Nineteenth in the Solomon Series
Some commentators have assumed that Psalm 45 is an "epithalamium" – a song or poem in honor of a bride and bridegroom – written for Solomon to celebrate his marriage to his Song of Songs bride. Others see it strictly as a prophetical psalm, a wedding song for Christ and his bride, the church.
The 1599 Geneva Study Bible states that it was a song:
Of that perfect love that ought to be between the husband and the wife… Verse 2, "Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever" speaks of Solomon’s beauty and eloquence to win favour with his people, and his power to overcome his enemies.
Verse 6, Thy throne, O God, [is] for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom [is] a right scepter likens Solomon's just reign to the perfect judgments of God. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. (vs 7) Solomon is lauded for his exemplary kingship; his subjects rejoiced for him on his wedding day.
To the bride, the psalmist sings, Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he [is] thy Lord; and worship thou him. (vss 10, 11) This princess should forget her roots.
The expressed hope for greatest blessing was: Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. (vs 16) The Geneva Study Bible explains that their children "will have greater graces than their fathers."
In a general sense, Solomon's descendants born after the coming of the Lord did have greater graces. However, of those born to him, we never hear about any but Rehoboam, the son of an Ammonitess (1 Ki 14:21). If Solomon and his bride of Psalm 45 had children, we know nothing of them. Was the singer's hope for that blessing unfulfilled?
King Rehoboam probably was Solomon's first son, since he began to reign at age 41 (2 Ch 12:13), and Solomon reigned for 40 years (1 Ki 11:42).
The epithalamium ends with the prophecy, I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever. (Ps 45:17) This must refer to the Father's desire and power to lift up the name of his son, Jesus Christ, whose likeness faintly glimmered in Solomon, the imperfect type.
Psalm 127 was also written for Solomon. It is a "Song of Degrees," to be sung as one ascended the mountain to Jerusalem. About this psalm, Charles Spurgeon wrote, We are here taught that builders of houses and cities, systems and fortunes, empires and churches all labour in vain without the Lord; but under the divine favour they enjoy perfect rest. ... It is THE BUILDER'S PSALM. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep. (Ps 127:1, 2)
One can picture Solomon walking up the mountain to work on the temple, and comforting himself with these thoughts. It was such a massive project; only the Lord could complete it. All of his hard labor could never amount to anything if the Lord did not help him. Perhaps he did stay up late and rise early, hardly eating, to figure out how to complete what needed to be done that day.
And then, to think — that God would cast this temple away from His sight — that it would be destroyed! Oh, the vanity! The vanity of vanities — the epitome of all vaporous results of devilment. The agony!
Had Solomon not proclaimed that God alone would preserve the temple? He set up the pillars in the temple's porch, calling them "Jachin" and "Boaz," or "God shall establish strength in it." (from John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible)
Where is the strength! Where is the Lord?
The purposes of the Lord will be established and his own people preserved, for the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. (2 Tim 2:19) In God's house there are two aspects of a sure foundation: God knows his children, and they must obey his law.
Christ has recompense for hopes that are disappointed. God had something even better planned for Solomon who had shown himself a man of faith, even though one who also disappointed. The Lord designed that he should not be made perfect without us. (Heb 11:40)
Over many generations we proceed to the wedding supper of the Lamb. We can learn from history and from the failures of our ancestors in the family of Christ. The Bible is wonderful in the way it reports all the sins and failures of God's people so that we can hope!