faculties and feelings of the human instrument to indicate the exciting nature of the subject.

“ Thou art beautified with beauty among the scns of men! " The verb employed has an unusual form, and might be rendered “Beautiful, beautiful art thou,” (Alexander).

“Grace is poured upon thy lips.”

Everything that is attractive, everything that is graceful in character and form, in feature and expression, is meant by grace." It is not what we usually call by that name; it is a term for what fits with the person and draws the eyes of others to him. It is thus used (Prov. iv. 9), “She shall give to thy head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee"-wisdom so clothing the person with moral beauty. It is thus, too, in Psalm 1xxxiv. 11-"The Lord will give grace and glory”—the ornament of beauty, the crown of glory. All this, in full perfection, is found in Messiah's person; all that is fitted to attract and fix the soul's gaze; all that is beautiful in excellence; all that is drawing in holiness and majestic worth.

Now comes verse 3,

"Warrior! gird thy sword upon thy thigh, (Horsley). This is "The Mighty One" whom Isaiah (ix. 5) calls "The Mighty God." He is the who goes forth to victory, and yet acts in behalf of "meekness and truth and righteousness (see Rev. xix. 15), or more literally, "in behalf of meekness and truth;" the doing which in such a cause is "righteousness.' "On his thigh," we find a name in Rev. xix. 16 in perfect keeping with the here, "King of kings, Lord or lords."

“ Thine arrows are sharpened !

The nations fall under thee!

They (thy arrows) are in the hearts of the King's enemies!'

He reaches the Throne, and sits down, his enemies made his footstool. Messiah, thus seated on the throne in visible ma

jesty, is addressed in verses 6, 7, by the name "God;"

"Thy Throne, O God, is for ever and ever.”

Thy God hath anointed thee, O God!" (Comp. Heb. i. 8, 9, in the
Greek, and undoubtedly the true rendering of the Hebrew.)

Everything is ready for the Marriage : “myrrh and aloes and cassia" (Song iii. 6) have been prepared for this day of Espousals, brought out of " palaces of ivory" to help the joy, or in other words, to complete the mirthful arrangements of this day of heavenly gladness.

"Out of the ivory palace, the sound of the harp (") maketh thee glad,” (taking to mean "stringed instruments.

Tholuck.)

The "King's daughters" who are in attendance “precious ones," ie., of high value, seem to be like the "daughter of Jerusalem" in The Song; and especially does this portion of the Psalm remind us of Song vi. 8, 9, "The threescore queens, fourscore concubines, and virgins without number." We suspect that both in that Song and here also, these represent the Angelic hosts. They are natives of that heavenly country-not, like The Bride, brought into it from a far foreign land. The Bride, or Queen, is the redeemed Church, made up of Jew and Gentile saints, the one Body of the redeemed who are referred to in Hebrews xi. 39, 40.

In this view we find no difficulties left. "Be it," sings the sweet singer, “Be it that thy princesses who fill thy court are of highest rank, such as are Kings' daughters, yet pre-eminent stands The Queen in gold of Ophir! No rival to her! She is honoured, and worthy of honour, above all !”

A pause follows. The Bride is addressed in prospect of this day. It is, q.d., "Wilt thou not, since this is thy glorious destiny, be willing to leave all former relationships? Wilt thou not, O daughter, be as Rebecca going to Isaac? This Mighty One is thy Lord; be thou as Sarah to Abraham.” (Gen. xviii. 12; 1 Pet. iii. 5, 6.)

But the scene is not yet sufficiently set before us. The sweet singer touches his harp again to a lofty strain, to describe the splendour of dominion possessed by the Bride in right of the Bridegroom.

" The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift.

The rich am ng THE PEOPLE (□) shall entreat thy favour." (Ver. 12.) This tells of the Glorified Church, the Lamb's Wife, ruling over a subdued world, in the millennial days. "Tyre" is taken as a sample of Gentile nations, and is elsewhere referred to as acting

a part in these happy times (see Isa. xxiii. 18); while "the rich among the People" are the Jews in their restored prosperity. The glorified Church reigns with Christ over the nations upon earth. The glorified Church is with Christ on his throne, wherever that may be, while he rules the people and nations under the whole heaven, Gentile and Jew, Tyre and The People.

