On Psa 110:1 and the Messiah
being “my lord”:
When
set against the backdrop of the Davidic covenant, the identity of David’s ‘ădōnî
begins to surface. In 2 Samuel 7:12-13, God promised David that one of David’s
offspring would reign from David’s throne for ever. The ‘ădōnî of Psalm
110 is David’s way of describing God’s covenantal promise. David’s heir will
surpass the greatness of his father, establishing himself as David’s ‘Lord’. He
will sit at Yahweh’s right hand, mediating God’s rule over the world in a
kingdom that will never fail. (Matthew H. Emadi, The Royal Priest: Psalm 110
in Biblical Theology [New Studies in Biblical Theology 60; London: Apollos,
2022], 91)
Psa 110:4 and the context to the
promise of God not changing his mind:
The
priesthood of the Messiah is grounded in a divine oath: “The LORD has sworn.”
When did Yahweh seat an oath to David? More specifically, how did David arrive
at the conclusion that the Messiah’s priesthood would be a function of this
unchangeable oath? The answer is probably bound up in the nature of the Davidic
covenant. While no mention is made of an oath in 2 Samuel 7:1-16, Psalm 89 and
132 reflect on God’s covenant with David in terms of oath-taking. (Matthew H.
Emadi, The Royal Priest: Psalm 110 in Biblical Theology [New Studies in
Biblical Theology 60; London: Apollos, 2022], 112; see ibid., 112-14 for a
discussion of Psa 89 and 132)
Psa 110:5 and “The Lord is at
your right hand”:
After
the explicit statement concerning the priesthood in verse 4, David returns to
the theme of conquest and the imagery of the ‘right hand’ of Yahweh. Debate
exists whether the ‘ădōnî of verse 5 is Yahweh or the Messiah. It seems
appropriate to see the Messiah as the subject of the sentence: ‘The Lord
(Messiah) is at your right hand.’ The parallels between verse 5 and verse 1 are
strong enough to identify the ‘ădōnî of both verses as the messianic
priest-king, even if they are pointed differently. Both verses refers to the ‘ădōnî
as occupying the position of authority at Yahweh’s right hand. We would expect
the subject in verse 5 to be Yahweh if a clear distinction was intended.
Also, the third-person singular subject of the verbs in verse 7 clearly refers
to the Messiah. If the subject of the verbs in verse 7 is the Messiah, then we
must conclude that the subject of the third-person singular verbs in 110:5b-7
is also the Messiah. In this case, it would be a virtually unintelligible use
of language to suggest that the second-person singular pronoun ‘your’ of yēmînkā
(your right hand) also refers to the Messiah. The resulting translation would
be, ‘The Lord (Yahweh) is at your (Messiah’s) right hand. He (Messiah) will
shatter kings on the day of his wrath.’ Such a construction strains the normal
use of language. Furthermore, the ‘day of’ language in verse 5 parallels the
‘day of’ language in verse 3, which, in the latter, is a reference to a
messianic eschatological day. (Matthew H. Emadi, The Royal Priest: Psalm 110
in Biblical Theology [New Studies in Biblical Theology 60; London: Apollos,
2022], 123)
