Psalm 110 is the most important Messianic Psalm in the Bible.
If you should thoroughly study one Psalm of the Bible, it is Psalm 110.
What is so unique in Psalm 110 that makes it the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament?
You are about to find out.
This is the unpacking of Psalm 110 meaning with a verse-by-verse commentary.
Let’s start right away.
Contents
Psalm 110 meaning
Psalm 110’s meaning became so important to the authors of the New Testament that it is the most quoted and alluded Psalm in the New Testament.
Even if this is the case, you don’t need the New Testament to prove from the Psalm that
- God is multi-personal.
- The Messiah is both God and man.
- The Messiah existed before creation and lives forever.
- The Messiah is the God-promised seed of a woman who crushes the Serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15).
And all this is packed in seven short verses.
Let’s read the Psalm first and then continue with the verse-by-verse commentary.
Psalm 110 WEB
A Psalm by David.
1 Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.”
2 Yahweh will send out the rod of your strength out of Zion.
Rule among your enemies.
3 Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your power, in holy array.
Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth.
4 Yahweh has sworn, and will not change his mind:
“You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”
5 The Lord is at your right hand.
He will crush kings in the day of his wrath.
6 He will judge among the nations.
He will heap up dead bodies.
He will crush the ruler of the whole earth.
7 He will drink of the brook on the way;
therefore he will lift up his head.
Psalm 110 KJV
1 The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
2 The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.
3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.
4 The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
5 The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.
6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.
7 He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.
Psalm 110:1 meaning and commentary
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
The verse clearly distinguishes two different Lords. The Lord who speaks is Yahweh God, as you can see from the interlinear above. The other is Adoni, David’s Lord.
Who is David’s Lord?
There are three options for who he could be.
- Yahweh, who is distinct from the other Lord.
- A human ruler.
- An angelic being.
Ruling out the human ruler
Option 2 is easy to rule out since God gave the earth to humans to rule over, and the king of Jerusalem was the highest-ranking king on earth. David would not call any man his Lord since he was the highest-ranking king on earth.
Psalm 115:16
The heavens are Yahweh’s heavens,
but he has given the earth to the children of men.
Psalm 89:20, 27
I have found David, my servant.
I have anointed him with my holy oil,
I will also appoint him my firstborn,
the highest of the kings of the earth.
Also, David’s Lord could not be Solomon or any other of David’s sons since David is greater than all of them.
Let’s see why David is greater than his sons.
Heaven and earth belong to God, and God has thrones in both. God sits on His throne in heaven (1 Kings 22:19), but He has given David the throne on earth.
1 Chronicles 28:5
Of all my sons (for Yahweh has given me many sons), he has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of Yahweh’s kingdom over Israel.
God established David’s kingdom forever, and David’s descendants were to rule David’s kingdom.
2 Samuel 7:16
Your house and your kingdom will be made sure forever before you. Your throne will be established forever.
This is why later prophets wrote about God raising David to shepherd Israel with an everlasting covenant (Isaiah 55:3-4, Jeremiah 30:8-9, Ezekiel 34:23-24, 37:24).
David’s sons occupied David’s throne and kingdom, and therefore, the human sons were of lower status and rank than David.
Could David’s Lord be an angelic being?
Ruling out the angelic being
The Psalm depicts David’s Lord as the Messiah.
- He sits at God’s right hand (verse 1).
- He will rule over his enemies (verses 1–2).
- He will have dominion and followers (verse 3).
- He is begotten by the Father before creation (verse 3).
- He will be “a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek” (verse 4).
- He will crush the head of the ruler of many nations and judge the nations (verses 6)
- He will be exalted (verse 7)
Since the Psalm is about the Messiah, David’s Lord can not be an angelic being because the Messiah is a man, a descendant of David (2 Samuel 7:12-16). We see this also in verse 2, which says that the power of the Messiah comes from Zion, Jerusalem. In other words, he is a human king ruling from Jerusalem.
Also, the anointed kings of Jerusalem were sitting on the throne of Yahweh (See 1 Chron 29:23 below). Although men were made a little lower than the angels for a short time (Psalm 8:5), no angelic being ever sat on God’s throne; thus, David outranks them and would not call them his Lord.
1 Chronicles 29:23
Then Solomon sat on the throne of Yahweh as king instead of David his father, and prospered; and all Israel obeyed him.
Finally, no angelic being sits on God’s throne in heaven, but they are His servants who fulfill and obey His word.
Psalm 103:19-21
Yahweh has established his throne in the heavens.
His kingdom rules over all.
Praise Yahweh, you angels of his,
who are mighty in strength, who fulfill his word,
obeying the voice of his word.
Praise Yahweh, all you armies of his,
you servants of his, who do his pleasure.
Therefore, the correct pick is option 1: David’s Lord is Yahweh God, who is distinct from the other Lord in the Psalm.
Proving David’s Lord is God
The scene in Psalm 110:1 occurs in heaven since God is enthroned in heaven.
