Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 2:25

"For David saith concerning him, I beheld the Lord always before my face; For he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:" — Acts 2:25 (ASV)

Here Peter quotes from Ps 16:8–11 and Ps 110:1 in support of what he has just said about Jesus in v.24. Peter once again uses a principle of the interpretation of Scripture that was acceptable in his day, which said that the same words appearing in two separate passages can be brought together. Both quotations have “at my right hand” and thus are deliberately treated together (cf. v.33).

During this period, both Ps 16 and Ps 110 were considered by Jewish interpreters to be somewhat enigmatic and were therefore understood in various ways. There was no problem with the confidence expressed in Ps 16:8–9, 11, for it was appropriate for the psalmist to whom God’s love had been pledged and who had experienced God’s covenant-keeping lovingkindness. But how could the psalmist have expected God to keep him from the grave and from undergoing decay, as in v.10? And Ps 110 was even more difficult, for who is this “my Lord” to whom “the LORD” has said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet” (v.34)? Some early rabbis linked the psalm with Abraham, others with David, and some even with Hezekiah; but there is no clearly attested messianic understanding of Ps 110 in rabbinic literature until about A. D. 260.

Nevertheless, Jesus is reported in all three Synoptic Gospels as having interpreted Ps 110:1 as a messianic passage and as applying it to himself (Matthew 22:41–46; Mark 12:35–37). And it was probably Jesus’ own treatment of this verse that (1) furnished the exegetical key for the early church’s understanding of their risen Lord, (2) served as the pattern for their interpretation of similar enigmatic OT passages (e.g., Paul’s combining 2 Samuel 7:6–16 with Ps 2:7 and Isa 55:3 with Ps 16:10 in his Antioch address of Ac 13:16–41), and (3) anchored all other passages as could be brought together on a “verbal analogy basis” (e.g., the passages listed in Heb 1:5–13).

Therefore working from Ps 110:1 as an accepted messianic passage and viewing Ps 16:8–11 as legitimately related to it, Peter proclaims that Ps 16:10 refers to Israel’s promised Messiah and no other. Furthermore, Peter insists, David could not have been speaking about himself, for he did indeed die, was buried, and suffered decay—as the presence of his tomb in the city eloquently testifies (v.29). Nor did he ascend into heaven. Therefore, David must have been prophesying about the resurrection of the Messiah in Ps 16:10 and about his exaltation in Ps 110:1. And with God’s raising of Jesus from the dead, these formerly enigmatic passages are clarified and the pouring out of the Spirit explained.