For David saith concerning him: I foresaw the Lord before my face: because he is at my right hand, that I may not be moved.
δαυιδ γαρ λεγει εις αυτον προωρωμην τον κυριον ενωπιον μου δια παντος οτι εκ δεξιων μου εστιν ινα μη σαλευθω
6 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Then, before any thought could arise in their minds, he set David before them, removing every human notion. "For David speaks concerning Him." And see what a lowly testimony this again is. He therefore brought this forward first, saying what was more lowly, so as to show that the death of Christ was not a sorrowful event.
Then he brings forward David, who surpasses every human understanding, for such is the work of prophecy, and says: "For David speaks concerning Him," not concerning himself. Again he begins from the aspects of humility. Although this has now taken place, it was marked out beforehand from of old. God consented to it from the beginning and marked it out beforehand from the beginning. "I foresaw the Lord always before me." He calls the Father His Lord, that is, the Lord of Jesus, because Jesus took the form of a servant. If it is said here that the Father is at the right hand of the Son, while elsewhere it is said that the Son is at the right hand of the Father, their equality is thereby indicated.
Then the twelve Apostles come forward to the people, and Peter speaks to them. He is no longer the former Peter, timid and fearful, but courageous and fearless. He says that the extraordinary event now taking place among them is the action of the Holy Spirit, whom God once promised to send upon His servants. He says that Jesus Himself sent down this Spirit upon them, the disciples of Jesus. This was the same Jesus whom the Jews had recently crucified here, whom God raised from the dead, glorified, and seated at His right hand. Therefore Jesus is the Christ. The recent teachings of the Risen One Himself had shown that Christ had to suffer and enter into His glory only by this path.
The present illumination of the Spirit of God opened for Peter's speech a new source of power and proof in the prophecies. Until now they had been obscure, and could not so strongly influence the minds of the Jews. Now they were intelligible to everyone who wished to know the truth. The sign from heaven, which the Jews had so often and vainly asked of Jesus, now appeared by itself from Him who had ascended into heaven. It testified where the Crucified One dwelt, whom they had considered powerless. The ability to speak in new and unknown tongues was an extraordinary gift among miracles known from ancient and more recent times.
Verses 25-28. Yet an explanation of the mystery of the death of Jesus Christ, according to the union in Him of the divine and human natures, was not yet suited to the hearers and was not timely. Therefore, in explaining the Resurrection of Jesus, the Apostle again turns his hearers' attention to the words of Holy Scripture, which they could not but believe. He speaks further as if saying: "Do not think that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which we proclaim, is something new and an unexpected accident. Do not reason from that side, as though asking whether it is possible. Turn to the psalms known to all of you, so often repeated and read every Sabbath in your synagogues. In them David long ago foretold that such a resurrection had once to occur.
"For David says concerning Him, concerning Jesus: 'I foresaw the Lord always before Me; for He is at My right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore My heart was glad, and My tongue rejoiced. Moreover My flesh also will dwell in hope. For You will not leave My soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to Me the ways of life. You will fill Me with joy before Your face.'" The words, "I foresaw the Lord always before Me," "You have made known to Me the ways of life," and "You will fill Me with joy before Your face," clearly show this as well. The One speaking this way about the resurrection of His flesh Himself knows the passage from death to life. He has unbroken and close communion with the Lord, as one Person with another equal Person.
"For David says concerning Him," and so on: the Apostle confirms this truth of Christ's Resurrection by a convincing testimony of an Old Testament prophet, especially convincing for the Jews to whom this speech was directed. This prophet is the most revered one, David the king. Having set forth this prophecy fully (verses 25-28), the Apostle then interprets it himself (verses 29-31). The prophetic passage is taken from Psalm 15 (Ps 15:8-11) and is cited exactly according to the Septuagint. In this psalm, the Psalmist depicts a righteous man who speaks, among other things, of his close inner spiritual communion with God. He constantly had the Lord before his spiritual eyes as protector and helper.
For this reason he felt great joy in his whole being, confident that such communion would not be interrupted by death. His soul would not remain in Hades, and his body itself would not undergo corruption. Rather, he would enjoy the fullness of life in God and joy in communion with Him. The Apostle says that David spoke this concerning Him, that is, concerning Christ. In pointing this out, he then directly explains only the most essential point in this prophetic image, namely what is said in verse 9 of the psalm. Compare Ps 9:27 and Ps 9:31. Yet, without doubt, according to the meaning of the apostolic speech, the whole psalmic image, in all its features, refers to Him. "I saw the Lord," and so on: applied to Jesus the Messiah, this saying is Christ's joyful expression of His confidence in constant inner spiritual union with God the Father throughout His life and activity on earth. God was constantly His helper and protector in all His actions. "At My right hand" means precisely as helper and protector. The likeness is taken from court procedure, where the defender stood at the right hand of the one he defended (Ps 108:31). "That I may not be shaken" means, that I may not err. Without the image, the thought is this: that I may abide unshaken in this union and communion with God throughout all My life and actions. The whole expression is obviously anthropomorphic.
David's prophecy of Christ's Resurrection is cited by the Apostle as a further basis for saying that Jesus Christ had to rise, for this had been foretold. The Jews believed prophecies more than any arguments, for they revered them as words of God that must necessarily be fulfilled. The Apostle takes the prophecy in connection with the preceding and following words, that is, in context. Psalm 15, from which the prophecy is taken, is a prayer of King David. In it he expresses his complete hope in God. This hope became especially strong in him after it was revealed to him through the prophet Nathan that the Messiah, the Savior, would come from his seed. He would be an eternal King on his throne and King of all. See 2 Sam 7:12; Ps 107:9; Is 9:6; Lk 1:32-33.
And so David expresses a series of great hopes, including that God would not leave his soul in Hades. See Acts 2:27. All this first refers to David himself, but then, through him as a type of the Messiah, also to Jesus Christ. How the words of verse 8 apply in particular to Jesus Christ is easy to understand: "I always saw the Lord before me, for He is at my right hand" (Ps 15:8). One need only consider His constant living relation to the Father, of whom He often spoke, saying, "I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:30). But since He was on earth as man, one can imagine how He could be "shaken." It is known, for example, that He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane that the great cup of suffering might pass from Him. Yet at the same time He wholly surrendered Himself to the glory of the Father. According to the thought of one interpreter, Jesus Christ is presented here as speaking in this way: "I always think of God and His will. He strengthens Me, as man, by His might, so that I may bring His plan to fulfillment. The power of Hades resists Me in vain. I shall not be shaken. God's plan is to establish through Me the Kingdom of truth and goodness among men. It will be accomplished, and I shall not be conquered. I shall not fall before the sufferings that I must endure for this."
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 20 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS