Psalm 45:12

Psalm 45 is a song of the sons of Korah, called a Maskil, an instructive or contemplative psalm, and “A Song of loves”. It celebrates the wedding of a king. The first part praises the king’s majesty, his righteous rule and his everlasting throne (Psalm 45:1–9). Verses 10–12 then speak to the bride, verses 13–15 describe her procession to the king, and the psalm closes with a promise of sons and lasting fame (Psalm 45:16–17).

The psalm leaves the king and his bride unnamed. Solomon is often suggested, with his marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter as one possible occasion, and the call to forget “thine own people” fits a princess from another nation. In Israel a royal wedding was a public event of the whole kingdom, with processions, rich clothing and celebration, and it could seal an alliance and show the nation’s prosperity.

The address to the bride opens with a run of calls to listen. “Hearken” is shâmaʻ, to hear intelligently, with the sense of attention and obedience. “Consider” is râʼâh, the ordinary verb for seeing, here seeing with understanding. “Incline thine ear” joins nâṭâh, to stretch out or bend, with ʼôzen, the ear, so that she bends her ear toward what is said. Three ways of saying “listen” come before a single word of instruction, and they tell her that what follows matters greatly.

The psalmist calls her “O daughter”. The word bath is used widely for family relationships, and Strong’s derives it from bânâh, “to build”, as the feminine of bên, “son”. The same word comes back in “the daughter of Tyre” in verse 12 and “the king’s daughter” in verse 13.

Then comes the heart of the verse: “forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house”. The verb shâkach means to forget. “People” is ʻam, a people gathered as one, a tribe or nation, and here it is the nation she was born into. “Father’s house” joins ʼâb, father, with bayith, house, a word that covers a whole household, with its family, lineage and heritage and the security she grew up in. A bride in Israel moved from her father’s house to her husband’s, and with the move went her loyalty, her standing and her place in the world. For a royal bride from another nation the change was greater still, because she took a new people along with a new husband. To forget her father’s house is to let it go from first place in her heart, so that her loyalty now belongs to the king and his house.

God made the same kind of call to Abraham: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee” (Genesis 12:1). Abraham left one home for the one God would give him, and the bride leaves her father’s house for the king’s. Whoever comes to Christ is called in the same way. Paul speaks of putting off the old man and putting on the new (Ephesians 4:22–24), and he writes, “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The ambitions, habits and loyalties that would rival Christ lose their claim on us, because we belong to him.

“So” ties verse 11 to verse 10. As the bride gives herself wholly to him, “So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty”. “Greatly desire” is ʼâvâh, to wish for, long for or desire, and “beauty” is yŏphîy, the plain word for beauty. The melek, the king, is drawn to his bride with real longing, and the verse speaks of his delight in her before it speaks of his rule.

When the King is Christ, his desire for his people’s beauty is his desire for their holiness, and he gives that beauty himself. He loved the church and gave himself for it so that he might present it to himself “a glorious church” (Ephesians 5:25–27). His love for his people is real, and their growth in holiness pleases him.

Verse 12 shows the honour that comes to the new queen. “The daughter of Tyre” uses bath again, in a Hebrew way of speaking of a city’s people, or of the city itself pictured as a woman. Tyre, Tsôr, whose name means a rock, was a wealthy Phoenician city on the coast, famous for its sea trade, its skilled craftsmen and its trading network across the Mediterranean, and known for its pride and self-sufficiency. Solomon, often suggested as the king of this psalm, dealt closely with Tyre and its king Hiram, and Tyre supplied materials and craftsmen for the building of the temple (1 Kings 5).

Tyre comes “with a gift”, minchâh. The word means a gift or donation, and also tribute, and in the law it is the word for an offering, often a bloodless one. Here it is tribute, given in honour of the queen and to win her goodwill, the way lesser kings and cities brought gifts to a greater monarch to seek his protection, alliance or trade.

“Even the rich among the people” brings in the wealthy and powerful. ʻâshîyr means rich, and “people” is ʻam, the same word as “thine own people” in verse 10, here meaning the wealthy of Israel and of other nations alike. They “shall intreat thy favour”, and the “thy” is the bride to whom the psalmist is speaking. The verb châlâh means to be weak or sick, and it can also mean to entreat someone’s favour, which Strong’s explains as stroking in flattery and UBS as literally weakening the face of the one entreated. “Favour” is pânîym, the face, a word plural in form and always used as a singular. So the rich come to soften the queen’s face toward them and win her goodwill. The woman who gave up her own people finds the wealthy of the nations coming to her.

The procession begins, and the bride is now called “the king’s daughter”, with melek and bath again. “All glorious” is kᵉbûwddâh, weightiness, and so magnificence or wealth. “Within” is pᵉnîymâh, toward the face, inward or indoors. Together they speak of a glory that belongs to her within, a worth and dignity that are part of who she is. The second half of the verse adds the splendour that can be seen: “her clothing is of wrought gold”. lᵉbûwsh is a garment, zâhâb is gold, from a root meaning to shimmer, and “wrought” is mishbᵉtsâh, a brocade, or the setting of a gem. Her robe is gold work of the finest craft, woven with gold or set with it, fitting her royal standing and the wealth of the king’s house. Gold was the great sign of wealth, purity and worth.

“She shall be brought unto the king” uses yâbal, which means properly to flow, and in this form to bring, especially with pomp. The verb is passive here. Others lead her, and she is carried along in honour to the king. Her clothing is “raiment of needlework”, riqmâh, many-coloured embroidery, costly work of great skill that showed her high standing and the wealth of the court.

Behind her come “the virgins her companions that follow her”. bᵉthûwlâh means a virgin, a young unmarried woman who has not had sex. rêʻâh is a female companion, and “follow” is ʼachar, after or behind. A royal bride had such attendants as her bridal party, and their presence spoke of the honour of the day and the joy of the whole court. The bride enters her new life surrounded by friends.

The verse ends, “shall be brought unto thee”. This second “brought” is a different verb from the first: bôwʼ, to come or go, the same verb that stands behind “enter” in verse 15. The psalmist now turns to the king himself and tells him who is coming to him.

The bride’s being brought shows God’s way with his people, because it is he who brings them to himself. Isaiah rejoices, “for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). The embroidered robe is a picture of that righteousness, Christ’s own, given to his people and worked into them by the Holy Spirit.

“With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought”. simchâh is joy, gladness or mirth, a joy that people feel and show, the joy of feasts and festivals. gîyl comes from a root meaning to spin round, and so to rejoice. With two words for joy side by side, the procession arrives in celebration. “Shall they be brought” is yâbal again, as at the start of verse 14, the bringing with pomp, and the bride and her companions are led in together.

“They shall enter into the king’s palace.” “Enter” is bôwʼ, to come or go in, and “palace” is hêykâl, a large public building, the word used for both a palace and the temple. The melek’s hêykâl was the seat of his rule and the place of his presence, and to be brought into it was the highest honour, full acceptance and access to the king himself. Here the bride’s journey from her father’s house ends, in her husband’s home.

For God’s people this is the end of the way as well. David sings, “in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Psalm 16:11). Jesus promised, “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2–3). John hears the voice from heaven, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them” (Revelation 21:3). Christ opened the way by his death and resurrection, and the song of heaven at his wedding begins in words close to this verse: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready” (Revelation 19:7).

The bride is asked for three things in this passage: to listen, to let go of her old home, and to bow to her lord. Everything else is done for her. The king desires her, the nations bring her gifts, gold and embroidery are put on her, she is brought to him, her companions are brought with her, and the palace receives them all with joy.

That is who Christ is to his people. He calls us out of the life we were born into, and the loyalty he asks is the loyalty of a bride to a husband who loves her. He delights in his church and makes her glorious within. He clothes her in a righteousness she could never weave herself, and he brings her into his house with gladness. The call to “forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house” comes from a King whose house is far better than the one left behind, and whose presence is fulness of joy.