christologology, 3:00 our study of Jesus Christ. 3:03 So now I'm going to read through and I'm 3:05 going to pause and take note of who's 3:07 speaking to and of whom in each verse. 3:11 A declaration of Yahweh to my Lord. So 3:15 God the Father to God the Son Jesus. Sit 3:20 at my right hand until I make your 3:22 enemies your foottool. 3:24 Quote ends here. Verse two. Yahweh was 3:27 will send out your mighty scepter from 3:30 Zion. rule in the midst of your enemies. 3:33 This line here, this is David. This is 3:36 back to David's perspective saying, 3:38 "Yahweh will send out your mighty 3:41 scepter." Referring to the my Lord 3:44 Jesus, as we've established um in part 3:48 one, 3:51 oops, there we go. Your people will 3:53 volunteer in the day of your power in 3:56 holy splendor. From the womb of the 3:58 dawn, you will have the due of your 4:00 youth. Yahweh has sworn and he will not 4:03 change his mind. 4:05 Quotation begins here. You are a priest 4:08 forever according to the manner of 4:11 Melkisedc. 4:13 ESV says the order of Melkisedc. 4:16 That's the end of that quote. See, this 4:18 is another spot where if you're not 4:19 paying attention, you could miss that. 4:23 This is again a quotation of something 4:25 that Yahweh God the father is saying to 4:29 Jesus in this psalm. You are a priest 4:32 forever according to the manner of 4:34 Melkisedc. 4:37 Oh Lord at your right hand hand he will 4:39 shatter kings in the day of his anger. 4:41 This is David saying oh Lord 4:45 at your right hand he will shatter 4:48 kings. This is David talking about what 4:51 Jesus is going to do later. He will 4:54 judge among the nations. He will fill 4:56 them with corpses. He will shatter the 4:58 rulers of many countries. He will drink 5:01 from the stream by the road. Therefore, 5:04 he will lift up his head. 5:08 Verse one of this psalm appears in 5:12 Matthew 22:44, 5:14 Mark 12:35, 5:16 and Luke 20:41. 5:20 There's similar imagery 5:22 uh echoed throughout the Psalms to this 5:25 um putting under the feet. 5:29 This uh right here in verse one, until I 5:32 make your enemies your foottool. 5:36 Um but no but but the verses in Matthew, 5:40 Mark, and Luke are clearly direct 5:42 quotations of this verse one. Uh Psalm 5:46 86 says, "You've put all things under 5:48 his feet." Psalm 47:3 says, "He subdues 5:51 people under us and nations under our 5:53 feet." 5:55 So this isn't this isn't new imagery. 5:58 It's there throughout the Psalms. Those 5:59 aren't the only two examples. Those are 6:01 just the two that I found first to 6:04 mention. 6:06 the one author, the Holy Spirit, 6:09 speaking across generations. 6:12 So, let's look at Matthew 6:17 22 6:19 verse 44 is the quote from Psalm. We're 6:22 looking at this section from verse 41 to 6:24 45. Here 6:27 here Jesus quotes Psalm 110 directly 6:30 from the Septuagent 6:32 which is the Greek Old Testament. The 6:34 Hebrew is the Tanakh, the Greek is a 6:37 Septuagen. It's one scripture, 6:41 two languages, 6:43 both testifying the same truth. 6:47 Just to show you briefly, 6:50 here it is in Mark. Same quotation 6:53 there. some of the before and after the 6:55 quote is a little different, but the 6:57 quote is the same. It's right out of 7:00 Psalm 110. 7:02 But I'm going to focus on the Matthew 7:04 version because I really like the way 7:05 this section ends. So, let me read 41-46 7:08 for us. Now, while the Pharisees were 7:11 gathered together, Jesus asked them a 7:13 question, saying, "What do you think 7:15 about the Christ? Whose son is he?" They 7:18 said to him, "The son of David?" He said 7:21 to them, "How is it then that David in 7:23 the spirit calls him Lord, saying, 'The 7:27 Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right 7:29 hand until I put your enemies under your 7:32 feet?" 7:33 If then David calls him Lord, how is he 7:36 his son? And here's my favorite part. 7:40 And no one was able to answer him a 7:42 word, nor from that day did anyone dare 7:46 to ask him any more questions. 7:49 This is why the Matthew version of this 7:51 story is my favorite. 7:53 This is a mic drop moment for Jesus. 