Psalm 45: A Wedding and an Invitation

By Michael E. Travers

[Professor of English, Southeastern College at Wake Forest, Wake Forest, North Carolina 27587]

Psalm 45 is an exalted song of praise, or encomium, that from its opening verse encourages its readers to focus on the glory and splendor of the exalted king it depicts. It is paralleled in the Old Testament by the celebration of wedded love in the Song of Songs and in the New Testament by the anticipation of the marriage supper of the Lamb in the Book of Revelation (19:8ff). Throughout the psalm, the poet looks forward to the celebration of the wedding of the king of Israel and the joy the bride and groom will share. At the same time, the psalm invites onlookers to participate in the happiness of the wedding. In effect, Psalm 45 is a celebration for believers and an invitation for nonbelievers.

Psalm 45 has proven difficult for commentators to classify. Leland Ryken identifies the psalm as the only epithalamion in the Bible.[1] An epithalamion is a wedding song, “Originally sung just outside the room to which the bride and groom retired on their wedding night.”[2] While Psalm 45 is certainly a wedding song, it anticipates the wedding, rather than rejoicing in its having already occurred. The psalm looks forward to the wedding ceremony, giving attention to the preparation of the bride and the ceremonial walk to the groom’s house before the wedding. Richard D. Patterson sees Psalm 45 as “a Royal Psalm celebrating the marrying of a king in the line of David.”[3] Willem VanGemeren views the psalm as a Royal Psalm that “in a special way. .. also applies to our Lord, who rules as the Son of David.”[4] Among earlier commentators, John Calvin recognizes the Messianic references in the psalm, though he does not classify it according to genre.[5] Charles Haddon Spurgeon goes so far as to say that Psalm 45 does not refer to David’s sons at all, but only to Jesus Christ in a Messianic way.[6] This much at least is clear: the Old Testament psalmist writes in praise of the ancient Israelite king at his wedding, and the writer of Hebrews sees the celebration in Messianic terms, thereby applying the role of King to Jesus Christ (Heb. l:8–9).[7]

The present study will focus on two topics of Psalm 45. This psalm encodes a human drama of great happiness and celebration at the marriage of the king of ancient Israel. At the same time it invites its readers to participate in the wedding. Because of its Messianic implications, Psalm 45 also has an inherent missionary focus, for in honoring the king, the reader may be brought to see that he is honoring Jesus Christ as well. We will examine the dual emphases of the psalm by reflecting on it from three perspectives. First, we will consider the writer’s self-conscious opening and closing comments, secondly the Davidic King and the Messianic allusions, and finally the bride, including her symbolism as the Bride of Christ for the redeemed of the ages. Throughout, we will note the missionary implications of the imagery of the bride and groom (cf. Eph. 5:25–30).

The Poet’s Self-Conscious Declarations (vv. 1 and 17)

The psalmist opens the psalm by declaring his personal sense of joyful expectation as he meditates on the king’s wedding. The self-conscious opening serves as an invitation to the reader to enter the psalm with the poet and share his joy. More specifically, the singer begins by announcing the “good matter” of the royal wedding he is about to celebrate in the poem; he then narrows his focus to the king, for whom he will write his verses (or “things,” KJV); and finally he compares his tongue to the “pen of a ready writer” (v. 1). By introducing his subject this way, the psalmist draws attention to himself as a poet and also commends his subject to the reader. P. C. Craigie writes that the self-conscious opening declaration of Psalm 45 is also characteristic of other Near Eastern poems as well:

The introduction of the song (v. 2), in which the poet states his intentions and makes explicit reference to his “compositions,” is reminiscent both of the earlier Near Eastern court poetry and also of the Arabic compositions of the bards of a later date, singing the praise of their patrons.[8]

Poetry is a highly conscious form of verbal artistry, and Psalm 45 is no exception. In poems such as Psalm 45, when the poet draws explicit attention to himself, he announces his wish to write carefully and compose a poem that is worthy of his subject. By drawing such deliberate attention to his theme, the psalmist/poet elevates the subject of the wedding and at the same time encourages the reader to share in the splendor of the king’s wedding. Thus the opening verse of the psalm serves a dual purpose. It gives the reader a joyful, expectant perspective from which to enter the poem, and it identifies the speaker in the persona of a self-conscious poet who will unveil the majesty and glory of the king at his wedding. With this brief introductory stroke, Psalm 45 declares itself to be a carefully crafted poem (poiema), consciously dedicated to the praise of the king and invites the reader to celebrate along with the poet.

