PSALM 2 AND PSALM 110

Psalms 2 and 110 have from ancient times been considered almost as a pair. The letter to the Hebrews in particular quotes them side by side,8 and the Acts of the Apostles drew its strength from these sources.9

The Messianic tone of the second psalm

The theme of the second psalm runs as follows:

    "Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. 'Let us break their chains', they say, 'and throw off their fetters.'...  'I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.' I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, 'You are my Son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.'...  Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way."
This psalm is concerned with the "anointed one", in Hebrew "Messiah". Twice he is referred to as the "son". All the gentile nations will be given to him as an inheritance. He is to be greeted with a kiss, like a king or a teacher - just as the Talmud decrees; on meeting a teacher the student should kiss him on the hand.

When we read the Midrash's exposition of the Psalms we cannot but be amazed at the sheer volume of explanation which the ancient scholars draw out of them. Nevertheless, the same verses which are quoted in this context are generally accepted as Messianic references. The Midrash speaks firstly of the "one who is to come", the "Messiah-King", before whom all will bow down, as it is said in Isaiah 49:23 "They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground". There are many OT passages associated with the phrase "I will proclaim the decree of the LORD" which, particularly for Christians, have a special message. The Midrash sets them out as following:

    "The decree is that of the prophets, because Is. 52:13 says 'My servant will prosper' and Is. 42:1 adds 'Here is my servant whom I uphold'; It is the decree of the Psalms, as Ps. 110:1 says 'The LORD said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand', and Ps.2:7 says 'He said to me; You are my son'; and also elsewhere it is written (Dan.7:13), 'In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds'. The LORD said 'You are my son'. The decrees are those of the king, the king of kings, that this would be done to the Messiah-King... "

Following this the Midrash states further that:

    "Rabbi  .Huna says: 'The sufferings of the world are divided into three lots; the first lot was granted to the patriarchs and to different generations, the second to the generation of destruction, and the third to the Messianic generation."
The Midrash also says that psalm 2 speaks of Solomon, King Ahaz and the Messiah:
    "Ahaz, because Isaiah 7:11 says, 'Ask the LORD your God for a sign' ", and "the Messiah, because it is written, 'I will make the nations your inheritance'...  And psalm 21:5 says, 'He asked you for life, and you gave it to him'."
Traditionally, the Jewish interpretation of psalm 2 can be divided into 3 streams: a) RaSHI explains that "Our Rabbis have taught that this concerns the Messiah-King, and in harmony with this interpretion it can be applied to David himself... " b) Ibn  Ezra reckons that the psalm refers to the "anointing of David as king, for which reason it is written; 'This day I have begotten you', or else it concerns the Messiah... " c) The popular expositions, such as the Metsudat David, are inclined to stress that the words 'you are my son' are intended as a reference to Israel. Indeed, since the early Middle Ages the suffering servant of Is.53 has been explained as an illustration of the opression of Israel. RaMBaM, however, makes it clear that in general the Rabbis do not have a common theological interpretation, rather they follow "the peculiar emphases of individual verses, for which reason their teaching on these matters is somewhat inconsistent".

The strongest proof of the Messianic nature of these two psalms is found in the Midrash passage above with its seven separate Bible citations, all traditionally Messianic references. These observations would in themselves suffice as background for a Christian interpretation, but even more so if we add to them the Talmudic discussion of the same things and the Zohar literature's cryptic references. There is an expression in Latin, non multa sed multum, according to which one should not present "many varied proofs" but rather "a specific amount" of the same rare examples. A professor of music once told a story about a world-famous teacher who, with his best pupil, worked at the same opera year after year. Finally the young man asked the maestro, "My colleagues already have many operas in their repertoires, when will I be ready to perform?" The teacher listened once more to his favourite opera and said, "You're ready now! This work contains the material for all other music." And indeed: the young man became famous overnight. The Christian would do well to familiarise himself with the scope of the older Jewish Messianic expectation on the basis of a small number of examples dealt with thoroughly.

The Talmud too has something to say about the Messianic character of psalm 2. Regarding the word "anointed" in verse 2 it explains:

    "When the war of Gog and Magog is in sight they will be asked, 'Why have you come?' The answer will be: 'We have come against the LORD and his anointed', for it is written:'Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?' " 10
In another discussion we read:
    "The Rabbis have said that this means the Messiah, the Son of David, who is to come quickly in our time. The Holy One will say to him: 'Ask of me, and I will give it to you', as it is written, 'I will proclaim what the LORD has decreed'. 'This day I have begotten you; ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance'. And because he saw the Messiah, the Son of Joseph, who was killed...  I will ask you for nothing more than life...  because it is written (Ps.21:5), 'He asked you for life and you gave it to him'." 11
It is remarkable to see that in this discussion the Talmud quotes psalm 21 with which the Rabbis associated the picture of the purple-robed and crowned Messiah who was to be "set as an eternal blessing for ever and ever". Here, for certain, it dovetails with the tradition of the Messiah, the Son of Joseph, according to which this son of Joseph, Ephraim, met his death while attempting to conquer the land of Canaan before the time of Moses.

When Israel a few years back made peace with Egypt some national leaders quoted the words of Isaiah chapter 19 which state that one day there will be a "highway from Egypt to Assyria" and that "in that day Israel will be a third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth." The beginning of the same chapter says that "The LORD rides on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt." The Zohar tradition associates the words  âv qal, literally 'light cloud', with verse 12 of Ps.2, 'Kiss the Son'. The Aramaic word for 'son', bar, has a value of 202 in Gematria, and in the same way the Hebrew letters of âv qal together add up to 202. Such comparisons do not, of course, have any intrinsic value, but they do help to remind us of the Bible's internal coherence. When the Zohar describes this "son", bar, it appends to the description a trinitarian statement:

    "You are the good shepherd; of you it is said, 'Kiss the Son'. You are great here below, the teacher of Israel, the Lord of the serving angels, the son of the Most High, the son of the Holy One, may his name be praised and his Holy Spirit." 12

At this point it is worth noting that the Jewish scholars were aware of the special nature of the divine revelation. Since the name Elohim, 'God', right at the beginning of the Bible is actually in the plural and the verb which accompanies it always in the singular, there have been attempts, particularly in the old Zohar tradition, to explain the various "faces" of the being of God. The Zohar uses five expressions which refer to the doctrine of the Trinity: tlât rishin, 'three heads'; tlât ruhin, 'three spirits'; tlât havayôt, 'three forms of revelation'; tlât shmehin, 'three names'; and talta gvanin, 'three shades of interpretation'. These Aramaic words express God's "being", just as in English the word 'godhead' is used.

The Zohar asks:

    "How can these three be one? Are they one only because we call them one? How they are one we can know only by the urging of the Holy Spirit and then even with closed eyes." 13
It should be pointed out that the word 'trinity' does not even appear in the New Testament. The doctrine of the "three in one" is primarily a "postulate of practical reason", to use an expression of the philosopher Immanuel Kant. The Zohar too makes a similar kind of inference.

The Zohar refers to this problem of God's self-revelation by the name razei de-Shlosha or 'The mystery of the number three'. They are like the "outer shell of the inner truth", as the Rabbis have said. This mystery will one day be revealed by the Messiah:

    "And this is the spirit which will rise from the hidden wisdom, and which is called the spirit of life; and that spirit is ready to give this wisdom in its due time through the Messiah-King, as it is written (Is.11:2):'And the spirit of the LORD will rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and of understanding'."14

From these quotes we see that the Zohar refers to the Son mentioned in psalm 2 as the "Son of the Most High" and of "the Holy One," and that this anointed "shepherd" and "teacher" is also "the Lord of the serving angels" -- which emphasis in the letter to the Hebrews and in the Dead Sea Scrolls is associated with the Messiah. The Messiah will also one day reveal the mystery of the trinity. Furthermore, the Zohar builds bridges between this psalm and, for example, Isaiah's Messianic prophecies.

The Messianic nature of psalm 2 must have been in my mind when Pope Paul VI visited Israel at the beginning of April 1964. People were standing in droves at the roadside waiting to catch even a glimpse of him, but the city's prelates had been invited to the Catholic church on Mount Zion. I was shepherded into this chosen group wearing my Finnish clerical robe, which bear a strong resemblance to the vestments of a Catholic bishop, and we stood and waited in the front chancel of the church for our turn to greet the Pope. When one of my Jewish Christian colleagues genuflected before his high-ranking overseer I began to wonder how a Lutheran pastor should, according to the rules, act in such a situation. Then I remembered the words of psalm 2: "Kiss the Son!" That means Christ! At home I had been taught as a boy, on being introduced to someone, to click my heels together and give a firm handshake, and so while the others were kissing the Pope's ring I decided on my course of action. When the frail saintly figure of the Pope stretched out his hand I took hold of it, bowed, and squeezed hard -- possibly underestimating the strength I applied. The holy fingers crumpled up in my hand and I saw something not unlike the expression of the Lord's suffering servant flash in the pontiff's eyes. He studied this representative of the Nordic Vikings for a moment and seemed to say to himself, "That can't be one of our bishops". The aide at his side then received an order in Italian to give me a souvenir medallion, a great copper coin which still sits on my desk testifying to me that I have thus received forgiveness for all my sins both future and past. If the mediaeval Catholic understanding is worth anything I can further add to this merit the fact that my sins are also forgiven through having lived in the Holy Land. There must have been a tiny spark of humour in the Pope's eyes all the same -- it was an additional experience for him too!

