Psalms 45:1 «To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, for the sons of Korah, Maschil, A Song of loves. » My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue [is] the pen of a ready writer.
Upon Shoshannim] The name of an instrument with six strings, saith Kimchi. Or, concerning the lilies, Song of Solomon 2:1,2, that is, the Messiah and his people, saith Kabuenaki. The city Shushan had its name from lilies there plentifully growing; as Rhodes from roses, Florence from flowers, &c.
Maschil] It is not said, as elsewhere, of David; and yet some will have him to have been the penman, others Solomon, epitomizing his Book of Canticles; with which indeed it is of the self-same argument, viz.
A Song of loves] An epithalamium or nuptial verse, made at the marriage of Solomon and the Shulamite. As for Pharaoh's daughter, various good divines are of the opinion, that neither here nor in the Canticles any respect is had or allusion made to that match of Solomon with her, so expressly condemned by the Holy Ghost, 1 Kings 11:1,3, ut per absurdum mihi videatur, illud matrimonium existimare fuisse tantae rei typum, saith learned Beza. Ainsworth rendereth it, A song of the well beloved virgins, friends of the bridegroom and bride, Psalms 45:9; Psalms 45:14, to set forth Christ in his glory, and his Church in her beauty. So, when Jerome had freed the Locrians from the tyranny of Anaxilos and Cleophron, the virgins sang his praise, as is to be read in Pindarus's Odes; which Politian preferred before David's psalms, auso nefario, like an atheist as he was.
Ver. 1. My heart is inditing a good matter] Heb. frieth, sicut quae in sartagine friguntur, as things are fried in a frying pan, Leviticus 7:9. The prophet, being to sing of such a sublime subject, would not utter anything but what he had duly digested, thoroughly thought upon, and was deeply affected with, Exordium ut vocant floridum. What a high pitch flieth St Paul whenever he speaketh concerning Christ? See Ephesians 1:6; Ephesians 2:4; Ephesians 2:7; Ephesians 3:19. The like is reported of Origen: Nusquam non ardet, saith Erasmus; sed nusquam est ardentior quam ubi Christi sermones actusque tractet; that he was ever earnest; but most of all when he discoursed of Christ (Praefat. ad Origen. Opera). Of Johannes Mollias, a Bononian, it is said, that whensoever he spake of Jesus Christ his eyes dropped; for he was fraught with a mighty fervency of God's Holy Spirit; and, like the Baptist, he was first a burning (boiling or bubbling), and then a shining light. Ardor mentis est lux doctrinae. Zeal of mind is the light of doctrine.
I speak of the things which I have made touching the king] Or, I will speak in my works, that is, in this psalm, concerning the king, viz. Solomon, and him that is greater than Solomon in all his glory, Christ, the King of the Church. Works he calleth this poem, not for the greatness, but for the exquisiteness thereof; it being breve et longum planeque aureum; utpote in quo universa pane salutis nostrae mysteria continentur, as containing almost all the mysteries of man's salvation.
My tongue is the pen of a ready writer] i.e. I will roundly and readily relate what I have so well ruminated; and dexterously deliver my most mature meditations concerning the mystical marriage of Christ and his Church. This is a good precedent for preachers. Demosthenes would have such a one branded for a pernicious man to the commonwealth who durst propose anything publicly which he had not beforehand seriously pondered. And Aristides, being pressed to speak to something propounded extempore, answered, Propound today, and I will answer tomorrow; for we are not of those that spit or spun up things, &c.