Psalm XLV
To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, for the sons of Korah. Maschil. A Song of loves.
1 Mt heart is inditing a good matter:
I speak of the things which I have made touching The King! My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
2 Thou art fairer than the children of men! grace is poured into thy lips! Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.
3 Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O Most Mighty, Alith thy glory and thy
majesty.
4 And in thy majesty ride prosperously — because of truth and meekness and
righteousness; And thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.
5 Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies: Whereby the people fall under thee.
6 Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever! The sceptre of thy kingdom is a
right sceptre.
7 Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness:
Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
8 All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia. Out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.
9 Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable won:.en: Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
10 Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; Forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house;
11 So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty:
For he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.
12 And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; Even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour.
13 The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold:
14 She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework.
The virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee.
15 With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into
the king’s palace.
16 Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make
princes in all the earth.
17 I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: Therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever.
The appeal made to the Shepherd, by the sheep led to the slaughter, is heard. Here is what Hengstenberg would call a “matter-of-fact reply.” The Shepherd at the bleating of his flock appears in glory to help them; but appears in the character of a Mighty Conqueror. The Lamb is the Lion of Judah.
The title given to this Psalm corresponds to its glowing words and theme. “Upon Shoshannim,” the lily- instrument, some Temple instrument of music, peculiarly adapted for the celebration of themes that were fresh and bright and beautiful. “For the sons of Korah,” and “To the Chief Musician” — the services of the Chief Singer, and the help of the whole choir of singers are put in requisition. It is also “Maschil,” what calls for skill in the musician as being the product of great skill in the Singer of Israel who writes it, whether he were David or Solomon, and whether or not the occasion of its composition were the marriage- festidties of the royal Court. And once more; it is “A song of loves;” or rather “of the Be loved” viz., the Bride. At least the word “/IIT’T” may mean this. It is used in Jeremiah xii. 7, as a term for Israel while Israel was God’s Beloved (God’s Spouse), and He the Husband; and so it corresponds to Jedidiah, “Beloved of Jehovah,” just as Shulamite does to Solomon. If so, it is a Song concerning The Bride, as well as concerning Ihe King, the Bridegroom.
“My heart boils with goodly words. My work is for the King! My tongue is the ]3en of a ready roriter!” (Ver. 1).
Abrupt and fervent surely — the Holy Spirit thus using the
K faculties and feelings of the human instrument to indicate the exciting nature of the subject.
“Thou mi, beaidijied tvith beauty among the sons of men! “The verb employed has an unusual form, and might be rendered ‘’ Beautiful, beautiful art thou,” (Alexander).
“Grace is poured upon thy lips.’” Everything that is attractive, everything that is graceful in character and form, in feature and expression, is meant by “grace.” It is not what we usually call by that name; it is a term for what fits with the person and draws the eyes of others to him. It is thus used (Prov. iv. 9), “She shall give to thy head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee” — wisdom so clothing the person with moral beauty. It is thus, too, in Psalm lxxxiv. 11 — “The Lord will give grace and glory” — the ornament of beauty, the crown of glory. All this, in full perfection, is found in Messiah’s person; all that is fitted to attract and fix the soul’s gaze; all that is beautiful in excellence; all that is drawing in holiness and majestic worth.
Now comes verse 3,
“Warrior! gird thy sword upon thy thigh, (Horsley).
This is “The Mighty One” whom Isaiah (ix. 5) calls “The Mighty God.” He is the “1133 who goes forth to victory, and yet acts in behalf of” meekness and truth and righteousness “(see Rev. xix. 15), or more literally, “m hehalf of riieekiiess and truth;” the doing which in such a cause is “righteousness.” “On his thigh,” we find a name in Rev. xix. 16 in perfect keeping with the “)’ly here, “King of kings, Lord of lords.”
“Thine arroics are sharpened! The nations Jail under thee! They (thy arrows) are in the hearts of the King’s enemies!”
He reaches the Throne, and sits down, his enemies made his footstool. Messiah, thus seated on the throne in visible majesty, is addressed in verses 6, 7, by the name” God;’
“Thy Throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever.’’’
