February 6
“The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool,’” Psalm 110:1.
David, the psalmist, wrote and spoke about the ascension of the Lord Jesus into heaven. After Jesus completed our redemption through His holy life, His innocent suffering and death, and His resurrection, He ascended into heaven. God the Father (“The Lord”) spoke to God the Son (“my Lord”), “Sit at My right hand.” The right hand of God is a position of power. Jesus, the God-Man, is in a position of power. Having completed everything for our redemption, He ascended on high and opened for us the gate to heaven.
Repeatedly, people speak of someone who died and who was greeted by Peter at the pearly gates. That is not in harmony with what is taught in Holy Scripture. Our ascended Lord, who is at the right hand of God the Father, greets those who die in the faith. Jesus told His disciples that He was going to ascend to heaven to prepare a place for them. Then He told them, “I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also,” John 14:3. Jesus welcomes the dying Christian into the halls of heaven, not Peter.
The words of the psalmist are quoted by Jesus, who used the text to teach the people about Himself. “While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, ‘What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?’ They said to Him, ‘The Son of David.’ He said to them, ‘How then does David in the Spirit call Him “Lord,” saying: “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your Footstool’”? If David then calls Him “Lord,” how is He is Son?’ And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore,” Matthew 22:41-46.
Indeed, Jesus was the Son of David – a descendant of David’s according to the flesh. He also was David’s Lord – the Son of God the Father from eternity. The fact that Jesus was David’s Lord, the Son of God, was what the religious teachers of that day rejected. It is also true today that there are clergymen who refuse to teach that Jesus is the Son of God. Anyone who rejects that Jesus is both God and Man in one Person does not have a message of salvation for sinners!
Every Christian confesses that he or she believes: “Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true Man born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord.”
The psalmist writes that Jesus is at the right hand of God, “Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews writes, “This Man, (Jesus) after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool,” Hebrews 10:12-13. Jesus will conquer all our spiritual enemies – sin, death, and the devil. Jesus is in the position of power! Have no fear! He is always near at hand to bless! Remember His promise, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth . . . and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age,” Matthew 28:18, 20.
We pray: Dear Jesus, my ascended Lord, watch over me and protect me and my loved ones this day. Keep us in the faith in You as our Lord and Savior, who suffered, died, and rose again to redeem us. Bless us as only You can do. In Your name, I pray. Amen.