A nuptial ode, celebrating the marriage of a king with a king's daughter. After a brief prelude (Psalms 45:1) the Psalmist addresses the king, praising the personal beauty which marks him out as a ruler of men, and bidding him use his strength in the cause of truth and right. Noble qualities of hear... [ Continue Reading ]
Introduction and dedication. _My heart_&c. Better, My heart bubbleth over with goodly words. The nobility of his subject inspires him with an impulse which will not be restrained. _I speak of the things_&c. Better, I speak the things which I have made (i. e. composed, cp. Old Eng. _maker_= poet) t... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou art fairer_&c. Personal beauty was always regarded as a qualification for a ruler, partly on account of its intrinsic attractiveness, partly as the index of a noble nature. Cp. 1 Samuel 9:2; 1Sa 10:23; 1 Samuel 16:12; and the descriptions of the classical heroes in Homer and Vergil; e.g. Aenea... [ Continue Reading ]
The royal bridegroom: his personal beauty, the justice of his government, the success of his arms, the glory of his kingdom, the magnificence of his court. He is one upon whom the Divine blessing has rested in fullest measure.... [ Continue Reading ]
Instead of praising the king's strength and courage in the abstract, the Psalmist bids him use them in the cause of truth and right. _O_most _mighty_ O mighty hero. with _thy glory and thy majesty_ It is better to repeat the verb: (gird on) thy honour and thy majesty. Honour and majesty are Divine... [ Continue Reading ]
_And_in _thy majesty_ The single word of the original is an exact repetition of the last word of Psalms 45:3. Such repetitions are a common poetical figure; but the construction is harsh, the prep. _in_not being expressed; the word is omitted by the Syr. (probably) and Jer. (ed. Lagarde); and may be... [ Continue Reading ]
As the text stands it must be rendered; Thine arrows are sharp; Peoples fall under thee: (They are) in the heart of the king's enemies. The poet depicts the battle with rapid vigorous strokes of his pen. The king's arrows are sharpened (Isaiah 5:28), ready for fatal effect; his enemies fall at t... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thy throne_, _O God,_is _for ever and ever_ (1) This appears to be the sense given by all the Ancient Versions, for though it has been argued that ὁ θεὸς in the LX X is not the vocative (_Thy throne O God_) but the predicate (_Thy throne is God_), the words do not appear to have been so understood... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou lovest_&c. Or, as R.V., Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated wickedness. "I have loved justice and hated iniquity, and therefore I die in exile" were the last memorable words of Gregory VII. Milman, _Hist. of Lat. Christianity_, iv. 138. _therefore_ The willing conformity of the king to t... [ Continue Reading ]
The bridegroom appears, arrayed for the marriage, his garments saturated with costly perfumes, brought from distant lands. _Myrrh_was a product of Arabia: _aloes_here denotes the perfumed wood of an Indian tree: _cassia_(a different word from that so translated in Exodus 30:24; Ezekiel 27:19, and fo... [ Continue Reading ]
Kings" daughters are among thy honourable women: At thy right hand doth stand the queen in gold of Ophir (R.V.). An Oriental monarch prided himself on the number and nobility of the wives in his harem, and some at least of the Jewish monarchs were no exception to the rule (1 Kings 11:3; Song of So... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hearken, O daughter_ The Psalmist adopts the tone of an authoritative teacher and uses language resembling that of the Wise Man to his disciples in the opening chapter of Proverbs (Proverbs 1:8, and frequently). The exhortation seems strange until it is remembered that the marriage was probably a m... [ Continue Reading ]
The poet addresses the bride, counselling her to forget her old home and surrender herself with complete devotion to her husband, and describing the honours which await her.... [ Continue Reading ]
_So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty_ Omit _greatly._ worship thou him Better, do him homage: not necessarily in the literal sense of prostrating herself before him (1Sa 25:41; 1 Kings 1:16; 1 Kings 1:31), but by shewing him befitting respect and submission. This exhortation, and the title... [ Continue Reading ]
The words _shall be there_are not in the Heb., and it has been proposed to render, _And, O daughter of Tyre, with a gift shall the rich of the people intreat thy favour_, making the bride a Tyrian princess. But apart from other objections, _the daughter of Tyre_should mean, according to the analogy... [ Continue Reading ]
The King's daughter within (the palace) is all glorious: Her clothing is inwrought with gold. (R.V.) The bride is described in all the splendour of her bridal attire. Within the palace, or in the inner part of the palace, may refer to her old home, the Psalmist by poetical licence ignoring interva... [ Continue Reading ]
Description of the bride adorned for her husband.... [ Continue Reading ]
In raiment of embroidery shall she be conducted to the king, in solemn and stately procession, accompanied by a train of attendants such as befits a king's daughter. Cp. Esther 2:9. For mention of embroidery cp. Exodus 28:39; Judges 5:30; &c. Other but less probable renderings are, _on tapestry_or _... [ Continue Reading ]
_shall they be brought_ Shall they be conducted, as in Psalms 45:14. The procession which conducted the bride to her new home was an important part of the marriage ceremony, and was always accompanied with songs and music and dancing and every mark of rejoicing. See 1Ma 9:37 ff. "The children of Jam... [ Continue Reading ]
_Instead of thy fathers_&c. The wish does not, as is sometimes said, imply a long line of royal ancestors, and therefore exclude the reference of the Psalm to Solomon, but rather the reverse. If he cannot boast of a long ancestry, may he at least be famous for a numerous and distinguished posterity.... [ Continue Reading ]
Concluding wishes and anticipations addressed to the king.... [ Continue Reading ]
The poet's song will perpetuate the memory of the king; and that not in Israel only, but among other peoples (Psalms 72:17). _therefore shall the people praise thee_ Therefore shall the peoples praise thee, or (R.V.) give thee thanks: a word commonly applied to God (Psalms 42:5; Psalms 42:11; Psalms... [ Continue Reading ]