EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

Title. —“Upon Shoshannim,” or upon lilies. It will be remembered that lilies were an emblem of purity and loveliness, and were introduced as such in the building of Solomon’s temple (see 1 Kings vii. 19, 22, 26; 2 Chron. iv. 5); and the church is compared in the Canticles to a “lily among thorns.” Cant. ii. 2. The Psalms which bear this title, “upon lilies,” are the present, the sixty-ninth and the eightieth (cp. Ps. lx.); and all these contain prophecies of Christ and his church. The sixtieth is a parallel to the forty-fourth, and represents her supplicating appeal to God, and Christ’s victories. The sixty-ninth displays the victories gained by Christ through suffering. The eightieth is also parallel to the forty-fourth and sixtieth, a plaintive lament of the church in distress and a supplicating cry for deliverance. All these three Psalms are (if we may venture to use this expression) like the voice of the “lily among thorns.” That there is, therefore, some reference here to the spiritual meaning of the word שֹׁשַׁנִּים, or lilies, in this title, seems at least to be probable.—Christopher Wordsworth.

Title.—We think that Shoshannim signifies an instrument of six strings, or a song of rejoicing.—Augustin Calmet, 1672-1757.

Kitto, on the other hand, says that the word is so clearly lilies, that he is disinclined to go out of the way to bring in the Hebrew word for six.

Title.—“To the chief musician upon Shoshannim.” Some would have it that instruments whereon were many engravings of lilies, which are six-leaved flowers, are here meant. And, indeed, some interpreters, because of that derivation of the word, do thus translate it, upon Shoshannim, that is, upon lilies; and that either in reference to their wedding garlands, that were made much of lilies, or as intending by these lilies Christ and his church.—Arthur Jackson.

Title.—“A song.” The word שִׁיר, shir, the meaning of which (song), is unquestioned, is prefixed to many of the Psalms, three times simply and thirteen times in connection with Mizmor. There is no mark of peculiarity in their composition. The meaning of the word seems to be discriminated from Mizmor, as signifying a thing to be sung, with reference to its poetical structure.—John Jebb.

Whole Psalm.—The Psalter, which sets forth so much truth respecting the person and work of Christ—truth more precious than gold and sweeter than the honeycomb—is not silent respecting the bond subsisting between him and his people, the mystical union between Christ and the church. When a prince sets his affections on a woman of lowly rank, and takes her home to be his wife, the two are so united that her debts become his, his wealth and honours become hers. Now, that there is formed between Christ and the church, between Christ and every soul that will consent to receive him, a connection, of which the most intimate of all natural relations is the analogue and type, we have already found to be not only taught in the Psalms, but to be implied in the very structure of many of them. He takes his people’s sins upon him, and they receive the right to become the sons of God; the One Spirit of God wherewith he was baptised without measure, dwells in them according to the measure of the grace that is given them. I will only add further, that this union, besides being implied in so many places, is expressly set forth in one most glorious Psalm—the Nuptial Song of Christ and the Church—which has for its peculiar theme the home-bringing of Christ’s elect, that they may be joined to him in a union that shall survive the everlasting hills.—William Binnie, D.D.

Verse 1.—“My heart is inditing a good matter,” and then, “My tongue shall be like the pen of a ready writer.” Oh, then I shall go merrily on in his service, when I have matter prepared in my heart. And, indeed, as the mariner sees further new stars the further he sails, he loseth sight of the old ones and discovers new; so the growing Christian, the further he sails in religion he discovers new wants, new Scriptures affect him, new trials afflict him, new business he finds with God, and forgetting those things that are behind, he reacheth after those things that are before, and so finds every day new business with the Lord his God; and he that is busy trifles not; the more business the less distraction.—Richard Steele.

Verse 1.—“My heart is inditing a good matter.” רָחַשׁ (rakhash), boileth or bubbleth up; denotes the language of the heart full and ready for utterance.—Victorinus Bythner.

Verse 1.—“My heart is inditing a good matter.” Here you have the work of the Spirit of prophecy. By his operation the good “matter” is engendered in the Psalmist’s bosom, and now his heart is heaving and labouring under the load. It is just beginning to throw it up, like water from a fountain, that it may flow off in the channel of the tongue. Here, therefore, you have some insight given you of the manner of the operation of the Spirit in the heart of man. The Psalmist says his heart is doing what the Spirit is doing in his heart. The heart does it, indeed, but it is the Spirit’s working. The Psalmist took all the interest and pleasure in his subject that he could have done, if the Spirit had had nothing to do with it; for when the Spirit works, he works not only by the heart, but in the heart; he seizes upon all its affections, every fibre of it is bent to his will.—George Harpur, in “Christ in the Psalms,” 1862.

Verse 1.—“Good matter,” the goodspell, or gospel.—Christopher Wordsworth.

Verse 1.—A similitude taken from the mincah, or meat-offering in the law, which was dressed in the frying-pan (Lev. vii. 9), and there boiled in oil, being made of fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil (Lev. ii. 5), and afterwards was presented to the Lord by the priest, ver. 8. Here the matter of this Psalm is as the mincah or oblation, which with the oil, the grace of the Spirit, was boiled and prepared in the prophet’s heart, and now presented.—Henry Ainsworth.

