Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 2 · Psalm 45
The Forty Fifth Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian upon a.‖the sixe-stringed instruments.Shoshannim, for the sons of Coreh, Maschil, a song of †the beloved maids, foreignloves.
Paraphrase. The Forty fifth Psalm is thought to be an Epithalamium, or marriage-song, upon the nuptials of Solomon and the King of Aegypts daughter, 1 King. iii. 1. (but is withall mystically, and in a most eminent manner, applicable to*See the Chaldee v. 2. foreign O King Messias— The spirit of prophecie in thy lips— So also Kimchi, and Aben-Ezra, and Sol. Jarchi understand the whole Psalm of the Messias. Christ) composed in the persons of her bride-maids, and committed to the Praefect of the Musick, to be sung by the posterity of Coreh, to the tune known by the name of Maschil.
1. My heartb. ‖hath prepared.is inditing a good matter; †my composures I will recite, or deliver, or speak unto the—I speak of the things which I have made touching the King: My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
I have meditated and composed a festival nuptial hymne, brought it ready prepared, as an oblation Eucharistical, and I will now recite it to the King, (as he is a type of the great God and King of heaven, the King by whom Kings Reign, the Messias, who shall espouse a church of believers here on earth;) my tongue being alacriously and chearfully bent speedily to deliver it.
2. Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips;*seeing that, or because foreign. therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.
O how gloriously beautifull is this bridegroom above all the men in the world? what gracious and lovely and excellent speech comes from him? God having accomplisht and adorned and blessed him in a most illustrious degree and manner. (And in the Mystical sense, The Messias is infinitely beyond all the men in the world; a divine person, speaking as never man spake, all the fulnesse of the Godhead dwelling bodily in him.)
3. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh; O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty.
Thou art a mighty Prince; it becometh thee to appear in a glorious and majestick manner, as it doth any man of valour to be girt with a belt and sword. (In the mysticall sense, O thou mighty God and Prince of Peace, be thou pleased to set up thy spiritual kingdome in our hearts, by the power of thy grace to rule and reign in them.)
4. c.‖Presper thou in thy majesty, ride for the word or cause or business of-And in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness: and†he shall teach thee terrible things with or by thy right hand. thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.
And mayst thou long and prosperously injoy this thy dignity, reign successfully to the maintaining of all divine vertues; such are, beyond others, faith, and humility, and all manner of justice and charity. And making such use of thy power, no doubt God will establish thee in it, and give thee all manner of strange successes, and make thee formidable to all about thee. (In the mystical sense, God grant him all good successe in his regal office, in subjecting all mens hearts unto his spiritual regiment. And as his installment shall not be by riding on the regal mule, or being mounted on a proud and sprightfull horse, or in any other guise of secular pompe, but in a much more excellent and divine equipage, all kinde of the most eminent virtues drawing in his triumphal charriot, and carrying him aloft to victory: so may the mighty God of heaven prosper him in those great affairs on which he is imployed; 1. of bringing all men to the faith; 2. of subduing all the prides of the hautiest heathen obdurate hearts, and making them meek, and gentle, and lowly, humble toward God and man; 3. of planting all degrees of justice and charity among Christians. In the discharge and execution of this great office of spiritual sovereignty, God shall be with him, enabling him to doe miracles, to cast out the heathen false Gods, or devills, out of their temples, out of mens hearts, and out of the bodies of those that are possest with them, and so to bring down all other religions wheresoever Christianity enters.)
5. d.. Thine arrows are sharpe‖(the pe… ple shal fall under thee) in the heart— in the heart of the Kings enemies, whereby the people fall under thee.
Thy power shall be sufficient to bring down thy greatest enemies, and many shall feel the effects of it, being conquered by thee. (In the mysterie, the grace of Christ shall come with great efficacy to the converting of Idolatrous heathens, and shall be mightily successful in bringing the Gentile world to subjection to his kingdome.)
6. c.Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the scepter of thy kingdome is a right scepter.
The kingdome of the Messias is never to have an end: the laws by which 'tis administred are admirably good and just, most agreeable to the dictates of true reason, and the nature of man, not seduced or corrupted with passion. And herein is Solomon a type of him: the kingdome of Juda…, now setled on him, shall indure till the time of the Messiahs coming, and entring on his immutable kingdome. And they are divine laws, of Gods own prescribing, by which he shall administer his government.
7. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness; therefore God thy God hath anointed thee with the oile of gladness above thy fellows.
He hath earnestly espoused the cause of all goodness and justice, hath wrought by his precepts and promises and grace effectually, to bring the practice of all vertue into the world, and beareth a perfect hatred against vice, and by strict prohibitions, and threats of eternal hell, and by suffering himselfe upon the crosse for our sins (an example of Gods great wrath against sin, choosing rather to punish it on his own son, than to suffer it to goe unpunisht) hath laboured to cast that out of mens hearts: And therefore God the Father hath advanced and dignified him above all Angels and men, (see note on Matth. xxvi c. and Act. x. 10.) exalted him to his own right hand, there to reign for ever, and to dispense his graces abundantly and freely into all mens hearts. Herein also was Solomon a type of the Messias, whose choise of wisdome, rather then of all secular wealth, was highly rewarded by God, beyond all other men.
8. †Myrrhe alces and Cassi… are all thy garments, from—All thy garments smell of Myrrhe, aloes, and Cassia, out of the Ivory palaces,*wherein thou takest delight. where byf. they have made thee glad.
This Bridegrooms garments are very richly perfumed, the odour of them comes out from the magnificent rooms wherein he takes pleasure, and so commonly resides in them. (And so the mystical Bridegroom Christ, his graces send forth a most fragrant perfume, most gratefull and pleasant to all to whom they come.)
9. Kings daughters were‖in thy train or magnificence. amongg. thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the Queen in gold of Ophir.
He is very magnificently attended; many roiall beauties are in his train; and his Bride the Queen is placed at his right hand in the most glorious nuptial array. (Proportionably the faith of the Messias shall be received by many persons of great rank in the world, and the Church his spouse shall be advanced by him to a most flourishing condition.)
10. Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear: forget also thine own people, and thy fathers house.
It will now be happy for the Bride, if she will consider the true dignity she is advanced to, and the advantages she may reap by it; if she will utterly forsake the idolatries wherein she hath been brought up in Aegypt, (as the new married spouse entring into a new family must relinquish all her old relations, and not preserve so much as her former name) and give up her faith and obedience uniformly to the law of the true God, which here is worshipt. (And so in the mystical sense, the Jews being assumed, after their many adulteries and divorces, unto that better wedlock, celebrated in the Gospel, must think themselves obliged to forget their old relations, all the rites of their law, nay, the distinctive marks of their extraction from the loins of Abraham, circumcision, &c. and so recommend themselves to their Lord and Bridegroom. And so generally they that will come to be members of the Christian Church, must forsake all their old wicked courses, and performe all diligent, faithfull, chearfull obedience to the commands of Christ; or else they will be little the better for being Christians.)
11. So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty; for he is thy Lord God, and worship thou him.
So shall she become truly amiable to her husband, Solomon the King, the type of the Messias, that eternal son of God, who when he comes into the world, shall be the very God of heaven in our humane nature, and is therefore (he and none but he) to be adored by all men in the world, and so shall be acknowledged and worshipt by the Christian Church (see Justin Martyr Dial. cum Tryph. p. 287. B.)
12. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour.
The Tyrians shall bring him presents (see 1 King. v.) and so the greatest and most potent of his neighbours shall court him, and be ambitious of his friendship. (And so shall the heathen people come in to the faith of Christ, and in process of time the Emperors and greatest Princes.)
13. The Kings daughter is all glorious within; her cloathing ish. of‖eyes of gold. wrought gold.
The spouse being of a regal extraction, is a very accomplisht person, both in respect of inward virtues and outward splendor and magnificence. (And such shall be the Christian Church, gathered first and made up of the pious faithfull remnant of the Jews.)
14. She shall be brought unto the King in†embroidered raiment. raiment of needle-work: The virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee.
