Song of Solomon 2:10-13(v10)My beloved spoke, and said to me, “Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. For behold, the winter is past. The rain is over and…
Genesis 12:1(v10)Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.
Psalms 95:6(v11)Oh come, let’s worship and bow down. Let’s kneel before Yahweh, our Maker,
Isaiah 54:5(v11)For your Maker is your husband; Yahweh of Armies is his name. The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. He will be called the God of the…
Matthew 19:29(vv10, 16)Everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, will…
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Matthew 10:37(v10)He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me isn’t worthy of me.
Song of Solomon 4:1-5(v11)Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is as a flock of goats,…
2 Corinthians 6:17–7:1(v10)Therefore “ ‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you. I will be to you a…
Genesis 2:24(v10)Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.
Deuteronomy 21:13(v10)She shall take off the clothing of her captivity, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month. After…
Psalms 22:29(v12)All the rich ones of the earth shall eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him, even he who can’t keep his…
Zephaniah 3:17(v11)Yahweh, your God, is among you, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will calm you in his love. He will…
Deuteronomy 33:9(v10)He said of his father, and of his mother, ‘I have not seen him.’ He didn’t acknowledge his brothers, nor did he know his own children; for…
Luke 14:26(v10)“If anyone comes to me, and doesn’t disregard his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he…
2 Corinthians 5:16(v10)Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more.
Philippians 2:10-11(v11)that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue…
Isaiah 61:10(vv13, 15)I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh! My soul will be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me…
Revelation 19:7-8(v13)Let’s rejoice and be exceedingly glad, and let’s give the glory to him. For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself…
1 Kings 2:19(v9)Bathsheba therefore went to king Solomon, to speak to him for Adonijah. The king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself to her, and sat…
Song of Solomon 1:8(v11)If you don’t know, most beautiful among women, follow the tracks of the sheep. Graze your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.
Luke 24:52(v11)They worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
Revelation 21:9(v9)One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, who were loaded with the seven last plagues came, and he spoke with me, saying, “Come…
Psalms 45:6(v11)Your throne, God, is forever and ever. A scepter of equity is the scepter of your kingdom.
Isaiah 55:1-3(v10)“Hey! Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and…
Isaiah 60:3(v12)Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
Matthew 5:16(v13)Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Luke 11:40(v13)You foolish ones, didn’t he who made the outside make the inside also?
Romans 3:22(v13)even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction,
Romans 13:14(v13)But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, for its lusts.
Philippians 3:8(v11)Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered…
Revelation 5:10(v16)and made us kings and priests to our God, and we will reign on the earth.”
Ephesians 5:26-27(vv9, 11)that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the assembly to himself…
1 Peter 2:9(vv13, 16)But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of…
Psalms 2:12(v11)Give sincere homage to the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish on the way, for his wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed are all those who…
Song of Solomon 2:2(v11)As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
Song of Solomon 4:7(v11)You are all beautiful, my love. There is no spot in you.
Song of Solomon 4:9-10(v11)You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride. You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck. How…
Song of Solomon 6:4(v11)You are beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners.
Song of Solomon 7:1-10(v11)How beautiful are your feet in sandals, prince’s daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a skillful…
Isaiah 62:4-5(v11)You will not be called Forsaken any more, nor will your land be called Desolate any more; but you will be called Hephzibah, and your land…
Jeremiah 23:5-6(v11)“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he will reign as king and deal wisely, and will…
John 4:21-22(v11)Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father. You…
John 20:28(v11)Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
Acts 10:36(v11)The word which he sent to the children of Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all—
Romans 14:9(v11)For to this end Christ died, rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Revelation 1:6(v16)and he made us to be a Kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 19:7(v9)Let’s rejoice and be exceedingly glad, and let’s give the glory to him. For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself…
Revelation 21:2(v9)I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
Song of Solomon 7:1(vv9, 13)How beautiful are your feet in sandals, prince’s daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a skillful workman.
Isaiah 49:23(vv9, 12)Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and…
Isaiah 60:10-11(vv9, 12)“Foreigners will build up your walls, and their kings will serve you: for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on…
Song of Solomon 1:12-16(v11)While the king sat at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance. My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh, that lies between my breasts. My…
Song of Solomon 6:8-9(v9)There are sixty queens, eighty concubines, and virgins without number. My dove, my perfect one, is unique. She is her mother’s only…
Song of Solomon 8:13(v14)You who dwell in the gardens, with friends in attendance, let me hear your voice!
John 3:29(v9)He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the…
2 Corinthians 11:2(v14)For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I married you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
Psalms 72:10(vv9, 12)The kings of Tarshish and of the islands will bring tribute. The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.
Exodus 28:39(v14)You shall weave the tunic with fine linen. You shall make a turban of fine linen. You shall make a sash, the work of the embroiderer.
Job 22:24(v9)Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.
Psalms 45:13(v9)The princess inside is all glorious. Her clothing is interwoven with gold.
Song of Solomon 1:3-5(v14)Your oils have a pleasing fragrance. Your name is oil poured out, therefore the virgins love you. Take me away with you. Let’s hurry. The…
Song of Solomon 2:7(v14)I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up, nor awaken love, until it so desires.
Song of Solomon 2:14(v11)My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places of the mountainside, let me see your face. let me hear your voice; for your voice…
Song of Solomon 6:1(v14)Where has your beloved gone, you fairest among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?
Song of Solomon 6:8(v14)There are sixty queens, eighty concubines, and virgins without number.
Song of Solomon 6:13(v14)Return, return, Shulammite! Return, return, that we may gaze at you. Why do you desire to gaze at the Shulammite, as at the dance of…
Isaiah 23:17-18(v12)It will happen after the end of seventy years that Yahweh will visit Tyre. She will return to her wages, and will play the prostitute with…
Isaiah 60:1-5(v16)“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and Yahweh’s glory has risen on you. For, behold, darkness will cover the earth, and thick darkness…
Matthew 2:11(v12)They came into the house and saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Opening their treasures, they…
2 Corinthians 5:17(v13)Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
Revelation 3:18(v13)I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the…
Revelation 5:8-14(v11)Now when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and…
Revelation 7:15-17(v15)Therefore they are before the throne of God, they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his…
Revelation 21:24(v9)The nations will walk in its light. The kings of the earth bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.
Judges 5:30(v14)‘Have they not found, have they not divided the plunder? A lady, two ladies to every man; to Sisera a plunder of dyed garments, a plunder…
1 Samuel 16:7(v13)But Yahweh said to Samuel, “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for I don’t see as man…
1 Kings 2:9(v9)Now therefore don’t hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man; and you will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray…
1 Kings 10:11(v9)The fleet of Hiram that brought gold from Ophir, also brought in from Ophir great quantities of almug trees and precious stones.
Psalms 22:30(v16)Posterity shall serve him. Future generations shall be told about the Lord.
Psalms 45:9-10(v13)Kings’ daughters are among your honorable women. At your right hand the queen stands in gold of Ophir. Listen, daughter, consider, and turn…
Psalms 68:29(v12)Because of your temple at Jerusalem, kings shall bring presents to you.
Song of Solomon 4:8-11(v9)Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’…
Song of Solomon 5:8-9(v14)I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, If you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am faint with love. How is your beloved better than…
Isaiah 35:10(v15)Then Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain…
Isaiah 49:21-22(v16)Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children and am alone, an exile, and…
Isaiah 54:1-5(v16)“Sing, barren, you who didn’t give birth; break out into singing, and cry aloud, you who didn’t travail with child: for more are the…
Isaiah 60:6-7(v12)A multitude of camels will cover you, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah. All from Sheba will come. They will bring gold and frankincense,…
Mark 10:29-30(v16)Jesus said, “Most certainly I tell you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or…
John 17:24(v14)Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you…
Acts 21:3-6(v12)When we had come in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left hand, we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, for the ship was there to unload…
Philippians 3:7-8(v16)However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ. Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the…
1 Peter 3:3-4(v13)Let your beauty be not just the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on fine clothing; but…
Jude 1:24(v15)Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy,
Revelation 20:6(v16)Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over these, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God…
Isaiah 55:12-13(v15)For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills will break out before you into singing; and all the…
Isaiah 56:5(v15)I will give them in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will give them an…
Isaiah 60:19-20(v15)The sun will be no more your light by day; nor will the brightness of the moon give light to you, but Yahweh will be your everlasting…
Matthew 22:11-12(v13)But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who didn’t have on wedding clothing, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did…
Romans 2:29(v13)but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men,…
Galatians 4:26-27(v16)But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, “Rejoice, you barren who don’t bear. Break out…
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (113 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (21 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv10, 12, 13, 1610. Hearken, O daughter! and consider I have no…
10. Hearken, O daughter! and consider I have no doubt, that what is here said is spoken of the Egyptian woman, whom the prophet has described as standing at the right hand of the king. It was not, indeed, lawful for Solomon to marry a strange woman; but this of itself is to be accounted among the gifts of God, that a king so powerful as the king of Egypt was, sought his alliance. At the same time, as by the appointment of the Law, it was required that the Jews, previous to entering into the marriage relation, should endeavor to instruct their wives in the pure worship of God, and emancipate them from superstition; in the present instance, in which the wife spoken of was descended from a heathen nation, and who, by her present marriage, was included in the body of the Church, the prophet, in order to withdraw her from her evil training, exhorts her to forget her own country and her father’s house, and to assume a new character and other manners. If she did not do this, there was reason to fear, not only that she would continue to observe in private the superstitions and false modes of worshipping God to which she had been habituated, but that also, by her public example, she would draw away many into a similar evil course; and, indeed, this actually came to pass soon after. Such is the reason of the exhortation which the prophet here gives her, in which, in order to render his discourse of more weight, he addresses her by the appellation of daughter, a term which it would have been unsuitable for any private man to have used. The more clearly to show how much it behoved the new bride to become altogether a new woman, he employs several terms thereby to secure her attention, Hearken, consider, and incline thy ear It is certainly a case in which much vehemence and urgent persuasion are needed, when it is intended to lead us to a complete renunciation of those things in which we take delight, either by nature or by custom. He then shows that there is no reason why the daughter of Pharaoh should feel any regret in forsaking her father, her kinsfolk, and the land of Egypt, because she would receive a glorious recompense, which ought to allay the grief she might experience in being separated from them. To reconcile her to the thought of leaving her own country, he encourages her by the consideration that she is married to so illustrious a king.
Let us now return to Christ. And, in the first place, let us remember that what is spiritual is here described to us figuratively; even as the prophets, on account of the dulness of men, were under the necessity of borrowing similitudes from earthly things. When we bear in mind this style of speaking, which is quite common in the Scriptures, we will not think it strange that the sacred writer here makes mention of ivory palaces, gold, precious stones, and spices; for by these he means to intimate that the kingdom of Christ will be replenished with a rich abundance, and furnished with all good things. The glory and excellence of the spiritual gifts, with which God enriches his Church, are indeed held in no estimation among men; but in the sight of God they are of more value than all the riches of the world. At the same time, it is not necessary that we should apply curiously to Christ every particular here enumerated; as for instance, what is here said of the many wives which Solomon had. If it should be imagined from this that there may be several churches, the unity of Christ’s body will be rent in pieces. I admit, that as every individual believer is called “the temple of God,” (1 Corinthians 3:17, and 6:19,) so also might each be named “the spouse of Christ;” but properly speaking, there is only one spouse of Christ, which consists of the whole body of the faithful. She is said to sit by the side of the king, not that she exercises any dominion peculiar to herself, but because Christ rules in her; and it is in this sense that she is called “the mother of us all,” (Galatians 4:26.)
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This passage contains a remarkable prophecy in reference to the future calling of the Gentiles, by which the Son of God formed an alliance with strangers and those who were his enemies. There was between God and the uncircumcised nations a deadly quarrel, a wall of separation which divided them from the seed of Abraham, the chosen people, (Ephesians 2:14;) for the covenant which God had made with Abraham shut out the Gentiles from the kingdom of heaven till the coming of Christ. Christ, therefore, of his free grace, desires to enter into a holy alliance of marriage with the whole world, in the same way as if a Jew in ancient times had taken to himself a wife from a foreign and heathen land. But in order to conduct into Christ’s presence his bride chaste and undefiled, the prophet exhorts the Church gathered from the Gentiles to forget her former manner of living, and to devote herself wholly to her husband. As this change, by which the children of Adam begin to be the children of God, and are transformed into new men, is a thing so difficult, the prophet enforces the necessity of it the more earnestly. In enforcing his exhortation in this way by different terms, hearken, consider, incline thy ear, he intimates, that the faithful do not deny themselves, and lay aside their former habits, without intense and painful effort; for such an exhortation would be superfluous, were men naturally and voluntarily disposed to it. And, indeed, experience shows how dull and slow we are to follow God. By the word consider, or understand, our stupidity is tacitly rebuked, and not without good reason; for whence arise that self-love which is so blind, that false opinion which we have of our own wisdom and strength, the deception arising from the fascinations of the world, and, in fine, the arrogance and pride which are natural to us, but because we do not consider how precious a treasure God is presenting to us in his only begotten Son? Did not this ingratitude prevent us, we would without regret, after the example of Paul, (Philippians 3:8,) reckon as nothing, or as “dung,” those things which we admire most, that Christ might replenish us with his riches. By the word daughter, the prophet gently and sweetly soothes the new Church; and he also sets before her the promise of a bountiful reward, to induce her, for the sake of Christ, willingly to despise and forsake whatever she made account of heretofore. It is certainly no small consolation to know that the Son of God will delight in us, when we shall have put off our earthly nature. In the meantime, let us learn, that to deny ourselves is the beginning of that sacred union which ought to exist between us and Christ. By her father’s house and her people is doubtless meant all the corruptions which we carry with us from our mother’s womb, or derive from evil custom; nay, under this mode of expression there is comprehended whatever men have belonging to themselves; for there is no part of our nature sound or free from corruption.
It is necessary, also, to notice the reason which is added, namely, that if the Church refuses to devote herself wholly to Christ, she casts off his due and lawful authority. By the word worship we must understand not only the outward ceremony, but also, according to the figure synecdoche, a holy desire to yield reverence and obedience. Would to God that this admonition, as it ought, had been thoroughly weighed! for the Church of Christ had then been more obedient to his authority, and we should not in these days have had so great a contest to maintain in reference to her authority against the Papists, who imagine that the Church is not sufficiently exalted and honored, unless with unbridled license she may insolently triumph over her own husband. They, no doubt, in words ascribe supreme authority to Christ, saying, that every knee should bow before him; but when they maintain that the Church has an unlimited power of making laws, what else is this but to give her loose reins, and to exempt her from the authority of Christ, that she may break forth into any excess according to her desire? I stay not to notice how wickedly they arrogate to themselves the title and designation of the Church. But it is intolerable sacrilege to rob Christ and then adorn the Church with his spoils. It is no small dignity which the Church enjoys, in being seated at the right hand of the King, and it is no small honor to be called “the Mother” of all the godly, for to her it belongs to nourish and keep them under her discipline. But at the same time it is easy to gather from innumerable passages of Scripture, that Christ does not so elevate his own Church that he may diminish or impair in the least his own authority.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv9, 10, 12, 13, 16Though he had many Kings’ daughters among his wives,…
Though he had many Kings’ daughters among his wives, yet he loved Pharaoh’s daughter best.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv9–16Psa 45:9 Kings’ daughters [were] among thy honourable women:…
Psa 45:9 Kings’ daughters [were] among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
Ver. 9. Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women] Thy ladies of honour attending upon thy royal consort (for after the description of Christ, the bridegroom, followeth another, of the queen, his bride, and of the royal nuptials): or, Kings’ daughters are in thy preciousnesses, that is, in thy comeliness that thou hast put upon them, Eze 16:14; for all the Church’s bravery is borrowed, and all her daughters, i.e. members, are adorned not with their own proper attire, Sed regio mundo et ornatu, out of the King Christ’s wardrobe; this is the righteousness of the saints, Rev 19:8, viz. imputed and imparted.
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Upon thy right hand] Which is a place of dignity and safety. As Christ is at the Father’s right hand, so the Church is at Christ’s right hand; where, as his wife, she shineth with her Husband’s beams. This is very comfortable.
Did stand the queen] Heb. the wife, adiutorium illi exacte respondens, as Gen 2:18, saith Aben Ezra. Of our Edward III the chronicler saith, that he was happy in his wife, a lady of excellent virtue, who drew evenly with him in all the courses of honour that appertained to her side; and seemed a piece so just cut for him, as answered him rightly in every joint (Daniel’s Hist.).
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv9–16Among thy honourable women, i.e. amongst them that attend…
Among thy honourable women, i.e. amongst them that attend upon thy spouse, as the manner was in nuptial solemnities; as men attended upon the bridegroom, whence they were called friends, Joh 3:29. In reference to Christ, as the spouse or queen is the church in general, so these honourable women are particular believers, who are daily added to the church, Act 2:47, and submit themselves to it. And although the church is made up of particular believers, yet she is distinguished from them, for the decency of the parable, as the whole is oft distinguished by our minds from the parts of which it consists, and as the daughters of Jerusalem are distinguished from the spouse in the book of the Canticles, though the spouse be wholly made up of them. And these believers may be said to be kings’ daughters, either because amongst others many persons of royal or princely races did embrace the faith, as was prophesied of them, Isa 49:7; 60:10,11, &c., or because they are in a spiritual sense kings unto God, Rev 1:6.
Upon thy right hand; the most honourable place next to the king’s. See 1Ki 2:9; Mat 26:64. Did stand; which is the posture of a servant; to show that as she is a queen, she is also his subject to serve and obey him. Or, is placed, or seated; which seems more agreeable to the person of a queen, 1Ki 2:19, and of a spouse at the nuptial solemnity.
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In gold of Ophir; clothed in the richest garments made of the choicest gold; by which he designs the graces wherewith the church is accomplished.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v10This latter part of the psalm is addressed to…
This latter part of the psalm is addressed to the royal bride, standing on the right hand of the royal bridegroom. God, who said to the Son, Thy throne is for ever and ever, says this to the church, which, upon the account of her espousals to the Son, he here calls his daughter.
I. He tells her of the duties expected from her, which ought to be considered by all those that come into relation to the Lord Jesus: "Hearken, therefore, and consider this, and incline thy ear, that is, submit to those conditions of thy espousals, and bring thy will to comply with them." This is the method of profiting by the word of God. He that has ears, let him hear, let him hearken diligently; he that hearkens, let him consider and weigh it duly; he that considers, let him incline and yield to the force of what is laid before him. And what is it that is here required?
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1. She must renounce all others.
(1.) Here is the law of her espousals: "Forget thy own people and thy father's house, according to the law of marriage. Retain not the affection thou hast had for them, nor covet to return to them again; banish all such remembrance (not only of thy people that were dear to thee, but of thy father's house that were dearer) as may incline thee to look back, as Lot's wife to Sodom." When Abraham, in obedience to God's call, had quitted his native soil, he was not so much as mindful of the country whence he came out. This shows, [1.] How necessary it was for those who were converted from Judaism or paganism to the faith of Christ wholly to cast out the old leaven, and not to bring into their Christian profession either the Jewish ceremonies or the heathen idolatries, for these would make such a mongrel religion in Christianity as the Samaritans had. [2.] How necessary it is for us all, when we give up our names to Jesus Christ, to hate father and mother, and all that is dear to us in this world, in comparison, that is, to love them less than Christ and his honour, and our interest in him, Luk 14:26.
(2.) Here is good encouragement given to the royal bride thus entirely to break off from her former alliances: So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, which intimates that the mixing of her old rites and customs, whether Jewish or Gentile, with her religion, would blemish her beauty and would hazard her interest in the affections of the royal bridegroom, but that, if she entirely conformed to his will, he would delight in her. The beauty of holiness, both on the church and on particular believers, is in the sight of Christ of great price and very amiable. Where that is he says, This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it. Among the golden candlesticks he walks with pleasure, Rev 2:1.
2. She must reverence him, must love, honour, and obey him: He is thy Lord, and worship thou him. The church is to be subject to Christ as the wife to the husband (Eph 5:24), to call him Lord, as Sarah called Abraham, and to obey him (Pe1 3:6), and so not only to submit to his government, but to give him divine honours. We must worship him as God, and our Lord; for this is the will of God, that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father; nay, in so doing it is reckoned that they honour the Father. If we confess that Christ is Lord, and pay our homage to him accordingly, it is to the glory of God the Father, Phi 2:11.
II. He tells her of the honours designed for her.
1. Great court should be made to her, and rich presents brought her (Psa 45:12): "The daughter of Tyre," a rich and splendid city, "the daughter of the King of Tyre shall be there with a gift; every royal family round about shall send a branch, as a representative of the whole, to seek thy favour and to make an interest in thee; even the rich among the people, whose wealth might be thought to exempt them from dependence at court, even they shall entreat thy favour, for his sake to whom thou art espoused, that by thee they may make him their friend." The Jews, the pretending Jews, who are rich to a proverb (as rich as a Jew), shall come and worship before the church's feet in the Philadelphian period, and shall know that Christ has loved her, Rev 3:9. When the Gentiles, being converted to the faith of Christ, join themselves to the church, they then come with a gift, Co2 8:5; Rom 15:16. When with themselves they devote all they have to the honour of Christ, and the service of his kingdom, they then come with a gift.
2. She shall be very splendid, and highly esteemed in the eyes of all, (1.) For her personal qualifications, the endowments of her mind, which every one shall admire (Psa 45:13): The king's daughter is all glorious within. Note, The glory of the church is spiritual glory, and that is indeed all glory; it is the glory of the soul, and that is the man; it is glory in God's sight, and it is an earnest of eternal glory. The glory of the saints falls not within the view of a carnal eye. As their life, so their glory, is hidden with Christ in God, neither can the natural man know it, for it is spiritually discerned; but those who do so discern it highly value it. Let us see here what is that true glory which we should be ambitious of, not that which makes a fair show in the flesh, but which is in the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible (Pe1 3:4), whose praise is not of men, but of God, Rom 2:29. (2.) For her rich apparel. Though all her glory is within, that for which she is truly valuable, yet her clothing also is of wrought gold; the conversation of Christians, in which they appear in the world, must be enriched with good works, not gay and gaudy ones, like paint and flourish, but substantially good, like gold; and it must be accurate and exact, like wrought gold, which is worked with a great deal of care and caution.
3. Her nuptials shall be celebrated with a great deal of honour and joy (Psa 45:14, Psa 45:15): She shall be brought to the king, as the Lord God brought the woman to the man (Gen 2:22), which was a type of this mystical marriage between Christ and his church. None are brought to Christ but whom the Father brings, and he has undertaken to do it; none besides are so brought to the king (Psa 45:14) as to enter into the king's palace, Psa 45:15.
(1.) This intimates a two-fold bringing of the spouse to Christ. [1.] In the conversion of souls to Christ; then they are espoused to him, privately contracted, as chaste virgins, Co2 11:2; Rom 7:4. [2.] In the completing of the mystical body, and the glorification of all the saints, at the end of time; then the bride, the Lamb's wife, shall be made completely ready, when all that belong to the election of grace shall be called in and called home, and all gathered together to Christ, Th2 2:1. Then is the marriage of the Lamb come (Rev 19:7; Rev 21:2), and the virgins go forth to meet the bridegroom, Mat 25:1. Then they shall enter into the king's palaces, into the heavenly mansions, to be ever with the Lord.
(2.) In both these espousals, observe, to the honour of the royal bride, [1.] Her wedding clothes - raiment of needle-work, the righteousness of Christ, the graces of the Spirit; both curiously wrought by divine wisdom. [2.] Her bride-maids - the virgins her companions, the wise virgins who have oil in their vessels as well as in their lamps, those who, being joined to the church, cleave to it and follow it, these shall go in to the marriage. [3.] The mirth with which the nuptials will be celebrated: With gladness and rejoicing shall she be brought. When the prodigal is brought home to his father it is meet that we should make merry and be glad (Luk 15:32); and when the marriage of the Lamb has come let us be glad and rejoice (Rev 19:7); for the day of his espousals is the day of the gladness of his heart, Sol 3:11.
4. The progeny of this marriage shall be illustrious (Psa 45:16): Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children. Instead of the Old Testament church, the economy of which had waxed old, and ready to vanish away (Heb 8:13), as the fathers that are going off, there shall be a New Testament church, a Gentile-church, that shall be grafted into the same olive and partake of its root and fatness (Rom 11:17); more and more eminent shall be the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, Isa 54:1. This promise to Christ is of the same import with that Isa 53:10, He shall see his seed; and these shall be made princes in all the earth; there shall be some of all nations brought into subjection to Christ, and so made princes, made to our God kings and priests, Rev 1:6. Or it may intimate that there should be a much greater number of Christian kings than ever there was of Jewish kings (those in Canaan only, these in all the earth), nursing fathers and nursing mothers to the church, which shall suck the breasts of kings. They are princes of Christ's making; for by him kings reign and princes decree justice.
5. The praise of this marriage shall be perpetual in the praises of the royal bridegroom (Psa 45:17): I will make thy name to be remembered. His Father has given him a name above every name, and here promises to make it perpetual, by keeping up a succession of ministers and Christians in every age, that shall bear up his name, which shall thus endure for ever (Psa 72:17), by being remembered in all the generations of time; for the entail of Christianity shall not be cut off. "Therefore, because they shall remember thee in all generations, they shall praise thee for ever and ever." Those that help to support the honour of Christ on earth shall in heaven see his glory, and share in it, and be for ever praising him. In the believing hope of our everlasting happiness in the other world let us always keep up the remembrance of Christ, as our only way thither, in our generation; and, in assurance of the perpetuating of the kingdom of the Redeemer in the world, let us transmit the remembrance of him to succeeding generations, that his name may endure for ever and be as the days of heaven.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv9–16Kings' daughters were among thy honourable women,.... Or "maids…
Kings' daughters were among thy honourable women,.... Or "maids of honour" (n); who filled and adorned the king's court, and made a splendid appearance there, the same with the virgins, the companions of the bride, in Psa 45:14; and design truly gracious souls, believers in Christ, who are his "precious ones" (o), as the word may be rendered; the excellent in the earth, in whom is all his delight; the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold; his portion, his jewels, his peculiar treasure, and the apple of his eye: and since they have been precious to him, they have been "honourable", as they are, both by birth and marriage, being born of God, and espoused to Christ; by their character, kings and priests; and by their company, being among princes, and especially by their having communion with Father, Son, and Spirit: and among these are "kings' daughters"; yea, they are all of them the sons and daughters of the King of kings; not by their first birth, by which they were mean, base, and dishonourable, wretched and miserable, and children of wrath, as others; but by their second birth, or regeneration, through being born from above, and of God, to an incorruptible inheritance; and so are clothed and fed like the daughters of kings, and have the attendance of such, angels to wait upon them and guard them; and through adopting grace, which regeneration is the evidence of, by virtue of which some of the children of men become the sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty; and through their marriage to the King's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ: the words may be rendered, "Kings' daughters were in thy precious things" (p); that is, were arrayed with them: meaning either the graces of the Spirit, comparable to gems, pearls, jewels, and precious stones; see Sol 1:10; or else the rich robe of Christ's righteousness, and garments of salvation, with which believers being clothed, are as a bridegroom decked with ornaments, and as a bride adorned with jewels, Isa 61:10; and this agrees with what follows;
upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir; by whom is meant the church, whose title is a "queen", being the bride, the Lamb's wife: wherefore, because he is King, she is queen; for this title she has not of herself; it is founded not in her own right, but upon her relation to Christ, being married to him; and so is expressive of relation to him, union with him, and of privilege and dignity through him; she sharing with him in all he has, even in his kingdom and government, reigning with him, and on the same throne: her being "on his right hand" shows the honour she is advanced unto; yet "standing" may denote subjection to him as her Lord and head; and being so close by him may suggest her fidelity and inviolable attachment to him, and strict adherence to his person, cause and interest; as well as her protection from him, being held and upheld by his right hand; and her reception of favours from thence, and her enjoyment of his presence, at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore. Her dress is "gold of Ophir": a place famous for gold; See Gill on Kg1 9:28; with which the clothes of great personages used to be embroidered; so Esther is said (q) to put on her royal apparel, adorned with the good gold of "Ophir": here it means, that the queen's or church's clothing was of wrought gold, as in Psa 45:13, and intends the righteousness of Christ, with which she is arrayed, comparable to it for its richness, purity, lustre, glory, and duration.
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(n) "inter noblies tuas", Tigurine version. (o) Heb. "pretiosas", Piscator; so Ainsworth. (p) In "pretiositatibus tuis", Montanus, Gejerus; so some in Vatablus. (q) Targum Sheni in Esther v. 1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16Among - Among them that attend upon thy spouse,…
Among - Among them that attend upon thy spouse, as the manner was in nuptial solemnities. As the queen is the church in general, and so these honourable women are particular believers, who are daily added to the church, Acts ii, 47. And although the church is made up of particular believers, yet she is distinguished from them, for the decency of the parable. And these believers may be said to be Kings daughters, because among others, many persons of royal race embraced the faith, and because they are in a spiritual sense, Kings unto God, Rev. i, 6. Right hand - The most honourable place. Ophir - Clothed in garments made of the choicest gold. By which he designs the graces wherewith the church is accomplished.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16Verse 9. Kings' daughters were among] Applied to Solomon,…
Verse 9. Kings' daughters were among] Applied to Solomon, these words have no difficulty. We know he had seven hundred wives, princesses; and the mention of those here may be intended only to show how highly respected he was among the neighbouring sovereigns, when they cheerfully gave him their daughters to constitute his harem. If we apply it to Solomon's marriage with the daughter of the king of Egypt, it may signify no more than the princesses and ladies of honour who accompanied her to the Israelitish court. Applied to Christ, it may signify that the Gospel, though preached particularly to the poor, became also the means of salvation to many of the kings, queens, and nobles, of the earth. The Chaldee interprets the queen standing at his right hand, by the law; and the honourable women, by the different regions and countries coming to receive that law from his right hand. Perhaps by kings' daughters may be meant different regions and countries, which are represented as constituting the families of potentates. Whole nations shall be converted to the Christian faith; and the queen-the Christian Church, shall be most elegantly adorned with all the graces and good works which at once constitute and adorn the Christian character.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16Psa 45:9. Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women…
Psa 45:9. Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women — Among them that attend upon thy spouse, as the manner was in nuptial solemnities. As the queen is the church in general, so these honourable women are particular believers, who are daily added to the church, Act 2:47. And although the church is made up of particular believers, yet she is distinguished from them for the decency of the parable, as the whole is often distinguished in our minds from the parts of which it consists, and as the daughters of Jerusalem are distinguished from the spouse in the book of Canticles, though the spouse (the church) be wholly made up of them. And these believers may be said to be kings’ daughters, because, among others, many persons of royal race embraced the faith, and because they are, in a spiritual sense, kings unto God, Rev 1:6. On thy right hand — The most honourable place; did stand the queen — In the posture of a servant; to show that although she is a queen, yet she is also his subject to serve and obey him. Or, rather, as נצבה, nitzebah, signifies, is placed, or seated, which seems more agreeable to the dignity of a queen, 1Ki 2:19, and of a spouse at the nuptial solemnity. In gold of Ophir — Clothed in the richest garments, made of the choicest gold; by which he designs the graces wherewith the church is adorned.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv9–16Kings’ daughters were among thy honorable women - Those…
Kings’ daughters were among thy honorable women - Those who were in attendance on him and on the bride were from the most elevated ranks; among the most honorable of the earth. The word rendered “honorable women,” means properly, precious, costly; and then, dear, beloved; and this might be rendered “kings’ daughters are among thy beloved ones;” that is, in the number of thy maidens, or of those attending on thee. The allusion is to a marriage, and the description is drawn from the usual accompaniments of a marriage in the east. The design, as applicable to the Messiah and to his union with the Church, his bride, is to describe him as accompanied with every circumstance of distinction and honor, to throw around him all that constituted beauty and splendor in an Oriental marriage ceremony. Nothing of earth could be too rich or beautiful to illustrate the glory of the union of the Redeemer with his redeemed Church.
Upon thy right hand did stand the queen - The right hand is the place of honor, and that idea is intended here: 1Ki 2:19; Mar 14:62; Mar 16:19; Heb 1:3; Act 7:55. The idea here is, that the Church, the bride of the Lamb of God, as seen in the vision, is exalted to the highest post of honor. That Church has the place in his affections which the newly-married bride has in the affections of her husband.
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In field of Ophir - In garments decked or ornamented with the finest gold. On the phrase “the gold of Ophir,” see the notes at Isa 13:12.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16In completion of this picture of a marriage festival,…
In completion of this picture of a marriage festival, female attendants or bridesmaids of the highest rank attend Him, while the queen, in rich apparel (Psa 45:13), stands ready for the nuptial procession.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 169. Kings’ daughters—Historically the description here given could apply…
9. Kings’ daughters—Historically the description here given could apply only to Solomon.
Queen—The word means bride, or queen consort.
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Right hand—The place of honour, 1Ki_2:19.
In gold of Ophir— With garments trimmed and decorated with gold. Where Ophir was is not known. It was a country reached only by sea, and hence known only to the Tyrians, and to the Hebrews in David’s time through them.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv9–169. Kings’ daughters are among thy honourable women:
9. Kings’ daughters are among thy honourable women:
At thy right hand doth stand the queen in gold of Ophir (R.V.).
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An Oriental monarch prided himself on the number and nobility of the wives in his harem, and some at least of the Jewish monarchs were no exception to the rule (1Ki_11:3; Son_6:8). It may seem strange that such a degradation of the true ideal of marriage should find place in a Psalm which opens up such lofty thoughts and hopes. But the Psalm reflects the actual facts and customs of the age: it is not intended to depict a perfect state of things. One of the wives takes precedence of the rest and occupies the place of honour (1Ki_2:19) at the king’s right hand. It is implied that this place is reserved for the new bride whom the poet now turns to address. The verse is a general description of the king’s state, for the bride has not yet been brought in (Psa_45:14); or is the poet anticipating? Gold of Ophir was the choicest gold (1Ki_9:28; 1Ki_10:11; Job_22:24; Job_28:16), but where Ophir was is not known. Most probably it was in S. Arabia or India.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16(9) Honourable women.—Literally, precious ones, i.e., possibly the favourites…
(9) Honourable women.—Literally, precious ones, i.e., possibly the favourites of the harem. See Pro_6:26, where this word precious is used (comp. Jer_31:20), or there may be an allusion to the costliness and magnificence of the harem rather than to affection for its inmates. Perhaps both senses are combined in the word, and we may compare Shakespeare’s
“The jewels of our father, with washed eyes
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Cordelia leaves you.”
Upon thy right hand.—Comp. 1Ki_2:19.
Did stand.—Better, was stationed, referring to the position assigned to the bride when the marriage procession was formed.
In gold of Ophir.—Or, possibly, as (i.e., precious as) gold of Ophir, a common use of this particle. For Ophir and its gold see 1Ki_9:28. The LXX. and Vulg. miss the proper name, and read, “clothed in golden vesture and many-coloured.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv9–16King"s daughters were (rather, are) among thy honourable women.…
King"s daughters were (rather, are) among thy honourable women. The marriage scene now begins to open upon us. The bridegroom has been depicted in all his glorious majesty. The bride has now to be brought forward. She comes, accompanied by a train of attendants women," or, noble ladies" (Kay), many of whom are "kings" daughters". (comp. 1Ki_7:3) It must not be expected that all the details of the scene shall have exact equivalents in the spiritual marriage which it represents. Upon thy right hand did stand (rather, stands) the queen in gold of Ophir; i.e. in a vesture richly embroidered with gold thread. (comp. Exo_28:5-8) "Gold of Ophir" was known, not merely to David, (1Ch_29:4) but even to Job.The (Job_28:16) "right hand" of the king was the place of honour. We find it assigned by Solomon to the queen-mother, Bathsheba. (1Ki_2:19)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon1885 · Public DomainOn vv9–16Ver. 9. King's daughters were among thy honourable women.…
Ver. 9. King's daughters were among thy honourable women. Our Lord's courts lack not for courtiers, and those the fairest and noblest. Virgin souls are maids of honour to the court, the true lilies of heaven. The lowly and pure in heart are esteemed by the Lord Jesus as his most familiar friends, their place in his palace is not among the menials but near the throne. The day will come when those who are "king's daughters" literally will count it their greatest honour to serve the church, and, meanwhile every believing sister is spiritually a King's daughter, a member of the royal family of heaven. Upon thy right hand, in the place of love, honour, and power, did stand the queen in gold of Ophir: the church shares her Lord's honour and happiness, he sets her in the place of dignity, he clothes her with the best of the best. Gold is the richest of metals, and Ophir gold the purest known. Jesus bestows nothing inferior or of secondary value upon his beloved church. In imparted and imputed righteousness the church is divinely arrayed. Happy those who are members of a church so honoured, so beloved; unhappy those who persecute the beloved people, for as a husband will not endure that his wife should be insulted or maltreated, so neither will the heavenly Husband; he will speedily avenge his own elect. Mark, then, the solemn pomp of the verses we have read. The King is seen with rapture, he girds himself as a warrior, robes himself as a monarch, mounts his chariot, darts his arrows, and conquers his foes. Then he ascends his throne with his sceptre in his hand, fills the palace hall with perfume brought from his secret chambers, his retinue stand around him, and, fairest of all, his bride is at his right hand, with daughters of subject princes as her attendants. Faith is no stranger to this sight, and every time she looks she adores, she loves, she rejoices, she expects.
Ver. 9. King's daughters. Albeit the Catholic church consisting of true converts or real saints be but the one and only true spouse of Christ, yet particular visible churches consisting of saints by calling, by obligation, by profession, and common estimation, their own or others, are many. The true church consisting of true converts (whose praise is of God, to whom only they are certainly known, and not of men), being but one, is compared to the queen; but the particular, whose collections and consociations are known to men, being many, are compared to ladies of honour who serve the queen. David Dickson.
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Ver. 9. The queen. It is written of Matilda, the empress, that she was the daughter of a king, the mother of a king, and the wife of a king.
Ortu magna, viro major, sed maxima prole,
Hic jacet Henrici filia, nupta, parens.
So David intimates in this hymn, that the church is the daughter of a King, at the 13th verse, "The king's daughter is all glorious within; "and the mother of a king, at the 16th verse, "Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth; "and the wife of a king, in this verse, Upon thy right hand did stand the queen, as being (I speak in the language of Canaan), spiritually the wedded and bedded wife to the king of glory. John Boys.
Ver. 9-10.
1. The connections of the Bridegroom are to be remembered, those of the Bride to be forgotten.
Psalms 45:10*
Ver. 9-10.
1. The connections of the Bridegroom are to be remembered, those of the Bride to be forgotten.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16Kings daughters were among Thy honourable women.
Psa_45:9
Kings daughters were among Thy honourable women.
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Upon Thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
The consummation of Messiahs glory and the Churchs happiness
I. The general propriety and significance of the image of a marriage as it is here employed. Familiar emblems are needful for the better understanding of the Gospel by the mass of the people. Now, the relation between Christ and His Church, it is evident, must be of a nature not to be adequately typified by anything in the material world; and nothing could be found in human life which might so aptly represent it as the relation of husband and wife in the holy state of wedlock; and in this the analogy is so perfect that the notion of the ancient Jews has received the express sanction of St. Paul, that the relation of the Saviour and the Church was typified in the union of our first parents, and in the particular manner of Eves formation out of the substance of Adam.
II. The circumstances of this marriage. The magnificence of the court of the king as it appeared on the wedding-day, the splendour of the royal robes, the profusion of rich perfumes, are dwelt on. Of these last such quantities were used that the whole person was not merely sprinkled, but ran down with them to the very skirts of the garment. The psalmist describes the fragrance of Messiahs garments to be such as if the robes had been made of the very substance of aromatic woods. Thy garments are all myrrh, aloes and cassia. No palace adorned with ivory--a favourite ornament of palaces--could furnish such fragrance, no, nor even the incense that was burnt upon the golden altar as a grateful odour to the Lord. Now, all these perfumed garments were typical; first, of the graces and virtues of the Redeemer Himself in His human character; secondly, of whatever is refreshing, encouraging, consoling, and cheering in the external ministration of the word; and, thirdly, of the internal comforts of the Holy Spirit. We proceed to other particulars in the magnificent appearance of His court on the wedding-day, figurative of the glory of the Church in its final condition of purity and peace, and of the rank and order of particular churches. Kings daughters are among Thy honourable women. But the primary meaning of the word rendered honourable is bright, sparkling, and the imagery of the original would be better preserved if rendered thus, Kings daughters are among the bright beauties of Thy court. The beauty certainly is mystic--the beauty of evangelical sanctity and innocence. But who are these kings daughters? They are the kingdoms and peoples, perhaps the various national churches, fostered for many ages by the piety of Christian princes, and now brought to the perfection of beauty by their being cleansed from all wrong--they may welt be called kings daughters, of whom kings and queens are called in prophetic language the fathers and mothers. Then, the consort, the queen, who is she? Some expositors have imagined that the consort is an emblem of the Church catholic in her totality; the kings daughters, typical of the several particular churches of which that one universal is composed. But the queen consort here is unquestionably the Hebrew Church; the Church of the natural Israel, reunited, by her conversion, to her husband, and advanced to the high prerogative of the mother Church of Christendom; and the kings daughters are the churches which had been gathered out of the Gentiles in the interval between the expulsion of his wife and the taking of her home again, that is, between the dispersion of the Jews by the Romans and their restoration. The restoration of the Hebrew Church to the rights of a wife, to the situation of the queen consort in Messiahs kingdom upon earth, is the constant strain of prophecy. The prophet, I said, describes the Gentile converts as becoming, upon the reunion, children of the pardoned wife. And so St. Paul (Rom_11:1-36.). The standard gold upon the queens robe denotes the treasures of which the Church is the depositary--the Word and Sacraments, and the dispensation of grace and forgiveness by their due administration. Then follows--
III. The counsel to the bride (Verses10, 11). If a princess from a distant land, taken in marriage by a great king, were admonished to forget her own people and her fathers house, the purport of the advice would easily be understood to be, that she should divest herself of all attachment to the customs of her native country, and to the style of her fathers court, and learn to speak the language and assume the dress, the manners and the taste of her husbands people. The fathers house, and own people, which the psalmist advises the queen consort to forget, is the ancient Jewish religion in its external form, the ceremonies of the temple service, the sacrifices and the typical purgations of the Levitical priesthood. Not that she is to forget Gods gracious promises to Abraham, nor the covenant with her forefathers, nor any of the wonderful things God did for them. But only, so as to desire no more, the ancient Levitical rites and worship. They have served their purpose, and are now to be laid aside. Christ, her husband, is her paramount authority now, and is entitled to her unreserved obedience. There is given--
IV. The description of the queen (verse 13). The kings daughter. Who is this? Not some new personage, the Christian Church in general composed of both Jews and Gentiles, as Luther thought, but, as Bishop Hume observes, that the connection between Christ and His spouse unites in itself every relation and every affection. She is, therefore, daughter, wife and sister all in one. The same seems to have been the notion of a learned Dominican of the seventeenth century, who remarks that the Empress Julia, in the legends of some ancient coins, is called the daughter of Augustus, whose wife she was. But, with much general reverence for the opinions of these learned commentators, I am persuaded that the stops have been misplaced in the Hebrew manuscripts by the Jewish critics upon the last revision of the text--that translators have been misled by their false division of the text, and expositors misled by translators. The stops being rightly placed, the Hebrew words give this sense: She is all glorious--she, the consort of whom we have been speaking, is glorious in every respect--Daughter of a king! That is, she is a princess born; she is glorious, therefore, for her high birth. She is, indeed, of high and heavenly extraction! Accordingly, in the Apocalypse, the bride, the Lambs wife, is the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God. The psalmist adds: She is conducted in procession to the king--in all the pomp of a public procession. This may point to some remarkable assistance which the Jews will receive from the Christian Gentiles in their re-settlement in the Holy Land (Isa_18:1-7, at end, and Zep_3:10). And then follow the prediction as to the Churchs children and the distinguished character they shall hold, and he closes with setting forth the design and predicting the effect of this Divine song. (Bishop Horsley.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren1905 · Public DomainOn v10Psa 45:10 - Psa 45:15.
