If we have an affectionate love for the Lord Jesus, our tongue will be the pen of a ready writer, ready to write our love and our praise.

Psalm 45 is a praise to Christ the King, who is typified by Solomon. The first section, vv. 1-8, is a praise concerning the King Himself, the second section, vv. 9-15, is a praise concerning the queen, the King’s wife, and the third section, vv. 16-17, is a praise concerning the King’s sons, the princes.

Verses 1-8 are the praise of Christ the King from four directions: His fairness (v. 2), His victory (vv. 3-5), His kingdom (vv. 6-7), and His virtues (v. 8). In this praise there are two balanced pairs: Christ’s fairness and His victory, and Christ’s kingdom and His virtues. Christ’s fairness is balanced by His victory with its requirements (cf. Matt. 5:20; 25:14-30; John 15:2, 6), and His kingdom, the issue of His victory, is balanced by the sweetness of His virtues.

The Hebrew word is feminine, indicating that the love here is that between a male and a female. According to S.S. 1:14-15, Christ is our Beloved, and we are His love. The subject of this psalm is love, and the melody is called “lilies.” Here both love and lilies refer to the saints, the lovers of the Lord Jesus. A lily denotes a pure, simple, single life of trusting in God (Matt. 6:28). This psalm portrays a life of purity and simplicity with an affectionate love for the Lord.

See note on the superscription of Psa. 32.

Meaning lilies; it may refer to a melody common at that time.

See note Heb. 1:8¹, par. 1.

Christ’s kingdom is the issue of His victory (Dan. 2:34-35; 7:13-14; Matt. 28:18; Rev. 19:11-21; 20:1-6).

The scepter signifies authority. Uprightness in this verse and righteousness in v. 7 are related to authority (Psa. 89:14a).

See note Heb. 1:8¹, par. 1.

Christ’s awesome deeds include His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Everything Christ does, whether great or small, is awesome.

Here teach You should be understood to mean perform for You.

Or, the meekness of righteousness.

Regardless of the situation on earth, Christ is riding on triumphantly, prosperously (Acts 5:31). From the day of His ascension He began to ride on, and He will continue to ride until He comes back in victory (Rev. 19:11-16).

Both Christ’s majesty and His splendor are signs of His victory. Christ, the mighty One, has overcome all His enemies and has gained the victory (Eph. 4:8; Rev. 5:5). Splendor is the expression of glory. While Christ was on earth, He showed His splendor only once, when He was transfigured on the mountain (Matt. 17:1-2). After His resurrection and ascension, He showed Himself in His splendor and majesty to Paul (Acts 26:13-15) and to John (Rev. 1:9-20). In His second coming Christ will shine over the earth to illumine it with the splendor of His glory (Rev. 18:1).

The Lord Jesus comes to us first in the aspect of His fairness, to attract us to Himself. Our love for Him is the issue of His showing us His fairness and of our enjoying Him in His fairness.

Garments here signify Christ’s virtues, which are the expression of the divine attributes (Isa. 6:1 and note Isa. 6:1²); myrrh and aloes signify the sweetness of Christ’s death (John 19:39-40); and cassia signifies the fragrance and repelling power of Christ’s resurrection (see note Exo. 30:25¹). All Christ’s virtues are filled with the savor, the sweet fragrance, of His death and resurrection.

The oil of gladness signifies the compound, consummated Spirit of God (Exo. 30:23-25 and note Exo. 30:25¹), and the companions signify the believers of Christ (see note Heb. 1:9^2b). Christ’s authority, throne, scepter, and all else related to the kingdom are under the anointing of the Spirit, indicating that Christ’s authority and kingdom are altogether a spiritual matter (Rom. 14:17 see note Luke 17:20² and note Luke 17:21¹). He has been anointed for the purpose of the kingdom.

The queen’s beauty signifies the virtues of Christ expressed through the church. This psalm praises Christ not only concerning the things that are of Him directly but also concerning the things that are of Him indirectly as manifested through His church and His overcomers. Our speaking well of the church and the believers is also a praise to Christ.

Palaces here signify the local churches; ivory, a bone-like substance, signifies the unbroken resurrection life of Christ (John 19:36 and note John 19:36²); and harpstrings signify sweet, melodious praises. The local churches, which are beautiful in the eyes of the Lord and which are His expression, are built with the resurrection life of Christ, and from the local churches come the praises that make Him glad. Christ’s garments, His virtues, have produced the church as His expression (cf. 1 Pet. 2:9), and both His garments and the church are full of sweetness.

Verses 9-15 praise Christ the King in praising the queen with the daughters of kings and with the virgins (v. 14).

The daughters of kings signify the believers of Christ in their royalty, and the king’s most prized (or, honorable, glorious) women signify the believers of Christ in their honor and majesty. As those born of the King, we, the believers, have a royal and honorable status. Our conducting ourselves according to that status is a glory to Christ (Eph. 4:1; 2 Thes. 1:11-12).

The queen’s being covered with gold signifies the church’s appearing in the divine nature. The “gold” that covers the church is Christ, the divine One, as the believers’ righteousness for their justification (Luke 15:22; 1 Cor. 1:30). This is the first layer of the church’s covering.

