EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS (2)

Verse 2.—O fair sun, and fair moon, and fair stars, and fair flowers, and fair roses, and fair lilies; but O ten thousand thousand times fairer Lord Jesus! Alas! I have wronged him in making the comparison this way. O black sun and moon! but O fair Lord Jesus! O black flowers, and black lilies, and roses! but O fair, fair, ever fair, Lord Jesus! O black heaven! but O fair Christ! O black angels! but O surpassingly fair Lord Jesus!—Samuel Rutherford.

Verse 2.—In one Christ we may contemplate and must confess all the beauty and loveliness both of heaven and earth; the beauty of heaven is God, the beauty of earth is man; the beauty of heaven and earth together is this God-man.—Edward Hyde, D.D., 1658.

Verse 2.—“Thou.” “I have a passion,” observed Count Zinzendorf in one of his discourses to the congregation at Herrnhut, “and it is He—He only.”

Verse 2.—“Thou art fairer.” Hebrew, Thou art double fairer; the Hebrew word is doubled, ad corroborandum, saith Kimchi.—John Trapp.

Verse 2.—“Grace is poured into thy lips.” This is said as if this grace were a gift, and not something inherent in our Lord himself. And is not this exactly what we learn from the histories of the evangelists? Before Jesus went forth to the work of his public mission, the Holy Ghost descended from heaven like a dove and lit upon him. The Spirit who imparts all its graces to the church of Christ imparted his graces to Christ himself. Not that the Son of God needed the anointing of the Spirit of God, but he suffered it to be so that he might be in all things like his brethren. If he was to be their example, he must show them wherein their great strength lay. They see in him the fruits of the Holy Ghost who is promised to themselves. All that Christ ever did as the Head and Representative of his people, he did by that very Spirit which is still resident in his church.—George Harpur.

Verse 2.—“Grace is poured into thy lips.” “Full of grace are thy lips.” Full of grace for the matter, and full of grace for the manner. I. For the matter, he delivered acceptable doctrine: “The law was given by Moses, but grace came by Jesus Christ.” John i. 17. Moses had harsh and hard words in his law; “Cursed is he that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them;” but Christ on the contrary speaks better things, the first words in his first sermon are, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. v. 3. He cometh unto his people, cum verbo gratiæ, cum osculo gratiæ, saith Augustine: his lips are full of grace, that is, pouring out gracious words abundantly. Matt. xi. 28; John iii. 16; Luke iv. 18. “His lips are like lilies dropping down myrrh” (Cant. v. 13); all that heard him wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, Luke iv. 22. II. For the manner, he taught not as the scribes; he spake so sweetly that the very catch-poll officers, astonished at his words, gave this testimony, “Never man spake like this man,” John vii. 46. He spake so graciously that the apostles forsook all things and followed him; at his call Andrew left his nets straightway, James and John their father without tarrying, Matthew from the receipt of custom, Zaccheus from the like worldly course, came hastily to receive him joyfully. Mark x. 28; Matt. iv. 20, 21; ix. 9; Luke xix. 6. Nay, beloved, he was so powerful an orator, that the very winds and waves obeyed his word. Mark iv. 39. It is reported in Holy Writ that all princes and people were desirous of hearing Solomon’s eloquence; the Queen of Sheba wondering at the same, cried out, “Happy are these thy servants which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom,” 1 Kings x. 8. Solomon is a type here, but Christ is the truth; and this showeth evidently that Christ is not a tyrant, but a mild prince, persuading obedience plausibly, not compelling his people violently; his sayings are his sceptre and his sword: his piercing exhortations are, as it were, his sharp arrows by which his followers are subdued unto him.

To conclude this argument, his fair words (as the Scripture speaks) “are as an honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones” (Prov. xvi. 24): “an honeycomb,” and what more toothsome? “sweetness to the soul and health to the bones;” and what, I pray, more wholesome? The good man’s soul is Christ’s own spouse, to which he speaks a great many ways graciously; sometimes correcting, and what stronger argument of love? for “whom he loveth he chasteneth” (Heb. xii. 6); sometimes instructing, and his gospel is able to make “the man of God perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. iii. 17); sometimes wooing in amorous terms, as in his love-song everywhere: “my beloved,” “my sister,” “my spouse,” “the fairest among women,” “my love,” “my dove,” etc.; sometimes promising, and that both the blessings of this life present (Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: etc., Isaiah xli. 10), and of that life which is to come. John xvii. 21, 24. But Christ’s excellent intercession every day to God the Father, appearing in the court of heaven, and as an advocate pleading for us, is yet fuller of grace; for if Caleb easily granted his daughter’s request, and bestowed on her “the springs above and the springs beneath” (Judges i. 15), how shall Almighty God (whose mercies are above all his works) deny the suits of such a Son in whom he is well pleased?—John Boys.

Verse 2.—“Grace is poured into thy lips.” The former clause noted his inward perfections; and this signifies his ability and readiness to communicate them to others.—Matthew Pool.

Verse 2 (second clause).—Never were there such words of love and sweetness spoken by any man as by him: never was there such a loving and tender heart as the heart of Jesus Christ: “Grace was poured into his lips.” Certainly never were there such words of love, sweetness, and tenderness spoken here upon this earth as those last words of his which were uttered a little before his sufferings, and are recorded in the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th chapters of John. Read over all the books of love and friendship that were ever written by any of the sons of men, they do all come far short of those melting strains of love that are there expressed. So sweet and amiable was the conversation of Jesus Christ, that it is reported of the apostle Peter in the Ecclesiastical History, that after Christ’s ascension he wept so abundantly, that he was always seen wiping his face from the tears; and being asked why he wept so, he answered, He could not choose but weep as often as he thought of that most sweet conversation of Jesus Christ.—John Row.

Verse 3.—“Gird thy sword upon thy thigh.” The sword, according to ancient custom was hung in a belt put round the shoulders, and reaching down to the thigh. It was suspended on the back part of the thigh, almost to the ground, but was not girded upon it; the horseman’s sword was fixed on the saddle by a girth. When David, in spirit invites the Redeemer of the church to gird his sword upon his thigh, and the spouse says of the valiant of Israel, “every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night” (Cant. iii. 8), they do not mean that the weapon was literally bound upon their thigh, but hung in the girdle on the back part of it; for this was the mode in which, by the universal testimony of ancient writers, the infantry wore their swords. It is still the practice in the East to wear swords in this manner, for Chardin informs us, that “the Eastern people wear their swords hanging down at length; and the Turks wear their swords on horseback, and on their thigh.” But in his poetical invitation to the Redeemer, to gird his sword upon his thigh, David manifestly points to some special occasion of solemn and official character; and a clear light is thrown upon his meaning by a custom to this day observed in the East. “When a Persian or an Ottoman prince ascends the throne,” says Mr. Morier, “he girds on his sabre. Mohammed Jaffer, for example, was proclaimed by the Khan, governor pro tempore, till the arrival of his brother, and was invested in this dignity by the girding of a sword upon his thigh, an honour which he accepted with a reluctance perhaps not wholly feigned.”—“This ceremony,” says Dr. Davey, giving an account of an Eastern coronation, “remained to be performed before the prince could be considered completely king—it was that of choosing a new name, and putting on the regal sword. The prince went in great state to the temple, where he presented offerings, and then, the sword having been girded on his thigh, the priest presented a pot of sandal-powder, in which the prince, who may now be called king, dipped his fingers.”

From these anecdotes, it is evident girding a sword on the thigh is part of the ceremony of royal inauguration; and that when the Psalmist addresses the Messiah, he refers to his receiving the honours and powers of the Lord of all.—G. Paxton’s Illustrations of Scripture.

Verse 3.—“Thy sword.” The word of God is compared to such a weapon, for the apostle informs us that it is quick, or living, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and laying open the thoughts and intents of the heart. It must be observed, however, that this description of the word of God is applicable to it only when Christ girds it on, and employs it as his sword. Of what use is a sword, even though it be the sword of Goliath, while it lies still in its scabbard, or is grasped by the powerless hand of an infant? In those circumstances it can neither conquer nor defend, however well suited it might be to do both in the hand of a warrior. It is the same with the sword of the Spirit. While it lies still in its scabbard, or is wielded only by the infantile hand of Christ’s ministers, it is a powerless and useless weapon; a weapon at which the weakest sinner can laugh, and against which he can defend himself with the utmost ease. But not so when he who is the Most Mighty girds it on. Then it becomes a weapon of tremendous power, a weapon resistless as the bolt of heaven. “Is not my word like a fire, and a hammer, saith the Lord, which breaketh the rock in pieces?” It is indeed, for what can be more efficacious and irresistible than a weapon sharper than a two-edged sword, wielded by the arm of omnipotence? What must his sword be whose glance is lightning? Armed with this weapon, the Captain of our salvation cuts his way to the sinner with infinite ease, though surrounded by rocks and mountains, scatters his strongholds and refuges of lies, and with a mighty blow cleaves asunder his heart of adamant, and lays him prostrate and trembling at his feet. Since such are the effects of this weapon in the hand of Christ, it is with the utmost propriety that the Psalmist begins by requesting him to gird it on, and not suffer it to be inactive in its scabbard, or powerless in the feeble grasp of his ministers.—Edward Payson.

Verse 3.—“O most mighty.” Christ is almighty, and so able to make good all that he speaketh, and to make his word of precept, promise, and threatening effectual unto the errand for which it is sent.—David Dickson.

Verses 3, 4.—We may reflect with pleasure on the glorious cause in which Christ is engaged, and the holy war which he carries on, and in which he shall prosper. It is the cause of truth, of meekness, and righteousness. His gospel, his sword, which is the word of God, tends to rectify our errors by truth; to control our passions by that meekness which it promotes, and to regulate our lives by the laws of righteousness which it inculcates. Let us rejoice that this sacred cause has hitherto prospered, and shall prosper.—Job Orton, 1717-1783.

Verse 4.—“And in thy majesty ride prosperously,” etc. The wheels of Christ’s chariot, whereupon he rideth when he goeth to conquer and subdue new converts to his kingdom, are majesty, truth, meekness, righteousness, manifested in the preaching of his gospel; majesty, when the stately magnificence of his person and offices is declared; truth, when the certainty of all that he teacheth in Scripture is known; meekness, when his grace and mercy is offered to rebels; and righteousness, when justification by faith in his name is clearly set forth. Christ goeth no voyage in vain, he cometh not short of his intent and purpose, but doth the work for which he cometh, preaching the gospel; in his majesty, truth, meekness, and righteousness, he rideth prosperously.—David Dickson.