Psalm 45 – Christ as God, the Eternal King
Psalm 45 Christ as God, the Eternal King
1-2 … I speak of the things .… concerning the king .… You are fairer than the children of men. Grace is poured into your lips, therefore God (Elohyim) has blessed you forever.
3 Gird your sword upon your thigh, o mighty (gibbowr) with your glory and your majesty.
4 In your majesty ride … and your right hand shall teach you terrible things…
5 Your arrows are sharp in the hear of the king’s enemies…
6 Your throne, o God, is forever and ever, the sceptre of your kingdom is a right sceptre.
7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness, therefore God*, your God*, has anointed you with oil of gladness above your fellows….
11 So shall the king greatly desire your (the daughter previously referenced in the passage) beauty, for he is your Lord (adoun) and worship him.
* Every instance of “God” is the Hebrew Elohyim, just as v 2: “therefore God has blessed you forever…”
The poet says he is speaking of the king. He proceeds to address this king in the second person, You: You are fair, you are blessed of God, your might, your glory, etc, and continues:
In verse 6, the writer is addressing the living God: “Your throne O God, is forever and ever; the sceptre of Your kingdom is a right sceptre …” “You” in this verse is identified as God, Elohyim.
But in verse seven, the poet continues addressing “You”, without changing the object of his praise:
“… therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness …”
So, God, Whose throne is forever and Whose sceptre is right, was anointed by God with the oil of gladness. Both the Person addressed, and the anointer of that Person, are called “God” by the writer of the Psalm. Not a god, nor simply a mighty man, since no man’s kingdom or throne is eternal, but God.
The grammar of this Psalm demands that the writer is addressing God, Elohyim, when he is speaking to “you”, and cannot support at all the suggestion that verse 7 is addressing some other person as “you”. The flow is simple, “Your throne O God ….the sceptre of your kingdom …. You love righteousness and hate wickedness, therefore God, your God has anointed you…. All your garments …. Kings daughters were among your honourable women …” The entire passage is addressed continuously and without any break or interruption to a single person, who is both identified as Elohyim and as being anointed by Elohyim, with the one anointing being referred to in the third person, indicating a separate party doing the anointing from him who is being anointed, while both are called Elohyim.
The only conclusion permitted by the text is that King who is anointed by God is also God.
In Hebrews, chapter 1, the author refers back to Psalm 45, stating that the Son through Whom God speaks to “us”, Who is the heir of all things, and the express image of God’s person, Who purges our sins, and of Whom the Father said, “You are My Son; today I have begotten You,” is He to Whom it was said, “Your throne, oh God, is forever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of our kingdom.” According to Hebrews 1:8, then, the Son is also the eternal God, whose kingdom has no end.
In verse 9, this same Son is also said to be Him to Whom the Psalm says, “… God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your fellows”. God, then, anointed this Son, Who is also called “God”, with that oil of gladness.
The author continues to write, “You, Lord, in the beginning, founded the earth, the heavens are the works of Your hands. They shall perish but You remain; they shall grow old as a garment, and as a cloak shall You fold them up, and they shall be changed, but You are the same and Your years shall not fail.” The same Son, who is called “God” in verse 8, said to be the eternal King, Who in verse 9 is He who was anointed by God, is the Lord who created the earth and heavens, and is He Who remains, unchanged, and without end. In other words, the Son is eternal.
We know that this Son is Jesus Christ; it is to Christ Whom the Father declared His Sonship at His baptism, and at His transfiguration, before witnesses in each case. This Son, Jesus Christ, is therefore shown to be called God by the Psalmist, and confirmed so by the author of the letter to the Hebrews, in addition to a distinctly separate individual being also called God by both the Psalmist and the author of Hebrews.
Based on these two passages, the only conclusion that is consistent with the Biblical text is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is Himself God, and that the divine individual who anointed Him is also God.
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