During our summer series on the Psalms, we have been looking at how the Psalms can help to deepen and expand our prayer life. My goal for this series is to help us see the variety of Psalms that we have.
When I began this series last month, I mentioned that there are five categories of Psalms. These include psalms of praise, psalms of lament, psalms of thanksgiving, psalms of wisdom, and royal psalms.
Our Psalm for today, Psalm 45 is an example of a Royal Psalm because the Psalm writer is extolling the virtue of a king and his upcoming wedding celebration. So the question I’ve been wrestling with in preparation for today’s sermon is how does a Psalm like this help us to deepen and expand our prayer lives? Unless you are a king or you are getting ready to marry a king, how can Psalm 45 have any relevance to our lives?
As we think about that question, I want to share when this royal wedding Psalm shows up in the three-year lectionary cycle of appointed scripture readings. It appears every March 25, which is exactly nine months before Christmas Day. Nine months which is the typical duration of a pregnancy from conception to birth.
It’s on March 25 when the church observes The Annunciation, the announcement of when Mary was told that she was pregnant with Jesus, the future King of Israel. So, the reason Psalm 45 is paired with this special day on the church calendar is because it is a royal Psalm that helps to remind us that the child in Mary’s womb is the long-awaited King of Israel from the line of David.
Another time that Psalm 45 appears in the lectionary is when it is paired with a passage from the Song of Songs in the Old Testament. Now, if you have never read the Song of Songs, be prepared for it to be very expressive of the intimate love between two people. It is the “R” rated book of the Bible.
The Song of Songs is very poetic in how it describes the physical attraction between two people who are in love. And since Psalm 45 describes a royal wedding celebration, we can see why this Psalm is used for that particular Sunday.
The other time that Psalm 45 is used in the lectionary is on this Sunday around the middle of the summer when it is connected with the Book of Genesis story of how Abraham’s servant became a matchmaker by bringing Rebekah and Isaac together to become husband and wife.
So, just by looking at how Psalm 45 is paired with other scripture readings on these different occasions, we can see that this Psalm is about royalty and the deep love between two people. But how can this Psalm deepen our prayer lives?
Honestly, I don’t know of anybody who has ever said how Psalm 45 is one of their favorite Psalms. Nobody seems to quote any of its seventeen verses. You won’t see any of these verses proudly displayed on a coffee mug.
Although, wives might want to consider giving a coffee mug to their husbands with Psalm 45, verse 2 which reads, “You are the most handsome of men.” As a husband, that would be a great gift, y’all!
This Psalm just doesn’t have any catchy verses like many of the others do. Here’s another example…I don’t want to tell anybody to wear their sword and shoot their arrows at their enemy like we find in verses 3 through 5.
So how might God speak to us through this ancient and very specific Psalm about a King’s upcoming wedding, especially since none of us were invited.
So, for what it’s worth, here is what I reflect on whenever I read this Psalm. I’m going to offer these three letter “R” verbs to help us grow deeper in our prayer lives whenever we come across Psalm 45.
The first “R” word for this Psalm is “Remember.” Like so many of the Psalms, Psalm 45 wants us to remember about the story of the nation of Israel which includes kings and the royal history of our ancient past.
In general, the Psalms remind us of our faith story. They rehearse the ancient stories of Israel’s faith by recounting how God formed them to be his people and how he rescued them from slavery and led them to the Promised Land. When we read the Psalms, the Psalmists remind us that we are recipients of a particular faith story dating back to the first pages of the Bible.
Just like parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents are known to tell stories to the next generation about what it was like to live during the Great Depression or how their family came to America from Ireland or traditions surrounding family weddings and holidays, the Psalmists are doing something very similar. They don’t want us to forget the particular stories of our ancient past which includes kings, queens, and royal weddings.
Our faith is rooted in history and these ancient ceremonies. When we read Psalm 45, we are remembering that we part of this ancient family and how we are called to continue to live out this history in our day and age. So, in reading this Psalm, we remember who we are as God’s people.
