Psalm 45: A Song for the King's Wedding

"My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever." The poet introduces himself as a skilled scribe (sofer mahir, the phrase used of Ezra in Ezra 7:6).

"Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty… And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness… Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces."

"Kings' daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir. Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty… And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift."

"The king's daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her… Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations."

Royal weddings and foreign brides

Kings of Israel and Judah made marriage alliances with foreign courts: Solomon with Pharaoh's daughter (1 Kings 3:1), Ahab with Jezebel of Sidon (1 Kings 16:31). "The daughter of Tyre" bringing a gift and the bride told to "forget thine own people" fit such a dynastic marriage. Ophir was a source of fine gold (1 Kings 9:28).

Ivory palaces

Ahab built an "ivory house" (1 Kings 22:39) and Amos condemns "houses of ivory" (Amos 3:15). Excavations at Samaria found hundreds of carved ivory plaques of the 9th–8th centuries BC, once inlaid in furniture or walls. They show what "ivory palaces" meant in Iron Age Israel; they do not identify this king.

The heading

"To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, for the sons of Korah, Maschil, A Song of loves (shir yedidot)." Shoshannim, "lilies," is probably a tune (also Psalms 69, 80). The library's Vulgate reads "pro iis qui commutabuntur" ("for those who will be changed"), the Greek having connected shoshannim with the verb shanah, "to change." The heading names no king.

"Thy throne, O God"

45:6 Hebrew kis'akha elohim 'olam va'ed. Options: (1) "Your throne, O God, is for ever": the king is addressed as elohim, a unique honorific for a human king in the Bible, perhaps as God's representative (compare Exodus 4:16; 7:1, where Moses is "as God"); (2) "Your throne is God's for ever" or "your divine throne"; (3) "Your throne is God for ever." The Greek reads a vocative, "O God" (Giguet "ô mon Dieu"; Vulgate "Sedes tua, Deus"), and Hebrews 1:8–9 quotes the Greek to speak of the Son. Verse 7 then distinguishes "God, thy God" who anoints the king.

The king Messiah

The Aramaic Targum of Psalms reads 45:3 as "Your beauty, O King Messiah, is greater than that of the sons of men." Jewish and Christian interpretation alike came to read the royal wedding as a picture of the messianic king; Christian tradition added the bride as the Church or Mary.

Within, or Heshbon?

45:13 Hebrew: "All glorious is the king's daughter within (penimah)." Giguet's printed Greek has "the daughter of the king of Esebon" (Heshbon) instead of "within"; the library's Vulgate reads "ab intus." The origin of the "Heshbon" reading in Giguet's text has not been checked by the site.