July 2007 Lectio Divina
Psalm 45
The Marriage of the King

My heart overflows with noble words.
To the King I must speak the song I have made;
my tongue as nimble as the pen of a scribe.

You are the fairest of the children of men
and graciousness is poured upon your lips:
because God has blessed you for evermore.

O mighty one, gird your sword upon your thigh;
in splendor and state, ride on in triumph
for the cause of truth and goodness and right.

Take aim with your bow in your dread right hand.
You arrows are sharp: peoples fall beneath you.
The foes of the king fall down and lose heart.

Your throne, O God, shall endure for ever.
A scepter of justice is the scepter of your kingdom.
Your love is for justice; your hatred for evil.

Therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness above other kings:
your robes are fragrant with aloes and myrrh.

From the ivory palace you are greeted with music.
The daughters of kings are among your loved ones.
On your right stands the queen in gold of Ophir.

Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words:
forget your own people and your father’s house.
So will the king desire your beauty:
he is your lord, pay homage to him.

And the people of Tyre shall come with gifts,
the richest of the people shall seek your favor.
The daughter of the king is clothed with splendor,
her robes embroidered with pearls set in gold.

She is led to the king with her maiden companions.
They are escorted amid gladness and joy;
they pass within the palace of the king.

Sons shall be yours in place of your fathers:
you will make them princes over all the earth.
May this song make your name for ever remembered.
May the peoples praise you from age to age.

This psalm is unique in the psalter. It is a royal wedding song in two parts. The first addresses the bridegroom, the king, dressed in all his "splendor and state." The second addresses the bride, the queen, who comes escorted by her bridesmaids to be married in the royal palace. In Jewish tradition the psalm was read as a prophecy of the Messiah, God’s anointed king. The Church readily applied the psalm to Jesus. He is the bridegroom (the sentence Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him (Matthew 25:6)), and the Church is his bride, "those who are called to the wedding fast of the lamb" (Eastertide antiphon).

My heart overflows with noble words…

The poet, possibly a priest or a prophet, is exhilarated by his theme. The wedding of the king is an event of prime importance for the whole nation, as the king is God’s viceroy.

You are the fairest of the children of men
and graciousness is poured upon your lips:
because God has blessed you for evermore.

The king’s handsome appearance and gift with words are signs of the fact that God has blessed him from birth. A man’s physical appearance was expected to reflect his inner qualities, and hence the bewilderment of Israel when they saw that the suffering servant of the Lord in Isaiah 53 "had no beauty, no majesty to draw our eyes, no grace to make us delight in him" (Holy Week antiphon). Those who see in Christ the suffering servant prophesied by Isaiah know that he is "the image of the invisible God," "full of grace and truth" (Colossians 1:15; John 1:14). He is the fairest of the children of men.

O mighty one, gird your sword upon your thigh;
in splendor and state, ride on in triumph
for the cause of truth and goodness and right.

The king is responsible for the protection of his people from the attacks of their enemies, and so he must be mighty in battle. His cause is not a selfish cause, but the cause of justice. He is to fight for truth, goodness, and right. As he engages in this battle for justice he shared the attributes of God, to whom belongs splendor and state (Psalm 96:6).

In his triumphant reign, Christ will "put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death" (1 Corinthians 15:25, 26). The sword of Christ and his disciples is "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Ephesians 6:17). The weapons of Christ are spiritual, for his "kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36).

Take aim with your bow in your dread right hand…

Wherever the king fights for truth, goodness, and right his strong power (dread right hand) will bring him victory.

Your throne, O God, shall endure for ever.
A scepter of justice is the scepter of your kingdom.
Your love is for justice; your hatred for evil.

A king was anointed at his coronation, and thus became the anointed one, the messiah, but the anointing here may be the king’s anointing with fragrant oils at his wedding as a sign of abundant joy, the oil of gladness.

From the ivory palace you are greeted with music.
The daughters of kings are among your loves ones.
On your right stands the queen in gold of Ophir.

The wedding music has begun and the new queen comes to stand at the king’s right hand, signifying her superiority over all other women in the realm. The fact that the king’s harem includes the daughters of kings indicates how powerful he is. In Christian interpretation these foreign princesses represent the Gentile nations converted to Christ and brought into the new Israel. The moment for the wedding has arrived, and the queen stands dressed in gold of Ophir. (Ophir may have been in the Arabian desert, the mine from which Solomon’s gold came).

It is possible that the queen in this verse is the Queen Mother, standing with her son awaiting the bride. In Christian tradition this has prompted some interpreters to identify the queen with the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Our Lord, Queen of Heaven.

Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words:
forget your own people and your father’s house.
So will the king desire your beauty:
he is your lord, pay homage to him.

The queen is a foreign princess, and the poet advises her to forget her own people. Foreign princesses sometimes brought with them their gods, and insisted on introducing them into the worship of Israel (this was one of the reasons for Solomon’s downfall, (1 Kings 11), so the queen is told to leave all that behind, and be loyal to her husband and to his God. This is the way she will attract her new husband’s devotion. The Church as the bride of Christ is challenged to the same loyalty to her Lord.

And the people of Tyre shall come with gifts,
the richest of the people shall seek your favor.
The daughter of the king is clothed with splendor,
her robes embroidered with pearls set in gold.

Tyre is the city just to the north of Israel, on the coast. The poet prophesies that the richest of the people of the surrounding nations will bring gifts to the new queen (a princess in her own right, a daughter of the king) in order to seek her favor. She will have to cut her ties with her father’s house, but she will be rewarded with splendor and gold, and with sons (last verse), future princes over all the earth.

Again, these lines can be interpreted with reference to the Church. Her beauty and wealth are the fruits of the Spirit which will draw people to seek her favor. Her royal robe is holiness (Ephesians 5:27).

She is led to the king…

As the bride enters the palace amid gladness and joy, so the Church will enter heaven for "the marriage of the Lamb" (Revelations 21:9).

Sons shall be yours in place of your fathers:
you will make them princes over all the earth.

The Davidic king was to rule the earth in justice and truth, a prophecy that found its fulfillment in Christ. The union of Christ and his Church brings the blessing of sons and daughters through whom the name and honor of the king are revealed over all the earth.

May this song make your name for ever remembered.
May the peoples praise you from age to age.

The last two lines are the poet’s address to the king, wishing him and his dynasty long life, honor and renown for all time.

Commentary from ‘The School of Prayer’ – an Introduction to the Divine Office for All Christians, by John Brook, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota (1992).