The psalm ends as it begins. In the final verse, the writer—again emphasizing the first-person pronoun that draws attention to his personal perspective—comments that the memory of the king’s majesty and glory will last forever. This observation reminds the reader of the psalmist’s opening self-conscious declarations as a poet, for it presumes that the beauty of the king and the memory of the wedding which are recorded in the psalm will remain permanently. Just as the king will have a posterity to “praise [him] for ever and ever” (v. 17), the poem must last forever if it is to continue to express the psalmist’s joy to future generations. In secular literature, such a claim constitutes the traditional topos of hyperbole which attests to the supposed excellence of the poem and skill of the poet. In reference to the Old Testament Psalms, however, this assertion reflects the inspiration and preservation of the Holy Spirit more than the professional ego of the psalmist. By concluding the psalm this self-conscious way, the writer reminds his readers one last time of the majesty of the king/bridegroom in the psalm. The psalmist’s purpose in this reminder is to encourage his readers, those of his own day and those of ages to come, to celebrate with him.

The speaker’s self-consciousness in the opening and closing frame verses of Psalm 45 (verses 1 and 17) serves to elevate the tone of the psalm to high praise. The opening verse anticipates the meditation proper on the king/bridegroom, and the closing verse commends the king to future readers. In this way, the psalmist encloses his reflection on the bridegroom and bride before and after he presents the meditation itself. In effect, the psalmist wishes his readers to see that he himself is moved by the subject he is about to sing so that they will wish to participate in his joy. For the believer, the psalm reinforces the joy of salvation, and for the unbeliever the psalm extends an invitation to participate in the wedding. Either way, the psalmist draws attention to himself in the opening and closing verses only to exalt the subject of his poem—the king/bridegroom in all his glory and splendor.

The Davidic King and Messiah

Between the opening and closing verses, Psalm 45 is full of the imagery of marriage and celebration. The psalmist focuses his meditation primarily on the king, though he does depict the bride and her attendants in some detail (vv. 10–15). As the writer of Hebrews affirms, the king who is celebrated in Psalm 45 is also the Messiah, Jesus Christ (1:8–9). Inspired by the many attributes of the king, the poet calls him “fairer than the children of men” and rejoices that he is full of grace and blessing (v. 2). If these statements had been written in a secular piece of literature, they too would be understood as hyperboles, along with the claim in the closing verse that the psalm would last in human memory forever. In this psalm, however, we understand that God’s blessing does indeed rest on the king, for he is God’s anointed king of Israel, and typologically, Messiah Himself. When we realize that the poet is not exaggerating in these epithets to the king, we can appreciate how exalted his praise is intended to be. As the psalmist begins his encomium, he wants to whet his readers’ sense of anticipation and help them understand that this king is no ordinary human potentate. He is God’s anointed one. The picture of the king in the early verses of the psalm is intended to fill the reader with admiration and prepare him for the encomium to come.

Following his introduction of the king, the psalmist next presents him as a great warrior (vv. 3–5). The picture of the king as a military commander is consistent with that of the bridegroom and with it is intended to exalt the king and elicit the readers’ admiration and awe. Military imagery is common in the Old Testament, particularly because the ancient Israelites often had to live in military preparedness. The first Israelite king, Saul, was a warrior, though he often disobeyed God’s commands in his campaigns. King David, likewise, was a warrior and defeated the enemies of the nations on several occasions (cf. 2 Sam. 5:17–25; 8:1–14).

God is also presented as a warrior in the Old Testament. He fights on behalf of His people throughout the Exodus and, of course, in later Israelite history. The Psalms often present Him as a warrior. Jeremiah calls on Him as a military victor when he declares, “But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail” (Jer. 20:11). Besides being a soldier himself, David needed God’s protection as a divine warrior when he was persecuted by Saul. When God delivers him, he sings a glorious song of praise to Yahweh (2 Samuel 22). In God Is a Warrior, Tremper Longman and Daniel Reid trace the theme of the warrior in the Bible and note that the earliest reference to God as a warrior is in the Exodus account in Moses’ song celebrating the victory at the Red Sea.[9] Here Moses glorifies God as a warrior because He defends His people by saving them from the Egyptian armies which, in turn, Yahweh casts into the sea, Longman and Reid trace the stages of “the divine-warrior theme” in both Old and New Testaments and demonstrate how frequently the writers of Scripture evoke the image of God as a warrior. Both the ancient king of Israel and the Messiah are warriors, both defending their people—the one warring against the surrounding nations who occupy the land promised to the Israelites and threaten the nation of Israel, the other against Satan and his demons (e.g., Eph. 6:12). Thus the psalmist presents the king as a bridegroom and as a military warrior—the one an image of peace, the other of conflict—in order to indicate how glorious he is and to encourage the reader to admire him.

