Psalm 110 Discourse

Psalm Overview

• Grammar
• Semantics
• Story behind the Psalm
• Discourse
• Poetics

About the Discourse Layer

Our Discourse layer includes four analyses: macrosyntax, speech act analysis, emotional analysis, and participant analysis. (For more information, click 'Expand' to the right.)

Macrosyntax

The macrosyntax layer rests on the belief that human communicators desire their addressees to receive a coherent picture of their message and will cooperatively provide clues to lead the addressee into a correct understanding. So, in the case of macrosyntax of the Psalms, the psalmist has explicitly left syntactic clues for the reader regarding the discourse structure of the entire psalm. Here we aim to account for the function of these elements, including the identification of conjunctions which either coordinate or subordinate entire clauses (as the analysis of coordinated individual phrases is carried out at the phrase-level semantics layer), vocatives, other discourse markers, direct speech, and clausal word order.

For a detailed explanation of our method, see the Macrosyntax Creator Guidelines.

Speech Act Analysis

The Speech Act layer presents the text in terms of what it does, following the findings of Speech Act Theory. It builds on the recognition that there is more to communication than the exchange of propositions. Speech act analysis is particularly important when communicating cross-culturally, and lack of understanding can lead to serious misunderstandings, since the ways languages and cultures perform speech acts varies widely.

For a detailed explanation of our method, see the Speech Act Analysis Creator Guidelines.

Emotional Analysis

This layer explores the emotional dimension of the biblical text and seeks to uncover the clues within the text itself that are part of the communicative intent of its author. The goal of this analysis is to chart the basic emotional tone and/or progression of the psalm.

For a detailed explanation of our method, see the Emotional Analysis Creator Guidelines.

Participant Analysis

Participant Analysis focuses on the characters in the psalm and asks, “Who are the main participants (or characters) in this psalm, and what are they saying or doing? It is often helpful for understanding literary structure, speaker identification, etc.

For a detailed explanation of our method, see the Participant Analysis Creator Guidelines.

Discourse Visuals for Ps. 110

Macrosyntax

Notes

• Paragraphs. The psalm divides into two paragraphs, and each paragraph follows a similar pattern:
  • (1) introduction of direct speech (v. 1a // v. 4a)
  • (2) direct speech (v. 1b // v. 4b)
  • (3) fronted topic (v. 2a // v. 5)
• Direct speech (vv. 1, 4). YHWH speaks twice in the psalm, his speeches introduced by נאם (v. 1) and נשבע (v. 4) respectively. In both cases, the end of the speech is clearly marked by a third person reference to YHWH (vv. 2a, 5a).
• v. 1b. עַד is here a subordinating conjunction, and it connects two events: (1) "the lord sitting at YHWH's right hand; (2) "YHWH making the lord's enemies a footstool for his feet." The precise temporal relationship between these two events is not immediately clear. Specifically, does the "sitting at YHWH's right hand" cease once all of the lord's enemies have been subdued, or does it continue? The Hebrew conjunction עַד, like the English conjunction "until," often implies cessation of activity in the main (non-subordinated) clause. So, for example, Gen. 38:11 says, “Remain (שְׁבִי) a widow in your father’s house, till (עַד) Shelah my son grows up (יִגְדַּל)” (and then you won't be a widow any more) (Gen. 38:11 ESV). If this applies to Ps. 110, then the sitting of the "lord" will only last until the lord's enemies have been made his footstool; then, he will cease to sit. It's possible that this understanding underlies what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:24-25, 28 — εἶτα τὸ τέλος, ὅταν παραδιδῷ τὴν βασιλείαν τῷ θεῷ καὶ πατρί... δεῖ γὰρ αὐτὸν βασιλεύειν ἄχρι οὗ θῇ πάντας τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ... ὅταν δὲ ὑποταγῇ αὐτῷ τὰ πάντα, τότε [καὶ] αὐτὸς ὁ υἱὸς ὑποταγήσεται τῷ ὑποτάξαντι αὐτῷ τὰ πάντα, ἵνα ᾖ ὁ θεὸς [τὰ] πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν (UBS-5th.) Sometimes, however, עַד (or עַד אֲשֶׁר) "sometimes express a limit which is not absolute (terminating in the preceding action), but only relative, beyond which the action or state described in the principal clause still continues." For example, Ps. 112:8 says, "His heart is steady; he will not be afraid, until (עַד אֲשֶׁר) he looks in triumph (יִרְאֶה) on his adversaries" (ESV). Similarly, in Greek, the conjunction ἕως, which the LXX uses in Ps. 110:1, can mean either "until," "so long as," or, if the actions are coextensive, "while."
• v. 2. The direct object "your strong staff" (מַטֵּה־עֻזְּךָ) is fronted, probably to signal the activation of this entity as the topic of the sentence, in contrast to the "footstool" (also a royal symbol) mentioned at the end of the previous clause: "...until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. (Now, enough with the footstool; let's talk about another royal symbol.) As for your strong staff, YHWH will extend it from Zion."
• v. 3. The word order is chiastic (Subj-Pred-Adjunct // Adjunct-Pred-Subj) such that v. 3 is bound together as a poetic unit (a verse).
• v. 5. "The Lord at your right side" (אֲדֹנָ֥י עַל־יְמִֽינְךָ֑) is fronted, probably for confirming focus. In v. 1, YHWH said that he was going to subdue the king's enemies. Now, in v. 5, YHWH's role in this action is confirmed: "(Yes), it's the Lord (the one at your right hand) who smashed kings..." This fits well with the overall mood and purpose of the psalm, which is to assure the king that YHWH is going to take care of his enemies for him. Another argument for this view would be the close correspondence between Ps. 110 and Ps. 108—both are לדוד Pss. which mention YHWH’s “right hand” and subduing enemies—which ends in two clauses with clear constituent focus: בֵּֽאלֹהִ֥ים נַעֲשֶׂה־חָ֑יִל וְ֝ה֗וּא יָב֥וּס צָרֵֽינוּ. God is the one who is going to subdue our enemies.
• v. 5b. The post-verbal constituent ביום אפו is fronted before the direct object (מְלָכִים).
• v. 7a. The two prepositional phrases in v. 7a ("from a wadi on the campaign") are fronted and probably pragmatically marked. The fact that the warrior takes a drink of water is not, in an of itself, noteworthy—quenching thirst after battle is assumed (cf. Judges 15:16ff). What is significant is that he takes a drink from a wadi on the campaign (i.e., from water in enemy territory), which signifies the completion of his victory.
• v. 7b. על כן functions to "Explain the grounds of why something... will happen" In Ps. 110:7, the על כן clause explains the grounds of why YHWH "will lift (his) head": He will lift up his head (a gesture of victory over enemies and a sign of renewed confidence) because he is refreshed from his drink and confident that his victory is complete. See notes on Story Behind.

