“To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, for the sons of Korah, Maschil, A Song of loves. My 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. Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under thee. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad. Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir. Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house; So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour. The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king’s palace. Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever.” (Psalm 45, KJV)
THE intimate relation of the Messiah to the chosen people, and eventually to the other nations, is described in this psalm as the union of a mighty king with foreign princesses, among whom one is represented as the queen. This kind of allegory is a common one in Scripture, but appears to have derived its peculiar form in this case from the court and household of Solomon. After a title, ver. 1, the Psalmist announces his design to sing the praises of the King, ver. 2 (1), whom he then describes as full of beauty, grace, and the divine blessing, ver. 3 (2), as a conquering hero in the cause of truth and righteousness, ver. 4–6 (3–5), as a divine, perpetual, and righteous sovereign, ver. 7 (6), and as such invested with peculiar honours and enjoyments, ver. 8 (7), clothed in royal, festal, and nuptial garments, ver. 9 (8), surrounded by kings’ daughters, with a queen at his right hand, ver. 10 (9). The Psalmist then addresses her directly in the language of congratulation and admonition, ver. 11–13 (10–12), and describes her apparel and her marriage procession, ver. 14–16 (13–15). In conclusion, the king is again addressed, with the assurance of a numerous posterity, ver. 17 (16), and endless fame, ver. 18 (17). The attempt to explain this as a mere epithalamium in honor of Solomon, or Ahab, or some later king, Jewish or Persian, has always been defeated by the difficulty of determining the subject, and the impossibility of accounting for the reception of such a poem into a collection of devotional songs, intended for the permanent use of the ancient church. The absence of any analogous example is admitted upon all hands. The allegorical or Messianic sense is given by the oldest interpreters, both Jewish and Christian. The allegorical idea of this psalm is carried out in the Song of Solomon, to which it bears the same relation as Ps. 37 to the Book of Proverbs, and Ps. 39 to the Book of Job.
1. To the Chief Musician. Upon lilies. To the Sons of Korah. Maschil A song of loved (ones). The unusual accumulation of descriptive titles in this verse suggests at once that the psalm is one of deep and solemn import, and thus raises a presumption against its being a mere epithalamium, or a secular poem of any kind. This presumption is confirmed by the inscription to the Chief Musician, implying that the psalm was designed for permanent and public use. See above, on Ps. 4:1. This description, it is true, might be applied to all the psalms without exception; but it was particularly needed in the case of those which seem, at first sight, to be mere expressions of individual feeling, and still more in the case of those which, to a superficial reader, seem to be entirely secular in theme and spirit. The same thing is true, in substance, of the next term, maschil, instruction. The psalm before us is among the last which would have been selected by a modern critic as didactic in its character. But since it is so, this very fact affords a cogent reason for so designating it. This designation, at the same time, corroborates the previous presumption, that the psalm is allegorical, because an amatory nuptial song could not, in any sense, be called a maschil. The same thing is rendered still more certain by the ascription to the Sons of Korah, whether as authors or performers, since in either character their function was a sacred one; they were not profane bards or minstrels, but Levitical precentors in the temple worship. See above, on Ps. 42:1. As this employment was continued in the family for many generations, there is no difficulty in assuming that the Sons of Korah here meant were contemporaries of Solomon, to whose regal and domestic habits the psalm contains so many obvious allusions. The other two expressions in the title are more dubious. Upon lilies is supposed by some to mean on instruments of that shape. See above, on Ps. 8:1. Others suppose it to denote a mode of execution, or an air, or another composition upon which this was modelled. Others more plausibly maintain that this and all analogous inscriptions have respect to the subject or contents, and that lilies are a natural emblem of female beauty, the plural form implying a plurality of persons, such as we meet with in the psalm itself. See below, ver. 10, 11, 16 (9, 10, 15). A song of loves would seem to mean either a love-song or a lovely song. But the usage of the Hebrew word requires it to be taken in the concrete sense of loved or beloved, the plural feminine form serving to identify the person thus described with the lilies of the other clause. These two phrases, taken together, represent the subject of the psalm to be lovely and beloved women, while the other terms of the description, which have been explained already, shew that the love and marriage here referred to are not natural, but spiritual, to wit, the union of Messiah with his people, or of Christ with his church, an idea running through both testaments. Compare Isa. 54:5, 62:4, 5, Jer. 3:1, Ezek. 16 and 23, Mat. 9:15, 22:2, 25:1, John 3:29, Rom. 7:4, 2 Cor. 11:2, Eph. 5:25–32, Rev. 19:7, 21:2, 22:17. The allegory is more fully carried out in the first three chapters of Hosea, but in these and all other passages referred to, the essential idea is borrowed from the Law, in which the national unfaithfulness to Jehovah is constantly described as a spiritual adultery, implying a conjugal relation between him and his people. See Exod. 34:15, 16, Lev. 17:7, 20:5, 6, Num. 14:33. On the whole, then, this psalm appears to be a description of Messiah in his conjugal relation both to Israel and other nations, composed either by or for the sons of Korah in the reign of Solomon, from which the imagery seems to be borrowed, and designed for the permanent instruction of the church, by being used as a vehicle of pious feeling in her public worship.
