Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 45:9
Kings’ daughters [were] among thy honorable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
9. Kings’ daughters are among thy honourable women:
At thy right hand doth stand the queen in gold of Ophir (R.V.).
An Oriental monarch prided himself on the number and nobility of the wives in his harem, and some at least of the Jewish monarchs were no exception to the rule (1Ki 11:3; Son 6:8). It may seem strange that such a degradation of the true ideal of marriage should find place in a Psalm which opens up such lofty thoughts and hopes. But the Psalm reflects the actual facts and customs of the age: it is not intended to depict a perfect state of things. One of the wives takes precedence of the rest and occupies the place of honour (1Ki 2:19) at the king’s right hand. It is implied that this place is reserved for the new bride whom the poet now turns to address. The verse is a general description of the king’s state, for the bride has not yet been brought in ( Psa 45:14); or is the poet anticipating? Gold of Ophir was the choicest gold (1Ki 9:28; 1Ki 10:11; Job 22:24; Job 28:16), but where Ophir was is not known. Most probably it was in S. Arabia or India.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Kings daughters were among thy honorable women – Those who were in attendance on him and on the bride were from the most elevated ranks; among the most honorable of the earth. The word rendered honorable women, means properly, precious, costly; and then, dear, beloved; and this might be rendered kings daughters are among thy beloved ones; that is, in the number of thy maidens, or of those attending on thee. The allusion is to a marriage, and the description is drawn from the usual accompaniments of a marriage in the east. The design, as applicable to the Messiah and to his union with the Church, his bride, is to describe him as accompanied with every circumstance of distinction and honor, to throw around him all that constituted beauty and splendor in an Oriental marriage ceremony. Nothing of earth could be too rich or beautiful to illustrate the glory of the union of the Redeemer with his redeemed Church.
Upon thy right hand did stand the queen – The right hand is the place of honor, and that idea is intended here: 1Ki 2:19; Mar 14:62; Mar 16:19; Heb 1:3; Act 7:55. The idea here is, that the Church, the bride of the Lamb of God, as seen in the vision, is exalted to the highest post of honor. That Church has the place in his affections which the newly-married bride has in the affections of her husband.
In field of Ophir – In garments decked or ornamented with the finest gold. On the phrase the gold of Ophir, see the notes at Isa 13:12.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 45:9
Kings daughters were among Thy honourable women.
Upon Thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
The consummation of Messiahs glory and the Churchs happiness
I. The general propriety and significance of the image of a marriage as it is here employed. Familiar emblems are needful for the better understanding of the Gospel by the mass of the people. Now, the relation between Christ and His Church, it is evident, must be of a nature not to be adequately typified by anything in the material world; and nothing could be found in human life which might so aptly represent it as the relation of husband and wife in the holy state of wedlock; and in this the analogy is so perfect that the notion of the ancient Jews has received the express sanction of St. Paul, that the relation of the Saviour and the Church was typified in the union of our first parents, and in the particular manner of Eves formation out of the substance of Adam.
II. The circumstances of this marriage. The magnificence of the court of the king as it appeared on the wedding-day, the splendour of the royal robes, the profusion of rich perfumes, are dwelt on. Of these last such quantities were used that the whole person was not merely sprinkled, but ran down with them to the very skirts of the garment. The psalmist describes the fragrance of Messiahs garments to be such as if the robes had been made of the very substance of aromatic woods. Thy garments are all myrrh, aloes and cassia. No palace adorned with ivory–a favourite ornament of palaces–could furnish such fragrance, no, nor even the incense that was burnt upon the golden altar as a grateful odour to the Lord. Now, all these perfumed garments were typical; first, of the graces and virtues of the Redeemer Himself in His human character; secondly, of whatever is refreshing, encouraging, consoling, and cheering in the external ministration of the word; and, thirdly, of the internal comforts of the Holy Spirit. We proceed to other particulars in the magnificent appearance of His court on the wedding-day, figurative of the glory of the Church in its final condition of purity and peace, and of the rank and order of particular churches. Kings daughters are among Thy honourable women. But the primary meaning of the word rendered honourable is bright, sparkling, and the imagery of the original would be better preserved if rendered thus, Kings daughters are among the bright beauties of Thy court. The beauty certainly is mystic–the beauty of evangelical sanctity and innocence. But who are these kings daughters? They are the kingdoms and peoples, perhaps the various national churches, fostered for many ages by the piety of Christian princes, and now brought to the perfection of beauty by their being cleansed from all wrong–they may welt be called kings daughters, of whom kings and queens are called in prophetic language the fathers and mothers. Then, the consort, the queen, who is she? Some expositors have imagined that the consort is an emblem of the Church catholic in her totality; the kings daughters, typical of the several particular churches of which that one universal is composed. But the queen consort here is unquestionably the Hebrew Church; the Church of the natural Israel, reunited, by her conversion, to her husband, and advanced to the high prerogative of the mother Church of Christendom; and the kings daughters are the churches which had been gathered out of the Gentiles in the interval between the expulsion of his wife and the taking of her home again, that is, between the dispersion of the Jews by the Romans and their restoration. The restoration of the Hebrew Church to the rights of a wife, to the situation of the queen consort in Messiahs kingdom upon earth, is the constant strain of prophecy. The prophet, I said, describes the Gentile converts as becoming, upon the reunion, children of the pardoned wife. And so St. Paul (Rom 11:1-36.). The standard gold upon the queens robe denotes the treasures of which the Church is the depositary–the Word and Sacraments, and the dispensation of grace and forgiveness by their due administration. Then follows–
