Skip to content
mannafest.faith
Read
Psalms

Psalm 110

7 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →

Speaks with:Hebrews 7×2Hebrews 10×11 Corinthians 15×1Luke 20×1Judges 5×1Hebrews 13×1

Summary

Chapter summary

The psalm the New Testament quotes most. 'Jehovah saith unto my lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool': Jesus' own riddle to the Pharisees (how is Messiah David's son and David's Lord?), the apostles' Ascension text. Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of thy power, in holy array. Then the second oracle: 'Jehovah hath sworn, and will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek', the backbone of Hebrews 5–7. He shall judge among the nations; he shall drink of the brook in the way; therefore will he lift up the head.

Context

Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

Sit thou at my right hand

Pattern

Psalm 110 is the Old Testament chapter the New Testament reaches for most. Its first verse seats David's Lord at the right hand of God, and its oath makes him a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord, Peter, and Hebrews each build an argument on its exact words.

One psalm supplies the question that silenced the Pharisees, the spine of the first Pentecost sermon, and the priesthood argument of Hebrews. The verse David wrote only resolves if the son of David is also David's Lord.

  1. Psalms 110:1 you are here

    The Lord said unto my Lord

  2. Psalms 110:4 you are here

    A priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek

  3. Matthew 22:44

    The question no man could answer

    If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?

  4. Acts 2:34-35

    Peter's Pentecost argument

    For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself.

  5. Hebrews 1:13

    To which of the angels said he at any time

  6. Hebrews 5:6

    The Melchizedek priesthood taken up

The world behind this chapter

Psalms 110
When
The united monarchy under David · c. 1010–970 BC
Where
A royal court, where God speaks an oracle over a king who is also called a priest
Who first heard it
Israelites for whom kingship and priesthood were two offices that were never allowed to mix

The history

The right hand of a throne was the seat of the co-ruler. A king's son or chosen deputy sat there, and to be summoned to it was to be given the king's own authority. Nothing in the psalm's world was higher.

The footstool of enemies was not a figure of speech either. Egyptian and Assyrian kings had footstools and sandals decorated with bound foreign captives, so that the ruler literally rested his feet on his defeated foes; the footstool found in Tutankhamun's tomb is carved with exactly that.

The shock of the psalm is the priesthood. In Israel these two offices were kept strictly apart: kings came from Judah, priests from Levi, and when King Uzziah went into the temple to burn incense he came out a leper. The only figure who had ever held both was Melchizedek, the king of Salem who met Abraham with bread and wine centuries before Levi was born — which is exactly the older order this psalm reaches back to.

The last section is a battlefield. The day of wrath, kings shattered, the nations filled with corpses, and a commander pausing to drink from a stream by the road before going on. On the traditional understanding of prophecy, that scene is still ahead: a rule established from Zion by open judgment, not by slow persuasion.

Some argue this psalm was composed later by a court poet for some other king. The heading assigns it to David, and Jesus later built an argument on that authorship in front of the very scholars who would have corrected him if it were disputed.

What it meant to them

A song sung by David's subjects that begins with David calling someone else his lord would have stopped them cold. The king had a King, and that King sat where no Israelite ruler had ever been invited to sit.

It also promised a willing army. The volunteers who come in holy clothing, fresh as the dew of the morning, are a people who fight because they want to, not because a levy dragged them out.

Sources cited

  • Walton, Matthews and Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
  • Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David on Psalm 110

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Psalms 110. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 1 · Quoted here

'Sit thou on my right hand': Peter at Pentecost, ascension proof.

Acts 2:34→

For David did not ascend into heaven, but he himself says: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand

public-domain commentaries in agreement

v. 1 · Quoted here

'until I make thine enemies thy footstool': Hebrews.

Hebrews 1:13→

Yet to which of the angels did God ever say: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet”?

public-domain commentaries in agreement

v. 1 · Quoted here

same: Jesus (Davidic-sonship question).

Luke 20:42→

For David himself says in the book of Psalms: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand

public-domain commentaries in agreement

v. 1 · Quoted with a formula: 'it is written' · Quoted here

'YHWH said to my Adonai' becomes 'the Lord (Kyrios) said to my Lord (Kyrios)' - the two-Lords text Jesus presses (also Acts 2:34). Kyrios=YHWH bridge.

Mark 12:36→

Speaking by the Holy Spirit, David himself declared: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies under Your feet.”’

v. 1 · Quoted here

'on the right hand of power': Jesus before the high priest.

Mark 14:62→

“I am,” said Jesus, “and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

public-domain commentaries in agreement

v. 1 · A picture of Christ · Quoted here · Spoken beforehand, fulfilled here

'The Lord said unto my Lord': Jesus, the Davidic-sonship question. Most-cited OT verse in NT.

Matthew 22:44→

‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies under Your feet.”’

MannaFest topical index

v. 1 · Quoted here

'sitting on the right hand of power': Jesus before the Sanhedrin (w/ Dan 7:13).

Matthew 26:64→

“You have said it yourself,” Jesus answered. “But I say to all of you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

public-domain commentaries in agreement

v. 1 · Same kind of writing

both royal psalms; the two most-cited messianically in the NT; shared enthronement form.

Psalms 2:1→

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

Gunkel

v. 4 · Quoted here · A picture of Christ

'a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec': Hebrews.

Hebrews 5:6→

And in another passage God says: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”

public-domain commentaries in agreement

v. 4 · Quoted here

same: Hebrews, the eternal priesthood argument.

Hebrews 7:17→

For it is testified: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”

public-domain commentaries in agreement

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David on Psalm 110; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

← Back: Psalms 109Continue: Psalms 111 →