We meet this name, with peculiar emphasis of expression, in the title of the twenty-second Psalm; and whoever reads that psalm, as it is evidently written, prophetically of Christ, will not hesitate to conclude, that he is the hind of the morning, to which the whole psalm refers. Hunted as a hind, or a roe upon the mountains, from the morning of his incarnation to the close of his life on the cross. "Dogs (as he said) compassed him about, the assembly of the wicked enclosed him; they pierced my hands and my feet," said the meek Redeemer.
And if we consider the quality and character of the hind, we discover strong features of resemblance whereby Jesus might be pictured. The hind is up with the first of the morning, at break of day. So was our Jesus first in the morning councils of eternity, when, at the call of God, he stood forth the Surety for all his people. Moreover, the sweetness of the hind is almost proverbial. "Be thou" (saith the church to Jesus), "be thou as a roe, or a young hart, upon the mountains of Bether." (Song of Solomon 2:17) And who shall speak of the earnestness of the Lord Jesus to come over the mountains of sin, and hills of corruption, in our nature, when he came to seek and save that which was lost? Who shall describe those numberless anticipations which we find in the Old Testament of Jesus, in appearing sometimes as an angel, and sometimes in an human from? as if to say, how much he longed for the time to come, when he should openly appear, in the substance of our flesh, as "the hind of the morning!"
And there is another beautiful resemblance in the hind, or roe, to Christ, in the loveliness as well as swiftness of this beautiful creature. Nothing can be more lovely than the young roe, or hart. And what equally so to Christ, who is altogether lovely, and the "fairest among ten thousand?" He is lovely in his form and usefulness; hated indeed, by serpents, but to all the creation of God excellent. His flesh the most delicious food"whose flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed." "Be thou," (said the church,) "like to the roe, or to the young hart, upon the mountains of spices." (Song of Solomon 8:14)