Psalms 110:1-6

1 The psalm of David. The Lord said to my Lord; Sit thou on my right side. Till I put thine enemies a stool of thy feet. (The song of David. The Lord said to my lord, Sit thou at my right hand; until I make thy enemies into thy footstool.)
2 The Lord shall send out from Zion the rod of thy virtue; be thou lord in the midst of thine enemies. (The Lord shall send out from Zion the sceptre, or the symbol, of thy strength; and thou shalt be the lord, or the ruler, in the midst of thy enemies.)
3 The beginning is with thee in the day of thy virtue, in the brightnesses of saints; I begat thee of the womb, before the day star. (From the beginning, thy strength was with thee, and from that day thou hast shone in the brightness of the saints; yea, I begat thee from the womb, before the day star.)
4 The Lord swore, and it shall not repent him; Thou art a priest [into] without end, by the order of Melchizedek. (The Lord swore, and he shall never repent for saying, Thou art a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.)
5 The Lord on thy right side; hath broken kings in the day of his vengeance. (The Lord at thy right hand, hath broken kings in the day of his vengeance/shall break kings in the day of his vengeance.)
6 He shall deem among nations, he shall fill (the land with) fallings; he shall shake heads in the land of many men. (He shall judge among the nations, he shall fill the land with the fallen; he shall wound those who be the chiefs, or the leaders, in many lands.)

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.

Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.