III. The counsel to the bride (Verses10, 11). If a princess from a distant land, taken in marriage by a great king, were admonished to forget her own people and her fathers house, the purport of the advice would easily be understood to be, that she should divest herself of all attachment to the customs of her native country, and to the style of her fathers court, and learn to speak the language and assume the dress, the manners and the taste of her husbands people. The fathers house, and own people, which the psalmist advises the queen consort to forget, is the ancient Jewish religion in its external form, the ceremonies of the temple service, the sacrifices and the typical purgations of the Levitical priesthood. Not that she is to forget Gods gracious promises to Abraham, nor the covenant with her forefathers, nor any of the wonderful things God did for them. But only, so as to desire no more, the ancient Levitical rites and worship. They have served their purpose, and are now to be laid aside. Christ, her husband, is her paramount authority now, and is entitled to her unreserved obedience. There is given–
IV. The description of the queen (verse 13). The kings daughter. Who is this? Not some new personage, the Christian Church in general composed of both Jews and Gentiles, as Luther thought, but, as Bishop Hume observes, that the connection between Christ and His spouse unites in itself every relation and every affection. She is, therefore, daughter, wife and sister all in one. The same seems to have been the notion of a learned Dominican of the seventeenth century, who remarks that the Empress Julia, in the legends of some ancient coins, is called the daughter of Augustus, whose wife she was. But, with much general reverence for the opinions of these learned commentators, I am persuaded that the stops have been misplaced in the Hebrew manuscripts by the Jewish critics upon the last revision of the text–that translators have been misled by their false division of the text, and expositors misled by translators. The stops being rightly placed, the Hebrew words give this sense: She is all glorious–she, the consort of whom we have been speaking, is glorious in every respect–Daughter of a king! That is, she is a princess born; she is glorious, therefore, for her high birth. She is, indeed, of high and heavenly extraction! Accordingly, in the Apocalypse, the bride, the Lambs wife, is the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God. The psalmist adds: She is conducted in procession to the king–in all the pomp of a public procession. This may point to some remarkable assistance which the Jews will receive from the Christian Gentiles in their re-settlement in the Holy Land (Isa 18:1-7, at end, and Zep 3:10). And then follow the prediction as to the Churchs children and the distinguished character they shall hold, and he closes with setting forth the design and predicting the effect of this Divine song. (Bishop Horsley.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. Kings’ daughters were among] Applied to Solomon, these words have no difficulty. We know he had seven hundred wives, princesses; and the mention of those here may be intended only to show how highly respected he was among the neighbouring sovereigns, when they cheerfully gave him their daughters to constitute his harem. If we apply it to Solomon’s marriage with the daughter of the king of Egypt, it may signify no more than the princesses and ladies of honour who accompanied her to the Israelitish court. Applied to Christ, it may signify that the Gospel, though preached particularly to the poor, became also the means of salvation to many of the kings, queens, and nobles, of the earth. The Chaldee interprets the queen standing at his right hand, by the law; and the honourable women, by the different regions and countries coming to receive that law from his right hand. Perhaps by kings’ daughters may be meant different regions and countries, which are represented as constituting the families of potentates. Whole nations shall be converted to the Christian faith; and the queen-the Christian Church, shall be most elegantly adorned with all the graces and good works which at once constitute and adorn the Christian character.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Among thy honourable women, i.e. amongst them that attend upon thy spouse, as the manner was in nuptial solemnities; as men attended upon the bridegroom, whence they were called friends, Joh 3:29. In reference to Christ, as the spouse or queen is the church in general, so these honourable women are particular believers, who are daily added to the church, Act 2:47, and submit themselves to it. And although the church is made up of particular believers, yet she is distinguished from them, for the decency of the parable, as the whole is oft distinguished by our minds from the parts of which it consists, and as the daughters of Jerusalem are distinguished from the spouse in the book of the Canticles, though the spouse be wholly made up of them. And these believers may be said to be kings daughters, either because amongst others many persons of royal or princely races did embrace the faith, as was prophesied of them, Isa 49:7; 60:10,11, &c., or because they are in a spiritual sense kings unto God, Rev 1:6.
