There cannot be any doubt that the Messianic promise made considerable progress in the time of David. It is, in itself, a circumstance of great importance that the eyes of the people were henceforth directed to a definite family; for, thereby, their hopes acquired greater consistency. _Further_,--The former prophecies were, all of them, much shorter, and more in the shape of hints; but, now, their hopes could become detailed descriptions, because a _substratum_ was given to them in the present. The Messiah had been foretold to David as a successor to his throne,--as a King. Hence it was, that, in the view of David himself and of the other psalmists, the earthly head of the Congregation of the Lord formed the _substratum_ for the future Saviour. The naked thought now clothed itself with flesh and blood. The hope gained thereby in clearness and distinctness, as well as in practical significance. The slight hint of a higher nature of the Messiah, given in Gen. xlix. 8, forms the main ground for the advancing and more definite knowledge, which we find in the days of David and Solomon. Grand and lofty expectations could, henceforth, not fail to be connected with the promise in 2 Sam. vii. 14, "I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to Me," and with the prophecy of the absolute perpetuity of dominion, in the same passage. In Ps. ii. 12, the Messiah appears as the Son of God κατ᾽ ἐξοχήν,--as He, in whom to trust is to be saved, and whose anger brings destruction. In Ps. cx. 1, He appears as the Lord of the Congregation and of David himself,--as sitting at the right hand of omnipotence, and as invested with a full participation in the divine power over heaven and earth. In Ps. lxxi. eternity of dominion is ascribed to Him. In Ps. xlv. 7, 8, He is called God, Elohim. Among the offices of Christ, it is especially the _Regal_ office on which a clear light has been shed. The Messiah appears prominently as He "who has dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth," Ps. lxxii. 8. In Ps. cx., however, the office of the Messiah as the eternal _High Priest_ is first revealed to the congregation. He appears as the person who atones for whatever sins cleave to His people, as their Intercessor [Pg 152] and Advocate with God, and as the Mediator of the closest communion with God. We have here the outlines, for the filling up of which Isaiah was, at a later period, called. The _Prophetic_ office of the Saviour does not distinctly appear in the Psalms. It was reserved for Isaiah to bring out into a clearer light the allusion given, on this subject, by Moses, after it had been taken up again, for the first time since Moses' day, by the prophet Joel.