At His Right Hand

One line of an old song turns up on the lips of Jesus, in Peter's first sermon, and in the letter to the Hebrews. It is the first line of Psalm 110.

Start with what the line says: "The LORD said unto my Lord." These are two different words in Hebrew, and the difference is easy to miss when you read fast. The first is God's own name, which the KJV prints in capital letters by long custom. The second, adoni, is an ordinary word for a master, so it means "my lord." David the king is quoting God speaking to someone David calls his own lord.

Jesus took this puzzle to the Pharisees and left it with them. "What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David." Then He quoted the line and asked, "If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?" "And no man was able to answer him a word." At Pentecost, Peter gave the answer by pointing to a grave that still held David's body: "For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand." So the one David called Lord had to be greater than David, and Peter said He was the risen Jesus. Hebrews puts the same line to the angels and gets no answer: "to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?" Then Hebrews sets Jesus in the seat, which is where the psalm had Him from the first line. He "sat down on the right hand of God."

That leaves the word "until." The psalm stops there, and that is where we still are. Jesus is seated "from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool," and no one is given a date. But the question Jesus asked in the temple is still on the table, and you are welcome to take it up. You are welcome, too, to give the answer Peter gave, that "God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ."

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 321 is Ask, Seek, Knock (Matthew 7:7).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two