Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 5 · Psalm 110
The Hundred and Tenth Psalm.
A Psalm of David. The hundred and tenth Psalm was certainly composed by David, (see Mat. xxii. 43.) not concerning himself, and Gods promising the Kingdome to him after Saul, as the Chaldee suppose, but by way of prophecy of the exaltation of the Messias (see Mat. xxii. 44. Act. ii. 34. 1 Cor. xv. 25. Heb. i. 13.) to his Regal and (which never belonged to David) Sacerdotal office; both which are by him exercised at the right hand of his Father, and setled on him as the reward of his humiliation and passion. (see Phil. ii. 8, 9.)
1. THe Lord saida. unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstoole.
Paraphrase. The Messias which is to come into the world is to be looked on by all men with adoration, as being, though borne in the mean estate of humane flesh, and of King Davids seed, yet really much higher than David (which he could not be if he were not God himself, the King of kings and lord of Lords.) And of him, Jehovah, the one supreme God, Creator of heaven and earth, hath decreed, that having been for some time opposed, and at length crucified, by those whom he was sent to call powerfully to repentance, he should be exalted in that humane nature which here he assumed, to the highest pitch of glory and majesty and authority in heaven, there to exercise all power over this inferior world, to reign 1 Cor. xv. 25. till he hath subdu d all that opposeth this his kingdome; 1. his crucifiers, by converting some, and destroying others, 2. the Idolatrous heathen world, by subiecting them to the Gospel, 3. the power of sin, and 4. Satan in mens hearts, and at last 5. death it selfe, 1 Cor. xv. 26. And when all this is done at the conclusion of this world, then shall he give up his power into his fathers hand from which he had it, and himself be subject to him that put all things under him, 1 Cor. xv. 27.
2. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Sion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.
This kingdome of his is to be a spiritual kingdome, exercised by the sword or scepter of his sweet but powerfull spirit, the Gospel of Christ, the power of God unto salvation to all that believe and obey it. And this shall first be preached (after his resurrection and ascension) by his Apostles at Jerusalem (see Psal. ii. 6.) to those that crucified him, and from thence it shall be propagated to all Judea, and then to all parts of the habitable world, on purpose designed to bring home sinners to repentance and change of life. And the successe thereof shall be admirable, a Church of humble obedient Christians gathered from amongst his greatest enemies, some of the rebellious Jews, and great multitudes of heathen Idolaters.
3. Thyb. people shall be‖a people of voluntary oblations willing in the day of thy†army or forces. power, in the beauties of*the sanctuary. holiness,‖thy children shall be to thee the dew from the wombe of the mor…ing. from the wombe of the morning, thou hast the dew of thy youth.
At the going out of the Apostles upon their great expedition, their sacred warfare, to conquer the obdurate world, all that have any thing of humility or piety wrought in their hearts by the efficacy of his preventing grace, shall come in and receive the faith of Christ most willingly, forsake and leave all to follow him, and attend him in his Church, and the multitude of disciples shall be as (the starrs of heaven, the sands on the sea-shore, or) the dew that in the morning covers the face of the whole earth.
4. The Lord hath sworne and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
And as he is to be a King, so is he to be a priest also. At his exaltation and ascending to heaven, God his father hath firmly decreed that he shall be advanced to such a sort of Priesthood as that of Melchizedek was (see Heb. v. 6. & vii. 17.) who had those two great offices of King and Priest united in him; so shall Christ be instated*foreign * foreign in the world to come Chald. at the right hand of his Father, in the full power of entertaining and blessing his faithful servants, such as Abraham was, when he was entertained and treated by Melchizedek, and blessed by him. And the interpretation of this his benediction is, his giving them grace to turne away every man from his iniquities, Act. iii. 26. to aid them against all their spiritual enemies, and support them in all their necessities. And this office, commencing at his ascension, is never to have an end, never to be succeeded in by any, as the Aaronical priesthood descended from father to son, but to continue in his hands, and to be most successefully exercised, till it be at the end of this world delivered up to God the Father.
5. c.The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through Kings in the day of his wrath.
