Psalm 45 (1928 BCP)
Psalm 45 (1928 BCP) (Eructavit cor meum) is the Ninth-Day Morning Prayer psalm in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer Psalter. It is a royal wedding song: it praises a king whose rule is marked by truth, meekness, and righteousness, then addresses his bride. Christian readers have heard its royal and nuptial imagery in relation to Christ and the Church, while responsible interpretation also retains its original setting as a poem for an Israelite king.
Text in the 1928 Psalter
MY heart overfloweth with a good matter; I speak the things which I have made concerning the King. * My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
2 Thou art fairer than the children of men; * full of grace are thy lips, because God hath blessed thee for ever.
3 Gird thee with thy sword upon thy thigh, O thou Most Mighty, * according to thy worship and renown.
4 Good luck have thou with thine honour: * ride on, because of the word of truth, of meekness, and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.
The first verse names the poem's occasion: the singer speaks “concerning the King.” The ensuing praise is not a general celebration of power. The king's advance is expressly “because of the word of truth, of meekness, and righteousness.” In the 1928 wording, therefore, royal splendour is measured by moral rule rather than by conquest for its own sake.
5 Thy arrows are very sharp in the heart of the King's enemies, * and the people shall be subdued unto thee.
6 Thy seat, O God, endureth for ever; * the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.
7 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; * wherefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
8 All thy garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia; * out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.
The Psalm binds lasting rule to a “right sceptre” and to love of righteousness. Hebrews 1:8–9 applies verses 6–7 to the Son, placing the Prayer Book text within the New Testament's christological reception. That apostolic use matters for Christian prayer, but it should not make the poem's historical royal setting disappear.
Prayer Book use
The Ninth Day.
Morning Prayer.
Psalm 44. Deus, auribus.
Psalm 45. Eructavit cor meum.
Psalm 46. Deus noster refugium.
The Office places this royal song between Psalm 44's corporate lament and Psalm 46's confession that God is refuge and strength. In that sequence, Psalm 45 does not give the congregation a private fantasy of triumph. It gives worshippers a king whose authority is righteous, and it carries them from lament toward confidence in God.
Hearken, O daughter, and consider; incline thine ear; * forget also thine own people, and thy father's house.
11 So shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty; * for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him.
12 And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; * like as the rich also among the people shall make their supplication before thee.
13 The King's daughter is all glorious within; * her clothing is of wrought gold.
14 She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework: * the virgins that be her fellows shall bear her company, and shall be brought unto thee.
15 With joy and gladness shall they be brought, * and shall enter into the King's palace.
The bride's procession is integral to the poem's marriage setting. When the Church reads it with Ephesians 5:25–32 and Revelation 19:6–9, its imagery can illuminate Christ's self-giving love and the Church's joyful, faithful response. It must not be used to sanctify an uncritical social hierarchy or to turn every detail of an ancient court into a one-to-one allegory.
Historical and literary interpretation
Alexander Maclaren identifies Psalm 45 first as a wedding ode and warns against forcing certainty where the historical particulars are disputed.
This is an epithalamion or ode on a king's marriage. The usual bewildering variety of conjectures as to his identity meets us in commentaries.
His observation makes a useful interpretive discipline: the historical occasion is neither dispensable nor fully recoverable from the Psalm alone. The New Testament's use is a canonical Christian reading, not a licence to erase the royal marriage poem that the Psalm actually is.
The psalm had a historical basis; and it has also a prophetic meaning, because the king of Israel was himself a type, and Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of the ideal never realised by its successive occupants. Both views of its nature must be kept in view in its interpretation.
That distinction accords with the 1928 Psalter's practice: the Church keeps the whole Psalm in prayer, rather than retaining only phrases already quoted in the New Testament.
Patristic Christian reading
Augustine hears the Psalm as a song of the Bridegroom and Bride and identifies the Church as Christ's Bride. This is a theological reading shaped by the Church's faith in the Incarnation and not a claim that the Psalm's ancient human setting was unreal.
For the Church is the Bride, Christ the Bridegroom.... The nuptial union is that of the Word, and the flesh. The Bridechamber of this union, the Virgin's womb.
For Augustine, the Bridegroom imagery joins Christ's true humanity to his headship of the Church. It makes the Psalm an occasion to confess the Word made flesh, not merely an occasion for devotional sentiment.
The spiritual sword is mightier to separate them, than the ties of carnal nature to bind them together.
Augustine consequently reads the sword of verse 3 through Christ's word and Matthew 10:34–39, not as an authorization for coercion. His interpretation turns the Psalm's martial language toward the searching summons of the Gospel, which can divide allegiances in calling people to Christ.
16 Instead of thy fathers, thou shalt have children, * whom thou mayest make princes in all lands.
17 I will make thy Name to be remembered from one generation to another; * therefore shall the people give thanks unto thee, world without end.
The closing promise of remembrance and praise fittingly returns the Office to public worship. Prayed by the Church, it directs honour away from an earthly dynasty and toward the King whom the New Testament proclaims, while preserving the Psalm's own delight in righteous rule, marriage, and thanksgiving.
See Also
References
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 45, Eructavit cor meum; wording hand-compared with
sources/justus1928/Psalms1.htm. Society of Archbishop Justus, “The Psalter: Psalms 1–50”. - ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 45, Eructavit cor meum; wording hand-compared with
sources/justus1928/Psalms1.htm. Society of Archbishop Justus, “The Psalter: Psalms 1–50”. - ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, “The Ninth Day,” Morning Prayer; appointment checked against
sources/justus1928/Psalms1.htm. Society of Archbishop Justus, “The Psalter: Psalms 1–50”. - ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 45, Eructavit cor meum; wording hand-compared with
sources/justus1928/Psalms1.htm. Society of Archbishop Justus, “The Psalter: Psalms 1–50”. - ↑ Alexander Maclaren, The Expositor’s Bible: The Psalms, vol. II, Psalms XXXIX–LXXXIX (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1893), p. 72, “Psalm XLV”; wording checked against the digital text. Christian Classics Ethereal Library, “Psalm XLV”.
- ↑ Alexander Maclaren, The Expositor’s Bible: The Psalms, vol. II, Psalms XXXIX–LXXXIX (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1893), p. 87, “Psalm XLV”; wording checked against the digital text. Christian Classics Ethereal Library, “Psalm XLV”.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 45, §3, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888); wording checked against the New Advent transcription. New Advent, “Exposition on Psalm 45”.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 45, §10, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888); wording checked against the New Advent transcription. New Advent, “Exposition on Psalm 45”.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 45, Eructavit cor meum; wording hand-compared with
sources/justus1928/Psalms1.htm. Society of Archbishop Justus, “The Psalter: Psalms 1–50”.