PSALM 45

TITLE.—LXX. and Vulgate: To the end: for them that shall be changed: for the Sons of Core, to understanding. A Song for the Beloved. English Bible; To the Chief Musician upon Shoshannim, Maschil, a Song of Loves. Rather: To the Supreme: for the Hexachord, (or, upon the Lilies,) by the Sons of Korah: an instructive of Loves.

No title seems more obscure than this, or has given rise to a greater number of interpretations. How the LXX. ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀλλοιωθησομένων is derived from the Hebrew עַל־שׁשַׁנִּים seems impossible to say. But the mystical interpretation is easy: To the End, the Omega as well as the Alpha, the Last as well as the First: for them that shall be changed, (Ay.) either by the death to sin and the new life to righteousness; or that shall be changed, when this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality: “for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible: AND WE SHALL BE CHANGED.” And all this is for the Sons of Core, the sons or followers of the Cross. To understanding; that is, for the interpretation of so great a mystery as that which occurs in the next phrase,—a Song for the Beloved: a Hymn to CHRIST as the Bridegroom, and to the Union, never to be separated, of the Word with our nature.

To the end. As before, Aquila has τῷ νικοποιῷ: as before, our Version inserts the word musician: while we will retain our old version,—To the Supreme.

On Shoshannim. Aquila has it, ἐπὶ τοῖς κρίνοις: Symmachus, ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀνθῶν. The lily has this name, as a six-leaved flower: it lingers in the Spanish açucena. I wonder that this was not the favourite mediæval version. In a Psalm that speaks of the glories of the Virgin Church, of the glorious Virgin of Virgins, and of “the Virgins that be her fellows,” the allusion to the lilies among whom the Lamb feedeth would have been so exquisitely beautiful.

Tu pascis inter lilia,

Septus chorcis Virginum;

Sponsus decorus gloriæ,

Sponsisque reddens præmia.

And again:

Liliis Sponsus recubat, rosisque

Tu, tuo semper bene fida Sponso,*

Et rosas Martyr, simul et dedisti Lilia Virgo.

S. Basil connects the breve lilium with the pro iis qui commutabuntur,* as if the quickly fading life of man was set forth literally by the one translation, and mystically by the other. He will have the change also taken of the daily renewal for which each member of the Church prays: and S. Gregory Nyssen,* expanding his brother’s remarks, symbolises this by the petals of the lily, once mere damp, foul mould of the earth,* now vying with snow in purity and brilliance. And with reference to this, I may quote those noble words, In earne præter carnem vivere non terrena vita est, sed cœlestis: et si vultis scire, Angelicam gloriam acquirere majus est, quam habere. Esse Angelum, felicitatis est: Virginem esse,* virtutis. Still, I think that the hexachord, which is supported by great authorities is, on the whole, the better interpretation, and seems to accord more easily with the titles of Psalms 4 and 5.

A Song for the Beloved. Here, for the first time, that dear title of the New Testament is made the heritage of the Church: Rex virtutum, dilceti dilceti: and well may it be so at the commencement of the loveliest description of love that the Old Testament contains,—the Book of Loves being left out of the question.