Psalms 45:10 - Meaning and Application

This last part of the psalm speaks to the royal bride as she stands at the king’s right hand. God, who told the Son, “Your throne is forever and ever,” now speaks to the church, whom he calls his daughter because she is joined to the Son in marriage.

He first tells her what duties are expected of her, and this applies to everyone who comes into relationship with the Lord Jesus. “Listen carefully,” he says, “think about this, and bend your ear to it.” That means she must accept the terms of this marriage and bring her will into line with them. This is how people benefit from God’s word, they hear, they consider, and then they yield to what God says.

What is required here? She must turn away from all other ties. The law of this marriage is clear, “Forget your own people and your father’s house.” She is not to keep a longing for them, or want to go back. She must put away every memory that would draw her back, even to things that were once very dear to her, like Lot’s wife looking back toward Sodom.

When Abraham obeyed God’s call and left his homeland, he did not keep holding on to the land he left behind. This shows how necessary it was for people converted from Judaism or paganism to Christ to cast off their old ways completely. They were not to bring Jewish rituals or pagan idol worship into Christian faith, or they would create a mixed, unhealthy religion like the Samaritans had. It also shows that all of us, when we give ourselves to Jesus Christ, must love father and mother, and everything else in this world, less than we love Christ and his honor, and less than we value our share in him (Luke 14:26).

She is also given strong encouragement to break fully from her former alliances: “Then the king will greatly desire your beauty.” This suggests that mixing her old Jewish or Gentile customs with her new faith would spoil her beauty and could weaken the king’s affection. But if she fully follows his will, he will delight in her. The beauty of holiness, whether in the church or in individual believers, is very precious in Christ’s eyes. Where he sees that beauty, he says, “This is my rest forever. Here I will live, because I have desired it.” He moves among the golden lampstands with pleasure (Revelation 2:1).

She must also honor him, love him, obey him, and bow before him. “He is your Lord, and worship him.” The church is to submit to Christ as a wife submits to her husband (Ephesians 5:24). She is to call him Lord, as Sarah called Abraham, and obey him (1 Peter 3:6). This means more than accepting his rule, it also means giving him divine honor. We are to worship him as God and Lord, because it is God’s will that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. When we confess that Christ is Lord and give him our praise, it brings glory to God the Father (Philippians 2:11).

The psalm then speaks of the honors prepared for her. Great respect will be shown to her, and rich gifts will be brought. “The daughter of Tyre,” that wealthy and splendid city, will come with a gift. Every royal family nearby will send a representative to seek her favor and win her goodwill. Even the rich among the people, who might think wealth frees them from dependence on the court, will ask for her favor for the sake of the one to whom she is joined. In this way they hope to make him their friend. The Jews, even the proud and wealthy ones, will one day come and worship at the church’s feet in the Philadelphian period, and they will know that Christ has loved her (Revelation 3:9). When Gentiles are converted and join themselves to the church, they too come with a gift (2 Corinthians 8:5; Romans 15:16). When they give themselves and all they have to the honor of Christ and the service of his kingdom, they truly come with a gift.

She will also be seen as very splendid and worthy of honor in the eyes of all. This is true, first, because of her inner qualities, the gifts and graces of her mind, which everyone will admire. “The king’s daughter is all glorious within.” The church’s real glory is spiritual glory, and that is true glory indeed. It is the glory of the soul, and the soul is the real person. It is glory in God’s sight, and it points ahead to eternal glory. The glory of the saints cannot be seen by the natural eye. Just as their life is hidden with Christ in God, so is their glory hidden. The natural person cannot understand it, because it is spiritually known. But those who do see it value it highly. This is the true glory we should seek, not the kind that only makes an outward show, but the beauty of the hidden person of the heart, the beauty that will not fade (1 Peter 3:4), whose praise comes from God, not from men (Romans 2:29).

Her clothing is also rich. Though her real glory is inward, and that is what makes her truly valuable, her clothing is also woven with gold. Christians’ outward conduct, the way they appear in the world, should be filled with good works. These works should not be flashy or vain, like paint and decoration, but solid and truly good, like gold. They should also be carefully made, like woven gold, with thought and care.

Her wedding will be celebrated with honor and joy. “She shall be brought to the king,” just as the Lord God brought the woman to the man (Genesis 2:22), which pointed forward to this spiritual marriage between Christ and his church. No one comes to Christ unless the Father brings them, and he has promised to do it. None are brought to the king in this way except those who enter the king’s palace (Psalm 45:14, Psalm 45:15). This points to two different times when the bride is brought to Christ.

First, it happens when souls are converted to Christ. Then they are joined to him in a private, holy bond, like chaste virgins who are promised in marriage (2 Corinthians 11:2; Romans 7:4). Second, it happens when the mystical body is complete, and all the saints are glorified at the end of time. Then the bride, the Lamb’s wife, will be fully prepared, when all who belong to the electing grace of God are gathered in and brought home. Then they will all be gathered to Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:1). That is when the marriage of the Lamb comes (Revelation 19:7; Revelation 21:2), and the virgins go out to meet the bridegroom (Matthew 25:1). Then they will enter the king’s palaces, the heavenly homes, to be with the Lord forever.

In both of these bridal scenes, her wedding clothes are mentioned with honor, the embroidered robe, which stands for the righteousness of Christ and the graces of the Spirit. Both are skillfully worked by divine wisdom.

The bride’s companions are the virgins with her, the wise virgins who have oil in their vessels as well as in their lamps. These are people who join themselves to the church, stay close to it, and follow it. They will go in to the marriage.

The wedding will be marked by joy and gladness. When the prodigal son is brought home to his father, it is right to make merry and be glad (Luke 15:32). When the marriage of the Lamb comes, we should be glad and rejoice (Revelation 19:7), because the day of his wedding is the day of the gladness of his heart (Song of Solomon 3:11).

The children from this marriage will be honored and many. Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children (Psalm 45:16). This points from the old covenant, which was growing old and ready to disappear (Hebrews 8:13), to a new covenant church that includes the Gentiles, the non-Jewish nations, grafted into the same olive tree and sharing its root and rich sap (Romans 11:17). In that way, the children of the deserted woman will become more numerous and more honored than the children of the married woman (Isaiah 54:1).

This promise to Christ has the same meaning as Isaiah 53:10, He shall see his seed. These children will be made princes in all the earth. People from all nations will come under Christ’s rule and be made princes, made to our God kings and priests (Revelation 1:6). Or this may mean that there will be far more Christian kings than there were Jewish kings, since those were only in Canaan and these are in all the earth. They will be nursing fathers and nursing mothers to the church, and the church will draw strength from kings. They are princes made by Christ, because by him kings rule and princes make just laws.

The praise of this marriage will last as long as the praise of the royal bridegroom. I will make thy name to be remembered (Psalm 45:17). His Father has given him a name above every name, and here promises to keep that name alive through an ongoing line of ministers and Christians in every age. They will uphold his name, and so it will endure forever (Psalm 72:17), being remembered through all generations. The family line of Christianity will not be cut off. Therefore, because they will remember you in all generations, they will praise you forever and ever.

Those who help uphold Christ’s honor on earth will one day see his glory in heaven, share in it, and praise him forever. In the believing hope of our lasting happiness in the world to come, let us always keep Christ in mind in our own time, since he is our only way there. And with confidence that the Redeemer’s kingdom will continue in the world, let us pass on the memory of him to the next generations, so that his name may endure forever and be as lasting as the days of heaven.