Ps. 45.1 (language of the court)

“A noble theme / moves my heart – I will recite / my composition / concerning the king – my tongue / is the pen / of a skilled scribe.” The overwhelming impulse behind this psalm is of beauty or, here, ‘nobility’, that sense of authorial power displayed as attractive. Here, it ‘moves’ the psalmist’s heart, it impels him to recite this ‘composition concerning the king’. Importantly, by comparing his tongue to the ‘pen of a skilled scribe’ the psalmist is explaining that that which is noble should be sung about nobly, with utmost skill and attention. This is the effect of this form of beauty: it does not merely inspire; it awakens a sense of responsibility, of the need for careful crafting to mimic the authority inherent in the object described. And that ‘object’ is, rather surprisingly, ‘the king’. This is entirely unique thus far in the psalms: rather than God being the object, we have ‘the king’. (This is clearly the ‘language of the court’.) It is his ‘nobility’ and ‘beauty’ that has moved the psalmist. Interestingly, the remainder of the psalm will focus on the king and his marriage to ‘the princess’. Yet, here, the composition is said to be not ‘concerning the marriage of the king’ but ‘concerning the king’. Perhaps what we see here is something analogous to Adam being presented with Eve: ‘finally, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh’. This covenantal bond actually completed Adam. This ‘Eve’ then will not detract from the king’s ‘nobility’; rather, it will increase it by bringing it to its fulfillment.