subsequent exaltation and glory by that of his lifting up his head*. The last Psalm which remains to be mentioned as containing a direct prophecy of the Messiah, is the 152nd. And this, as has been before observed, is ascribed to Solomon, and supposed to have been written upon the removal of the ark into the temple. This naturally led him to entreat God not to forget his promise to David; which is the promise mentioned before in 1 Sam. vii, 12, &c. It was the promise of a Christ, a Messiah, or Anointed, as it is rendered in the 10th verse of this Psalm, whose kingdom was to last for ever. In its first sense this was now accomplished: Solomon had been * However this explanation of the 7th verse is not universally allowed, and various interpretations of it are given. But this seems to be supported and confirmed by a parallel passage in St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, (ii. 8, &c.) which is very judiciously referred to by Bishop Horne. In this, the humiliation of Christ is pointed out as the means or cause of the glory which was to follow, He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross: wherefore God hath also highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, &c. &c. anointed, anointed, and was reigning in peace; a type of the Prince of Peace, whose house and kingdom were to be established for ever. The King therefore beseeches God in this Psalm, to remember the secondary and more important part of that promise. Turn not away, says he, ver. 10. the face of thine Anointed, that is, " do not refuse to grant us thy promised Christ;" for as he adds in the following verse, The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David, he will not turn from it, of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. Now with Now with respect to Solomon himself, there could be no need to remind the Lord of this promise, for it was already completed. He was sitting on the throne of David. He therefore alludes to a promise of which the ultimate fruits were yet to come. Could this admit of a doubt, St. Peter's authority would be at once conclusive; David, says he, Acts ii. 30, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; so that the apostle directly affirms the ori ginal ginal promise made to David, which is quoted and referred to in this Psalm, to be a promise of Christ by the spirit of prophecy. This interpretation is moreover confirmed by the 17th verse. There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. Now horn is commonly used in oriental writings as an emblem of power. In this sense it frequently occurs in the Scriptures, especially in the Psalms *. And lamp also is figuratively used for dominion †. So that the meaning of the verse seems to be this; * See Ps. lxxv. 4, 5, and 10. and Ecclus. xliii. 11. Even to this day, governors of provinces in the East wear in their head-dress a silver horn gilt, on public occasions. Bruce's Travels. + Durell indeed interprets it successor; and Wells thinks this Psalm has no reference to Christ. But Horne, the learned and judicious Chandler, and the Jewish Rabbis quoted by them understand it as above; and Chandler is particularly clear and copious upon this subject. The LXX varies a little from the Hebrew in ver. 17. Exa ἐξαναλέλω κερασίω Δαυίδ, “ there will I raise up a horn "to David;" but the meaning is much the same and equally applicable to Christ. See also Dimock on this Psalm, who applies the passage to the Messiah. "There "There (that is in Zion, ver. 18,) will I "make the power of David to encrease; "I have prepared dominion, or a king"dom, for my Messiah." And the Jews have always referred this passage to Christ, and interpreted the word lamp in this manner. There is another Psalm which seems to be a direct prophecy of the Messiah, and was omitted in its proper place on account of the uncertainty of the time in which it was composed. This is the 89th. Lightfoot supposes it to have been written before the time of Moses, during the Egyptian bondage, by Ethan the Ezrahite, to whom also the Septuagint version attributes it. If this notion be well founded, either Ethan must have been a prophet, or those verses which relate to David and Christ must have been added afterwards when it was sung in the temple. But the more general as well as probable opinion is, that it was composed by another Ethan, during the distress of the Jews in the Babylonian captivity; when the throne of David was empty, and and the people were impatiently expecting a temporal Redeemer in the Messiah. And the Psalm itself contains strong internal evidence that this opinion is just. In this light perhaps it should not be considered as prophetic, but as a sublime, and affecting expostulation with God; reminding him of his former mercies, and his solemn promises to David his servant, entreating their accomplishment, and deprecating any farther delay which made the enemies of the Lord reproach the footsteps of his Anointed, or Christ; that is, as the Jews understood it, the deferring of his coming *. This Psalm therefore is not insisted on as containing any prophecy of Christ; neither are many others which are applied to him in the New Testament, as descriptive of the circumstances of his life. And this is for the reason before mentioned, that they could not be understood till *See Tract. de Sota as quoted in Coch's notes on Sanhedrin. Cap. xi. Sect. 26. See also Chandler; and Bossuet as quoted by Horne. Dr. Kennicott ascribes this Psalm to Isaiah, and Bp. Bagot to Jeremiah. they |