The King in His Beauty
A. Maclaren, D. D. Psalm 45:2 You are fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into your lips: therefore God has blessed you for ever. I. THE PERSON OF THE KING. The old world valued in a king, personal beauty, and graciousness of speech. Both are ascribed here to the King spoken of. We have to think, not of the outward form, howsoever lovely with the loveliness of meekness and transfigured with the refining patience of suffering it may have been, but of the beauty of a soul that was all radiant with a lustre of loveliness that shames the fragmentary and marred virtues of the rest of us, and stands before the world for ever as the supreme type and high-water mark of the glory that is possible to a human spirit. II. His WARFARE. He is to put on all His panoply. Thus arrayed, with the weapon by His side and the glittering armour on His limbs, He is called upon to mount His chariot or His warhorse and ride forth. But for what? "On behalf of truth, meekness, righteousness." If He be a warrior these are the purposes for which the true King of men must draw His sword, and these only. No vulgar ambition nor cruel lust of conquest, earth-hunger or "glory" actuates Him. Nothing but the spread through the world of the gracious beauties which are His own can be the end of the King's warfare. In two or three swift touches the psalmist next paints the tumult and hurry of the fight. "Thy right hand shall teach Thee terrible things." There are no armies or allies, none to stand beside Him. The one mighty figure of the kingly warrior stands forth, as in the Assyrian sculptures of conquerors, erect and alone in His chariot, crashing through the ranks of the enemy, and owing victory to His own strong arm alone. Put side by side with this the picture of our Lord's entry into Jerusalem. And yet that lowly procession of the Christ, with tears upon His cheeks, is part fulfilment of this glorious prediction. But it is only part. The psalm waits for its completion still, and shall be filled on that day of the true marriage supper of the Lamb. III. THE ROYALTY OF THE KING. "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." In the great mosque of Damascus, which was a Christian church once, there may still be read, deeply cut in the stone, high above the pavement where the Mohammedans bow, these words, "Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting kingdom." It is true, and yet it shall be known that He is for ever and ever the Monarch of the world. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. WEB: You are the most excellent of the sons of men. Grace has anointed your lips, therefore God has blessed you forever.