Messianic Perspectives

Liz Aiello: The 110th Psalm is quoted or alluded to by Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Peter, Paul, and other New Testament writers more than any other passage in the Old Testament. But this Psalm is also a source of great controversy. So is it really a Messianic prophecy or just wishful thinking? We'll find out today right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Shalom, and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinctively first-century Jewish point of view. This is Liz Aiello. Our Bible teacher is Dr. Gary Hedrick, president of CJF Ministries in San Antonio, Texas. You can reach our offices by dialing 1-800-926-5397.

Gary's subject today is "The Truth About Psalm 110." And since this Psalm is the most often quoted Old Testament prophecy in the entire New Testament, that means if it can be discredited, the whole Messianic house of cards comes tumbling down. I'll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pencil and paper ready. Now with today's study, here is Dr. Gary.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: All right, thank you and welcome listening friend to another edition of Messianic Perspectives. It's good to have you with us today as we continue this series of studies on the truth about Psalm 110. And this is a very important series of studies because, like we said last time, the 110th Psalm is the most widely quoted Messianic prophecy in the entire New Testament. In fact, Psalm 110 is quoted or alluded to in the New Testament more than any other Old Testament passage.

The critics know that. They know how important this Psalm is. They know that if they can show this Psalm is not Messianic, and if they can show that it was misquoted and misapplied by Jesus and Peter and Paul and the other New Testament writers, if they can destroy this one prophecy, they know the whole Messianic house of cards comes tumbling down. And remember, we said last time that the very first verse of Psalm 110 is the most controversial part of the whole Psalm.

Here's what it says. Remember, this is David speaking, and he says in verse one, "The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." And we said last time the big controversy is over these two "Lords" here in verse one. "The Lord said unto my Lord," *Yahweh la-Adoni* in the Hebrew. One Lord speaking to another Lord, David's Lord. Now the Christians solve the puzzle this way.

They say King David could call his descendant, with a capital D, descendant or his son the Messiah, David could call him *Adon* because he would be no mere man. He would be the God-man, the second person of the triune Godhead, Yeshua of Nazareth. He would in fact be Adonai. In fact, the full title of his divinity in the New Testament is Adonai Yeshua Ha-Mashiach, or the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, this was the cry of the early church: Jesus is Lord, *Yeshua la-Adonai*. Read through the book of Acts and over and over again, those early followers of the Messiah called him the Lord Jesus, or the Lord Jesus Christ, or the Lord, Adonai Yeshua Ha-Mashiach. To them, he was the Lord, and to us, he is also the Lord. And that's not just Lord in the sense of master or sir. It's not just a title of respect.

When we talk about Jesus being Lord, we mean Lord in the sense of being God. We mean Lord like Adonai. And let me tell you something, these people who are trying to weasel their way into the Messianic movement and say Jesus isn't really God—you know, they say the Roman church rewrote the New Testament documents to make it look like Jesus was a God—those people are wrong. They are wrong theologically and they are wrong biblically.

They are even wrong archaeologically, scientifically, and in every way. We have excavated inscriptions and even first-century graffiti, you know, writing on the walls, that proves the early Christians worshiped Jesus as Lord. In fact, the very earliest Jewish followers of Yeshua as the Messiah were the Nazarenes. They were called *Natzrim*, headed by James the Just, or Ya'akov Ha-Tzaddik. James was the half-brother of our Lord.

This was during the time leading up to the destruction of the Temple in AD 70. According to tradition, James spent so much time praying in the Temple, even the Pharisees and the Sadducees respected him. And do you know what? James and the *Natzrim*, the Nazarenes, worshiped Jesus as Lord. That's what distinguished them historically from the Ebionites who did not believe he was God. The Nazarenes believed in the divinity of the Messiah. To them, Yeshua was and is God.

Now that's interesting. I mean that the earliest Jewish followers of Yeshua in the post-resurrectional period were the Nazarenes who worshiped in the Temple and who believed Jesus was God. Do you know why that's so interesting? The fact that their leader was Jesus' brother, James. James was Jesus' younger brother. His mother and father were Mary and Joseph. You say, Gary, what's so interesting about that?

Well, if you were not God and you were just some religious quack trying to convince the world that you were God, who do you think would be the hardest people in the world to convince? It would be the members of your own family, the people who lived with you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It would be the people who sat down at the dinner table with you, who played with you, who talked with you, who slept with you, and who lived with you day in and day out.