7:56 They say, "It's the son of David." He 7:59 says, "Are you sure about that? 8:03 Why in the spirit does he call him my 8:07 Lord?" 8:09 And no one could say a word. 8:12 That's awesome. 8:13 Uh, since I'm mentioning other 8:15 languages, I want to make a quick note. 8:17 Um, if if you're ever trying to do a 8:20 word studies in Greek or try to figure 8:23 out um, you know, looking at original 8:26 ancient languages, make sure that you 8:29 use translation tools that can handle 8:31 ancient coin a Greek. If for example, 8:34 you're looking at Greek from old Bible 8:37 text because coa Greek or ancient Greek 8:41 is not the same as modern Greek. If 8:43 you've ever looked at old English, 8:46 it's the same thing. Language evolves 8:48 over time. It's been 2,000 years since 8:52 the day of Jesus. Language has evolved 8:55 quite a lot since then. Let me just show 8:57 you a real quick example. You'll get it 8:59 immediately. I'm sure some people would 9:02 This probably not the I'm probably not 9:04 the only person who thought of this 9:06 before anything else. This is a picture 9:08 of what's supposed to be some a sample 9:12 of some decorative picture frames on a 9:14 wall. These are the four different words 9:17 that in English typically all get 9:19 translated to the same English one word, 9:22 love. But we got four different words 9:24 here with four different meanings. 9:28 Agape, 9:29 selfless, sacrificial unconditional 9:32 love. Aeros, 9:34 romantic love. Felia, a love of a 9:38 friend, a dearly beloved, personal, 9:42 close, brotherly love kind of love. 9:45 Stoay 9:47 familiar love. 9:55 Bunch of different words 9:57 in Greek all translated to the same 9:59 English word. So if you typically have a 10:02 certain connotation of love in your 10:05 mind, a typical way of thinking about 10:07 what that means, 10:10 you could quite conceivably read a verse 10:14 out of the Bible and misinterpret it and 10:18 not really understand what it's getting 10:20 at because in your mind, love is love. 10:24 But in English translation of the Bible, 10:26 love may not equal love if the original 10:30 text used two different words there. So 10:34 we have to be careful when dealing with 10:38 translations of other languages, 10:39 especially when they're ancient 10:42 languages. Okay. So thinking back to the 10:46 central question from part one of this 10:47 study, is Psalm 110 by David or about 10:51 David? And is the Messiah his son or his 10:54 Lord? 10:56 Jesus clearly declares that David spoke 10:59 in the spirit 11:02 which is really really important because 11:05 scripture is God breathed not human 11:09 designated. 11:11 The Lord said to my Lord 11:17 oops wrong version. a declaration of 11:19 Yahweh to my Lord, sit at my right hand. 11:26 That uh a declaration of Yahweh in the 11:29 le which in the ESV, the Lord, 11:33 what it says there in the Hebrew would 11:36 be Yahweh. Now, that's not typically 11:40 written out with all the vowel sounds 11:42 included because of um a tradition of 11:45 reverence for the personal name of God. 11:48 Um but then that my lord, that word is 11:52 Adoni. 11:54 For this one right here, okay, 11:57 the word Adonai can mean a human master. 12:00 But what human ruler would Israel's 12:02 greatest king, King David, call his 12:06 Lord? Who would to whom would David say, 12:09 "My Lord 12:11 in this very reverent manner in which 12:14 he's clearly speaking of this Lord 12:16 throughout this psalm. This Lord sits at 12:19 God's right hand, crushes kings, judges 12:22 nations, and lifts his head high in the 12:26 last verse. 12:29 That lifted head represents righteous 12:31 victory, 12:33 not arrogance. 12:35 There's a big big difference between 12:38 God's righteous 12:40 attitude 12:42 about his achievements and about the 12:44 things that he does versus our prideful 12:47 arrogance about the things that we do or 12:49 we think we do. 12:52 Uh James 1 19-20 says, "Know this, my 12:56 beloved brothers, let every person be 12:58 quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to 13:01 anger, for the anger of man does not 13:04 produce the righteousness of God. 13:08 Human anger doesn't produce God's 13:10 righteousness. 