The Lord said to my Lord
Psalm 110

It was almost a thousand years before our Lord lived on Earth that King David, whom God called “A man after my own heart” (Acts 13:22), wrote Psalm 110, a prophecy which held the key to countless questions posed by both Jesus’ followers and by his religious opponents, as it has done for people of different ages and stages of faith ever since. In the New Testament, from Matthew to Revelation, I find quotations and references to this prophetic psalm, which suggests to me how fundamental its truths were to those writers who had seen them revealed before their eyes as Messiah, only Saviour, Priest of priests and King of kings.

This slight revision of my text in “Praise!” 110 dates from 2010. It affects the second stanza, relating to verse 3 in the Bible text where English translations have variously militaristic language to express a spiritual conflict under Christ’s leadership against the hosts of wickedness. So in this rewrite my fighting troops are now people equipped to serve - more in line with English Standard Version’s “Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments”. In addition, I think that 'Heaven's throne' would be an acceptable replacement for 'Zion's throne' in the fifth line of the first stanza, if preferred, as explained in the notes for my paraphrase of Psalm 53 (also revised) – ‘The foolish murmur in their hearts’.

Although this 2010 revision does not appear on the Praise! website, it is authorised by Praise Trust which administers its copyright. Resources for this lyric, including the sheet music for the unrevised version and an article with further background material, are at "Praise!" no. 110: The Lord said to my Lord, ‘sit here’