Context No. 2834 of 4322 · Psalms

Psalms 45:1-17: in context

1My heart overflows with a noble theme. I recite my verses for the king. My tongue is like the pen of a skillful writer. 2You are the most excellent of the sons of men. Grace has anointed your lips, therefore God has blessed you forever. 3Strap your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and your majesty. 4In your majesty ride on victoriously on behalf of truth, humility, and righteousness. Let your right hand display awesome deeds. 5Your arrows are sharp. The nations fall under you, with arrows in the heart of the king’s enemies. 6Your throne, God, is forever and ever. A scepter of equity is the scepter of your kingdom. 7You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows. 8All your garments smell like myrrh, aloes, and cassia. Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made you glad. 9Kings’ daughters are among your honorable women. At your right hand the queen stands in gold of Ophir. 10Listen, daughter, consider, and turn your ear. Forget your own people, and also your father’s house. 11So the king will desire your beauty, honor him, for he is your lord. 12The daughter of Tyre comes with a gift. The rich among the people entreat your favor. 13The princess inside is all glorious. Her clothing is interwoven with gold. 14She shall be led to the king in embroidered work. The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to you. 15With gladness and rejoicing they shall be led. They shall enter into the king’s palace. 16Your sons will take the place of your fathers. You shall make them princes in all the earth. 17I will make your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore the peoples shall give you thanks forever and ever.

This is a royal wedding song, sung first for the marriage of an Israelite king. It praises the king as excellent among men, grace on his lips, and calls him to ride out for truth and righteousness; then it turns to the bride, telling her to forget her father's house and give herself wholly to her lord the king.

But the song's language keeps outgrowing any earthly king. Verse six addresses him outright as God, whose throne is forever, and the letter to the Hebrews reads that line as spoken to the Son. The church has long heard the whole poem this way: a wedding song for Christ the King and his bride, the people he has won. And the bride's call becomes ours, to leave our old allegiances behind and belong entirely to the King who desires us.

Have I left my old loyalties to belong wholly to Christ the King, the way a bride leaves her father's house?

Sources

Psalm 45:6: "Your throne, God, is forever and ever. A scepter of equity is the scepter of your kingdom."
Hebrews 1:8: "But of the Son he says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever."
Revelation 19:7: "Let's rejoice... for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready."