08/12/2022
It was early spring, in the month of Adar. A royal wedding in the city of Jerusalem was being prepared. The king would marry his bride.
As the priest reviewed the liturgy, a worker swept the floor, another lit the incense of myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon that would soon fill the temple. The bride dressed in her chambers, donning her finest linens and jewels. The king carefully placed a crown of gold, set with precious stones on his head. Bridesmaids and groomsmen chatted nervously in their separate quarters. A stablehand carefully brushed a white horse that would lead the chariot escorting the happy couple. One of two dozen cooks stirred a fragrant dish of lamb that would be served in a feast the likes of which none in the kingdom had seen before. And in an empty corridor of the palace, a poet recites the song he has been specially commissioned to compose in commemoration of this day.
As the celebration carries on into the night, the time will come for the poet-bard to take his place. The raucous crowd will grow silent in anticipation. The harp will begin a familiar melody. And the poet speak:
“My heart is stirred by a noble theme
as I recite my verses for the king;
my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.”
(Psalm 45:1)
That was the likely origin of Psalm 45. The heading describes it as “a wedding song.” It was performed to the tune of “Lilies.” And it is further characterized as a maskil, one that has been recognized for its particularly skillful expression of poetic artistry. By the context of the psalm, we gather that it was written well into the prosperous years of the kingdom of Israel, with a view of a long line of kings preceding them.
What happens to this poem next, how it would go from celebrating the marriage of a royal couple to being read at everyday weddings throughout the kingdom, to how it would continue to hold special meaning to readers even hundreds of years after the fall of the monarchy when such royal weddings were only a nostalgic memory of times long past, to how Christians today read this song as a celebration of Christ and the church tells an interesting story about the inspiration of the Bible, the shape and shaping of the Psalter, and the importance of faith communities in both the reception and interpretation of the Scriptures.
We hope you will join us for this exploration of this wonderful Messianic psalm and consideration of how it speaks to us today.
