For David has not ascended into the heavens, but he says himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit at my right hand
Peter quotes a psalm his hearers knew well, and turns it into proof. David never went up to heaven, so the psalm must speak of someone else — the man they crucified, now seated at God's right hand.
Peter's whole argument rests on one question his hearers could not answer: who is the person the psalm seats beside God?
So Peter cites another psalm. It shows that the Messiah had to ascend and sit at the right hand of Jehovah. He had shown just as clearly that resurrection was foretold of Him and of no one else. "For he says himself, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool." Who was the man that sat at God's right hand? No one could pretend it was David. It was his Son, the Messiah. This matched exactly what the apostles had seen for themselves.
Some have used these words to argue that the dead have no conscious life. The answer turns on what "ascend" actually means.
We freely grant that David did not ascend into the heavens. The Lord says the same of Himself after He rose, and yet He had been in Paradise with the pardoned thief... the departure of the spirit to God is never counted as "ascension."
The psalm puts two Lords in one sentence. David's son is also David's Lord, and that says something about who He is.
His sitting at Jehovah's right hand proclaimed in the clearest way that, though a man, He would also be God... Then Peter quoted it in Acts 2:34, and Paul in Hebrews 1:13. Both dwell on the words of Jehovah, "Sit at my right hand." Who in David's day could have said that of David's son, unless the Holy Spirit guided him and spoke through him? So we learn that the Psalm foretold the Lord's ascension. No one who accepted the Psalm as the inspired Word of God could question that authority.
Peter quotes two psalms, and they promise different things. One holds an earthly throne for the Son of David. The other tells where Christ is right now — and the crowd had just seen and heard the proof.
Psalm 132 secures the risen Son of David as the everlasting King on His throne in Zion. It brings the rich privileges that belong to His kingdom on earth and in Israel. If Psalm 132 does that, the quotation from Psalm 110 testifies to His present exaltation in heaven. The proof of this was conclusive. The Father had now fulfilled His promise and given the Holy Spirit. They could see and hear that outpouring beyond dispute.
The seat comes first; the subduing comes later. One small word holds those two apart.
This can refer to no one but the Lord Jesus. He is therefore David's Lord. The prophecy does not show Him taking His throne at once. It shows Him seated at God's right hand for a set time, before God would subdue His enemies under His feet.
Some read the psalm as fulfilled today, each time someone is converted. But conversion puts a person somewhere very different.
Are souls, when they are subdued by grace, made the footstool of their Conqueror? We have always understood that when men are converted they are united to Christ — made one body and one spirit with Him... This all makes sense if the psalm predicts Christ's exaltation to the right hand of God. There He waits in patient grace until the moment He receives commission to tread down His enemies, placed under His feet as a footstool.
The quotation is not just information. Peter preaches it to the nation, and it demands an answer.
Peter takes up these words in this way in his appeal to the nation at Pentecost, and his appeal was most powerful. He set two ways open to his hearers. One was surrender to Him whom God had set at His right hand. If they refused that, the other was to be crushed beneath His victorious feet. And it must be one or the other for every soul of man.
- Proof. David died, was buried, and never ascended — so his own psalm forces the question of who did.
- Person. The One David calls "my Lord" is his Son, yet seated at Jehovah's right hand: a man, and also God.
- Place. The throne in Zion is still future. Christ is at God's right hand now, and the poured-out Spirit proved it.
- Pause. "Until" marks a real interval — Christ exalted, enemies not yet made His footstool.
- Point. Every hearer must land on one side of that word: surrender to Him now, or fall under His feet later.
until I have put thine enemies [to be] the footstool of thy feet.
These words close Peter's quotation of Psalm 110 at Pentecost. They say where Christ is now, how long He stays there, and what happens when the waiting ends.
One objection stands in the way: can a man be in heaven? A psalm David wrote had already answered it, and the crowd could see the proof that day.
Would anyone object to the thought of a man in heaven? Peter credits another Psalm to David too, and so does the Book of Psalms. It had foretold this: "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool." David's Lord was to sit at Jehovah's right hand. David's Lord had done that. The proof of it was there in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which had taken place that day.
David called the Messiah "my Lord," though the Messiah was also David's son. Jesus Himself put that puzzle to the Pharisees.
The Lord drew attention to this Psalm (Matthew 22; Mark 12; Luke 20), and clearly asserted that it was about the Messiah. He asked the Pharisees whose son the Christ was, and pointed to David's words calling the Messiah "My Lord." By this He showed that, though David's son, He must be greater than the son of Jesse, King of Israel. And His sitting at Jehovah's right hand proclaimed in the clearest way that, though a man, He would also be God.
The word "until" sets a limit. The place Christ holds now is high, but a change still lies ahead.
But another day was to dawn, and we are introduced to it as soon as we begin to read Psalm 110... now He speaks to Him in resurrection, saying, "Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool." Jehovah acknowledges Him as Lord and places Him at His right hand — but it is "until…" There is a prospect before Him. The seat He is to occupy is high and exalted, yet it is provisional, until that prospect becomes reality. The day of His poverty is over. The day of His patience is begun.
One writer marks off two stages. God placing the enemies under Christ's feet is one thing; Christ crushing them Himself is another.
We have, then, two entirely distinct and contrasted periods. In the first, Christ sits at the right hand of God. He holds the acknowledged title of universal supremacy, but He waits for His enemies to be made His footstool. During this period, God bears with the enemies in patient grace, and gathers the co-heirs who are to sit with Him on His throne. This period fills the gap between the resurrection of Christ, the firstfruits, and the resurrection of those who are Christ's at His coming. The other period starts when Jehovah makes Christ's enemies His footstool. Then He begins to crush them by His power, and to subject all things to Himself in actual fact.
The waiting is not empty time. Sinners gain from it.
But God said to Christ, "Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool." And the Lord Jesus Christ, rejected by man, is sitting at God's right hand as Man. He waits there until His enemies are made His footstool. Patient grace is working meanwhile to call sinners to a knowledge of the salvation which He has worked out.
Peter did not quote this psalm as mere information. He left his hearers with two options, and both involve those feet.
The words declare His Deity, for they tell us that He was David's Lord. They also proclaim His exaltation, which followed His humiliation and rejection by men. Peter takes them up in this way in his powerful appeal to the nation at Pentecost. He set two ways before his hearers. One was surrender to Him whom God had set at His right hand. Refusing that, the other was to be crushed beneath His victorious feet. And it must be one or the other for every soul of man.
- Proof. David's Lord was to sit at Jehovah's right hand, and He had done it; the Spirit poured out that day was the visible evidence.
- Person. A son of David addressed as "my Lord," and seated at Jehovah's side, is a man who is also God.
- Provisional. The word "until" marks the seat as temporary: the day of His poverty is over, the day of His patience has begun.
- Purpose. While He waits, patient grace calls sinners and gathers the co-heirs who will share His throne.
- Parting of ways. The feet that will crush the enemies are the feet a person may surrender to now. Every hearer lands on one side or the other.