There is no doubting that Ps
45(MT) should be considered as a royal psalm. The noun מלך is used five times
in order to indicate the king (vv. 2.6.12.15.16). Moreover, the term also
occurs in the combinations בנות מלכים (v. 10) and בת מלך (v. 14), as well as,
to a certain extent, in the concept מלכותך (v. 7). It is not at all surprising
therefore that Ps 45, together with Pss 2, 18, 20, 21, 72, 89, 110 and 132 (all
MT), are usually considered to belong to the literary Gattung of royal
psalms. However, this does not automatically mean that the king is the royal
psalm should be identified with a royal messiah. Strictly speaking, Ps 45 does
not deal with a “king-messiah”, but with an “anointed king” (אלהיך על כן משחך אלהים)
(v. 8). This anointing of the king was common practice in ancient Israel and
its surroundings in order to indicate the special relationship between the king
and God and to accentuate his authority.
The poetic composition of Ps 45 in
its final form is rather clear. It is a song about a righteous king – this is
why he was blessed and anointed by God – on the occasion of his marriage to a
princess and promises that descendants will be born who will follow their
fathers’ footsteps. Although several attempts have been made to identify the
king and his wife, it is impossible to determine to which historical persons
the poem is referring. (H. Ausloos “Psalm 45, Messianism and the Septuagint,”
in M.A. Knibb, ed., The Septuagint and Messianism [Bibliotheca
Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 195; Leuven: Leuven University Press,
2006], 240-41)
(1) Since Psalm 45 is considered
to be a royal Psalm, dealing with the wedding of a particular king of the
dynasty of King David, it automatically would be a messianic text too, since
each king of the house of David has been considered to be an image and an
announcement of the ideal king to come. The epithalamium is therefore
ambivalent from the very moment of its composition: it not only makes reference
to a historical Israelite/Judaean king, but, because of the fact that this king
is a member of King David’s dynasty, it automatically deals with a
king-messiah.
(2) In Jewish and Christian
tradition, Psalm 45 has clearly been interpreted in a messianic way. For
example the Targum reads in verse 3: שופרך מלכא משיחא עדיף מבני נשא (“Your
beauty, King Messiah, surpasses that of the sons of men”). In Christian
tradition, Psalm 45 is quoted in Heb 1,8-9, in order to highlight the
comparability of Jesus as messiah. However, the fact that a text in Jewish and
Christian tradition has been interpreted to be messianic does not shed any
light on the original intention of the text.
(3) This relates to the affinities
between Psalm 45 and the Son of Sons. There seems to be a thematic link between
Psalm 45 and the Song. According to some scholars, both texts explicitly deal
with an ideal royal marriage, which has to be interpreted as a symbolic
marriage between God and the people of Israel, since this metaphorical
interpretation would be the only appropriate explanation for the fact that the
Song of Songs became part of the TeNaK. The fact that both texts render מלכה as
βασιλισσα (Ps 44[45],10), together with the
appearance of מר in both Cant 4,14 and Ps 45,9 is considered to be an extra
argument in favour of this hypothesis. It has, however, come to be generally
accepted that this metaphorical interpretation of the Song of Songs is no
longer the exclusive reason for its canonicity. Moreover, most scholars agree
that the Song of Songs was originally a collection of profane love songs.
(4) A detailed analysis of Ps 45
seems to reveal that this poem has a new king Solomon in mind. Thus, by making
reference to the ‘historical’ King Solomon, the author of the poem wants to
picture the messianic king as an ideal King Solomon thereby creating a “messianic
allegory”. Viewed from this angle, it has been argued that several expressions
within Psalm 45 are reminiscent of elements from the account of King Solomon in
the book of Kings. For example, as a hapax legomenon within the book o
Psalms, the formula שיר ידידת (v. 1) would explicitly refer to 2 Sam 12,25,
where Solomon is called ידידית. Similarly, the king’s ivory places (היכלי שן) in
Ps 45,9 should be interpreted as an intensified plural, thus referring to “the”
palace of King Solomon, where the king’s ivory throne was standing (1 Kings
10,18-20). However, supposing that the author of Psalm 45 did indeed have King
Solomon in mind, it would still be impossible to determine whether he was just
referring to the historical Solomon (and legendary traditions about him) or
whether he was evoking the physiognomy of an expected messiah as well. (Ibid.,
243-44)
