Mark 12:36 Commentary and Bible Study

The clergy of the day in the Jewish church, the chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, the elders: they are all listening to this. It mentions only the scribes in Mark’s Gospel; it adds the others in Matthew. All the establishment of the church as it were, were listening to him, and were all represented in this reply – our great Messiah will be the Son of David. Well then, Christ says to them, what about Psalm 110? ‘The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool’ (Psalm 110:1). Two persons are in view in that verse, and there is a distinction between them. There is a distinction between ‘the LORD’, in capital letters, ‘Jehovah’ is the way we pronounce those four letters of the divine name. It is Almighty God, standing here, no doubt, for the Father. And then there is ‘my Lord’, upper and lower case letters, translating a word which means supreme ruler. It is a distinction between the Father and the Son in the Godhead. How is it that the Father speaks to the Son? David too speaks to the Son also and calls him Lord, and the Lord Jesus challenges them.