Psalm 110:1 ‘The Lord (YHWH3068) said to my Lord (Adonai136) sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.’
Watchtower teaching: JWs say that since Jehovah is speaking in this verse and since the ‘Lord’ is a distinct person from Jehovah, then Jesus must not be Jehovah God Almighty.
In Matthew 22:41-45 Jesus claims that He Himself is the ‘Lord’ referred to by David in this Psalm. They therefore conclude that Jesus is not Jehovah, but the one Jehovah speaks to.
Bible Teaching: This verse proves the deity of Christ.
Question 1: Christ asks the Pharisees, ‘Whose Son is he (Christ)?’ regarding the deity of the Messiah. (Matthew 22:42)
Answer: The Pharisees reply, ‘The son of David’. Their answer was correct but incomplete. II Samuel 7:12-16 shows the Messiah to be the human son of David.
Psalm 110:1 shows the human Messiah also to be God (Adonai), a fact that Christ wanted the Pharisees to acknowledge. Christ anticipated the Pharisees’ half-answer.
That’s why Christ then asks a question regarding Psalm 110:1.
Question 2: ‘The LORD (YHWH 3068) said unto my Lord (Adonai 136), sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. If David then call him (Messiah, Christ, Son of David) Lord (Adonai 136), how is he (Adonai=God) his (David’s) son?’(Matt 22:44,45)
Answer: Here the first person of the Trinity (God the Father) invites the second person of
the Trinity (God the Son) to sit at His right hand.
It seems odd that David would call his own son ‘My Lord’ (Adonai, a title used exclusively of God). The Messiah would be David’s son, but He would also be David’s God. He would be both God and man.
Question 3: Jesus drove the point home to the Pharisees by asking, ‘If David then call him Lord (Adonai, Deity), how is he his son?’ (Matthew 22:45)
Answer: The Pharisees should have replied that ‘David called his son Lord because He is God as well as man.’ But they would then be trapped into allowing Christ to be the Messiah, being both man and God. The Pharisees realised their dilemma, so they refused to answer.
Key: Psalm 110:1 proves the undiminished deity of Jesus Christ, because the same word used for ‘Lord’ (Adonai) in Psalm 110:1 of Jesus Christ (Adonai the Son) is also used of the Father (Adonai the Father) many times in Scripture, such as:
1) ‘Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord (Adonai) God (YHWH 3068)’. (Exodus 23:17).
2) ‘For the Lord (YHWH 3068) your God (Elohim 430) is God (Elohim) of gods, and Lord (Adonai 136) of lords, a great God (El 410), a mighty, and a terrible’(Deuteronomy 10:17)
3) ‘Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord (Adonai 136) of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan’. (Joshua 3:11)
4) ‘And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord (Adonai) God (YHWH)...’ (Joshua 7:7)
5) ‘I prayed therefore unto the Lord (YHWH 3068), and said, O Lord (Adonai) God (YHWH 3069), destroy not thy people . . .’ (Deuteronomy 9:26)
Other references to Lord (Adonai136) God (YHWH) are:
Deuteronomy 3:24; Exodus 34:23; 15:17; 4:10,11; 5:22; Judges 6:22; 13:8; 16:28;
II Samuel 7:18,28,29; I Kings 2:26; 8:53; Psalm 68:20; 69:6; 71:5,16; 73:28; 109:21; 141:8;
Isaiah 3:15; 28:16; 22:5,12,14,15; 25:8; 40:10; 48:16; 49:22; 50:4; 52:4; 56:8 etc.
Ask: Did you know that ‘Adonai’ (Lord) used of Jesus Christ in Psalm 110:1 is also used of the Father in Exodus 23:17; Deuteronomy 10:17; Joshua 3:11?
Ask: Can you see that Jesus’ statement to the Pharisees in Matthew 22:42-45 was that the Messiah (Christ) would be David’s son as well as David’s God (Adonai)?
Question: Does ‘Adonai’ mean Jehovah God?
Answer: Yes, for these reasons:
1) It is linked together with ‘YHWH’ (Exodus 23:17).
2) Jehovah calls himself ‘Adonai’ in Isaiah 8:7, ‘The LORD (YHWH) spake also unto me again saying:. . . Now therefore behold the Lord (Adonai) bringeth up ...’
3) WE Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of OT and NT Words, p.140 states that ‘Adonai’ applies to God:
The JW claim that Jesus cannot be God because Jehovah spoke to Him, is faulty because we who are from the finite earthly realm cannot assume that God who is of infinite heavenly realms must fit into our earthly logic patterns with which we are familiar. God’s ways aregreatly above our ways. For example, in Genesis 18:1-3 Abraham addressed the three visitors as ‘Jehovah’. The two who left to visit Sodom, Lot called them ‘Jehovah’ (19:18), yet the one who remained, Abraham continued to address Him as ‘Jehovah’
(18:22,26,27,30,31,32,33).
Note: JWs often mockingly ask the question when Jesus prays to Father: ‘Does God talk to Himself?’ Yes He does, as in Genesis 18:17-19 where God asks Himself a question: ‘And Jehovah said, Am I keeping covered from Abraham what I am doing?’ Later in v. 22 Jehovah separates.
Hence the Father can talk to the Son, with the Son still being 100% God.
Ask: If you reject the Trinity because you can’t understand it, then how do you explain how a brown cow by eating green grass gives white milk?