Upon thy right hand; the most honourable place next to the kings. See 1Ki 2:9; Mat 26:64. Did stand; which is the posture of a servant; to show that as she is a queen, she is also his subject to serve and obey him. Or, is placed, or seated; which seems more agreeable to the person of a queen, 1Ki 2:19, and of a spouse at the nuptial solemnity.
In gold of Ophir; clothed in the richest garments made of the choicest gold; by which he designs the graces wherewith the church is accomplished.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. In completion of this pictureof a marriage festival, female attendants or bridesmaids of thehighest rank attend Him, while the queen, in rich apparel (Ps45:13), stands ready for the nuptial procession.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Kings’ daughters [were] among thy honourable women,…. Or “maids of honour” n; who filled and adorned the king’s court, and made a splendid appearance there, the same with the virgins, the companions of the bride, in Ps 45:14; and design truly gracious souls, believers in Christ, who are his “precious ones” o, as the word may be rendered; the excellent in the earth, in whom is all his delight; the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold; his portion, his jewels, his peculiar treasure, and the apple of his eye: and since they have been precious to him, they have been “honourable”, as they are, both by birth and marriage, being born of God, and espoused to Christ; by their character, kings and priests; and by their company, being among princes, and especially by their having communion with Father, Son, and Spirit: and among these are “kings’ daughters”; yea, they are all of them the sons and daughters of the King of kings; not by their first birth, by which they were mean, base, and dishonourable, wretched and miserable, and children of wrath, as others; but by their second birth, or regeneration, through being born from above, and of God, to an incorruptible inheritance; and so are clothed and fed like the daughters of kings, and have the attendance of such, angels to wait upon them and guard them; and through adopting grace, which regeneration is the evidence of, by virtue of which some of the children of men become the sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty; and through their marriage to the King’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ: the words may be rendered, “Kings’ daughters [were] in thy precious things” p; that is, were arrayed with them: meaning either the graces of the Spirit, comparable to gems, pearls, jewels, and precious stones; see So 1:10; or else the rich robe of Christ’s righteousness, and garments of salvation, with which believers being clothed, are as a bridegroom decked with ornaments, and as a bride adorned with jewels,
Isa 61:10; and this agrees with what follows;
upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir; by whom is meant the church, whose title is a “queen”, being the bride, the Lamb’s wife: wherefore, because he is King, she is queen; for this title she has not of herself; it is founded not in her own right, but upon her relation to Christ, being married to him; and so is expressive of relation to him, union with him, and of privilege and dignity through him; she sharing with him in all he has, even in his kingdom and government, reigning with him, and on the same throne: her being “on his right hand” shows the honour she is advanced unto; yet “standing” may denote subjection to him as her Lord and head; and being so close by him may suggest her fidelity and inviolable attachment to him, and strict adherence to his person, cause and interest; as well as her protection from him, being held and upheld by his right hand; and her reception of favours from thence, and her enjoyment of his presence, at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore. Her dress is “gold of Ophir”: a place famous for gold; [See comments on 1Ki 9:28]; with which the clothes of great personages used to be embroidered; so Esther is said q to put on her royal apparel, adorned with the good gold of “Ophir”: here it means, that the queen’s or church’s clothing was of wrought gold, as in Ps 45:13, and intends the righteousness of Christ, with which she is arrayed, comparable to it for its richness, purity, lustre, glory, and duration.
n “inter noblies tuas”, Tigurine version. o Heb. “pretiosas”, Piscator; so Ainsworth. p In “pretiositatibus tuis”, Montanus, Gejerus; so some in Vatablus. q Targum Sheni in Esther v. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(9) Honourable women.Literally, precious ones, i.e., possibly the favourites of the harem. See Pro. 6:26, where this word precious is used (comp. Jer. 31:20), or there may be an allusion to the costliness and magnificence of the harem rather than to affection for its inmates. Perhaps both senses are combined in the word, and we may compare Shakespeares
The jewels of our father, with washed eyes
Cordelia leaves you.
Upon thy right hand.Comp. 1Ki. 2:19.
Did stand.Better, was stationed, referring to the position assigned to the bride when the marriage procession was formed.
