1 The oracle of Jehovah to my lord;
Sit Thou [enthroned] at My right hand,
Until I make Thine enemies the stool for Thy feet.
2 The sceptre of Thy might shall Jehovah stretch forth from Zion,
"Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies."
3 Thy people are free-will offerings in the day of Thine army;
In holy attire,
From the womb of the dawn,
[Comes] to Thee the dew of Thy youth[s].
4 Jehovah has sworn and will not repent,
Thou art a priest for ever,
After the manner of Melchizedek.
5 The Lord at Thy right hand
Has crushed kings in the day of His wrath.
6 He shall judge among the nations,
He has filled [the land] with corpses,
He has crushed the head over a wide land.
7 Of the brook shall He drink on the way,
Therefore shall He lift up [His] head.
Does our Lord's attribution of this psalm to David foreclose the
question of its authorship for those who accept His authority?
Many, who fully recognise and reverently bow to that authority,
think that it does not, and appeal for support of their view to the
unquestionable limitations of His earthly knowledge. It is urged
that His object in His argument with the Pharisees, in which this
psalm is quoted by Him (Matt. xxii. 41-46 and parallels), is not to
instruct them on the authorship of the psalm, but to argue from its
contents; and though He assumes the Davidic authorship, accepted
generally at the time, yet the cogency of His argument is unimpaired,
so long as it is recognised that the psalm is a Messianic one, and
that the august language used in it of the Messiah is not compatible
with the position of One who was a mere human son of David (Driver,
"Introd.," p. 363, note). So also Dr. Sanday ("Inspiration," p. 420)
says that "the Pharisees were taken upon their own ground, and the
fallacy of their conclusion was shown on their own premises." But
our Lord's argument is not drawn from the "august language" of the
psalm, but from David's relationship to the Messiah, and crumbles to
pieces if he is not the singer. It may freely be admitted that there
are instances in our Lord's references to the Old Testament in which
He speaks from the point of view of His hearers in regard to it; but
these are cases in which nothing turned on the question whether that
point of view was correct or not. Here everything turns on it; and
to maintain that, in so important a crisis, He based His arguments
on an error comes perilously near to imputing fallibility to Him as
our teacher. Most of recent writers who advocate the view in question
would recoil from such a consequence; but their position is divided
from it by a thin line. Whatever the limitations of our Lord's human
knowledge, they did not affect His authority in regard to what He did
teach; and the present writer ventures to believe that He did teach
that _David_ in this psalm calls Messiah his Lord.
If so, the psalm stands alone, as not having primary reference to an
earthly king. It is not, like other Messianic psalms, typical, but
directly prophetic of Messiah, and of Him only. We are not warranted
in denying the possibility of such direct prophecy; and the picture
drawn in this psalm, so far transcending any possible original among
the sons of men, has not full justice done to its majestic lines,
unless it is recognised as setting forth none other than the personal
Messiah. True, it is drawn with colours supplied from earthly
experiences, and paints a warrior-monarch. The prophet-psalmist, no
doubt, conceived of literal warfare; but a prophet did not always
understand the oracles which he spoke.
The psalm falls into two parts: the Vision of the Priest-King and His
army (vv. 1-4); the King's Warfare and Victory (vv. 5-7).
"The oracle of Jehovah" introduces a fresh utterance of God's,
heard by the psalmist, who thus claims to be the mouthpiece of the
Divine will. It is a familiar prophetic phrase, but usually found
at the close--not, as here, at the beginning--of the utterance to
which it refers (see, however, Isa. lvi. 8; Zech. xii. 1). The
unusual position makes the Divine origin of the following words more
emphatic. "My Lord" is a customary title of respect in addressing
a superior, but not in speaking _of_ him. Its use here evidently
implies that the psalmist regards Messiah as his king, and the best
comment on it is Matt. xxii. 43: "How then doth David in spirit call
Him Lord?" The substance of the oracle follows. He who is exalted to
sit at the right hand of a king is installed thereby as his associate
in rule. He who is seated by God at His right hand is received into
such mystery of participation in Divine authority and power, as
cannot be imposed on frail humanity. The rigid monotheism of the
Jewish singers makes this tremendous "oracle" the more remarkable.
Greek gods might have their assessors from among mortals, but who
shall share Jehovah's throne? "Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord
as king" (1 Chron. xxix. 23); but that is no parallel, nor does
it show that the oracle of this psalm simply states the dignity
of the theocratic king. Solomon's throne was Jehovah's, as being
established by Him, and since he represented Jehovah on earth; but to
sit at Jehovah's right hand means far more than this. That session
of Messiah is represented as the prelude to the exercise of Divine
power for His triumph over His foes; and that apparent repose, while
Jehovah fights for him, is singularly contrasted with his activity
as described in verses 6, 7. The singer speaks riddles about a union
of undisturbed tranquillity and of warlike strenuousness, which are
only solved when we see their fulfilment in Him who sitteth at the
right hand of God, and who yet goes with His armies where they go.