The poet begins to glorify the king from the earliest verses of the psalm, calling him the “most mighty one” and urging him to take his sword with him. He goes on to advise the king to clothe himself with “glory and. .. majesty” (v. 3). Of course, glory and majesty are two personal attributes of the king and of Messiah, yet the psalmist describes them by the image of the clothing they wear. The imagery of clothing to represent the characteristics or accomplishments of a great person appears other places in Scripture and in many pieces of secular literature. One thinks of the consummation of history in the wedding supper of the Lamb in Revelation:

Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear.
(Rev. 19:6b–8a)

The attributes of righteousness and purity credited to all believers when they are glorified are depicted here as clothing they wear, just as the king in Psalm 45 “wears” his splendor and majesty. Even a casual reading of the psalm moves the reader to admire the king, but when the reader remembers the multiple uses of the images of king and bridegroom in Scripture, Psalm 45 exalts the king to a high status indeed.

Of the many references to kings in secular literature, two may serve to frame the glory Psalm 45 ascribes to the king. The first image comes from Old English literature, and it is the representation of the glorified cross of Christ in the anonymous poem, “The Dream of the Rood.” In this beautiful little poem, the poet depicts the cross as being “adorned with garments, [and] decked with gold... .”[10] The poet describes the cross as if it were wearing a gorgeous robe, decorated with jewels. The picture of the beautiful jewels on the cross glorifies it as the instrument whereby Christ purchases salvation for His people. Thus “The Dream of the Rood” emphasizes the glorious purpose of the crucifixion, not the sufferings of Christ. The second reference to a king and his clothing in secular literature comes from Shakespeare’s tragedy of Macbeth; in this play, however, the king does not deserve to wear his royal robes. Shakespeare represents Macbeth’s ill-gotten title of king as “hang[ing] loose about him, like a giant’s robe / Upon a dwarfish thief.”[11] The image suggests that Macbeth is not up to the role of king, and indeed he is not, for he has murdered to gain the crown. The robes of majesty and splendor in Psalm 45, however, fit the King perfectly, for they describe His true character. In fact, they are his attributes and, properly speaking, rightfully his alone; it is only by imputation that believers share them. This is no ordinary king, for He is righteous. This is Messiah.

In verses 4–5, the psalm continues the martial imagery in the images of the king who is victorious in battle. This imagery simultaneously encourages the believer and challenges the unbeliever. Still celebrating the majesty of the monarch, the psalmist announces that the king will “ride prosperously,” guaranteed of certain victory (v. 4). If the reader keeps in mind that Messiah is referenced here as well as the ancient king of Israel, he will be encouraged with what the psalmist celebrates. It is not simply military victory and the crushing defeat of an enemy on the battlefield that the Davidic king gains, for he goes forth for the cause of “truth and meekness and righteousness” (v. 4). The purpose of the king’s reign is to rule with trustworthiness (truth), humility (meekness), and justice (righteousness). When we turn to the Messianic implications of this passage, we are reminded that only Jesus Christ has perfect truth, meekness, and righteousness. From a Messianic perspective, the point of the passage is that Christ’s character, not just His deeds, makes Him the Great King. Applied to the Davidic king, the passage states that Israel will defeat its enemies (v. 5). In reference to Messiah, all nations will eventually bow before Jesus Christ (v. 5), an indication of the certainty of Christ’s sovereign rule over all (cf. Phil. 2:9–11). When we as Christians meditate on the martial imagery of these verses, we can anticipate the eschatological reign of Christ when truth, meekness, and righteousness do indeed characterize the age, for the military imagery serves to honor the Prince of Peace who is the Bridegroom (cf. Isa. 9:6). When unbelievers read these verses, they simultaneously are warned that Christ is the righteous King and invited to participate in the “truth and meekness and righteousness” of His reign.

