Psalm 110:7 Kommentar

This psalm is pure gospel; it is only, and wholly, concerning Christ, the Messiah promised to the fathers and expected by them. It is plain that the Jews of old, even the worst of them, so understood it, however the modern Jews have endeavoured to pervert it and to rob us of it; for when the Lord Jesus proposed a question to the Pharisees upon the first words of this psalm, where he takes it for granted that David, in spirit, calls Christ his Lord though he was his Son, they chose rather to say nothing, and to own themselves gravelled, than to make it a question whether David does indeed speak of the Messiah or no; for they freely yield so plain a truth, though they foresee it will turn to their own disgrace, Mat 22:41, etc. Of him therefore, no doubt, the prophet here speaks of him and of no other man. Christ, as our Redeemer, executes the office of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, with reference both to his humiliation and his exaltation; and of each of these we have here an account. I. His prophetical office (Psa 110:2). II. His priestly office (Psa 110:4). III. His kingly office (Psa 110:1, Psa 110:3, Psa 110:5, Psa 110:6). IV. His estates of humiliation and exaltation (Psa 110:7). In singing this psalm we must act faith upon Christ, submit ourselves entirely to him, to his grace and government, and triumph in him as our prophet, priest, and king, by whom we hope to be ruled, and taught, and saved, for ever, and as the prophet, priest, and king, of the whole church, who shall reign till he has put down all opposing rule, principality, and power, and delivered up the kingdom to God the Father. A psalm of David.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 110 A Psalm of David. This psalm was written by David, as the title shows, and which is confirmed by our Lord Jesus Christ, Mat 22:43 and by the Apostle Peter, Act 2:34 and was not written by anyone of the singers concerning him, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi; nor by Melchizedek, nor by Eliezer the servant of Abraham, concerning him, as Jarchi and others: for the former could not call Abraham his lord, since he was greater than he, Heb 7:7 and though the latter might, yet he could not assign his master a place at the right hand of God; nor say he was a priest after the order of Melchizedek: and as it was written by David, it could not be concerning himself, as the Targum, but some other; not of Hezekiah, to whom some of the Jews applied it, as Tertullian (m) affirms; but of the Messiah, as is clear from the quotation by Christ, Mat 22:43 and from the references to it by the apostle, Act 2:34. And that this was the general sense of the ancient Jewish church is manifest from the silence of the Pharisees, when a passage out of it was objected to them by our Lord concerning the Messiah; and is the sense that some of the ancient Jews give of it; says R. Joden (n), "God will make the King Messiah sit at his right hand, &c:'' and the same is said by others (o); and it is likewise owned by some of the more modern (p) ones; and we Christians can have no doubt about it. The psalm is only applicable to Christ, and cannot be accommodated to any other; no, not to David as a type, as some psalms concerning him may.

He shall drink of the brook in the way,.... This some understand of the sufferings of Christ, compared to a brook, a flow of waters, because of the abundance of them, as in Psa 69:1, his partaking of which is sometimes expressed by drinking, Mat 20:22 and this was in the way of working out the salvation of his people, and in his own way to glory, Luk 24:26. If this is the sense, there may be some allusion to the black brook Kidron; over which David, the type of Christ, passed when in distress; and over which Christ himself went into the garden, where his sorrows began, Sa2 15:23, but seeing this clause stands surrounded with others, which only speak of his victories, triumph, and exaltation, it seems to require a sense agreeable to them; wherefore those interpreters seem nearer to the truth of the text, who explain it of Christ's victory over all enemies, sin, Satan, the world, and death; and illustrate it by the passage in Num 23:24, "he shall drink of the blood of the slain"; with which compare Isa 63:1. Others think the allusion is to the eagerness of a general pursuing a routed army, and pushing on his conquest; who, though almost choked with thirst, yet will not stop to refresh himself; but meeting with a brook or rivulet of water by the way, takes a draught of it, and hastens his pursuit of the enemy: and so this is expressive of, the eagerness of Christ to finish the great work of man's salvation, and the conquest of all his and their enemies; see Luk 2:49. But I think the clause is rather expressive of the solace, joy, and comfort, which Christ, as man, has in the presence of God, and at his right hand, having finished the work of our salvation; then he drank to his refreshment of the river of divine pleasure, when God showed him the path of life, and raised him from the dead, and gave him glory, and introduced him into his presence; where are fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore, Psa 16:11. Therefore shall he lift up the head; as he did at his resurrection; he bowed it when he died, he lifted it up when he rose again, and so when he ascended on high to his God and Father; when he took his place at his right hand; where his head is lifted up above his enemies, and where he is exalted above angels, principalities, and powers, and where he must reign till all enemies are put under his feet. Or, "so shall he lift up his head", as Noldius (d) renders it; not that his sufferings, which he understands by "drinking out of the brook", were the cause of his exaltation, but the consequent of it: these two, Christ's humiliation and exaltation, though they are sometimes joined together, yet not as cause and effect, but as the antecedent and consequent; Christ having finished what, according to the divine order was to be finished, glory followed by the same order: and so the words thus taken respect not the cause, but the constitution of things, according to that writer. (d) Concord. Ebr. Part. p. 727. No. 1941. Next: Psalms Chapter 111

"He shall drink of the brook in the way, therefore shall he lift up his head" [Psalm 110:7]. 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. What is held fast here? What does not run? What is not on its way to the abyss as if it was gathered together from rain? For as a river suddenly drawn together from rain from the drops of showers runs into the sea, and is seen no more, nor was it seen before it was collected from the rain; so this hidden rain is collected together from hidden sources, and flows on; at death again it travels where it is hidden: this intermediate state sounds and passes away. Of this brook He drinks, He has 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 has, is birth and death; Christ assumed this, He was born, He died. "Therefore has 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 has 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." [Philippians 2:8-11]

So, dearly beloved, “he rejoiced as a strong man to run the course.” Which course, if not the course of our mortality, which he was willing to share with us? This course is the way along which the human race passes. They all pass along it, you see, starting on it when they are born, finishing it when they die. And this stream of the human race from beginning to end is constantly issuing from the hidden sources of nature. It was from this rapid and turbulent stream that Christ was willing to drink. You heard just now in the psalm, “From the torrent he drank in the way.” This torrent has brought us to birth, has carried us on to death. As though from the hidden source of a spring, Christ has taken to himself the very depths of the sea. Each for our sake—he was both born and died.

Hence it is also well said through the Psalmist: "He shall drink of the torrent in the way, therefore shall He lift up His head." For indeed from the very beginning of the world a torrent of death had flowed forth in the human race: but the Lord drank of this torrent in the way, because He tasted death in passing. And therefore He lifted up His head, because what He laid in the tomb by dying, He raised above the angels by rising again; and from that point He struck down the ancient enemy forever, from the very place where He temporarily permitted the hands of persecutors to rage against Him.

This Psalm may be regarded as an exposition of Psa 111:10, presenting the happiness of those who fear and obey God, and contrasting the fate of the ungodly. (Psa 112:1-10) True fear produces obedience and this happiness.

As a conqueror, "faint, yet pursuing" [Jdg 8:4], He shall be refreshed by the brook in the way, and pursue to completion His divine and glorious triumphs. Next: Psalms Chapter 111