emphatic manner, in other psalms, as for instance, Ps. 7 : 4, 5 (with which his lamentation over Saul deserves to be compared, 2 Sam. 1 : 19, &c.); and in many passages of the Old Testament elsewhere, similar expressions, condemning revenge, occur, as, Job 31: 29; Prov. 20: 22; 24: 17, 18, 29; 25: 21. With these may be compared the positive prohibition of revenge, and the command to show kindness to an enemy, which the Law already contains (Exodus 23: 4, 5; Lev. 19: 18).-6. In nearly all of the imprecatory psalms, the imprecation does not refer to particular personal enemies, but to the enemies of God and of his people in general; it is not aimed at hostile persons concretely, but, abstractly, at those who entertain hostile sentiments; it is directed against the sin, not the sinner, against the crime, not the criminal.-7. It is, generally, not the poet himself, whose injuries and persecutions demand revenge, but the ideal person of the righteous man who suffers the ideal portraiture, of which the most perfect view is given, in Ps. 22, and Isaiah ch. 53, and which appeared in real life in Christ. 8. Nevertheless, the circumstance should not be overlooked, that these psalms belong to the old covenant, which is still defective and not designed to be a permanent model (see Luke 9: 54, &c., and ¿ 94. 2, Obs. 2).—9. On the other hand, they contain a very salutary antidote against the religious sentimentality and feebleness of the present times, against the prevailing lax views of sin and holiness, &c.

3. With all their excellencies, the Psalms, like the Old Testament in general, furnish only incomplete views of the divine plan of salvation. Their doctrines and ethics are founded on the revelations given in the Pentateuch, and afterwards more fully developed in history and prophecy. They certainly indicate a progress in knowledge; but this progress consists, not in the addition of new matter derived from revelation, but in a further development, and in deeper and clearer views of the matter already given, as the Messianic psalms, in particular, plainly show. The representations which these contain do not, in fact, give additional extent to the fundamental promises in Gen. 12: 3 (§ 24. 1, Obs. 2), and in 2 Sam. 7; 12–16 (§ 76). The poet does not, like the prophets, furnish new words and revelations of God, but testimony respecting the views which his own mind, enlightened by the Spirit of God, has taken of the promises hitherto made; the result is, that these promises are now placed in a new light, and acquire greater distinctness and expansion.

Some of the Psalms are directly Messianic (prophetical); the believing and divinely-inspired mind intentionally begins with the theme furnished by the words and promise in 2 Sam. ch. 7, and ponders and develops it; besides these, we meet with psalms which are typically Messianic; in these, the sacred poet refers to the present experience, circumstances, feelings and hopes of himself or of others: but, entertaining a view or a presentiment of the significance and importance of all these in regard to the development of the kingdom of God, and, impelled by the Spirit of prophecy, he portrays, more or less consciously, the future Messiah, in whom all these circumstances will be manifested in their archetypal and complete form. The line of demarkation between these two kinds of psalms, is not, however, always distinctly drawn, since the typical and the direct prophetical materials frequently coalesce.

OBS. Of the prophetical Messianic psalms, all of which are founded on 2 Sam. ch. 7, the following are the most important. Ps. 2 presents the vast scene in which the Son of David appears as the Redeemer and the Judge; "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee" (v. 7). "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way" (v. 12). — Ps. 110 describes the eternal kingdom and priesthood of the Messiah; "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod (sceptre) of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies" (v. 1, 2). "The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek” (v. 4).— Ps. 72 describes the Messiah as the Prince of peace, prefigured by Solomon whose reign is peaceful; this psalm is already found on the boundary between the prophetic and typical psalms.-Ps. 45 is in the same position; it is a song of praise for the wedding-day of a king unto whom no one is like. It may have been composed on the occasion of the marriage of Solomon; the whole description, however, is so lofty and significant, that we are compelled to admit that the poet consciously and designedly looked beyond the present imperfect and prefigurative occasion, and intended to describe the marriage of the future Son of David, of Messiah the "King," and the "King's daughter," or, Israel with the "virgins her companions that follow her," that is, the heathen nations (v. 13, 14). "Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.

Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most Mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty" (v. 2, 3). Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness" (v. 6, 7).-Among the typical Messianic psalms, Ps. 22 is the most remarkable. David, the poet, is meditating upon his own sufferings, and the blessed fruits which they produced for him and for the kingdom of God; he is then impelled by the Spirit of God which animates him, to describe other sufferings, infinitely higher, far more significant and more blessed than his own. He was, unquestionably, guided by the presentiment that the path of sufferings which conducted him to glory, would also conduct the promised eternal heir of his throne to glory, and, further, that even as the glory of the latter would be incomparably higher than his own, so too the sufferings of the latter would be incomparably deeper and more intense. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (v. 1). "I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him” (v. 6–8). “I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture" (v. 17, 18). "I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee" (v. 22). "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee" (v. 27).* Compare Isaiah ch. 53, in which passage the views, which first meet us here, are fully expanded.

66

§ 85. The Book of Proverbs.

The collection of Scriptural proverbs transmitted to us, and called "the Proverbs of Solomon" (Proverbia, raрoquía), contains about 500 short and expressive sayings (maxims, gnomes, Heb. mashal), in the form of poetry,-"apples of gold in pictures of

* Objections which are not without weight have been made to the passage in v. 16, as it stands in Luther's [German, and in the authorized English] version, viz. "They pierced my hands and my feet." The following has been proposed as, probably, a more accurate version: Dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me, as the lion my hands and my feet."

66

silver." (ch. 25: 11. It is inappropriate to term them merely Proverbs, as they are by no means national or popular sayings, to which popular wit or prevailing opinions may have incidentally given birth; the latter often express thoughts which are remarkably deep or pointed, it is true, but they as often present nothing but the unsanctified and crude moral principles and the worldly wisdom of popular life. We find in those before us, on the contrary, the aphorisms of particular sages, who set forth fundamental principles on which the true wisdom of life is established,` and which are adapted to promote the moral and religious culture of the people. Other nations also have possessed poets who adopted the sententious style, but the essential difference between them and the Hebrew sages, is found in the circumstance that the latter derive their views primarily from an objective divine revelation, the truths of which they apply to the various relations and circumstances of life; and, further, that their own deep meditations, and the influence of the same Spirit from which that revelation itself proceeded, ultimately furnish truly sanctified precepts of wisdom suited to the purposes of life. If David is the first and most successful writer of psalmodical poetry, Solomon is, on the other hand, the first and most successful writer of proverbial poetry, and by far the largest portion of the remains of this style of composition which we possess, is undoubtedly furnished by him.

OBS.-The book of Proverbs consists, as the different titles indicate, of several independent collections. The first nine chapters constitute a complete whole, of a general character, chiefly occupied with the praise of wisdom. With the tenth chapter, another collection commences, entitled "The proverbs of Solomon." The third, contained in ch. 25-29, commences with the words: "These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, copied out." These collections, accordingly, contain no proverbs except those of Solomon, and were formed at different periods. The proverbs of another sage, named Agur, are given in the thirtieth chapter; the next chapter begins with "the words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him," and concludes, v. 10–31, with an alphabetical poem, containing the praises of a virtuous woman. (Lemuel is an assumed name, equivalent to devoted to God. Agur may have also written this concluding chapter.)

$86. The Song of Solomon, or Canticles.

This uncommonly beautiful, tender and truly poetical compo sition bears the title of "The Song of songs, which is Solomon's," that is, the most beautiful of all his songs. It owes its name not only to its great poetical excellence, but also, in a pre-eminent degree, to the depth and manifold applicability of the sentiments. which it contains. It is the lyric out-pouring of two loving hearts of king Solomon, and of an engaging shepherdess, named Shulamith, and presents an ideal of indescribably tender, pure, ethereal, and nevertheless, of ardent love. The whole bearing of the poem, its admission into the number of the sacred writings of the old covenant, and the analogy found between its sentiments and forms of expression and those occurring in other portions of the Old Testament, establish the following conclusions that, according to the intention of the writer, and agreeably to the unanimous declarations of the ancient Hebrews, this book does not consist of an erotic poem of an ordinary kind, but, on the contrary, presents a scene of earthly but pure love, as an image of the relation subsisting between the Lord and his Church, as his bride. (Hosea 2: 19, 20.) In accordance with the lyric character of the poem, we are at once introduced into the midst of the history of the development of this divine love. Hence, the various alienations and approximations or varying phases of tender love, leading ultimately to a perfect union, are here described, not in the form of a history regularly completed according to the succession of events, but in a selection of particular scenes of special significance. Solomon, the beloved, the chiefest among ten thousand, is the Lord; the Bride, whose name is derived from his own (Shulamith, from Solomon, Hebrew form, Shelomoh), is not, primarily, the individual soul, but the Church or congregation of the Lord, and the Song is only in so far applicable to the former, as the individual soul, like a mirror, reflects the image of the whole Church.

OBS.-The considerations which justify, and, indeed, imperatively demand an allegorical interpretation of this poem, are, principally, the following:-(1.) The native soil of all the poetic compositions