(Heb.: 45:7-8) In order to avoid the addressing of the king with the word Elohim, Psalm 45:6 has been interpreted, (1) "Thy throne of God is for ever and ever,", - a rendering which is grammatically possible, and, if it were intended to be expressed, must have been expressed thus (Nagelsbach, 64, g); (2) "Thy throne is God ( equals divine) for ever and ever;" but it cannot possibly be so expressed after the analogy of "the altar of wood equals wooden" (cf. Psalm 45:9), or "the time is showers of rain equals rainy" (Ezra 10:13), since God is neither the substance of the throne, nor can the throne itself be regarded as a representation or figure of God: in this case the predicative Elohim would require to be taken as a genitive for אלהים כּסּא, which, however, cannot possibly be supported in Hebrew by any syntax, not even by 2 Kings 23:17, cf. Ges. 110, 2, b. Accordingly one might adopt the first mode of interpretation, which is also commended by the fact that the earthly throne of the theocratic king is actually called יהוה כסא in 1 Chronicles 29:23. But the sentence "thy throne of God is an everlasting one" sounds tautological, inasmuch as that which the predicate asserts is already implied in the subject; and we have still first of all to try whether אלהים cannot, with the lxx ὁ θρόνος σου, ὁ Θεὸς, εἰς αἰῶνα αἰῶνος, be taken as a vocative. Now, since before everything else God's throne is eternal (Psalm 10:16; Lamentations 5:19), and a love of righteousness and a hatred of evil is also found elsewhere as a description of divine holiness (Psalm 5:5; Psalm 61:8), אלהים would be obliged to be regarded as addressed to God, if language addressed to the king did not follow with על־כּן. But might אלהים by any possibility be even addressed to the king who is here celebrated? It is certainly true that the custom with the Elohim-Psalms of using Elohim as of equal dignity with Jahve is not favourable to this supposition; but the following surpassing of the אלהים by אלהים אלהיך renders it possible. And since elsewhere earthly authorities are also called אלהים, Exodus 21:6; Exodus 22:7., Psalm 82:1-8, cf. Psalm 138:1, because they are God's representatives and the bearers of His image upon earth, so the king who is celebrated in this Psalm may be all the more readily styled Elohim, when in his heavenly beauty, his irresistible doxa or glory, and his divine holiness, he seems to the psalmist to be the perfected realization of the close relationship in which God has set David and his seed to Himself. He calls him אלהים, just as Isaiah calls the exalted royal child whom he exultingly salutes in Psalm 9:1-6, אל־גּבּור. He gives him this name, because in the transparent exterior of his fair humanity he sees the glory and holiness of God as having attained a salutary of merciful conspicuousness among men. At the same time, however, he guards this calling of the king by the name Elohim against being misapprehended by immediately distinguishing the God, who stands above him, from the divine king by the words "Elohim, thy God," which, in the Korahitic Psalms, and in the Elohimic Psalms in general, is equivalent to Jahve, thy God" (Psalm 43:4; Psalm 48:15; Psalm 50:7); and the two words are accordingly united by Munach.

(Note: The view that the Munach is here vicarius Tiphchae anterioris (Dachselt in his Biblia Accentuata) is erroneous, vid., Accentuationssystem, xviii. 4. It is the conjunctive to אלהיך, which, in Heidenheim and Baer, on the authority of the Codices, has Tiphcha anterior, not Athnach as in the editions heretofore published. The proper place for the Athnach would at first be by שׁשׁון; but according to Accentuationssystem, xix. 6, it cannot stand there.)

Because the king's sceptre is a "sceptre of uprightness" (cf. Isaiah 11:4), because he loves righteousness and consequently (fut. consec.) hates iniquity, therefore God, his God, has anointed him with the oil of joy (Isaiah 61:3; cf. on the construction Amos 6:6) above his fellows. What is intended is not the anointing to his office (cf. Psalm 89:21 with Acts 10:38) as a dedication to a happy and prosperous reign, but that God has poured forth upon him, more especially on this his nuptial day, a superabundant joy, both outwardly and in his spirit, such as He has bestowed upon no other king upon the face of the earth. That he rises high above all those round about him is self-evident; but even among his fellows of royal station, kings like himself, he has no equal. It is a matter of question whether the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 1:8) has taken the first ὁ Θεὸς of the expression ὁ Θεὸς ὁ Θεὸς σου as a vocative. Apollinaris does not seem so to have understood him; for he renders it τοὔνεκά σοι Θεὸς αὐτὸς ἑὴν περίχηευεν ἀλοιφήν χηρίσας τερπωλῆς μετόχηοις παρὰ πάντας ἐλαίῳ, and the Greek expositors also take ὁ Θεὸς here as a nominative.

Psalm 45:12 Parallel Commentaries

And the

Isaiah 23:17,18 And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire...

Acts 21:3-6 Now when we had discovered Cyprus, we left it on the left hand, and sailed into Syria, and landed at Tyre...

with

Psalm 72:10 The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.

Isaiah 60:6,7 The multitude of camels shall cover you, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come...

Matthew 2:11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him...

rich

Psalm 22:29 All they that be fat on earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him...

Isaiah 49:23 And kings shall be your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers...

Isaiah 60:3,10,11 And the Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising...

favour [heb.] face