This Psalm is rather unique in the Bible, for it belongs in a group of songs that was used in the wedding of a King. The verses indicate that he was to marry a maiden or princess from Tyre, and God would give to him love and joy in this relationship. The King would know the love of woman, and this would bring him great blessing.
In Israel the monarchy was closly associated with God Himself, for though he had a representative on Earth, a man like David or Solomon, he was their true and only Sovereign. Scholars are split on how to understand this Psalm, how to apply it to our situation today. One way that seems most appropriate is to use the figure of Christ as the interpretive key. Christians often do this with the Old Testament, for they understand Christ as the figure the old covenant scriptures are pointing to, from Genesis to the last of the prophets. Christ is the fulfillment of all the promises of the Old Testament. We see this even in the New Testament books where Paul or one of the Evangelists write of Christ, and point out that what was first hinted at in the Old Testament was brought to life or fulfilled in ther person of Jesus. For instance, we all know that Jonah was swallowed by the whale, but we often forget that it was three days in that belly before the prophet was spit out on the beach. Christ Himself used this In Matthew 12. Jonah was in the big fish for three days and nights and then spit up onto dry land, Jesus said this was a picture of Him being in the earth for three days and nights and then resurrecting. In other words, Jesus fulfills the promise of Jonah. Other types or reflections from the Old Testamnet that Jesus fulfills is that He is the new Adam (Paul in 1 Corinthians and Romans); He is also the true ladder into heaven that Jacob saw (Jesus in John 1), and finally, Christ is the passover lamb, as Paul say in 1 Corinthians, “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” All of these, and there are more, point out that Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament sc5riptures, and there is no understanding them outside of Him.
If we read Psalm 45 with this mindset, it opens up to us a rich meaning.
In this Psalm the narrator shfts his focus about half way through, first focusing on the King, and then his bride. In the middle there is a key to its ultimate meaning. We read,
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;
you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you…”
Did you notice that here in these lines God is being addressed as King, only at the end to have it say that God would annoint the King, that man about to marry. The structure is very awkward, making it seem that the author cannot make up his mind who he is talking to. That is unless the man and God are the same, which in Jesus Christ we know it is. David, Solomon, or whatever earthly king was first the object of this song was only a pre-shadow of the one who was to come, the perfect King annointed by His Father to rule forever.
But if the King is Christ, who is the bride? It is his Church, us. In the Gospels Jesus is named as the bridegroom, and in Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians chapter five, the marriage of a man and woman is compared to the relationship of Christ and the Church. In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul says theat the church at Corinth is espoused to Christ. "For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” For over two millenia the church has understood herself to be the bride of Christ. In the book of Revelation, Christ comes back to assume his throne and to be joined with his bride. Psalm 45 is a pre-shadowing or hint of all this. It speaks of the great joy in seeing the majesty of the Bridegroom, Jesus the Son of God, joined with his beautiful bride, us. What will that day be like? According to the Psalmist says it will be a day of joy and gladness, where all will see the beauty of the bride, and know the glory of the King.
Marantha! Come Lord Jesus!