Thou wilt set them as princes over the whole land.
I wilt celebrate thy name from generation to generation;
Therefore shall nations praise thee for ever and ever.”
This Psalm is evidently a congratulatory nuptial-song, composed for the occasion of a king’s marriage with a princess of Tyre. The sacred writer begins by stating that such is the greatness of the subject, that it awakens thoughts too big for [[113]]utterance; but recollecting that his work is for the king, at once his tongue is loosed, and glides as rapidly as the stylus of a quick writer (2). He then celebrates the king’s beauty and eloquence, recognising in it God’s blessing (3), his valour, symbolized by the conquering sword, the prosperous chariot, the terrible arm, the well-directed arrow (4–6), his divine throne, and love of justice (7), his great happiness, resulting from his love for justice (8), which consists in the splendour around him (9), in his magnificent harem, and especially in the new princess-bride at his right hand (10). Having gradually arrived at the subject which is the occasion of the poem, the sacred writer now addresses the bride, and, in accordance with Eastern custom, which represents brides as unwilling to leave their parents on the day of espousals (Comp. Deut. xxi. 13), telling her to forget her father’s house, as she will have such glory as is just described (11, 12). The bride is then presented with gifts, according to Oriental manners, from the first ladies of the kingdom (13); she appears in all the splendour in the first palace (14), and thence conducted in grand procession to the king’s palace (15, 16). The marital procession now being over, the inspired writer congratulates the king, wishing him a happy issue (17), and concludes by saying that his renown will rapidly spread (18).
What is there in this Psalm compelling us to understand it allegorically? The quotation of the sixth verse in Hebrews i. 8, 9, only proves that this verse refers in a higher sense to the Messiah, but not that the whole Psalm is descriptive of him. Who would think of allegorizing the eighth chapter of Isaiah, because verses 17 and 18 are quoted in Hebrews ii. 13? The throne of David is declared to be an everlasting throne, 2 Sam. vii. 13, 16; a throne of God, i.e. a divine throne, since the Messiah was to be the last and ever reigning king. Hence it is said, וַיֵּשֶׁב שְׁלֹמֹה עַל כִּסֵּא יְהֹוָה לְמֶלֶכְ תַּחַת דָּוִיד אָבִיו, “and Solomon sat upon the throne of Jehovah as king instead of his father David.”—1 Chron. xxix. 23. Every king, therefore, [[114]]of that lineage, occupying the throne, was regarded as the representative of God; as the predecessor and type of Him who was to be born of the seed of David to occupy the throne in the highest sense. So that, whether we translate כִּסְּאֲךָ אֱלֹהִים thy throne, O God, taking אֱלֹהִים as a vocative, or thy God-throne, i.e. the throne committed to thee by God, or, thou art seated upon a throne of God, or regard the phrase as an ellipsis for כִּסְּאֲךָ כִּסֵּי אֱלֹהִים, thy throne is a throne of God, comes substantially to the same thing. It is, therefore, a groundless assertion, that the whole Psalm is an allegory, and the reference to it in proof of the allegorical interpretation of the poem before us is nugatory.
But, even admitting that the 45th Psalm is an allegory, this would by no means prove that the Song of Songs is also an allegory, for the two cases differ essentially. In the former the bridegroom is addressed in verse 8 as God, and this verse is quoted in the New Testament, whereas in the latter there is nothing of the kind.
4. The custom of oriental nations to express their religious and devotional sentiments under the disguise of amatory and drinking songs has been adduced as an argument in favour of the allegorical interpretation of the Song of Songs.
“The durweesh,”[149] says Lane, “pointed out the following poem as one of those most common at Zikrs, and as one which was sung at the Zikr which I have begun to describe. I translated it verse for verse, and imitate the measure and system of the original, with this difference only, that the first, third, and fifth lines of each stanza rhyme with each other in the original, but not in my translation.
‘With love my heart is troubled,
And mine eyelid hindereth sleep: