Messiah in His second advent is here celebrated; and this properly forms the Lord’s gracious answer to the complaints of the Remnant uttered in the preceding Psalm, and to their cry there (Psa. 44:26) for Messiah to come as deliverer to Zion.
The heart and the tongue find ready and joyful work when the King in His beauty becomes their subject. For in such a theme, “the Ready Writer,” the Holy Ghost, is at His due work. He is taking of the things of Christ to show to us. And the mind of the saint is at home also. As one of our own poets has said, speaking of the things of Jesus,
“My heart, my hand, my ear, my tongue,
Here’s joyful work for you,”
But in passing on to the Lord as King, the prophet’s heart and tongue pause for a moment over His person and ministry in the days of His flesh. And it may be that His present glory, as Priest in the heavens, is intimated in the words, “Therefore God hath blessed thee forever.” But quickly all is passed by to see Him, as king David, fighting the Lord’s battle in the cause of truth, meekness, and righteousness, and clearing the land of all workers of iniquity; and then as king Solomon, seated on the throne of glory. God consecrates Him to the office, owning righteousness to be His title, and all greet Him with love, like hers who once broke her alabaster box of ointment over His head (Psa. 45:8-9). Jerusalem, the mystic queen, is also addressed; and the nations, her companions, set off the joy and glory of the king.
But there is something striking as regards this queen. She is looked at as coming, like any sinner of the Gentiles, from some place of defilement which she is exhorted to leave behind her (Deut. 21:13). This tells us the character in which Jerusalem will be finally received, even like a returned prodigal; and so the king shall greatly desire her beauty. For in such is all His delight. It is His own beauty He sees in such—the beauty He Himself hath put on them—the shoes, and the ring, and the best robe.
In this Psalm accordingly the Lord’s title is owned to stand in His righteousness (Psa. 45:7); but Jerusalem’s title, the queen’s title, as that of every sinner, is only by grace. This is just and beautiful. And perhaps the Song of Solomon gives us the exercises of this daughter thus considering, as she is here exhorted, passing through discipline of heart in preparation for this union with the King.
Observe, the queen is the earthly, not the heavenly Jerusalem; because, first, her marriage is with the King, not with the Lamb; second, her marriage follows, not precedes, the victory. The Jews in their ancient writings speak of a Jerusalem above and a Jerusalem below, and of the one being like the other—of Jerusalem being built in the firmament as Jerusalem on earth.
We may read Psalm 45:16-17 as addressed to the King—“thy” in Psalm 45:16, as well as in Psalm 45:17, being in the masculine gender.