Psalms 110 - Introduction

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, Matthew 22:43 and by the Apostle Peter, Acts 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, Hebrews 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, Matthew 22:43 and from the references to it by the apostle, Acts 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.