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[1] Chapter 8 of the Westminster Confession of Faith cites Psalm 45:7 when discussing the humanity and deity of Jesus and His being anointed with the Holy Spirit: The Lord Jesus, in His human nature thus united to the divine, was sanctified, and anointed with the Holy Spirit, above measure, (Ps. 45:7, John 3:34)… (paragraph 3). |
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[2] This rare Hebrew noun [שֵׁגָל (šēgāl)] apparently refers to the king’s bride, who will soon be queen (see Neh 2:6). The Aramaic cognate is used of royal wives in Dan 5:2–3, 23. (The NET Bible Notes Ps 45:9). For alternative see Gerald Wilson, 705. |
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[3] The exhortation to “listen” followed by “forget” is
an example of antithetical parallelism. |
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[4] Verse 11 explains how a godly wife addressed her husband. “For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands; 6 just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear.” (1 Peter 3:5-6; cf. Eph.5:21-33) “The pertinent words of Sarah in Gen.18:12 are “my husband/lord is old”…It is the LXX’s use of kyrios that Peter picked up and focused on. Peter’s reference to Sarah’s obedience to Abraham is not mentioned per se in Genesis. But because Peter puts the word “obeyed” in the aorist tense, he had a specific incident in mind, and Gen.18:1-15 is that incident” (Hamilton II,26). |
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[5] Speaking about the relationship between husband and wife and Jesus Christ to the church Thomas Boston (1676-1732) preached, “You must look to him to observe his motions and countenance, that you may suit yourself to him in all things. This is what a dutiful wife owes to her husband. While one is a single woman, she is mistress of herself, but when once espoused to her husband, she is no more so…Her husband's will must be hers. Her ear must be to him, and her eye upon him, that she may please him well in all things lawful, and suit herself to his desires. So while you were not espoused to Christ, you took your own will; but it is not your duty to determine for yourself, but to hear and obey what be determines you to do. Your eye was upon your own inclinations to gratify them, but now it must be upon your husband to suit yourself to his desires. “Behold,” says the psalmist, “as the eyes of servants look unto the hands of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God. Until that he have mercy upon us…. Have you accepted of Christ, as he offered himself in the marriage covenant, in all his offices? Were your hearts joined to Christ as well as your hands; that is, that your souls within you, did take him for your lord and husband, for all and instead of all, without any known reserve; after you had considered his holiness as well as his mercy, his cross as well as his crown ; then I declare you espoused to Christ; John i. 12; Psal. Ixxiii. 25; and therefore children of the house of heaven, according to the text.” (“Privilege and Duties of Christ’s Spouse”; sermon on Psalm 45:10). |
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[6] “Since the Phoenicians had become quite wealthy as a result of their control over the carrying trade in the Mediterranean Sea, gifts from Tyre were expected to be lavish, exotic and expensive. Note here the parallel with “men of wealth” (The IVP Bible background commentary: Old Testament; Ps 45:12). 1 Kings 10 speaks about the exotic wealth of Tyre, “For the king had at sea the ships of Tarshish with the ships of Hiram; once every three years the ships of Tarshish came bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes and peacocks.” (1 Kings 10:22) |
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[7] see Exod 32:11; 1 Sam 13:12; 1 Kgs 13:6; 2 Kgs 13:4; 2 Chr 33:12; Job 11:19; Ps 119:58; Prov 19:6; Jer 26:19; Dan 9:13; Zech 7:2; 8:21–22; Mal 1:9). |
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[8] The pronoun is second masculine singular, indicating the king is being addressed from this point to the end of the psalm (The NET Bible Notes Ps 45:16). I have capitalized "Your" because the King is described as divine (elohim) in vv.6-7. |
