Psalm 110    

“Yahweh’s declaration to my lord.” Trinitarian commentators frequently assert that “my Lord” in this verse is the Hebrew word adonai, another name for God, and is therefore proof of the divinity of the Messiah. But not only is this not a valid argument, this verse is actually one of the great proofs of the complete humanity of the promised Messiah. The Hebrew word translated “my lord” is adoni (pronounced “Adon-nee.” Adonai is pronounced “Adon-eye,” because the “ai” sounds like “eye.” Adoni is pronounced “Adon-nee” because the final “i” is pronounced like a long “e.”) in the standard Hebrew texts. Adoni is always used in Scripture to describe human masters and lords, but never God. Unfortunately, most Hebrew concordances and lexicons give only root words, not the word that actually occurs in the Hebrew text. This is one reason why biblical research done by people using only tools such as a Strong’s Concordance will often be limited. (People wanting to study this for themselves will need to be able to work with the Hebrew text itself and not just the root words. A good source for this is the Bible study computer program, BibleWorks.) While studying from the root word and not the actual word in the text does not usually affect the interpretation of the text, sometimes it makes a great deal of difference, such as in Psalm 110:1. Focus on the Kingdom reports:

The Bible in Psalm 110:1 actually gives the Messiah the title that never describes God. The word is adoni and in all of its 195 occurrences in the Old Testament it means a superior who is human (or occasionally angelic), created and not God. So Psalm 110:1 presents the clearest evidence that the Messiah is not God, but a supremely exalted man.^a (We found 198 uses of adoni, but in a personal conversation with Mr. Buzzard he stated that his figure of 195 could understate the situation slightly.)

The difference between adon (the root word), adoni (“lord,” always used of men or angels) and adonai (which is used of God and sometimes written adonay) is critical to the understanding of Psalm 110:1. The Hebrew Lexicon by Brown, Driver and Briggs (BDB), considered by many to be the best available, makes the distinction between these words. Note how in BDB the word adoni refers to “lords” that are not God, while another word, adonai, refers to God (Hebrew reads from right to left, so the first letter of the word looks like a glorified “X.”)

1. Reference to men: my lord, my master: (adoni)
   1. master: Gen. 24:12; 44:5; Exod. 21:5; 1 Sam. 30:13, 15; 2 Kings 5:3, 20, 22; 6:15;
   2. husband: Gen. 18:12;
   3. prophet: 1 Kings 18:7, 13; 2 Kings 2:19; 4:16, 28; 6:5; 8:5;
   4. prince: Gen. 42:10, Gen. 23:6,11, 15; 42:10; 43:20; 44:18; 47:18; Judges. 4:18;
   5. king: 1 Sam. 22:12;
   6. father: Gen. 31:5;
   7. Moses: Exod. 32:22; Num. 11:28; 12:11; 32:26, 27; 36:2;
   8. priest: 1 Sam. 1:15, 26;
   9. theophanic angel [an angel representing God]: Josh. 5:14; Judges 6:13;
   10. captain: 2 Sam. 11:11;
   11. general recognition of superiority: Gen. 24:18; 32:5; 33:8; 44:7; Ruth 2:13; 1 Sam. 25:24.
        
2. ​Reference to God: [adonai]. Notice that when the Hebrew word refers to God, it changes from when it refers to men. The vowel under the “n” (the second letter from the left) has changed.^b We have changed the punctuation and reference abbreviations to make them consistent with the abbreviations we use for ease of reading. The letters in parenthesis mark their belief as to the exact writer or redactor of that portion of Scripture, something we do not agree with theologically.

In the above definition, adoni and adonai have the same root, adon, which is the word listed in the concordances and most lexicons. However, the exact words used are different. Adoni, the word used in Psalm 110:1, is never used of God. It is always used of a human or angelic superior. The fact that the Hebrew text uses the word adoni of the Messiah in Psalm 110 is very strong proof that he is not God. If the Messiah was to be God, then the word adonai would have been used. This distinction between adoni (a lord) and adonai (the Lord, God) holds even when God shows up in human form. In Genesis 18:3, Abraham addresses God who was “disguised” as a human, but the text uses adonai.

Scholars recognize that there is a distinction between the words adoni and adonai, and that these distinctions are important. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia notes:

The form ADONI (“my lord”), a royal title (1 Sam. 29:8), is to be carefully distinguished from the divine title ADONAI (“my Lord”) used of Yahweh.^c

There are several uses of adonai that refer to angels or men, giving them an elevated status, but not indicating that the speaker believed they were God. This is in keeping with the Hebrew language as a whole. Studies of words like Elohim show that it is also occasionally used of humans who have elevated status. Examples of adonai referring to humans include, Genesis 19:18; 24:9; 39:2. In contrast to adonai being used occasionally of men, there is no time when adoni is used of God. Men may be elevated, but God is never lowered.

