Psalm 110:2-6

2 The LORD will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of your enemies!”

3 Your troops will be willing on your day of battle. Arrayed in holy splendor, your young men will come to you like dew from the morning’s womb.^[a]

4 The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”

5 The Lord is at your right hand^[b] ; he will crush kings on the day of his wrath.

6 He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.

Psalm 110:2-6 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.

Cross References

• 1. S Genesis 49:10; Psalms 45:6; Isaiah 14:5; Jeremiah 48:17
• 2. S Psalms 2:6
• 3. Psalms 72:8
• 4. S Exodus 15:11; Judges 5:2; Psalms 96:9
• 5. Micah 5:7
• 6. S Numbers 23:19
• 7. Zechariah 6:13; Hebrews 5:6*; Hebrews 7:21*
• 8. S Genesis 14:18; Hebrews 5:10; Hebrews 7:15-17*
• 9. Psalms 16:8
• 10. S Deuteronomy 7:24; Psalms 2:12; Psalms 68:21; Psalms 76:12; Isaiah 60:12; Daniel 2:44
• 11. S Psalms 2:5; Romans 2:5; Revelation 6:17; Revelation 11:18
• 12. S Psalms 9:19; Isaiah 2:4
• 13. Isaiah 5:25; Isaiah 34:3; Isaiah 66:24
• 14. S Psalms 18:38; Psalms 68:21

Footnotes

• [a] The meaning of the Hebrew for this sentence is uncertain.
• [b] Or "My lord is at your right hand, " Lord