2 (1). My heart has overflowed—a good word (am) I saying—my works for the king—my tongue the pen of a rapid writer. The whole verse is a strong metaphorical description of the way in which his thoughts were engrossed, and his words suggested, by one great theme. The first word properly denotes ebullition, the agitation and effervescence of a boiling liquid, or the similar phenomena presented by the bubbling up of water in a fountain. It is here used to express the spontaneous gush of feeling, thought, and word, in the inspired writer. This first clause may also be connected with the next, as indicated by the accents. My heart is overflowing (with) a good word (or goodly speech), i.e. the subject upon which he is about to speak. The next words may then be rendered, I am saying, (or I say), my works to the king, i.e. they belong to him, or as an exclamation, “let them be his!” My works, all that I do, including the praise here offered. The king meant is the ideal and expected king of Israel, the Messiah. The last clause may also be an exclamation. (Be) my tongue the pen of a rapid writer! i.e. let it skillfully and promptly give expression to my thoughts and feelings. It is probably in allusion to this passage that Ezra is described as a ready scribe or rapid writer (Ezra 7:6). Although particular expressions in this verse may be obscure, its general import is entirely unambiguous, as an animated declaration of the writer’s purpose, and a preface to his praise of the Messiah.
3 (2). Beautiful, beautiful, art thou above the sons of man; grace is poured into thy lips; therefore God hath blessed thee to eternity. The first word in Hebrew is a reduplicated form, expressing the idea with intensity and emphasis. He is not praised as the fairest or most beautiful of men, but as fair or beautiful beyond all human standard or comparison. This general ascription of all loveliness is followed by the specification of a single charm, that of delightful captivating speech. Grace, in Hebrew as in English, denotes both a cause and an effect; in this case, grace or beauty of expression, produced by the divine grace or favor, and reciprocally tending to increase it. On any hypothesis, except the Messianic one, this verse is unintelligible. If the first clause were intended to describe a mere corporeal beauty, how could this be followed up by commending the grace of the lips, or either be recognized as the ground of an eternal blessing? It is only by supposing that the person here meant is the chief among ten thousand and altogether lovely, that the beauty predicated of him includes every moral and spiritual attraction, and that the grace of his lips has reference to his prophetic character and office, that the sentence can be made to seem coherent, and the promise at its close appropriate. The type, in this allegorical description, may have been furnished by him, of whom the queen of Sheba said (1 Kings 10:8), “Happy thy men, happy these thy servants who stand before thee always, who hear thy wisdom.” But the glorious antitype was He, to whom “all bare witness, and wondered at the WORDS OF GRACE proceeding out of his mouth” (Luke 4:22).
