Psalm Chapter 45

Psalm 45: The King in His Beauty

The Psalter interrupts its run of laments with something unexpected: a love song. "My heart is inditing a good matter," the psalmist begins — his heart is bubbling over, and his tongue has become "the pen of a ready writer." What follows is a portrait of a king so magnificent that the author of Hebrews applied it directly to Christ: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." The king is fairer than the children of men, girded with a sword, riding prosperously in truth and meekness — a combination that only makes sense if the king is more than human. His garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia, out of ivory palaces. And then the psalm turns to the bride, the queen standing at his right hand in gold of Ophir, the king's daughter "all glorious within," her clothing of wrought gold. She is told to forget her own people and her father's house — the old identity must be released for the new one to begin. It is, at one level, a royal wedding poem. At another, it is a glimpse of something Lewis himself would have recognized: the Great Marriage toward which all earthly marriages point, the moment when the Bridegroom finally welcomes His people home.

00:00 The King in Majesty
01:00 The Throne That Lasts Forever
02:00 The Bride in Gold