Hebrews 1:10 Meaning: Can a Psalm to Yahweh Be About Jesus?

Three words carry the weight of this verse. First, Lord (kurie). In the Greek Old Testament this is the word that stands in for the sacred name Yahweh. The writer uses it as a direct address to Jesus. He is not giving the Son a title of respect; he is placing him in the place reserved for the God of Israel.

Next, in the beginning (kat’ archas). This is slightly different from the phrase in Genesis 1:1. It suggests “at the starting point of creation” or “from the first.” The Son did not step into a world already made. He was there as the active cause.

Finally, works of your hands (erga tōn cheirōn sou). The word for hands carries the sense of personal, careful making. The heavens are not the product of a distant command. They are shaped and placed by the same hands that would later be nailed to a cross.

Christians across traditions agree that this verse affirms the Son’s deity, but they have explained the method differently. The Reformers, including Calvin, wrestled openly with applying a psalm about Yahweh to Jesus. Calvin described it as a “pious deflection”, not a misuse, but an inspired reapplication that the Spirit authorized. Many older Catholic commentators, like Thomas Aquinas, saw it as direct prophecy: the psalmist spoke of the Son all along, even before the incarnation became clear. Most evangelical readers today follow a similar path, trusting that the New Testament writer was guided to read the psalm as pointing to Christ. Both approaches arrive at the same faith: Jesus is the Lord who made everything.

A common misreading is that “Lord” in this verse refers to God the Father, not the Son. But the passage is a continuous address to the Son from verse 8 onward. Verse 8 begins, “But of the Son he says,” and the quotations flow from there. When verse 10 says, “You, Lord,” the writer is still speaking to the same person. In fact, he is doing something more powerful: he is showing that the Son shares the name and the creative work of Yahweh himself.

This week, when you look at the sky, a sunrise, a cloudy evening, stars on a clear night, stop and think: those are the works of his hands. The same Jesus who listened to your prayer this morning is the one who set the earth on its foundations. That truth can change how you carry a heavy worry. If the Maker of everything is with you, then nothing you face is beyond his reach. You do not need to be afraid of a world that he made and holds together.