4 (3). Gird thy sword on thy thigh, Mighty (One), thy honor and thy majesty. Arm thyself for battle and for conquest. Compare 1 Sam. 25:13. As the act of girding is applied both to weapons and to clothing, the mention of the one here suggests the other. “Arm thyself with strength and clothe thyself with majesty.” The two words at the end of the sentence are constantly employed to denote the divine majesty (Ps. 96:6, 104:1, 111:3), as distinguished from that of mortals (Job 40:10), or as bestowed upon them by a special divine favour (Ps. 21:6). The first of the two is separately used to signify specifically royal dignity (1 Chron. 29:25, Dan. 11:21). The use of these expressions, together with the epithet of Mighty or Hero, which is one of the characteristic titles of Messiah in prophecy (Isa. 9:6), confirms the previous conclusion that he is here the object of address. As to the sword, see Rev. 1:16, 2:12, 20:15, 21; and with the whole verse compare Ps. 110:5–7.
5 (4). And (in) thy majesty, pass on, ride forth, for the sake of truth and humble right; and thy right hand shall guide thee (to) terrible deeds. The first words may also be explained, without supplying in, as an emphatic repetition of what goes before. And thy majesty (I say). The first verb may be rendered prosper, as in Isa. 53:10; but it seems best to retain its primary sense, which is to pass by or over, to advance, or as we say familiarly, to go ahead. By riding we may understand the act of riding in a chariot of war, which was customary with the ancient kings. See the same verb so used in 2 Kings 9:16, and compare 1 Kings 22:34, 35. For the sake, literally on the word, which may possibly denote that on which the conqueror rides, to wit, the word of truth. But this figure would not be very intelligible, and in almost every other case where the Hebrew phrase occurs, it is evident that word is used precisely as the English words account and sake are in the familiar combinations, on account of, for the sake of. See above on Ps. 18:1. Thus understood, it here points out the object of Messiah’s conquests, to wit, the vindication of truth, i.e. veracity, as opposed to fraud, and humble right, as opposed to proud iniquity. In this last phrase both the Hebrew words are nouns, but rather in apposition than regimen, so that the literal translation would be humility-righteousness, right asserted in humility against a wrong maintained by pride and selfishness. Thy right hand, as the seat of martial strength, said the organ of aggressive action. Shall guide, or point the way, the proper meaning of the Hebrew verb, which, like other verbs expressing or implying motion, may be followed directly by a noun, where our idiom would require an intervening preposition. Terrible (things), fearful (deeds), literally dreaded; but the Hebrew passive participle frequently includes the idea of a future passive participle in Latin. The insensible transition from the imperative to the future shews that the former was really prophetic, and that the prayer of this and the preceding verse is only a disguised prediction of Messiah’s triumphs, as one going forth conquering and to conquer.
6 (5). Thine arrows are sharp—nations under thee shall fall—in the heart of the king’s enemies. The word translated sharp is properly a participle meaning sharpened, like acutus from acuo, and may here have the same sense as in Isa. 5:28, whose arrows are sharpened and all his bows bent, i.e. all his weapons of war ready for immediate use. Nations, not merely individuals, nor even armies, but whole nations, a description peculiarly, though not exclusively, appropriate to a superhuman conqueror. In order to remove the apparent incoherence of the second and third members of the sentence, some give heart the local sense of midst. “Nations shall fall under thee in the midst of the king’s enemies.” But this explanation of heart is not justified by usage, and the king’s enemies are evidently the nations themselves. Others make the second clause a vocative—thou under whom the nations fall—or a mere parenthesis, with a verb supplied after it—thy sharp arrows (nations fall under thee) shall penetrate into the heart of the king’s enemies. But these are forced if not ungrammatical constructions, and by far the simplest solution is to repeat the first clause before the third—thine arrows are sharp—nations fall under thee—(thine arrows are sharp) in the heart of the king’s enemies. This is the more natural, as the falling of the nations is supposed to be produced by the arrows. “Thine arrows are sharpened, and ready for the conquest of the nations; yes, thine arrows are already sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies.” This last expression does not refer to a different person from the one addressed, but is merely a more emphatic way of saying, “thine enemies, O king!”