Signifying the church, especially the overcomers, as the unique wife of Christ. In Rev. 19:7 and Rev. 19:9a, the wife of the Lamb is a corporate bride composed of the overcoming believers invited to the marriage dinner of the Lamb (see note Rev. 19:7^2c and note Rev. 19:9^1b). Likewise, in this psalm the queen does not signify an individual; rather, she signifies a corporate entity composed of all her companions: the daughters of kings as the honorable women and the virgins as her friends (v. 14). Thus, in this psalm Solomon the king with his many wives and concubines, who were princesses, daughters of Gentile kings (1 Kings 11:1, 3), are used in a positive sense to typify Christ as the King with His corporate wife, the church (John 3:29; Eph. 5:24-25, 31-32), composed of His believers from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation (Rev. 5:9).

In v. 8 the church is typified by the ivory palaces, the building, and in this verse the church is pictured as the queen, the wife. In the entire Scriptures these two figures — the building and the bride — are used to signify the church (cf. Gen. 2:22 and notes). On the one hand, the church is the building, the house, of God (1 Tim. 3:15), and on the other hand it is the bride, the wife, of Christ (2 Cor. 11:2).

The queen’s being covered with gold signifies the church’s appearing in the divine nature. The “gold” that covers the church is Christ, the divine One, as the believers’ righteousness for their justification (Luke 15:22; 1 Cor. 1:30). This is the first layer of the church’s covering.

The daughter is the queen, who signifies the church; her people and her father’s house signify the natural relationships of the church. This word corresponds to the Lord’s word regarding denying the natural relationships in Matt. 10:37 and Luke 14:26.

In v. 1 Christ is the King, in v. 2 He is a man, in v. 6 He is God, and in this verse He is the Lord. As the Lord of the church, Christ is worthy not only of the church’s love but also of her worship.

The daughter of Tyre signifies the people of the flourishing world. The rich among the people signify the high class, who have great wealth but do not have God’s favor (cf. 1 Cor. 1:26-28). The favor they entreat of the queen signifies the grace of God enjoyed by the church. As indicated by this verse, the rich will come to the church to obtain the grace of God.

The king’s daughter is the queen, signifying the church, and her being all glorious within the royal abode signifies the glorious church (Eph. 5:27), which takes Christ as her royal abode. First we, the believers of Christ, take Christ as our abode, and then we become His abode (John 15:4; 14:3, 20, 23).

Signifying the Christ who has been dealt with through many sufferings and through death and resurrection to become the righteousness of the church to meet the righteous requirement of God that the church may be justified before God (1 Cor. 1:30). Thus, the woven work inwrought with gold refers again to the first layer of covering — Christ as our righteousness, through whom we are justified — signified by the gold of Ophir in v. 9 (see note Psa. 45:9⁴). Cf. note Exo. 28:39¹.

Another garment, the second layer of her covering, signifying that the church will be led to Christ the King clothed with the righteousnesses of the saints to meet the requirement of Christ for their marriage (Rev. 19:8 and note Rev. 19:8^2b; Matt. 22:11-12 and note Matt. 22:11¹). The queen in this psalm has two garments. The first garment, “the gold of Ophir” (v. 9), the woven work inwrought with gold (v. 13), corresponds to Christ as our objective righteousness, which is for our justification. The second garment, the embroidered clothing, corresponds to Christ “embroidered” into us by the transforming work of the Spirit and lived out of us as our subjective righteousnesses, which are for our victory. The first garment is put upon us that we may stand in the presence of God (Luke 15:22), whereas the second garment is woven into our character, embroidered into our being, that we may stand before the King.

Signifying the overcoming saints, who will be invited to the marriage dinner of Christ (Rev. 19:9).

Signifying that the overcoming saints will enter the New Jerusalem, Christ’s palace (Rev. 3:12), with rejoicing and exultation. This psalm mentions first the abode (v. 13) and then the palace. When Christ becomes our abode, we become His abode — a mutual abode (John 15:4). Because Christ is the King and we are the queen, eventually this mutual abode becomes the palace, signified by the New Jerusalem, which is actually the Triune God wrought into the believers and mingled with them to be one entity, the mutual dwelling of God and His redeemed for eternity (Rev. 21:3, 22 and note Rev. 21:22^2d).

Verses 16 and 17 praise Christ the King in praising His sons. Here fathers signifies Christ’s forefathers in the flesh, sons signifies the overcomers of Christ as His descendants, and princes signifies the overcomers of Christ as His co-kings, who will reign with Christ over the nations (Rev. 2:26; 20:4, 6).

This psalm presents a complete view, a full picture, of Christ’s beauty, which is in Christ Himself (vv. 1-8), as unveiled in the four Gospels; in the church, His wife (vv. 9-15), as revealed in the Epistles; and in all His sons, the overcomers as the princes (vv. 16-17), as seen in Revelation.

Christ’s name will be remembered in all generations through the overcoming saints, and Christ will be praised by the nations through His overcoming and co-reigning saints.