In
Hebrews 1:8-9, the author cites Psalm 45:6-7 to contrast the exalted, divine
and permanent nature of the Son and his kingdom over and against the role of
angels, mentioned in 1:7 as ‘servants’ (leitourgous), and their
transient depiction as ‘winds’ (pneumata) and ‘flames of fire’ (pyros
phloga). In its original context, Psalm 45 celebrates the marriage of the
Davidic king. The psalmist praises the king as superior to the sons of men
(45:2). He lives for the cause of truth, humility and righteousness (dikaiosynēs
[LXX 44:5]). His throne will endure for ever (45:6), his name will never be
forgotten and the nations will declare his praises (45:17). The psalmist so
closely associates the king’s righteous rule with God’s rule that he addresses
the king as ‘God’ in verse 6 (ESV): ‘Your throne, O God, is for ever.’ Despite
attempts to provide alternative translations that remove the vocative ‘O God’,
the text most naturally reads as a noun of direct address; ‘Your throne, O
God’. The psalmist, however, is not addressing Yahweh; he is talking to the
Davidic monarch because he says in the very next verse, ‘Therefore, God, your
God, has anointed you’ (45:7 ESV). God has no God. God is not anointed with
oil, but the king is. Neither should we conclude that the psalmist has the
divinity of Jesus in mind because he says the king’s marriage will result in
sons who will be ‘rulers in all the earth’ (45:16). Jesus has no sons, and he
has no successor. The vocative, ‘O God’, is the psalmist’s way of talking about
the king’s representative rule. He will exercise authority as God exercise
authority—with moral uprightness and righteousness (45:6). The king is God’s
covenantal son imaging God’s dynamic reign and mediating God’s blessing. When
this Davidide rules over God’s people, it is as if God himself is ruling in
their midst. Psalm 45 is about a Davidic son, not an ontologically divine Son.
Once
again, the author of Hebrews picks up on the Davidic typology in applying Psalm
45:6-7 to Christ. The author presents Jesus as Davidic antitype—the king who
represents God’s rule and mediates God’s rule and blessing. But should we also
understand the application of Psalm 45:6 to Christ (‘Your throne, O God’) in
Hebrews 1:8 as a statement about his divinity? The answer is most certainly
‘yes’ because Hebrews 1;1-4 has already established the Son’s divine nature as
the agent of creation, the radiance of God’s glory, the imprint of God’s nature
and the sustainer of the entire universe (Heb. 1:2-3). ‘Your throne, O God’ in
reference to the risen Jesus captures both his divine sonship and his messianic
Davidic kingship. Jesus mediates God’s rule as the messianic Son, but he is and
always will be the eternal Son of God. He is superior to angels because he sits
on heaven’s throne as the divine incarnate Son.
Psalm
45:6-7 also advances the Christological argument of Hebrews 1 by grounding the
Son’s royal exaltation in the faithfulness of his earthly life. God anointed
the Son at his right hand to reign on an eternal throne because (dia)
the Son loved righteousness and hated lawlessness (1:9). The connection here
between Christ’s exaltation and his earthly righteousness anticipates the
author’s fuller discussion of Christ as the faithful priest after the order of
Melchizedek, after all means ‘king of righteousness’ as the author will later
make plain (7:2).
The
author presents Jesus’ faithful earthly career throughout Hebrews as the
necessary prerequisite to his high priesthood. Jesus became a priest after the
order of Melchizedek by being made perfect through obedience (5:8-10). He has
been exalted to the right hand of God because he faithfully endured the cross,
despising the shame (12:2). He is a high priest in heaven who sympathizes with
our weaknesses because during his earthly life he experienced temptation, yet
without sin (4:15). He is the high priest of our confession because he was
faithful to him who appointed him (3:1-2). He learned obedience through
suffering and remained faithful while knowing that he would endure his own
sacrificial death (5:7-8). Thus, Hebrews 1:8-9 foreshadows the fuller
development of the faithfulness of Jesus that qualifies him to become a
priest-king after the order of Melchizedek. (Matthew H. Emadi, The Royal
Priest: Psalm 110 in Biblical Theology [New Studies in Biblical Theology
60; London: Apollos, 2022], 175-76)
