Forgetting the Past and Focusing on the Future
Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear: forget your people and your father’s house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him. The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people. All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold. In many-colored robes she is led to the king, with her virgin companions following behind her. With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king. In place of your fathers shall be your sons; you will make them princes in all the earth. I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore nations will praise you forever and ever. - Psalm 45:10-17, ESV
We have been examining the theme of identity in Christ and how that affects our judgment. Job’s wife showed us that we should look for patterns of faithfulness rather than fixating on failures. The woman who anointed Jesusshowed us that the identity of a saint as forgiven by Christ far supersedes even the most checkered past, so we should look for the fruit of genuine faith and repentance: love for Christ and the saints. But perhaps the strongest statement in Scripture exhorting us to focus on our identity in Christ was said nearly a millennium before Christ came: the bride in Psalm 45. We like her are called to forget the past, submit to the lordship of Christ, and focus on the future to build His Kingdom.
An Ancient Royal Wedding
Psalm 45 was written by the sons of Korah to celebrate a royal wedding: “My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe” (Psalm 45:1). That king was most likely Solomon.[1] The psalmist praises the king before addressing the bride: a foreign princess, perhaps Pharoah’s daughter.[2] He then describes the wedding procession and ends by addressing the king again focusing on future generations. So while this psalm is poetic, it describes a wedding of real people that actually occurred.[3]
What does this have to do with us? First, every marriage reflects Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:31-32). Second, the psalmist alludes to the eternality of the kingdom, thus referencing the Davidic covenant ultimately fulfilled by Christ. Third and most important, this psalm ultimately refers to Christ because Hebrews says so when quoting it: “But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions” (Hebrews 1:8-9 citing Psalm 45:6-7). So while the bridegroom in the psalm was likely Solomon, he foreshadowed the ultimate Bridegroom: Jesus Christ. And since Christ has only one Bride, Solomon’s bride foreshadows the Church.[4]
Portrait of the Bridegroom
With this perspective, look at the description of the king: “You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever” (Psalms 45:2). Jesus was without any majesty or beauty and marred beyond recognition during His suffering (Isaiah 52:14, 53:2), but afterward He was exalted, which is how He is described here. Next, the psalmist exhorts the king: “Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty! In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds! Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you” (Psalms 45:3-5). To many modern Christians this would seem unfitting for Jesus or a wedding, but we see similar statements in other psalms (eg. Psalm 2, 110), and the Wedding Supper of the Lamb is closely connected to Christ’s conquest (Revelation 19). As we have previously seen, the harmless and effeminate “boyfriend Jesus” worshipped in many churches is a false god with little resemblance to the mighty conquering King seen here. The psalmist then describes the king’s righteous reign, with His scepter of uprightness, love of righteousness, and hatred of wickedness, which can only be perfectly said of Christ. And just like Psalm 110, the psalmist calls the king God but then speaks of God: “Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions” (Psalm 45:7b).
The focus then shifts to wedding preparation, starting with the king’s robe that is so saturated with expensive perfume that it might as well be made of it.[5] This fits his extravagant ivory palace filled with music. The entire atmosphere looks, sounds, and smells beautiful and opulent. The king’s abundance is also seen in the court: “daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir” (Psalm 45:9). In this way he does not foreshadow Christ. With any exegesis, we must understand the audience. The psalmist describes this king as gloriously as possible for his ancient near-eastern audience, which included the splendor of his harem (Ecclesiastes 2:8)—despite the fact that God explicitly commanded Israel’s kings to refrain from this (Deuteronomy 17:17). When discussing the Law, we noted how polygamy was a gross distortion of God’s design that was allowed but regulated until Christ made it obsolete. Solomon exercised no restraint in sexual self-indulgence, which was ultimately his downfall (1 Kings 11). Contrary to this, Christ has only one Bride and commands that every leader in His Church to likewise be “husband of one wife” (1 Timothy 3:2,12, Titus 1:6). So while the psalmist was describing this wedding as gloriously as possible, we have the advantage of looking beyond it to a Bridegroom infinitely better than Solomon.
The Exhortation: Forget, Submit, Focus on the Future
The focus then shifts to the bride. Here, the psalmist essentially speaks like a father giving one last piece of advice, starting with a threefold preamble: “Hear, O daughter and consider, and incline your ear” (Psalm 45:10a). This repetition means that what will follow is infinitely important. He tells her to forget her heritage (Psalm 45:10b) and bow to her husband as lord (Psalm 45:11b). This complements Genesis 2:24 which calls on the husband to leave his parents to be united to his wife.[6] Here, the bride is leaving her parents to be united to her husband. This is the Gospel: Jesus Christ left the Father to earth and win His Bride (the Church). He then ascended back to heaven to prepare a place for His Bride, whom He calls to leave Her sinful past in order to be united to Him. Therefore we must heed these instructions and their accompanying blessings just like this bride.
Forget the Past
The psalmist first tells the bride, “forget your people and your father’s house, and the king will desire your beauty” (Psalm 45:10b-11a). Coming from a foreign nation, she was to put her heritage aside in order to become the wife of the king of Israel. More importantly, she was joining the covenant people of God. By marrying a Davidic king she was entering into the Davidic covenant and had to follow it’s stipulations. This meant worshipping Israel’s God and no other. But it also meant giving up her former culture and customs in order to adopt those of her husband. It is not that she was to erase the past from her memory—after all, her past had shaped her—but her past mattered little since her primary identity was as the wife of the king. Her forgetfulness was about prioritizing her new husband above everything else. She was not to long for the home and culture she had left, grumble of her new home and culture, import sinful customs, or promote her old country and culture to the detriment of her husband’s. All of these are directly applicable to the Church. As Christians, we must be willing to deny everything and everyone else to follow Christ. We must not import the world’s sin into our churches or our lives, but our very identity must be absorbed in Christ so that we are first and foremost His.[7]
As Christians, we must acknowledge our past and its role in our present while at the same time finding our identity in our present status as saints, forsaking the ways of the world. We consider our past not as our present identity but as a means of celebrating what Christ has done in and for us, a means of understanding ourselves to aid in our sanctification, and a reminder to keep our focus on Christ not ourselves. This forgetfulness was especially precious to the psalmist as a descendant of Korah—a name infamous for his rebellion during the exodus (Numbers 16). God killed the families of Korah’s co-conspirators, but He did not kill Korah’s family. It is quite likely that they were equally culpable but God in His mercy spared them so that centuries later their descendants could lead worship and pen sacred Scripture. This psalmist was keenly aware of his family’s heritage, so he is calling himself along with all of us to forget the past and cling to Christ.
This forgetfulness carried a blessing: the king would desire her beauty (inside and out). This means he would not be attracted to her if she continued to dwell as she had in the past. This is extremely important for Christians. Contrary to popular belief, God does not love us as we are but because of what He has made us and will make us into:
“Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. For the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD, your Redeemer….You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. - Isaiah 54:4-8, 62:3-5, ESV
Christ delights in His Bride not because of who we were but because of who we are in Him, and He delights in the final result of our sanctification that will make us His perfect Bride in glory. Essentially, He delights in His handiwork, so we should too.
Submit to the Bridegroom
This leads to another exhortation: “Since he is your lord, bow to him. The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people” (Psalm 45:11b-12). This is a call for her to honor him as her husband and king. She is to regard him as her earthly lord much as Sarah regarded Abraham. As I mentioned when discussing the roles of the wife and submission in marriage, what is important is the attitude of submission. I have covered submission in my leadership paper, so I will only summarize. Submission is choosing to live sacrificially by putting the needs of others and their ultimate good ahead of ourselves motivated by a healthy fear of God and following the example of Christ, and it includes respect and obedience. The psalmist is reminding the bride that her new husband will take over from her father as her head, so she must recognize his responsibility for her and the accompanying authority.
In applying this, I could decry wives disrespecting their husbands due to feminism, but that is merely a symptom. The reason wives disrespect their husbands in American churches is the same reason congregants disrespect their pastors and cause division. We do not honor our earthly lords like husbands and pastors because we do not honor Christ as Lord. Many Christians view Jesus as the Savior of our souls but not as the Lord to whom we owe all honor, obedience, allegiance, and worship. There are enumerable applications to this, so all I will say is: Christian, since Christ is your Lord, bow to Him in every aspect of life.