Those are the people who, if you tried to convince them that you were a God, they're the ones who would say, "Yeah, right." But watch this: Jesus' own brother, James, became not only a believer in Jesus as God, but he became the leader of the Nazarenes, this Jewish Christian sect that worshiped in the Temple. And they say James was so devout that when his enemies finally succeeded in having him killed and the Nazarenes were preparing the body for burial, they found that his knees were covered with thick calluses.

They say he had knees like a camel, callused from kneeling in prayer in the Temple. He was recognized as a *Tzaddik*, as a righteous man, even by Pharisees and Sadducees who were not believers in Jesus. So when the early church said Jesus was Lord, they meant he was Adonai. He was God. And you can use the term *Adon* if you want to because that can refer to God too.

And as we've said several times so far in this series of studies, the meaning of *Adon* here really depends on the context. And it depends frankly on how you want to read it. Which means we can harp on this until the cows come home. We can talk about this until we're blue in the face and the defenders of traditional rabbinic Judaism are never going to believe the second Lord in Psalm 110, verse one, is a divine Messiah.

As long as they don't want to believe it, they're not going to believe it. And frankly, we're the same way. we accept the authority of the New Testament and the authority of Yeshua himself as the true Messiah of Israel. So the critics can kick and scream all they want. We believe the second Lord in Psalm 110, verse one, is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, Adonai Yeshua Ha-Mashiach.

So when David says in verse one, "The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool," it's a wonderful Messianic statement. It's a prophetic statement because if it's true that the historical setting here was the coronation of David's son Solomon, that means this Psalm was written near the end of David's life. And remember, God had made David some very specific promises years before.

Do you remember that Davidic covenant? God had promised that there would be a line of succession from David onward through the line of Solomon and on down to the Messiah, who would be born from the tribe of Judah and the royal lineage of David. And one of the prominent features of that covenant God made with David was the promise that someday the Jewish people would dwell in their land peacefully and without being oppressed by their enemies.

God promised David that his people would be planted in the land permanently, never to be removed again. So here is King David coming to the end of his life, and he remembers what God promised him years before. The promise was Israel's permanent and undisturbed possession of the land that had been deeded over to the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by God himself.

The promise was that David's throne—that is, his authority—would never pass away. And right now it's a spiritual throne, a spiritual seat of authority. But someday there will be once again a physical manifestation of the throne of David on this earth because God said it would never disappear permanently. It may disappear for a while, but not permanently.

And another thing God promised David was that he would build David a house. Remember? David wanted to build the Temple, *Beit Ha-Mikdash*, the house of the congregation, the Jerusalem Temple. David wanted to be the one to build it. But God said, "No, David, you cannot build my house because you are a man of war. You are a man of blood. So you're going to leave that job to your son Solomon. He will build my house."

But then God said, "David, since you're a man after my own heart, I want to do something for you. You can't build my house. So I'll tell you what: let me build you a house." And so that's what God did. He built the house of David. Not a physical building, but a spiritual house, a dynasty, a family, an unbroken lineage that would make its way through generation after generation after generation.

Finally, on a cold fall night in a little village in the Middle East on the outskirts of Jerusalem, a baby was born. He was a descendant of King David. He was Yeshua the Messiah, and he came to save his people from their sin. And someday he will return as King of kings and Lord of lords. That's when the promises God made to David will all be fulfilled. And that's when our King Messiah will put all of his enemies under his feet, just like Psalm 110 says. Well, we've got a lot more to say here, but we're out of time. So we'll continue on the next program. Until then, this is your friend Gary Hedrick saying God bless you, take care, bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you, Gary. And thank you, listening friend, for tuning in today. We've been listening to our Bible teacher, Dr. Gary Hedrick, talking about "The Truth About Psalm 110." If you are interested in Bible prophecy, you'll be glad to know that our special offer this week is the CD of this current series of studies on "The Truth About Psalm 110" by our Bible teacher, Dr. Gary Hedrick.

It's available for a suggested contribution of just $6 or more. Just visit our secure online store at messianicspecialties.com to place your order. If you would prefer to order by mail, just address your request to Messianic Perspectives, PO Box 345, San Antonio, Texas 78292. To order by phone, use our toll-free order line. The number is 1-800-926-5397.

Have you enjoyed this edition of Messianic Perspectives? Why not continue to learn about the Jewish roots of your Christian faith by inviting a speaker from CJF Ministries? Call our toll-free number, 1-800-926-5397, and we'll be happy to handle all of the details. And as always, when you're in touch with us, please mention the call letters of this station. If you're listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. I'm Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won't you? As Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series of studies on "The Truth About Psalm 110" right here on Messianic Perspectives.