The Book of Psalms

Word Study

"fairer," Hebrew yophyaphita (יָפְיָפִיתָ), a doubled form, "thou art beautiful, beautiful", exceedingly fair. The poet, overflowing (v1), turns to the King and praises His person first: "Thou art fairer than the children of men." The Hebrew doubles the word for beauty -- "fair, fair" -- an intensity beyond compare.

"grace," chen (חֵן), favour, gracious charm. The second beauty is His speech. What is on His lips matches what is in His face: gracious favour, the charm that wins rather than compels.

"poured," hutzaq (הוּצַק), poured out as a liquid. "Grace is poured into thy lips." His words are as lovely as His face, flowing from His mouth like poured oil.

"blessed," berakhekha (בֵּרַכְךָ). Behind both beauties stands the act of God: "therefore God hath blessed thee for ever." What the poet admires in the King, he traces to a blessing the King has received.

Explanation

Two things are worth noticing in the praise. First, the comparison itself lifts the King out of the human category: "fairer than the children of men." He is not the fairest among men, as if first in a line; He is fairer than the line altogether, in a beauty men do not possess. Second, the psalm praises not only how He looks but how He speaks, "grace is poured into thy lips." Poured is a liquid word, as oil or water is poured; grace does not merely touch His lips, it flows from them. A king may be handsome and cruel, or eloquent and false; here is one whose words are as gracious as His face is fair, beauty of person and beauty of speech in one. This is the mark that no earthly monarch fully wears, and it quietly signals that the song has a greater King in view than the one at whose wedding it was first sung.

Gospel Focus

"Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips", this is the beauty of Jesus Christ, fairest of all, from whose lips grace itself flowed. Of His speech the officers said, "Never man spake like this man" (John 7:46), and the crowds "wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth" (Luke 4:22); grace was poured into His lips in the fullest sense, for He is grace incarnate, "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Yet the wonder of the gospel is that this fairest of men was willing to be made unlovely for us: at the cross "he hath no form nor comeliness... there is no beauty that we should desire him" (Isaiah 53:2), marred and disfigured, that we might be made beautiful in Him. The One fairer than the children of men bore our shame, so that the church, once defiled, might be presented "a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle" (Ephesians 5:27). So we behold His beauty and love Him, "yea, he is altogether lovely" (Song of Solomon 5:16), the King whose face outshines the sons of men and whose words are grace itself, and who became marred for us that we might share His loveliness for ever.

Word Study

"throne," Hebrew kis'akha (כִּסְאֲךָ). Here the wedding song rises to a height no earthly king could bear. It is the King's throne that is addressed -- his right to rule, not merely his person.

"O God," Elohim (אֱלֹהִים). The King is addressed directly as God: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." And then, astonishingly, the same King is said to have a God: "therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee." He is called God, and He has God.

"for ever and ever," olam va'ed (עוֹלָם וָעֶד). His reign is not for a lifetime but for ever. No dynasty of Israel or of the nations could have this said of it truthfully.

"right sceptre," shevet mishor (שֵׁבֶט מִישֹׁר), a sceptre of uprightness. The rod He rules with is straight. His reign is not merely endless but perfectly upright, an eternity of right judgment.

"oil of gladness," shemen sason (שֶׁמֶן שָׂשׂוֹן). The anointing given Him is an anointing of joy. What is poured on this King is not merely authority but gladness.

"above thy fellows," mechaverekha (מֵחֲבֵרֶיךָ). He is anointed beyond His companions. Whatever others receive, He receives more, and the song sets Him apart from every other anointed man.

Explanation

Hold the two statements together, for the psalm sets them side by side on purpose. In verse 6 the King is addressed as God, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever", His throne eternal, a claim no mortal king could carry. In verse 7 that very same King has a God who acts upon Him, "therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee." He is God, and He has God. To the merely human mind this is a contradiction; to faith it is the shape of a mystery, the King who is truly God and yet stands as the Anointed One before God. This is exactly the wonder of the incarnation: the one God, whose throne is everlasting, comes as the Anointed man who can be blessed, gladdened, and anointed "with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." The eternal deity of the King and His anointing as a man are not rivals in this psalm but partners, and only one Person in all history unites them.

Gospel Focus

"Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever", the letter to the Hebrews settles beyond dispute who this King is, quoting these very verses as the Father's words to the Son: "But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever... Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows" (Hebrews 1:8-9). The King of Psalm 45 is Jesus Christ, addressed as God, enthroned for ever, and this is the heart of the Apostolic faith: Jesus is the LORD, the one true God manifest in flesh, "God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16), in whom "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9). The eternal throne is His because He is God; and He is anointed as a man because in Him God took our nature to save us, the same one Person both the God who reigns and the Anointed who was gladdened above His fellows. His sceptre is a "right sceptre," for He loves righteousness and hates wickedness, and He reigns not for a term but "for ever and ever." Bow, then, to the King who is God, Jesus Christ, whose everlasting throne is the sure ground of His people's hope, and worship Him, for His is the kingdom that shall never end.

Word Study

"greatly desire," Hebrew veyit'av (וְיִתְאָו), long for, delight in. The song now turns from the King to the bride, and the words of counsel are tender and searching: "So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty." The longing runs from the King toward her, not merely from her toward Him.

"thy beauty," yophyekh (יָפְיֵךְ). The word answers the King's own beauty praised in verse 2. Just before, she was told, "Forget also thine own people, and thy father's house" (v10), a call to leave all and belong wholly to Him; and to that surrendered bride comes this promise.

"thy Lord," adonayikh (אֲדֹנָיִךְ). The reason given for what follows is simply who He is: "for he is thy Lord." The relation is not only love but rule.

"worship," hishtachavi (הִשְׁתַּחֲוִי), bow down. And so the bride is told to bow to Him. Desire on His side and reverence on hers belong together in the same verse.

Explanation

The bride is asked to do a costly thing and given a wonderful reason. The costly thing is total leaving: "Forget also thine own people, and thy father's house" (v10), a bride in that world left her whole former life behind to belong to her husband, and this bride is called to it utterly. The wonderful reason follows in verse 11: "So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty." Notice the order, for it overturns how we usually think. It is not that the bride is beautiful and therefore the king desires her; it is that she leaves all for him, and his desire is set upon her. His longing is what crowns her with worth. And the same One who desires her is also the One she is to worship, "for he is thy Lord", a striking pairing, for He is at once her Bridegroom who loves her and her Lord whom she adores. Her beauty, verse 13 adds, is "all glorious within", an inward loveliness, before it is the "wrought gold" of her clothing. The King desires a bride who has left everything for Him, and His desire makes her glorious.

Gospel Focus

"So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty", the bride of this song is fulfilled in the church, the bride of Jesus Christ, whom He loves, desires, and adorns. The New Testament unfolds the picture: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it... that he might present it to himself a glorious church" (Ephesians 5:25-27); and the end of the story is "the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready" (Revelation 19:7). Like the bride of Psalm 45, the church is called to leave all and cleave to Christ, "if any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother... he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26), forgetting her father's house to belong wholly to her Lord. And her beauty is not her own achievement but His gift: Christ desires her, and His love makes her lovely, clothing her in "the fine linen... the righteousness of saints" (Revelation 19:8), "all glorious within" by the work of His Spirit. He is at once her Bridegroom, who greatly desires her, and her Lord, whom she worships, the very truth this psalm holds together. So the believer, part of that bride, leaves all for Christ, is desired and adorned by Him, and looks for the marriage supper of the Lamb, when the bride shall be brought unto the King in glory to be with her Bridegroom-Lord for ever.