The virgins her companions” are, we think, the same as verse 9 and as Song vi. 8, " virgins without number," namely, the angelic hosts. These participate in the joy of this scene, even as they sympathized with the birth of the Bridegroom at Bethlehem. As for her she is all splendour, and "gold embroidery" is her vesture, i. e., the richest and the rarest fabric of creation.

And (not to dwell too long on verses that tempt us to linger at every step), at last comes the final strain. The Queen, or Bride, is addressed in verse 16. It is, like Genesis xxiv. 60 and Ruth iv. 11, the expression of a wish for the after fruitfulness of the Bride. The Glorified Church, reigning with Christ, is to see her prayers answered and her labours crowned, in the blessings which shall be poured on Earth in those glad millennial days.

“Instead of thy fathers," those who filled earth in thy former days "shall be thy children." Earth shall have its new generations generations of holy men,-"whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth"-every one fit to be a prince, the weakest among them as David, and the House of David as the Angel of the Lord.

“So shall the nations praise thee for ever and ever ! " This ends the loftiest Epithalamium ever sung. It is what Milton would call

"The unexpressive nuptial song,

In the blest kingdom meek of joy and love."

It is Earth taught by Heaven to sing heaven's infinite love to man. It is a prelude to the New Song. Every clause in it is melody, and every thought in it is sublimity; but it is just such as we might expect to be breathed forth when the theme on hand was

Messiah the Mighty One appearing as King and Bridegroom,

PSALM XLVI.

To the chief Musician. For the sons of Korah. A Song upon Alamoth.

1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed,

And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled,

Though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

4 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, The holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.

5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved:

God shall help her, and that right early.

6 The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.

7 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

8 Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth.

9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth;

He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.

10 Be still, and know that I am God:

I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

11 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

BEFORE the dawn of that day of the Bridegroom and the Bride, Connection the Marriage-feast, earth shall shake with commotions; wars, rumours of wars, earthquakes, famines, pestilence, all combining to make men perplexed. But here we find the same Mighty One giving strength to his own in these perilous times. The title is peculiar, "on Alamoth," suggesting “a choir of Title. virgins," as if this Virgin-choir were selected to sing a Psalm that tells of perils and fears and alarms abounding, in order to shew that even the feeble virgins may in that day sing without dread because of "The Mighty One" on their side. They and the "Sons of Korah" join in this lofty strain of confidence. We all know how Luther used to sing this Psalm in times of peril and alarm, and many have done the like in all ages.

They sing of Jehovah “a very present help," or more lite- The plan. rally, "He is found a help most truly," N, being the same word here as in 1 Sam. xiii. 16, "present with Saul;" 2 Chron. xxxv. 18, "Judah and Israel present," or found at their post;

and 1 Sam. xxi. 3, "whatever is present"—is at hand. He has proved himself to be a help at hand.

The river in verse 4 alludes to the Euphrates of Babylon, and the Tigris of Assyria. Jerusalem has not such mighty floods to boast of. Yet Jerusalem has a river too. She has her waters of Silvah," flowing softly from her Temple (Isa. viii. 6-8), which may be despised by men of might, yet are Jerusalem's glory. Her glory is, that Jehovah is in her Temple, from beneath whose rock flows out Siloah; and thus "A river is there, that gladdens this city of God." Or, if this be not the primary reference, the allusion is to this same Silouh when it shall flow from the Temple (see Joel iii. 18; Isa. xxxiii. 21; Ezek. xlvii. 1-16), and shall heal whatever it laves; far excelling the mighty waters of Euphrates and Hiddekel, which bear the proud gallies of tyrants.

Victory shall come as soon as the Lord's set time arrives; "when morning appears," as at the Red Sea. (Exod. xiv. 27). The Lord himself shall invite men to see his victory: "Come and see!" (ver. 8), and to hear Him proclaim his own right to exaltation. At this announcement, his people shout in reply, verses 7 and 11, each marked (like ver. 5) by the "Selah."

The Mighty One on the side of the righteous, amid earth's sorest throes.

PSALM XLVII.

To the chief Musician. A Psalm for the sons of Korah.

10 CLAP your hands, all ye people! shout unto God with the voice of

triumph!

2 For the Lord most high is terrible: he is a great King over all the earth. 3 He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.

4 He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob, whom he loved. Selah.

5 God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet!