Psalm 45: Where is Your Heart Directed?

The throne of God will endure forever and ever; His reign is one of justice. (Psalm 45:6)

Psalm 45 is a royal psalm, often sung at weddings or ceremonies honoring the king. Its lofty language extols the king and honors his reign. Yet, when we strip away the pomp and circumstance, we discover the true meaning of the poem.

The singers of this song yearn for the king to be God's representative, embodying His justice in the secular world. They desire God's just rule to be carried out firmly and forever through the king and his descendants. Psalm 45 expresses the longing to experience the invisible God in reality, a hymn of those who seek to feel His presence. In this sense, the psalm is grounded in reality, all too real.

However, we must make a careful distinction between the invisible God and the reality of the king who represents Him. Praising God can easily become idolatry, and faith in God and idolatry can become entangled in the secular world. While everything God does must be good and just, not everything the king does must be so. This mistake and misunderstanding apply not only to the king, but to each of us. Even a cross can become an idol.

Therefore, the Bible emphasizes the orientation of the heart. When Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God asked him, "Where are you?" God was really asking, "Where is your heart?" This question demands Adam's awakening. If the history of God's relationship with creation is a straight line, then to each individual, who is but a single point on that line, God asks, "Where is your heart?"

If Psalm 45 were just a secular wedding song for a king, it would not be included in the Bible. Because the Bible is not a collection of historical sources. But if God is asking "Where is your heart?" not only of the king but of all who sing the song, urging them to awaken, then the poem deserves to be in the Bible.