Psalms
THE PORTRAIT OF THE BRIDE
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Psa 45:10 - Psa 45:15.
The relation between God and Israel is constantly represented in the Old Testament under the emblem of a marriage. The tenderest promises of protection and the sharpest rebukes of unfaithfulness are based upon this foundation. ‘Thy Maker is thy Husband’; or, ‘I am married unto thee, saith the Lord.’ The emblem is transferred in the New Testament to Christ and His Church. Beginning with John the Baptist’s designation of Him as the Bridegroom, it reappears in many of our Lord’s sayings and parables, is frequent in the writings of the Apostle Paul, and reaches its height of poetic splendour and terror in that magnificent description in Revelation of ‘the Bride, the Lamb’s wife,’ and ‘the marriage supper of the Lamb.’
Seeing, then, the continual occurrence of this metaphor, it is unnatural and almost impossible to deny its presence in this psalm. In a former sermon I have directed attention to the earlier portion of it, which presents us, in its portraiture of the King, a shadowy and prophetic outline of Jesus Christ. I desire, in a similar fashion, to deal now with the latter portion, which, in its portrait of the bride, presents us with truths having their real fulfilment in the Church collectively and in the individual soul.
Of course, inasmuch as the consort of a Jewish monarch was not an incarnate prophecy as her husband was, the transference of the historical features of this wedding-song to a spiritual purpose is not so satisfactory, or easy, in the latter part as in the former. There is a thicker rind of prose fact, as it were, to cut through, and certain of the features cannot be applied to the relation between Christ and His Church without undue violence. But, whilst we admit that, it is also clear that the main, broad outlines of this picture do require as well as permit its higher application. Therefore I turn to them to try to bring out what they teach us so eloquently and vividly of Christ’s gifts to, and requirements from, the souls that are wedded to Him.
I. Now the first point is this-the all-surrendering Love that must mark the Bride.
The language of the tenth verse is the voice of prophecy or inspiration; speaking words of fatherly counsel to the princess-’Forget also thine own people and thy father’s house.’ Historically I suppose it points to the foreign birth of the queen, who is called upon to abandon all old ties, and to give herself with wholehearted consecration to her new duties and relations.
In all real wedded life, as those who have tasted it know, there comes, by sweet necessity, the subordination, in the presence of a purer and more absorbing love, brought close by a will itself ablaze with the sacred glow.
Therefore, while giving all due honour to other forms of Christian opposition to the prevailing unbelief, I urge the cultivation of a quickened spiritual life as by far the most potent. Does not history bear me out in that view? What, for instance, was it that finished the infidelity of the eighteenth century? Whether had Butler’s Analogy or Charles Wesley’s hymns, Paley’s Evidences or Whitefield’s sermons, most to do with it? A languid Church breeds unbelief as surely as a decaying oak does fungus. In a condition of depressed vitality, the seeds of disease, which a full vigour would shake off, are fatal. Raise the temperature, and you kill the insect germs. A warmer tone of spiritual life would change the atmosphere which unbelief needs for its growth. It belongs to the fauna of the glacial epoch, and when the rigours of that wintry time begin to melt, and warmer days to set in, the creatures of the ice have to retreat to arctic wildernesses, and leave a land no longer suited for their life. A diffused unbelief, such as we see around us to-day, does not really arise from the logical basis on which it seems to repose. It comes from something much deeper,-a certain habit and set of mind which gives these arguments their force. For want of a better name, we call it the spirit of the age. It is the result of very subtle and complicated forces, which I do not pretend to analyse. It spreads through society, and forms the congenial soil in which these seeds of evil, as we believe them to be, take root. Does anybody suppose that the growth of popular unbelief is owing to the logical force of certain arguments? It is in the air; a wave of it is passing over us. We are in a condition in which it becomes shall drop the toys of earth as easily and naturally as a child will some trinket or plaything, when it stretches out its little hand to get a better gift from its loving mother. Love will sweep the heart clean of its antagonists; and there is no real union between Jesus Christ and us except in the measure in which we joyfully, and not as a reluctant giving up of things that we would much rather keep if we durst, ‘count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.’
Have the terms of wedded life changed since my psalm was written? Is there less need now than there used to be that, if we are to possess a heart, we should give a whole heart? And have the terms of Christian living altered since the old days, when He said, ‘Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple’? Ah! I fear me that it is no uncharitable judgment to say that the bulk of so-called Christians are playing at being Christians, and have never penetrated into the depths either of the sweet all-sufficiency of the love which they say that they possess, or the constraining necessity that is in it for the surrender of all besides. Many happy husbands and wives, if they would only treat Jesus Christ as they treat one another, would find out a power and a blessedness in the Christian life that they know nothing about at present. ‘Daughter! forget thine own people and thy father’s house!’
II. Again, the second point here is that which directly follows-the King’s love and the Bride’s reverence. ‘So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty: for He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him.’
The King is drawn, in the outgoings of His affection, by the sweet trust and perfect love which has surrendered everything for him and happily followed him from the far-off land. And then, in accordance with Oriental ideas, and with His royal rank, the bride is exhorted, in the midst of the utter trust and equality born of love, to remember, ‘He is thy Lord, and reverence thou Him.’ So, then, here are two thoughts that go, as I take it, very deep into the realities of the Christian life. The first is that, in simple literal fact, Jesus Christ is affected, in His relation to us, by the completeness of our dependence upon Him, and surrender of all else for Him. We do not believe that half vividly enough. We have surrounded Jesus Christ with a halo of mystery and of remoteness which neither lets us think of Him as being really man or really God. And I press on you this as a plain fact, no piece of pulpit rhetoric, that His relation to us as Christians hinges upon our surrender to Him. Of course, there is a love with which He pours Himself out over the unworthy and the sinful-blessed be His name!-and the more sinful and the more unworthy, the deeper the tenderness and the more yearning the pity and pathos of invitation which He lavishes upon us. But that is a different thing from this other, which is that He is pleased or displeased, actually drawn to or repelled from us, in the measure of the completeness and gladness of our surrender of ourselves to Him. That is what Paul means when he says that he labours that ‘whether present or absent he may be pleasing to Christ.’ And this is the highest and strongest motive that I know for all holy and noble living, that we shall bring a smile into our Master’s face and draw Him nearer to ourselves thereby. ‘So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty.’
Again, in the measure in which we live out our Christianity, in whole-hearted and thorough surrender, in that measure shall we be conscious of His nearness and feel His love.
There are many Christian people that have only religion enough to make them uncomfortable, only enough to make religion to them a system of regulations, negative and positive, the reasonableness and sweetness of which they but partially apprehend. They must not do this because it is forbidden; they ought to do that because it is commanded. They would much rather do the forbidden thing, and they have no wish to do the commanded thing, and so they live in twilight, and when they come beside a man who really has been walking in the light of Christ’s face, the language of his experience, though it be but a transcript of facts, sounds to them all unreal and fanatical. They miss the blessing that is waiting for them, just because they have not really given up themselves. If by resolute and continual opening of our hearts to Christ’s real love and presence, and by consequent casting off of our false and foolish self-dependence, we were to blow away the clouds that come between us and Him, we should feel the sunshine. But as it is, a miserable multitude of professing Christians ‘walk in the darkness, and have no light,’ or, at the most, but some wintry sunshine that struggles through the thick mist, and does little more than reveal the barrenness that lies around. Brethren! if you want to be happy Christians, be out-and-out ones; and if you would have your hands and your hearts filled with Christ, empty them of the trash that they grip so closely now.
Then, on the other side, there is the reminder and exhortation: ‘He is thy Lord, worship thou Him.’ The beggar-maid that, in the old ballad, married the king, in all her love was filled with reverence; and the ragged, filthy souls, whom Jesus Christ stoops to love, and wash, and make His own, are never to forget, in the highest rapture of their joy, their lowly adoration, nor in the glad familiarity of their loving approach to Him, cease to remember that the test of love is, ‘Keep My commandments.’
There are types of emotional and sentimental religion that have a great deal more to say about love than about obedience; that are full of half wholesome apostrophes to a ‘dear Lord,’ and almost forget the ‘Lord’ in the emphasis which they put on the ‘dear.’ And I want you to remember this, as by no means an unnecessary caution, and of especial value in some quarters to-day, that the test of the reality of Christian love is its lowliness, and that all that which indulges in heated emotion, and forgets practical service, is rotten and spurious. Though the King desire her beauty, still, when He stretches out the golden sceptre, Esther must come to Him with lowly guise and a reverent heart. ‘He is thy Lord, worship thou Him.’
III. The next point in this portraiture is the reflected honour and influence of the bride.
There are difficulties about the translation of the 12th verse of our psalm with which I do not need to trouble you. We may take it for our purpose as it stands before us. ‘The daughter of Tyre’ {representing the wealthy, outside nations} ‘shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favour.’
The bride being thus beloved by the King, thus standing by His side, those around recognise her dignity and honour, and draw near to secure her intercession. Translate that out of the emblem into plain words, and it comes to this-if Christian people, and communities of such, are to have influence in the world, they must be thorough-going Christians. If they are, they will get hatred sometimes; but men know honest people and religious people when they see them, and such Christians will win respect and be a power in the world. If Christian men and Christian communities are despised by outsiders, they very generally earn the contempt and deserve it, both from men and from heaven. The true evangelist is Christian character. They that manifestly live with the sunshine of the Lord’s love on their faces, and whose hands are plainly clear from worldly and selfish graspings, will have the world recognising the fact and honouring them accordingly. ‘The sons of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee, and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down to the soles of thy feet.’ When the Church has cast the world out of its heart, it will conquer the world-and not till then.
IV. The next point in this picture is the fair adornment of the bride. The language is in part ambiguous; and if this were the place for commenting would require a good deal of comment. But we take it as it stands in our Bible, ‘The King’s daughter is all glorious within’-not within her nature, but within the innermost recesses of the palace-’her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework.’
It is an easy and well-worn metaphor to talk about people’s character as their dress. We speak about the ‘habits’ of a man, and we use that word to express both his customary manners and his costume. Custom and costume, again, are the same word. So here, without any departure from the well-trodden path of Scriptural emblem, we cannot but see in the glorious apparel the figure of the pure character with which the bride is clothed. The Book of the Revelation dresses her in the fine linen clean and white, which symbolises the lustrous radiance and snowy purity of righteousness. The psalm describes her dress as partly consisting in garments gleaming with gold, which suggests splendour and glory, and partly in robes of careful and many-coloured embroidery, which suggests the patience with which the slow needle has been worked through the stuff, and the variegated and manifold graces and beauties with which she is adorned.
So, putting all the metaphors together, the true Christian character, which will be ours if we really are the subjects of that divine love, will be lustrous and snowy as the snows on Hermon, or as was the garment whose whiteness outshone the neighbouring snows when He was ‘transfigured before them.’ Our characters will be splendid with a splendour far above the tawdry beauties and vulgar conspicuousness of the ‘heroic’ and worldly ideals, and will be endowed with a purity and harmony of colouring in richly various graces, such as no earthly looms can ever weave.
We are not told here how the garment is attained. It is no part of the purpose of the psalm to tell us that, but it is part of its purpose to insist that there is no marriage between Christ and the soul except that soul be pure, none except it be robed in the beauty of righteousness and the splendour of consecration, and the various gifts of an all-giving Spirit. The man that came into the wedding-feast, with his dirty, every-day clothes on, was turned out as a rude insulter. But what of the queen that should come foully dressed? There would be no place for her amidst its solemnities. You will never stand at the right hand of Christ, unless jour souls here are clothed in the fine linen clean and white, and over it the flashing wealth and the harmonised splendour of the gold and embroidery of Christlike graces. We know how to get the garment. Faith strips the rags and puts the best robe on us; and effort based upon faith enables us day by day to put off the old man with his deeds and to put on the new man. The bride ‘made herself ready,’ and ‘to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white.’
V. Lastly, we have the picture of the homecoming of the bride. ‘She shall be brought unto the King. . . . with gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought; they shall enter into the King’s palace.’
The presence of virgin companions waiting on the bride is no more difficult to understand here than it is in Christ’s parable of the Ten Virgins. It is a characteristic of all parabolical representation to be elastic, and sometimes to duplicate its emblems for the same thing; and that is the case here. But the main point to be insisted upon is this, that, according to the perspective of Scripture, the life of the Christian Church here on earth is, if I may so say, a betrothal in righteousness and loving-kindness; and that the betrothal waits for its consummation in that great future when the bride shall pass into the presence of the King. The whole collective body of sinful souls redeemed by His blood, and who know the sweetness of His partially received love, shall be drawn within the curtains of that upper house, and enter into a union with Christ Jesus ineffable, incomprehensible till experienced; and of which the closest union of loving souls on earth is but a dim shadow. ‘He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit’; and the reality of our union with Him rises above the emblem of a marriage, as high as spirit rises above flesh.
The psalm stops at the palace-gate. ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.’ But there is a solemn prelude to that completed union and its deep rapture. Before it there comes the last campaign of the conquering King on the white horse, who wars in righteousness. Dear friends! you must choose now whether you will be of the company of the Bride or of the company of the enemy. ‘They that were ready went in with Him unto the marriage, and the door was shut.’
Which side of the door do you mean to be on?
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v10The inspired singer now repeats the words with which…
The inspired singer now repeats the words with which the King, the Messiah, addresses His Bride.
v. 10. Hearken, O daughter, called so by the Bridegroom because she is begotten and regenerated through the Gospel, 1Pe 1:23, and consider and incline thine ear, becoming so absorbed in the words of His grace as to forget everything else, even the closest ties of human relationship; forget also thine own people and thy father’s house, all for the sake of the Bridegroom and His love;
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v. 11. so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty, taking pleasure in her for the beauty of her obedience, her finest and most precious ornament; for He is thy Lord, who has made her His own by the shedding of His precious blood; and worship thou Him, giving Him the honor due Him as the great Lord and serving Him in the beauty of holiness.
v. 12. And the daughter of Tyre, as the representative of the heathen world, shall be there with a gift, bringing presents and attempting to gain the favor of the Bride; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favor, seeking entrance into the kingdom of the Messiah. It is when the Bride, the Church, denies and forgets everything else, all the precious things of this world, that people outside the Church become interested. It is not by making concessions to the world that the Church gains members, but by being strictly exclusive, holding the treasure of the Gospel unpolluted.
v. 13. The King’s daughter, the Bride of Messiah, is all glorious within, clothed, as she is, with the garment of the Messiah’s righteousness; her clothing is of wrought gold, of braided work of gold, with rich colored embroidery, the most costly garments, jewels of Christ’s grace, spiritual and heavenly blessings.
v. 14. She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework, skillfully embroidered; the virgins, her companions that follow her, also such believers as have been gained from the heathen world, shall be brought unto thee, being identified with the Bride and received by Christ in the eternal palaces of heaven.
v. 15. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought; they shall enter into the King’s palace, into the everlasting glories of heaven. v16. Instead of Thy fathers shall be Thy children, whom Thou mayest make princes in all the earth. The King is here once more addressed. Instead of His fathers, the kings of the line of David who preceded Him, He will have sons, believers, citizens in His kingdom, His spiritual children; for His family will never die out, since He will always gain new adherents out of all nations, whom He will then set as princes over all the earth. All believers are kings and princes before Christ and His heavenly Father, they share in His glorious dominion, 1Pe 2:9; Rev 1:6. And so the inspired singer finally, as a member and representative of Christ’s Church on earth, extols the name of Messiah, the King.
v. 17. I will make Thy name to be remembered in all generations, from generation to generation; therefore shall the people praise Thee forever and ever. Peoples, nations, believers, from every part of the earth, all the various members of the Church from all lands, give thanks to the King. And this song of thanksgiving, as it is begun here in time, will be continued without end, throughout eternity; for then the Bride, the Church, will forever be united with Christ, her Bridegroom, and her hallelujahs will sound forth in endless, glorious refrain.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The writer begins to speak to the queen and refers to her as "daughter" because she is a young woman.
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incline your ear
The writer speaks of listening carefully to something as if it were bending one's ear towards the person who is speaking. AT: "listen carefully" (See: Metaphor)
forget your own people
The writer speaks of the queen no longer following the beliefs and customs of her native people as if it were forgetting them. AT: "no longer follow the customs of your people" (See: Metaphor)
your father's house
Here the word "house" refers to family. AT: "your relatives" (See: Metonymy)
In this way
"and" or "so"
the king will desire your beauty
This is a polite way to say that the king will want to sleep with the queen as his wife. (See: Euphemism)
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv10, 12, 13, 16 10. Hearken, O daughter! and consider I have no…
10. Hearken, O daughter! and consider I have no doubt, that what is here said is spoken of the Egyptian woman, whom the prophet has described as standing at the right hand of the king. It was not, indeed, lawful for Solomon to marry a strange woman; but this of itself is to be accounted among the gifts of God, that a king so powerful as the king of Egypt was, sought his alliance. At the same time, as by the appointment of the Law, it was required that the Jews, previous to entering into the marriage relation, should endeavor to instruct their wives in the pure worship of God, and emancipate them from superstition; in the present instance, in which the wife spoken of was descended from a heathen nation, and who, by her present marriage, was included in the body of the Church, the prophet, in order to withdraw her from her evil training, exhorts her to forget her own country and her father’s house, and to assume a new character and other manners. If she did not do this, there was reason to fear, not only that she would continue to observe in private the superstitions and false modes of worshipping God to which she had been habituated, but that also, by her public example, she would draw away many into a similar evil course; and, indeed, this actually came to pass soon after. Such is the reason of the exhortation which the prophet here gives her, in which, in order to render his discourse of more weight, he addresses her by the appellation of daughter, a term which it would have been unsuitable for any private man to have used. The more clearly to show how much it behoved the new bride to become altogether a new woman, he employs several terms thereby to secure her attention, Hearken, consider, and incline thy ear It is certainly a case in which much vehemence and urgent persuasion are needed, when it is intended to lead us to a complete renunciation of those things in which we take delight, either by nature or by custom. He then shows that there is no reason why the daughter of Pharaoh should feel any regret in forsaking her father, her kinsfolk, and the land of Egypt, because she would receive a glorious recompense, which ought to allay the grief she might experience in being separated from them. To reconcile her to the thought of leaving her own country, he encourages her by the consideration that she is married to so illustrious a king.
Let us now return to Christ. And, in the first place, let us remember that what is spiritual is here described to us figuratively; even as the prophets, on account of the dulness of men, were under the necessity of borrowing similitudes from earthly things. When we bear in mind this style of speaking, which is quite common in the Scriptures, we will not think it strange that the sacred writer here makes mention of ivory palaces, gold, precious stones, and spices; for by these he means to intimate that the kingdom of Christ will be replenished with a rich abundance, and furnished with all good things. The glory and excellence of the spiritual gifts, with which God enriches his Church, are indeed held in no estimation among men; but in the sight of God they are of more value than all the riches of the world. At the same time, it is not necessary that we should apply curiously to Christ every particular here enumerated; as for instance, what is here said of the many wives which Solomon had. If it should be imagined from this that there may be several churches, the unity of Christ’s body will be rent in pieces. I admit, that as every individual believer is called “the temple of God,” (1 Corinthians 3:17, and 6:19,) so also might each be named “the spouse of Christ;” but properly speaking, there is only one spouse of Christ, which consists of the whole body of the faithful. She is said to sit by the side of the king, not that she exercises any dominion peculiar to herself, but because Christ rules in her; and it is in this sense that she is called “the mother of us all,” (Galatians 4:26.)
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This passage contains a remarkable prophecy in reference to the future calling of the Gentiles, by which the Son of God formed an alliance with strangers and those who were his enemies. There was between God and the uncircumcised nations a deadly quarrel, a wall of separation which divided them from the seed of Abraham, the chosen people, (Ephesians 2:14;) for the covenant which God had made with Abraham shut out the Gentiles from the kingdom of heaven till the coming of Christ. Christ, therefore, of his free grace, desires to enter into a holy alliance of marriage with the whole world, in the same way as if a Jew in ancient times had taken to himself a wife from a foreign and heathen land. But in order to conduct into Christ’s presence his bride chaste and undefiled, the prophet exhorts the Church gathered from the Gentiles to forget her former manner of living, and to devote herself wholly to her husband. As this change, by which the children of Adam begin to be the children of God, and are transformed into new men, is a thing so difficult, the prophet enforces the necessity of it the more earnestly. In enforcing his exhortation in this way by different terms, hearken, consider, incline thy ear, he intimates, that the faithful do not deny themselves, and lay aside their former habits, without intense and painful effort; for such an exhortation would be superfluous, were men naturally and voluntarily disposed to it. And, indeed, experience shows how dull and slow we are to follow God. By the word consider, or understand, our stupidity is tacitly rebuked, and not without good reason; for whence arise that self-love which is so blind, that false opinion which we have of our own wisdom and strength, the deception arising from the fascinations of the world, and, in fine, the arrogance and pride which are natural to us, but because we do not consider how precious a treasure God is presenting to us in his only begotten Son? Did not this ingratitude prevent us, we would without regret, after the example of Paul, (Philippians 3:8,) reckon as nothing, or as “dung,” those things which we admire most, that Christ might replenish us with his riches. By the word daughter, the prophet gently and sweetly soothes the new Church; and he also sets before her the promise of a bountiful reward, to induce her, for the sake of Christ, willingly to despise and forsake whatever she made account of heretofore. It is certainly no small consolation to know that the Son of God will delight in us, when we shall have put off our earthly nature. In the meantime, let us learn, that to deny ourselves is the beginning of that sacred union which ought to exist between us and Christ. By her father’s house and her people is doubtless meant all the corruptions which we carry with us from our mother’s womb, or derive from evil custom; nay, under this mode of expression there is comprehended whatever men have belonging to themselves; for there is no part of our nature sound or free from corruption.
It is necessary, also, to notice the reason which is added, namely, that if the Church refuses to devote herself wholly to Christ, she casts off his due and lawful authority. By the word worship we must understand not only the outward ceremony, but also, according to the figure synecdoche, a holy desire to yield reverence and obedience. Would to God that this admonition, as it ought, had been thoroughly weighed! for the Church of Christ had then been more obedient to his authority, and we should not in these days have had so great a contest to maintain in reference to her authority against the Papists, who imagine that the Church is not sufficiently exalted and honored, unless with unbridled license she may insolently triumph over her own husband. They, no doubt, in words ascribe supreme authority to Christ, saying, that every knee should bow before him; but when they maintain that the Church has an unlimited power of making laws, what else is this but to give her loose reins, and to exempt her from the authority of Christ, that she may break forth into any excess according to her desire? I stay not to notice how wickedly they arrogate to themselves the title and designation of the Church. But it is intolerable sacrilege to rob Christ and then adorn the Church with his spoils. It is no small dignity which the Church enjoys, in being seated at the right hand of the King, and it is no small honor to be called “the Mother” of all the godly, for to her it belongs to nourish and keep them under her discipline. But at the same time it is easy to gather from innumerable passages of Scripture, that Christ does not so elevate his own Church that he may diminish or impair in the least his own authority.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 12, 13, 16 Though he had many Kings’ daughters among his wives,…
Though he had many Kings’ daughters among his wives, yet he loved Pharaoh’s daughter best.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv9–16 Psa 45:9 Kings’ daughters [were] among thy honourable women:…
Psa 45:9 Kings’ daughters [were] among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
Ver. 9. Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women] Thy ladies of honour attending upon thy royal consort (for after the description of Christ, the bridegroom, followeth another, of the queen, his bride, and of the royal nuptials): or, Kings’ daughters are in thy preciousnesses, that is, in thy comeliness that thou hast put upon them, Eze 16:14; for all the Church’s bravery is borrowed, and all her daughters, i.e. members, are adorned not with their own proper attire, Sed regio mundo et ornatu, out of the King Christ’s wardrobe; this is the righteousness of the saints, Rev 19:8, viz. imputed and imparted.
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Upon thy right hand] Which is a place of dignity and safety. As Christ is at the Father’s right hand, so the Church is at Christ’s right hand; where, as his wife, she shineth with her Husband’s beams. This is very comfortable.
Did stand the queen] Heb. the wife, adiutorium illi exacte respondens, as Gen 2:18, saith Aben Ezra. Of our Edward III the chronicler saith, that he was happy in his wife, a lady of excellent virtue, who drew evenly with him in all the courses of honour that appertained to her side; and seemed a piece so just cut for him, as answered him rightly in every joint (Daniel’s Hist.).
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv9–16 Among thy honourable women, i.e. amongst them that attend…
Among thy honourable women, i.e. amongst them that attend upon thy spouse, as the manner was in nuptial solemnities; as men attended upon the bridegroom, whence they were called friends, Joh 3:29. In reference to Christ, as the spouse or queen is the church in general, so these honourable women are particular believers, who are daily added to the church, Act 2:47, and submit themselves to it. And although the church is made up of particular believers, yet she is distinguished from them, for the decency of the parable, as the whole is oft distinguished by our minds from the parts of which it consists, and as the daughters of Jerusalem are distinguished from the spouse in the book of the Canticles, though the spouse be wholly made up of them. And these believers may be said to be kings’ daughters, either because amongst others many persons of royal or princely races did embrace the faith, as was prophesied of them, Isa 49:7; 60:10,11, &c., or because they are in a spiritual sense kings unto God, Rev 1:6.
Upon thy right hand; the most honourable place next to the king’s. See 1Ki 2:9; Mat 26:64. Did stand; which is the posture of a servant; to show that as she is a queen, she is also his subject to serve and obey him. Or, is placed, or seated; which seems more agreeable to the person of a queen, 1Ki 2:19, and of a spouse at the nuptial solemnity.
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In gold of Ophir; clothed in the richest garments made of the choicest gold; by which he designs the graces wherewith the church is accomplished.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v10 This latter part of the psalm is addressed to…
This latter part of the psalm is addressed to the royal bride, standing on the right hand of the royal bridegroom. God, who said to the Son, Thy throne is for ever and ever, says this to the church, which, upon the account of her espousals to the Son, he here calls his daughter.
I. He tells her of the duties expected from her, which ought to be considered by all those that come into relation to the Lord Jesus: "Hearken, therefore, and consider this, and incline thy ear, that is, submit to those conditions of thy espousals, and bring thy will to comply with them." This is the method of profiting by the word of God. He that has ears, let him hear, let him hearken diligently; he that hearkens, let him consider and weigh it duly; he that considers, let him incline and yield to the force of what is laid before him. And what is it that is here required?
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1. She must renounce all others.
