Chapter Forty-Four

The inscription “upon an instrument of Shoshannim,” in the form of a lily, indicates the type of musical instrument on which the psalm should be performed: “a teaching” — on the character of the content: the psalm represents the author’s meditation concerning the event described in the psalm; “of the sons of Korah” — on the writers from the family of Korah, who served as Levites in the Jerusalem Temple. “A Song of loves” — the psalm is an expression of the writer’s feeling of love toward the subject of the song.

Whom the psalm is dedicated to, and hence when it was written, answers to these questions are found in the features by which the person to whom the psalm is dedicated is described here. This person is a king (Ps 44:2); he surpassed all people in his qualities and especially in wisdom (Ps 44:3); His reign is a reign for the establishment of peace and righteousness, but not for military exploits, although he has a strong army (Ps 44:5-7); he lives in luxurious palaces (Ps 44:9) and he, along with the queen, receives worship from kings and princes of nations (Ps 44:13). All the indicated qualities of the king being praised apply precisely to Solomon at the beginning of his reign, when he lived in luxurious palaces, amazed everyone with his wisdom and magnificence, strove to establish in his kingdom peace and righteousness, and from all nations received signs of extraordinary respect and wonder.

The occasion for writing the psalm can be considered Solomon’s marriage with the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh. There are indications of this in Ps 44:10-11, where the writer, addressing the queen, advises her to forget her nation and her parents, which would be unnecessary if the queen were a Hebrew.

I praise the king (2). You are the most beautiful of all the sons of men; gird Yourself in glory and beauty, and reign for the establishment of truth (3–5). All enemies will fall before You; You are the king of righteousness and the hymn sings of You from Your palaces (6–9). You, O queen, renounce your family and homeland: then the king will love you especially, and to you will come for worship all the noble of people (10–13). All the glory of the queen is in her inner qualities. She, and after her the other daughters of kings, goes to the king in his palace (14–16). Your sons will be princes over all the earth and Your name will be glorified forever (17–18).

Psalm 44:2. Good words pour forth from my heart; I speak: a song of mine concerning the King; my tongue is the pen of a swift scribe. “Good words pour forth from my heart” — from my heart, as from an overflowing vessel, naturally and irresistibly flows this solemn and joyful song, full of goodwill toward the king; the present good word of the writer is a sincere song, poured forth from the fullness of feeling, in honor of the King. “My tongue is the pen of a swift scribe.” Swiftness in writing was a great quality; the author wishes that his tongue would express, as swiftly and accurately as the pen of a swift scribe, his thoughts and feelings in precise, corresponding to his will, words. The aforesaid verse represents the introduction to the content of the psalm and to the praise of the King described in it.

Psalm 44:3. You are more beautiful than the sons of men; grace has poured out of Your lips; therefore God has blessed You forever. “You are more beautiful than the sons of men.” Beauty is a general designation of many qualities; it is a generic characteristic; grace “has poured out of Your lips” — from the lips of the king comes speech that is wise, bringing benefits to the listener. Solomon indeed amazed his contemporaries with his speech — in judicial matters with particular penetration, in ordinary conversations with apt expressions, depth of thought, and in general with extensive knowledge of all branches of human learning. “Therefore God has blessed You forever” — the extraordinary qualities of Solomon evoked blessing upon him from God. This blessing is not limited only to the historical fame of Solomon, whose name became a common noun for designating anyone endowed with extensive and deep learning, but also indicates that by his initial activity, his striving to establish and confirm peace and righteousness on earth, he is a prototype of His great Descendant — the Messiah, Who gave fully to the world what for Solomon was an unattainable ideal. The eternal blessing upon Him from God cannot but be seen also in the fact that this king was the organ of Divine, and therefore eternal, revelation, set forth in his books.

Psalm 44:4. Gird Yourself at Your side with Your sword, O Mighty One, in Your glory and Your beauty, Psalm 44:5. and in this adorning of Yours, make haste; sit upon the chariot on behalf of truth and meekness and righteousness, and Your right hand will show You marvelous deeds. Psalm 44:6. Your arrows are sharp, O Mighty One, — the peoples fall before You — they are in the heart of the enemies of the King. The writer of the psalm invites the king to gird himself with a sword for battle with enemies. But this sword should consist of His glory and beauty, and therefore the enemies are not men, not enemies in a socio-political sense, but spiritual enemies — falsehood, malice, hatred, injustice, and the like. To destroy these enemies, the king should strain his strength (“make haste”) and perform marvelous deeds. It is known that in judicial matters, where experienced judges were at a loss, Solomon gave judgments that amazed everyone with their obvious righteousness and extraordinary ingenuity. But in addition to this spiritual power, Solomon possessed a well-organized and battle-experienced army, inherited from David, which was always ready to protect the king and destroy his enemies. It is known that Solomon stationed it on the borders of his kingdom to protect against attacks. This thought about Solomon’s military power in the words of verse 6 can be expressed as follows: Your, O Mighty One, sharp arrows — into the hearts of enemies (that is, they penetrate), and peoples will fall before You (that is, enemies will not stand against your armies).