Verse 1.—It is reported of Origen, saith Erasmus, that he was ever earnest, but most of all when he discoursed of Christ. Of Johannes Mollias, a Bononian, it is said, that whenever he spake of Jesus Christ, his eyes dropped, for he was fraught with a mighty fervency of God’s Holy Spirit; and like the Baptist, he was first a burning (boiling or bubbling), and then a shining light.—John Trapp.

Verse 1.—“Touching the king.” It does not all concern the king immediately, for much of it concerns the queen, and about one-half of it is directly addressed to her. But it relates to him inasmuch as it relates to his family. Christ ever identifies himself with his people; so that, whatever is done to them, is done to himself. Their interests are his.—George Harpur.

Verse 1.—“My tongue” shall be like the pen of one that takes minutes or writes shorthand: for I shall speak very briefly, and not in words at length, or so as to be understood in a literal sense, but in figures and emblems.—From “Holy David and his old English Translators cleared,” 1706. [Anon.]

Verse 1.—“The pen.” We call the prophets the penmen of Scripture, whereas they were but the pen.—Matthew Henry.

Verse 2.—“Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips.” Thus he begins to set forth his beauty, wherein is the delightfulness of any person; so is it with the soul when God hath made known to man his own filthiness and uncomeliness through sin, and that only by Jesus sin is taken away; oh, how beautiful is this face, the first sight of him! Secondly, “Full of grace are thy lips:” here is the second commendation; which is, when Jesus hath opened his lips to us, from them he pours out grace into our soul, when he makes known the Father to us, and speaks peace to all that are far off and near; when he calls, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you:” and all this is because God hath blessed him for ever; we are assured he comes from God, and that he and his works are eternal, and therefore all his grace poured out upon us shall remain with us, and make us blessed for ever; for he is the Word of God, and he speaks the mind of God, for he speaks nothing but what he hath heard from the Father; and when he speaks to our souls with his Word, the Spirit is given, a certain testimony to our soul that we are the sons of God, and a pledge of our inheritance; for the Spirit and the Word cannot be separated.—Richard Coore, in “Christ set forth.”

Verse 2.—“Thou art fairer than the children of men,” etc. Nothing can be more beautiful than this abrupt way of discourse. The prophet sets out with a professed design to speak of the king. But as if in the moment he had so intended, the glorious Person of whom he was going to speak appeared to his view, he instantly leaves every other consideration to speak to him himself. And what a rapturous address he makes! He first describes the glories, the beauties, the astonishing loveliness, of his person. Though to a carnal eye there was no beauty to desire him, his visage was marred more than any man’s, and his form more than the sons of men, yet to an eye truly enlightened, he is the king in his beauty, fairer, as the glorious Mediator, the Head, the Bridegroom of his Church and people, than all the children of men. And, in the Father’s view, so greatly beloved, so truly glorious, that grace was poured into his lips. Reader, observe the expression; not simply grace put into his heart, for the holiness and purity of his person, but poured into his lips, that, like the honey, it might drop upon his people, and be for ever communicated to all his redeemed, in an endless perpetuity of all suited blessings here, and glory hereafter.—Robert Hawker, D.D.

Verse 2.—“Thou art fairer than the children of men.” Are you for beauty? That takes with most: for this none like Christ. For beauty and comeliness he infinitely surpasses both men and angels. We read of Moses, that he was exceeding fair; and of David, that he was ruddy, and of a beautiful countenance; and Josephus reports of the one of them, that all that saw him were amazed at and enamoured of his beauty. Oh, but what was their beauty to Christ’s? Were their beauty, and with theirs the beauty of men and angels put together, it would all be nothing to the beauty of Christ; not so much as the light of a farthing candle is to the light of the sun at noon-day.—Edward Pearse in “The Best Match,” 1673.

Verse 2.—“Thou art fairer,” etc. Fair he was (1) in his conception, conceived in purity, and a fair angel brought the news. Fair (2) in his nativity: ὡραῖος is the word in the Septuagint, tempustivus, in time, that is, all things are beautiful in their time, Eccl. iii. 11. And in the fulness of time it was that he was born, and a fair star pointed to him. Fair (3) in his childhood; he grew up in grace and favour, Luke ii. 52. The doctors were much taken with him. Fair (4) in his manhood; had he not been so, says S. Jerome, had there not been something admirable in his countenance and presence, some heavenly beauty, the apostles and the whole world (as the Pharisees themselves confess) would not so suddenly have gone after him. Fair (5) in his transfiguration, white as the light, or as the snow, his face glittering as the sun (Matt. xvii. 2), even to the ravishing the very soul of S. Peter, that “he knew not what he said,” could let his eyes dwell upon that face for ever, and never come down the mount again. Fair (6) in his passion. Nihil indecorum, no uncomeliness, in his nakedness; his very wounds, and the bloody prints of the whips and scourges drew an ecce from the mouth of Pilate: “Behold the man!” the sweetness of his countenance and carriage in the midst of filth and spittle, whips and buffets. His very comeliness upon the cross, and his giving up the ghost, made the centurion cry out, he “was the Son of God:” there appeared so sweet a majesty, so heavenly a lustre in him through that very darkness that encompassed him. Fair (7) in his resurrection; so subtle a beauty, that mortal eyes, even the eyes of his own disciples, were not able to see or apprehend it, but when he veiled it from them. Fair (8) in his ascension; made his disciples stand gazing after him so long (as if they never could look long enough upon him), till an angel is sent from heaven to rebuke them, to look home, Acts i. 2.—Mark Frank.