(1.) Here is the law of her espousals: "Forget thy own people and thy father's house, according to the law of marriage. Retain not the affection thou hast had for them, nor covet to return to them again; banish all such remembrance (not only of thy people that were dear to thee, but of thy father's house that were dearer) as may incline thee to look back, as Lot's wife to Sodom." When Abraham, in obedience to God's call, had quitted his native soil, he was not so much as mindful of the country whence he came out. This shows, [1.] How necessary it was for those who were converted from Judaism or paganism to the faith of Christ wholly to cast out the old leaven, and not to bring into their Christian profession either the Jewish ceremonies or the heathen idolatries, for these would make such a mongrel religion in Christianity as the Samaritans had. [2.] How necessary it is for us all, when we give up our names to Jesus Christ, to hate father and mother, and all that is dear to us in this world, in comparison, that is, to love them less than Christ and his honour, and our interest in him, Luk 14:26.
(2.) Here is good encouragement given to the royal bride thus entirely to break off from her former alliances: So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, which intimates that the mixing of her old rites and customs, whether Jewish or Gentile, with her religion, would blemish her beauty and would hazard her interest in the affections of the royal bridegroom, but that, if she entirely conformed to his will, he would delight in her. The beauty of holiness, both on the church and on particular believers, is in the sight of Christ of great price and very amiable. Where that is he says, This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it. Among the golden candlesticks he walks with pleasure, Rev 2:1.
2. She must reverence him, must love, honour, and obey him: He is thy Lord, and worship thou him. The church is to be subject to Christ as the wife to the husband (Eph 5:24), to call him Lord, as Sarah called Abraham, and to obey him (Pe1 3:6), and so not only to submit to his government, but to give him divine honours. We must worship him as God, and our Lord; for this is the will of God, that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father; nay, in so doing it is reckoned that they honour the Father. If we confess that Christ is Lord, and pay our homage to him accordingly, it is to the glory of God the Father, Phi 2:11.
II. He tells her of the honours designed for her.
1. Great court should be made to her, and rich presents brought her (Psa 45:12): "The daughter of Tyre," a rich and splendid city, "the daughter of the King of Tyre shall be there with a gift; every royal family round about shall send a branch, as a representative of the whole, to seek thy favour and to make an interest in thee; even the rich among the people, whose wealth might be thought to exempt them from dependence at court, even they shall entreat thy favour, for his sake to whom thou art espoused, that by thee they may make him their friend." The Jews, the pretending Jews, who are rich to a proverb (as rich as a Jew), shall come and worship before the church's feet in the Philadelphian period, and shall know that Christ has loved her, Rev 3:9. When the Gentiles, being converted to the faith of Christ, join themselves to the church, they then come with a gift, Co2 8:5; Rom 15:16. When with themselves they devote all they have to the honour of Christ, and the service of his kingdom, they then come with a gift.
2. She shall be very splendid, and highly esteemed in the eyes of all, (1.) For her personal qualifications, the endowments of her mind, which every one shall admire (Psa 45:13): The king's daughter is all glorious within. Note, The glory of the church is spiritual glory, and that is indeed all glory; it is the glory of the soul, and that is the man; it is glory in God's sight, and it is an earnest of eternal glory. The glory of the saints falls not within the view of a carnal eye. As their life, so their glory, is hidden with Christ in God, neither can the natural man know it, for it is spiritually discerned; but those who do so discern it highly value it. Let us see here what is that true glory which we should be ambitious of, not that which makes a fair show in the flesh, but which is in the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible (Pe1 3:4), whose praise is not of men, but of God, Rom 2:29. (2.) For her rich apparel. Though all her glory is within, that for which she is truly valuable, yet her clothing also is of wrought gold; the conversation of Christians, in which they appear in the world, must be enriched with good works, not gay and gaudy ones, like paint and flourish, but substantially good, like gold; and it must be accurate and exact, like wrought gold, which is worked with a great deal of care and caution.
3. Her nuptials shall be celebrated with a great deal of honour and joy (Psa 45:14, Psa 45:15): She shall be brought to the king, as the Lord God brought the woman to the man (Gen 2:22), which was a type of this mystical marriage between Christ and his church. None are brought to Christ but whom the Father brings, and he has undertaken to do it; none besides are so brought to the king (Psa 45:14) as to enter into the king's palace, Psa 45:15.
(1.) This intimates a two-fold bringing of the spouse to Christ. [1.] In the conversion of souls to Christ; then they are espoused to him, privately contracted, as chaste virgins, Co2 11:2; Rom 7:4. [2.] In the completing of the mystical body, and the glorification of all the saints, at the end of time; then the bride, the Lamb's wife, shall be made completely ready, when all that belong to the election of grace shall be called in and called home, and all gathered together to Christ, Th2 2:1. Then is the marriage of the Lamb come (Rev 19:7; Rev 21:2), and the virgins go forth to meet the bridegroom, Mat 25:1. Then they shall enter into the king's palaces, into the heavenly mansions, to be ever with the Lord.
(2.) In both these espousals, observe, to the honour of the royal bride, [1.] Her wedding clothes - raiment of needle-work, the righteousness of Christ, the graces of the Spirit; both curiously wrought by divine wisdom. [2.] Her bride-maids - the virgins her companions, the wise virgins who have oil in their vessels as well as in their lamps, those who, being joined to the church, cleave to it and follow it, these shall go in to the marriage. [3.] The mirth with which the nuptials will be celebrated: With gladness and rejoicing shall she be brought. When the prodigal is brought home to his father it is meet that we should make merry and be glad (Luk 15:32); and when the marriage of the Lamb has come let us be glad and rejoice (Rev 19:7); for the day of his espousals is the day of the gladness of his heart, Sol 3:11.
4. The progeny of this marriage shall be illustrious (Psa 45:16): Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children. Instead of the Old Testament church, the economy of which had waxed old, and ready to vanish away (Heb 8:13), as the fathers that are going off, there shall be a New Testament church, a Gentile-church, that shall be grafted into the same olive and partake of its root and fatness (Rom 11:17); more and more eminent shall be the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, Isa 54:1. This promise to Christ is of the same import with that Isa 53:10, He shall see his seed; and these shall be made princes in all the earth; there shall be some of all nations brought into subjection to Christ, and so made princes, made to our God kings and priests, Rev 1:6. Or it may intimate that there should be a much greater number of Christian kings than ever there was of Jewish kings (those in Canaan only, these in all the earth), nursing fathers and nursing mothers to the church, which shall suck the breasts of kings. They are princes of Christ's making; for by him kings reign and princes decree justice.
5. The praise of this marriage shall be perpetual in the praises of the royal bridegroom (Psa 45:17): I will make thy name to be remembered. His Father has given him a name above every name, and here promises to make it perpetual, by keeping up a succession of ministers and Christians in every age, that shall bear up his name, which shall thus endure for ever (Psa 72:17), by being remembered in all the generations of time; for the entail of Christianity shall not be cut off. "Therefore, because they shall remember thee in all generations, they shall praise thee for ever and ever." Those that help to support the honour of Christ on earth shall in heaven see his glory, and share in it, and be for ever praising him. In the believing hope of our everlasting happiness in the other world let us always keep up the remembrance of Christ, as our only way thither, in our generation; and, in assurance of the perpetuating of the kingdom of the Redeemer in the world, let us transmit the remembrance of him to succeeding generations, that his name may endure for ever and be as the days of heaven.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv9–16 Kings' daughters were among thy honourable women,.... Or "maids…
Kings' daughters were among thy honourable women,.... Or "maids of honour" (n); who filled and adorned the king's court, and made a splendid appearance there, the same with the virgins, the companions of the bride, in Psa 45:14; and design truly gracious souls, believers in Christ, who are his "precious ones" (o), as the word may be rendered; the excellent in the earth, in whom is all his delight; the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold; his portion, his jewels, his peculiar treasure, and the apple of his eye: and since they have been precious to him, they have been "honourable", as they are, both by birth and marriage, being born of God, and espoused to Christ; by their character, kings and priests; and by their company, being among princes, and especially by their having communion with Father, Son, and Spirit: and among these are "kings' daughters"; yea, they are all of them the sons and daughters of the King of kings; not by their first birth, by which they were mean, base, and dishonourable, wretched and miserable, and children of wrath, as others; but by their second birth, or regeneration, through being born from above, and of God, to an incorruptible inheritance; and so are clothed and fed like the daughters of kings, and have the attendance of such, angels to wait upon them and guard them; and through adopting grace, which regeneration is the evidence of, by virtue of which some of the children of men become the sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty; and through their marriage to the King's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ: the words may be rendered, "Kings' daughters were in thy precious things" (p); that is, were arrayed with them: meaning either the graces of the Spirit, comparable to gems, pearls, jewels, and precious stones; see Sol 1:10; or else the rich robe of Christ's righteousness, and garments of salvation, with which believers being clothed, are as a bridegroom decked with ornaments, and as a bride adorned with jewels, Isa 61:10; and this agrees with what follows;
upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir; by whom is meant the church, whose title is a "queen", being the bride, the Lamb's wife: wherefore, because he is King, she is queen; for this title she has not of herself; it is founded not in her own right, but upon her relation to Christ, being married to him; and so is expressive of relation to him, union with him, and of privilege and dignity through him; she sharing with him in all he has, even in his kingdom and government, reigning with him, and on the same throne: her being "on his right hand" shows the honour she is advanced unto; yet "standing" may denote subjection to him as her Lord and head; and being so close by him may suggest her fidelity and inviolable attachment to him, and strict adherence to his person, cause and interest; as well as her protection from him, being held and upheld by his right hand; and her reception of favours from thence, and her enjoyment of his presence, at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore. Her dress is "gold of Ophir": a place famous for gold; See Gill on Kg1 9:28; with which the clothes of great personages used to be embroidered; so Esther is said (q) to put on her royal apparel, adorned with the good gold of "Ophir": here it means, that the queen's or church's clothing was of wrought gold, as in Psa 45:13, and intends the righteousness of Christ, with which she is arrayed, comparable to it for its richness, purity, lustre, glory, and duration.
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(n) "inter noblies tuas", Tigurine version. (o) Heb. "pretiosas", Piscator; so Ainsworth. (p) In "pretiositatibus tuis", Montanus, Gejerus; so some in Vatablus. (q) Targum Sheni in Esther v. 1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 Among - Among them that attend upon thy spouse,…
Among - Among them that attend upon thy spouse, as the manner was in nuptial solemnities. As the queen is the church in general, and so these honourable women are particular believers, who are daily added to the church, Acts ii, 47. And although the church is made up of particular believers, yet she is distinguished from them, for the decency of the parable. And these believers may be said to be Kings daughters, because among others, many persons of royal race embraced the faith, and because they are in a spiritual sense, Kings unto God, Rev. i, 6. Right hand - The most honourable place. Ophir - Clothed in garments made of the choicest gold. By which he designs the graces wherewith the church is accomplished.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16 Verse 9. Kings' daughters were among] Applied to Solomon,…
Verse 9. Kings' daughters were among] Applied to Solomon, these words have no difficulty. We know he had seven hundred wives, princesses; and the mention of those here may be intended only to show how highly respected he was among the neighbouring sovereigns, when they cheerfully gave him their daughters to constitute his harem. If we apply it to Solomon's marriage with the daughter of the king of Egypt, it may signify no more than the princesses and ladies of honour who accompanied her to the Israelitish court. Applied to Christ, it may signify that the Gospel, though preached particularly to the poor, became also the means of salvation to many of the kings, queens, and nobles, of the earth. The Chaldee interprets the queen standing at his right hand, by the law; and the honourable women, by the different regions and countries coming to receive that law from his right hand. Perhaps by kings' daughters may be meant different regions and countries, which are represented as constituting the families of potentates. Whole nations shall be converted to the Christian faith; and the queen-the Christian Church, shall be most elegantly adorned with all the graces and good works which at once constitute and adorn the Christian character.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 Psa 45:9. Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women…
Psa 45:9. Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women — Among them that attend upon thy spouse, as the manner was in nuptial solemnities. As the queen is the church in general, so these honourable women are particular believers, who are daily added to the church, Act 2:47. And although the church is made up of particular believers, yet she is distinguished from them for the decency of the parable, as the whole is often distinguished in our minds from the parts of which it consists, and as the daughters of Jerusalem are distinguished from the spouse in the book of Canticles, though the spouse (the church) be wholly made up of them. And these believers may be said to be kings’ daughters, because, among others, many persons of royal race embraced the faith, and because they are, in a spiritual sense, kings unto God, Rev 1:6. On thy right hand — The most honourable place; did stand the queen — In the posture of a servant; to show that although she is a queen, yet she is also his subject to serve and obey him. Or, rather, as נצבה, nitzebah, signifies, is placed, or seated, which seems more agreeable to the dignity of a queen, 1Ki 2:19, and of a spouse at the nuptial solemnity. In gold of Ophir — Clothed in the richest garments, made of the choicest gold; by which he designs the graces wherewith the church is adorned.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv9–16 Kings’ daughters were among thy honorable women - Those…
Kings’ daughters were among thy honorable women - Those who were in attendance on him and on the bride were from the most elevated ranks; among the most honorable of the earth. The word rendered “honorable women,” means properly, precious, costly; and then, dear, beloved; and this might be rendered “kings’ daughters are among thy beloved ones;” that is, in the number of thy maidens, or of those attending on thee. The allusion is to a marriage, and the description is drawn from the usual accompaniments of a marriage in the east. The design, as applicable to the Messiah and to his union with the Church, his bride, is to describe him as accompanied with every circumstance of distinction and honor, to throw around him all that constituted beauty and splendor in an Oriental marriage ceremony. Nothing of earth could be too rich or beautiful to illustrate the glory of the union of the Redeemer with his redeemed Church.
Upon thy right hand did stand the queen - The right hand is the place of honor, and that idea is intended here: 1Ki 2:19; Mar 14:62; Mar 16:19; Heb 1:3; Act 7:55. The idea here is, that the Church, the bride of the Lamb of God, as seen in the vision, is exalted to the highest post of honor. That Church has the place in his affections which the newly-married bride has in the affections of her husband.