The following 148 verses contain 166 uses of the word adoni. Every one of them either refers to a human lord or an angel. None refers to God: Gen. 23:6, 11,15; 24:12 (2x), Gen. 24:14, 18, 27 (3x), Gen. 24:35, 36, 37, 39, 42, 44, 48 (2x), Gen. 24:49, 65; 31:35; 33:8, 13, 14 (2x), Gen. 33:15; 39:8; 42:10; 43:20; 44:5, 7, 18 (2x), Gen. 44:19, 20, 22, 24; 47:18 (2x), Gen. 47:25; Exod. 21:5; 32:22; Num. 11:28; 12:11; 32:25, 27; 36:2; Josh. 5:14; 10:1, 3; Judg. 1:5, 6, 7; 4:18; 6:13; Ruth 2:13; 1 Sam. 1:15, 26(2x); 1 Sam. 22:12; 24:8; 25:24, 25(2x), 1 Sam. 25:26(2x), 1 Sam. 25:27, 28, 29, 31, 41; 26:17, 18,19; 29:8; 30:13, 15; 2 Sam. 1:10; 3:21; 9:11; 11:11; 13:32, 33; 14:9, 12, 15, 17(2x), 2 Sam. 14:18,19(2x), 2 Sam. 14:22; 15:15, 21(2x); 2 Sam. 16:4, 9; 18:31, 32; 19:19 (2x), 2 Sam. 19:20, 26, 27, 30, 35, 37; 24:3, 21, 22; 1 Kings 1:13, 17, 18, 20(2x), 1 Kings 1:21, 24, 27(2x), 1 Kings 1:31, 36, 37(2x); 1 Kings 2:38; 3:17, 26; 18:7, 10; 20:4; 2 Kings 2:19; 4:16, 28; 5:3, 18, 20, 22; 6:5, 12, 15, 26; 8:5, 12; 10:9; 18:23, 24, 27; 1 Chron. 21:3(2x), 1 Chron. 23; 2 Chron. 2:14, 15; Isa. 36:8, 9, 12; Jer. 37:20; 38:9; Dan. 1:10; 10:16, 17(2x), Dan 1:19; 12:8; Zech. 1:9; 4:4, 5, 13; 6:4.^d

The following 24 uses can be found under [l’adoni], “to my Lord.” While we in English separate the preposition from the noun or verb following, in Hebrew the preposition is attached directly to the word. Gen. 24:3, 54, 56; 32:5, 6, 19; 44:9, 16, 33; 1 Sam. 24:7; 25:27, 28, 30, 31; 2 Sam. 4:8; 19:29; 1 Kings 1:2; 18:13; 20:9; 1 Chron. 21:3; Ps. 110:1. All these refer to human lords, not God.

The following 6 references can be found under [v’adoni]: Gen. 18:12; Num. 36:2; 2 Sam. 11:11; 14:20; 19:28; 24:3.

The following reference can be found under [m_adoni]: Gen. 47:18.

Students of Hebrew know that the original text was written in an “unpointed” form, i.e., without the dots, dashes, and marks that are now the written vowels. Thus some scholars may point out that since the vowel points of the Hebrew text were added later, the rabbis could have been mistaken. It should be pointed out, however, that the two Hebrew words, adonai and adoni, even though written the same in unpointed text, sound different when pronounced. This is not unusual in a language. “Read” and “read” are spelled the same, but one can be pronounced “red,” as in “I read the book yesterday,” while the other is pronounced “reed,” as in “Please read the book to me.” The correct way to place the vowels in the text would have been preserved in the oral tradition of the Jews. Thus when the text was finally written with the vowels it would have been written as it was always pronounced.

Further evidence that the Jews always thought that the word in Psalm 110:1 referred to a human Messiah and not God come to earth is given in the Greek text, both in the Septuagint and in quotations in the New Testament. It is important to remember that the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, was made about 250 BC, long before the Trinitarian debates started. Yet the Septuagint translation is clearly supportive of Psalm 110:1 referring to a human lord, not God. It translates adoni as ho kurios mou (literally, “the Lord of me.” We would say, “My lord”).

The translators of the LXX [the Septuagint] in the 3rd century BC attest to a careful distinction between the forms of adon used for divine and human reference by translating adoni as ho kurios mou, “my lord.”^e

When Psalm 110:1 is quoted in the New Testament the same truth about the human lordship of the Messiah is preserved:

The New Testament, when it quotes Psalm 110:1, renders l’adoni as “to my lord” (to kurio mou). But it renders adonai ([Psalm 110] v. 5 and very often elsewhere) as “the Lord” (kurios). This proves that the difference between adonai and adoni was recognized and reported in Greek long before the Masoretic vowel points fixed the ancient, oral tradition permanently in writing.^f

It is interesting that scholars have often not paid close attention to the text of Psalm 110 or the places it is quoted in the New Testament, and have stated that it shows that Christ must have been God. The well-known Smith’s Bible Dictionary contains an article on “Son of God,” written by Ezra Abbot. He writes:

Accordingly we find that, after the Ascension, the Apostles labored to bring the Jews to acknowledge that Jesus was not only the Christ, but was also a Divine Person, even the Lord Jehovah. Thus, for example, St. Peter… [Abbot goes on to say how Peter said that God had made Jesus “both Lord and Christ.”]^g

We believe Abbot’s conclusion is faulty because he did not pay attention to the exact wording of the Hebrew text. Even scholars who contributed to Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible apparently agree, because there is a footnote after the above quotation that corrects it. The footnote states:

In ascribing to St. Peter the remarkable proposition that “God hath made Jesus JEHOVAH,” the writer of the article appears to have overlooked the fact that kurion (“Lord”) in Acts 2:36 refers to to kurio mou (“my Lord”) in verse 34, quoted from Ps 110:1, where the Hebrew correspondent is not Jehovah but adon, the common word for “lord” or “master.” St. Peter’s meaning here may be illustrated by his language elsewhere; see Acts 5:31 [where Peter calls Jesus a “prince,” etc.].

