Ps 110 (Part Four: The Stream)

There are a lot of similarities between Psalm 2 and this one—the rod or scepter that shatters kings, the ‘wide world over’; the reference to the king’s anger or wrath as a means whereby the nations are made subjects to him and Yhwh; the close connection between Yhwh and his son/king. As we saw, though, psalm 1 and psalm 2 should likely be read together. In psalm 1, we see a reference to Torah as a running stream, and one by which the ‘wise man’ is planted and from which he drinks. By this drinking, his leaves and fruit are made perpetual. Torah imparts to the wise man the perpetuity and stability of Yhwh himself. Here, something similar happens in the concluding verse, which is likely an echo of the Gihon river—the king drinks from this stream, which is understood as being a type of sacramental drinking of Yhwh’s divine power. In a sense, this is what makes the priest-king, the priest-king that he is. It is also intriguing in that this priest-king is perpetual, in the same way that the tree is of Psalm 1. It’s a profound thing—that this priest-king would imbibe Torah, in perhaps a unique way, and in so doing somehow bring it to a completion in his own person by it making him into a perpetual priest-king. This internalizing of the Torah is what enables him to be the king who not only brings peace to the world by his demolition of his and Yhwh’s enemies, but he would also be the ‘wise’ king who could then internally organize this established, liturgical empire. He would not just rule, but rule justly, thereby bringing about Yhwh’s own divine wisdom and ordering. Moreover, as a priest, he would also drink in the Torah proscribed modes of liturgical worship. He would therefore also be able to bring about a holy worship, a pure and perfect and spotless liturgy to Yhwh. In him, righteous and peace and liturgy would unite and spread across the cosmos.