45:6 Your throne, 1 O God, is permanent. 2
The scepter 3 of your kingdom is a scepter of justice.
For the music director; according to the tune of “Lilies;” 5 by the Korahites, a well-written poem, 6 a love song.
45:1 My heart is stirred by a beautiful song. 7
I say, “I have composed this special song 8 for the king;
my tongue is as skilled as the stylus of an experienced scribe.” 9
22:10 I have been dependent on you since birth; 10
from the time I came out of my mother’s womb you have been my God. 11
9:7 His dominion will be vast 12
and he will bring immeasurable prosperity. 13
He will rule on David’s throne
and over David’s kingdom, 14
establishing it 15 and strengthening it
by promoting justice and fairness, 16
from this time forward and forevermore.
The Lord’s intense devotion to his people 17 will accomplish this.
37:24 “‘My servant David will be king over them; there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow 18 my regulations and carefully observe my statutes. 19 37:25 They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; they will live in it – they and their children and their grandchildren forever. David my servant will be prince over them forever.
1 sn The king’s throne here symbolizes his rule.
2 tn Or “forever and ever.”
3 sn The king’s scepter symbolizes his royal authority.
4 sn Psalm 45. This is a romantic poem celebrating the Davidic king’s marriage to a lovely princess. The psalmist praises the king for his military prowess and commitment to justice, urges the bride to be loyal to the king, and anticipates that the marriage will be blessed with royal offspring.
5 tn Heb “according to lilies.” “Lilies” may be a tune title or musical style, suggestive of romantic love. The imagery of a “lily” appears frequently in the Song of Solomon in a variety of contexts (see 2:1-2, 16; 4:5; 5:13; 6:2-3; 7:2).
6 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. See the note on the phrase “well-written song” in the superscription of Ps 42.
7 tn Heb “[with] a good word.” The “good word” probably refers here to the song that follows.
8 tn Heb “my works [are] for a king.” The plural “works” may here indicate degree, referring to the special musical composition that follows.
9 tn Heb “my tongue [is] a stylus of a skillful scribe.” Words flow from the psalmist’s tongue just as they do from a scribe’s stylus.
10 tn Heb “upon you I was cast from [the] womb.”
11 tn Heb “from the womb of my mother you [have been] my God.”
12 tc The Hebrew text has לְםַרְבֵּה (lÿmarbeh), which is a corrupt reading. לם is dittographic; note the preceding word, שָׁלוֹם (shalom). The corrected text reads literally, “great is the dominion.”
13 tn Heb “and to peace there will be no end” (KJV and ASV both similar). On the political and socio-economic sense of שָׁלוֹם (shalom) in this context, see the note at v. 6 on “Prince of Peace.”
14 tn Heb “over the throne of David, and over his kingdom.” The referent of the pronoun “his” (i.e., David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
15 tn The feminine singular pronominal suffix on this form and the following one (translated “it” both times) refers back to the grammatically feminine noun “kingdom.”
16 tn Heb “with/by justice and fairness”; ASV “with justice and with righteousness.”
17 tn Heb “the zeal of the Lord.” In this context the Lord’s “zeal” refers to his intense devotion to and love for his people which prompts him to vindicate them and to fulfill his promises to David and the nation.
18 tn Heb “walk [in].”
19 tn Heb “and my statutes they will guard and they will do them.”
20 tn Grk “this one.”
21 sn Compare the description of Jesus as great here with 1:15, “great before the Lord.” Jesus is greater than John, since he is Messiah compared to a prophet. Great is stated absolutely without qualification to make the point.
22 sn The expression Most High is a way to refer to God without naming him. Such avoiding of direct reference to God was common in 1st century Judaism out of reverence for the divine name.
23 tn Or “ancestor.”
24 tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style. A new sentence is begun here in the translation because of the length of the sentence in Greek.
25 tn Or “over Israel.”