Psalm 110

1 The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

2 The Lord shall send out a rod of power for thee out of Sion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.

3 With thee is dominion in the day of thy power, in the splendours of thy saints: I have begotten thee from the womb before the morning.

4 The Lord sware, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec.

5 The Lord at thy right hand has dashed in pieces kings in the day of his wrath.

6 He shall judge among the nations, he shall fill up the number of corpses, he shall crush the heads of many on the earth.

7 He shall drink of the brook in the way; therefore shall he lift up the head.

Psalm 110 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.