The second “R” that Psalm 45 offers us is to “Rejoice.” Weddings are meant to be times of celebration. It’s a time for us to rejoice. The word “glad” or “gladness” appears three times in this Psalm and why wouldn’t it since we are talking about a wedding celebration?
The Psalmist says how God has anointed the king with the oil of gladness. It says how the king has been made glad. And then it says how the king and the princess are led in joy and gladness in a great wedding procession.
No wonder that this Psalm is paired with joyous moments whenever it appears in our cycle of appointed Sunday scripture readings. These scriptures are always paired with this royal wedding celebration.
It shows up again with the Song of Song scripture reading that celebrates two people who are in love. And it is used as the Psalm to celebrate the announcement that Mary was with child by the Holy Spirit.
These are moments of celebration calling us to rejoice and give thanks for God’s faithfulness in our lives.
When our daughter was married, it was an incredible moment for me to walk her down the aisle, not as a pastor, but as her father. After the wedding, somebody asked me what I was feeling in that special moment.
I didn’t hesitate with my answer. I said, “I felt so much joy.” It was overwhelming joy. Not only was I thanking God for giving me such an incredible daughter, but God was also blessing me with an incredible son-in-law. When you read this Psalm, you can’t help but to feel the spirit of rejoicing over this royal wedding that he is describing.
This Psalm also helps me to think about how Jesus’s first miracle was at a wedding celebration when he turned water into wine. I often choose that Gospel reading for weddings that I conduct which gives me an opportunity to share how Jesus is present with us during these special times of celebration.
But even beyond wedding ceremonies, we can rejoice in how God has blessed us in so many ways. Even though there are many sad times that we face in our lives, Psalm 45 reminds us to not forget to rejoice especially for these special occasions like weddings.
This Psalmist invites us to remember that we are heirs of a particular story of faith rooted in the scriptures. This Psalmist also invites us to rejoice and to be glad as we reflect on our blessings.
And the third “R” that I think we can learn from this Psalmist is the word, “Revere.” First and foremost, Psalm 45 is one of several “Royal Psalms.” In total, there are about twenty of these royal psalms that celebrate both the line of Israel’s kings as well as the Lord who is the true king over all creation.
As you read this Psalm, notice the deep reverence there is for this king and the one he is about to marry. Now, for sure, some kings of Israel were better than others and they all had their weaknesses as well as their strengths.
King Saul was the first King of Israel. He started out great but then turned away from God and became very paranoid.
King David who followed him, was a mighty warrior and led Israel into their glory years, but then he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed in battle.
King Solomon, who was the next king, is known for his great wisdom, but his downfall was that he married foreign wives and oppressed his own people with heavy labor.
And then the kingdom of Israel was divided after Solomon, and we can read about some kings who were good and others who were not so good.
These royal psalms highlight the positive qualities of Israel’s kings like this one from Psalm 45. They call upon the people of Israel to revere the king who was anointed to lead God’s people even with their imperfections. But they also point us to a future king who would come from the line of David, a future King, a future Messiah, who through his reign would bring salvation to the world.
Instead of girding a sword as Psalm 45 mentions, this king would tell his followers to put down their swords. Instead of riding victoriously into battle as described by this Psalm, this king would humbly ride into Jerusalem on a donkey.
This king would gather around a last supper table and say, “This is my blood shed for you. This is my body broken for you.” And instead of a crown of gold and sit on a royal throne, this king would wear a crown of thorns, and his throne would be a wooden cross.
And every time we gather to receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion, we gather to remember our faith history, we rejoice and give thanks for God’s free gift of salvation and abundant life, and we revere the King of kings and the Lord of lords, Jesus, the Christ, Jesus, the king.
So, this is why we join our Psalmist for today in saying to our King, “I will cause your name to be celebrated in all generations; therefore, the peoples will praise you forever and ever.”
And may all of the King’s people say, “Amen.”