The picture in psalm 110 of the one sitting at the right hand of God

Psalm 110, which as we observed earlier has often been considered a "twin" to psalm 2, is also given a Messianic interpretation by the Sages, to the extent that there is no essential disharmony between the Christian and Rabbinic exegesis of both these psalms.

The psalm in outline is as follows:

    "A psalm of David. The LORD says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.' The LORD will extend your mighty sceptre from Zion; rule in the midst of your enemies...  The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: 'You are a priest for ever, in the order of Melchizedek:' "
The NT sees in this psalm a reference to Christ. The Acts of the Apostles, Paul's letters, and in particular the Letter to the Hebrews testify to its Messianic use.15 Jesus also cited this psalm when he set the Pharisees a difficult question which none were able to answer. He said:
    " 'What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?' 'The son of David', they replied. He said to them, 'How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him "Lord"? For he says: "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet." If then David calls him "Lord", how can he be his son?' "16
The best known expositions which we have been following are comparatively late expressions of the Rabbinic perspective. To take two examples; RaSHI, Solomon Yarchi, died in 1105 AD and Ibn Ezra, the son of Abraham Meir died towards the end of the same century. If in them, despite all their opposition to Christianity, we still find some mention of the Messianic character of a certain passage, it will have particular weight as a witness to our case. Psalm 110, they say, refers primarily to Abraham. RaSHI says of the psalm that it is right to interpret it as touching Abraham, "but there is a difficulty in the fact that it speaks of Zion, which was the city of David".

The Midrash on the Psalms says of the verse 'Sit at my right hand', that "he says this to the Messiah; and his throne is prepared in grace and he will sit upon it". The Talmud refers to psalm 110 when discussing Zechariah 4:14 -- "These are the two who are anointed to serve the LORD of all the earth" -- and states:

    "By this meant Aaron and the Messiah, and I do not know which of them I should prefer. When it is written, 'The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: You are a priest for ever', we know that the Messiah-King is more agreeable than the Priest of Righteousness."17
Right up to the Middle Ages the Rabbis continued this discussion. Rabbi Shim .on the Preacher (ha-Darshan), who lived towards the end of the 12th century and collected together the Talmud's old legends and preaching, summarises the traditional understanding of the status of the Messiah as follows:
    "Rabbi Yodan says in Rabbi A .han Bar Haninan's name that 'The Holy One will set the coming Messiah-King at his right hand and Abraham at his left'; and so Abraham's face will become white with envy, and he will say, 'The son of my son sits on your right and I must sit on your left?' Then the Holy One will appease him by saying, 'Your son is on your right and I am on your right.' "18
The Rabbis say in their discussions that, according to psalm 72:17, the Messiah was granted this position before the creation.

It is remarkable that the idea of the Messiah's special status also comes to the fore in the Rabbis' exposition of other psalms. Of these, three are primarily worthy of mention: a) Psalm 16:11 says:

    "You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy on your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."
The Midrash for psalm 45 constructs a bridge between the "fairest of the sons of men" (Ps 45.2) and psalm 16, saying:
    "Thus, those who believe in the Messiah will one day worship the glory of the presence of God and will not be harmed (from having looked upon him), as it is written: 'You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand'."
b) Psalm 18:36 promises:
    "You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me."
The Midrash explains this Davidic hymn, saying that, it refers to the "coming of the Messiah", and adds:
    "If deliverance were to come in one wave men would be unable to stand such a great liberation, and so it will be accompanied by great sufferings, which is why it will draw near gradually...  like the dawn."
c) The third isolated reference to the status of the Messiah is found in psalm 80, in the 18th verse of which the Rabbis perceive the Messianic motif:
    "Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself."
Verse 15 speaks of the "vine" which the "right hand" of God has planted. Ibn Ezra explains this as being an analogy in which "that which is compared concerns Israel and the Messiah, the son of Ephraim". As we have already seen, the idea of the suffering Messiah is often in Judaism connected with this son of Joseph, Ephraim.