The footnote is quite correct, for the word in Psalm 110 is the word for a “lord” or “master” and not God. Thus Psalm 110:1 gives us very clear evidence that the expected Messiah of God was not going to be God himself, but a created being. The Jews listening to Peter on the Day of Pentecost would clearly see the correlation in Peter’s teaching that Jesus was a “man approved of God” (Acts 2:22 in KJV), and a created being, the “my lord” of Psalm 110:1 which Peter quoted just shortly thereafter (Acts 2:34). The use of adoni in the first verse of Psalm 110:1 makes it very clear that the Messiah was not God, but a human “lord.”

[For more information on Jesus being the fully human Son of God and not being “God the Son,” see Appendix 10, “Jesus is the Son of God, Not God the Son.” For more on “the Holy Spirit” being one of the designations for God the Father and “the holy spirit” being the gift of God’s nature, see Appendix 11, “What is the Holy Spirit?”]

“Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” When we look at the geography and positioning of the Temple and the royal palace dating back to the time of Solomon, the Temple was always north of the palace. That means that in the geography of the Ancient Near East, the palace of the king is “on the right hand” of Yahweh, who dwells in the Temple. Biblically, maps were oriented to the east (modern western maps are oriented “north”), and the Temple faced east, the sunrise. In the Millennial Kingdom, the Temple will be on top of Mount Zion and the city of Jerusalem where the palace of the Messiah is, is south of the Temple, and thus on the “right hand” of the Temple (Ezek. 40-44, esp. 40:2).

“your mighty scepter.” Ps. 110:2 is addressed to the one at Yahweh’s right hand, as we see in the phrase, “Yahweh will stretch forth your mighty scepter,” with the “your” being God’s “right-hand man,” the Messiah. The first stanza in Psalm 110:2 would have been spoken by the psalmist, while the second stanza would be spoken by Yahweh (or direct prophecy from Yahweh to the psalmist). Psalm 110:3 and 110:4 continue with the address to the Messiah and thus continue to use the second person words, “you,” and “your.”

“from Zion.” The Messiah will rule the earth from Jerusalem on Mount Zion. Psalm 110:2 is a prophecy of the future, something we can see from the fact that the Messiah, who is Jesus Christ, never ruled at all in his first life on earth, and certainly not from Zion (the permanent residence and place of rulership of the Roman governor during the ministry of Jesus was at Caesarea, not Jerusalem). However, when Jesus comes back from heaven to earth and fights the Battle of Armageddon and conquers the earth, then he, the king over the earth, will rule from Jerusalem.

“he will not change his mind.” God does on occasion change His mind, but not about some things, and that the Messiah would also be a priest is one of those things.

[For more on God changing His mind, see commentary on Jer. 18:8.]

“O almighty Lord.” The context supports that this is to be translated as a vocative, “O Adonai,” and is addressed to Yahweh (cp. NET and Rotherham, who both translate it as a vocative). The psalmist, David, is speaking (David is the psalmist, cp. Matt. 22:43-45). This is the third Hebrew word in this Psalm that is translated “Lord” in most English versions. “Yahweh” and “Adoni” are in Ps. 110:1, and here in verse 5 is “Adonai,” which is from the same root as Adoni, but is a different word with a different meaning.

“at your right hand.” This is addressed to Yahweh; “your right hand” is Yahweh’s right hand, as was already stated in Psalm 110:1, that the Lord (Messiah) would sit at Yahweh’s right hand.

The Hebrew text can also be “by your right hand,” meaning that it is by Yahweh’s power the Messiah will shatter his enemies. In that sense, the Messiah would be understood to be the “right hand” of God (Exod. 15:6). However, it is perhaps better to see the Hebrew as saying “at” your right hand, based on verse 1 of the Psalm. The Septuagint agrees with this meaning of the verse and is “Lord, out from (ek) your right hand he crushes kings in the day of his anger.” Thus in the Greek text also there is a clear distinction between the “Lord” and “he” who crushes kings.

“is he who will shatter kings in the day of his wrath.” In Psalm 110:5 there is a shift to the third person, “he” and “his.” Psalm 110:2-4 used the second person “your” referring to the one at Yahweh’s right hand (the Lord, the Messiah). Now the third person, “he” and “his,” refers to the Messiah. The verse starts with a direct address to Yahweh. It was well known that at some time in the future there would be a day of God’s wrath when God would take vengeance on His enemies (cp. Ps. 2:12).