She shall be conducted to the Bridegroom in a very sumptuous and glorious guise, and attended with her Bride-maids after the nuptial manner. (And this signifies the Churches glory; inward, from the graces of God, humility, charity, &c. with which it is content, without any others; and yet hath also the accession of outward, from the good providence of God waiting over it, and advancing it to a very flourishing condition. Nor shall this Elder sister, the daughter of Sion, the Jewish believers, come single to these nuptials: But the Gentile Churches, as virgins to accompany the Spouse, shall likewise come in to the faith, be presented to him a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy, and without blemish. Eph. 5.27.)
15. With gladness and rejoycing shall they be brought, and shall enter into the Kings palace.
And this shall be a very joyfull and festival meeting. (And so shall the reception of the Christian faith in the heathen world, their entring into the*foreign Lxxii. Church, the palace, and house of God, and their giving themselves faederally to the obedience of Christ; there being no state of life in this world so blessed, and matter of so much inward real satisfaction and joy, as the life of a sincerely humble and charitable Christian.)
16. Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make Princes in all the*or land foreign earth.
As she parts with royall parents in Aegypt, so now she shall be a mother of royall children; her posterity shall succeed in the kingdome of Judah. (And so in the antitype, Abraham by being disowned from being the father of the Jewish Synagogue, (circumcision the seal of that covenant being destroyed) shall not lose, but gain a better title to that name, enjoying the completion of that prophecy, which spake him the father of many nations, and shall then be the Patriarch of the whole world of faithfull persons; and the Jewish Synagogue, honoured before with the dignity of having a believing and righteous father, shall now be more highly honoured, in having a multitude of faithfull and pious children, by Christ begotten, and by her brought forth unto God. And so likewise in respect to the Gentiles, instead of Idolatrous ancestors, there shall be a succession of†just men shall be thy children, Chal. pious Christians, which shall become governors of the Church (so the first converts were made Bishops over all the world.)
17. I will make thy name to be remembred throughout all generations: therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever.
This nuptial song shall perpetuate thy memory, and bring thee continual praise and honour among all posterities. And so shall the Church of Christ be for ever illustrious and visible upon the earth; and this very Psalm be lookt on by Christians, as the description of these blessed spiritual espousals betwixt Christ and his Church.
Annotations on Psalm XLV.
Tit. Shoshannim] foreign foreignfrom foreign Six, in all probability signifie instruments of six strings. The Chaldee render it foreign the assessors of the Sanhedrim, as if it were from foreign, a title of the doctors of the Jews. The Lxxii. render foreign, and seem to refer to the custome of alternate singing (of which we have spoken on Psal. xxiv. a.) one verse by one, another by the other part of the quire; which alternation as it is not unfitly exprest by foreign, so it might by them be thought to be noted by this word, deduced by them, as also by the Chaldee, from foreign to change or vary. Of the sons of Coreh see Psal. xLii. 1. of Mas hil see Psal. xxxii. note a. As for foreign foreignin the foeminine plural from foreign beloved, it must signifie the female or virgin friends, they that had the same respect to the Bride, as the friends of the bridegroom had to him, John iii. 29. (see note b. on that chapt.) These are the attendants of the solemnity, and their chief business is to increase and ingage the love of the Bride to her husband: And in their persons this Psalm is indited, as if it were spoken by them, and so is called foreign a canticle of these beloved, or friends of the Bride, the Bride-maids; the Lxxii. read foreign, for the beloved, and so the Latine, as if it were foreign not foreign.