But as he shall be a most mercifull High Priest to all that humbly receive, and obey, and address themselves to him; so to all obdurate sinners, that stand out, and oppose his power in their hearts, that will not suffer this Priest to bless, this King to reign over them, he shall manifest himself a most terrible Judge, and destroy the mightiest grandeur and prowesse upon earth, that doth not come in unto the faith.
*nations. he shall fill them foreign6. He shall judge among the † heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies, he shall*strike through (see v. 5.) the head ever much l…nd. foreign wound the heads over many countreys.
All the impenitent wicked world, both of Jews and heathens, he shall most illustriously destroy, make them a kinde of Akeldama; and the greatest Antichristian Monarchy in the world, most eminently that of heathen Rome (which so bloodily persecutes the Christians) shall be demolished (see Rev. xviii. 2) and Christian profession set up in the place of it.
7. He shall drink of thed. brook in the way, therefore shall he lift up the head.
Thus shall the Messias and his Kingdome be advanced. And all this but a proportionable reward designed b… …is Father to his great humiliation, and patience, and fidelity and constancy in the pursint and discharge of the office prophetick assigned him here on earth, the calling home sinners to repentance: In this he shall be so diligent and industrious, so vigilant and intent on all opportunities of advancing this end, of doing the will of his Father, the work for which he was sent, that he shall wholly neglect himself, his own will, his own ease, his own ordinary food, take that which comes next, and is most mean and vile, like a General in his keenest pursuit of his enemies, that satisfies the necessities of nature with water out of the next brook, &c. (and with the same alacrity he shal at last undergoe the most contumelious death) and for this espousing of God's will, and despising and contemning himself, God shall highly exalt him, and possesse him of that both Regal and Sacerdotal power, to continue to him, and by his hands, in that humane nature wherein he thus served his Father, to be administred for ever.
Annotations on Psalm CX.
V. 1. My Lord] That foreign to my Lord here, denotes the Messiah, will appear not onelyonly by our Saviour and his Apostles, who insist on this Psalm above any text in the Old Testament, (as the late Jews, and some others who are willing to be lookt on as very good Christians, are most industrious to evade it) but even by the testimonies of the antient Jews themselves, the evidence of truth breaking forth in despite of the most partial and resolved interest. Moses Haddarsan on Gen. xxxvii. 12. saith, foreign &c. The Redeemer whom I will raise up from among you, shall not have a father, according to that of Zach. vi. 12. behold the man whose name is the Branch, and Is. Liii. he shall come up, &c. So also David saith of him Psal. cx. 3. out of the womb, &c. lastly the Scripture saith of him, This day have I begotten thee, Ps. ii. So on Gen. xviii. Hereafter God holy and blessed shall set the King Messias foreign on his right hand, as 'tis written Ps. cx. The Lord said &c. And to the same purpose again on Gen. xiv. 18. So Midrash Tehillim, on occasion of these words, I will declare the Law, &c. Ps. ii. saith, foreign &c. the affairs of the Messiah are set forth in the scripture of the Law, of the Prophets, and of the Hagiographa: In the Law Ex. iv. 22. In the Prophets Esai. lii. 13. & xlii. 1. In the Hagiographa Ps. cx. The Lord said, and the dew of thy birth &c. So again Midr. Tehil. on Ps. xviii. 35. thy right hand shall uphold me, saith, foreign &c. R. Joden said that in the age of the Messiah the blessed God will set the King Messiah at his right hand, as it is written, The Lord said to my Lord. R. Saad Gaon on Dan. vii. 13. he came with the clouds of heaven, saith, And this is foreign Messiah our righteousness, as 'tis written, The Lord said &c. So the Jerusalem Talmud tract. Berachoth c. 5. saith, this verse, the dew of thy birth, &c. is to be explained by Mich. v. 7.
