Monday, July 5, 2021

D.A. Carson on Psalm 45 and Hebrews 1:8-9

  

Is the Davidic King God?

 

As the writer to the Hebrews continues to argue for the superiority of the Son o er the angels, he writes:

 

But about the Son he says,

 

“Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;
a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set you above your
companions
by anointing you with the oil of joy.” (Heb. 1:8-9)

 

The words are quoted from Psalm 45:6-7. To understand the passage both in its original context in Psalm 45 and in Hebrews 1, we must reflect on at least four details.

 

(1) The flow of the passage. The superscription asserts Psalm 45 to be a wedding song, which, as we shall see, makes eminent sense. The first verse is the writer’s reflection on what he is doing as he pens the psalm (not unlike other psalm introductions: see 37:1-3; 49:1-4): “My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer” (45:1). This introduction casts the writer as a courtier of some sort, and the one who is getting married is the king. The next verses affirm the king’s majesty and moral stature (45:2-5). Not a few of the lines sound a tad hyperbolic if applied to most of the Davidic kings we know from the Old Testament: “You are the most excellent of men . . . In your majesty ride forth victoriously in the cause of truth, humility and justice; let your right hand achieve awesome deeds” (45:2, 4). The following verses (45:6-9) include the lines quoted in Hebrews 1. The courtier addresses the king as he might address God: “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness” (45:6-7). A similar thought is found in Psalm 89:14: “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne”—but there the person addressed is God himself. At least it is clear in Psalm 45 that the mandate of the king is to rule with the integrity and righteousness that God displays in his rule. But make no mistake: the courtier is still addressing the Davidic king. IT is not as if he was suddenly turned to God and so is no longer speaking to the human king. That is made clear in verse 7: because this human king rules in righteousness, “therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy” (45:7).

 

Clearly, then, there is a God, designated “your God,” above the king who is addressed as God, who has been anointed. The ensuing verses addresses the bride (45:10-12) and describe the wedding procession (45:13-15). The closing verses are again addressed to the king (45:16-17).

 

(2) This pair of closing verses demands special attention. The fruit of this marriage is progeny: that is why it is supposed to be in a royal wedding that seeks heirs for the throne: “Your sons will take the place of your fathers; you will make them princes throughout the land” (45:16). This demonstrates that the king whose wedding this is must be an ordinary Davidide before the coming of Jesus. No one takes the place of Jesus; no one succeeds him on the throne. So in the first instance, the psalm cannot legitimately be allegorized into the wedding between Christ and his people or the like. This wedding anticipates heirs who are successors, displacing their fathers. That means it is an ordinary Davidic king who is addressed as God.

 

(3) In Psalm 45 the courtier, presumably one of the sons of Korah, addresses the Davidic king; in Hebrews 1, it is God himself who addresses the king, who is clearly Jesus. Granted the strength of the Davidic typology, it is not surprising that a passage focusing on a Davidic figure can equally be applied to the ultimate Davidic figure. On further reflection, the shift from the courtier addressing the Davidic figure to God himself addressing the Davidic figure is not all that hard to understand either. The common assumption is that Scripture is, finally, God’s communication. If God sanctions this form of address to a Davidic king on the lips of a courtier, then precisely because this is God’s communication, the courtier’s categories are God’s categories: God himself addresses the Davidic king as God.

 

(4) We must not overlook the fact that the quotation in Hebrews 1 is introduced by the words, “But about the Son he [God] says” (1:8). That reminds the reader that the appointment of any Davidide to the throne is equivalent to making him the son of God, in language stemming from 2 Samuel 7:14 and Psalm 2, the focal verses quoted in Hebrews 1:5. And as in 2 Samuel 7, so also in Psalm 45: the immediate reference is necessarily a Davidic king other than Jesus—and yet these texts are nestled within a Davidic trajectory that can be fulfilled only in Jesus. (D.A. Carson, Jesus the Son of God: A Christological Title Overlooked, Sometimes Misunderstood, and Currently Disputed [Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 2012], 53-56, emphasis in bold added)