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In field of Ophir - In garments decked or ornamented with the finest gold. On the phrase “the gold of Ophir,” see the notes at Isa 13:12.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 In completion of this picture of a marriage festival,…
In completion of this picture of a marriage festival, female attendants or bridesmaids of the highest rank attend Him, while the queen, in rich apparel (Psa 45:13), stands ready for the nuptial procession.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 9. Kings’ daughters—Historically the description here given could apply…
9. Kings’ daughters—Historically the description here given could apply only to Solomon.
Queen—The word means bride, or queen consort.
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Right hand—The place of honour, 1Ki_2:19.
In gold of Ophir— With garments trimmed and decorated with gold. Where Ophir was is not known. It was a country reached only by sea, and hence known only to the Tyrians, and to the Hebrews in David’s time through them.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv9–16 9. Kings’ daughters are among thy honourable women:
9. Kings’ daughters are among thy honourable women:
At thy right hand doth stand the queen in gold of Ophir (R.V.).
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An Oriental monarch prided himself on the number and nobility of the wives in his harem, and some at least of the Jewish monarchs were no exception to the rule (1Ki_11:3; Son_6:8). It may seem strange that such a degradation of the true ideal of marriage should find place in a Psalm which opens up such lofty thoughts and hopes. But the Psalm reflects the actual facts and customs of the age: it is not intended to depict a perfect state of things. One of the wives takes precedence of the rest and occupies the place of honour (1Ki_2:19) at the king’s right hand. It is implied that this place is reserved for the new bride whom the poet now turns to address. The verse is a general description of the king’s state, for the bride has not yet been brought in (Psa_45:14); or is the poet anticipating? Gold of Ophir was the choicest gold (1Ki_9:28; 1Ki_10:11; Job_22:24; Job_28:16), but where Ophir was is not known. Most probably it was in S. Arabia or India.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 (9) Honourable women.—Literally, precious ones, i.e., possibly the favourites…
(9) Honourable women.—Literally, precious ones, i.e., possibly the favourites of the harem. See Pro_6:26, where this word precious is used (comp. Jer_31:20), or there may be an allusion to the costliness and magnificence of the harem rather than to affection for its inmates. Perhaps both senses are combined in the word, and we may compare Shakespeare’s
“The jewels of our father, with washed eyes
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Cordelia leaves you.”
Upon thy right hand.—Comp. 1Ki_2:19.
Did stand.—Better, was stationed, referring to the position assigned to the bride when the marriage procession was formed.
In gold of Ophir.—Or, possibly, as (i.e., precious as) gold of Ophir, a common use of this particle. For Ophir and its gold see 1Ki_9:28. The LXX. and Vulg. miss the proper name, and read, “clothed in golden vesture and many-coloured.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv9–16 King"s daughters were (rather, are) among thy honourable women.…
King"s daughters were (rather, are) among thy honourable women. The marriage scene now begins to open upon us. The bridegroom has been depicted in all his glorious majesty. The bride has now to be brought forward. She comes, accompanied by a train of attendants women," or, noble ladies" (Kay), many of whom are "kings" daughters". (comp. 1Ki_7:3) It must not be expected that all the details of the scene shall have exact equivalents in the spiritual marriage which it represents. Upon thy right hand did stand (rather, stands) the queen in gold of Ophir; i.e. in a vesture richly embroidered with gold thread. (comp. Exo_28:5-8) "Gold of Ophir" was known, not merely to David, (1Ch_29:4) but even to Job.The (Job_28:16) "right hand" of the king was the place of honour. We find it assigned by Solomon to the queen-mother, Bathsheba. (1Ki_2:19)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv9–16 Ver. 9. King's daughters were among thy honourable women.…
Ver. 9. King's daughters were among thy honourable women. Our Lord's courts lack not for courtiers, and those the fairest and noblest. Virgin souls are maids of honour to the court, the true lilies of heaven. The lowly and pure in heart are esteemed by the Lord Jesus as his most familiar friends, their place in his palace is not among the menials but near the throne. The day will come when those who are "king's daughters" literally will count it their greatest honour to serve the church, and, meanwhile every believing sister is spiritually a King's daughter, a member of the royal family of heaven. Upon thy right hand, in the place of love, honour, and power, did stand the queen in gold of Ophir: the church shares her Lord's honour and happiness, he sets her in the place of dignity, he clothes her with the best of the best. Gold is the richest of metals, and Ophir gold the purest known. Jesus bestows nothing inferior or of secondary value upon his beloved church. In imparted and imputed righteousness the church is divinely arrayed. Happy those who are members of a church so honoured, so beloved; unhappy those who persecute the beloved people, for as a husband will not endure that his wife should be insulted or maltreated, so neither will the heavenly Husband; he will speedily avenge his own elect. Mark, then, the solemn pomp of the verses we have read. The King is seen with rapture, he girds himself as a warrior, robes himself as a monarch, mounts his chariot, darts his arrows, and conquers his foes. Then he ascends his throne with his sceptre in his hand, fills the palace hall with perfume brought from his secret chambers, his retinue stand around him, and, fairest of all, his bride is at his right hand, with daughters of subject princes as her attendants. Faith is no stranger to this sight, and every time she looks she adores, she loves, she rejoices, she expects.
Ver. 9. King's daughters. Albeit the Catholic church consisting of true converts or real saints be but the one and only true spouse of Christ, yet particular visible churches consisting of saints by calling, by obligation, by profession, and common estimation, their own or others, are many. The true church consisting of true converts (whose praise is of God, to whom only they are certainly known, and not of men), being but one, is compared to the queen; but the particular, whose collections and consociations are known to men, being many, are compared to ladies of honour who serve the queen. David Dickson.
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Ver. 9. The queen. It is written of Matilda, the empress, that she was the daughter of a king, the mother of a king, and the wife of a king.
Ortu magna, viro major, sed maxima prole,
Hic jacet Henrici filia, nupta, parens.
So David intimates in this hymn, that the church is the daughter of a King, at the 13th verse, "The king's daughter is all glorious within; "and the mother of a king, at the 16th verse, "Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth; "and the wife of a king, in this verse, Upon thy right hand did stand the queen, as being (I speak in the language of Canaan), spiritually the wedded and bedded wife to the king of glory. John Boys.
Ver. 9-10.
1. The connections of the Bridegroom are to be remembered, those of the Bride to be forgotten.
Psalms 45:10*
Ver. 9-10.
1. The connections of the Bridegroom are to be remembered, those of the Bride to be forgotten.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16 Kings daughters were among Thy honourable women.
Psa_45:9
Kings daughters were among Thy honourable women.
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Upon Thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
The consummation of Messiahs glory and the Churchs happiness
I. The general propriety and significance of the image of a marriage as it is here employed. Familiar emblems are needful for the better understanding of the Gospel by the mass of the people. Now, the relation between Christ and His Church, it is evident, must be of a nature not to be adequately typified by anything in the material world; and nothing could be found in human life which might so aptly represent it as the relation of husband and wife in the holy state of wedlock; and in this the analogy is so perfect that the notion of the ancient Jews has received the express sanction of St. Paul, that the relation of the Saviour and the Church was typified in the union of our first parents, and in the particular manner of Eves formation out of the substance of Adam.
II. The circumstances of this marriage. The magnificence of the court of the king as it appeared on the wedding-day, the splendour of the royal robes, the profusion of rich perfumes, are dwelt on. Of these last such quantities were used that the whole person was not merely sprinkled, but ran down with them to the very skirts of the garment. The psalmist describes the fragrance of Messiahs garments to be such as if the robes had been made of the very substance of aromatic woods. Thy garments are all myrrh, aloes and cassia. No palace adorned with ivory--a favourite ornament of palaces--could furnish such fragrance, no, nor even the incense that was burnt upon the golden altar as a grateful odour to the Lord. Now, all these perfumed garments were typical; first, of the graces and virtues of the Redeemer Himself in His human character; secondly, of whatever is refreshing, encouraging, consoling, and cheering in the external ministration of the word; and, thirdly, of the internal comforts of the Holy Spirit. We proceed to other particulars in the magnificent appearance of His court on the wedding-day, figurative of the glory of the Church in its final condition of purity and peace, and of the rank and order of particular churches. Kings daughters are among Thy honourable women. But the primary meaning of the word rendered honourable is bright, sparkling, and the imagery of the original would be better preserved if rendered thus, Kings daughters are among the bright beauties of Thy court. The beauty certainly is mystic--the beauty of evangelical sanctity and innocence. But who are these kings daughters? They are the kingdoms and peoples, perhaps the various national churches, fostered for many ages by the piety of Christian princes, and now brought to the perfection of beauty by their being cleansed from all wrong--they may welt be called kings daughters, of whom kings and queens are called in prophetic language the fathers and mothers. Then, the consort, the queen, who is she? Some expositors have imagined that the consort is an emblem of the Church catholic in her totality; the kings daughters, typical of the several particular churches of which that one universal is composed. But the queen consort here is unquestionably the Hebrew Church; the Church of the natural Israel, reunited, by her conversion, to her husband, and advanced to the high prerogative of the mother Church of Christendom; and the kings daughters are the churches which had been gathered out of the Gentiles in the interval between the expulsion of his wife and the taking of her home again, that is, between the dispersion of the Jews by the Romans and their restoration. The restoration of the Hebrew Church to the rights of a wife, to the situation of the queen consort in Messiahs kingdom upon earth, is the constant strain of prophecy. The prophet, I said, describes the Gentile converts as becoming, upon the reunion, children of the pardoned wife. And so St. Paul (Rom_11:1-36.). The standard gold upon the queens robe denotes the treasures of which the Church is the depositary--the Word and Sacraments, and the dispensation of grace and forgiveness by their due administration. Then follows--
III. The counsel to the bride (Verses10, 11). If a princess from a distant land, taken in marriage by a great king, were admonished to forget her own people and her fathers house, the purport of the advice would easily be understood to be, that she should divest herself of all attachment to the customs of her native country, and to the style of her fathers court, and learn to speak the language and assume the dress, the manners and the taste of her husbands people. The fathers house, and own people, which the psalmist advises the queen consort to forget, is the ancient Jewish religion in its external form, the ceremonies of the temple service, the sacrifices and the typical purgations of the Levitical priesthood. Not that she is to forget Gods gracious promises to Abraham, nor the covenant with her forefathers, nor any of the wonderful things God did for them. But only, so as to desire no more, the ancient Levitical rites and worship. They have served their purpose, and are now to be laid aside. Christ, her husband, is her paramount authority now, and is entitled to her unreserved obedience. There is given--
IV. The description of the queen (verse 13). The kings daughter. Who is this? Not some new personage, the Christian Church in general composed of both Jews and Gentiles, as Luther thought, but, as Bishop Hume observes, that the connection between Christ and His spouse unites in itself every relation and every affection. She is, therefore, daughter, wife and sister all in one. The same seems to have been the notion of a learned Dominican of the seventeenth century, who remarks that the Empress Julia, in the legends of some ancient coins, is called the daughter of Augustus, whose wife she was. But, with much general reverence for the opinions of these learned commentators, I am persuaded that the stops have been misplaced in the Hebrew manuscripts by the Jewish critics upon the last revision of the text--that translators have been misled by their false division of the text, and expositors misled by translators. The stops being rightly placed, the Hebrew words give this sense: She is all glorious--she, the consort of whom we have been speaking, is glorious in every respect--Daughter of a king! That is, she is a princess born; she is glorious, therefore, for her high birth. She is, indeed, of high and heavenly extraction! Accordingly, in the Apocalypse, the bride, the Lambs wife, is the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God. The psalmist adds: She is conducted in procession to the king--in all the pomp of a public procession. This may point to some remarkable assistance which the Jews will receive from the Christian Gentiles in their re-settlement in the Holy Land (Isa_18:1-7, at end, and Zep_3:10). And then follow the prediction as to the Churchs children and the distinguished character they shall hold, and he closes with setting forth the design and predicting the effect of this Divine song. (Bishop Horsley.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v10 Psa 45:10 - Psa 45:15.
Psalms
THE PORTRAIT OF THE BRIDE
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Psa 45:10 - Psa 45:15.
The relation between God and Israel is constantly represented in the Old Testament under the emblem of a marriage. The tenderest promises of protection and the sharpest rebukes of unfaithfulness are based upon this foundation. ‘Thy Maker is thy Husband’; or, ‘I am married unto thee, saith the Lord.’ The emblem is transferred in the New Testament to Christ and His Church. Beginning with John the Baptist’s designation of Him as the Bridegroom, it reappears in many of our Lord’s sayings and parables, is frequent in the writings of the Apostle Paul, and reaches its height of poetic splendour and terror in that magnificent description in Revelation of ‘the Bride, the Lamb’s wife,’ and ‘the marriage supper of the Lamb.’
Seeing, then, the continual occurrence of this metaphor, it is unnatural and almost impossible to deny its presence in this psalm. In a former sermon I have directed attention to the earlier portion of it, which presents us, in its portraiture of the King, a shadowy and prophetic outline of Jesus Christ. I desire, in a similar fashion, to deal now with the latter portion, which, in its portrait of the bride, presents us with truths having their real fulfilment in the Church collectively and in the individual soul.
Of course, inasmuch as the consort of a Jewish monarch was not an incarnate prophecy as her husband was, the transference of the historical features of this wedding-song to a spiritual purpose is not so satisfactory, or easy, in the latter part as in the former. There is a thicker rind of prose fact, as it were, to cut through, and certain of the features cannot be applied to the relation between Christ and His Church without undue violence. But, whilst we admit that, it is also clear that the main, broad outlines of this picture do require as well as permit its higher application. Therefore I turn to them to try to bring out what they teach us so eloquently and vividly of Christ’s gifts to, and requirements from, the souls that are wedded to Him.
I. Now the first point is this-the all-surrendering Love that must mark the Bride.
The language of the tenth verse is the voice of prophecy or inspiration; speaking words of fatherly counsel to the princess-’Forget also thine own people and thy father’s house.’ Historically I suppose it points to the foreign birth of the queen, who is called upon to abandon all old ties, and to give herself with wholehearted consecration to her new duties and relations.
In all real wedded life, as those who have tasted it know, there comes, by sweet necessity, the subordination, in the presence of a purer and more absorbing love, brought close by a will itself ablaze with the sacred glow.