13:11 When God is angry, it's because he's 13:14 just. 13:17 When man is angry, 13:21 well, it might just be your ego. Might 13:24 just be my ego. Ephesians 4, 13:28 uh, verses 26- 27, I also want to note 13:31 to contrast a little bit, be angry and 13:33 do not sin. Do not let the sun go down 13:36 on your anger and give no opportunity to 13:38 the devil. So, in that verse out of that 13:40 first verse out of Ephesians 4 says, be 13:43 angry and do not sin. It doesn't say 13:45 don't be angry because that is a sin. It 13:49 says be angry and do not sin. So clearly 13:54 righteous indignation is possible. If 13:56 something is truly wrong, if someone 13:59 does evil and you are angry about that, 14:02 that is mimicking the righteous anger of 14:06 God in a way. But it's still dangerous 14:09 for us. Be angry and do not sin. Don't 14:13 let the sun go down on your anger. Men, 14:16 if you're married, don't let the sun go 14:18 down on your anger with your wife. Deal 14:20 with it before you go to sleep. Ladies, 14:23 if you're married, 14:25 same thing applies. Do your very best to 14:28 not go to sleep angry. That's not just 14:31 with a marriage. If you got siblings, if 14:34 you're living at home with them, 14:36 especially, 14:37 I mean, just try to deal with it. If you 14:41 can't talk it out, at least sit down and 14:43 pray together and say, "We're going to 14:44 talk about this again later, but for 14:46 now, I love you." Just try it. See if it 14:50 works for you. I bet it will. 14:53 God's wrath flows from perfect justice. 14:57 Ours too often springs from our ego. 15:00 That's the key difference. 15:03 Our ego has an impulse to play judge in 15:06 God's place. 15:08 That's why anger is dangerous for us. 15:11 So if David moved by the spirit speaks 15:13 of his own Lord, how could that refer 15:16 merely to his descendant? 15:19 Jesus's question silenced his critics. 15:23 Let me put Matthew 22 on screen again. 15:28 No one was able to answer him, 15:31 nor from that day did anyone dare to ask 15:33 him any more questions. 15:38 I never get tired of 15:40 I'm reading that verse. 15:44 But 15:46 to turn my eyes inward for a moment. 15:49 If my comfort in my beliefs depends on 15:52 blindness, 15:55 will I dare to face the one who brings 15:57 light? 15:59 I think that's a question that would 16:01 have been very appropriately asked of 16:03 those who couldn't speak a word to 16:06 Jesus. 16:09 as verse 46 said, "But who said before 16:13 that he's the son of David?" That's the 16:16 Lord. No, it's not the Messiah. No, it's 16:19 not you. 16:23 Second Timothy 3:16 tells us all 16:25 scripture is breathed out by God and 16:28 useful for correction 16:30 that the man of God may be complete. 16:34 That's exactly how Jesus used Psalm 110 16:36 here to correct the Pharisees 16:38 misunderstanding. 16:39 This verse defines scriptures nature 16:42 which is divine in origin. It's breathed 16:45 out by God and its purpose, it's 16:48 instruction, it's instructive and it's 16:51 for making the man of God complete. It's 16:53 for building righteousness. 16:59 Let's look in Acts. 17:03 Acts chapter 2 verse 29- 26. 17:07 This is part of Peter's sermon at 17:09 Pentecost. 17:13 Verse 29. Brothers, I may say to you 17:16 with confidence about the patriarch 17:18 David, that he both died and was buried, 17:20 and his tomb is with us to this day. 17:23 Being therefore a prophet and knowing 17:25 that God had sworn with an oath to him 17:27 that he would set one of his descendants 17:29 on his throne, he foresaw and spoke 17:32 about the resurrection of the Christ 17:34 that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor 17:37 did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus 17:40 God raised up, and of that we all are 17:43 witnesses. Being therefore exalted at 17:45 the right hand of God, and having 17:47 received from the Father, the promise of 17:49 the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this 17:52 that you yourselves are seeing and 17:54 hearing. For God did not ascend into the 17:56 heavens, but he himself says, "The Lord 18:00 said to my Lord, sit at my right hand 18:03 until I make your enemies your 18:05 foottool." 