The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-4, titled "Questions and Answers--Part 32."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. Copyright 2001 by John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

We have been witnessing, my husband and I, to a neighbor who is Jewish and who comes from Israel. We’ve been getting together with him and last time he brought up his Hebrew Old Testament and my husband was reading with him through prophecies and he would read it in English and the guy would read it in Hebrew. And they came to the 110th Psalm, first verse: “The Lord said unto my Lord,” and so on. He says that word “my” is not there in the Hebrew at all and the word “Lord” is not “Adonai” or “Yahweh” or anything like that, but it’s “Adoni,” which is just like saying “sir” or it’s an address that you can say to anybody.

Answer

Well, “Adoni” is just a form of “Adonai.”

Question (continued)

“So a Jew would take that as deity? Because he did not.”

Answer (continued)

I don’t know how to answer that question because I don’t know whether his Hebrew text is accurate, I don’t know whether it’s been altered. I don’t know; I can’t verify that. I’m not familiar with that text in Hebrew, by memory, to verify that. It sounds to me that you should keep doing what you’re doing because that’s nitpicking

Now, it is true that the word “lord” means “sir”--that’s true--and in a secular context, a cultural context, the word “Adoni” could be used “sir.” In the New Testament even, “Kurios” in the Greek, (“Kuriea”(sp)--it’s often in the form of “Kuriea”(sp)) can mean “sir.” But, it’s usage in Scripture is clearly prescribed in reference to deity, to God himself. And I would agree with this: that in Psalm 110:1, if that verse stood alone, it would not necessarily be convincing. But when you compare--for example, if you look at Psalm 110:1, the best approach there is to determine what that “lord” means. You determine that, for example, “The Lord said unto my Lord, ‘Sit down at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.’”

OK, the first “Lord” is unquestionably a reference to God. The Lord God says to some other Lord, “Sit down at my right hand until I make all the enemies thy footstool.” Now the word “my,” as far as I know, is in the Hebrew text… I don’t what his text says. So who would David’s Lord be? Well, David was the sovereign of Israel and remember what the Jews said in John 8? “We have never been in servitude to any man,”--they had forgotten their captivities. But under David, they were in the glories of their great kingdom. I mean, the kingdom wasn’t even divided yet so this was the great time of David’s kingdom.

David was the sovereign. So who would be David’s Lord? Who would be David’s sovereign? It would have to be someone higher than David and that’s why we believe it is an intertrinitarian issue. But, further, it says, “Sit down at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Now look at Psalm 2. And then it talks about “why do the nations rage, and people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Messiah, his king, his Anointed." This is a messianic Psalm. And then in verse 6: “I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion,” and who is this King? “The Lord said unto me, ‘Thou art my’” what? “‘My Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost part of the earth for thy possession. And thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel,” and so forth.

So, here you have, similar to Psalm 110, the idea of the nations being made subject. Psalm 110 says, “I’ll make the enemies your footstool.” Well, here is the exact thing happening and who is it? It is God bringing the nations in subjection to “my Son”--to his Son. So when you parallel it with this, and verse 12 says, “Kiss the Son lest He be angry and you perish from the way.” So, whoever it is that the Lord in Psalm 110 says He will make the people subject to is the same person in Psalm 2, and in Psalm 2 it is clearly God saying, “It’s my Son,” and God’s Son is none other than the Anointed, the King, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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