V. 1. Inditing] That foreign foreign, used only in this one place in Scripture, signifies ebullivit praefervore, to boil or seeth out through excess of heat, is agreed by all: The Lxxii. render it foreign, the Latine eructavit, the style ordinarily used of a spring or fountain; and so the Jewish Arab Interpreter renders it by foreign from foreign which belongs to the springing forth of water, originally, but is applyed to any new invention, or good thing, produced by the minde. So Abu Walid also would have it rendred, that so first his heart sent forth, and then his tongue uttered what that produced or dictated. He observes also the affinity of foreign with the Arabick foreign, wherein the radicals are the same, only transposed, which signifies to swell sorth or distill, as water out of an hill or rock. And indeed foreign in Arabick, without transposition, signifies motion or commotion; and so Kimchi renders the Hebrew word. And thus the word is deemed applicable to speech, which is thus sent out from the heart at the mouth, and is produced by the heat or motion of thoughts or meditation; my heart was hot within me, and the fire kindled, and at last I spake with my tongue. But it is not improbable, that the metaphore should here be taken from boiling over the fire in a pot or pan, which is the way of dressing or preparing of meat. So the word signifies, and is by the Chaldee rendred foreign ferbuit, calefactus est: and from that notion of it we have foreign, a frying-pan, Lev. vii. 9. that wherein the mincha or meat-offering was drest with oyle, v. 10. And to this it very well agrees, that a sacred hymn prepared by a Prophet, first composed by the spirit in his heart, then readily brought forth by his tongue, (which in that respect being here compared to the pen of a ready writer, agreeth also with another notion both of foreign and foreign for making hast) should be here exprest by a peace-offering, or sacrifice of thanksgiving, drest with oile over the fire, whether fried or boiled, (the ebulliency denoted in foreign being equal in both of them) and then by the sacrificer presented to God, Lev. ii. 8. as this here is to the King in the next words. so that not questioning the original notion of the word for ebullivit, we may yet best express the metaphor here by preparing, which is a general word, common to the dressing of meat or offering, and to the composing of any hymne, which is the spiritual oblation, and is here part of the nuptial festival, composed for the celebrating of it. As for foreign foreignby the LXXII. foreign, verbum bonum in the vulgar, the good word, or speech, or matter, it will by analogy signifie a festival hymne, as foreign signifies laetus, as well as bonus, and foreign a good day, is a festival day, a day of rejoycing, and the feast being a marriage feast foreign a good or festival hymne will be distinctly an Epithalamium. And then that which followeth foreign foreign, will be best literally rendred, my composures will I deliver, or recite to the King, (so the Chaldee exactly in the same forme, reading onelyonly foreign for foreign foreignwhich is the same, any kinde of works, or composures.)
V. 4. And in thy Majesty] The fourth verse is literally to be rendered, foreign foreignand prosper with thy honour or majesty, i. e. we wish it long continuance, foreign foreignride upon the horses of the Kingdome;foreign saith the Chaldee, foreign foreign, for or upon the word, or business of truth — so the phrase signifies, foreign being usually taken for matter, as well as words; and so the Chaldee here, foreign for the business: the word signifies a cause depending in debate, a contention, and then more generally negotium, tractatus; and accordingly so must foreign foreignbe here understood. Then follows foreign foreignand he, that is, saith the Chaldee, God shall teach thee terrible things with, or by thy right hand. Against this rendring there is but one objection, viz. that foreign is in the foeminine gender, and so cannot so well be spoken of God. Why then may it not belong to the immediate praecedents, whether foreign righteousness, or foreign meekness, or foreign truth, that all or any of those, i. e. God by them, shall teach him terrible things by his right hand; or, as the foeminine is oft taken neutrally, his riding or engaging for the cause of these shall bring Gods blessing upon him, and so cause him, or teach him to do these terrible things with his right hand? The Lxxii. indeed read foreign. But the Chaldee suggests a more probable rendring.
V. 5. Thine arrows] The fifth verse may most conveniently be read with a parenthesis; Thy arrows are sharp (then as an effect of that, [the people shall fall under thee] for that is an evidence of the sharpness of arrows, when men are thereby wounded and killed) foreign foreignin or upon or against the heart of the enemie of the King; those being the mark against which his shafts are directed, and the sharpness of them experimented upon them. This our last English designed in transposing the words, first, thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the Kings enemies] and then [whereby the people fall under thee.] This the Jewish Arab agrees to, and for taking away the harshness of the parenthesis, transposeth the words in like manner, thus; And thine arrows being sharp fall into the heart of the Kings enemies, and the nations fall under thee. So the Chaldee, having rendred the former part of the verse, [Thy arrows are brought out to slay armies, the people shall fall under thee] They then adde foreign and the sons of thy bow, i. e. the arrows in the beginning of the verse, shall be sent against the heart of the Kings enemies. Yet are these words capable of a rendring, without either transposing, or parenthesis, thus; Thine arrows are sharp, people shall fall under thee, in the midst of the Kings enemies, i. e. being reached by thine arrows in the midst of thine enemies armies. Thus foreign heart, is elsewhere used for the middest of a thing; as Deut. iv. 11. foreign the heart, i. e. the midst of heaven, and Exod. xv. 8. foreign in the heart, i. e. midst of the sea, so the heart of the earth, for the midst of it. And in the Arabick, foreign] which signifies the same with the Hebrew foreign] is the proper style for middle or main body of an army.
