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Psalm 110 · a question people ask

"Sit at my right hand" (110:1), then "The Lord is at your right hand" (110:5). Isn't that the other way round?

In the text

Both are in the psalm. In 110:1 the LORD says to the one the psalm calls "my Lord", "Sit at my right hand" (110:1). In 110:5 the psalm says, "The Lord is at your right hand. He will crush kings in the day of his wrath" (110:5). There Lord is adonai, a different form from 110:1's adoni (tap Lord). The psalm doesn't say whom the your of 110:5 speaks to, or name the He of 110:5-7 beyond "The Lord". Other psalms speak of the LORD at a person's right hand: "Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved" (Psalm 16:8), and "For he will stand at the right hand of the needy, to save him" (Psalm 109:31). The New Testament verses these notes cite give the words of 110:1 and 110:4, not of 110:5-7. The psalm leaves it there, and these notes don't say more than it does.

The verses

“A Psalm by David. The LORD says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.””
Psalm 110:1 · World English Bible
“The Lord is at your right hand. He will crush kings in the day of his wrath. He will judge among the nations. He will heap up dead bodies. He will crush the ruler of the whole earth. He will drink of the brook on the way; therefore he will lift up his head.”
Psalm 110:5-7 · World English Bible
“I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.”
Psalm 16:8 · World English Bible
“For he will stand at the right hand of the needy, to save him from those who judge his soul.”
Psalm 109:31 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 110

Psalm 110: The LORD says to my Lord

"The LORD says to my Lord" (110:1) uses two different Hebrew words: the divine name, and adoni, a word the Psalms use of the LORD and of a king. The oath "You are a priest forever" (110:4) opens with the same two Hebrew words as the LORD's oath to David in Psalm 132:11. And Jesus used 110:1 to ask how David's son could be David's Lord (Mark 12:37).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions