It is said by some that this is a marriage hymn for the wedding of a prince. It may have been so originated; but in the mind of the devout Jew every scene and event in life had become significant and symbolical of this greater future. Every deliverer suggested the greater Deliverer; the joy of every marriage suggested the joy of that divine marriage with a heavenly bridegroom. So the seventy-second Psalm, written originally for Solomon, expands into language beyond all that can be said of any earthly monarch. It was the last poem of David, and the feelings of the king and father rose and melted into a great tide of imagery that belonged to nothing earthly:-- "Yea, all kings shall fall down before him; All nations shall serve him. He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; The poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence, And precious shall their blood be in his sight. And he shall live, and to him shall be given the gold of Sheba. Prayer also shall be made for him continually, and daily shall he be praised. His name shall endure forever. His name shall be continued as long as the sun. Men shall be blessed in him. All nations shall call him blessed." But in these same Psalms there are glimpses of a divine sufferer. In the twenty-second Psalm David speaks of sufferings which certainly never happened to himself--which were remarkably fulfilled in the last agonies of Jesus:-- "All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted in God that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax--it is melted in my bosom. My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue cleaveth to my mouth. Thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me, The assembly of the wicked have inclosed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones. They look and stare on me. They part my garments among them And cast lots for my vesture." In this Psalm, written more than a thousand years before he came into the world, our Lord beheld ever before him the scenes of his own crucifixion; he could see the heartless stare of idle, malignant curiosity around his cross; he could hear the very words of the taunts and revilings, and a part of the language of this Psalm was among his last utterances. While the shadows of the great darkness were gathering around his cross he cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" It would seem as if the words so bitterly fulfilled passed through his mind, as one by one the agonies and indignities followed each other, till at last he bowed his head and said, "It is finished."