Psalms 45 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
The period of the Israelite monarchy, roughly 1000 to 600 BC, composed for a royal wedding
Location
The royal palace in Jerusalem, with the bride arriving from a foreign court, possibly Tyre on the Phoenician coast
Audience
The royal court and the wedding guests, later the whole worshipping community
Situation
A court poet addresses the king on his wedding day, praising his appearance, his sword, his justice and his perfumed robes, then turns to instruct the incoming bride to forget her father's house and honour her new husband. It ends promising the couple sons who will rule.
Key Background
This is the only love song in the Psalms, and its heading marks it as a wedding piece set to a tune called Lilies, one of several melody names preserved in the headings whose music is entirely lost. Royal marriages were treaty instruments, sealing alliances between kingdoms, which is why the bride comes with an escort from Tyre and why she is told to transfer her loyalty. The verse addressing the king as God, unusual for Israelite writing, is applied to Jesus in the New Testament letter to the Hebrews, and Jewish and Christian readers alike came to read the whole song as being about more than any one wedding.
My heart with a theme; I speak my work to the king; my tongue is the pen of a skilled writer.
You are the most of all people; kindness from lips. This is why God has placed his on you forever.
Strap your sword at your side, — your and your
In your magnificence, out victorious for the cause of and justice. Let your right hand teach you awe-inspiring things.
Your arrows are sharp — nations fall beneath you — they pierce the hearts of the king's enemies.
Your stands forever and always; the of your kingdom is a of what is
You love and hate wickedness. This is why God — your God — has poured the of over you, lifting you above your
All your robes are fragrant with and cassia. From stringed instruments make you glad.
of are among your women; at your right hand stands the adorned in from
Listen, — look and pay attention: forget and
Let the king be by your beauty. He is your — bow before him.
The people of will come with gifts; the wealthiest among the nations will
The princess is within her chamber, her gown with
In she is led to the king; the young women following her, her companions, are brought before you.
They are led in with and celebration; they enter the of the king.
Your will take the place of your fathers; you will make them throughout the earth.
I will make your remembered through every generation. Because of this, the will you and