Ever been taken by surprise when you thought a chunk of scripture said one thing and found a bunch of folk who thought a little differently? It’ll happen sooner or later.
For me, this is Psalm 45. You may need to read it a few times.
Take 1
Psalm 45 is a Royal psalm: a love song by someone besotted with their king and ascribing and praying great things for them. They think the world of their king and pray the world for him. Verse 1 (while being a beautiful piece of literature in itself) finds the writer so overwhelmed with positivity towards the king that they bubble over with an avalanche of kudos.
The king’s handsome, full of grace and blessed by God; a victorious warrior who loves righteousness and justice. Anointed by God and worthy of abandoning former loves in order to become one of his subjects. His bride is glorious, serves the king with beauty, joy and gladness. Together, they multiply and populate the earth with their offspring.
Here is a king worthy of all honour and deserving of our remembrance forever.
Take 2
Psalm 45 is a Messianic Psalm: a love song ascribing greatness to Jesus and His Church: a King who has become and will return again, but leaves behind His Bride, the Church, to bring His Kingdom to earth. The greatness ascribed to the King in this psalm, or any royal psalm while we’re at it, can be considered messianic in that the truths that it proclaims about the kingly line find their fulfillment in Jesus.
The King’s full of grace and blessed by God; a victorious warrior who loves righteousness and justice. Anointed by God and worthy of abandoning former loves in order to become one of His subjects. His Bride, the Church, is glorious and serves the king with beauty, joy and gladness. Together, they multiply and populate the earth with their offspring.
Inneresting.
Perhaps the greatest revelation in Psalm 45, and through life, is that the hopes and dreams we place on other people—the goodness we believe is found so compellingly in their character—is, at best, a distorted echo of the truth found in Jesus. King David will let you down, King Solomon will let you down, (insert the name of your choice here) will let you down, but there is one whose manifest goodness is only a taste of an unfolding manifold goodness. His name is Jesus.