Psalm 45 is a royal psalm or kingship psalm1 . Kingship is the organizing theological theme of the final form of the Psalter. A fitting title over the whole of the Book of Psalms would be “The LORD Reigns.”
To understand the theology of Psalms we have to understand the typological relationship between the Davidic king and the Divine King. The Davidic king was the earthy representative of the rule of the King of heaven. His throne was God’s throne. The promises of the Davidic covenant extended beyond anything that David could fulfill. God promised to raise up a particular offspring of David, a Son, whose throne he would establish forever (2 Sam 7:12b-14a). The Davidic king’s rule over Israel typified and anticipated the rule of the Divine King, the Son of God, over the world. The royal psalms move us from the reign of David to the reign of God.
That the Davidic kingdom is a type of Christ’s Kingdom explains why some references in Royal Psalms cannot be fulfilled in David or his successors. Against the background of the collapse of the Davidic Dynasty in the exile, we are brought to see, like the NT writers, that those references refer to Christ and can only be fulfilled in him. The King in Psalm 45 reigns forever, is righteous, and is anointed above his companions. The writer of Hebrews uses this text to argue the superiority of Christ to the angels who mediated the Old Covenant (Heb. 1:8-9). David was part of the Old Covenant realities that can only be fulfilled in Christ. David’s reign over Israel anticipated the reign of Christ over people from every nation.
Psalm 45 is unique among all the psalms in the Psalter. It is a royal psalm that is dedicated to the king on his wedding day. The superscription designates it a love song. As all royal psalms have an application to Christ, this psalm celebrating the king on his wedding day must correspond in some way to Christ and his bride, the church.2 Marriage, from the first marriage, looks to the union of Christ and the church for fulfillment.
Everybody loves a wedding. Weddings are joyful occasions. The wedding of Psalm 45 is no ordinary wedding, it is a royal wedding. Royal weddings are a spectacle that today command a global audience. The wedding of Charles and Diana was viewed by an estimated 750 million people around the world. Imagine being given an invitation to attend a royal wedding. Imagine being a wedding guest at William and Kate’s wedding hearing the congregation at Westminster Abby sing, “Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer.”
We have been invited to the grandest wedding of all, the wedding to which all other weddings grand or small point. Unlike other royal weddings, a global invitation has gone out into every street and byway calling on all people to make preparation to attend the grandest wedding of all. To snub such an invitation is unthinkable. This psalm gives us an invitation to a royal wedding.
There is no one like Jesus. He is to be adored. Anyone who knows him will adore him. People who do not adore him do not know him. There is on one like Jesus.
The psalmist is the Poet Laureate for the royal wedding of Psalm 45. With an introduction to his poem like no other in the Bible, the inspired poet shares his personal feelings about composing his verses to the king (1). His heart overflows with a pleasing theme, and his tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. There was much more pressure on the composer of the psalm than on the preacher of the psalm. The psalmist’s simple introduction should serve as an example to us of how we should approach the Lord—hearts overflowing with a pleasing theme and words carefully chosen. Jesus is to be adored.
In verses 2-9, the psalmist describes the king. While the psalm was composed for the wedding of a Davidic king, the descriptions of the king quickly move beyond what David or any of his sons could have fulfilled. We have to say either that the language of the psalm is hyperbole or is prophetic. The psalm emphasizes the eternal. It is enclosed with the word forever (2, 17) with a double reference to the eternal nature of the reign of God in between (6). We have to read forever in a strained way to mean in your lifetime or to mean a string of heirs without end. If neither of those works, then we have to conclude the psalm is primarily speaking of the divine-human King that the Davidic king anticipates.3
The psalmist points to one aspect of the king to emphasize the whole of his character. He is the most handsome of the sons of Adam (2). Rather than simply meaning his physical appearance, the psalmist is saying the king is impressive in every way. He is also anointed beyond his companions (7b). He has no peers. He is unique among men. His words are full of grace (2b). Speaking if Jesus, Luke said, All … marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth (Lk. 4:22). His striking character and gracious words were a demonstration of God’s eternal blessing on him.
The psalmist presents the king not only as beautiful but also as a divine warrior (3-5). He calls on him to exert his power to champion the cause of truth, meekness (gentleness/humility), and righteousness. The psalmist implores the king to Gird his sword in splendor and majesty and in majesty ride victoriously for truth, meekness, and righteousness. He calls the king mighty one. This is the same word used in Isaiah 9:6 to describe the Son that would be born who would be called mighty God, who would establish the throne of David forever. Splendor (hode) and majesty (hadar) describe the brilliance of divine glory (Ps. 96:6; 104:1; 145:5). As God’s representative son, the king is given splendor and majesty (21:5). In his majesty, the king champions the cause of God. His awesome deeds are deeds that only God can do that leave people awestruck. His arrows (5) represent all of the weapons in his arsenal of truth, gentleness, and righteousness. The nations cannot stand against his truth and righteousness.
When you read these texts, you see they move beyond a merely human king, and you cannot help but run to the ultimate triumph of the cause of God in Christ. The sword and the arrows of Christ are his words: the cause of truth, humility, and righteousness. The servant of the LORD in Isaiah said, he made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow (49:2). In the Revelation, John describes Jesus, In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shinning in full strength (1:16). With his words, he will strike down the nations: Behold a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war (19:11). From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron (19:15).