In verses 6 and 7, the psalmist continues to emphasize the king’s rule and the joy it represents. These verses describe the characteristics of the king in a metonymy by associating them with his throne and scepter. The king’s throne evokes ideas of the glory and majesty of an ancient potentate in his court, surrounded by his courtiers. The throne in Psalm 45 suggests more than the Davidic king’s reign, however, as the writer of Hebrews indicates by explicitly relating these two specific verses to Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:8–9). In the case of Jesus Christ as King, the throne ultimately represents the eternal rule of the Son of God over the universe (cf. 1 Cor. 15:25). We should not miss the profound impression that such a simple matter-of-fact manner statement makes. “Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever” (v. 6), the text says, emphasizing the truth that God exists eternally, and so does His kingdom. The writer of Hebrews applies this passage from Psalm 45 to the Son, indicating that Messiah’s rule will never end (cf. v. 17). Can there be a greater cause for joy and celebration for the believer than the assurance of a settled reign of truth and meekness in which the redeemed will participate? Can there be a greater invitation to the lost than the call to participate in Christ’s kingdom? By honoring the king this way, Psalm 45 invites its readers to participate in the celebration.

Hand in hand with Christ’s eternal majesty as represented in His throne is His righteousness. Here again the psalmist uses a metonymy, this time of a scepter. In ancient times a king on his throne would hold a scepter as a symbol of his authority and power. When he extended it to a subject, as for instance the king did for Esther (Esth. 5:2), the subject was allowed to approach the throne. If the king did not extend the scepter, however, the consequences for the subject who dared approach the king could be severe, even fatal. In commenting on Esther’s bold approach to the king, F. B. Huey, Jr. writes that the king “realized that only a pressing need could have caused Esther to risk coming to him unsummoned.”[12] Esther knew she might jeopardize herself in approaching the king unbidden, but when he extended the golden scepter to her, she knew that the king would receive her favorably. Thus the scepter symbolizes the absolute authority of ancient king over his subjects.

In Psalm 45, the scepter symbolizes something more than the temporal power and authority of the ancient Israelite king, as great as such power is; it represents Jesus Christ’s sovereignty. This is no ordinary scepter in Psalm 45, for it is associated with Messiah’s perfect justice. Christ’s reign is also sovereign because He rules with “truth and meekness and righteousness” (v. 4). The psalmist emphasizes Messiah’s righteousness even more strongly in verse 7 by making the same point twice-once in the positive statement that he “[has] love[d] righteousness,” and again in the negative statement that he “[has] hate[d] wickedness.” Evil and wickedness will not thrive forever because Jesus Christ will bring them to an end one day. When evil is defeated, the righteous will rejoice. Such are the implicit promises of these verses and the anticipation the redeemed can expect in reading them.

Rounding out the picture of the king/Messiah is the next image, that of the bridegroom (vv. 8–9). Again using the literary device of metonymy, the psalmist paints a vivid picture of the royal groom. In language reminiscent of that other great Old Testament wedding song, the Song of Songs (e.g., 4:14), the poet here describes the groom’s ceremonial garments and their spices. Craigie gives us a sense of the ancient customs:

The anointing with oil (v. 8) refers poetically to the anointing of the king for his royal task, but the immediate point of reference is probably to be found in the activities of the wedding ceremony as such; the king would be anointed as a part of the preparation of the celebration itself.... After the anointing, the groom would be decked in royal robes, fragrant with precious perfumes [v. 9a].. . .[13]

Myrrh and aloes were ancient perfumes used to anoint wedding garments. Myrrh was an expensive spice that came from the East, and aloes complemented the effect of the myrrh. Verse 8 completes the picture of the ancient Israelite king, resplendent in his royal robes in preparation for this wedding day. Such a picture is intended to attract people’s attention to the king and convey a sense of his majesty.

The comments in these verses go further, however, for they have Messianic implications in that they connect the king with Jesus Christ as King (his anointing) and as bridegroom to the church (in his wedding garments). While the psalmist may not have had Messiah in mind consciously when he penned these words, the next phrase, from “out of the ivory palaces” (v. 8), seems to point to the glory and majesty of Jesus Christ as well as to the Davidic king in Jerusalem. Christ comes from the throne of heaven as King to become our bridegroom/redeemer. By combining images of the king as a warrior and as a bridegroom in Psalm 45, the psalmist evokes an exalted picture of the one he praises and encourages us to join in the joyful occasion. As Christians, we can rejoice that the bridegroom has come to claim his bride. The wise Christian might draw a parallel between the marriage imagery of Psalm 45 and the New Testament parable of the wise and foolish virgins to encourage the nonbeliever to prepare for the groom’s coming (Matt. 25:1–13). Psalm 45 encourages the faith of the believer and invites the faith of the nonbeliever.