The words the "right hand" of God, the "sustaining of the right hand", and the "right hand man" are thus connected in some way with the Messiah, and are to be taken in conjunction with psalm 110. These Rabbinic interpretations give their own intelligible explanation to the intellectual background of the Apostles' Creed, in which we confess that we believe Christ "sits at the right hand of God, the omnipotent father".

When, in connection with these 'twin' psalms, we have had to speak about the Messiah as the Son of God, and even about the Zohar's "mystery of the number three" which is associated with these psalms, it is worth pointing out that such ideas, usually associated with Christian theology, are also a natural part of older Judaism. They are not, in other words, mere creations of the Church. Furthermore, they sometimes spring from the most surprising Bible passages.

The last verse of psalm 2, "blessed are all who take refuge in him", also appears in psalm 18, another psalm containing the Messianic motif (v.30). The word "Rock", mentioned in v. 31 is understood in the Talmud, when discussing Moses' hymn in Deuteronomy ch. 32, to mean "the Messiah, the Son of David" (Deut. 32:15).19 This "refuge" in psalm 2 relates to the "son", who is honoured by greeting him with a kiss. I remember how I kept watch by our son's sick bed in Jerusalem in Easter week 1959. He had been unconscious for four months, but before this last phase and before he went blind he had seen our Saviour and knew that he was dying. At that point an academic Jewish friend of ours came to the hospital to see us. He knew of our affection for the Jews and urged me to convert to Judaism with my seven year-old son. I said to this well-meaning linguist that we had no reason to do so as we believed that Jesus has fulfilled the Law and that he is the Son of God. "That," I explained, "is what I myself believe and that's what my son believes." "But", my friend protested, taking a Bible out of his briefcase, "God doesn't have a son. Show me where it says so."

I made a silent prayer, because a glib answer will not satisfy someone who is in earnest. Somewhere from my subconscious a verse arose of which I had no recollection of knowing. "Read Proverbs 30 verse 4", I said, and he read:

    "Who has gone up to heaven and come down?...  What is his name, and the name of his son? Tell me if you know!"
"This will have to be explained", my friend said, "It can't just be taken as it stands." I asked him to read on:
    "Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar."
Somehow it seemed that the words went home. These verses  speak also, as we saw when discussing the Pentateuch, of the Messiah's "descent into the deep" and his "ascent into heaven" which belong to his role as the fulfiller of the Law.

The Letter to the Hebrews occupies itself at length with the description in Ps 110 of the High Priest: "You are a priest for ever, in the order of Melchizedek." And so Christ "in the days of his flesh, offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears" on our behalf. "Another priest" was needed "in the order of Melchizedek", a priest "who holds his priesthood permanently", because perfection could not be attained "through the Levitical priesthood". "He is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens." Christ went "once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption."20 What does it matter if such quotations are meaningless to the modern reader? They at least show that our faith is rooted in Old Testament thought.

It is remarkable to observe the central tenets of Christianity set out in Jewish exegesis of psalms 2 and 110.
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8.      Heb. 1:5 and 13, 5:5 and 6 or 7:17,21
9.      See eg. Acts 13:33-36, 47
10.    Avoda Zara 3b.
11.    Sukka 52a.
12.    Zohar, part III p307, "Amsterdam edition"
13.    Ibid II p43.
14.    Ibid III p289.
15.    Acts 2:34, 1 Cor. 15:25, Eph. 1:21-22 and eg. Heb. 1:13
16.    Matt. 22:41-46.
17.    Avôth, Rabbi Nathan, chap. 34.
18.    Yalqut Shimoni Ps. 110, Nedarim 32b and Sanhedrin 108b. The subject is also touched upon in the foffowing books: David M. Hay, Glory at the Right Hand, Psalm 110 in Early Christianity, New York 1973; Jacques Dupont, Assis á la Droite de Dieu, L'interprétation du Psaume 110:1, Vaticana 1974, 340-442.
19.    Sanhedrin 38a.
20.    See Heb. 5:6-10, 6:20, 7:11-17, 24-27 and 9:12 (RSV).


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