Psalm 110:6

EXPOSITION

Verse 6. He shall judge among the heathen, or, among the nations. All nations shall feel his power, and either yield to it joyfully or be crushed before it.

He shall fill the places with the dead bodies. In the terrible battles of his gospel all opponents shall fall till the field of fight is heaped high with the slain. This need not be understood literally, but as a poetical description of the overthrow of all rebellious powers and the defeat of all unholy principles. Yet should kings oppose the Lord with weapons of war, the result would be their overwhelming defeat and the entire destruction of their forces. Read in connection with this prophecy the passage which begins at the seventeenth verse of Revelation 19:1 and runs on to the end of the chapter. Terrible things in righteousness will be seen ere the history of this world comes to an end.

He shall wound the heads over many countries. He will strike at the greatest powers which resist him, and wound not merely common men, but those who rule and reign. If the nations will not have Christ for their Head, they shall find their political heads to be powerless to protect them. Or the passage may be read, "he has smitten the head over the wide earth." The monarch of the greatest nation shall not be able to escape the sword of the Lord; nor shall that dread spiritual prince who rules over the children of disobedience be able to escape without a deadly wound. Pope and priest must fall, with Mahomet and other deceivers who are now heads of the people. Jesus must reign and they must perish.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 6. -- He shall fill the places with the dead bodies. This notes the greatness of the victory, that none should be left to bury the dead. There shall be an universal destruction of wicked men together in the day of God's wrath, they shall be bound up in bundles, and heaped for damnation, Matthew 13:30 ; Psalms 37:38 ; Isaiah 1:28 ; Psalms 66:17 . And it notes the shame and dishonour of the enemy, they shall be like dung upon the face of the earth, and shall be beholden to their victors for a base and dishonourable burial, as we see in the great battle with Gog and Magog, Ezekiel 39:11-16 . --Edward Reynolds.

Verse 6. -- Dead bodies. Either the corpses of the vanquished enemy; or (possibly) the living bodies of men in a state of servitude, as in Genesis 47:18 ; Nehemiah 9:37 . (The construction as in Exodus 15:9 ) In the latter case, the meaning may be: that the bodies of those who had been enslaved by the Usurper, Death, were now claimed back by their rightful Lord. The full number is claimed back. The "last enemy" being destroyed, "all things" are brought beneath Christ's sway. --William Kay.

Verse 6. -- The heads. Rather, the head; doubtless, the head of the Old Serpent (according to the prophecy in Genesis 3:15 ), who acts in all who resist Christ. The verb "machats", which is used here, is employed to describe the prophetical and typical act of Jael, smiting the head of God's enemy, Sisera ( Judges 5:26 4:22); and it is used in Psalms 68:21 , which describes Christ's victory, "God shall wound the head of his enemies"; and also by Habakkuk 3:13 , "Thou woundest the head out of the house of the wicked." --Christopher Wordsworth.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 6. -- The fearful calamities which have happened to nations through their sinful rejection of the Lord Jesus.