In extolling the king, the psalmist’s heart bubbles over with what we are all thinking: Your throne, O God, is forever and ever (6a). The throne of the king is the throne of God (cf. 1Chron. 29:23). While the human Davidic king is God’s representative by type, this verse is fulfilled in Jesus Christ the divine-human King to whom David’s rule pointed. The writer of Hebrews quotes Psalm 45:6-7 in full as a direct Messianic prophecy to show the superiority of Christ to the angels, the mediators of the Old Covenant (Heb. 1:8-9). Of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.
His love for righteousness and hatred of wickedness has distinguished him from all other Davidic kings. He is the divine-human fulfillment of the Davidic covenant. He is both God (6) and has a God (v7). Therefore, he excels all other kings.
Only at this point in the psalm, do we have the indication that this is a wedding Psalm. After giving us such an exalted description of the king, one which only the Messiah could fulfill, we are introduced to the wedding party, the ladies of honor and the queen-bride dressed in wedding garments at his right hand (9).
Having been led to think of Christ, we cannot help but see a preview of the marriage union of Christ and the church (cf. Rev 19:9; 21:1-8).4
Jesus must have not only all our adoration but also all of our devotion.
Surprisingly, the focus of the psalm is on the beauty of the king not the bride. In our culture, the focus of any wedding is on the bride. We have a bridal march, not a groom march. Those attending stand for the entrance of the bride but not for the groom. In our weddings, the groom is significant because of the bride. To make much of the groom and little of the bride would be offensive and unthinkable.
Rather than extoll the beauty of the bride, the psalmist calls on her to forget her people and her father’s house (10). The king has set his affection on the bride. She is the object of his desire. She is to submit to him (11). It is by virtue of her relation to him, that she is held in esteem among the nations (12). By virtue of her union with him the wealth of the nations is brought into the Kingdom.5
The wedding language of this psalm is remarkable. It moves us to look back to the first wedding and forward to a future wedding. When God created Adam and Eve male and female, he created them with marriage in mind. Marriage is no afterthought in the creation story, no construct concocted by the first two humans, but was an expression of God’s purpose in creating them male and female in the first place. The first marriage points to our redemption and union with Christ.
This text is so counter to this cultural moment. One thing our culture is proving beyond doubt is that it is not the depository of wisdom. We think we are wiser than God. Christ calls us out of this world to submit to him. The church in all things is to be submissive to Christ. This reality is to be reflected in our marriages.6 Husbands love your wives; wives see that you respect your husbands (Eph. 5:33). If you are not submitted to you husband, you are not submitted to Christ. If you do not love your wife, you do not love Christ. Our adoration and devotion must come together. We must trust Jesus enough to do what he says.
We are not wiser than God. As a woman, you are not called on to submit to every man but only to your husband. Men, you are not called to love every woman but simply to love your wife. The church submits to one man, Christ. And he loves one bride, the church, and gave himself for her (Eph 5:25).
We are safe to pattern our marriages after Christ and the church. We are to live in the power and demonstration of the age to come. To pattern your marriage after something else, anything else, is to pattern it after this present age. Your marriage is to show that the age to come has broken into this present age in power that transforms marriage. Marriage demonstrates the age to come by pointing to the church’s submission to Christ and Christ’s love for his people.
The psalmist moves from the allegiance of the bride to the bridal party (13-15). Her clothes and her joy are emphasized (13-14, cf. 9). Both are expressions of her devotion.
The emphasis on her garments and joy puts us in mind of the marriage of the Lamb in Revelation 19:6-9. A great multitude cried out, Hallelujah, for the Lord out God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, Write this: “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
Jesus deserves our adoration and demands our devotion, and in adoration for him and devotion to him, we find purpose.
The marriage of Psalm 45, a Davidic king to a foreign bride7, has global implications. Marriage is a mystery and belongs to God. He has the patent on it. As the biblical story unfolds, we see the primary purpose of marriage unfold—that God may have covenant people of his own. In Paul’s echo of Psalm 45 in Ephesians 5, He shows explicitly that the high and noble purpose of marriage is to be a living metaphor of the union of Christ and the church. He writes: This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church (5:32).
What if God created the world so that he might have a people for his Son. What if it is true that by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent (Col. 1:16-18)?
What if it is true that God in wisdom and love purposed all the details of your life, every pain and every joy, so that he might unite you to Christ?
The psalmist addresses the king in these final two verses directing him to the future fruitfulness of his marriage. He will have sons who will rule. No human Davidic king had sons who ruled in all the earth. But the divine-human King through the things he suffered brought many sons to glory (Heb. 2:10).
He has made us into a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9).
He freed us from our sins by his own blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen (Rev 1:6).
He made us a kingdom and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth (Rev. 5:10 cf. 20:6).
As his offspring among the nations, we compel peoples to direct all their adoration and devotion to him forever, for he alone is worthy of the praise of the nations.
Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is like king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He sent his servants to invite people to the feast, and many of those invited did not come but rather murdered the king’s servants. So he sent more servants gather people from the roads, both good and bad, to the feast. One guest came in without a wedding garment and was bound and cast into outer darkness (Mt. 22:1-4).
Jesus said, when he saw the Centurions faith, I tell you, many will come from the east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (Mt. 8:11-12). Today we will come to a table that anticipates that table.
As we come to the table we remember the King and offer him our praise.