Psalms 110: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

A psalm of David in which the LORD speaks to the psalmist's lord, telling him to sit at the LORD's right hand until his enemies are put under his feet. The LORD sends out his ruling scepter from Zion and swears an oath that he is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. The rest of the psalm describes a day of wrath in which kings are crushed, the nations are judged, and the dead are heaped up.

Claim by Claim

1. 110:1
   • The psalm is ascribed to David.
   • The LORD spoke a declaration to the speaker's lord.
   • The LORD told him to sit at the LORD's right hand.
   • He is to sit there until the LORD makes his enemies a footstool for his feet.
2. 110:2
   • The LORD will send out the staff of his strength from Zion.
   • He is commanded to rule in the midst of his enemies.
3. 110:3
   • His people will offer themselves willingly in the day of his power.
   • This happens in holy splendor.
   • It is from the womb of the dawn.
   • The dew of his youth belongs to him.
4. 110:4
   • The LORD has sworn an oath.
   • The LORD will not change his mind about it.
   • The LORD declares that he is a priest forever.
   • His priesthood is after the manner of Melchizedek.
5. 110:5
   • The Lord is at his right hand.
   • The Lord will shatter kings in the day of his wrath.
6. 110:6
   • He will execute judgment among the nations.
   • He will fill the place with corpses.
   • He will shatter the head over a wide land, the text leaving unclear whether one ruler over a great country or many heads over many countries is meant.
7. 110:7
   • He will drink from the brook along the way.
   • Therefore he will lift up his head.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

110:1

The King James prints two different Hebrew words the same way. "The LORD" in small capitals stands for God's personal name, YHWH; "my Lord" translates *adon*, an ordinary title of respect for a superior, most often a king. So the line reports what God said to the psalmist's royal master. "Sit at my right hand" places him in the position of highest honor beside a throne. A footstool was a real piece of royal furniture, and ancient carvings and inscriptions show conquered enemies pictured under a victorious king's feet.

110:2

"Rod" here is a scepter, the staff a king carried as the visible sign of his authority, not a stick for beating. Zion was the hill in Jerusalem where the king's palace and the temple stood; the name stands for the city as the seat of government.

110:3

The Hebrew of this verse is among the most obscure in the whole book, and ancient copies disagree with each other; translators differ over nearly every phrase. "Willing" means volunteering, men presenting themselves for military service without being conscripted. "The womb of the morning" is a picture of the dawn giving birth. "The dew of thy youth" may mean young troops appearing as thickly and freshly as dew at first light; some ancient manuscripts read instead "I have begotten you." The rendering keeps the ambiguity rather than choosing.

110:4

"Repent" in 1611 English meant simply to change one's mind or go back on a decision; it carries no sense of being sorry for wrongdoing. Melchizedek appears in Genesis 14 as king of Salem and priest of God Most High, who met Abraham returning from battle. He is notable because he held both offices at once: in Israel the priesthood belonged only to the descendants of Aaron, and kings were not priests. "After the order of" means "of the same kind as," not "following after him in time."

110:5

"The Lord" here without small capitals is a third Hebrew word, *adonai*, a title for God meaning master. Note that the positions have swapped from verse 1: there the king sits at God's right hand, here God stands at the king's, the side on which a champion or protector took his place in battle.

110:6

"Heathen" in the King James simply means the nations, the peoples other than Israel; it carries none of the modern sense of savage or uncivilised. "Fill the places" supplies a word the Hebrew does not have: it says only that he fills with corpses. The last line is ambiguous in Hebrew: it can mean he crushes the chief man over a wide territory, or the leaders of many lands; the word for "head" carries both the sense of a skull and of a ruler.

110:7

The picture is of a pursuing warrior pausing only long enough to drink from a stream at the roadside before pressing on. "Lift up the head" is a set idiom for coming through victorious or vindicated, since a defeated or shamed man walked with his head down.