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Psalm 110:1

The New Testament’s use of Psalm

30 places · 4 kinds of echo

The source

Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.”

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Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.

Quotation9

A formal citation — high verbal volume, often introduced by a saying-formula.

Acts 2:29-36

Formal citation introduced by 'he says himself' (v.34), reproducing Psalm 110:1 (LXX 109:1) at high verbal volume: 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.' Used to prove the exaltation/enthronement that David did not himself attain. Maximal on volume; recurrence is very high (most-cited OT verse in the NT) and thematic coherence with the resurrection-exaltation argument is exact.

High confidence
Eph 1:20-23

'Made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority' reproduces 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.' Volume is very high (the most-cited OT verse in the NT); recurrence and thematic coherence (enthroned exaltation over all powers) make this a near-quotation undergirding the entire exaltation statement.

High confidence
Heb 1:13

The session-at-the-right-hand oracle, the most-cited verse in the New Testament. It pays off the quiet echo of v. 3 and brackets the chapter — Hays' recurrence and satisfaction tests both met.

High confidence
Luke 20:41-44

Explicit citation 'David himself says in the book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.' Verbatim LXX quotation (Ps 109:1), highest volume, the single most-cited royal psalm in the NT, fully coherent with the Davidic-Lord puzzle.

High confidence
Luke 22:66-71

'From now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God' takes up 'Sit at my right hand,' the LORD's enthronement of David's lord. The session-at-the-right-hand language is a near-verbatim appropriation of Psalm 110:1, the most cited OT verse in the NT, with high volume.

High confidence
Mark 12:35-37

Jesus quotes verbatim 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet,' attributing it to David 'in the Holy Spirit.' This is the pericope's formal citation, the entire argument about the Messiah being David's Lord turns on it.

High confidence
Mark 14:62

Jesus' 'you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power' fuses the enthronement oracle 'Sit at my right hand,' which Mark has just expounded at 12:36. The volume is maximal and the coherence climactic: the accused declares his coming vindication as the one seated at God's right hand, making this the decisive scriptural self-claim of the Gospel.

High confidence
Matt 22:41-46

Formula-cited as David speaking 'in the Spirit': 'The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool' (22:44) — the crux for showing the Christ is more than David's son.

High confidence
Matt 26:57-68

'the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power' (v64) fuses Daniel 7:13 with 'Sit at my right hand'; the conflated citation is the climactic christological claim of the trial.

High confidence

Allusion11

A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.

1 Cor 15:20-28

'He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet' (v.25) fuses Ps 8:6 with 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.' The 'enemies under feet' and 'reign until' wording is distinctively Ps 110, the NT's most-cited verse; coherence and recurrence are strong, making this a deliberate conflated allusion.

High confidence
1 Pet 3:18-22

'Who is at the right hand of God' (3:22) cites the enthronement formula of Psalm 110:1 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.' The subjection of 'angels and authorities and powers' to the exalted Christ realizes the footstool-of-enemies motif. The most-cited royal psalm for Christ's exaltation.

High confidence
Acts 7:54-60

Seeing 'Jesus standing on the right hand of God' draws on the enthronement oracle 'Sit thou at my right hand,' the supreme OT proof-text of exaltation — strikingly with Jesus standing rather than seated.

High confidence
Col 3:1-4

"Where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God" verbally echoes the LXX of Ps 110:1 ("Sit at my right hand"), the most-cited OT verse in the NT. High volume of distinctive language (right hand, seated, exaltation) and strong recurrence make the session at God's right hand the dominant figure for the exalted Christ. Coherence with Colossians' cosmic Christology is exact.

High confidence
Eph 2:4-7

Being 'raised up with him and made to sit with him in the heavenly places' applies the enthronement oracle 'Sit at my right hand' to believers' co-exaltation with Christ. Psalm 110:1 is the most-cited OT verse in the NT, and its session-language coheres precisely with Paul's seating motif.

High confidence
Heb 8:1–6

‘Who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens’ (v. 1) sounds Ps 110:1 once more — the session-oracle that bracketed chapter 1 (1:3, 1:13) and recurs at 10:12. By Hays' recurrence test the saturation of Ps 110 through Hebrews makes even this unmarked allusion certain; here it is fused with the priesthood of Ps 110:4 so that the same enthroned Lord is the heavenly high priest.

High confidence
Mark 16:19-20

'Sat down at the right hand of God' is a formal allusion to Psalm 110:1, 'Sit at my right hand,' the most-cited OT verse in the NT and Mark's own christological touchstone (Mark 12:36; 14:62). Volume and recurrence are high, and the enthronement coheres with Mark's exaltation theology, making this an unmistakable, near-quotation reuse of the psalm.

High confidence
Rom 8:31-39

'Sit at my right hand' grounds 'who is at the right hand of God' (v.34); the enthronement of the exalted Lord secures his advocacy and the impossibility of any condemnation.

High confidence
Acts 5:27-32

The enthronement 'at the right hand' of God underwrites the exaltation of Jesus 'with his right hand' as Prince and Savior (v. 31), the dominant NT proof-text for the session.

Medium confidence
Heb 2:5–9

Beale & Carson note that Hebrews reads Ps 8's ‘all things under his feet’ through Ps 110:1's ‘enemies… your footstool’ — the same subjection-of-all language welded the two psalms together (gezerah shavah). Recurrence is high: Ps 110:1 brackets ch. 1 (1:3, 1:13) and returns at 10:12–13, so its subjection motif is audible behind the ‘nothing… not subject to him’ of v. 8.

Medium confidence
Rev 3:14–22

Enthronement 'sit at my right hand' — background to 'sit down with me on my throne' (3:21). The most-cited NT enthronement psalm; co-regency of the victor mirrors the Son's session. Thematic+structural.

Medium confidence

Echo9

A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.

Heb 10:11–18

‘Sat down… waiting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet’ (vv. 12–13) sounds Ps 110:1 yet again — the seated, finished priest set against the standing priests who never sit, because their work is never done.

High confidence
Heb 12:1–4

‘Has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’ (v. 2) sounds Ps 110:1 a final time — the verse first echoed at 1:3 and quoted at 1:13 now crowns the runner who finished the race.

High confidence
Heb 1:1–4

‘Sat down on the right hand of the Majesty’ (v. 3) is a low-volume echo of Ps 110:1, planted before the catena begins and paid off as its explicit climax at 1:13. Hays' recurrence test: the same source surfaces twice, so even the faint first instance earns credence.

Medium confidence
Heb 7:20–28

‘Made higher than the heavens’ (v. 26) faintly sounds the session-at-the-right-hand of Ps 110:1, the psalm's first verse paired throughout Hebrews with its fourth (1:13; 8:1; 10:12). Low volume here, but recurrence across the letter makes even the faint exaltation language audible as Ps 110:1.

Medium confidence
Mark 10:35-45 ?

The request to sit 'at your right hand' draws on the royal enthronement of the king at God's right hand. The right-hand seat of honor is the Psalm 110 image Mark elsewhere applies to Jesus. The single-side request makes the echo partial but apt; marked contested as to directness.

Medium confidence
Phil 3:20-21

Christ's power to 'subject all things to himself' also resonates with the enthronement oracle 'sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool,' the dominant NT subjection text paired with Ps 8. Recurrence in early Christian use supports the echo.

Medium confidence
Matt 20:20-23 ?

The request to sit at Jesus' right hand and left in his kingdom faintly invokes enthronement-at-the-right-hand language; weak, the verbal contact is only 'right hand.'

Low confidence
Matt 25:31-46 ?

The enthronement of the messianic Lord at God's right hand, with subjugation of enemies, underlies the royal session of the Son of Man on the throne of his glory and the placing of subjects at the right and left.

Low confidence
Rom 1:1-7 ?

Resurrection-enthronement of 'our Lord' faintly invokes the royal session psalm pervasive in NT Christology. Low verbal volume here.

Low confidence

Figural1

A typological pattern re-read in a later text — no verbal quotation, high figural coherence.

Heb 4:12–16

The priest ‘who has passed through the heavens’ and the invitation to ‘draw near… to the throne of grace’ (vv. 14, 16) presuppose the enthronement of Ps 110:1, the catena's bracket (1:13; 10:12). Faint and figural — the throne-of-grace language assumes the session at the right hand the letter has already established.

Low confidence
Elsewhere in Psalm 110
Psalm 110:4 6