Psalms 110:1-6

The Priestly King

1

A Davidic psalm.

1 The Lord declared to my Lord: "Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool."[a]
2 The Lord will extend Your mighty scepter from Zion. Rule[b] over Your surrounding[c] enemies.
3 Your people will volunteer on Your day of battle.[d] In holy splendor, from the womb of the dawn, the dew of Your youth belongs to You.[e]
4 The Lord has sworn an oath and will not take it back: "Forever, You are a priest like Melchizedek."[f]
5 The Lord is at Your right hand; He will crush kings on the day of His anger.
6 He will judge the nations, heaping up corpses;[g] He will crush leaders over the entire world.

Psalms 110:1-6 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.

Footnotes 7

  • [a]. Mt 22:44; Mk 12:36; Lk 20:42-43; Ac 2:34-35; 1 Co 15:25; Heb 1:13
  • [b]. One Hb ms, LXX, Tg read You will rule
  • [c]. Lit Rule in the midst of Your
  • [d]. Lit power
  • [e]. Hb obscure
  • [f]. Heb 5:6,10; 7:17,21
  • [g]. Rv 14:20; 19:17-18
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