V. 3. Thy power] For the explicating this very obscure verse, the first thing to be taken notice of is the importance of foreign,foreign from foreign power or strength, as that signifies an army, or military forces, as we call them. The Messias in the former verses is set upon his throne for the exercise of his regal power, with a sword or scepter in his hand; and as such he is supposed to rule in the world, to goe out to conquer and subdue all before him. The army which he makes use of to this end, is the colledge of Apostles, sent out to preach to all nations: and the time of their thus preaching is here called foreign the day of his power, or forces, or army; foreign in the day that he shall wage warr or joyne battell, saith the Chaldee. In which day, saith the Psalmist, the people that belong to God, foreign foreignthy people, those that are at all affected to piety, foreign, fit for the kingdome of God, Luk. ix. 16. foreign, disposed, arrayed, ordered, on file for the kingdome of heaven, Act. xiii. 48. all that are any way listed among Gods souldiers, all these shall become foreign foreigni. e. (repeating foreign again) a people of voluntary oblations (so foreign signifies liberal, voluntary, spontaneous oblation, or contribution to the service of God) such as shall willingly offer up and consecrate themselves, and all that they have, to Gods service, forsake all and follow Christ, bring their estates, and lay them at the Apostles feet, as we know the believers did, Act. ii. an essay of the great charity and liberality which the faith of Christ brought into the world. This they shall do foreign foreignin the beauties of holiness, or of the Sanctuary, i. e. I suppose, mystically in the Christian Church, beautified with all those graces which the spirit of Christ works in the hearts of believers. foreign 1 King. vii. 18. signifies the Ark of the Covenant or Sanctuary, and from thence the place in the Temple where the Ark was placed was called the foreign holy of holies; and so I suppose the Lxxii. understood it here, when they rendred foreign of thy holies, for so the plural foreign every where signifies the Sanctuary; and the beauties of the Sanctuary are literally the ornaments of the Priests and Levites, their Urim and Thummim, which they have on when they carry the Ark (see note on Ps. xxix. b.) But mystically these are the graces of Christ, the inward beauty or glory which shines in the Christian Sanctuary or Church, which is as it were the arena or place where these forces of God are mustered: Or perhaps in the beauties of holiness, as that signifies no more than God's sacred Majesty, in whose service they are listed, and on whose expedition ingaged, according to Castellio's reading, quo die expeditionem sacrâ cum majestate facies, in the day when thou shalt with thy sacred majesty make thine expedition. Another sense the words may be capable of, which the comparing the mention of Sion v. 2. and beauty of holinesse here suggesteth, by taking foreign power, or host, or army, in the sense that frequently belongs to foreign, which signifies an host in scripture, viz. the attendance on the Sanctuary, the priests foreign warring his warfare, i. e. officiating. And then foreign will simply import free-will offerings, and the sense run thus, Thy people will be a free-will offering in the day of thy Assemblies in the Sanctuary, shall offer (in stead of any thing else) themselves lively sacrifices, holy and acceptable. And this, if accepted, need not be deemed to exclude the other rendring, but the priestly and kingly offices of Christ being both here set down in this Psalm, the words (as is frequent in these compositions) may have been purposely contrived to fit both. Then follows foreign, which may perhaps be thus most literally rendred, foreign foreignthy children or progeny (to the Chaldee must understand it, when they joyne it with foreign shall sit) foreign to thee, i. e. shall be to thee, foreign dew foreign from the womb of the morning: i. e. according to the proportion of the dew which the morning brings forth (as it were out of its wombe) in such plenty as to cover the face of the whole earth, so shall thy children be, so numerous, the multitudes of those that receive the faith of Christ, this dew on the face of the earth, being like the sand of the sea and starrs of heaven; by which two expressions is set out elswhere the spiritual seed of Abraham, the multitude of believers. i. e. Over all the face of the earth, through all nations shall the Christian faith be propagated by this the Apostles foreign expedition or warfare, their preaching and promulgating of the Gospel. Another possible rendring the words are capable of, duplicate page duplicate page thus; foreign,foreign used ten times in scripture, in all the other places expresses an immediately preceding birth, and is equivalent to as soon as born. So Ps. lviii. 3. the wicked are estranged foreign from the wombe, or birth; Ps. xxii. 10. I have been cast on thee from the wombe, i. e. ever since my birth. Then, though foreign foreignbe by many construed, from the morning, as if מ were a Praefix; yet seeing the ש hath no dagesch, others conceive it a Noune, though not elsewhere found, yet guidable by the signification of its neighbouring words, and then it will note either morning or youth. Next foreign foreignis twice used, beside this place, and signifies not children but childhood, or the first age of youth. So Eccl. xi. 9, & 10. foreign childhood and youth are vanity. Where foreign being joyned with it 'tis made more probable that here, where foreign is joyned with it, they should both be taken in this sense, wherein there confestly they are. If this be accepted, then the Hebrew will be thus literally rendred, foreign From the womb youth is to thee, i. e. as soon as thou art borne, thou enjoyest a firme and vigorous youth (increasing suddenly in wisdome and stature and favour with God and man) foreign thy infancy the dew, i. e. is as the dew upon the face of the earth, in a moment spreads it selfe over all, is seen fall'n rather then falling, is sprightly and aerial, and makes all things else so too. And then in accordance with it will be rendred what follows, Thou art a Priest for ever, art never superannuated for the service of the tabernacle, like the Levitical priests, nor ever removed from it by death. In the following words the י in foreign foreignis by the Jewish writers, Kimchi and Aben-Ezra, allowed to be paragogical, and so foreign to signify foreign according to the manner or order; which is exactly the Lxxii. their rendring, foreign, that is insisted on by the Apostle in the New Testament, to which also the Syriack accords, foreign according to the likeness. And then it is strange the Interlinear should make it a suffix, and render it secundum verbum meum according to my word: and yet herein some other learned men have imitated them. The Jewish Arab interpreting this whole Psalm of Abraham, as a relation of his victory over the Kings, and telling us that he was made a Priest in the place of Melchizedek, for his miscarriage in his blessing, because in it he made mention of Abrahams name before God's, renders the latter part of this third verse thus, and from the deep of the black sea, that thou mayest cast for thee the portions of thy children, explaining it by a Note to this purpose, he teacheth him, that they (viz. his children or posterity) shall divide the countreys from the black sea to the utmost of regions, saying that he takes foreign from foreign Pro. xvi. 33. & foreign to cast. Abu Walid expounds those words foreign by from the belly or wombe of the darkness, i. e. saith he, from the time that thou wert in the dark of the wombe; that the meaning might be, Prosperity hath accompanied thee from the time that thou wert in the dark of the wombe, i. e. from thy first forming or creation, that is it that he saith, foreign, from thy first ortus or original. And so he would have both those passages joyned in their signification. In this verse the Lxxii. have made many changes. First for foreign thy people, they appear to have read foreign with thee, and so render it foreign. For foreign voluntary oblations, they read foreign government (not as the Latine renders them, principium beginning) as from foreign an foreign or Prince Ps. cxiii. 8. Then for foreign of the morning, they read foreign, before the morning-starre, omitting the word foreign dew, and for foreign thy progeny, they read foreign, and so render it foreign I begat thee; and so the Syriack, foreign from antient time I begat thee my son. And to this as the Latine exactly accords, ex utero ante Luciferum genui te, and the Arabick in like manner, so doth the Syriack also (save that for foreign before the morning-starr, they read foreign from of old) and many of the Antient Fathers have followed them, especially*Edit. Pamel. p. 586. G. Tertullian l. v. contra Marcion. c.ix. who applies it to the nativity of Christ in the night, and that of a Virgin without the knowledge of any man, and refutes the Jews, who applied the Psalm to Hezekiah. That the Jews after Christs time did thus apply it to Hezekiah, as the Chaldee Paraphrases understand it of David, appears evident from that Father. But before their hatred of Christ did thus ingage them, some of the antient Jews (see note a.) applied it to the Messias; and they are followed by Isaac Benarama on Gen. xlvii. and the passage next following of this King being a Priest, makes it impossible, according to their own principles, to be applied to any King of the Jews, the Priesthood among them being peculiar to the Aaronical tribe. And therefore the Chaldee, which applies it to David, interprets this of his exaltation to greatness in the world to come, by way of reward to his having been an immaculate King here.