7 (6). Thy throne, (O) God, (is) for ever and ever; a scepter of rectitude (is) the scepter of thy kingdom. To avoid the obvious ascription of divinity contained in the first clause, two very forced constructions have been proposed. 1. Thy throne (is the throne of) God for ever and ever. 2. Thy God-throne (or divine throne) is for ever. But even admitting, what is very doubtful, that a few examples of this syntax occur elsewhere, the sense thus obtained is unsatisfactory and obscure, and this is still more true of that afforded by the only obvious or natural construction besides the one first given, namely, thy throne is God for ever and ever. The explanation of God as a vocative is not only the most obvious, and sustained by the analogy of Ps. 43:1, 44:5 (4), 48:10, 11 (9, 10), &c., but is found in all the ancient versions and adopted in the New Testament (Heb. 1:8), and was admitted even by the anti-Messianic interpreters, until they were obliged to abandon the position that Elohim might be taken in a lower sense. For ever and ever, literally eternity and perpetuity. See above, on Ps. 5:12 (11), 9:6 (5). The same perpetuity is asserted of Jehovah’s reign in Ps. 10:16. It is also promised to the royal line of David, ending and eternised in Messiah. See the original promise in 2 Sam. 7:13, 16, and its varied repetition in Ps. 21:5 (4), 18:51 (50), 72:5, 89:5, 37, 38 (4, 36, 37), 110:4, 132:12 (11), Isa. 9:6 (7). A scepter, properly a staff or rod, particularly as a badge of office and especially of royal dignity. See above, on Ps. 23:4. Rectitude, in a moral or figurative sense, derived from the physical and proper one of straightness, whether linear or superficial. See below, Ps. 67:5 (4), and compare Isa. 11:4. Kingdom, or as an abstract, royalty, in which sense it may qualify the noun before it, so that the whole phrase will express the idea royal scepter.
8 (7). Thou hast loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee (with) oil of joy above thy fellows. The moral excellency of the person here addressed is represented as the meritorious ground of the divine favors by which he was distinguished. In an epithalamium, or an amatory poem, this would be ridiculous. The past tenses represent the moral qualities ascribed to him as already manifested and familiar. The substitution of the present greatly weakens the expression. Here, as in the verse preceding, God may be a vocative. Thy God, O God, hath anointed thee, &c. Compare Ps. 43:4, 51:15 (14). But the more obvious construction above given is favored by the collocation of the words and the analogy of Ps. 50:7. Oil of joy (or gladness) is a figure borrowed from the ancient oriental usage of anointing the head on festive occasions. See above, on Ps. 23:5. The expression is copied in Isa. 61:3. Above thy fellows, more than thy companions, i.e. other men, or more specifically, other kings. Compare what is said of Solomon, 1 Kings 3:12, 13, 2 Chron. 1:12.
9 (8). Myrrh and aloes (and) cassia (are) all thy garments, from palaces of ivory, from (thence) have they gladdened thee. The figure of unction in the close of the preceding verse suggests the idea of perfumes and aromatic substances, several of which are specified, as samples of the whole class, which makes it comparatively unimportant, though by no means difficult, to identify the species. His dress is described as so impregnated with these odors, that it may be poetically said to be composed of them. By another natural association, these perfumed garments, which were not usually worn, suggest the idea of some rare festivity, and especially of that which is most joyous in all countries. It is from marriage feasts in splendid palaces that these sweet odors and these joyful feelings have been brought away. Why more than one such celebration is referred to, will appear below. Palaces of ivory, i.e. adorned with it, like that of Ahab in 1 Kings 22:39, and that of Menelaus in the Odyssey. That this kind of luxury was not unknown in real life, may also be inferred from Amos 3:15, 6:4, Song of Sol. 7:5 (4). The next word (מִנִּי) is by some explained as a contraction of (מִנִּים), a word meaning strings, and then stringed instruments (Ps. 150:4). From palaces of ivory stringed instruments have gladdened thee. But as this breaks the connection between verses 8 and 10 (7 and 9), others make מִנִּי the poetical form of the preposition מִן, as it is in Ps. 44:11, 19 (10, 18), 68:32 (31). See also Judges 5:14, and Isa. 46:3. The repetition of the particle without the noun is similar to that in Isa. 59:18, according to their deeds, according to (them) will he repay. So here, from palaces of ivory, from them (or thence) have they gladdened thee. The plural verb may be construed indefinitely, as tantamount to saying, thou hast been gladdened, or referred to a more definite subject, namely, that presented in the next verse.
