Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalms 110:1

Whole Psalm. The preceding Psalm is a Passion Psalm, and it is now followed by a Psalm of Christ's Resurrection, Ascension, and Session in glory. We have seen the same connection in Ps. 22-24, and in Ps. 45-47. The present psalm grows up from the former Psalm, as the Hill of Olivet, the Hill of Ascension, rises up from the Vale of Gethsemane below it. Christopher Wordsworth.

Whole Psalm. This psalm has been well designated the crown of all the Psalms, of which Luther saith that it is worthy to be overlaid with precious jewels. More especially does the Reformer call verse 5 a well spring, —nay, a treasury of all Christian doctrines, understanding, wisdom, and comfort, richer and fuller than any other passage of Holy Writ. In his own peculiar manner, he styles Christ the Sheblimini (`Sit on my right hand').`Full sure, the devil must let alone my Sheblimini, and cannot bring him down either by his scorn or by his wrath.' Christ still liveth and reigneth, and his title is Sheblimini. On his stirrup is engraven, "I will make thine enemies' thy footstool, "and upon his diadem, "Thou art a priest for ever." —Alfred Edersheim, 1873.

Whole Psalm. The ancients (by Cassiodorus' collection) term this psalm the sun of our faith, the treasure of holy writ: "verbis brevis, sensu infinitus", (saith Augustine,)short in words, but in sense infinite. Theodoret notes how it is connected with the psalm going before: "there (saith he) we have his cross and sufferings, here his conquest and trophies." For he cometh forth as the heir apparent of the Almighty, the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, graced with,

1. Title, "My Lord."

2. Place, "Sit thou on my right hand."

3. Power, "Until I make thine enemies thy footstool." —John Prideaux, in a Sermon entitled, "The Draught of the Brooke," 1636.

Whole Psalm. This psalm is one of the fullest and most compendious prophecies of the person and offices of Christ in the whole Old Testament, and so full of fundamental truth, that I shall not shun to call it Symbolum Davidicum, the prophet David's creed. And indeed there are very few, if any, of the articles of that creed which we all generally profess, which are not either plainly expressed, or by most evident implication couched in this little model. First, the Doctrine of the Trinity is in the first words; "The Lord said unto my Lord." There is Jehovah the Father, and my Lord, the Son, and the consecrating of him to be David's Lord which was by the Holy Ghost, by whose fulness he was anointed unto the offices of king and priest; for so our Saviour himself expounds this word "said, "by the scaling and sanctification of him to his office, Joh 10:34,35,36. Then we have the Incarnation of Christ, in the words, "my Lord, "together with his dignity and honour above David (as our Saviour himself expounds it, Mt 22:42,45). Mine, that is, my Son by descent and genealogy after the flesh, and yet my Lord too, in regard of his higher son ship. We have also the Sufferings of Christ, in that he was consecrated a priest (Ps 110:4) to offer up himself once for all, and so to drink of the brook in the way. We have his Completed Work and conquest over all his enemies and sufferings; his Resurrection, "he shalt lift up his head"; his Ascension and Intercession, "Sit thou on my right hand." We have here also a Holy Catholic Church gathered together by the sceptre of his kingdom, and holding in the parts thereof a blessed and beautiful Communion of Saints; "The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. 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.". We have the Last Judgment, for all his enemies must be put under his feet, (which is the Apostle's argument to prove the end of all things, 1Co 15:25); and there is the day of his wrath, wherein he shall accomplish that judgment over the heathen, and that victory over the kings of the earth (who take counsel and band themselves together against him), which he doth here in his word begin. We have the Remission of sins, comprised in his priesthood, for he was to offer sacrifices for the remission of sins, and "to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, "Eph 1:7 Heb 9:26. We have the Resurrection of the body, because he must "subdue all enemies under his feet, and the last enemy to be destroyed is death, "as the Apostle argues out of this psalm, 1Co 15:25,26. And lastly, we have life everlasting, in the everlasting merit and virtue of his priesthood, "Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek, "and in his sitting at the right hand of God, whither he is gone as our forerunner, and to prepare a place for us, Heb 6:20 Joh 14:2; and therefore the apostle from his sitting there, and living ever, infers the perfection and certainty of our salvation, Ro 6:8,11 8:17 Eph 2:16 Col 3:1-4 1Co 15:49; Php 3:20,21 1Th 4:14 Heb 7:25 1Jo 3:2. Edward Reynolds, 1599-1676.

Whole Psalm. Although the Jews of later times have gone about to wrest it to another meaning, yet this Psalm is so approved and undoubted a prophecy of Christ, that the Pharisees durst not deny it, when being questioned by our Saviour (Mt 22:42,43) how it should be, seeing Christ is the son of David, that David not with standing should call him Lord, saying, "The Lord said unto my Lord, " they could not answer him a word, whereas the answer had been very easy and ready if they could have denied this psalm to be meant of Christ. But they knew it could not be otherwise understood, and it was commonly taken amongst them to be a prophecy of their Messias, according to the very evidence of the text itself, which cannot be fitted to any other, but only to Christ our Saviour, the Son of God. For whereas some of them since then have construed all these things as spoken in the name of the people of Judah concerning David their king, the text itself refuseth that construction, when in those words, "Sit thou at my right hand, "it mentions an honour done to him of whom it speaketh, greater than can be fitted to the angels, and therefore much less to be applied unto David. Again, that which is spoken in the fourth verse of the priesthood, cannot be understood of David, who was indeed a king, but never had anything spoken as touching the priesthood to appertain unto him, and of whom it cannot be conceived how it should be said, "Thou art a priest for ever, "etc. Yea, there is nothing here spoken whereof we may see in David any more but some little shadow in comparison of that which hath come to pass in Jesus Christ. Robert Abbot (1560-1617) in "The Exaltation of the Kingdom and Priesthood of Christ."

Whole Psalm. The sixty-eighth psalm hails the ascent of the Messiah, prefigured by the translation of the ark, and gives a rapid and obscure view of the glories and the blessings consequent upon that event. The twenty-fourth exhibits to us the Messiah ascending to his redemption throne borne up by the wings of angels and archangels, and hosannahed by the whole intelligent creation; it marks in the most glowing colours the triumphant entry of Messiah into the heavenly regions, and the tone of authority and power with which he commands that entrance —it sends him attended by the angelic host to his Father's throne, there to claim that preeminence which was his by inheritance and by conquest. At this point the Psalm before us "takes up the wondrous tale"; it exhibits to us the awful solemnities of his reception, it represents the Father bestowing on his well beloved Son the kingdom which he had earned, exalting him to the throne, and putting all things under his feet; receiving him in his office of prophet, and promising universality and permanence to "the rod of his strength"; receiving him in the office of priesthood, his own peculiar priesthood, and confirming its efficacy and duration by an oath; thus perfecting the redemption scheme, and completing the conquest over sin and death, and him who had the power of death. Man united with God was raised to the throne of being: man united with God perfected the sacrifice which was demanded, and the angelic host is represented by the Psalmist as taking up the strain, and hymning the future triumphs of the King of Glory —triumphs over his foes, whom he will visit in the day of his wrath, and triumphs with his willing people, whom he will assist with his Spirit, refine by his grace, and exalt into his glory. Such do I conceive to be the occasion, the object, and the tendency of this sacred song: to me it appears to be eminently an epinicion, or song of victory: it celebrates the triumph of the conqueror, it presents him with the rewards of victory, and it predicts future conquests as crowning his glory; while elsewhere we see the Captain of our salvation militant, here we sec him triumphant; while elsewhere we see his offices inchoate, here they are perfected by the approval of the Godhead, and the promise of eternity: here we have instruction consolidating empire, and the atonement completed by the everlasting priesthood. J.H. Singer, in "The Irish Pulpit," 1839.

In this one verse we have a description of Christ's person, his wars and his victory; so that we may say of it, (and so indeed of the whole psalm, which is an epitome of the Gospel), as Tully did of Brutus in his laconical epistle, "Quam multa, guam paucis!" How much in a little. John Trapp.