Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Thursday, May 23, 2013 Read – Psalm 110 We have encountered Psalm 110 before in the gospel writings – Mark tells us that Jesus used this Psalm to confound his opponents (Mark 12:35-37). Luke repeats Mark’s words in his gospel (Luke 20:41-44). Jesus used the Psalm to claim that only he could fulfill its meaning. Once again the thought that David is the author of the Psalm is crucial to its usage. Jesus’ question is how the Messiah could be both David’s LORD and son at the same time. The only way that could be true is if the Messiah was both a human being, a descendant of David, and also the Son of God, a divine being. Jesus claim is that he was both. Here, Luke points out that David was never said to ascend into heaven – Jesus did. So in this way Jesus fulfills Psalm 110. By the time of Jesus most people understood Psalm 110 as a Messianic Psalm – it was about the Messiah. As the followers of Jesus contemplated their experience of the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus it took very little effort to see this Psalm as referring to Jesus – most of Judaism already had made the connection with the Messiah.