The Lord Said Unto My Lord ... A Case Of Persnickety Pronouns?

[Magyar]

In Psalms 110, David purportedly wrote the famous words:

"The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.

Jesus later quoted them in argument against the Pharisees, who said that Messiah would be the son of David.

"If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?"

What does this all mean?

Jesus was, according to his Biblical genealogy, the son of David -- why would he need to argue that Messiah need not be the son of David?

Was this a case of the Pharisees declaring that Messiah would be nothing more than a great mortal man entrusted with a divine mission, a Davidic-style leader from the Davidic line, and Jesus insisting on Messiah being something far more than a son of David?

The first "LORD" in the Psalm, is, as per the Hebrew text, Jehovah. The second, if I read the Hebrew right, (and I'm still a beginner) adonai, which can be a far lesser type of lord, such as the Messiah might be expected to be. Even so, that Lord would be greater than David, according to the Psalm, and according to Jesus.

How do Jews interpret this psalm? Is the 'my Lord' in this instance possibly David himself, and thus just a reference to Jehovah protecting David's kingdom, nothing more? The Bible is replete with people referring to themselves as "thy servant," instead of just saying "me" or "I," for example. David refers to his own soul as "my darling," for example.

And in more modern times, Queen Victoria supposedly said of herself, "We are not amused."

Persnickety pronouns they be.

[The Nehor]

And in more modern times, Queen Victoria supposedly said of herself, "We are not amused."

Or in a more fun context:

Queen Victoria (with Prince Albert and a courtier): We are Queen Victoria.

Baldrick: What? All three of you?

Queen Victoria: Oh, my delightful little hobgoblin.

[Magyar]

Bump

[e=mc2]

This is from Alfred Edersheim, though it doesn't necessarily answer your question, it is highly interesting.....

Ps. 2:7 is quoted as Messianic in the Talmud, among a number of other Messianic quotations (Sukk. 52a). There is a very remarkable passage in the Midrash on Ps. 2:7 (ed. Warsh. p. 5a), in which the unity of Israel and the Messiah in prophetic vision seems clearly indicated. Tracing the 'decree' through the law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa, the first passage quoted is Exod. 4:22â??'Israel is My first-born son;' the second, from the Prophets, Isa. 52:13â??'Behold My servant shall deal prudently,' and Isa. 42:1â??'Behold My servant, whom I uphold;' the third, from the Hagiographa, Ps. 110:1â??'The Lord said unto my Lord,' and again, Ps. 2:7â??'The Lord said unto Me, Thou art My Son,' and yet this other saying (Dan. 7:13): 'Behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven.' Five lines further down, the same Midrash, in reference to the words 'Thou art My Son,' observes that, when that hour comes, God speaks to Him to make a new covenant, and thus He speaks: 'This day have I begotten Thee'â??this is the hour in which He becomes His Son.

Ps. 2:8 is applied in Ber. R. 44 (ed. Warsh. p. 80a) and in the Midrash on the passage, to the Messiah, with the curious remark that there were three of whom it was said 'Ask of Me'â??Solomon, Ahaz, fn and the Messiah. In the Talmud (Sukk. 52a) the same passage is very curiously applied, it being suggested that, when the Messiah, the Son of David, saw that the Messiah, the Son of Joseph, fn would be killed, He said to the Almighty, I seek nothing of Thee except life. To which the reply was: Life before Thou hadst spoken, as David Thy father prophesied of Thee, Ps. 21:4.

And, here is Bruce R. McConkie's take on it in his Mortal Messiah series.

Salvation is in Christ. He is the Son of the living God. No man cometh unto the Father but by him. He is the Savior of the world and the Redeemer of men. He came into the world to do the will of the Father. His Father sent him to ransom all men from the grave and to raise those who believe and obey unto eternal life in the eternal kingdom. To gain salvation, men must come unto him, believe his gospel, and live his laws. This is the doctrine he has taught and the witness he has borne from that day in the temple when he, but twelve years of age, asked Mary if she knew not that he must be about his Father's business, to this, his last day in the temple, when all but the climactic events of his ministry are passed. But as one of these crowning events he must once again let all who will hear know that he is God's Son.

