50 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



and all allowed that this psalm related to Him, 

 and not to any earthly prince. 



" This figure, of the union of a husband and 

 wife, has been consecrated by our Lord himself, 

 to signify his own union with his church, in the 

 parable of the king making a marriage for his 

 son. Some commentators have imagined that 

 the marriage of Solomon with Pharaoh's daugh- 

 ter was the subject of the 45th Psalm ; but it is in 

 many respects wholly inapplicable to that king. 

 The hero of the poem is a warrior, who reigns 

 at length by conquest over his vanquished ene- 

 mies: Solomon, on the contrary, enjoyed a long 

 reign of uninterrupted peace. He is also distin- 

 guished by his love of righteousness ; whereas 

 Solomon, during the latter part of his reign, fell 

 far short of the excellence here described. But, 

 above all, the king is addressed by the title of 

 God in a manner which is never applied to any 

 earthly king. 



" The Psalmist begins with our Lord's first 

 appearance in the human form, and passing ra- 

 pidly through the different periods of Christianity, 

 makes them the ground work of this mystic and in- 

 spired song, which maybe divided into three parts. 

 " The first three verses describe our Lord on 

 earth in the days of his humiliation. The se- 

 cond section consists of the five following verses, 

 which relate to the propagation of the gospel by 



