Bellarmine on Psalm 109 : Verse 1

Verse 1

The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand: 

Dixit Dominus Domino meo : Sede a dextris meis, 

David saw the Messiah in spirit, after His death and resurrection, ascending into heaven, and he repeats for us the words of God the Father to His Son, by which he invites Him to sit beside Him and reign with Him. “He said,” the Hebrew has neum, which properly means dictum / word, and read with the following noun, so that it can be translated: the word of the Lord to my Lord. But the sense is the same, and with the grace of clarity the Septuagint translation is, “The Lord said.” Now although dixit / he said is in the perfect tense, and this had not come to pass in David’s day, David properly employs the perfect tense because he saw a future event in the past. Dominus / the Lord is in Hebrew a word of four letters which properly belongs to God alone; that which is pronounced by moderns as Iehova was not wont to be pronounced by the ancients; but in its place was pronounced another name, which means Dominus / the Lord. And so the Septuagint translators, whenever they came across this proper name proper to God translated it as Κὑρος, that is, Lord, of which we wrote in connection with the grammar of the first verse of Ps. XXXIII. “To my Lord,” in Hebrew is ladoni, which properly signifies to my Lord; now the Rabbis understand by Lord in this context a reference to Abraham, as St. Jerome notes in his commentary on Matthew Ch. xxii; or

to  Ezechias, as Justin notes in Dialogue against Trypho, and Tertullian in book v of On Marcion: but it is quite certain that in this context the Lord refers to no-one unless to the Messiah, who was a son of David according to the flesh, and David’s Lord according to His divinity: the whole Psalm announces this, since neither Abraham nor Ezechias would be seated at the right hand of God, nor were been begotten before the day star, nor were priests according to the order of Melchisedech. When the Jews, asked by Christ in Matth xxii, how David in spirit could call the Messiah his Lord, they did not dare to deny the Psalm should be understood as being about the Messiah. The fact that the name proper to God is not repeated in this text is not a reason for saying the Son is not true God, as the Arian heretics claimed, but means that here it is not simply the Son of God who is being spoken of, but the incarnate Son of God. The incarnate Son of God is in the Scriptures always called the Lord, and God His Father, when they are both named; the reason for this is that the name the Lord is fitting for the Son according to either of His natures, but the title of God is not fitting except by reason of His divine nature. And so if in this context the same name were used for the Father and the Son, we might think that these things were being said of the Son only in so far as He is God. Now the 

incarnate Son of God, who is also called Christ, is in the Scriptures always called the Lord and His Father is God, which is clear from I Cor. Vii: “ One God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ;”[1] and in II Cor. i: “Grace unto you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ;”[2] and in the Gospels themselves, and in the Acts of the Apostles, and in the Epistles of the Apostles, whenever Christ is said to be the Lord, He is hardly ever in one or other of these contexts said to be God, because, as we have said, the name God befits Christ only in His divine nature, but the name of the Lord, is appropriate in respect of either of His natures. Hence, in the Creed we say: “I believe in God, the Father almighty, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord.” “Sit thou at my 

right hand.” The condition of being seated chiefly denotes a royal peace and authority; Christ’s being seated is ineffable peace, and supreme royal power. The words at my right hand signify an equality and partnership in the reign of God over all creatures. The Son of God always had this equality by reason of His divine nature, but He was raised up to it in His human nature after His humiliation unto death, even to death of the cross.[1]  For the Apostle speaks thus in Philip. ii: “For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names: That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth: And that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.”[4] For it is the same thing to be at the right hand of God and in the glory of God, that is, in the majesty of God; this is glory, that He has a name above all other names, and that in it every knee should bow; and the Apostle says the same in I Cor. xv: “ For he must reign, until he hath put all his enemies under his feet,”[5] where the Apostle explains the words, Sit thou at my right hand, as being the same as reign with me, until I put, etc. The same also in Hebr. I: “ But to which of the angels said he at any time: Sit on my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister?”[6] Here, to sit at the right hand of God signifies a difference between Christ and the angels, for the latter are ministering spirits and servants, and so they are not seated but are sent to minister: whereas Christ, as King and Lord, sits with the Father, superior to all creatures. Finally, St. Peter says in Acts ii : "Being exalted therefore by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath poured forth this which you see and hear. For David ascended not into heaven; but he himself said: The Lord said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy enemies thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know most certainly, that God hath made both Lord and Christ, this same Jesus, whom you have crucified.”[7] Here, St. Peter teaches, to sit at the right hand of God is to have ascended into heaven, to be Lord and to reign everywhere God is Lord and reigns.

[1] Yet to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. nobis tamen unus est Deus, Pater, ex quo omnia, et nos in illum : et unus Dominus Jesus Christus, per quem omnia, et nos per ipsum. [I Cor. viii. 6]

[2] Grace unto you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Gratia vobis, et pax a Deo Patre nostro, et Domino Jesu Christo. [ II Cor. i. 2]

[3] Philipp. ii.8

[4] For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names: That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth: And that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum, et donavit illi nomen, quod est super omne nomen : ut in nomine Jesu omne genu flectatur caelestium, terrestrium et infernorum, et omnis lingua confiteatur, quia Dominus Jesus Christus in gloria est Dei Patris. [Philipp. ii. 9-11]

[5] For he must reign, until he hath put all his enemies under his feet. Oportet autem illum regnare donec ponat omnes inimicos sub pedibus ejus. [I Cor. xv. 25]

[6] But to which of the angels said he at any time: Sit on my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them, who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?  Ad quem autem angelorum dixit aliquando : Sede a dextris meis, quoadusque ponam inimicos tuos scabellum pedum tuorum?  Nonne omnes sunt administratorii spiritus, in ministerium missi propter eos, qui haereditatem capient salutis?  [Hebr. I. 13]

[7] Being exalted therefore by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath poured forth this which you see and hear.For David ascended not into heaven; but he himself said: The Lord said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy enemies thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know most certainly, that God hath made both Lord and Christ, this same Jesus, whom you have crucified. 33] Dextera igitur Dei exaltatus, et promissione Spiritus Sancti accepta a Patre, effudit hunc, quem vos videtis, et auditis. [34] Non enim David ascendit in caelum : dixit autem ipse : Dixit Dominus Domino meo : Sede a dextris meis [35] donec ponam inimicos tuos scabellum pedum tuorum. [36] Certissime sciat ergo omnis domus Israel, quia et Dominum eum, et Christum fecit Deus, hunc Jesum, quem vos crucifixistis. [Acts. ii. 33-36]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.