10 (9). Daughters of kings (are) among thy precious (ones); stationed is the queen at thy right hand, in gold of Ophir. The idea of a marriage-feast, suggested in the foregoing verse, is here carried out by a description of the bride or brides. These are represented as being of the highest rank and splendid in appearance. Precious, dear, not in the sense of beloved, which the Hebrew word never has, but in that of costly, valuable, which it always has. Stationed, not simply stands, but placed there, as the post of honor. Compare 1 Kings 2:19. The word translated queen means properly a spouse or consort, but is specially applied to the wives of kings, particularly those of Babylonia (Dan. 5:2) and Persia (Neh. 2:6). It is here used as a poetical expression, which is also the case with the word translated gold, and derived from a verb meaning to conceal; it may therefore denote ore, as hidden in the mine, or hoarded treasure. Here, and in Isa. 13:12, it is combined with Ophir, one of the places to which Solomon’s ships traded with the Phenicians (1 Kings 9:28, 10:11, 2 Chron. 8:18, 9:10). Its situation is disputed, and of no exegetical importance in the case before us. Whether it was in India, Arabia, or Africa, it is here mentioned only as an El Dorado, with the very name of which the idea of gold was associated in the mind of every Israelite, as it is in ours with the name of California. In gold means, of course, in garments decked with gold, or golden jewels. The image here presented of a queen surrounded by inferior princesses was probably borrowed from the court of Solomon (1 Kings 11:1), but employed to represent the chosen people as the bride of the Messiah, and as such pre-eminent among the nations. This kind of personification is not uncommon. See, for example, Isa. 47:1, 54:1, Jer. 46:11.
11 (10). Hear, daughter, and see, and bend thine ear, and forget thy people and the house of thy father. The Psalmist, in view of the ideal scene which he has brought before us, utters a kind of nuptial exhortation to the queen or chief bride of Messiah. Hear what I have to say; see, with the mind’s eye, what I set before thee, look at it, consider it. Incline thine ear, lean forward as a sign of attention, so that nothing shall escape thee. See above, on Ps. 17:6, 31:3 (2). This preliminary summons to attend implies that something of serious moment is to follow. The word daughter may be simply used, as son is elsewhere, to suggest the relation of a junior to a senior, or of a pupil to a teacher. See above, on Ps. 34:12 (11), and compare Prov. 1:8, 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, &c. Or the Psalmist may be understood as speaking in the person of the bride’s father, when about to part with her; but this is less natural, since the father is referred to, in the last clause, as a third person. Some suppose a specific reference to the daughter of Zion as the real object of address, while others understand by daughter a king’s daughter, a royal princess, or suppose her to be here addressed as one who was no longer to be treated as a daughter, but as a wife and mother. As if he had said, “Hitherto thou hast been a daughter, but now thou must forget thy father’s house.” All these ideas may have been present to the writer’s mind, as they are all spontaneously suggested to the reader’s. Forget thy people, &c., is a strong but natural and perfectly intelligible mode of saying, form new relations, or accommodate thyself to them when formed. There is obvious allusion to the law of marriage in Gen. 2:24, and to the calling of Abraham in Gen. 12:1. What the patriarch was there required to do is here enjoined upon his children in the person of their ideal representative. The ancient church or chosen people is required to come out from the world and be exclusively devoted to Jehovah. The exhortation becomes still more pointed and significant when taken in connection with the fact, that Solomon’s wives, who seem to have supplied the figures for this striking allegorical tableau, instead of acting on the principle here laid down, by adopting the religion of their husband, “turned away his heart after other gods” (1 Kings 11:4).
12 (11). And let the king desire thy beauty; for he is thy Lord, and (therefore) bow thyself to him. The common version (so shall the king desire, &c.) is inconsistent with the form of the Hebrew verb, which is one used to express a command or wish. The verse must be read in close connection with the one before it. “Forget thy father’s house and be entirely devoted to thy husband, so that his affection may be fixed upon thee, without anything to hinder or impair it, such as a lingering desire for thy previous condition.” This is enjoined as a duty springing from the very nature of the conjugal relation, in which the husband is the head by divine right. Compare Gen. 3:16, 18:12, 1 Pet. 3:5, 6. In recognition of this obligation, she is called upon to bow down or prostrate herself (1 Sam. 25:41, 1 Kings 1:16, 31), a gesture both of civil and religious homage, and therefore peculiarly appropriate here, where the ideal king and husband represents the real object of religious worship.
