Psalm 45: The Song of the Royal Wedding

“My heart overflows with a pleasing theme…” (Psalm 45:1)

The Psalms were sometimes composed for special occasions. There are many that were written by poets praying alone in their rooms, but there are also psalms for weddings, for funerals, for coronations, for victories, for all the situations in life when it is best to sing.

The Woven Psalms is a reflective, unhurried, and practical podcast about praying every psalm in the Bible. This podcast is a ministry of Rock Hill Community Church in Duluth, MN. You can learn more about our work at www.wovenpsalms.com.

Mike Solis is our writer and host. Ethan Gibbs is our editor, producer, and composer of the theme music. Beau Walsh designed our logo. This episode features the song “Psalm 45” by Poor Bishop Hooper, and we want to thank them for allowing us to use the music from their EveryPsalm project. You can learn more about their music at www.poorbishophooper.com.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language. The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.

Transcript

The Psalms were sometimes composed for special occasions. There are many that were written by poets praying alone in their rooms, but there are also psalms for weddings, for funerals, for coronations, for victories, for all the situations in life when it is best to sing.

Psalm 45

To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah; a love song.

[1] My heart overflows with a pleasing theme;
    I address my verses to the king;
    my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.
    
[2] You are the most handsome of the sons of men;
    grace is poured upon your lips;
    therefore God has blessed you forever.
[3] Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one,
    in your splendor and majesty!
    
[4] In your majesty ride out victoriously
    for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness;
    let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!
[5] Your arrows are sharp
    in the heart of the king’s enemies;
    the peoples fall under you.
    
[6] Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
    The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;
[7]     you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you
    with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;
[8]     your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.
From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad;
[9]     daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor;
    at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.
    
[10] Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear:
    forget your people and your father’s house,
[11]     and the king will desire your beauty.
Since he is your lord, bow to him.
[12]     The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts,
    the richest of the people.
    
[13] All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold.
[14]     In many-colored robes she is led to the king,
    with her virgin companions following behind her.
[15] With joy and gladness they are led along
    as they enter the palace of the king.
    
[16] In place of your fathers shall be your sons;
    you will make them princes in all the earth.
[17] I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations;
    therefore nations will praise you forever and ever.

After the laments of Psalms 42-44, Psalm 45 should take us by surprise. No longer do we find a downcast individual wrestling with their own soul nor a nation struggling to understand their calamity, now we find ourselves witnessing the preparations of a royal wedding. Like the previous psalms, the title is addressed to the choirmaster and is labelled “a Maskil of the Sons of Korah,” but this psalm is also set to a specific tune (“according to Lilies”) and characterized as a love song. It’s likely that Psalm 45 was written to celebrate the wedding of a particular heir in David’s lineage, but we don’t know which one. We do, however, get a rare glimpse into the process of the psalmist’s composition in verse 1: “My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.” The poet is filled with joy and eagerness to compose a song for the king’s upcoming wedding, and his words are meant to fill us (the reader) with anticipation. What’s so important about this event? First, we’ll meet the groom, the king. Verse 2: “You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever.” He looks good, he speaks well, and he has the favor of God. In the Bible, the king of Israel was meant to embody all that good, right, and true. He was meant to be a model Israelite, an example for the people of God. Any external beauty is meant to mirror an inward grace as well. In his role as king, he is not only personally blessed but uses his position to protect and defend the cause of justice. Verse 4: “In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds! Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you.” There is always a temptation for those in power to oppress the weak and vulnerable, but the ideal king uses his power to protect. I want to highlight a unique word here, “meekness.” “… Ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness.” It’s a rare term that is used only here and in Psalm 18:35, where the ESV translates it as “gentleness.” That’s a strange word to use in the context of military battles, but I think it tells us something important about how God’s people were to conduct warfare: with humility, restraint, and a heart for the welfare of the nations. Even the last phrase “the peoples fall under you” could mean fall in battle or fall down in homage. Perhaps it’s intentional that the specific king who is pictured here is unknown, because we’re meant to long for this kind of king who loves the Lord and leads by serving.

Verses 6-7 has sparked a lot of disagreement. “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…” The main question is whether the psalmist is addressing God or is referring to the king as a god (which would be shocking). Some argue that because the words before and after this section clearly refer to the king, it’s talking about a human who is elevated to a divine status. Of course, Christians throughout history have taken this idea further, saying that the psalmist spoke prophetically about the mystery of the incarnation in which God became human. The author of Hebrews quotes these verses as a reference to Jesus, the Son of God who is the supreme King over all. Yet it’s very important that we ask what this psalm would have meant to its original audience, and this is where we need to know a bit about the history of king David. In 2 Samuel 7, God makes a covenant — a formal promise — to David that his dynasty will last forever and that one particular offspring from his line will reign for eternity. In both 1 and 2 Chronicles, the throne of David is called “God’s throne,” meaning that God is tying his plan of salvation to the particular line of Davidic kings. So let me read the line from verse 6 again: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.” In the process of celebrating this upcoming royal wedding, the psalmist turns toward God and affirms that God’s throne in the dynasty of David is indeed forever and ever — as he had promised! Here’s the point: the people of Israel never placed their ultimate hopes in a human king but in the one from David’s line who would reign forever. As idealized as the king of Psalm 45 is described, he is imperfect and sinful. He will make mistakes, and he will die. Yet the psalmist sees this wedding as a sign of God’s faithfulness to his covenant, the hope of a future king of promise. He then turns back to the wedding at hand. The moment is arriving soon. The groom is anointed with “the oil of gladness,” dressed in fine robes, fragrant with scents and spices. The palace is decorated while musicians play the sweet melodies of the processional… And finally, we meet the beautiful queen-to-be. As it is in weddings today, everything stops when the bride enters the room.

Let’s meet the bride in verse 10: “Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear: forget your people and your father’s house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him. The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people.” This may seem to us like strange, even dangerous, advice to give to a bride: forget your past and serve your husband. Yet it’s a clear allusion to the first wedding in Genesis 2, in which God brought Eve to Adam and declared, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Weddings are a new beginning, but they are also an end. A husband leaves his family, a wife leaves her family, and the two make something new: a new family, a new legacy, one flesh united in every way. The connection to Genesis is even more clear because of the line “the king will desire your beauty,” which describes a strong sexual longing, a craving to be naked and unashamed with his new bride. This is a remarkable picture of the goodness of marriage: a husband and a wife becoming one flesh, both submitting to one another and both lifted up by the dignity received, enraptured by one another’s beauty. Ever since I got married, something interesting has happened whenever I attend a wedding: seeing two people get married makes me reflect on my own marriage. Weddings remind us to celebrate and recommit to our spouses.  The psalmist slows down this moment so we can see all the vivid details of the bride approaching her groom: “All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold. In many-colored robes she is led to the king, with her virgin companions following behind her. With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king.” It is picture-perfect with laughter, friends, and grandeur. All that’s left is the last word, which the psalmist addresses to the king as though God himself was pronouncing the blessing: “In place of your fathers shall be your sons; you will make them princes in all the earth. I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore nations will praise you forever and ever.” Here we look ahead again to the future, to the promises of God to bless not only his people but all the nations through the dynasty of David. This is why Psalm 45 is not just a private poem but a song for corporate worship: the hope of God’s people is tied to the line of David, the king who will embody grace and truth, who will reign forever in love and justice.

Jesus is the Messiah. He is the son of David, the King of Kings, the promised offspring who would reign forever. But as the prophet Isaiah foresaw, Jesus had no form or majesty that we should look at him. He was given myrrh and gold at his birth, but he was poor and ordinary. Yet the Spirit of God was upon him as well as the blessing of the Father, and he confronted sin and evil in the world with truth, meekness, and righteousness. Jesus was never married, but the Scriptures use the metaphor of marriage to describe his salvation of the church, the Bride of the Messiah. Yet when Jesus prepared for his wedding, he was not dressed in fragrant robes but stripped and beaten. He was not surrounded by companions but abandoned by all. His bride, the people he came to save, did not come to him and bow down but mocked him, scorned him, rejected him, and crucified him on the cross. But Jesus’ throne is forever and ever! Death could not defeat him, and the funeral of Good Friday turned to the wedding day of Easter as Jesus rose from the dead. He is above all with splendor and majesty. The old saint Cassiodorus wrote, “His virtue is above all virtues, His beauty above all beauties, His power indescribable, His devotion unique. O blessed bride, know to be joined to such great majesty… in the unbreakable bond of love!” One day, the Father will walk the bride of Christ — the church — down the aisle to meet our King. Until that day, like an eager scribe, we praise and worship Jesus as we long for him to return. As the hymn “The Love of God” states, “Could we with ink the ocean fill, / And were the skies of parchment made, / Were every stalk on earth a quill, / And every man a scribe by trade; / To write the love of God above / Would drain the ocean dry; / Nor could the scroll contain the whole, / Though stretched from sky to sky.”

How could this song of the royal wedding teach us how to pray? Consider meditating on certain lines of this psalm in these situations:

When you are sitting down to begin a creative endeavor.

When your heart overflows with a desire to worship God.

When you are searching for words to describe the greatness of God.

When you see a fellow human being who is beautiful, inside and out.

When you long for a leader who will use their power to help the powerless.

When you ask the Spirit to cultivate the fruit of gentleness within you.

When you pray while kneeling, falling down before the King.

When you read the tales of kings in the Bible, all of them leading up to the King of Kings who would rule forever.

When you rejoice that Jesus is David’s son, the Messiah.

When you plan or attend a wedding and witness the beauty of the decorations and the wedding party.

When you get married and know that your marriage is but a temporary image of Jesus and his Bride.

When you use perfume or wear fancy clothing.

When you serve your spouse and submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

When you have sex with your spouse and delight in their beauty.

When you celebrate the promises of God fulfilled in Jesus, whose name will be remembered in every generation, the name that the nations will praise forever and ever.

Psalm 45

To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah; a love song.

[1] My heart overflows with a pleasing theme;
    I address my verses to the king;
    my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.
    
[2] You are the most handsome of the sons of men;
    grace is poured upon your lips;
    therefore God has blessed you forever.
[3] Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one,
    in your splendor and majesty!
    
[4] In your majesty ride out victoriously
    for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness;
    let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!
[5] Your arrows are sharp
    in the heart of the king’s enemies;
    the peoples fall under you.
    
[6] Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
    The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;
[7]     you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you
    with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;
[8]     your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.
From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad;
[9]     daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor;
    at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.
    
[10] Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear:
    forget your people and your father’s house,
[11]     and the king will desire your beauty.
Since he is your lord, bow to him.
[12]     The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts,
    the richest of the people.
    
[13] All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold.
[14]     In many-colored robes she is led to the king,
    with her virgin companions following behind her.
[15] With joy and gladness they are led along
    as they enter the palace of the king.
    
[16] In place of your fathers shall be your sons;
    you will make them princes in all the earth.
[17] I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations;
    therefore nations will praise you forever and ever.

Thank you for listening to the Woven Psalms. This podcast is a ministry of Rock Hill Community Church in Duluth, MN.

I’m Mike Solis. I’m a pastor at Rock Hill and the writer of this podcast. Ethan Gibbs is our producer, editor, and composer of the theme music. Our logo was designed by Beau Walsh. This podcast uses the English Standard Version, published by Crossway.

We want to give a special thanks to Poor Bishop Hooper for allowing us to use the music from their EveryPsalm project.

If you’ve enjoyed the podcast, please share it with others. You can learn more about our work at wovenpsalms.com.