Untitled Sermon
PSALM 110 FACTS
These enemies will be made his footstool; he will subdue them and triumph over them; he will do it easily, as easily as we put a footstool in its proper place
in opposition to Mount Sinai, that frightful mountain, on which the law was given, Heb. 12:18, 24; Gal. 4:24, 25. The kingdom of Christ took rise from Zion, the city of David, for he was the Son of David, and was to have the throne of his father David.
Melchizedek was a priest upon his throne, so is Christ (Zec. 6:13), king of righteousness and king of peace. Melchizedek had no successor, nor has Christ; his is an unchangeable priesthood. The apostle comments largely upon these words (Heb. 7) and builds on them his discourse of Christ’s priestly office,
The Lord has sworn, to show that in the commission there was no implied reserve of a power of revocation; for he will not repent, as he did concerning Eli’s priesthood, 1 Sa. 2:30. This was intended for the honour of Christ and the comfort of Christians
At thy right hand, O God! referring to v. 1, in the dignity and dominion to which he is advanced. Note, Christ’s sitting at the right hand of God speaks as much terror to his enemies as happiness to his people
The equity of this victory: He shall judge among them. It is not a military execution, which is done in fury, but a judicial one. Before he condemns and slays, he will judge; he will make it appear that they have brought this ruin upon themselves, and have themselves rolled the stone which returns upon them, that he may be justified when he speaks and the heavens may declare his righteousness. See Rev. 19:1, 2.
He shall wound the heads, which seems to refer to the first promise of the Messiah (Gen. 3:15), that he should bruise the serpent’s head. He shall wound the head of his enemies, Ps. 68:21. Some read it, He shall wound him that is the head over many countries, either Satan or Antichrist, whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of his mouth. He shall make such destruction of his enemies that he shall fill the places with the dead bodies
He shall be humbled: He shall drink of the brook in the way, that bitter cup which the Father put into his hand. He shall be so abased and impoverished, and withal so intent upon his work, that he shall drink puddle-water out of the lakes in the highway; so some. The wrath of God, running in the channel of the curse of the law, was the brook in the way
but he soon lifted up the head by his own power in his resurrection. He lifted up the head as a conqueror, yea, more than a conqueror. This denotes not only his exaltation, but his exultation; not only his elevation, but his triumph in it. Col. 2:15, Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them
the conclusion to be drawn from this Psalm must have been felt by the Pharisees themselves, that the Messiah, because the Son of David and Lord at the same time, was of human and at the same time of superhuman nature; that it was therefore in accordance with Scripture if this Jesus, who represented Himself to be the predicted Christ, should as such profess to be the Son of God and of divine nature.
Psalm 110 is a royal psalm (about kingship) that is structured around two statements from Yahweh. The first is a prophetic oracle (vv. 1–3), and the second is a divine oath (vv. 4–7). Psalm 110 is connected to the messianic understanding of Jesus and His work. New Testament writers quote material from both halves of Psa 110 to support an understanding of Jesus as Messiah.
In this divine oath, God endorses His earthly representative as a priest in addition to his role as king. This fusion of king and priest is distinctive to the Davidic ruler, since the laws concerning priests in the OT strictly separate the offices of king and priest (see Ps 99:6 and note). The author of Hebrews uses this connection to articulate Jesus’ role (see note on v. 4).
110:5 The perspective of the psalm changes from Yahweh speaking to the psalmist speaking. The third-person references in Psa 110:5–7 are ambiguous. They may be referring to Yahweh, or to Yahweh’s chosen ruler—the Lord referenced in v. 1. They likely refer to Yahweh’s chosen ruler (see note on v. 7).
110:7 He will drink This seems to indicate that the third-person pronouns in vv. 5–7 refer to God’s chosen ruler, not Yahweh Himself. Yahweh provides water for His chosen agent as he proceeds on his mission.
the stream by the road Indicates that he is zealous and does not stop to relax in a camp.
he will lift up his head A lifted head was symbolic of both victory and God’s favor. God’s chosen ruler will complete his mission vigorously and thereby attain honor.
This Psalm is one of those promises, surely and openly prophesying our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; so that we are utterly unable to doubt that Christ is announced in this Psalm,
He shall drink of the brook in the way, therefore shall he lift up his head” (ver. 7). Let us consider Him drinking of the brook in the way: first of all, what is the brook? the onward flow of human mortality: for as a brook is gathered together by the rain, overflows, roars, runs, and by running runs down, that is, finishes its course; so is all this course of mortality. Men are born, they live, they die, and when some die others are born, and when they die others are born, they succeed, they flock together, they depart and will not remain.
Of this brook He drinketh, He hath not disdained to drink of this brook; for to drink of this brook was to Him to be born and to die. What this brook hath, is birth and death; Christ assumed this, He was born, He died. “Therefore hath He lifted up His head;” that is, because He was humble, and “became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross: therefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name; that at the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ the Lord is in the glory of God the Father.”
IN some of the Psalms, David speaks of himself only; in others, of himself and of the Messiah too; but in this, of the Messiah exclusively: not a word is applicable to any one else. The Jews have taken great pains to explain it away: but their attempts are, and ever must be, in vain
The second and third verses may undoubtedly be applied to his regal office, because they speak of his “ruling in the midst of his enemies:” but, if we consider how his victories are gained, namely, by his word and Spirit, and that it is by the illumination of men’s minds that he subdues their hearts, we shall see that this part of the psalm may properly be understood as relating to his prophetic character
Now at the time that the Levitical priesthood was in all its glory, David foretold, that it should be superseded, (and the whole Mosaic economy with it,) by a priesthood of a higher order; a priesthood, which Abraham himself, and all his posterity in him, acknowledged, and which, on account of the solemnity of its appointment, and the perpetuity of its duration, was of a far higher order.
[Melchizedec, though a priest, was a king also, and one that was most eminently fitted to typify the Saviour, being “king of righteousness and peace.” Thus was Christ not a priest only, but “a priest upon his thrones
There is “a day of wrath,” as well as a day of mercy; and terrible indeed will be “the wrath of the Lamb.” As a mighty conqueror desolates the countries which he overruns, and fills them with the bodies of the slain, so will Jesus in that awful day. If he rule not men by their free consent, as their Lord, he will judge them as rebels, and “wound the heads of all” to the remotest corners of the earth
Previous to his own victories, he was himself, according to human estimate, to be overcome. But his humiliation was to pave the way for his exaltation: “by death he was to overcome him that had the power of death, and to deliver from death” his ransomed people. This was the way pointed out in the very first proclamation of mercy to fallen man: “The Seed of the woman was to bruise the serpent’s head; but the serpent was first to bruise his heel.” Accordingly he did “drink of the brook in the way:” he suffered infinitely more than words can express, or the mind of man can conceive; and then “he lifted up the head,” and was “exalted far above all principalities and powers,” whether of heaven or hell; and he “shall surely reign till all his enemies be put under his feet.”]
We cannot IMPROVE this subject better than by asking,
There is much disagreement concerning the time of its composition, with opinions ranging from the tenth century B.C. to the Maccabean age, in the second century B.C. By and large modern scholarship tends to regard it as an ancient composition; Anderson says that it “may well be one of the oldest poems in the Psalter”
In the New Testament this psalm (verses 1, 4) is applied to Christ and is quoted more often than any other Old Testament passage.
The Hebrew footstool is used here as a symbol of the complete victory of the king over his enemies; see the passage where the victorious captains place their feet on the necks of their defeated foes (Josh 10:24)
This psalm is particularly difficult to hear read and to read in most translations
Two utterances of a revelation, vers. 1 and 4, the first of which is expressly stated to be a declaration of Jehovah, and the second declared to be unchangeable, because accompanied by His oath, form the two central points of the train of thought pursued in this Psalm