Ps. xlv. 7. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness : therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
THIS psalm is a nuptial song; wherein Christ, as the heavenly Bridegroom, is celebrated by his Bride, the Church ; and she also is commended by him as worthy of the union proposed between them. In the former part, the glory and excellency of Jesus are set forth in a variety of views. In the verse before the text, he is addressed as the supreme " God, whose throne is for ev^er and ever ;" while, as man, he is ac- knowledged to have received his glory and felicity from the Father, as the reward of his unparalleled virtues. This is undoubtedly the primary sense of the words before us. But they may also be consi- dered as containing a general truth, expressive of God's regard for holiness, and of those testimonies of his approbation which all godly people shall enjoy.
Let us then turn our attention to them,
I. As applicable to Christ —
That they refer to him there can be no doubt ;
because
because in the Epistle to the Hebrews it is expressly affirmed that they were addressed to him". To him the character transcendently belongs —
[/« his doctrine, he removed the false glosses with which the Jewish Doctors had obscured the law, and established its authority over the motions of the heart as well as the actions of the life'*. He laid the axe at the very root of sin ; and gave a system of morality more pure and perfect than the united wisdom of the whole world had been ever able to devise.
In his life, " he was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." Neither his friends who were most intimate with him, nor his enemies who were most inveterate against him, could ever find the smallest flaw or blemish in his conduct. God himself repeatedly attests that " in him was no sin."
But most of all in his death did our blessed Lord approve himself a lover of righteousness and a hater of inicjuity : for he died in order to expiate the guilt of sin : yea, he came down from heaven on purpose to atone for it by his blood ; and to mark in indelible characters its malignity, by the very means which he used to deliver us from its curse.
In the whole scope of the economy ichich he introduced, he manifested the same righteous disposition : for at the same time that he commissioned his A))ostIes to go forth and evangelize all nations, he bade them " teach their proselytes to observe and do whatsoever he had commanded." His Gospel, while it ^' brings salvation to men, teaches them to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live righteously, soberly, and godly in this present world :" and the Ministers who are sent forth to proclaim it, are *' sent to bless men, in turning away every one of them from his iniquities."]
On this account God in a super-eminent degree " anointed him with the oil of gladness" —
[The Father " gave not the Spirit by measure unto him," even during the time of his ministration upon earth*^. But though he was anointed in this world in an infinitely more abun- dant measure than all who were partakers of the same Divine unction, yet it was rather after his death that the Spirit was given to him as " the oil of gladness." At his ascension the words before us received their full accomplishment. Then was " the joy given him, in the expectation of which he had endured the cross and despised the shame." Then was he " made full of joy by the light of his Father's countenance'*," and was
invested
^ Heb. i. 8, 9.
'' He shewed that the laws prohibiting murder and adultery were violated by an angry word or impure desire. Matt. xxv. 21, 22, 2/, 28.