Matthew Henry, the author of that magnificent six volume Commentary on the Whole Bible, says about some hypocritical preachers: "When in the pulpit, [they] preach...so well that it is a pity they should ever come out; but, when out of the pulpit, [they] live...so ill that it is a pity they should ever come in"1 This is what Jesus seems to be saying at the start of this chapter, though his words grow more negative as his exposure of the Pharisees proceeds. These men taught the Scriptures, and in that they were right. Their teachings, when accurate, ought to be obeyed. But their practices belied their teaching, and they must not be imitated.

If anyone ever finds himself thinking that in matters of religion all views are relative and any sincere faith and practice will do, that person needs to read Jesus’ denunciation of the Pharisees religion preserved in Matthew 23. People have compared religion to a mountain with heaven on top and with many roads that lead up to it. Or they have thought like Edward Gibbon, the author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, who said that in the days of the empire the various modes of worship which "prevailed were considered by the people as equally true, by the philosophers as equally false, and by the magistrates as equally useful."1 They have imagined that religion is a private and not a truly important matter.

Matthew's account of this incident ends by saying, "from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions" (v. 22). They were silenced.

But although the Pharisees of Jesus’ day would not accept his teaching and eventually achieved his execution on the charge of blasphemy, there was another Pharisee who eventually came to accept what they would not accept and who expressed it in classic language. He was the Apostle Paul, who wrote at the beginning of his letter to the Romans about a gospel "... promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead" (vv. 2-4).

Psalm 110:1 also speaks of the Messiah's position at the right hand of God in heaven and of his Lordship over all things in heaven and on earth. Jesus did not elaborate on this part of the verse because his first question had been enough to confound his enemies. But the rest of the verse as well as the psalm as a whole could hardly have been lost on them. Verse 1 is an oracle, that is, a direct and specific word from God - "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet" - and what it tells us is that the Messiah was to reign over all things from heaven. We are familiar with the idea from the Apostles' Creed, which many Christians recite together each week, for we say, "He [that is, Jesus] ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty."

What about the first verse, the verse Jesus throws to his questioners? In Hebrew, which they well knew, the first word of the verse is Jehovah or Yahweh (rendered "Lord"), a fact indicated in our English translations of Psalm 110 by "LORD" being printed in capital letters.1 It refers to the God of Israel. The second word for Lord is Adonai, Adonai refers to an individual greater than the speaker. So here is a case of David citing a word of God in which God tells another personage, who is greater than David, to sit at his right hand until he makes his enemies a footstool for his feet. This person can only be a divine Messiah, who is Jesus Christ.