You also cited Psalms 110:
“Recall that even the Jewish leaders themselves were muted by the Lord Jesus in one time that He asked them of the meaning of Psalms 110:1.
Luke 20:41-44 narrates the story:
Then Jesus said, “Why do people say that the Christ is the Son of David? In the book of Psalms, David himself says:
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
‘Sit by me at my right side, until I put your enemies
under your control.”’
David calls the Christ ‘Lord,’ so how can the Christ be his son?”
In confining yourself to the notion of a purely human Messiah, aren’t you also taking the very position of the Jewish leaders silenced by the Lord Jesus himself?”
I cannot tackle Psalms 110 without first explaining what I consider as “the very words of God.”
Actually we have a post that explains our position:
To save myself from explaining, here’s an excerpt from that post:
Here’s a short version of “the shrinking of a Sinaite’s Bible.”
- As Christian/Messianics, we believed the Christian Bible is God’s Word; every word of it, we were taught, was God-breathed, Holy Spirit-inspired; that God used men as His mouthpieces. So every writer in both the Old and New Testaments spoke for God.
- Other articles in this website explain when and what we discovered about the questionability of New Testament books. Totally convinced that the NT is not the Word of God but the word of men, we turned to what it claims to be its foundational scriptures —the “Old” Testament.
- The “Old Testament” in the Christian Bible, we found out, was not an accurate version of the Hebrew Scriptures so we got several different translations of the Tanach, Tanakh, TNK and started over.
- By the time we finished pouring over the 22 books of the Hebrew Scriptures, we reached a definite conclusion.
- The first five books of TNK, specifically the Torah [the T in TNK] contains all that humans need to know about the requirements of the Creator God Who revealed Himself first to Israel. Requirements for what? Relationships! First, man’s relationship with God, and second, man’s relationship with his fellowmen. And, let us not neglect, one’s relationship to oneself, as in — how do I protect my body from disease, what to eat, what to do when I get sick, and so on. YHWH did not leave out instructions affecting any aspect man’s living on this earth for his own good.
- It is ALL in the Torah, as given to the handpicked mediator who was prepared for this role: Moses. We have mentioned this much in other articles — that the rest of the TNK, Nevi’im or the Prophets, and Ketuvi’im or the Writings, all center on what has already been given in Torah.
- The prophets in Nevi’im who keep saying “Thus saith the LORD” warn Israel about its failure to live Torah and gives prophecies about future events affecting Israel as well as the nations.
- The Writings in Ketuvi’im are inspired books that still refer back to the Torah, or elaborate on its teachings, or narrate stories about men and women of faith, or that reflect on YHWH’s attributes. None of them contradict what has already been revealed on the Torah. YHWH gives a warning in the last book of the Torah about adding or subtracting from it.
So where is God’s Word in What Bible?
Answer: The Torah, in the Hebrew Scriptures, the TNK.
Already, as you can see, we are at odds on the very basis of our arguments; simply put, who says what? If God said it, no problem. If man said it, that’s merely his opinion. With this in mind, we expect to disagree on prooftexts.
————————
If you read Psalms as the ‘very words of God’, your conclusion is not only understandable but predictable.
However, please consider this:
Psalm 110 belongs to Ketuviim. Inspired writings of men.
Just like the prayers and Sabbath liturgies we post on our website; inspired writings from the heart, based on knowledge of YHWH through His Torah . . . the Psalms were the same, some written by David, and others by unknown worshippers of Israel’s God. One cannot categorize these writings as “the very words of God‘ on which doctrine is to be educed.
The organizers of the canon of the Hebrew Scriptures did their job well; let us respect their work, they know better than anyone else, since their scriptures not only reflect their relationship with their God but virtually recount the history of their people as well.
ArtScroll Tanach’s commentary on Psalm 110 is very sparse, attributing authorship to “an unnamed psalmist, possibly one of David’s soldiers” who “composed this psalm about his king (Ibn Ezra:Radak)”.
Expectedly, the wording from a Hebrew translation is a bit different but it is consistent with the admiring lofty superlative attributions of a subject-soldier for his beloved king. The language of the Psalms is poetic, and therefore use metaphor, hyperbole, and other figures of speech.
