What Jesus Said
“How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?”
Where It Comes From
“The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.”
Original Language Note
The Hebrew distinguishes two figures: "YHWH" (יהוה, the covenant name of God) said unto "Adonai" (אֲדֹנִי, "my Lord"). David, the author and king, calls the Messiah "my Lord" — placing the Messiah above himself. The Messiah is both David's descendant (son) and David's superior (Lord).
The Context
The Pharisees had been testing Jesus with questions about taxes, resurrection, and the greatest commandment. Jesus turned the tables by asking them a question they could not answer: How can the Messiah be both David's son and David's Lord? They had no answer, and "neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions."
Seeing Christ
Psalm 110 is the most quoted Old Testament passage in the New Testament. Its opening verse establishes that the Messiah is divine — not merely a human descendant of David, but one whom David himself worships as Lord. The Messiah sits at God's right hand, the place of supreme honor and authority. Jesus used this psalm as His own apologetic, demonstrating from Scripture that the Messiah would be both human (son of David) and divine (Lord of David).
Answering the Skeptic
This is Jesus' own apologetic argument for His divinity, drawn directly from the Hebrew Scriptures. If the Messiah is merely a human king, David would not call him "my Lord." But David, speaking "in spirit" (by the Holy Spirit), calls his own descendant "Lord" — indicating that the Messiah possesses divine status. Jesus' opponents could not answer this argument because it exposes the full picture of Messianic expectation: the Messiah is both Son of David (human) and Son of God (divine).