This submission comes with a promise: the nations would highly revere this bride. Her own dignity would be greatly enhanced rather than denigrated: “The bride’s submission to her partner as both husband and king…goes hand in hand with the dignity she also derives from him. His friends and subjects are now hers; she is the gainer, not the loser, by her homage”.[8] In the same way, in submitting to Christ we are not denigrated but highly exalted: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7). This is all the more reason to joyfully submit to Christ’s lordship: “There must be reverence, and this in the highest degree, because of its object. Not terror, but sacred awe and delight. And there must be also deep humiliation, for we are sinful creatures. Anything like self-satisfaction and complacency must be offensive to God”.[9]
Focus on the Future
With this final instruction, the bride is ready and the wedding begins: “All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold. In many-colored robes she is led to the king, with her virgin companions following behind her. With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king” (Psalm 45:13-15). Her attire like the king’s is exquisite and ornate, befitting her status. She is led to the king’s palace with joy and gladness. The term “led” can also be rendered “brought” or “carried”, so while the bride is coming willingly and joyfully, there is a sense in which she is also compelled. She did not choose the king, but the king chose her. As we saw with the solas and Calvinism, that is exactly how salvation works: “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints” (Revelation 19:7-8). And while this bride is dressed in multi-colored robes—the ultimate fashion of the day—the Bride of Christ is depicted in even more glorious robes of spotless white (Revelation 7:9-14). These garments reflect our pure and noble status in Christ that far surpasses earthly royalty: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10).
The wedding now complete, the psalmist ends by giving a promise: “In place of your fathers shall be your sons; you will make them princes in all the earth. I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore nations will praise you forever and ever” (Psalm 45:16-17). The “your” is masculine, so the psalmist speaks his final words to the king.[10] But now that they are married, this exhortation belongs to the bride as well: she along with him must focus on the future. Thus the exhortation to this royal couple is the same as the Cultural Mandate: focus on raising up future generations to build the Kingdom of God. That is the call on the Christian as well: we cannot focus on the past because we should be too busy working to build the Kingdom. And since we are united with Christ, despite all of the setbacks we face, Christ and His Church will be victorious: “An intelligent grasp of this truth is fatal to pessimists, who go about the country crying failure in the Church…King Jesus and His bride are the objects of the prophecy. Unto them were born apostles whose successors are filling the whole earth with princes who have power with God and men”.[11] So like the bride let us exult in our identity in Christ, forgetting the past, submitting to Christ as Lord, and focusing on the future.
NOTE
[1] John Calvin, “Psalm 45”, The Complete Biblical Commentary Collection of John Calvin.
[2] John Calvin, “Psalm 45”, The Complete Biblical Commentary Collection of John Calvin; John Peter Lange et al., A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Psalms, Bellingham, WA: Logos, 2008: 294; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament: Psalms, vol. 2, London: Blackie & Son: 1870-1872: 35.
[3] John Calvin, “Psalm 45”, The Complete Biblical Commentary Collection of John Calvin; John Peter Lange et al., A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Psalms, Bellingham, WA: Logos, 2008: 293-294.
[4] John Calvin, “Psalm 45”, The Complete Biblical Commentary Collection of John Calvin; Derek Kidner, Psalms 1–72: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 15, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press: 1973: 190; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament: Psalms, vol. 2, London: Blackie & Son: 1870-1872: 34; Joseph S. Exell, The Biblical Illustrator: The Psalms, vol. 2, The Biblical Illustrator, New York; Chicago; Toronto; London; Edinburgh: Fleming H. Revell Company; Francis Griffiths: 1909: 393, 421.
[5] John Peter Lange et al., A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Psalms, Bellingham, WA: Logos, 2008: 294.
[6] Derek Kidner, Psalms 1–72: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 15, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press: 1973: 190.
[7] Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament: Psalms, vol. 2, London: Blackie & Son: 1870-1872: 35-36.
[8] Derek Kidner, Psalms 1–72: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 15, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press: 1973: 190.
[9] Joseph S. Exell, The Biblical Illustrator: The Psalms, vol. 2, The Biblical Illustrator, New York; Chicago; Toronto; London; Edinburgh: Fleming H. Revell Company; Francis Griffiths: 1909: 393, 427-428.
[10] Derek Kidner, Psalms 1–72: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 15, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press: 1973: 191.
[11] Joseph S. Exell, The Biblical Illustrator: The Psalms, vol. 2, The Biblical Illustrator, New York; Chicago; Toronto; London; Edinburgh: Fleming H. Revell Company; Francis Griffiths: 1909: 434.
