'Thou art fairer than the children of men; grace is poured into Thy
lips: therefore God hath blessed Thee forever. 3. Gird Thy sword
upon Thy thigh, O mighty one, Thy glory and Thy majesty. 4. And in
Thy majesty ride on prosperously, because of truth and meekness and
righteousness: and Thy right hand shall teach Thee terrible things.
5. Thine arrows are sharp; the peoples fall under Thee; they are in
the heart of the King's enemies. 6. Thy throne, O God, is for ever
and ever: a sceptre of equity is the sceptre of Thy kingdom. 7. Thou
hast loved righteousness, and hated wickedness: therefore God, Thy
God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.'
--PSALM xlv. 2-7 (R.V.).
There is no doubt that this psalm was originally the marriage hymn of
some Jewish king. All attempts to settle who that was have failed, for
the very obvious reason that neither the history nor the character of
any of them correspond to the psalm. Its language is a world too wide
for the diminutive stature and stained virtues of the greatest and best
of them, and it is almost ludicrous to attempt to fit its glowing
sentences even to a Solomon. They all look like little David in Saul's
armour. So, then, we must admit one of two things. Either we have here a
piece of poetical exaggeration far beyond the limits of poetic license,
or 'a greater than Solomon is here.' Every Jewish king, by virtue of his
descent and of his office, was a living prophecy of the greatest of the
sons of David, the future King of Israel. And the Psalmist sees the
ideal Person who, as he knew, was one day to be real, shining through
the shadowy form of the earthly king, whose very limitations and
defects, no less than his excellences and his glories, forced the devout
Israelite to think of the coming King in whom 'the sure mercies'
promised to David should be facts at last. In plainer words, the psalm
celebrates Christ, not only although, but because, it had its origin and
partial application in a forgotten festival at the marriage of some
unknown king. It sees Him in the light of the Messianic hope, and so it
prophesies of Christ. My object is to study the features of this
portrait of the King, partly in order that we may better understand the
psalm, and partly in order that we may with the more reverence crown Him
as Lord of all.