This seemingly small detail from the Psalms has been swallowed up in tradition. The LORD says to my Lord: “ Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” (Psa 110:1 NASB) So, until this appointed day the Messiah was called up to the Father’s right hand to wait.ġ A Psalm of David. Later in the same conversation the referenced period of time is called the day of His (the Messiah’s) wrath and the day of His (the Messiah’s) power. The Psalm begins with the Father telling the Messiah to wait at His right hand until the time when He made His enemies a footstool for Him. The two figures are not difficult to identify, the writers of the NT clearly understood them to be the Father and the Messiah. The Psalm records a prophetic conversation between Yahweh and David’s “Lord” ( Heb. So, clearly the way this Psalm is viewed will have a major sway with your interpretation of NT theology. Verse 1 alone is referenced 18 times directly, several more indirectly. Psalm 110 is the most referenced Psalm in the NT.
Acts 1:3) and the ascension of Jesus, the primary accreditation of the identity of Jesus voiced by the Apostles was the writings of David concerning the Messiah. Immediately after the forty days of instruction ‘concerning the Kingdom of God’ ( cf. They were not only the primary reference point for Messianic expectation, but also how they should interpret the unexpected ascension and delay of Jesus. However, the Psalms – primarily the Psalms of David – are the single most theologically referenced material in the New Testament. The rule of thumb within any seminary class on the Psalms is that you cannot take theology from the Psalms – rather, they are to be viewed as inspirational and devotional. What’s in your way?Ī Seed To Plant: Carefully use this season of Lent to prayerfully consider what enemies you would like to see under your footstool and then reach for God’s hand.By far, the most common view within the church (at least for the last 1,700 years) is that Jesus is currently reigning on His heavenly throne and establishing His Kingdom through His people. While there are many reasons why various schools of interpretation all hold this common assumption about the Messiah’s present heavenly reign, their interpretation of Psalm 110 references in the NT is often an anchor to which their assumptions about the Kingdom of God are tethered. Just like my living room as a child, sometimes we had to move some stuff out of the way to get to the footstool, so it is with our need to move the barriers that are keeping us from the right hand of God so we can get near that footstool. Then and only then will the footstool slamming begin! He can’t help me if I’m a mile away, He needs me right there beside Him clinging to Him with childlike dependence. In order to have Him put those enemies under my feet, I have to be beside Him. The beautiful part of this verse is the “at my right hand” part. I would love to sit at God’s right hand and watch Him slap down a footstool on impatience or on judgmental thinking or on any other of the sinful areas of my life. I was able to stick a label on my enemies rather quickly once I started thinking about it. Lent is a great time to do some soul searching about enemies that might creep into our lives and try to distract us. The enemy could be anything preventing my pursuit of the Father's joy. After I let it percolate in my mind and heart a few days, it came to me. I don’t have any human enemies so I moved on to a verse I thought had more meaning but something kept calling me back. When I read the word enemy, I immediately thought of a person. I had to stretch a little and read this verse a time or two before it’s meaning really hit my heart. It was sturdy and comfortable and important. We did use it to rest feet on, especially when there was a story to be read or a baby to be rocked. My favorite memory of that footstool was the way my little brother used to fasten a bath towel around his neck like a super hero and jump off that footstool thinking it would boost him high enough that he could fly. We had a dark green footstool in our living room when I was growing up and as I recall it had many functions. …Take your throne at my right hand while I make your enemies your footstool.