#DailyDevotion Jesus Is Adonai, The God Of Israel Psalm 110
Matt. 22:41-46 41While the Pharisees were still together, Jesus asked them, 42“What do you think of the Christ? Whose Son is He?” “David’s,” they answered Him. 43He asked them, “Then how can David by the Spirit call Him ‘Lord? He says: 44The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right until I put your enemies under Your feet.’ 45Now, if David calls Him ‘Lord’, how can He be his son?” 46No one could answer Him, and after that no one dared to ask Him another question.
So, turnaround is fair-play, right? So the Sadducees and Pharisees had been testing Jesus asking him questions. So after they are finished Jesus asked them a couple of questions. Jesus first gives them a softball question, “What do you think of the Christ? Whose Son is He?” “David’s,” they answer. Why would they say, “David?” Well Nathan the prophet, speaking the Word of God told David in 2 Sam. 7, 12“When your time is up, and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your Descendant Who will come from you, and I will establish His kingdom. 13He will build a temple for My name, and I will make the throne of His kingdom stand forever. 14I will be His Father; and He will be My Son.” Now, none of David’s sons ever had the throne of his kingdom stand forever. So there is the promise of the Descendant of David’s whose would.
So Jesus now throws them the real question, “Then how can David by the Spirit call Him ‘Lord?’” Jesus quotes from Psalm 110, which everyone agrees is a messianic psalm, “The LORD (YHWY said to my Lord (Adonai), ‘Sit at My right until I put your enemies under Your feet.’” To make sense of Jesus’ question of how can the Messiah be David’s “my Adonai” if he is David’s son, you have know a little, well may a lot, of Hebrew. So, perhaps we know that in most Bibles, When you see the word LORD in all capital letters (usually small capital letters ord) that the name of God, YHWH is being used. Jews and Christians that followed would say, “Adonai” at those places. So in the Greek translations, YHWH is either replaced with God (Theos) or Kyrios (Lord).
Ok, pastor, get on with it. Yes, right. So Adonai in the Hebrew Bible only refers to God. Not only when is spoken instead of the revealed name but in all the places it is written, such as in this case in Psalm 110. There is YHWH, the LORD who speaks. Who is He speaking to? “My Adonai.” So YHWH is speaking to God here in this Psalm. What is this telling us? David’s descendant is going to be his God, the God of Israel. Mind blown, right? How can YHWH have a Son who is also David’s descendant. Well our creeds tells us, “conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.”
Jesus is David’s son according to the flesh. Mary, as we see from Luke’s Gospel is a descendant of David. Jesus is also Adonai, David’s Adonai, the God of Israel. The book of Hebrews marvels at this fact and you should go read it. It truly glorifies Jesus as Adonai, God in the flesh. For no angel did Adonai become to redeem them when they fell. But Adonai became one of us, to suffer in his flesh, to make atonement for your sins, to pay the debt of your sins, death, to redeem and ransom you from sin, death and the power of the devil. He has risen conquering death and sits at the right hand of the Father as David foretold in Psalm 110. He has also seated you there with him in his kingdom to reign with him forever.
Heavenly Father, we cannot fathom the mystery of your Son become man for us. We thank you and we ask you to give us your Spirit so we may believe it and be joined with him in his kingdom forever. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.