In gold of Ophir.Or, possibly, as (i.e., precious as) gold of Ophir, a common use of this particle. For Ophir and its gold see 1Ki. 9:28. The LXX. and Vulg. miss the proper name, and read, clothed in golden vesture and many-coloured.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Kings’ daughters Historically the description here given could apply only to Solomon.
Queen The word means bride, or queen consort.
Right hand The place of honour, 1Ki 2:19.
In gold of Ophir With garments trimmed and decorated with gold. Where Ophir was is not known. It was a country reached only by sea, and hence known only to the Tyrians, and to the Hebrews in David’s time through them.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 45:9. Kings’ daughters, &c. Kings’ daughters were in thy magnificence. Or, Were among thy high-valued treasures. Mudge. The prophet here represents the bride, whose marriage he celebrates, as attended by princesses. There is no need to speak of the literal propriety, if referring to Solomon. But in the spiritual sense, these images of a bride or a queen, and of her honourable women, (who, in the proper and literal sense, are persons really different,) are not to be so distinguished: as in the parable of the virgins, Matthew 25 those who go before the bride, are not in the mystical sense different from the bride herself; since the church, who is the spouse of Christ, is no other than the faithful who compose the church: but the prophet in this Psalm, which is a continued parable, refers to the ceremonies observed in the marriages of kings; whose queens, richly clothed, are attended with a retinue of ladies of the first quality. Compare Rev 21:9-11.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 45:9 Kings’ daughters [were] among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
Ver. 9. Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women] Thy ladies of honour attending upon thy royal consort (for after the description of Christ, the bridegroom, followeth another, of the queen, his bride, and of the royal nuptials): or, Kings’ daughters are in thy preciousnesses, that is, in thy comeliness that thou hast put upon them, Eze 16:14 ; for all the Church’s bravery is borrowed, and all her daughters, i.e. members, are adorned not with their own proper attire, Sed regio mundo et ornatu, out of the King Christ’s wardrobe; this is the righteousness of the saints, Rev 19:8 , viz. imputed and imparted.
Upon thy right hand
Did stand the queen
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
honourable women. Courtladies. English = maids of honour.
did = doth.
the queen. Type, Past, Hephzi-bah (2Ki 21:1. Isa 62:4); antitype, future, Israel, the bride of Messiah (Isa 54:5-8; Isa 62:45). Compare Rev 19:7.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Kings’: Psa 45:13, Psa 72:10, Son 6:8, Son 6:9, Son 7:1, Isa 49:23, Isa 60:10, Isa 60:11, Rev 21:24
upon: 1Ki 2:9, 1Ki 2:19
queen: Son 4:8-11, Joh 3:29, Eph 5:26, Eph 5:27, Rev 19:7, Rev 21:2, Rev 21:9
gold: 1Ki 10:11, Job 22:24
Reciprocal: Gen 10:29 – Ophir Gen 24:47 – I put 1Ki 9:28 – Ophir 1Ki 22:48 – to Ophir 1Ch 1:23 – Ophir Job 28:16 – the gold Son 1:5 – O ye Son 4:9 – my spouse Isa 61:10 – as a Mat 20:21 – the one Mat 25:1 – the bridegroom Mat 25:33 – his Mar 10:37 – sit Eph 5:32 – speak 1Pe 3:3 – that Rev 18:7 – I sit
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 45:9. Kings daughters were among thy honourable women Among them that attend upon thy spouse, as the manner was in nuptial solemnities. As the queen is the church in general, so these honourable women are particular believers, who are daily added to the church, Act 2:47. And although the church is made up of particular believers, yet she is distinguished from them for the decency of the parable, as the whole is often distinguished in our minds from the parts of which it consists, and as the daughters of Jerusalem are distinguished from the spouse in the book of Canticles, though the spouse (the church) be wholly made up of them. And these believers may be said to be kings daughters, because, among others, many persons of royal race embraced the faith, and because they are, in a spiritual sense, kings unto God, Rev 1:6. On thy right hand The most honourable place; did stand the queen In the posture of a servant; to show that although she is a queen, yet she is also his subject to serve and obey him. Or, rather, as , nitzebah, signifies, is placed, or seated, which seems more agreeable to the dignity of a queen, 1Ki 2:19, and of a spouse at the nuptial solemnity. In gold of Ophir Clothed in the richest garments, made of the choicest gold; by which he designs the graces wherewith the church is adorned.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
45:9 Kings’ daughters [were] among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the {h} queen in gold of Ophir.
(h) Though he had many king’s daughters among his wives, yet he found Pharaoh’s daughter best.