The Bride and Her Attendants

Beginning with verse 10, the psalmist turns his attention to the bride. Psalm 45 is rich in its depiction of ancient wedding customs, among them the bride’s procession to the house of the groom for the wedding. In ancient Near-Eastern wedding ceremonies, much was made of the bride’s formal arrival with her attendants at the groom’s house. Richard Patterson projects the scene for us by narrating the events in sequence and capturing something of the expectation the bride’s pageant would create:

The bride, now attired in her richly embroidered garments is ready for the festive occasion.. .. She is escorted out of her chambers and to the marriage hall of the palace by her ladies-in-waiting. It is a happy scene. Amidst the songs of love and unrestrained joy, the princess reaches the palace, enters the great hall, travels down the richly variegated rug laid down for the occasion, and takes her place beside the king.[14]

The adulatory and leisurely account in Psalm 45 of the bride’s preparations serves to underscore her beauty. Verses 14 and 15 help the reader to rejoice with the bride as she walks to the king’s palace and enters it in great splendor.

Even with its emphasis on the bride’s beauty and majesty, however, the custom of having the bride process to the bridegroom’s house tends to accentuate the groom. The procession identifies the beautiful woman in the pageant as the king’s bride; her glory derives from her becoming the king’s wife. In ancient times, the procession evoked joy and anticipation and was accompanied with music and dancing. The beauty of the queen and the splendor of the nuptial parade invite all who see to rejoice with the bride and groom. The Israelites of old all participated in the joy and blessings of their king’s wedding, and Christians today associate the king with Messiah and celebrate their union with him as their Savior. In the hymeneal imagery of the psalm, nonbelievers are given yet another invitation to join in the celebration by identifying themselves by faith with the bride and, through her, with the bridegroom.

In Messianic terms, the bride represents the redeemed of the ages. To begin, Gentile nations as well as Jews will be acknowledged as the bride; the reference to the Daughter of Tyre (v. 12) is a synecdoche for believers in the great Gentile nations who will come to honor the bride. Believing Gentiles, too, will form part of the bride of Christ, for, as God promised Abraham, “In [Him] shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). This promise receives its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, the Savior of all who believe (cf. Matt. 1:1). Paul reminds us that all those who believe in Jesus Christ by faith are the children of Abraham (Rom. 4:8–17) and that “not all who are descended from Israel are Israel” (Rom. 9:6). In this Old Testament imagery, Christ is the final “son” of David and of Abraham; in Him, the kingdom is come. The truth is that only those who believe in Messiah/Jesus Christ by faith are the bride of Christ. In Psalm 45 the effect of the imagery is to exalt the bridegroom (Jesus Christ) so that the bride (believers) might be attracted to Him.

Also significant in the picture of the bride is the psalmist’s call on her to leave her people and her father to become the bride of the king (v. 10). Typo-logically, the psalmist suggests that when we come by faith to Jesus Christ, we form a new union which takes precedence over all others and which cannot be dissolved. The seventeenth-century English poet, John Donne, paints the scene in Holy Sonnet 14, where he says, “Yet dearly I love you [i.e., God], and would be loved fain, / But am betrothed unto your enemy: / Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again.”[15] The speaker in Donne’s poem uses the image of marriage to Satan (God’s enemy) to communicate the sinful state of a person before conversion and the image of divorce from Satan to suggest what happens at conversion. The point of the image in Donne’s poem is that we assume a new relationship (the one with Jesus Christ) when we are converted and give up the old (the relationship with Satan). Like the ancient bride who is betrothed to her bridegroom, believers are “married” to Jesus Christ forever, for nothing “will be able to separate [them] from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus [the] Lord” (Rom. 8:39). If readers have participated in the psalm and its celebration of the marriage of the bride and groom, their reflection on the typological significance of the bride will encourage them to rejoice for their own sake, for they also will participate in the wedding symbolized in this psalm. The believers’ joy should overflow so that it is shared with those unbelievers who are not yet a part of the Bride of Christ.