Are we supposed to pounce on this psalm and turn it into a prooftext to add to all others to show OT prefigurement of NT Jesus Christ? That is what has been done, in effect to show evidence that Christianity’s claims are true.
Words of men inspired by God are still words of men. Words of God put on record as Moses did will either have to be believed or denied.
So, I’m sorry, “HE”, Psalm 110 is not acceptable proof to me that it is referring to Jesus Christ. I can understand, however, why it is chosen as a prooftext.
Like your other verses you have cited, I have a problem making the connection with Jesus in the gospel verse you cited:
Then Jesus said, “Why do people say that the Christ is the Son of David? In the book of Psalms, David himself says: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit by me at my right side, until I put your enemies under your control.”’
David calls the Christ ‘Lord,’ so how can the Christ be his son?”
Our ‘disconnect’ is well-demonstrated in this prooftext. I am actually confused! There is a lot to be clarified in the short verse, I don’t even know where to begin.
First, I get it, that “Christ” having come later in history, is supposed to be the son of David. But just the choice of words alone is confusing. “Christ” is the Greek of the Hebrew word mashiach or ‘messiah’. So who is the ‘son of David’ — Jesus or the anticipated Jewish ‘messiah’? In Christian thinking, Jesus is the Christ, the expected Messiah. To the Jews, the Jewish messiah has not yet come because there are conditions that identify him when he does come, and remember, the Jews do expect a messiah that is human, not divine. We agree with that view.
After the first sentence in red, our color coding for NT, the next sentence is an actual quote from Psalms 110, color-coded Israel blue. The first “the Lord” is who? And the second “the Lord” is who? In Christian designation, the first is God the Father? and the second is God the Son?
A good way to resolve our differences is to go to the original source — the Hebrew Scriptures, and check out how Jewish translators render this psalm and check out Jewish interpretation of the verses, since it IS their scripture.
Who wrote it? David? or someone else?
In ArtScroll Tanach, the title of the Psalm is: “Regarding David,* a psalm. The asterisk * points to the footnote: “An unnamed psalmist, possibly one of David’s soldiers, composed this psalm about his king, whom he calls “my master” (Ibn Ezra; Radak).
Second, who is the first “the Lord” and the second “the Lord”? This is the problem with substitutions for the tetragrammaton Name YHWH. Usually Christian translations use all caps “the LORD” for divinity, with the understanding it’s a substitute for YHWH. ArtScroll prefers to use “HASHEM” which is Hebrew for “the Name”. Still, ArtScroll’s translation makes it clear who is who (we insert YHWH where the Name belongs):
1 “The word of HASHEM [YHWH} to my master, “Wait at My right,
until I make your enemies a stool for your feet.”
2 HASHEM [YHWH] will dispatch the staff of your strength from Zion, rule amid your enemies!
3 Your people volunteer on the day of your campaign, because of your majestic sanctity from the inception of [your reign], you retain the dewlike freshness of your youth.*
4 HASHEM [YHWH] has sworn and will not relent! “You shall be a priest forever, because you are a king of righteousness!”
5 The Lord [YHWH] is at your right; He crushes kings on the day of His anger.
6 He will judge the corpse-filled nations, He will crush the leader of the mighty land.
7 From a river along the way He shall drink –therefore he may proudly lift his head.
ArtScroll commentary:
“Davids legendary power came through Divine favor earned through his righteousness.”
On vs. 3: “When you do battle, your nation will be loyal to you, because you retained the pure because you retained the unselfish character of your humble shepherd youth (Meiri).
On vs. 4 says: “A Jewish king should be like a priest, drawing God’s people closer to His service. Indeed it is the duty of everyone to sanctify himself and be an example of loyal service to God.as He said to the children of Israel before giving the Ten Commandments, “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests” meaning that the entire nation, not merely the priests, was commanded to dedicate itself to God’s service. Furthermore, both the priests and the members of the royal family had a special obligation to serve God and uphold justice (See Deuteronomy 17:12, II Samuel 8:18, Jeremiah 21:12).