Hebrews: The Son Sits at the Right Side
Hebrews 1:13-14; Psalm 110:1-7; Matthew 22:41-46 - Hebrews 1 describes the Divinity of Christ.
“But to which of the angels has He ever said,
“Sit at My right hand,
Until I make Your enemies
A footstool for Your feet”?
Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?”
Hebrews 1:13-14 NASB1995
The first chapter of Hebrews ends with one more comparison of the Son to angels. This also comes from the Old Testament and is the first verse of Psalms 110; I’ve included the entire Psalm here because it is such an amazing prophecy of the Christ:
“The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
The Lord will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying,
“Rule in the midst of Your enemies.”
Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power;
In holy array, from the womb of the dawn,
Your youth are to You as the dew.
The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind,
“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”
The Lord is at Your right hand;
He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath.
He will judge among the nations,
He will fill them with corpses,
He will shatter the chief men over a broad country.
He will drink from the brook by the wayside;
Therefore He will lift up His head.”
Psalms 110:1-7 NASB1995
The angels are ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who inherit salvation. The Son is at the right hand of the Father; the Father now gathers His enemies to place as a footstool for the Son. Enduring Word has good commentary on these two verses in Hebrews:
But to which of the angels has He ever said: Now for the seventh time in this chapter, the writer to the Hebrews quotes the Hebrew Scriptures to demonstrate that Jesus the Messiah is far superior to any angelic being. He quoted Psalm 110:1 to show again that God the Father said things to Jesus the Messiah [He] never said to angelic beings.
Sit at My right hand: Psalm 110:1 says that the Messiah has this exalted place and posture in heaven. Anyone who sits in the divine presence shows that they have the perfect right to be there. There are no seats for the angels around the throne of God, because they are constantly busy praising God and serving Him. Yet Jesus can – at the invitation of God the Father – sit at the right hand of God the Father.
It isn’t good to be too comfortable in the presence of majesty. There is a story about a man named Lear who was hired to give Queen Victoria art lessons. Things went well, and Lear started to feel quite at home in the palace. He enjoyed standing in front of the fire, leaning on the hearth and warming himself in a relaxed manner, but every time he did one of the Queen’s attendants invited him to look at something on the other side of the room, making him move. No one explained it to him, but after a while he got the idea: good manners said it was wrong for a subject to have such a relaxed attitude in the presence of their Queen. Jesus is not a subject – He is the Sovereign, so He sits in the presence of majesty.
But to which of the angels has He ever said: “Sit at My right hand.” The angels are not permitted to relax before God. They stand before the Father, but the Son sits down – because He isn’t a subject, He is the Sovereign.
Are they not all ministering spirits: Angels are ministering spirits, not governing spirits; service, not dominion is their calling. In this respect angels are like a toy that won’t quit. They keep working while the Son takes a posture of rest because He is the Son.
Jesus is also called a servant and a minister, but this is part of His voluntary humiliation, not his essential nature – as it is in the essential nature of angels to be servants.
Sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation: The angels are commanded to serve God, but He shares His servants with redeemed men and women. This shows the great love of God for us, and how He wants to share all things with us.
Comparing Hebrews 1:2 and 1:14, “It is particularly noteworthy, as bearing on the main theme of the Epistle, that both Christ and Christians are described as heirs.” (Thomas)[ NOTE: the reference to “Thomas” is not in the Bibliography for Hebrews 1 on the Enduring Word site].
The expository writings of Charles Spurgeon on Psalm 101 are particularly apt for this quoted OT passage found in Hebrews. This comes from Precept Austin; the links go to to some eschatology work on Precept Austin:
Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Away from the shame and suffering of his earthly life, Jehovah calls the Adonai, our Lord, to the repose and honours of His celestial seat. His work is done, and He may sit; it is well done, and He may sit at His right hand; it will have grand results, and He may therefore quietly wait to see the complete victory which is certain to follow. The glorious Jehovah thus addresses the Christ as our Saviour; for, says David, he said “unto my Lord.”
Jesus is placed in the seat of power, dominion, and dignity, and is to sit there by divine appointment while Jehovah fights for Him, and lays every rebel beneath His feet. He sits there by the Father’s ordinance and call, and will sit there despite all the raging of His adversaries, till they are all brought to utter shame by His putting his foot upon their necks. In this sitting He is our representative. The mediatorial kingdom will last until the last enemy shall be destroyed, and then, according to the inspired word, “cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God even the Father.” The work of subduing the nations is now in the hand of the great God, Who by His Providence will accomplish it to the glory of His Son; His word is pledged to it, and the session of His Son at His right hand is the guarantee thereof; therefore let us never fear as to the future. While we see our Lord and Representative sitting in quiet expectancy, we, too, may sit in the attitude of peaceful assurance, and with confidence await the grand outcome of all events. As surely as Jehovah liveth Jesus must reign, yea, even now He is reigning, though all His enemies are not yet subdued. During the present interval, through which we wait for His glorious appearing (see Table comparing Rapture vs Second Coming) and visible Millennial Kingdom, He is in the place of power, and His dominion is not in jeopardy, or otherwise He would not remain quiescent. He sits because all is safe, and He sits at Jehovah’s right hand because omnipotence waits to accomplish His will.
Therefore there is no cause for alarm whatever may happen in this lower world; the sight of Jesus enthroned in divine glory is the sure guarantee that all things are moving onward towards ultimate victory. Those rebels who now stand high in power shall soon be in the place of contempt, they shall be His footstool. He shall with ease rule them, He shall sit and put his foot on them; not rising to tread them down as when a man puts forth force to subdue powerful foes, but retaining the attitude of rest, and still ruling them as abject vassals who have no longer spirit to rebel, but have become thoroughly tamed and subdued.
Gotquestions.org has a good answer to the question in Psalm 110, What does it mean that the Lord says to my Lord?
The first “Lord” in “the LORD says to my Lord” is the eternal God of the universe, the Great I AM who revealed Himself to Moses in Exodus 3. This self-existent, omnipotent God speaks in Psalm 110 to someone else who is also David’s “Lord.”
The second “Lord” in “the LORD says to my Lord” is the Messiah, or the Christ. Psalm 110 describes this second “Lord” as follows:
● He sits at God’s right hand (verse 1)
● He will triumph over all His enemies and rule over them (verses 1–2)
● He will lead a glorious procession of troops (verse 3)
● He will be “a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek” (verse 4)
● He will have divine power to crush kings, judge nations, and slay the wicked (verses 5–6)
● He will find refreshment and be exalted (verse 7)
In Matthew 22:44, Jesus unmistakably identifies the second “Lord” of Psalm 110:1 as the Messiah, and the Pharisees all agree that, yes, David was speaking of the Messiah. When David wrote, “The LORD says to my Lord,” he distinctly said that the Messiah (or the Christ) was his lord and master—his Adoni.
This is pretty self-evident for a description of the Father and Son relationship within the Trinity.
Here’s the reference in the Gospel from Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 22:
“Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question: “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?” They *said to Him, “The son of David.” He *said to them, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet” ’? If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?” No one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question.”
Matthew 22:41-46 NASB1995
Hebrews 1 makes it abundantly clear that the Son is above the angels and is God. We learned the following in this chapter from God Himself, through His words in the Old Testament:
The Son:
Is the heir of all things
Has made the world and all the things within
Is the radiance of God’s glory
Is the exact representation of God’s nature
Upholds all things by the word of His Power
Is the purifier for sins
Has become much better than angels
Sits at the right hand of the Father
Is begotten of the Father
Is a Son to the Father
Is worshipped by all the angels of God
Has a throne that is forever and ever
Has the righteous scepter as the scepter of His kingdom
Loves righteousness and hates lawlessness
Is anointed with the oil of gladness above His companions
Has laid the foundation of the world
Has created the heavens as works of His hands
Can roll up creation like an old garment and change it/renew it
Is the same forever and His years will not end
Sits at God’s right hand
His enemies will be a footstool for His feet.
That’s just one chapter of Hebrews! My next devotional examines Hebrews 2:1-4, where the reader is warnedto pay attention and not drift away from these crucial lessons about the nature of the Christ.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - Thank you for providing me with such in-depth insights into the first chapter of the epistle of Hebrews. I pray for continued guidance as I start Chapter 2. Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission. Minor formatting changes have been made to improve readability.
Precept Austin was accessed on 10/12/2025 to review commentary for Hebrews 1:13-14 and Psalm 110.
Gotquestions.org was accessed on 10/12/2025 to answer the question, What does it mean that the Lord says to my Lord (Psalm 110). © COPYRIGHT 2002-2025 GOT QUESTIONS MINISTRIES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.