Knowing God through His Word … Day by Day

And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?  David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared,

David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?” And the great throng heard him gladly.

Coty Pinckney helps us understand Mark 12:35-37

Note that Mark begins this section, “And Jesus answering . . .” Jesus continues to speak to the scribe, explaining what he lacks, what he must understand and believe prior to entering the kingdom of God.

Jesus then quotes from Psalm 110 — a Psalm that all parties acknowledge as a prophecy about the Messiah. David himself is the author of this Psalm, which begins, “The Lord said to my Lord . . .” To us, that sounds very strange. In the Hebrew version of the Psalm, however, the first “Lord” actually is the name of God, “Yahweh” or “Jehovah,” not the word “Lord.” Recall that the Israelites came to revere the name of God so highly that they thought they should never pronounce it. Instead, when coming to the name of God during a public reading, they would substitute the word “Lord” for the name of God. In most English versions of the Bible, you can tell the difference; if the word “LORD” appears in all capital letters, the Hebrew word is the name of God.

So David begins this Psalm, “Yahweh says to my Lord”. David refers to the Messiah as his Lord. And yet the Messiah is said to be the Son of David. Jesus asks, “How can this be? How can the Messiah be both David’s son and David’s Lord?”

There is only one answer: Jesus is both the son of David and the Son of God. Jesus is God. And the scribe needs to acknowledge this if he is to enter the kingdom of God.

So when the greatest commandment states, “Love the Lord your God,” we are to love Jesus as well, for Jesus is the Lord our God.