“A footstool for Your feet”
The LORD said to my Lord: 'Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.' (Psalm 110:1 BSB)
What it sounds like today
The winner resting his feet on a piece of furniture.
The cultural key
Both images are court and battlefield customs. To sit 'at the right hand' of the king was to hold the position of highest honor and to wield the king's own delegated authority, the seat of the second-in-command. And to make one's enemies a 'footstool for the feet' draws on a well-attested victory ritual: the triumphant king would set his foot, or have the necks of his beaten foes placed, beneath his feet as a public sign of total conquest (Joshua's commanders put their feet on the necks of defeated kings, Joshua 10:24, and Egyptian and Assyrian kings are pictured with enemies underfoot). So the verse enthrones this king at God's right hand in supreme honor and promises him complete victory over every foe. It became the single most quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament. Picturing a comfy footstool misses a scene of coronation and conquest.
Recovered meaning
Sitting 'at the right hand' is the seat of supreme honor and authority beside the king, and enemies made a 'footstool' evokes the victor's foot on the necks of the conquered. The verse crowns the king and promises him total triumph.