Psalm 103:19
Yahweh has established his throne in the heavens.
His kingdom rules over all.
God sits on His throne, and the hosts of heaven stand around Him.
1 Kings 22:19
Micaiah said, “Therefore hear Yahweh’s word. I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne, and all the army of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.
There is none other than Yahweh, especially in heaven.
Psalm 113:5
Who is like Yahweh, our God,
who has his seat on high
He alone is exalted in the heaven.
Psalm 148:13
let them praise Yahweh’s name,
for his name alone is exalted.
His glory is above the earth and the heavens.
When David’s Lord sits at Yahweh’s right hand, He sits on the throne of Yahweh in Heaven. God alone sits enthroned in heaven while the creatures, the hosts of heaven, stand around Him.
Because Yahweh’s name alone is exalted, Yahweh does not share His throne in heaven with a creature.
Therefore, the Lord who sits on Yahweh’s right hand is not a lesser being but of the same nature and co-equal to Yahweh. David’s Lord is God in every sense of the word.
This is also a strong proof that God is multi-personal.
Read also Two Powers in the heavens.
Psalm 110:2 meaning and commentary
The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.
Verse 2 says that the Messiah’s power comes from Zion, which is located in Jerusalem.
It’s a crucial aspect of the Messiah’s identity that he must be a man to rule in Zion, Jerusalem. This is evident from 2 Samuel 7, 1 Chronicles 28:4-6 and Genesis 49:10, which establish the Messiah as a descendant of David from the tribe of Judah.
Putting together Psalm 110:1-2 meaning, we have established that the Messiah has to be God-man, a divine descendant of David.
Psalm 110:3 meaning and commentary
Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your power, in holy array.
Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth.
Let’s see the verse in the Septuagint and the Vulgate English versions.
With thee is dominion in the day of thy power, in the splendours of thy saints: I have begotten thee from the womb before the morning.
With thee is the principality in the day of thy strength: in the brightness of the saints: from the womb before the day star I begot thee.
The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, which Jews produced before the time of Christ.
The Vulgate is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It is essentially the work of St. Jerome.
How is it possible that Septuagint and Vulgate render the verse so differently than other Bible translations?
The differences between Psalm 110:3 (Psalm 109:3 in the Septuagint) in the Septuagint (LXX) and the Vulgate compared to other Bible translations arise mainly from the distinct manuscript traditions that Septuagint and Vulgate (the Vulgate at least when it comes to Psalm 110:3) follow compared to other Bible Translations.
The Septuagint was based on older Hebrew manuscripts, some of which have since been lost. It sometimes includes different readings than the Masoretic Text, which became the standard Hebrew text after the Septuagint.
Many Bible translations follow the Masoretic Text, which was believed to be an older and, thus, more authentic copy than Septuagint until the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls changed this.
The Septuagint was written between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC, and the Masoretic Text was assembled between the 7th and 10th centuries AD. Thus, the Septuagint is the oldest available Old Testament version.
The Septuagint often reflects a more interpretative approach to the Old Testament, where translators may have paraphrased or expanded meanings to convey theological ideas more clearly in Greek.
Psalm 109:3 in the Septuagint speaks of kingship and the preexistence of the Messiah. “With thee is dominion in the day of thy power” refers to the Messiah’s sovereign authority and power. The reference to “I have begotten thee from the womb before the morning” points to the eternal generation of the Messiah.
Also, “The morning” can be translated as “Morning Star” or “Day Star” as the Vulgate translates it. It refers to the planet Venus, which is the first “star” in the sky before dawn. This term even better conveys the idea that the Messiah existed before creation.
You can see both translation options, morning and morning star, in the Greek interlinear below.
Psalm 110:4 meaning and commentary
Yahweh has sworn, and will not change his mind:
“You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”
In verse 4, Yahweh promises eternal priesthood to the Messiah. To be a priest in Israel, you had to be a descendant of Aaron of the tribe of Levi. The Messiah, however, is a priest in the order of Melchizedek, so He doesn’t need to be from the tribe of Levi.
Yahweh God promises that the Messiah will be a priest forever. The Messiah is greater than David because He sits on the right hand of God, and His priesthood is set for eternity. David, although a great king, is dead and buried, and God never promised him an eternal priesthood.
Melchizedek was Salem’s king-priest of the Most High God (Genesis 14:18-20). He is a mysterious figure in the Old Testament who interestingly offered Abraham bread and wine and blessed him.
Verse 4 points to the Messiah’s role as a priest and, taken together with verse 3, speaks of the eternality (no beginning, no end) of the king-priest Messiah.
Psalm 110:5 meaning and commentary
The Lord is at your right hand;
he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
Verse 5 discusses the Lord, who is seated at Yahweh’s right hand in verse 1. The Lord here is Adonai when in verse 1, it is Adoni.
A common counterargument to the divinity of the Messiah is that since David calls his Lord Adoni, his Lord can not be God because God is never called Adoni (but Adonai) in the Hebrew Bible. The counterargument is easily refuted since verse 5 calls David’s Lord also Adonai.