V. 6. Thy throne] The difficulty here is, to whom this verse and the following are literally and primarily appliable. And the doubt ariseth from the style, which is here inhaunced from the King, to God. 'Tis true indeed, foreign foreignwhich is here used, is sometimes applied to others besides God: 1. to the Gods of the Gentiles, who are so called Isa. xxxv. 18. foreign foreignthe Gods of the nations: 2. to Angels, Psal. Lxxxvi. 8. who is like to thee foreign foreignamong the Gods? the Chaldee reads, among the high foreign, the Greek foreign Angels, transformed by them: 3. to divine and excellent men, Prophets, and Judges, or Princes, &c. So Exod. xxii. 28. Thou shalt not vilifie foreign the Gods] is explained by what follows, nor curse the ruler of thy people; and Exod. xxi. 6. his master shall bring him foreign foreignto the Gods; we duly render it, to the Judges; and Exod. iv. 16. thou (Moses) shalt be to Aaron foreign foreignfor a God, foreign for a Prince, saith the Chaldee. And accordingly 'twere not strange for foreign to be applied to King Sololomon here. But the Apostle to the Hebrews c. 1. 7. affirming expresly, that these words are spoken to Christ the Son of God; and the Targum interpreting the King v. 2. (and so the whole Psalm) of the Messias, and so Kimchi, Aben Ezra, and Jarchi also; It is not reasonable or safe to apply them to any other but him; and so to take foreign in the principal signification, wherein it is most frequently used for the one God of heaven and earth, and of him to understand these two verses, as also v. 11. allowing to Solomon only an imperfect, limited, partial sense of them, as he was a type of this Messias. Which may well be reconcileable with the understanding the rest of this Psalm literally of Solomon, and only mystically of Christ; it being not unfrequent with Prophets of the old Testament, speaking of some other matter mystically referring to Christ, but immediately to somewhat of present concernment, to be carried by the divine spirit, whereby they were acted, to speak immediately of Christ. Of this see Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Tryphon the Jew, p. 287. where he concludes from this testimony, foreign, that he was to be worshipt, being God and Christ, v. 11. As also S. Augustine de Civ. Dei. l.xvii. c. xvi.
V. 8. Made thee glad] The former part of v. 8. being read, as it lies in the Hebrew, Myrrhe and aloes and Cassia all thy cloaths, i. e. they are so perfumed with these odors, as if they were nothing else; that which follows will be clear also, foreign foreignfrom the palaces of tooth, thereby, saith the Chaldee, meaning the Elephants tooth brought from Armenia, (it may more probably be said from Africa) with which it seems their choise rooms were beautified (of this Solomons throne is said to be made, 1 King. x. 18. and so Ahab made an Ivory house, 1 King. xxii. 39.) from which as the bridegroom passeth, or from whence, as he abideth therein, his garments yeeld this high perfume over all the adjoyning rooms. As for that which is added in the close, foreign foreign, with which they have delighted thee] it must be understood according to the vulgar Hebraisme, oft taken notice of (see Luk. xvi. note b.) they have delighted thee, i. e. thou art delighted or pleased with them.
V. 9. Thy honourable] From foreign pretiousus, honorabilis fuit, is foreign foreignhonour, glory, splendor; and so here in the plural, foreign in or among thy splendors, thy honours, thy ornaments, i. e. thy magnificent train. The Lxxii. renders it foreign in thy honour, to this sense clearly.
V. 13. Of wrought gold] Of the difference between foreign foreignhere and foreign foreignin the next verse, this onelyonly need be observed: that the former signifies ocellare, to worke a garment full of eyes, which eyes being here of gold, are probably such as are with us called oes, as being of the forme of an eye; the latter is to paint with a needle, i. e. to worke upon cloth &c. divers colours and figures, to imbroider with several coloured silks, thereby imitating the various plumes of birds, from whence those artificers are called plumarij. (See the learned Nic. Fuller Miscell. l. 1. c. 20.)