The bride is depicted in her chamber (v. 13) and then being led to the King (v. 15). Her relationship with the bridegroom/king is being celebrated in this psalm; that is the main point of emphasis. The “gladness and rejoicing” that occur when the bride is taken to the groom’s house (v. 15) are occasioned by her marriage to the king. By associating the king in Psalm 45 with Jesus Christ, the writer of Hebrews invites an application of the church as the bride of Christ, as in Ephesians (5:22–33). The wedding imagery in this section of the psalm can be understood as the rejoicing that takes place when one is united to Christ by faith. Just as a woman becomes a bride and, traditionally at least, identifies herself with her husband by taking his name, so are we made believers when we respond by faith to the grace of God in Jesus Christ. We become new creations (2 Cor. 5:17). Inherent, too, in the marriage imagery is the fact that our salvation (our marriage to Jesus Christ, in the terms of the imagery here) results in God’s glory, just as the beauty of the bride and the majesty of her procession to her husband’s courts brings honor to the ancient king. The queen glorifies the king, and believers are to glorify the Lord.

Conclusion

We cannot be completely certain about the specific historical wedding that occasioned the writing of Psalm 45, and so we cannot be certain who the bride and groom are.[16] Along with the writer of Hebrews, however, we can be assured that Psalm 45 references both the Israelite king in the line of David and the Messiah. Our inability to identify a single king and queen in Psalm 45, coupled with the realization that the psalm has Messianic and soteriological implications, puts us as readers in a position simultaneously to experience the joy of the wedding and appreciate the blessings that come from having Christ as our bridegroom. For those who have not trusted Christ by faith, the invitation to the wedding remains; all they are required to do is accept.

With one stroke in the New Testament, the writer of Hebrews adds a further dimension to Psalm 45, supplementing its emphasis on human married joy and a royal wedding, as happy as they are, with the blessed anticipation of Christ’s future rule as King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Heb. 1:8–9). The eschatological implications of Psalm 45 deepen its joy and hope beyond the universal human celebration in a temporal marriage. The Christological overtones in the psalm limit its anticipation, however, at least in terms of joyous expectation, to the redeemed of the ages who look forward to Christ’s return and their reign with him in glory. The believers’ hope is at once deeper and keener than any general human desire for temporal married happiness, for it involves the fuller love of God and the longing for the savior that the psalmist voices when he says, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God” (Ps. 42:1). Psalm 45 lifts believers toward heaven as they meditate upon their great Savior/ King/Bridegroom.

At the same time that the Messianic implications deepen the believers’ joy, they sharpen the nonbelievers’ exclusion from such joy. We should not interpret this exclusion negatively, however, for it graciously warns the unbeliever of his condition. Rather than implying a wedding that excludes nonbelievers, Psalm 45 invites them to participate in the wedding. The invitation in Psalm 45 is emphatically missiological because the bridegroom is Jesus Christ who invites “whosoever will” to come. The wise Christian will use Psalm 45 to invite the unbeliever to join Christ by faith. We come to the wedding as royal attendants (vv. 2–9) and ladies-in-waiting on the bride (vv. 10–15). We can leave it as heirs to the throne (v. 16).

Notes

1. Leland Ryken, Words of Delight: A Literary Introduction to the Bible. 2d ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1992), 273.
2. Ross Murfin and Supryia M. Ray, eds., The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms (Boston: Bedford Books, 1997), 111.
3. Richard D. Patterson, “A Multiplex Approach to Psalm 45, ” Grace Theological Journal 6.1 (1985): 33.
4. Willem VanGemeren, “Psalms.” The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Vol. 5, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. Gen. ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1991), 343.
5. John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of Psalms. Vol. 1. Trans. James Anderson (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1998).
6. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Treasury of David. Vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House), 351.
7. For a fuller discussion of Psalm 45’s genre, poetic devices, and figures of speech, see my Encountering God in the Psalms (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, in press).
8. P. C. Craigie. Psalms 1–50. Word Biblical Commentary. Vol. 19. Gen. eds. David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Waco, TX: Word, 1983), 338.
9. Tremper Longman III and Daniel G. Reid, God Is a Warrior (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995), 31.
10. “The Dream of the Rood,” The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 7th ed. Vol. 1. Gen. ed. M. H. Abrams (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2000), 27.
11. William Shakespeare, Macbeth, in The Riverside Shakespeare. 2d ed. Gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974), 1384.
12. F. B. Huey, Jr., “Esther,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Vol. 4,1, 2 Kings, 1, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job. Gen. ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1988), 819.
13. Craigie, 339.
14. Patterson, 44.
15. John Donne, “Holy Sonnet 14, ” in The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th ed. Vol. 1. Gen. ed. M. H. Abrams (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2000), 1271.
16. Craigie, 338.