Your Husband Delights In Your Beauty - The One Year Book of Psalms

Psalm 45:10-17

10Listen to me, O royal daughter; take to heart what I say.

Forget your people and your homeland far away.

11For your royal husband delights in your beauty;

honor him, for he is your lord.

12The princes of Tyre will shower you with gifts.

People of great wealth will entreat your favor.

13The bride, a princess, waits within her chamber,

dressed in a gown woven with gold.

14In her beautiful robes, she is led to the king,

accompanied by her bridesmaids.

15What a joyful, enthusiastic procession

as they enter the king’s palace!

16Your sons will become kings like their father.

You will make them rulers over many lands.

17I will bring honor to your name in every generation.

Therefore, the nations will praise you forever and ever.

Psalm 45, as we learned yesterday, is a wedding psalm. Imagine the first nine verses being sung to the king as he leads the procession to claim his bride. Verses 10-13 show us the bride, waiting in her own home. Then she is “led to the king” and they go to the palace in a “joyful, enthusiastic procession.”

As we catch the psalm’s double meaning (groom as king and Messiah), we see ourself in the bride’s role. And we can grab two nuggets of wisdom for our own relationship with our King.

“Forget your people and your homeland far away.” When we commit ourself to God, it’s like a marriage. We need to forsake all others. Whatever previous attachments we have had, they must take second place. Make the Lord the center of your attention and loyalty.

“For your royal husband delights in your beauty.” On a human level this is normal, but when we’re talking about the divine King, it’s breathtaking. God delights in us! When we truly accept this wonderful truth, there is no room for fear or insecurity.

The Bride eyes, not her garment,

but her dear Bridegroom’s face;

I will not gaze at glory

but on my King of grace,

Not at the crown He giveth,

but on His pierced hand;

The Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel’s land.

ANNE ROSS COUSIN

Bible Networking

For more on brides preparing to marry their husbands, read Isaiah 61:10 and Song of Songs.

Notable Quotable

“Nowhere in Old Testament writings do we find a nearer approach to the disclosure of the secret of the Church than in this psalm.”

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN