A Commentary on the Book of Psalms: Psalm 44 — The Excellence of Christ’s Kingdom and the Endowments of His Church
4 The words, “With thy comeliness and thy beauty,” may be connected with the preceding verse, and the reading would be, “Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, in thy comeliness and thy beauty;” or they can be connected with what follows; thus, “With thy comeliness and thy beauty set out, proceed prosperously, and reign;” but, in either reading, the meaning is the same; namely, that Christ has no other arms but “his beauty and his comeliness.” To understand which we must remember, that true and perfect beauty, as St. Augustine says, is the beauty of the soul that never stales, and pleases the eyes not only of men, but even of Angels, aye, even of God, who cannot be deceived. For, as ordinary beauty depends on a certain proportion of limb, and softness of complexion; thus the beauty of the soul is made up of justice, which is tantamount to the proportion of limb; and wisdom, which represents beauty of complexion; for it shines like light, or rather, as we read in Wisdom 7, “being compared with the light she is found before it.” The soul, then, that is guided in its will by justice, and in its understanding by wisdom, is truly beautiful. For these two qualifications make it so, and through them most dear to God; and are, at the same time, the most powerful weapons that Christ used in conquering the devil. For Christ contended with the devil, not through his omnipotence, as he might have done, but through his wisdom and his justice; subduing his craft by the one, and his malice by the other. The devil, by his craft, prompted the first man to anger God by his disobedience; and thereby to deprive God of the honor due to him, and all mankind of eternal life; uniting malice with his craftiness, and prompted thereto, moreover, by envy, seeing the place from which he had fallen was destined for man; but the wisdom of Christ was more than a match for such craft, because, by the obedience he, as man, tendered to God, he gave much greater honor to him than he had lost by the disobedience of Adam; and by the same obedience secured a much greater share of glory for the human race than they would have enjoyed, had Adam not fallen. With that, Christ, by his love, (which is the essence of true and perfect justice,)
conquered the envy and malice of the devil, for he loved even his enemies, prayed on the very cross for his persecutors, chose to suffer and to die, in order to reconcile his enemies to God, and to make them from being enemies, his friends, brethren, and coheirs; and all that is conveyed in the expression, “in thy comeliness and thy beauty;” that is to say, in the comeliness of thy wisdom, and the beauty of thy justice, guided and armed with the sword, and the bow set out, proceed prosperously and reign; which means, advance in battle against the devil, prosper in the fight, and after having conquered and subdued the prince of this world, take possession of your kingdom, that you may forever after rule in the heart of man, through faith and love. “Because of truth and meekness and justice, and thy right hand shall conduct thee wonderfully.” He tells us why Christ should reign, and that is because he has the qualities that belong to a king, truth, meekness, and justice, from which we learn, that a king should be truthful and faithful to what he says, and just in what he does; which attributes are applied to God himself, in Psalm 144, “The Lord is faithful in all his words, and holy in all his works;” but, as there is a certain roughness or severity consequent on all justice, and is like a blemish on it, with Christ’s justice, which is most perfect, he couples meekness. For Christ is meekly just, judging, to be sure, with the strictest justice, but without harshness, or moroseness, conciliating instead of repelling those whom he judges. “And thy right hand shall conduct thee wonderfully.” By governing in such temper you will see your kingdom increase to a wonderful extent, and you will need no external aids, for your own “right hand,” your own strength and bravery will suffice “to thee wonderfully,” and so extend your kingdom until you shall have “put all your enemies under your footstool.”
5 He tells us how the right hand of Christ will conduct him so wonderfully in extending his kingdom, because “the arrows” that you will let fly at them “are sharp,” and will, therefore, penetrate “into the hearts of the king’s enemies;” your enemies will fall before you, and will be subdued by you. The arrows here signify the word of God, or the preaching of his word, for such are the instruments Christ generally uses in extending his kingdom; hence, he says in Psalm 2, “But I am appointed king by him over Sion his holy mountain, preaching his commandment.” The word of God is called a sword, an arrow, a mallet, and various other instruments, for it has some similarity to them all. It is called a sharp arrow, for it wonderfully sinks into the heart of man, much deeper than the words of the most eloquent orator, as the Apostle, Heb. 4, says, “for the word of God is living and effectual; and more penetrating than any two edged sword.” The words, “under thee shall people fall,” should be read as if in a parenthesis; and they will only fall, and not be killed; they will only die to sin that they may live to justice; that they may be subject to Christ, to be subject to whom is to reign.
6 He now comes to the supreme dignity of the Messiah, openly calls him God, and declares his throne will be everlasting. This passage is quoted by St. Paul to the Hebrews, to prove that Christ is as much above the Angels, as is a master over his servant; or the Creator above the creature. He then, says, “Thy throne, O (Christ) God,” will not be a transient one, as was that of David, or Solomon, but will flourish “forever and ever.”
7 This verse may be interpreted in two ways, according to the force we put upon the word “therefore” in it. It may signify the effect produced, and the meaning would be, As you have loved justice and hated iniquity, by being “obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross,” therefore God anointed thee with the oil of gladness, that glorified thee, “and gave thee a name that is above every name, that at thy name every knee should bend, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and in hell.” Such glorification is properly styled “the unction of gladness;” because it puts an end to all pain and sorrow; “above thy fellows,” has its own signification; for, though the Angels have been, and men will be, glorified, nobody ever was, or will be, exalted to the right hand of the Father; and nobody ever got, or will get, a name above every name, with the exception of Christ, who is the head of men and Angels, and is at the same time God and man. In the second exposition, the word “therefore” is taken to signify the cause, and the meaning would be: you loved justice and hated iniquity, because God anointed you with the oil of spiritual grace in a much more copious manner than he gave it to any one else; and hence it arose that your graces were boundless, while all others got it in a limited manner, and only through you. Such is the explanation of St. Augustine, who calls our attention to the repetition of the word of God in this verse, and says, the first is the vocative, the second the nominative case, making the meaning to be, O Christ God! God your Father has anointed thee with the oil of gladness. The anointing, of course, applies only to his human nature.