For the Lord hath ransomed Jacob,
And redeemed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.”
(Jer. xxxi. 3-12, r.v.)
Can we close our eyes to the testimony of these scriptures—that Israel is the Bride of the Lamb? When we have all these, and more, why should we read “the Church” into these ancient prophecies, which was the subject of a long-subsequent revelation, merely because (in Eph. v. 25) Christ's love to His Church is compared to a husband's love for his wife? “Husbands, love your wives, even AS Christ also loved the Church.” There is not a word here about the Church being His wife. On the contrary, it reveals the secret that the Church of Christ is to be the mystical “Body of Christ,” part of the Husband in fact, “One new man” (Eph. ii. 15)! whereas restored Israel is to be the Bride of this “New Man,” the Bride of Christ, the Lamb's wife! Blessed indeed it is to be united to Christ as a wife to a husband, but glorious beyond all description to be “one” with Christ Himself, part of His mystical Body.
If men had only realised the wondrous glory of this mystery, they would never have so wrongly divided the Word of Truth by interpreting Psalm xlv. of this Mystical Christ. If we “rightly divide” it, we see at once that this Psalm is in harmony with all the Old Testament scriptures, which must be interpreted alike, and can be interpreted only of Israel however they may be applied.
Having spoken of the Godhead and glory of this King (faintly and in part foreshown by Cepheus), the Holy Spirit goes on in the latter part of the Psalm to speak of the Bride—the Queen:
“At Thy right hand doth stand the Queen in gold of Ophir,
Hearken, O daughter, and consider, incline thine ear;
Forget also thine own people, and thy father's house;
So shall the King desire thy beauty;[56]