The Treasury of David
by C.H. Spurgeon
EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS
(Psalms 45 Verse 07)
Verse 7. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness. Christ Jesus is not neutral in the great contest between right and wrong: as warmly as he loves the one he abhors the other. What qualifications for a sovereign! what grounds of confidence for a people! The whole of our Lord's life on earth proved the truth of these words; his death to put away sin and bring in the reign of righteousness, sealed the fact beyond all question; his providence by which he rules from his mediatorial throne, when rightly understood, reveals the same; and his final assize will proclaim it before all worlds. We should imitate him both in his love and hate; they are both needful to complete a righteous character. Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Jesus as Mediator owned God as his God, to whom, being found in fashion as a man, he became obedient. On account of our Lord's perfect life he is now rewarded with superior joy. Others there are to whom grace has given a sacred fellowship with him, but by their universal consent and his own merit, he is prince among them, the gladdest of all because the cause of all their gladness. At Oriental feasts oil was poured on the heads of distinguished and very welcome guests; God himself anoints the man Christ Jesus, as he sits at the heavenly feasts, anoints him as a reward for his work, with higher and fuller joy than any else can know; thus is the Son of man honoured and rewarded for all his pains. Observe the indisputable testimony to Messiah's Deity in verse six, and to his manhood in the present verse. Of whom could this be written but of Jesus of Nazareth? Our Christ is our Elohim. Jesus is God with us.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Verse 7. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness. Many a one loves righteousness, but would not be its champion; such a love is not Christ's love. Many a one hates iniquity, not for its own sake, but for the sake of its consequences; such a hate is not Christ's hate. To be like Christ we must love righteousness as he loved, and hate wickedness as he hated. To love and hate as he loves and hates is to be perfect as he is perfect. The perfection of this love and hate is moral perfection. George Harpur.
Verse 7. Therefore. Observe how usual it is to impute Christ's exaltation to his merits. God blessed him for ever, as in the second verse of this Psalm (if such be the sense of that verse), because he was fairer than the children of men, and grace was poured into his lips. And so the apostle. God highly exalted him, and gave him a name above every name, because he had humbled himself, and became obedient unto death. And here God anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellows, because he loved righteousness and hated iniquity. George Harpur.
Verse 7. Therefore. He says not, "Wherefore he anointed thee in order to thy being God, or King, or Son, or Word;" for so he was before, and is for ever, as has been shown; but rather, "Since thou art God and King, therefore thou wast anointed, since none but thou couldest unite man to the Holy Ghost, thou the image of the Father, in which we were made in the beginning: for thine is even the Spirit." Athanasius.
Verse 7. Therefore God, thy God. God was the God of Christ in covenant, that he might be our God in covenant; for in his transactions, whole Christ, Head and members, are to be considered Galatians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 12:12, the covenant being first transacted with the Head (who is given for a covenant to us, Isaiah 42:6), and then with the members, with him in reference to us and for us. As God did not fail our surety, but supported him in his great conflict, when out of the depths he called unto him; so neither will he fail us in time of need. Heb 4:16 13:5-6. William Troughton.
Verse 7. Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows; i.e., enriched and filled thee in a singular manner with the fulness of the Spirit, whereby thou art consecrated to thy office; and by reason whereof you out shine and excellest all the saints who are thy fellows, or copartners in these graces. So that in these words you have two parts, namely, first, the saint's dignity; and, secondly, Christ's preeminence. First. The saint's dignity, which consists in this, that they are Christ's fellows. The Hebrew word ($yrkxm), is very full and copious, and is translated consorts, companions, copartners, partakers; or as ours reads it, fellows; i.e., such as are partakers with him in the anointing of the Spirit, who do in their measure receive the same Spirit, every Christian being appointed, modo sibi proportionato, with the same grace and dignified with the same titles. 1 John 2:27; Revelation 1:6 . Christ and the saints are in common one with another. Doth the Spirit of holiness dwell in him? So he doth in them too. Is Christ King and Priest? Why, so are they, too, by the grace of union with him. He hath made us kings and priests to God and his Father. This is the saints' dignity, to be Christ's fellows, consorts, or copartners; so that look whatever grace or excellency is in Christ, it is not impropriated to himself, but they do share with him; for indeed he was filled with the fulness of the Spirit for their sakes and use. As the sun is filled with light not to shine to itself, but to others, so is Christ with grace; and therefore some translate the text not prae consortibus, above thy fellows, but propter consortes, for thy fellows; (Rivetus), making Christ the first receptacle of all grace, who first and immediately is filled from the fountain of the Godhead, but it is for his people who receive and derive from him according to their proportion. This is a great truth; and the dignity of the saints lies chiefly in the partnership with Christ, though our translation, above thy fellows, suits best both with the importance of the word and scope of the place. Secondly. But then, whatever dignity is ascribed herein to the saints, there is, and still must be, a preeminence acknowledged and ascribed to Christ: if they are anointed with the spirit of grace, much more abundantly is Christ: God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. John Flavel.
Verse 7. Oil of gladness. For sweet smelling oils were also used to beautify the face upon occasions of feasting and mirth. Psalms 23:5; 104:15; Isaiah 61:3. And likewise this oil of consecration and infusion of the gifts of the Holy Ghost hath been the cause and foundation of Christ's human nature's obtaining of the everlasting joys and glory. Philippians 2:9; Hebrews 12:2. John Diodati.
Verse 7. Behold, O ye Arians, and acknowledge even hence the truth. The psalmist speaks of us all as fellows or partakers of the Lord, but were he one of things which come out of nothing, and of things generate, he himself had been one of those who partake. But since he hymned him as the eternal God, saying, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, and has declared that all other things partake of him, what conclusion must we draw, but that he is distinct from generated things, and he only the Father's veritable Word, Radiance, and Wisdom, which all things generate partake, being sanctified by him in Spirit? And, therefore, he is here anointed, not that he may become God, for he was so even before; nor that he may become king, for he has the kingdom eternally, existing as God's image, as the sacred oracle shows; but in our behalf is this written, as before. For the Israelitish kings, upon their being anointed, then became kings, not being so before, as David, as Ezekias, as Josias, and the rest; but the Saviour, on the contrary, being God, and ever ruling in the Father's kingdom, and being himself the dispenser of the Holy Ghost, nevertheless is here said to be anointed, that, as before, being said as man to be anointed with the Spirit, he might provide for us more, not only exaltation and resurrection, but the indwelling and intimacy of the Spirit...And when he received the Spirit, we it was who, by him were made recipients of it. And, moreover, for this reason, not as Aaron, or David, or the rest, was he anointed with oil, but in another way, above all his fellows, with the oil of gladness, which he himself interprets to be the Spirit, saying by the prophet, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me;" as also the apostle has said, "How God anointed him with the Holy Ghost." Athanasius.
HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS
Verse 6-7. Empire, Eternity, Equity, Establishment, Exultation.
Verse 7. Thou hatest wickedness. He hated it when it assailed him in his temptation, hated it in others, denounced it, died to slay it, will come to condemn it.
Verse 7. Christ's love and hate.