Send. — The verb should be here rendered stretch, as in Genesis 22:10; Genesis 48:14, and frequently of stretching out the hand, often with hostile intent. The poet here speaks in his own person, addressing the King, to whom the oracle has just been announced.
Rod of thy strength — i.e., the sceptre, which is the emblem of royal power and sway. (See Jeremiah 48:17.) The word “staff” is different from that rendered “rod,” in Psalms 2:9; and the image is not, as there, necessarily of a weapon of destruction, but only of kingly rule, as in Psalms 45:6.
Rule thou... — It is better to take these words as a quotation, and understand them as spoken of Jehovah. In the picture before us the Divine King seats the earthly monarch by His side, and taking his sceptre from his hand, stretches it in token of the wide empire he is to administer from Zion, where they sit enthroned, over the surrounding nations, and bids him assume the offered sway, in spite of the foes that surround him at present. The expression “in the midst,” instead of “over,” implies the condition under which the sovereignty was to be assumed, as also does the rest of the psalm, proceeding to describe the wars by which ultimate triumph over the hostile tribes would be secured.