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Thursday, June 18, 2026
Psalm 110 is about a kind of ruler Israel can’t manufacture:
Psalm 110:1–7
God doesn’t promise this king a peaceful throne, he tells him to rule “in the midst of thine enemies.”
1[A Psalm of David.] The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. 2The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. 3Thy people 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. 4The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. 5The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. 6He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries. 7He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.
Psalm 110 fuses throne and altar—kingship and priesthood—into one divinely sworn office, implying that Israel’s deepest political problem isn’t weak leadership but the impossibility of separating power from mediation: the true ruler must also be the one who can stand before God. And it’s unsettlingly honest about how that rule arrives—not by retreating from conflict but by reigning ‘in the midst of enemies,’ with worshipful volunteers and violent judgment sharing the same coronation scene.
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