Psalms 45:6 - Meaning and Application

Here we see the royal bridegroom filling his throne with justice and surrounding his court with splendor.

He fills his throne with justice. Here God the Father speaks to the Son and says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.” This is quoted in Hebrews 1:8-9 to show that the Son is truly God and has a greater name than the angels. The Mediator, the one who brings God and people together, must be God, or he could not do that work or deserve that crown.

His rule is everlasting, “forever and ever.” It will continue on earth through all the ages of time, despite every attack from the gates of hell. In its blessed results, it will last as long as the days of heaven and stretch on with eternity itself. Even after the kingdom is handed over to God the Father (1 Corinthians 15:24), the Redeemer’s throne will still continue. There may even then be an endless growth in the Redeemer’s glory and the redeemed people’s happiness, for his government and peace have no end (Isaiah 9:7).

His rule is also perfectly right. “The scepter of your kingdom” means the way he governs is exactly right, according to God’s eternal wisdom and will. Christ never does wrong to any of his subjects. Instead, he gives relief to those who suffer wrong. He loves righteousness and hates wickedness (Psalm 45:7). He himself loves to do what is right and hates what is evil. By his holy life, his saving death, and the whole purpose of his gospel, he has shown this clearly. Through his example, his atonement, and his commands, he has brought in an everlasting righteousness. And never has God’s hatred of sin appeared more clearly than in the sufferings of Christ.

His rule is also established and lifted up by God. “Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness.” As Mediator, Christ speaks of God as his God, because God sent him and made him head over those joined to him in covenant. This anointing means, first, that God gave him his Spirit to fit him for his mission (Isaiah 61:1). “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he has anointed me.” God equipped him for the work he called him to do (Isaiah 11:2). The Spirit is called the oil of gladness because of the joy Christ had in carrying out his work. He was anointed with the Spirit above all others who were anointed, whether priests or kings.

It also means that, as a reward for what he did and suffered to promote righteousness and destroy sin, God gave him the honors and joys of his exalted state. Because he humbled himself, God highly exalted him (Philippians 2:8-9). This anointing points to the power and glory he now holds. He has been clothed with all the dignity and authority of the Messiah. It also points to the joy set before him, as Hebrews 12:2 says, both in the light of his Father’s face (Acts 2:28) and in the success of his work, which he will see and be satisfied with (Isaiah 53:11). He is anointed above all his fellows, above all believers, who are his brothers and who share in the anointing, they in part, he without limit. The apostle uses this to prove Christ’s greatness above the angels (Hebrews 1:4, 1:9). The salvation of sinners is the joy of angels (Luke 15:10), but it is even more the joy of the Son.

He also keeps his court with beauty and honor. His royal robes are noticed, not mainly for their splendor, but for their pleasant fragrance. They smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia (Psalm 45:8). These are some of the ingredients in the holy anointing oil God appointed, the kind that was not to be copied for ordinary use (Exodus 30:23-24). That oil pointed to the Spirit’s anointing, which Christ, the great high priest who represents us before God, received. The sweet smell of these good ointments, that is, his graces and comforts, draws souls to him (Song of Songs 1:3-4) and makes him precious to believers (1 Peter 2:7).

His royal palaces are called ivory palaces, then considered the height of magnificence. Ahab built an ivory house (1 Kings 22:39). The mansions of light above are the ivory palaces, where every joy of Christ and his people comes from and where those joys will be complete forever. From them he is made glad, along with all who belong to him, for they will enter into the joy of their Lord.

The beauty of his court shines brightly. In a royal court, much of the outward splendor comes from the ladies who attend it, and that is the picture here (Psalm 45:9). First, individual believers are compared to court ladies, richly dressed to honor the king. “Kings’ daughters are among your honorable women.” Their bearing and ornaments, because of their high birth, are thought to exceed all others. All true believers are born from above. They are children of the King of kings. They attend the throne of the Lord Jesus daily with prayers and praises, and that is truly their honor, one he is pleased to count as his own. Calling kings’ daughters his honored women, or ladies in waiting, suggests that those kings would be subject to him and dependent on him, and so would see it as an honor for their daughters to serve him.

Second, the church as a whole, made up of these believers, is compared to the queen herself, the bride he has betrothed to himself by an everlasting covenant. She stands at his right hand, close to him and honored by him, dressed in the richest clothing, in gold of Ophir, with robes woven in gold thread and other golden ornaments. This is the bride, the Lamb’s wife. Her graces, which are her true ornaments, are compared here to fine linen, clean and white, because of their purity (Revelation 19:8), and to gold of Ophir, because of their great value. For just as we owe our redemption to the precious blood of the Son of God, so we owe our beauty and adornment to nothing corruptible.