Psalm 110/Participant Analysis/Notes

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Notes

  • The speakers of the psalm: Although YHWH speaks directly in v. 1aβ-b and v. 4b-c, there is a sense in which YHWH is speaking throughout the psalm, through the voice of his prophet David. As Hilber notes, "the whole of Psalm 110 has integrity as a unified prophetic oracle, and the components of the psalm should not be differentiated in terms of Yahweh's words in distinction from the prophet's words."[1]
  • The addressee of the psalm: The king, whom the speaker addresses in the second person (vv. 1aβb, 2, 3, 4bc, 5), is the addressee throughout the psalm. The third person אדני ("my lord") in v. 1aα does not imply that the king is not the addressee at this point in the psalm, because a speaker will often use third person language when speaking to an addressee if the addressee is a superior in some sense (see e.g., Jacob's encounter with Esau in Gen. 33:8-14; cf. 1 Sam. 26:19).
  • The subjects in vv. 5-7: For a thorough discussion of this issue, see The Subject(s) in Psalm 110:5-7. In short, YHWH is probably the subject in v. 7 for the following reasons:
    • (1) אֲדֹנָי ("the Lord" = YHWH) is named as the subject in v. 5a, and "there is no indication in the sequence of clauses in vv. 5-7 that we should assume a change of subject."[2]
    • (2) The act of drinking from a stream naturally follows the act of smashing heads (e.g., Judges 15:15-19). Thus, the subject of vv. 5-6 (the warrior who smashes heads) is most likely also the subject of v. 7 (the one who drinks to quench his thirst).[3]
    • (3) Throughout the psalm, the king is the addressee and is thus referred to in the second person. The verbs in v. 7, however, are in the third person.
Together, these reasons make it probable that YHWH is the subject of the verbs in v. 7. The number one objection scholars raise to this view is that "it is difficult to think of God as drinking from the torrent;"[4] "the action of drinking from 'a stream upon the way' is more readily comprehensible of a human king than of YHWH himself'.[5] This objection is hardly persuasive, however, because the Old Testament often describes YHWH in stark anthropomorphic terms. The motif of YHWH as a warrior is especially common (cf. Ex. 15:3). The image of YHWH as a warrior drinking from a stream in Ps. 110:7 is hardly more difficult to imagine that the image of YHWH waking "from sleep, as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine" (Ps. 78:65).
  1. ↑ Hilber 2005, 82.
  2. ↑ Zenger 2011, 143; cf. Goldingay 2008.
  3. ↑ Cf. Reinke 1857, 256.
  4. ↑ Barbiero 2014, 3.
  5. ↑ Mitchell 2003, 263; cf. Baethgen 1904; Briggs 1907; Allen 2002; Nordheim 2008.