Psalms 110:4-7

4 1The LORD has sworn and will 2not change His mind, "You are a 3priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek."
5 The Lord is 4at Your right hand; He will 5shatter kings in the 6day of His wrath.
6 He will 7judge among the nations, He will fill them with 8corpses, He will 9shatter the chief men over a broad country.
7 He will 10drink from the brook by the wayside; Therefore * He will 11lift up His head.

Psalms 110:4-7 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 110

\\<>\\. This psalm was written by David, as the title shows, and which is confirmed by our Lord Jesus Christ, Mt 22:43 and by the Apostle Peter, Ac 2:34 and was not written by anyone of the singers concerning him, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi; nor by Melchizedek, nor by Eliezer the servant of Abraham, concerning him, as Jarchi and others: for the former could not call Abraham his lord, since he was greater than he, Heb 7:7 and though the latter might, yet he could not assign his master a place at the right hand of God; nor say he was a priest after the order of Melchizedek: and as it was written by David, it could not be concerning himself, as the Targum, but some other; not of Hezekiah, to whom some of the Jews applied it, as Tertullian {m} affirms; but of the Messiah, as is clear from the quotation by Christ, Mt 22:43,44 and from the references to it by the apostle, \Ac 2:34 1Co 15:25 Heb 1:13\. And that this was the general sense of the ancient Jewish church is manifest from the silence of the Pharisees, when a passage out of it was objected to them by our Lord concerning the Messiah; and is the sense that some of the ancient Jews give of it; says R. Joden {n}, ``God will make the King Messiah sit at his right hand, &c:'' and the same is said by others {o}; and it is likewise owned by some of the more modern {p} ones; and we Christians can have no doubt about it. The psalm is only applicable to Christ, and cannot be accommodated to any other; no, not to David as a type, as some psalms concerning him may.

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Cross References 11

  • 1. Hebrews 7:21
  • 2. Numbers 23:19
  • 3. Zechariah 6:13; Hebrews 5:6, 10; Hebrews 6:20; Hebrews 7:17, 21
  • 4. Psalms 16:8; Psalms 109:31
  • 5. Psalms 68:14; Psalms 76:12
  • 6. Psalms 2:5, 12; Romans 2:5; Revelation 6:17
  • 7. Isaiah 2:4; Joel 3:12; Micah 4:3
  • 8. Isaiah 66:24
  • 9. Psalms 68:21
  • 10. Judges 7:5, 6
  • 11. Psalms 27:6

Footnotes 5

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