WEDNESDAY 5th
Psalm 110
NIV (v1) ‘The LORD says to my lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’
ESV (v1) ‘The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”’
This is one of those psalms that is prophetic in its outlook, beside its application for the time when it was written it also looks forward to the time when the Lord Jesus Christ will reign, and his enemies will become his footstool.
We read that after the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ that he led his disciples out to Mount Olivet and while he was talking with them and they were looking on, Jesus was taken up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
Where did Jesus go? The Scripture (in Acts 1) continues to say that two men stood by them in white robes, and as they spoke to the disciples they explained where Jesus had gone, ‘This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven . . .’ That is where he had gone to, back to heaven, he had returned to his Father, he had come to do his Father’s will, he had completed the task, the result was the provision of eternal redemption for all who believe, and now he was returning. In the next chapter, (Acts 2) Peter continues the story, he tells those who were listening to him while he was preaching, that once he had arrived back in heaven, he was exalted to the right hand of God.
This is where Psalm 110:1 fits in, the moment Jesus arrived in heaven, ‘The LORD, (that is God the Father), said to my Lord: (that is Jesus) Sit at my right hand’ in other words because of your obedience I am giving you a position of authority, in fact Paul tells us that at that same time, Jesus was given a name that is above every other name, and he was to sit at the right hand of God ‘until I make your enemies your footstool.’How can we be sure it is referring to Jesus? Well, read on with the verses in Acts 2, Peter continues, ‘For David himself did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, ‘The LORD said to my Lord. “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool”’Then in the next verse, ‘Let all the house of Israel therefore KNOW FOR CERTAIN that God HAS MADE HIM both Lord and Christ, (WHO?) This Jesus whom you had crucified.’
The day is yet to be when Jesus himself will sit on the throne of David, Jesus will return again, the two men dressed in white (Acts 1) continued to tell the watching disciples, ‘This Jesus . . . will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven’ he will return, and Zechariah foresaw that day when he prophesied, ‘On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives’ and later in verse 9 says, ‘And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and his name one.’
As we see the turmoil that is stretching across the nations of the world today, let us remind ourselves that the day is coming and what a glorious day it will be when Jesus himself will descend from heaven with his saints (the saints will have been previously taken up to heaven at the rapture) and will usher in a Kingdom of peace and Jesus will reign with the saints from Jerusalem and he will make all his enemies to become his footstool!
Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
Doth his successive journeys run;
His Kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.
To Him shall endless prayer be made.
And princes throng to crown His head,
His name like sweet perfume shall rise
With every morning sacrifice.
People and realms of every tongue
Dwell on His love with sweetest song;
And infant voices shall proclaim
Their early blessings on His name.
Blessings abound where’er He reigns:
The prisoner leaps to lose his chains,
The weary find eternal rest,
And all the sons of want are blest.
Where He displays His healing power
Death and the curse are known no more;
In Him the tribes of Adam boast
More blessings than their father lost.
Let every creature rise and bring
Peculiar honours to our King;
Angels descend with songs again,
And earth repeat the loud Amen.