18:08 Let all the house of Israel therefore 18:10 know for certain that God has made him 18:13 both Lord and Christ. This Jesus whom 18:18 you crucified. 18:22 Now then when they heard this 18:30 Now then when they heard this they were 18:32 cut to the heart. 18:37 I would be too if I'd been in that 18:41 crowd. 18:43 That crowd that might have had some 18:44 people who welcomed Jesus in 18:47 during the triumphant arrival 18:51 and said that he was blessed 18:54 and then were there in the crowd when 18:57 they were yelling to crucify him. 19:00 Peter confirms the messianic prophecy 19:03 clearly and beyond shadow of doubt 19:07 right out of verse one of Psalm 110. 19:14 Let all the house of Israel therefore 19:17 know for certain that God has made him 19:19 both the Lord and Christ, this Jesus 19:23 whom you crucified. 19:26 I also want to point out Peter's method, 19:29 his approach to them. He starts with 19:31 scripture that the Jews already 19:33 respected. Then lets the text 19:36 reinterpret their expectations in light 19:39 of their present context. He met them 19:43 where they were, reverent of the 19:44 scripture, but blind to the truth. And 19:48 let the context of Jesus death and 19:50 resurrection which as he said they were 19:54 all witnesses 19:56 right here in verse 32. 19:59 This Jesus God raised up and of that we 20:02 all are witnesses. 20:06 He let that context that truth redirect 20:09 their reverence to the Messiah that was 20:12 in the psalm all along. 20:15 They just didn't know it before. 20:18 It's not changing what the psalm means. 20:20 It's revealing its full meaning. This is 20:24 powerful for witnessing to non-Christian 20:26 Jews who reject the New Testament. 20:30 Rather than argue right off the bat with 20:32 passionate rhetoric 20:35 or going to the New Testament first, 20:39 start with a scripture they already 20:40 trust and let God's word do its work. 20:44 They'll either, assuming you present it 20:47 well, they'll either twist themselves 20:50 into deeper delusion, 20:53 which becomes harder and harder to 20:55 sustain. You know, you can only lie to 20:57 yourself so much before it starts 20:59 getting really hard to recognize that 21:01 it's happening. Or they'll reject 21:04 scripture altogether, revealing how 21:07 truly lost they are. In which case now 21:10 we can treat them 21:13 like they need the basics of evangelism, 21:16 the most basic evangelism, 21:19 or they'll lay down their pride and 21:21 believe. 21:23 And praise God for that. 21:28 This same principle applies today. 21:31 Sometimes the most loving thing we can 21:33 do 21:34 for a lukewarm believer is simply open 21:38 scripture and let the light shine. 21:42 It applies today and in the Christian 21:45 church as well. 21:48 Not just today for non-Christian Jews. 21:53 So Psalm 110 confronts us with this 21:55 question. Will we recognize Jesus as 21:57 Lord? Your answer changes everything. 22:00 In part three of this study through 22:03 Psalm 110, we'll look at the priest king 22:05 imagery related to the order of 22:07 MelkiseDC 22:08 and how it ties together prophecy, 22:11 covenant, and Christ's eternal reign. 22:13 And I'm really excited for that part 22:15 because I think it's really interesting. 22:18 Thinking through the word of God always 22:19 blesses me. And I hope the way that I've 22:21 presented scripture in this message 22:23 encourages genuine dialogue, both 22:26 private and public, rather than merely 22:28 passive media consumption. 22:31 If you're interested in further studies 22:33 and reflections related to the Holy 22:35 Bible, 22:38 um you're welcome to subscribe and 22:40 engage with my other teachings and 22:41 reflections. The next will be again 22:44 Psalm 110, but focusing specifically on 22:47 the order of MelkiseDC question. 22:50 The media metrics drive the algorithms, 22:52 but it's the word of God that drives me. 22:54 And that's what I'm hoping to pass on. 22:57 May the Lord bless you.