Psalms 110:1

Psalm 110 1 

A psalm of David.

110:1 Here is the Lord’s proclamation 2  to my lord: 3 

“Sit down at my right hand 4  until I make your enemies your footstool!” 5 

Joshua 10:24-25

10:24 When they brought the kings out to Joshua, he 6  summoned all the men of Israel and said to the commanders of the troops who accompanied him, “Come here 7  and put your feet on the necks of these kings.” So they came up 8  and put their feet on their necks. 10:25 Then Joshua said to them, “Don’t be afraid and don’t panic! 9  Be strong and brave, for the Lord will do the same thing to all your enemies you fight.

Joshua 10:1

Israel Defeats an Amorite Coalition

10:1 Adoni-Zedek, king of Jerusalem, 10  heard how Joshua captured Ai and annihilated it and its king as he did Jericho 11  and its king. 12  He also heard how 13  the people of Gibeon made peace with Israel and lived among them.

Colossians 1:25

1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship 14  from God – given to me for you – in order to complete 15  the word of God,

1 sn Psalm 110. In this royal psalm the psalmist announces God’s oracle to the Davidic king. The first part of the oracle appears in v. 1, the second in v. 4. In vv. 2-3 the psalmist addresses the king, while in vv. 5-7 he appears to address God.

2 tn The word נְאֻם (nÿ’um) is used frequently in the OT of a formal divine announcement through a prophet.

3 sn My lord. In the psalm’s original context the speaker is an unidentified prophetic voice in the royal court. In the course of time the psalm is applied to each successive king in the dynasty and ultimately to the ideal Davidic king. NT references to the psalm understand David to be speaking about his “lord,” the Messiah. (See Matt 22:43-45; Mark 12:36-37; Luke 20:42-44; Acts 2:34-35).

4 tn To sit at the “right hand” of the king was an honor (see 1 Kgs 2:19). In Ugaritic myth (CTA 4 v. 108-10) the artisan god Kothar-and Khasis is described as sitting at the right hand of the storm god Baal. See G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 61-62.

5 sn When the Lord made his covenant with David, he promised to subdue the king’s enemies (see 2 Sam 7:9-11; Ps 89:22-23).

6 tn Heb “Joshua.” The translation has replaced the proper name with the pronoun (“he”) because a repetition of the proper name here would be redundant according to English style.

7 tn Or “Draw near.”

8 tn Or “drew near.”

9 tn Or perhaps “and don’t get discouraged!”

10 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

11 map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.

12 tn Heb “as he had done to Jericho and to its king, so he did to Ai and to its king.”

13 tn Heb “and how.”

14 tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”

15 tn See BDAG 828 s.v. πληρόω 3. The idea here seems to be that the apostle wants to “complete the word of God” in that he wants to preach it to every person in the known world (cf. Rom 15:19). See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 82.