13 (12). And the daughter of Tyre with a gift thy face shall soften—the rich of the people. In the Hebrew idiom the daughter of Tyre, or the daughter (i.e. the virgin) Tyre denotes the city, or the population of the city, personified as a woman. See above, on Ps. 9:15 (14). It has been proposed, indeed, to take this as a vocative (and O daughter of Tyre, the rich of the people shall, &c.) addressed to Jezebel, in honor of whose marriage with Ahab (1 Kings 16:31) the psalm is then supposed to have been written. But besides the harsh construction of the first words, and the constant usage of the phrase and others like it in the sense explained above, it is inconceivable that a poem in celebration of the marriage between a wicked king of Israel and a heathen princess could have been composed by the sons of Korah for permanent religious use in the kingdom of Judah. And yet this is the only hypothesis, except the Messianic one, on which the reference to Tyre can be explained. In the time of Solomon, the Tyrians were the most commercial nation in the world, and the one with which the Israelites had most commercial intercourse. It was natural, therefore, to use Tyre as a type for the wealth and commerce of the world, and the same mode of representation is employed by later writers. (See especially Isa. 23:18.) Thus understood, the promise that the daughter of Tyre should seek, by means of gifts, to conciliate the favour of the queen, is a prediction that the richest of the nations should seek union and communion with the chosen people. See below, Ps. 47:10 (9), 72:10, 87:4, in the last of which places Tyre is particularly mentioned. See also Isa. 60:6, Hag. 2:7, 8, Zech. 9:10. That the daughter of Tyre is here an ideal person, comprehending many individuals, is clear from the plural verb with which it is construed, and from the epexegetical clause, the rich (i.e. the richest) of the people, whether this be understood to mean the richest of that people, or the richest of the nations. In either case it is an apposition with daughter of Tyre, and in some way explanatory of it. “The daughter of Tyre, that richest of the nations (or the daughter of Tyre, even the richest of that nation), shall entreat thy favour.” This last idea is conveyed by a highly idiomatic phrase, meaning, as some suppose, to stroke or soothe the face, and then, by a natural transition, to conciliate, to flatter. Others obtain nearly the same sense by making it mean to weaken, soften, or subdue the face, i.e. the opposition which the face expresses.
14 (13). All glorious (is) the king’s daughter within; of gold embroidery (is) her vesture. The second word in Hebrew may be either an adjective, as in Ezek. 23:41, or a substantive, as in Judges 18:21. All (i.e. altogether) splendid, or all splendor, i.e. containing nothing else, as the king’s garments are said, in ver. 9 (8) above, to be all perfume, and mankind in Ps. 39:6 (5), to be only all vanity. The local adverb in the first clause means within doors, in the house (Lev. 10:18, 1 Kings 6:18, 2 Kings 7:11), and describes the bride as still awaiting her removal from her father’s to her husband’s house. Gold embroidery, or network of gold. The common version (wrought gold) conveys the false idea of a dress entirely metallic, whereas the Hebrew phrase denotes some kind of artificial texture or tissue, in which gold is interwoven.