He has defeated his enemiesâ??God's enemies!â??at every turn and on every hand. That is evident to all; but none must be left to assume, nor must there be the slightest intimation, that his triumphs have come simply because he is a great prophet, or a wise philosopher, or a learned Rabbi. He must be identified for what he isâ??the Son of the Highest. Thus, to the Pharisees assembled there in great numbers and dressed in regal splendor, while yet in the court of his Father's house, he says:

What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?

Their answerâ??he could have expected none otherâ??crystallized the whole Jewish concept of a Temporal Deliverer who would once again wield the sword of David, wear the crown of that great king, and sit on a throne from which laws would go forth to the Gentile aliens whose yoke they now wore. Their answer presupposed that the downtrodden of Israel would, under their Messiah, tread on the necks of their enemies as they rejoiced in their new Messianic kingdom. They said: "The son of David." They said: 'A mighty king, a great deliverer, a supreme ruler.' In reply Jesus said:

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?

Ps. 110:1, given to David by the power of the Holy Ghostâ??that glorious Messianic psalm in which the Eternal Father swore with an oath that his Son would be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedekâ??such is the scriptural source to which Jesus refers as a means of raising the issue of his own divinity. As interpreted by the Son of Godâ??and here we may discard all the vagaries of men on the passage involved; we may ignore the higher critics who say David never wrote the psalm; we may throw aside the "learned" assumptions that someone other than Elohim was testifying of his Sonâ??David's Messianic utterance speaks of one Lord saying to anotherâ??of one God saying to another, of Elohim saying to Jehovah, of the Eternal Father saying to his Beloved Sonâ??sit thou on my right hand. Lo, that God who then spoke unto men by his Son; that Son whom he "hath appointed heir of all things"; that Son who is "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his [Father's] person"; the very Son who now, having ascended into heaven, sits "on the right hand of the Majesty on high"â??this Son and this Father, they are the Gods mentioned in the Messianic prophecy. (Heb. 1:1-3.) These are the ones of whom the inspired utterance speaks.

Jesus' logic was unassailable. "How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David?" he asked. If "David . . . himself calleth him Lord," he continued, "whence is he then his son?" How could he be David's Sonâ??as he wasâ??if David also called him Lord? "How then could the Messiah be David's son? Could Abraham have called Isaac or Jacob or Joseph, or any of his own descendants near or remote, his lord? If not, how came David to do so? There could be but one answerâ??because that Son would be divine, not humanâ??David's son by human birth, but David's Lord by divine subsistence. But they could not find this simple explanation, nor, indeed, any other; they could not find it, because Jesus was their Messiah, and they had rejected Him. They chose to ignore the fact that He was, in the flesh, the son of David; and when, as their Messiah, He had called Himself the Son of God, they had raised their hands in pious horror, and had taken up stones to stone Him." (Farrar, p. 567.)

Jesus' testimony of himself, implicit in the divine logic that he used, left the Pharisees without hope or answer, but brought rejoicing to those whose minds had not been poisoned by the theological seminaries of the day. Thus it is written: "And no man after that durst ask him, saying, Who art thou?" And also: "The common people heard him gladly; but the high priest and the elders were offended at him." So be it.

[Magyar]

Thank you. That is very helpful.

[Kevin Christensen]

For Psalm 110, see also Margaret Barker, The Hidden Tradition of the Kingdom of God (London, SPCK, 2007), the chapter on The High Priesthood, pages 65-67. She puts it all in ritual and traditional context, and notes the corrupt state of the Hebrew (much of it is unreadable and must be reconstructed from the Greet), and the reasons why this is so.

Kevin Christensen

Pittsburgh, PA