It is from a view of God's " truth" that our " meekness" will be matured, and our " righteousness" be perfected : and when we are enabled to live altogether by faith in Christ, and in dependence on his promises, then shall we be enabled to " cleanse ourselves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God "\"]
m 2 Cor. vii. 1.
Ps. xlv. 7. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness : therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee ivith the oil of gladness above thy felloivs.
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 ever and ever ;" while, as man, he is acknowledged to have received his glory and felicity from the Father, as the reward of his un- paralleled virtues. This is undoubtedly the primary sense of the words before us. But they may also be considered 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 in the Epistle to the Hebrews it is expressly affirmed that they were addressed to him^
To him the character transcendently belongs —
[In 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
a Heb. i. 8, 9.
*> He shewed that the laws prohibiting murder and adultery were violated by an angry word or impure desire. Matt. xxv. 2 1 , 22, 27, 28.