15 (14). With (or on) variegated cloths shall she be conducted to the king; virgins behind her, her companions, brought unto thee. The lively picture of an oriental wedding is now completed by a view of the procession to the bridegroom’s house. The customary train of female friends is not forgotten, but with this peculiar feature added, that the bridesmaids are themselves described as brides, being brought (or made to come) to the king, precisely as the queen was. This departure from the usages of real life, which would have been revolting in a mere epithalamium, is peculiarly appropriate to the design of the allegory, as it enables the writer to include in his description a striking figurative representation of the eventful accession of the Gentiles to the spiritual privileges and prerogatives which for ages were confined to Israel. The ancient church or peculiar people is the chief bride or queen of the Messiah, chosen from among the nations; but these very nations are the virgins, her companions, not her servants or attendants merely, who are brought to the king afterwards as she was brought before, to be united with him in an honorable marriage, not as the inferiors but the equals of his first and chosen consort. The noun at the beginning of the verse has been variously explained as meaning needlework, embroidery, and variegated stuffs; but the essential idea is sufficiently clear, to wit, that of rich and highly ornamented fabrics. As the dress of the bride has been twice described already, in ver. 10, 14 (9, 13), some suppose that these words have allusion to the practice of spreading rich and costly cloths or carpets on the ground where royal personages walk. (Compare Mat. 21:8.) Others refer the clause to the embroidered coverings of the nuptial couch. The preposition here used is the one denoting relation in the most indefinite manner, and may be translated in, upon, or to, according to these different hypotheses respectively. See above, on Ps. 30:2 (1), 35:19, 24, 38:17 (16). Conducted, or escorted in procession, as the Hebrew word denotes, being applied both to nuptial and funeral pomps. Compare Job 10:19, 21:32. The king is first mentioned in the third person, and then in the second, by which insensible transition the way is prepared for the direct address with which the psalm concludes, although the third person is resumed for a moment in the next verse.
16 (15). They shall be conducted with rejoicings and mirth; they shall come into the palace of the king. The first clause exhibits the procession, as it were, in motion, while the second brings it to its destination. As if he had said, “I see the joyous train advancing, to the sound of merry music, towards the palace; and now they reach it and are entered in.” This brings the description of the marriage to a close, and leaves nothing to be added but the joyful anticipations expressed in the concluding verses.
17 (16). Instead of thy fathers shall be thy sons; thou shalt set them for princes in all the earth. In the translation, this might seem to be a renewed address to the bride, consoling her, in her separation from her father’s family, by the hope of having one herself. The antithesis, however, is not between parents and children in general, but between fathers and sons in particular. Nor does the ambiguity of the translation exist in the original, at least in the masoretic text, where the pointing of the suffixed pronouns shews them to be masculine, so that the object of address must be the king himself, as it is in ver. 3–11 (2–10). We have here another allusion to the marriage customs of the ancient orientals, among whom it was usual to wish the newly married pair a numerous and distinguished offspring. See Gen. 24:60, Ruth 4:11, 12. This wish is here replaced by a positive prediction, that the king’s descendants shall be more illustrious than his progenitors. Such a comparison would have but little force, however, unless he were himself descended from a long line of royal ancestors, a sufficient proof that the king here glorified was neither Solomon nor Ahab. At the same time there is obvious allusion to the state of things under the reign of Solomon, who divided his kingdom into twelve vice-royalties (1 Kings 4:7), and that of David, who made his own sons viceroys (2 Sam. 8:18), a policy which seems to have been still pursued by Rehoboam (2 Chron. 11:23). What they did on a small scale, the Messiah is to do upon a large one. As they made their sons princes in Israel, so he shall make his to be rulers over the whole earth. Some, indeed, translate the last words all the land; but this is inconsistent with the conquests promised in ver. 5–7 (4–6), with the mention of Tyre in ver. 14 (13), and with that of nations in ver. 18 (17). The sons of Messiah are his spiritual seed (Isa. 53:10), to set whom for princes is to constitute or make them such, to give them places suited to their royal rank. The universal reign here predicted is also promised in Ps. 2:8 above and Ps. 72:11, below. Compare Zech. 9:10.
18 (17). I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations; therefore shall nations acknowledge thee for ever and ever. The Psalmist speaks as one in the long series of inspired heralds, and in behalf of all. The form of the first verb implies fixed determination, and involves a pledge. Thy name, as the expression of thy nature. See above, on Ps. 5:12 (11), 44:21 (20). In all generations, literally in every generation and generation. Forever and ever, literally to eternity and perpetuity. See above, on Ps. 44:9, 24 (8, 23). Therefore, not merely because I celebrate his name, but because his name itself is glorious. Acknowledge thee to be what thou art, involving therefore the ideas of praise in general and thanksgiving in particular. See above, on Ps. 6:6 (5), 44:9 (8).
Alexander, J. A. (1864). The Psalms Translated and Explained (pp. 200–208). Andrew Elliot; James Thin. (Public Domain)
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