“But of the Son He says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness above Your companions.””
Hebrews 1:8-9 NASB1995
God is speaking of the Son in these verses (repeated in the AI image). He is calling the Son God and telling Him that His throne is forever and ever. God is not saying this about angelic beings. I have lately heard of the idea that the Trinity is “dogma”, something created by the early Church fathers that is not Biblical. But this verse belies that belief. God directly calls His Son God and He did so in the Old Testament, too.
Verse 8 comes from Psalm 45:6-7. Here is what Enduring Word says about this verse:
But to the Son He says: Again, the emphasis is that God the Father says things to God the Son that are never said to angelic beings.
Your throne, O God: Psalm 45:6-7 plainly says that God the Father calls the Son God. When the First Person of the Trinity spoke to the Second Person of the Trinity, He called Him God. This is unique and powerful evidence of the deity of Jesus.
Some argue that there are many beings called “gods” in the Bible such as Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4) and earthly judges (Psalm 82:1 and 6). But these others are supposed gods, pretenders to their throne. If Jesus is not the true God, He is a false god, like Satan and the wicked judges of Psalm 82.
But Jesus is the True and Living God, called so here by God the Father; and also by John in John 1:1, by Thomas in John 20:28, and by Paul in Titus 2:13 and Titus 3:4.
If this verse and the one in Psalms aren’t enough for Biblical references to this Triune relationship of God and the Son (along with John 1:1 and John 20:28), Precept Austin has provided a handy list of other related passages to verses 8 and 9:
Daniel 7:13,14+ “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. 14 “And to Him (MESSIAH) was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His (MESSIAH’S) dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.
Revelation 11:15+ Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.”
Isaiah 9:6-7+ (MESSIANIC PROPHECY) For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.
Luke 1:32-33+ “He (MESSIAH) will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
Isaiah 11:4-5+ (MESSIANIC PROPHECY) But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. 5 Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist.
Jeremiah 23:5-6 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; (MESSIAH) And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land. 6 “In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell securely (IN THE MILLENNIUM); And this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The LORD our righteousness.’
Revelation 19:11+ And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.
Revelation 19:16+ And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
Genesis 49:10 “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Psalm 2:9 ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’”
Romans 9:5+ whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
Titus 2:13+ looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.
This collection of verses in Precept Austin is an example of Systematic Theology, looking at the subject of Christ’s divinity. I have heard this term before but never really explored the subject (or perhaps I have but was just ignorant of the fact that I was pursuing this type of theological study). Since I worked a lot of my career in something that could be called Systems Engineering, this appeals to my instincts to logically find new and better ways to tie things together Biblically. Here is a definition of Systematic Theology from Gotquestions.org:
“Systematic” refers to something being put into a system. Systematic theology is, therefore, the division of theology into systems that explain its various areas. For example, many books of the Bible give information about the angels. No one book gives all the information about the angels. Systematic theology takes all the information about angels from all the books of the Bible and organizes it into a system called angelology. That is what systematic theology is all about—organizing the teachings of the Bible into categorical systems.
Theology Proper or Paterology is the study of God the Father. Christology is the study of God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Pneumatology is the study of God the Holy Spirit. Bibliology is the study of the Bible. Soteriology is the study of salvation. Ecclesiology is the study of the church. Eschatology is the study of the end times. Angelology is the study of angels. Christian Demonology is the study of demons from a Christian perspective. Christian Anthropology is the study of humanity. Hamartiology is the study of sin. Systematic theology is an important tool in helping us to understand and teach the Bible in an organized manner.
Precept Austin also has a link to a Systematic Theology reference written by Wayne Grudem. I have bookmarked this wonderful copyrighted resource and plan to read from it when faced with a “systematic” issue with Biblical studies that may benefit from Grudem’s wisdom. I also just found out that Grudem’s book is included in the Kindle Unlimited plan! I still plan to stick to my approach of analyzing one Bible book at a time, but perhaps I can find some new tools for that analysis.
Let’s look at the verses from Psalm 45:
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of joy above Your fellows.”
Psalms 45:6-7 NASB1995
Here is what Charles Spurgeon says about these verses in Psalm 45, as found in Precept Austin:
Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. To whom can this be spoken but our Lord? The psalmist cannot restrain his adoration. His enlightened eye sees in the royal Husband of the church, God, God to be adored, God reigning, God reigning everlastingly. Blessed sight! Blind are the eyes that cannot see God in Christ Jesus! We never appreciate the tender condescension of our King in becoming one flesh with His church, and placing her at His right hand, until we have fully rejoiced in His essential glory and deity. What a mercy for us that our Saviour is God, for who but a God could execute the work of salvation? What a glad thing it is that He reigns on a throne which will never pass away, for we need both sovereign grace and eternal love to secure our happiness. Could Jesus cease to reign we should cease to be blessed, and were He not God, and therefore eternal, this must be the case. No throne can endure for ever, but that on which God Himself sitteth.
The sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. He is the lawful monarch of all things that be. His rule is founded in right, its law is right, its result is right. Our King is no usurper and no oppressor. Even when He shall break His enemies with a rod of iron, He will do no man wrong; His vengeance and His grace are both in conformity with justice. Hence we trust Him without suspicion; He cannot err; no affliction is too severe, for He sends it; no judgment too harsh, for He ordains it. O blessed hands of Jesus! the reigning power is safe with you. All the just rejoice in the government of the King Who reigns in righteousness.
Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness. Christ Jesus is not neutral in the great contest between right and wrong: as warmly as He loves the one He abhors the other. What qualifications for a sovereign! what grounds of confidence for a people! The whole of our Lord’s life on earth proved the truth of these words; His death to put away sin and bring in the reign of righteousness, sealed the fact beyond all question; His providence by which He rules from His mediatorial throne, when rightly understood, reveals the same; and His final assize will proclaim it before all worlds. We should imitate Him both in His love and hate; they are both needful to complete a righteous character.
Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Jesus as Mediator owned God as His God, to Whom, being found in fashion as a man, He became obedient. On account of our Lord’s perfect life He is now rewarded with superior joy. Others there are to whom grace has given a sacred fellowship with Him, but by their universal consent and His own merit, He is prince among them, the gladdest of all because the cause of all their gladness. At Oriental feasts oil was poured on the heads of distinguished and very welcome guests; God Himself anoints the man Christ Jesus, as He sits at the heavenly feasts, anoints Him as a reward for His work, with higher and fuller joy than any else can know; thus is the Son of man honoured and rewarded for all His pains. Observe the indisputable testimony to Messiah’s Deity in verse six, and to His manhood in the present verse. Of Whom could this be written but of Jesus of Nazareth? Our Christ is our Elohim. Jesus is God with us.
Jesus is God with us! What a wonderful and comforting thought! He is our Elohim, our Creator.
In verse 9, as noted by Spurgeon, we learn that the Son loves righteousness and hates wickedness or lawlessness (as the NASB95 calls it). Many people are afraid to hate wickedness in this “modern” age because someone might be offended or because there is too much empathy as opposed to sympathy or even compassion. An example (a recent real world one) would be a judge who over-empathized with a gender-confused defendant who tried to assassinate a Supreme Court Justice and let them off with a very light sentence. I found this image from Simply Psychology on the differences between the two emotional states (note that the image is copyrighted by that organization):
Let’s do a word study!
Lawlessness comes from the Greek noun ἀνομία or anomía (Strong’s G458), with the following Biblical usages:
the condition of without law
because ignorant of it
because of violating it
contempt and violation of law, iniquity, wickedness
Because the author of Hebrews used the Septuagint for the Old Testament, it would the same word from Psalm 45 in Greek. Notice that wickedness (being outside the law) is no excuse if you claim ignorance of God’s law.
Because the Son is anointed and not appointed, He is above the angels. Jesus Himself referred to being anointed in Luke 4 when He does His first public sermon in Nazareth and reads from Isaiah:
“And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.””
Luke 4:16-21 NASB1995
The Scripture has been fulfilled! Amen!
My next devotional examines more statements from God concerning His Son, in Hebrews 1:10-12 - He is the same and laid the foundation of the Earth.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - Thank You for helping to clarify the mystery of the Trinity again and for leading me to a systematic understanding of this passage in Hebrews. Also, I thank people who have prayed for my eyesight problem and I ask them to continue to pray for healing (I finally visit a retina specialist next week, unless they move it again). 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
The Blue Letter Bible was accessed on 10/08/2025 to review the lexicon for lawlessness.
Gotquestions.org was accessed on 10/08/2025 to answer the question, What is Systematic Theology? © COPYRIGHT 2002-2025 GOT QUESTIONS MINISTRIES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Precept Austin was accessed on 10/08/2025 to review commentary for Hebrews 1:8-9.
Enduring Word commentary by David Guzik is used with written permission. Minor formatting changes have been made to improve readability.