V. 5. The Lord at thy right hand] In this Psalm it is evident v. 1. that foreign foreignis the title of God the Father, and so again v. 4. and foreign foreignof the Messias God the Son, in respect of that dignity, and dominion, and regal power to which he was to be exalted at his ascension, that at the name of Jesus avery knee should bow— This is expressed v. 1. by his sitting at Gods right hand, for which the Apostle 1 Cor. xv. 25. reads, foreign, It must be that he reign— By this 'tis evident that in this verse foreign The Lord at thy right hand, must be understood of the Messias instated in his regal power at the right hand of his Father, and not of the Father, as his foreign to back and help him, as Ps. xvi. 8. and elsewhere the phrase is used. For of the Son thus exalted we know it is that we read Joh. v. 22. that the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son. Agreeable to which it is that this Adonai or Lord at Jehovahs right hand here, shall strike through Kings in the day of his wrath, i. e. shall act revenges most severely on the opposers of his Kingdome; which revenges in the New Testament are peculiarly attributed to Christ, and called the coming of the Son of man, coming in the clouds, coming with his Angels, and the approaching, or coming of his Kingdome.
V. 7. Brook of the way] foreign foreignsignifies any hollow place or vale, a receptacle of waters, and from thence a small river or brook, which hath not its original from any spring, but is filled with raine-waters, and so is full in the winter, but in the summer dried up. So Gen. xxvi. 17. foreign in the valley of Gerar; Joel iii. 18. a fountain shall come forth and water foreign the valley of Shittim: and 2 King. iii. 16. make this valley full of ditches; and v. 17. ye shall not see rain, yet that valley shall be filled with water. And being here joyned with foreign foreignin the way, it seems to signify no more than those plashes of water, which in the winter are frequent in highwayes, from the fall of much raine. These first from the places where they are collected, (no pools on purpose provided for the receit of waters, but every little cavity in the way, which is thus filled by raine,) and secondly, by the stagnancy or standing still of these waters, and thirdly, by the frequency of passengers fouling them, are to be concluded very unfit for the use of men, very inconvenient for drinking, and would never be used for that purpose, were it not by him that hath no other, or that so farr intends the haste of his way, and so farre despises or neglects himself, as to content himself with the worst and meanest sort of accommodation, that which will just satisfy the necessities of nature. This is most observable of souldiers in an hasty march, that are thirsty, but will not make stay at an Inne to refresh themselves with wine, or so much as goe out of their way to make choise of or seek out for wholsome water, but insist on their pursuit, and satisfie their thirst at the next receptacle of waters, the next puddle, or trench, or ditch, or brook they meet with. This is a signe of great alacrity in a Souldier, and withall of great humility, and contempt of hardship and difficulties, of submitting to any the meanest and most servile condition: and may well here be used poetically to express the great humiliation and exinanition of the Messias, assuming the real forme and all the mean offices of a servant, pursuing the work to which he was sent with all alacrity, counting it his meat (and drink) to doe the will of him that sent him, and finish his work, Joh. iv. 34. and in fine laying down his life, suffering as willingly a most bitter contumelious death; which being by him exprest by drinking of a cup, and that a special sort of cup, such as others would not probably be content with, (Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of? Matth. xx. 22.) and that an insupportable bitter cup Matth. xxvi. 39, 42. (Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me) it may very fitly be extended to his death, as well as to all that was preparative and in the way to it. And to this the lifting up his head, reigning victoriously over all his enemies, being constituted Judge of quick and dead, is here justly apportioned, according to that of Phil. ii. 8, 9. He made himself of no reputation, but humbled himselfe, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him— Another notion there is of foreign for a torrent or river Prov. xviii. 4. a flowing foreign torrent, or river, and so Am. vi. 14. unto the foreign we render it river of the wilderness. If it be here taken in that notion, then drinking of it may be a proverbial speech to express victory, as Isa. xxxvii. 25. when Sennacherib is boasting of his conquests, he thus speaks, I will enter into the height of his border, and the forrest of his Carmel: I have digged and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet I have dried up all the rivers of the besieged places. Where the former part being an expression of victory and forcible seisure, and so the latter also of blocking up and close siege, the middlemost may probably be to the same sense; and the rather because of the custome of Eastern Princes, who in token of dedition exacted from subjugated provinces Earth and Water, Judith ii. 7. In reference to which, the digging up Earth and drinking Water will signify a forcible entry, a method of battery (where the milder summons have not prevailed) thereby to take livery and seizin of an hostile Countrey. And if that be the notion here, then the phrase signifies Christs victory atchieved by his death over Satan, Sin and Hell. Which being wrought upon the Crosse, is fitly precedaneous and preparative to the l…fting up of his head.