1_My heart is boiling over _(157) _with a good matter _This preface shows sufficiently that the subject of the psalm is no common one; for whoever the author of it may have been, he here intimates, at the very outset, that he will treat of great and glorious things. The Holy Spirit is not accustomed... [ Continue Reading ]
2._Thou art fairer than the sons of men. _The Psalmist commences his subject with the commendation of the beauty of the king, and then he proceeds also to praise his eloquence. Personal excellence is ascribed to the king, not that the beauty of the countenance, which of itself is not reckoned among... [ Continue Reading ]
3._Gird thy sword upon thy thigh. _Here Solomon is praised as well for his warlike valor, which strikes terror into ]his enemies, as for his virtues which give him authority among his subjects, and secure him their reverence. On the one hand, no king will be able to preserve and defend his subjects,... [ Continue Reading ]
5._Thy arrows are sharp, etc. _Here the Psalmist again refers to warlike power, when he says that the _arrows _of the king shall be sharp, so that they shall pierce the _hearts of his enemies; _by which he intimates that he has weapons in his hand with which to strike, even at a distance, all his en... [ Continue Reading ]
6._Thy throne, O God! is for ever and ever. _In this verse the Psalmist commends other princely virtues in Solomon, namely, the eternal duration of his throne, and then the justice and rectitude of his mode of government. The Jews, indeed, explain this passage as if the discourse were addressed to G... [ Continue Reading ]
8._All thy garments smell of myrrh _As to the signification of the words I am not disposed to contend much, for I find that even the Jews are not agreed among themselves as to the meaning of the third word, except that from the similarity of pronunciation it may be conjectured to denote cassia. It i... [ Continue Reading ]
10._Hearken, O daughter! and consider _I have no doubt, that what is here said is spoken of the Egyptian woman, whom the prophet has described as standing at the right hand of the king. It was not, indeed, lawful for Solomon to marry a strange woman; but this of itself is to be accounted among the g... [ Continue Reading ]
12_And the daughter of Tyre with a gift. _This also is a part of the recompense which the prophet promises to the queen in order to mitigate or rather to extinguish entirely, the longing desire she might still feel after her former condition. He says: that the Tyrians will come humbly to pay her rev... [ Continue Reading ]
13_The daughter of the King is all glorious within _(172) This verse may be understood in a twofold sense; either as meaning that the queen, not only when she appears in public before all the people, but also when sitting in private in her own chamber, is always sumptuously apparelled; or, that the... [ Continue Reading ]
16_Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children _This also serves to show the glory and transcendent excellence of this kingdom, namely, that the children will not be inferior in dignity to their fathers, and that the nobility of the race will not be diminished after the death of Solomon; for the ch... [ Continue Reading ]
17_I will make thy name to be remembered, etc. _This also is equally inapplicable to Solomon, who, by his shameful and impious rebellion, stained the memory of his name with disgrace. In polluting by superstitious abominations the land which was consecrated to God, did he not bring upon himself inde... [ Continue Reading ]