“Thy God hath anointed thee, 0 God!” (Comp. Heb. i. 8,9, in the Greek, and undoubtedly the true rendering of the Hebrew.)
PSALM XLV. — MESSIAH, KING AND BRIDEGROOM. l-i?
Everything is ready for the Marriage: “myrrh and aloes and cassia” (Song iii. 6) have been prepared for this day of Espousals, brought out of “palaces of ivory” to help the joy, or in other words, to complete the mirthful arrangements of this day of heavenly gladness.
“Out of the ivory palace, the sound of the harp (‘•2ID) inaketh thee glad,” (taking >3Q to mean “stringed instruments.” — Tholuck.)
The “King’s daughters” who are in attendance “precious ones,” i.e., of high value, seem to be like the “daughter of Jerusalem” in The Song; and especially does this portion of the Psalm remind us of Song vi. 8, 9, “The threescore queens, fourscore concubines, and virgins without number.” We suspect that both in that Song and here also, these represent the Angelic hosts. They are natives of that heavenly country — not, like The Bride, brought into it from a far foreign land. Tfie Bride, or Queen, is the redeemed Church, made up of Jew and Gentile saints, the one Body of the redeemed who are referred to in Hebrews xi. 39, 40.
In this view we find no difficulties left. “Be it,” sings the sweet singer, “Be it that thy princesses who fill thy court are of highest rank, such as are Kings’ daughters, yet pre-eminent stands The Queen in gold of Ophir! No rival to her! She is honoured, and worthy of honour, above all!”
A pause follows. The Bride is addressed in prospect of this day. It is, q.d., “Wilt thou not, since this is thy glorious destiny, be willing to leave all former relationships? Wilt thou not, O daughter, be as Rebecca going to Isaac? This Mighty One is thy Lord; be thou as Sarah to Abraham.” (Gen. xviii. 12; 1 Pet. iii. 5, 6.)
But the scene is not yet sufficiently set before us. The sweet singer touches his harp again to a lofty strain, to describe the splendour of dominion possessed by the Bride in right of the Bridegroom.
“The daughter of Tyre shall he there loith a gift. The nch among the people (D^) sImII entreat thy favour.” (Ver. 12.)
This tells of the Glorified Church, the Lamb’s Wife, ruling over a subdued world, in the millennial days. “T^/re” is taken as a sample of Gentile nations, and is elsewhere referred to as acting a part in these happy times (see Isa. xxiii. 18); while “the rich among the Peoj)le” are the Jeius in their restored prosperity. The glorified Church reigns with Christ over the nations upon earth. The glorified Church is with Christ on his throne, wherever that may be, while he rules the people and nations under the whole heaven, Gentile and Jew, Tyre and The People.
“The virgins her coinj)anions” are, we think, the same as verse 9 and as Song vi. 8, “virgins without number,” namely, the angelic hosts. These participate in the joy of this scene, even as they sympathized with the birth of the Bridegroom at Bethlehem. As for her she is all splendour, and “gold erabroidery” is her vesture, i e., the richest and the rarest fabric of creation.
And (not to dwell too long on verses that tempt us to linger at every step), at last comes the final strain. The Queen, or Bride, is addressed in verse 16. It is, like Genesis xxiv. 60 and Ruth iv. 11, the expression of a wish for the after fruitfulness of the Bride. The Glorified Chiu-ch, reigning with Christ, is to see her prayers answered and her labours crowned, in the blessings which shall be poured on Earth in those glad millennial days.
“Instead of thy fathers,” those who filled earth in thy former days “shall be thy children.’” Earth shall have its new generations, generations of holy men, — “whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth” — every one fit to be a prince, the weakest among them as David, and the House of David as the Angel of the Lord.
“So shall the nations yrcdae thee for ever and ever!” This ends the loftiest Epithalamium ever sung. It is what Milton would call
“The nnexpressive nuptial song,
In the blest kingdom meek of joy and love.”
It is Earth taught by Heaven to sing heaven’s infinite love to man. It is a prelude to the New Song. Every clause in it is melody, and every thought in it is sublimity; but it is just such as we might expect to be breathed forth when the theme on hand was — Messiah the Mighty One appearing as King and Bridegroom.