Speech Act Analysis

Summary Visual

Notes

Ps. 110 as a prophetic oracle. "The whole of Psalm 110 has integrity as a unified prophetic oracle." The following points support this genre identification.

• The phrase נאם יהוה (v. 1) signals that the psalm is a "prophetic oracle."
• The phrase נשבע יהוה (v. 4) is also found in the prophets (e.g., Isa. 14:24; 62:8; Jer. 51:14; Am. 4:2; 6:8; 8:7). In Amos 6:8, נשבע אדני appears together with נאם יהוה.
• Ps. 110 bears a number of resemblances to Neo-Assyrian royal prophecies. Hilber notes the following points of resemblance:
  • 1) "introductory formula"
  • 2) "subdivision of oracle with a second introduction formula"
  • 3) "change in person, both of the addressee and the divine speaker"
  • 4) "legitimation of relationship between deity and king"
  • 5) "enemies at the king's feet"
  • 6) "promise of destruction of enemies"
  • 7) "promise of universal dominion"
  • 8) "presence of loyal supporters"
  • 9) "divine promise accompanied by a denial of lying"
  • 10) "affirmation of priestly responsibility"
  • 11) "eternality of royal prerogatives"
  • 12) "deity at the king's right hand affirms security"
• Global speech act: The purpose of this oracle seems to be to assure the addressee (i.e., the king) of the certainty of his success. This is confirmed by referencing the Neo-Assyrian oracles, most of which seem to have a similar purpose. One Neo-Assyrian oracle, for example, begins and ends with the exhortation for the king to "Fear not!" Another begins, "King of Assyria, fear not!" and ends with the goddess saying, "I have inspired you with confidence, [I] do not sit idle." Another ends with the goddess saying, "Fear not! Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, is in my protection." Many more examples could be cited (see Nissinen 2019).

Speech Act Chart

Notes

• Indirect speech acts
  • v. 2. The imperative is used here, not as a command, but to "to express a distinct assurance... or promise, e.g., ... Ps. 110:2." Thus, some translations have a future here (e.g., CEV: "and you will rule over your enemies; cf. Theodotion: κατακυριεύσεις).
  • v. 4. In the context of an oath (שבע), the declarative statement "you are forever a priest" (v. 4) implies the speaker's commitment to maintaining the truth of that statement ("you are a priest forever" = "I will do everything in my power to ensure that you continue forever as a priest; I will never reject you"). See, for example, the many oaths in which the commitment of the one swearing is explicit (e.g., Gen. 21:23-24; 22:16-18; 26:3; 47:30-31; Ps. 89:4-5; 119:106; 132:11; etc). First Kgs. 1 gives a good example of an oath in which, although the sentence type is declarative, the speaker is committing to some action: '[Bathsheba] said to [David], “My lord, you yourself swore to me your servant by the Lord your God: ‘Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he will sit on my throne.' But now Adonijah has become king..." ... The king then took an oath: “As surely as the Lord lives, who has delivered me out of every trouble, I will surely carry out this very day what I swore to you by the Lord, the God of Israel: Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he will sit on my throne in my place”' (1 Kgs. 1:17-18, 29-30 NIV).