"He was received up, and sat on the right hand of God, . . . the Lord
also working with them" (Mark xvi. 19, 20). The opened heavens showed
to Stephen his Master, not sitting, but standing in the posture of
readiness to help him dying, and to receive him made more alive by
death. His foot shall be on the neck of His foes, as Joshua bade
the men of Israel put theirs on the conquered kings'. Opposition
shall not only be subdued, but shall become subsidiary to Messiah's
dominion, "a stepping-stone to higher things."
The Divine oracle is silent, and the strain is taken up by the
psalmist himself, who speaks "in the spirit," in the remainder of the
psalm, no less than he did when uttering Jehovah's word. Messiah's
dominion has a definite earthly centre. From Zion is this King to
rule. His mighty sceptre, the symbol and instrument of His God-given
power, is to stretch thence. How far? No limit is named to the sweep of
His sway. But since Jehovah is to extend it, it must be conterminous
with the reach of His omnipotence. Ver. 2_b_ may be taken as the
words of Jehovah, but more probably they are the loyal exclamation of
the psalmist, moved to his heart's depths by the vision which makes
the bliss of his solitude. The word rendered "rule" is found also in
Balaam's prophecy of Messiah (Numb. xxiv. 19) and in the Messianic
Psalm lxxii. 8. The kingdom is to subsist in the midst of enemies. The
normal state of the Church on earth is militant. Yet the enemies are
not only a ring of antagonists round a centre of submission, but into
their midst His power penetrates, and Messiah dominates them too, for
all their embattled hostility. A throne round which storms of rebellion
rage is an insecure seat. But this throne is established through
enmity, because it is upheld by Jehovah.
The kingdom in relation to its subjects is the theme of ver. 3,
which accords with the warlike tone of the whole psalm, by describing
them as an army. The period spoken of is "the day of Thy host,"
or array--the time when the forces are mustered and set in order
for battle. The word rendered _free-will offerings_ may possibly
mean simply "willingnesses," and the abstract noun may be used as
in "I am--prayer" (Psalm cix. 4)--_i.e._, most willing; but it is
better to retain the fuller and more picturesque meaning of glad,
spontaneous sacrifices, which corresponds with the priestly character
afterwards ascribed to the people, and goes very deep into the
essence of Christian service. There are to be no pressed men or
mercenaries in that host. As Deborah sang of her warriors, these
"offer themselves willingly." Glad consecration of self, issuing in
spontaneous enlisting for the wars of the King, is to characterise
all His subjects. The army is the nation. These soldiers are to be
priests. They are clad in holy attire, "fine linen, clean and white."
That representation goes as deep into the nature of the warfare they
have to wage and the weapons they have to wield, as the former did
into the impulse which sends them to serve under Messiah's flag.
The priestly function is to bring God and man near to one another.
Their warfare can only be for the carrying out of their office. Their
weapons are sympathy, gentleness, purity. Like the Templars, the
Christian soldier must bear the cross on his shield and the hilt of
his sword. Another reading of this phrase is "on the holy mountains,"
which is preferred by many, among whom are Hupfeld and Cheyne. But
the great preponderance of evidence is against the change, which
obliterates a very striking and profound thought.
Ver. 3_c_, _d_ gives another picture of the host. The usual
explanation of the clause takes "youth" as meaning, not the young
vigour of the King, but, in a collective sense, the assembled
warriors, whom it paints as in the bloom of early manhood. The
principal point of comparison of the army with the dew is probably
its multitude (2 Sam. xvii. 12). The warriors have the gift of
un-aging youth, as all those have who renew their strength by serving
Christ. And it is permissible to take other characteristics of the
dew than its abundance, and to think of the mystery of its origin,
of the tiny mirrors of the sunshine hanging on every cobweb, of its
power to refresh, as well as of the myriads of its drops.
But this explanation, beautiful and deep as it is, is challenged
by many. The word rendered "dawn" is unusual. "Youth" is not found
elsewhere in the sense thus assigned to it. "Dew" is thought to be
an infelicitous emblem. "From a linguistic point of view" Cheyne
pronounces both "dawn" and "dew" to be intolerable. Singularly
enough, in the next sentence, he deprecates a previous opinion of his
own as premature "until we know something certain of the Hebrew of
the Davidic age" ("Orig. of Psalt.," p. 482). But if such certainty
is lacking, why should these two words be "intolerable"? He approves
Bickell's conjectural emendation, "From the womb, from the dawn [of
life], Thy youthful band is devoted to Thee."
Ver. 4 again enshrines a Divine utterance, which is presented
in an even more solemn manner than that of ver. 1. The oath of
Jehovah by Himself represents the thing sworn as guaranteed by the
Divine character. God, as it were, pledges His own name, with its
fulness of unchanging power, to the fulfilment of the word; and this
irrevocable and omnipotent decree is made still more impressive by
the added assurance that He "will not repent." Thus inextricably
intertwined with the augustness of God's nature, the union of the
royal and priestly offices in the person of Messiah shall endure
for ever. Some commentators contend that every theocratic king of
Israel was a priest, inasmuch as he was king of a priestly nation.
But since the national priestliness did not hinder the appointment
of a special order of priests, it is most natural to assume that
the special order is here referred to. Why should the singer have
gone back into the mists of antiquity, in order to find the type
of a priest-king, if the union of offices belonged, by virtue of
his kinghood, to every Jewish monarch? Clearly the combination was
unexampled; and such an incident as that of Uzziah's leprosy shows
how carefully the two great offices were kept apart. Their opposition
has resulted in many tragedies: probably their union would be still
more fatal, except in the case of One whose priestly sacrifice of
Himself as a willing offering is the basis of His royal sway. The
"order of Melchizedek" has received unexpected elucidation from the
Tel-el-Amarna tablets, which bring to light, as a correspondent of
the Pharaoh, one Ebed-tob, king of Uru-salim (the city of Salim, the
god of peace). In one of his letters he says, "Behold, neither my
father nor my mother have exalted me in this place; the prophecy [or
perhaps, arm] of the mighty King has caused me to enter the house of
my father." By the mighty King is meant the god whose sanctuary stood
on the summit of Mount Moriah. He was king of Jerusalem, because
he was priest of its god (Sayce, "Criticism and the Monuments," p.
175). The psalm lays stress on the eternal duration of the royalty
and priesthood of Messiah; and although in other Messianic psalms the
promised perpetuity may be taken to refer to the dynasty rather than
the individual monarch, that explanation is impossible here, where a
person is the theme.
Many attempts have been made to fit the language of the psalm to
one or other of the kings of Israel; but, not to mention other
difficulties, this ver. 4 remains as an insuperable obstacle. In
default of Israelite kings, one or other of the Maccabean family has
been thought of. Cheyne strongly pronounces for Simon Maccabæus,
and refers, as others have done, to a popular decree in his favour,
declaring him "ruler and high priest for ever" ("Orig. of Psalt.," p.
26). On this identification, Baethgen asks if it is probable that the
singer should have taken his theme from a popular decree, and have
transformed it (_umgestempelt_) into a Divine oath. It may be added
that Simon was not a king, and that he was by birth a priest.
The second part of the psalm carries the King into the battle-field.
He comes forth from the throne, where He sat at Jehovah's right
hand, and now Jehovah stands at His right hand. The word rendered
_Lord_ in ver. 5 is never used of any but God, and it is best to
take it so here, even though to do so involves the necessity of
supposing a change in the subject either in ver. 6 or ver. 7, which
latter verse can only refer to the Messiah. The destructive conflict
described is said to take place "in the day of His wrath"--_i.e._, of
Jehovah's. If this is strictly interpreted, the period intended is
not that of "the day of Thine army," when by His priestly warriors
the Priest-King wages a warfare among His enemies, which wins them
to be His lovers, but that dread hour when He comes forth from His
ascended glory to pronounce doom among the nations and to crush all
opposition. Such a final apocalypse of the wrath of the Lamb is
declared to us in clearer words, which may well be permitted to cast
a light back on this psalm (Rev. xix. 11). "He has crushed kings" is
the perfect of prophetic certainty or intuition, the scene being so
vividly bodied before the singer that he regards it as accomplished.
"He shall judge" or give doom "among the nations,"--the future of
pure prediction. Ver. 6_b_ is capable of various renderings. It may
be rendered as above, or the verb may be intransitive and the whole
clause translated, _It becomes full of corpses_ (so Delitzsch); or
the word may be taken as an adjective, in which case the meaning
would be the same as if it were an intransitive verb. "The head over
a wide land" is also ambiguous. If "head" is taken as a collective
noun, it means rulers. But it may be also regarded as referring
to a person, the principal antagonist of the Messiah. This is the
explanation of many of the older interpreters, who think of Death or
"the prince of this world," but is too fanciful to be adopted.
Ver. 7 is usually taken as depicting the King as pausing in His
victorious pursuit of the flying foe, to drink, like Gideon's men,
from the brook, and then with renewed vigour pressing on. But is not
the idea of the Messiah needing refreshment in that final conflict
somewhat harsh?--and may there not be here a certain desertion of
the order of sequence, so that we are carried back to the time
prior to the enthronement of the King? One is tempted to suggest
the possibility of this closing verse being a full parallel with
Phil. ii. 7-9. Christ on the way to His throne drank of "waters of
affliction," and precisely therefore is He "highly exalted."
The choice for every man is, being crushed beneath His foot, or
being exalted to sit with Him on His throne. "He that overcometh,
to him will I give to sit down with Me on My throne, even as I also
overcame, and am set down with My Father on His throne." It is better
to sit on His throne than to be His footstool.