How do we know that the Lord in verse 5 is the Messiah, not Yahweh?
Let’s examine Psalm 2, another Messianic Psalm. It is very similar to Psalm 110.
- In 2:6, God sets His King on the holy hill of Zion.
- 2:8 speaks about the dominion of the Messiah.
- 2:9 mentions a rod of iron and how the Messiah shatters the nations like a potter’s vessel.
- In 2:12, the Messiah, Yahweh’s Son, will crush kings in His wrath.
It is not Yahweh who shatters/crushes the kings in Psalm 2 but the Messiah.
In Psalm 110:5, it is “the Lord at your right hand” who “will shatter kings on the day of His wrath.” Therefore, the Lord in verse 5 is David’s Lord from verse 1, and thus, He is called both adoni and adonai in Psalm 110.
Furthermore, the whole Adoni/Adonai counterargument hinges on correct Masoretic Text (MT) vocalization, which was added to the Hebrew Old Testament hundreds of years after Christians started using Psalm 110 as a powerful witnessing tool for the deity of Christ.
The texts that the MT codifiers used to produce the MT version did not originally have vowels. So, Adonai and Adoni are spelled identically in the original Hebrew because they both consist of the same four consonants, ‘-d-n-y.
Psalm 110:6 meaning and commentary
KJV
He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.
WEB
He will judge among the nations.
He will heap up dead bodies.
He will crush the ruler of the whole earth.
“He” in verse 6 refers to “the Lord who is at your right hand,” who is the Messiah. He judges the nations and will chrush the head of many nations.
Most Bible translations translate “ros” in the last sentence as heads or chiefs in verse 6, but the word is actually singular, head, as you can see from the interlinear above. So, the literal translation would be, “He shall execute the head of many countries.”
WEB translation catches this when it renders the last sentence as “He will crush the ruler of the whole earth. ”
Now, this is very intriguing!
We know that the executor here is the Messiah. This ties beautifully with Genesis 3:15, where, after the fall of Adam and Eve, God promises to raise an offspring of Eve to crush the Serpent’s head, who is leading many nations astray as the head of these nations. The word is exactly the same, ros, in Genesis 3:15 and Psalm 110:6.
Psalm 110:7 meaning and commentary
He will drink of the brook on the way;
therefore he will lift up his head.
Verse 7 further alludes that “he” is not Yahweh but David’s Lord, the Messiah, since He will drink water after a battle. This act of drinking water, a human function, reinforces the interpretation that the Messiah will be God in the flesh.
Secondary interpretation
On the other hand, the verse speaks about a person who is forced to leave the comforts of city wells. Instead of leisurely drinking in His house, He must go through discomfort. Because of enduring it, He will be invigorated and exalted.
“Drink of the brook” is mentioned one other time in the Bible, in 1 Kings 17. This is a story about Elijah and Israel’s 3,5 years of drought. At the beginning of the drought, God sent Elijah to the wilderness to drink of the brook Cherith and be fed by ravens until the brook dried up.
Cherith is a typical English spelling of the Hebrew name Kərīṯ, which comes from the Hebrew root כרת (Ḵ-R-T), meaning to cut off or cut down. (Sources 1, and 2)
So, God sent Elijah to drink of a brook called “cut off,” like the Messiah is “cut off from the land of the living” in Isaiah 53:8, a famous Messianic chapter.
After the brook dried up, God told Elijah to go to Zarephath (“refinery,” root word meaning refine, test), where a widow would feed him. Later, while in the “refinery,” Elijah raised the widow’s son from the dead, and before the drought was over, he would go and defeat all of Baal’s prophets in a spectacular way on top of Mt. Carmel (Carmel means orchard, garden in Hebrew).
“Lift up head” in the Bible means to lift or restore one’s status. In Genesis 40:13, Pharaoh lifted up his cupbearer from the prison so that he would be Pharaos’ butler “after the former manner.” In 2 Kings 25:27-28, Evilmerodach, king of Babylon, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, out of prison. “And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon.”
To sum up, the Messiah experiences discomfort and suffering, but because He endures it, His status is lifted up and restored in the end.
(You should now read Isaiah 53 and compare it to the story of Elijah and Psalm 110:7. If you find the connection interesting, you might be interested to know what is the main theme of the Bible.)
Summary of Psalm 110 meaning
Psalm 110 is the most important Messianic Psalm in the Bible.
Psalm 110 is a pivotal Messianic psalm frequently quoted in the New Testament. It brings together many key Messianic themes in seven short verses.
By studying Psalm 110 meaning, you’ll learn about:
- The Messiah’s nature as God-man.
- Multi-personality of the Godhead.
- The Messiah’s rule in Jerusalem and His victory over evil fulfilling God’s promises.
- The Messiah’s eternity and kingship in Heaven on God’s throne.
As you see, Psalm 110 is a true Messianic tour de force that will strengthen your faith in the Triune God.
Read more: The Trinity in the Old Testament and Is Jesus God?