Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <peterkirk AT ozemail.com.au>]

Sorry to come into this late, I have been away. But I must disagree with
Mark's "I think everyone agrees that those words are not spoken to David."
Surely this is a rather probable interpretation of the psalm, in its
original context, by those who do not insist that David must have been the
author.

We have three persons (not the trinity!) referred to in this verse: YHWH,
the psalmist, and the psalmist's master ('adon). They must be distinct
persons, we assume.

If we don't insist that the psalmist is David, the most straightforward
interpretation is that the psalmist is a courtier and his (or her) lord is a
king or other high status individual, possibly a priest. If the title LDWD
is not taken to indicate authorship, it may indicate that the master is in
fact King David. This would fit well with the reference to Melchizedek,
ancient priest-king of Jerusalem: after David captures Jerusalem, he takes
on the dual role of Melchizedek, and this psalm may have originated at his
enthronement ceremony.

If we insist that the psalmist is David, then his master must be someone
else. Conceivably it could be King Saul, for whom David sang songs (and I
presuppose some historicity of the books of Samuel here, otherwise it is
meaningless to write of David). Or even Solomon as Ben suggested, but would
David have called his son "my lord"? The Christian interpretation is of
course that David's master is the Messiah - though Christian understandings
have often been confused by the double use of KURIOS in the New Testament
quotations of this verse, following or followed by the LXX as in the great
4th century MSS.

How would the Jewish scholars on the list react to the suggestion that this
is Messianic, i.e. "my lord" is a prophetic reference to the Messiah?

Peter Kirk
peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com
http://web.onetel.net.uk/~peterkirk/
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-hebrew-
> bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Pastor Mark Eddy
> Sent: 15 February 2003 06:03
> To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: Psalm 110 was Re: [b-hebrew] LORD
> 
<snip>

> ... Verse 4 again has YHWH address David's "Lord" with the words, "You are
> a priest forever..." I think
> everyone agrees that those words are not spoken to David. Verse 6 is where
> the address switches from
> second to third person. It seems best to apply them also to David's "Lord"
> rather than to YHWH.
> 
> I hope this answers your question.
> Mark Eddy
>