Daily Devotion

It is important that we take this little passage by itself because it is very difficult to understand. The most popular title of the Messiah was Son of David. That is what the blind man at Jericho called Jesus (Luke 18:38-39), and that is how the crowds addressed Him at His entry to Jerusalem (Matthew 21:9). Here, Jesus seems to cast doubts on the validity of that title. The quotation is from Psalm 110:1. In Jesus' time, all the Psalms were attributed to David and this one was taken to refer to the Messiah. In it, David says that he heard God speak to his Anointed One and tell him to sit at his right hand until his enemies become his footstool, and in it, David calls the Messiah "My Lord".   How can the Messiah be at once David's son and David's Lord?

 

Jesus was doing here what He so often tried to do to correct the popular idea of the Messiah which was that under him the golden age would come, and Israel would become the greatest nation in the world. It was a dream of political power. How was that to happen? There were many ideas about it but the popular one was that some great descendant of David would come to be invincible captain and king. So, then the title Son of David was inextricably mixed up with world dominion, with military prowess, and with material conquest.

 

What Jesus was saying here was, "You think of the coming Messiah as the Son of David; so, he is; but he is far more, He is LORD." He was telling men that they must revise their ideas of what Son of David meant. They must abandon these fantastic dreams of world power and visualize the Messiah as Lord of the hearts and lives of men. He was implicitly blaming them for having too little idea of God.

Life Application: When you think of Jesus being the Son of David does that limit Him from being the Son of God? What title do you prefer for Jesus? When you think of Him being the baby of Bethlehem does that limit who He really is?

 

Praise/Prayer: Dear Father, I am so thankful that when Jesus came as a baby He really didn't limit who He was. He is always the Son of God, praise God. Father, help people who cannot accept Jesus as the Almighty Son of God who is eternal. Open their minds and understanding. AMEN!