Therefore, while giving all due honour to other forms of Christian opposition to the prevailing unbelief, I urge the cultivation of a quickened spiritual life as by far the most potent. Does not history bear me out in that view? What, for instance, was it that finished the infidelity of the eighteenth century? Whether had Butler’s Analogy or Charles Wesley’s hymns, Paley’s Evidences or Whitefield’s sermons, most to do with it? A languid Church breeds unbelief as surely as a decaying oak does fungus. In a condition of depressed vitality, the seeds of disease, which a full vigour would shake off, are fatal. Raise the temperature, and you kill the insect germs. A warmer tone of spiritual life would change the atmosphere which unbelief needs for its growth. It belongs to the fauna of the glacial epoch, and when the rigours of that wintry time begin to melt, and warmer days to set in, the creatures of the ice have to retreat to arctic wildernesses, and leave a land no longer suited for their life. A diffused unbelief, such as we see around us to-day, does not really arise from the logical basis on which it seems to repose. It comes from something much deeper,-a certain habit and set of mind which gives these arguments their force. For want of a better name, we call it the spirit of the age. It is the result of very subtle and complicated forces, which I do not pretend to analyse. It spreads through society, and forms the congenial soil in which these seeds of evil, as we believe them to be, take root. Does anybody suppose that the growth of popular unbelief is owing to the logical force of certain arguments? It is in the air; a wave of it is passing over us. We are in a condition in which it becomes shall drop the toys of earth as easily and naturally as a child will some trinket or plaything, when it stretches out its little hand to get a better gift from its loving mother. Love will sweep the heart clean of its antagonists; and there is no real union between Jesus Christ and us except in the measure in which we joyfully, and not as a reluctant giving up of things that we would much rather keep if we durst, ‘count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.’
Have the terms of wedded life changed since my psalm was written? Is there less need now than there used to be that, if we are to possess a heart, we should give a whole heart? And have the terms of Christian living altered since the old days, when He said, ‘Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple’? Ah! I fear me that it is no uncharitable judgment to say that the bulk of so-called Christians are playing at being Christians, and have never penetrated into the depths either of the sweet all-sufficiency of the love which they say that they possess, or the constraining necessity that is in it for the surrender of all besides. Many happy husbands and wives, if they would only treat Jesus Christ as they treat one another, would find out a power and a blessedness in the Christian life that they know nothing about at present. ‘Daughter! forget thine own people and thy father’s house!’
II. Again, the second point here is that which directly follows-the King’s love and the Bride’s reverence. ‘So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty: for He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him.’
The King is drawn, in the outgoings of His affection, by the sweet trust and perfect love which has surrendered everything for him and happily followed him from the far-off land. And then, in accordance with Oriental ideas, and with His royal rank, the bride is exhorted, in the midst of the utter trust and equality born of love, to remember, ‘He is thy Lord, and reverence thou Him.’ So, then, here are two thoughts that go, as I take it, very deep into the realities of the Christian life. The first is that, in simple literal fact, Jesus Christ is affected, in His relation to us, by the completeness of our dependence upon Him, and surrender of all else for Him. We do not believe that half vividly enough. We have surrounded Jesus Christ with a halo of mystery and of remoteness which neither lets us think of Him as being really man or really God. And I press on you this as a plain fact, no piece of pulpit rhetoric, that His relation to us as Christians hinges upon our surrender to Him. Of course, there is a love with which He pours Himself out over the unworthy and the sinful-blessed be His name!-and the more sinful and the more unworthy, the deeper the tenderness and the more yearning the pity and pathos of invitation which He lavishes upon us. But that is a different thing from this other, which is that He is pleased or displeased, actually drawn to or repelled from us, in the measure of the completeness and gladness of our surrender of ourselves to Him. That is what Paul means when he says that he labours that ‘whether present or absent he may be pleasing to Christ.’ And this is the highest and strongest motive that I know for all holy and noble living, that we shall bring a smile into our Master’s face and draw Him nearer to ourselves thereby. ‘So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty.’
Again, in the measure in which we live out our Christianity, in whole-hearted and thorough surrender, in that measure shall we be conscious of His nearness and feel His love.
There are many Christian people that have only religion enough to make them uncomfortable, only enough to make religion to them a system of regulations, negative and positive, the reasonableness and sweetness of which they but partially apprehend. They must not do this because it is forbidden; they ought to do that because it is commanded. They would much rather do the forbidden thing, and they have no wish to do the commanded thing, and so they live in twilight, and when they come beside a man who really has been walking in the light of Christ’s face, the language of his experience, though it be but a transcript of facts, sounds to them all unreal and fanatical. They miss the blessing that is waiting for them, just because they have not really given up themselves. If by resolute and continual opening of our hearts to Christ’s real love and presence, and by consequent casting off of our false and foolish self-dependence, we were to blow away the clouds that come between us and Him, we should feel the sunshine. But as it is, a miserable multitude of professing Christians ‘walk in the darkness, and have no light,’ or, at the most, but some wintry sunshine that struggles through the thick mist, and does little more than reveal the barrenness that lies around. Brethren! if you want to be happy Christians, be out-and-out ones; and if you would have your hands and your hearts filled with Christ, empty them of the trash that they grip so closely now.
Then, on the other side, there is the reminder and exhortation: ‘He is thy Lord, worship thou Him.’ The beggar-maid that, in the old ballad, married the king, in all her love was filled with reverence; and the ragged, filthy souls, whom Jesus Christ stoops to love, and wash, and make His own, are never to forget, in the highest rapture of their joy, their lowly adoration, nor in the glad familiarity of their loving approach to Him, cease to remember that the test of love is, ‘Keep My commandments.’
There are types of emotional and sentimental religion that have a great deal more to say about love than about obedience; that are full of half wholesome apostrophes to a ‘dear Lord,’ and almost forget the ‘Lord’ in the emphasis which they put on the ‘dear.’ And I want you to remember this, as by no means an unnecessary caution, and of especial value in some quarters to-day, that the test of the reality of Christian love is its lowliness, and that all that which indulges in heated emotion, and forgets practical service, is rotten and spurious. Though the King desire her beauty, still, when He stretches out the golden sceptre, Esther must come to Him with lowly guise and a reverent heart. ‘He is thy Lord, worship thou Him.’
III. The next point in this portraiture is the reflected honour and influence of the bride.
There are difficulties about the translation of the 12th verse of our psalm with which I do not need to trouble you. We may take it for our purpose as it stands before us. ‘The daughter of Tyre’ {representing the wealthy, outside nations} ‘shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favour.’
The bride being thus beloved by the King, thus standing by His side, those around recognise her dignity and honour, and draw near to secure her intercession. Translate that out of the emblem into plain words, and it comes to this-if Christian people, and communities of such, are to have influence in the world, they must be thorough-going Christians. If they are, they will get hatred sometimes; but men know honest people and religious people when they see them, and such Christians will win respect and be a power in the world. If Christian men and Christian communities are despised by outsiders, they very generally earn the contempt and deserve it, both from men and from heaven. The true evangelist is Christian character. They that manifestly live with the sunshine of the Lord’s love on their faces, and whose hands are plainly clear from worldly and selfish graspings, will have the world recognising the fact and honouring them accordingly. ‘The sons of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee, and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down to the soles of thy feet.’ When the Church has cast the world out of its heart, it will conquer the world-and not till then.
IV. The next point in this picture is the fair adornment of the bride. The language is in part ambiguous; and if this were the place for commenting would require a good deal of comment. But we take it as it stands in our Bible, ‘The King’s daughter is all glorious within’-not within her nature, but within the innermost recesses of the palace-’her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework.’
It is an easy and well-worn metaphor to talk about people’s character as their dress. We speak about the ‘habits’ of a man, and we use that word to express both his customary manners and his costume. Custom and costume, again, are the same word. So here, without any departure from the well-trodden path of Scriptural emblem, we cannot but see in the glorious apparel the figure of the pure character with which the bride is clothed. The Book of the Revelation dresses her in the fine linen clean and white, which symbolises the lustrous radiance and snowy purity of righteousness. The psalm describes her dress as partly consisting in garments gleaming with gold, which suggests splendour and glory, and partly in robes of careful and many-coloured embroidery, which suggests the patience with which the slow needle has been worked through the stuff, and the variegated and manifold graces and beauties with which she is adorned.
So, putting all the metaphors together, the true Christian character, which will be ours if we really are the subjects of that divine love, will be lustrous and snowy as the snows on Hermon, or as was the garment whose whiteness outshone the neighbouring snows when He was ‘transfigured before them.’ Our characters will be splendid with a splendour far above the tawdry beauties and vulgar conspicuousness of the ‘heroic’ and worldly ideals, and will be endowed with a purity and harmony of colouring in richly various graces, such as no earthly looms can ever weave.
We are not told here how the garment is attained. It is no part of the purpose of the psalm to tell us that, but it is part of its purpose to insist that there is no marriage between Christ and the soul except that soul be pure, none except it be robed in the beauty of righteousness and the splendour of consecration, and the various gifts of an all-giving Spirit. The man that came into the wedding-feast, with his dirty, every-day clothes on, was turned out as a rude insulter. But what of the queen that should come foully dressed? There would be no place for her amidst its solemnities. You will never stand at the right hand of Christ, unless jour souls here are clothed in the fine linen clean and white, and over it the flashing wealth and the harmonised splendour of the gold and embroidery of Christlike graces. We know how to get the garment. Faith strips the rags and puts the best robe on us; and effort based upon faith enables us day by day to put off the old man with his deeds and to put on the new man. The bride ‘made herself ready,’ and ‘to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white.’
V. Lastly, we have the picture of the homecoming of the bride. ‘She shall be brought unto the King. . . . with gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought; they shall enter into the King’s palace.’
The presence of virgin companions waiting on the bride is no more difficult to understand here than it is in Christ’s parable of the Ten Virgins. It is a characteristic of all parabolical representation to be elastic, and sometimes to duplicate its emblems for the same thing; and that is the case here. But the main point to be insisted upon is this, that, according to the perspective of Scripture, the life of the Christian Church here on earth is, if I may so say, a betrothal in righteousness and loving-kindness; and that the betrothal waits for its consummation in that great future when the bride shall pass into the presence of the King. The whole collective body of sinful souls redeemed by His blood, and who know the sweetness of His partially received love, shall be drawn within the curtains of that upper house, and enter into a union with Christ Jesus ineffable, incomprehensible till experienced; and of which the closest union of loving souls on earth is but a dim shadow. ‘He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit’; and the reality of our union with Him rises above the emblem of a marriage, as high as spirit rises above flesh.
The psalm stops at the palace-gate. ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.’ But there is a solemn prelude to that completed union and its deep rapture. Before it there comes the last campaign of the conquering King on the white horse, who wars in righteousness. Dear friends! you must choose now whether you will be of the company of the Bride or of the company of the enemy. ‘They that were ready went in with Him unto the marriage, and the door was shut.’
Which side of the door do you mean to be on?
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v10 The inspired singer now repeats the words with which…
The inspired singer now repeats the words with which the King, the Messiah, addresses His Bride.
v. 10. Hearken, O daughter, called so by the Bridegroom because she is begotten and regenerated through the Gospel, 1Pe 1:23, and consider and incline thine ear, becoming so absorbed in the words of His grace as to forget everything else, even the closest ties of human relationship; forget also thine own people and thy father’s house, all for the sake of the Bridegroom and His love;
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v. 11. so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty, taking pleasure in her for the beauty of her obedience, her finest and most precious ornament; for He is thy Lord, who has made her His own by the shedding of His precious blood; and worship thou Him, giving Him the honor due Him as the great Lord and serving Him in the beauty of holiness.
v. 12. And the daughter of Tyre, as the representative of the heathen world, shall be there with a gift, bringing presents and attempting to gain the favor of the Bride; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favor, seeking entrance into the kingdom of the Messiah. It is when the Bride, the Church, denies and forgets everything else, all the precious things of this world, that people outside the Church become interested. It is not by making concessions to the world that the Church gains members, but by being strictly exclusive, holding the treasure of the Gospel unpolluted.
v. 13. The King’s daughter, the Bride of Messiah, is all glorious within, clothed, as she is, with the garment of the Messiah’s righteousness; her clothing is of wrought gold, of braided work of gold, with rich colored embroidery, the most costly garments, jewels of Christ’s grace, spiritual and heavenly blessings.
v. 14. She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework, skillfully embroidered; the virgins, her companions that follow her, also such believers as have been gained from the heathen world, shall be brought unto thee, being identified with the Bride and received by Christ in the eternal palaces of heaven.
v. 15. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought; they shall enter into the King’s palace, into the everlasting glories of heaven. v16. Instead of Thy fathers shall be Thy children, whom Thou mayest make princes in all the earth. The King is here once more addressed. Instead of His fathers, the kings of the line of David who preceded Him, He will have sons, believers, citizens in His kingdom, His spiritual children; for His family will never die out, since He will always gain new adherents out of all nations, whom He will then set as princes over all the earth. All believers are kings and princes before Christ and His heavenly Father, they share in His glorious dominion, 1Pe 2:9; Rev 1:6. And so the inspired singer finally, as a member and representative of Christ’s Church on earth, extols the name of Messiah, the King.
v. 17. I will make Thy name to be remembered in all generations, from generation to generation; therefore shall the people praise Thee forever and ever. Peoples, nations, believers, from every part of the earth, all the various members of the Church from all lands, give thanks to the King. And this song of thanksgiving, as it is begun here in time, will be continued without end, throughout eternity; for then the Bride, the Church, will forever be united with Christ, her Bridegroom, and her hallelujahs will sound forth in endless, glorious refrain.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv10, 12, 14, 16 Listen, daughter
Listen, daughter
The writer begins to speak to the queen and refers to her as "daughter" because she is a young woman.
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incline your ear
The writer speaks of listening carefully to something as if it were bending one's ear towards the person who is speaking. AT: "listen carefully" (See: Metaphor)
forget your own people
The writer speaks of the queen no longer following the beliefs and customs of her native people as if it were forgetting them. AT: "no longer follow the customs of your people" (See: Metaphor)
your father's house
Here the word "house" refers to family. AT: "your relatives" (See: Metonymy)
In this way
"and" or "so"
the king will desire your beauty
This is a polite way to say that the king will want to sleep with the queen as his wife. (See: Euphemism)
translationWords
house
lord
revere
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv9, 10, 12 45:9 Marriages often sealed diplomatic connections between kings; the…
45:9 Marriages often sealed diplomatic connections between kings; the women became part of the harem (see 1 Kgs 11:1-3).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.