Emotional Analysis

Summary visual

Emotional Analysis Chart

Participant analysis

There are 6 participants/characters in Psalm 110:

• King: The oracle begins with YHWH speaking to a person whom David calls “my lord.” This person is a king who rules alongside YHWH over the entire earth. David addresses this king as his superior: a king greater than he is, because he will see the fulfillment of the eternal and universal promises that YHWH has made. This superior will be greater not only in the extent of his kingdom, but also in his relationship to YHWH: he will be both priest and king, having immediate, special access to YHWH, and he will be successful because YHWH, himself, will do battle against his enemies. 
• King's people: The king's people will be willing to serve in his army. In the ancient world, extending a kingdom happened when armies fought over territory. Professional, full-time soldiers were not common in the ancient world, so kings depended largely on volunteers to serve in their armies. It was not easy for kings to find volunteers to serve in their army. It is not difficult for this king, however. His people, i.e., his potential army, will be willing to serve in his army as soon as he announces his plans for war. He would start his campaign in the holy mountains which surround Jerusalem, and these mountains will be covered with young soldiers in the same way the grass is covered with dew in the early morning.
• Enemies: Although the king's enemies are never explicitly identified in this psalm, their fate is clearly stated: YHWH will destroy them. Moreover, the imagery of enemies as a footstool (v. 1) was also used to express both authority and victory over enemies. In other words, Psalm 110 depicts YHWH bringing victory, and then authority, over all the king’s enemies. In David's vision, YHWH smashed the heads of the rebellious kings across the wide world, and so he has extended David's lord's scepter from Zion and made his enemies a footstool for his feet. The king rules alongside YHWH over the entire earth.

Participant Relations Diagram

The relationships among the participants may be abstracted and summarized as follows:

Participant Analysis Table

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."
• 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 Ps. 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) 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) 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;" "the action of drinking from 'a stream upon the way' is more readily comprehensible of a human king than of YHWH himself'. 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).

Participant Distribution Table

The table below demonstrates the participant distribution throughout Psalm 110. The number "1" indicates that the participant speaks in first person. The number "2" indicates that the participant is addressed directly. The number "3" indicates that the participant is spoken of in third person.

Bibliography

Allen, Leslie. 2002. Psalms 101-150. Vol. 3. Revised edition. Word Biblical Commentary 21. Waco: Word Books.

Baethgen, Friedrich. 1904. Die Psalmen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht.

Barbiero, Gianni. 2014. "The non-violent messiah of Psalm 110". Biblische Zeitschrift 58, 1: 1-20.

Briggs, Charles and Emilie Briggs. 1907. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Psalms. International Critical Commentary. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons.

Delitzsch, Franz. 1877. Biblical Commentary on the Psalms: Vol. 3. Edinburgh: T&T Clark.

Gilbert, Maurice, and Stephen Pisano. 1980. "Psalm 110 (109), 5-7." Biblica 61, no. 3: 343–56.

Goldingay, John. 2008. Psalms 90-150. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

Hilber, John W. 2005. Cultic Prophecy in the Psalms. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter.

Hossfeld, Frank-Lothar, and Erich Zenger. 2011. Psalms 3: A Commentary on Psalms 101-150. Edited by Klaus Baltzer. Translated by Linda M. Maloney. Hermeneia. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress.

Lunn, Nicholas P. 2006. Word-Order Variation in Biblical Hebrew Poetry: Differentiating Pragmatics and Poetics. Paternoster Biblical Monographs. Milton Keynes: Paternoster.

Mitchell, David C. 2003. The Message of the Psalter: An Eschatological Programme in the Book of Psalms. 2nd ed. Glasgow Scotland: Campbell Publishers.

Nissinen, Martti, C. L. Seow, Robert K. Ritner, and H. Craig Melchert. 2019. Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.

Nordheim, Miriam von. 2008. Geboren von der Morgenröte? Psalm 110 in Tradition, Redaktion und Rezeption. Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen Testament. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener.

Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra's Commentary on the First Book of Psalms: Chapter 1-41. 2009. Translated and annoted by H. Norman Strickman. Boston: Academic Studies Press.

Reinke, Laurenz. 1857. Die messianischen Psalmen; Einleitung, Grundtext und Uebersetzung nebst einem philologisch-kritischen und historischen Commentar. Gießen: Ferber.

SAA Online — State Archives of Assyria Online.