What does “He will drink from the brook by the road” (Ps 110:7) mean?
It’s referring to God…the “He” of this text.
God is bringing judgment on the rulers of the world and destroying them for their evil deeds. He says this:
5 The Lord is at your right hand;
he will crush kings on the day of his wrath.
6 He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead
and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.
7 He will drink from a brook along the way,
and so he will lift his head high.
What in the world does this mean? God will stop and drink by the brook while he is bringing righteous judgment against the wicked rulers of the world? There have many and various interpretations:
1) God stops to pause but He is relentless on His mission
Basically some say that this is a poetic picture of God resting, but lifting his head non stop in bringing justice to the earth.
It would somehow be reminiscent of Is 63:1-6 where the hero is stained with blood as the nations are trampled. And that he needs to stop to refresh himself and clean himself before resuming his mission.
2) This is a Messianic picture of the Messiah in total humiliation and then exaltation
Others would say that the picture of the Lord drinking from a brook is a sign of his humanity and humility, that he places himself in the lower realms of man. It is even said that drinking water is a picture of suffering.
Then his lifting his head is his exaltation and being restored after he has suffered (on the cross). This would be akin to the picture of Jesus we see in Php 2:8-9 where Christ humbled himself even to the point of death.
3) This is the water of refreshment after victory is complete.
Quite simply, those who see it this way see it as after Christ’s victory he is drinking of the waters of life, the waters of refreshment, where there is fullness of joy (Ps 16:11).
So what do I think? I think it is a very unique poetic description of God. It’s actually kind of a startling picture to think of God as one who drinks water from the brook alongside the road.
But if we look at it in its context as a warrior, military psalm, I think we can get a picture of it better. A soldier in the battle has a dire need for water as miles of marching and hours of hand-to-hand combat was exhausing. A brook alongside the road is golden and he cares not whether it’s even muddy, just that it’s water. Once rehydrated with water, the soldier can continue on. Without it the soldier cannot move forward.
My guess is that this is a poetic picture of God that he will be relentless in his pursuit of destroying evil, especially that evil that comes from the leaders and kings of nations. God is a just God. He hates evil. He will not tolerate it forever. And He will be relentless in destroying it.
How does that figure into the Messiah? The Messiah is the rescue. The Messiah is the one who will save people not from hell, but from sin and evil. He will pardon their evil, give them a new heart and secure their eternity. But also the Messiah leaves men without excuse.
If men and women will turn away from their sins and turn to the Lord, he will rescue them. But if people harden their hearts and refuse to turn from their sin, rejecting the offer of the Savior, then we will get what our deeds deserve.