The Lord (adonai
אֲדֹנָי) at thy (Yahweh's
[per v. 1]) right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. (Psa
110:5)
In Matt 22:41-46//Luke 20:41-44//Mark
12:35-37, Jesus quotes Psa 110:1 to support this being the Messiah. Some (e.g.,
Anthony Buzzard) have used the fact that the Hebrew reads “Yahweh said l’adoni
[to my lord],” that this somehow precludes the divinity of Jesus, as he affirms
he is the “my lord” [adoni] of this passage. However, in light of Psa
110:5, this is probably not a valid Unitarian proof-text; if anything, the
entire psalm supports the divinity of Jesus, not that of Socinian
Christology as advocated by Buzzard, Christadelphians, and others:
Though some might
argue that the psalmist makes a distinction between Yahweh and adoni,
and conclude that Jesus (who is prophetically adoni in the Psalm) is not
Yahweh, there are strong contextual reasons to conclude that this passages
implies Christ’s deity.
As mentioned, Jesus quotes
Psalm 110:1 and applies it to Himself. In the Hebrew text we read, “The LORD [Yahweh]
said to my Lord [adoni] . . .” The rest of Psalm 110 shows that the
psalmist’s use of adon does not exclude the coming Messiah as God. Verse
5 reads, “The Lord [adonay] is at Thy [Yahweh, implied] right
hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath” . . . the wrath to come in
Psalm 110:5 is adonay’s wrath, and therefore He is the eschatological
judge (see also Ps. 2:5, 12). The point here is that in the Old Testament there
are clear references to the wrath of Yahweh (Exod. 15:7; 22:24; 32:10, 11, 12;
Num. 11:33; 25:11; see esp. Pss. 21:9; 38:1; 78:31, 38, 49; 79:6), and that
therefore this divine attribute belonging to Yahweh also belongs to the Son. Second,
the objection that adonay cannot be God (elohim) is made without
reference to other Psalms where God and adonay are synonymous. Psalm
59:10-11 (vv. 11-12 in Heb.) states: “My God [elohim] in His
lovingkindness will meet me; God [Elohim] will let me look
triumphantly upon my foes. Do not slay them, lest my people forget; scatter
them by Thy power, and bring them down, O Lord [adonay], our shield.”
Third, there is evidence
that adonay is also Yahweh, signifying that the terms are
interchangeable. Exodus 23:17 states: “Three times a year all your males shall
appear before the Lord [adonay] Yahweh [Yahweh].” In Isaiah 6 “the
Lord [adonay] sitting on the throne” (v. 1) is identified as “the
King, the LORD [Yahweh] of hosts” (v. 5). One more example shall
suffice: “For the LORD [Yahweh] your God [elohim] is the God of
gods and the Lord [adonay] of Lords” (Deut. 10:17). When all this evidence
is considered, the adonay in Psalm 110, the coming Messiah, should be
viewed as God. (Steven Tsoukalas, Knowing Christ in the Challenge of Heresy:
A Christology of the Cults A Christology of the Bible [Lanham, Md.:
University Press of America, 1999], 69-70)
