Ordinarily, on such occasions among the Jews, there would be no honourable women for attendants on the bride before the bride herself was visible. Moreover, the bride would choose her attendants, and hold them engaged by their own promise to wait upon her. I therefore suppose this psalm to point to a time forthcoming, when the Hebrew-Christian Church (already on earth, but hidden in the remnant according to the election of grace from out of the Jews of each generation, Rom. xi. 5) shall have recovered her visibility exactly as our Lord has depicted in His parable of the ten virgins, which He prefaces with saying "Then"—that is, at a particular time in the first age of the kingdom of heaven, or in the interval between that and "the age to come,' "this kingdom shall be likened unto ten virgins," (Matt. xxv. 1,) for the visibility of the virgins presupposes that of the Queen. On this point, then, it may suffice here to observe, that as the Hebrew-Christian Church lost its visibility upon the Jews being carried away captive from Jerusalem, so that Church-the Queen-cannot be expected to recover her visibility until the Jews shall have returned to their own land. This they may do by the permission of the European powers, while yet cleaving to Moses; and it may be appointed to the HebrewChristian Church to undergo much sorrow in their midst, when once more visible, (Rev. xi. 3,) ere the time spoken of in this psalm shall have arrived for the Lord's actual return in glory. (Matt. xxiv. 30.) But after the returned Jews shall have sustained another siege in Jerusalem, (Zech. xiv.,) and the country shall be "desolate without inhabitant," (Isa. vi. 11,) a remnant of the citizens rescued by the Lord at His appearance on the mount of Olives, shall be "the generation" (Ps. lxxviii. 4) which the Lord shall prepare, as were the Apostles in this first age, to be vessels of mercy to "the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah," (Rom. xi. 32,) and “so all Israel shall be saved," (ver. 26.) It seems to me, then, that these ministers of the Lord Jesus, while seeking in chief their own nation, will incidentally teach all of the Gentiles that they can persuade; and in this way will the Churches be in each nation formed, which shall be avowedly, as virgins, purposing to bear the Queen company against the Bridegroom's coming. In this way, five being ready to go in with the bride to the marriage, shall be incorporated with the Israelitish Church and nation in the Lord's land at His coming; but the five foolish, losing the opportunity, will be left to repent, and serve as Gentile Churches (Zech. xiv. 16) in all parts of the area of the four empires seen in Nebuchadnezzar's vision, during the millennium. The Queen-the Bride-will, as I gather from Scripture, on entering the Lord's land at that time, (under the guidance of angels, Matt. xxiv. 31, with which compare Ps. lxviii. 1, and lxv. 5, and lxxx.,) experience regeneration, (Matt. xix. 28,) even in the very flesh; by the same power that heretofore fashioned a pure body for our Lord in the womb of the blessed Virgin. (Jer. xxxi. 29, 30; Isa. lx. 21, lxv. 18-20.) This "redemption of the body" (spoken of in Luke xxi. 28, Rom. viii. 23, 1 Cor. i. 30,) seems to me darkly referred to in the tenth verse of this psalm, by the charge "forget also thine own people, and thy father's house." For as Eve needed to be "bone of Adam's bone and flesh of his flesh," in order to be a help-meet for him, even so should the case be with the bride of the last Adam on this earth. (Eph. v. 25-32.) The expression "Kings' daughters" in verse 9, I take to mean literally women of that rank; "the daughter of Tyre," to be some nation at that time most conspicuous for mercantile success and maritime power, as was Tyre in the psalmist's day, the expression "daughter of Tyre" being similar to that of" daughter of Babylon." (Ps. cxxxvii. 8.) 66 At the same time, what is at verse 12 testified that she shall do, implies her conversion to the true faith, not indeed by the preaching of "the deliverers out of Zion," for then she would be included among "the virgins bearing the Queen company," whereas her title, daughter of Tyre," indicates her attainment of the truth of the Gospel through the present succession of ministers from the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour. If England might hope to be designated by this name, "daughter of Tyre," how consolatory would be the expectation! The concluding verses of this psalm, from verse 13 to the end, describe the holy, happy state of Israel, as a nation and a Church, (Ps. xxxiii. 12-21,) in the Lord's land during the millennium, and the share of her happiness which she will extend to other nations in their several localities. 1. Forth from my heart is welling I'd of the King be telling Things heretofore unheard. No pen that ready writer has, My tongue's compliance2 shall surpass. 1 Ver. 1. See John iv. 14; Job xxxii. 18, 19. 2 The psalmist compares his tongue to a pen, not surely because of the pen of the readiest writer going so fast as the tongue, but to denote that it was in this instance as fully under the guidance of the Spirit of Christ, as a pen under that of a ready writer. (Acts xi. 17; John i. 23.) 2. Than Adam's sons Thou'rt fairer! Thou shouldest be ador'd. In might Thy sword gird on Thy thigh, In glory and in majesty! 3. And in Thy majesty ride on, Meekness and righteousness, renown; 4. Thy throne, O God, for ever Straight is Thy kingdom's sceptre- Because Thou righteousness dost love 5. Therefore, as on no other, Upon Thy sacred head, The oil of joy for ever God, e'en Thy God, hath shed! Of myrrh, aloes, and cassia3 The robes smell, which Thou dost prefer, 6. From many an ivory mansion, And on Thy right hand in the sheen Ver. 8. Compare Isa. lx. 6-13. 7. O daughter, pause! and ponder! Cleave thou! so shalt thou win 8. There shall with an oblation 9. In this, thy inwrought raiment, In order following. With joy and gladness shall the train 10. For fathers shall be children, For whom thou shalt procure In every land dominion. And I'll make to endure 4 Ver. 11. Lev. x. 3; Ps. ii. 12. 5 Ver. 12. From Ps. xlviii. 7, it is probable that England (if the country here called Tyre) will provoke God's displeasure, by certain conduct of its rulers towards His ancient people. The feminine pronominal suffix shews that this offering is brought to the Queen. 6 Ver. 13. The raiment is her Lord's, Rev. iii. 18; but it must be put on by each Christian's own self. Matt. xxii. 12; Rom. xiii. 14; Col. iii. 12. 7 Ver. 17. The Father here oracularly speaks, as in verse 6, C PSALM XLVI. TITLE. To the chief Musician. For the sons of Korah. A song on Alamoth, probably a species of musical instrument. See 1 Chron. xv. 20. ARGUMENT. The first three verses speak of vast commotions on the earth's surface, which may be deemed with great probability literal ones, according to Luke xxi. 25-27. For by Jer. xxx. 6, 7, it appears that a great tribulation shall overtake Jacob prior to his deliverance; after the same manner that a woman's birth-pains unavoidably in the course of God's Providence precede her happiness in becoming a mother. See John xvi. 20-22. Under all this tribulation the believing Israelites will have for their support "the river," (verse 4,) which in the day referred tonamely, when the city of God spoken of in Isa. i. 25, shall have been built-may probably have a literal meaning. See Ezek. xlvii. For by Rev. xxi. 1, 2, we find that in the Jerusalem of the new earth there shall be such means of renewal, in place of that which we now have of God through the operation of the Holy Ghost personally present. For we are told in John xvi. 7, that the Holy Ghost has come to minister this grace by the word and sacraments during the Lord our Saviour's absence. By verse 5, I understand that God is in a special sense to be in the midst of the city, or Hebrew-Christian Church, in her tribulation, described in verses 1--3; which shall afterwards be the city in the Lord's land, as described in Isa. xxvi. 1-4. For the same Israelitish community, which is in one respect a Church, is in another a city; as has already been observed in notes on Ps. xxxi. 20, 21; Phil. iii. 20. Those citizens will have been gathered from among "the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah," through the Jewish missionaries sent forth by the Lord, (Rom. xi. 26,) after "the northern" shall have first destroyed Jerusalem, and been thereupon himself overthrown, (Zech. xiv.; Joel ii. 20.) "God shall be in the midst of her," for support of her, along with her attendant virgins, the Churches from out of the Gentiles, (Isa. xxx. 20; Matt. xxv. 1-13:) and "at the appearing of the morning," will help her with angels sent to gather her out of every land; so soon as the sign of His presence shall have been displayed to the assembled multitudes of Gentile zealots in the valley of Jehoshaphat, (Joel iii. 14-16; Matt. xxiv. 30, 31.) These last I take to be described in verse 6, while the happy state of the Hebrew-Christian Church, full of hope, as described in Ps. xlv. 13, is expressed |