Psalm 44:7. Your throne, O God, is forever; the rod of righteousness is the rod of Your kingdom. This military might and invincibility of the king is given to him, however, not because he is an experienced strategist and skilled politician, but because by his rule for the establishment of righteousness and peace on earth, he is realizing on earth the kingdom of God, “whose throne is righteousness,” and therefore all peoples rising against such a king as opponents of God’s kingdom must perish.

Psalm 44:8. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of joy beyond Your companions. God anointed for kingship and preferred this king for his love of righteousness “beyond His companions.” Such companions (from the Slavonic “participants,” which is very accurate) — competitors for the throne after David’s death, such as Adonijah, who attempted to seize the crown not destined for him through cunning. “Anointed... God” — refers to the ancient custom of pouring oil on the head of the king chosen by the prophet. This anointing served as an external sign indicating the legality of the election and the enjoyment of special rights corresponding to the new position.

Psalm 44:9. All Your clothes are like myrrh and aloe and cassia; from palaces of ivory, rejoicing comes to You. “Myrrh,” “cassia,” and “aloe” are types of aromatic substances with which distinguished people were anointed in the ancient East. These aromatics were extracted from the resin of aromatic shrubby plants. “Myrrh” is a kind of gummy resin from a tree, “cassia” is an aromatic bark, “aloe” is a tree, native to India, with a very delicate aroma. “From palaces of ivory” — probably from the palaces which Solomon built and in which there were ornaments of expensive ivory. From these palaces rejoiced Solomon with those rejoicings which were then accepted in the East among kings. For Solomon, as a magnificent and luxurious king, objects of luxury achieved extraordinary value, and kinds of amusements reached great variety.

Psalm 44:10. The daughters of kings are among those honored by You; the queen stood at Your right hand in Ophir gold. “The daughters of kings are among those honored by You.” These were the companions of the king’s bride and, being noble by birth, they enjoyed honor in Solomon’s palace. Of all of them, however, one stood out, who received royal dignity, that is, became a crowned queen, spouse (“at Your right hand” — on the right side, meaning to receive full right, power, and honor). “In Ophir gold” — among Eastern women, especially in ancient times, bright colors were favorites, and their costumes were striking in their variety of colors. At the same time, gold and silver threads were woven into the fabric of their clothing, which, adding luster and variety to the garment, made it very valuable. Such clothes were available only to wealthy and noble people, such as the bride, who apparently came from royal lineage (2 Sam 13:18), since her companions were “daughters of kings.”

Psalm 44:11. Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father’s house. Psalm 44:12. And the King will desire your beauty; for He is your Lord, and you shall worship Him. Psalm 44:13. And the daughter of Tyre with gifts, and the richest of the people will entreat Your face. The speech of the writer is now addressed to this queen, and the author of the psalm asks for her especially intense attention to his words, giving them special importance (“Hear,...see, and incline your ear”). “Forget your people,” (your nation) “and your father’s house,” that is, your parents. This new queen could not be Hebrew, since her marriage to the king would not only not separate her from her nation, but would attach her even more strongly to it and could not harm the people. Similarly, there would be no need to renounce her parents, that is, her family; marriage of Hebrew kings with daughters of their own people was not only a common occurrence but also lawful by Moses. Therefore, the bride must be understood as the daughter of a heathen king, whose continued attachment to her family and nation could be harmful to the Hebrew people. To forget the house of the father and one’s own people — this means to merge with the Hebrews in their beliefs, to become a Jewess in life, language, and faith. Such renunciation of former attachments will be a sacrifice that will not remain unappreciated: the king will especially love her (“will desire your beauty”), will draw her close; but you, bride, must remember that He is your master, and therefore must show Him signs of respect and obedience (“and you shall worship Him”). As queen, you will enjoy the same respect as the King Himself, and not only among your own people, but also among foreigners. The Tyrians (Tyre is a trading city, located on one of the islands of the Mediterranean Sea) will come to you with gifts, as an expression of respect; “the richest of the people” — that is, the noble and powerful among men, kings and princes of nations, will entreat you for mercy and attention. Under this heathen bride we must understand the daughter of the Pharaoh, the beloved wife of Solomon, concerning whom there is a tradition preserved among the Hebrews that she accepted the law of Moses with her marriage and was a royal proselyte.

Psalm 44:14. All the glory of the daughter of the King is within; her garment is woven with gold. Psalm 44:15. In varied garments she is led to the King; after her, maidens, her companions, are brought to You, Psalm 44:16. they are brought with joy and gladness; they enter into the palace of the King. But the merit of this spouse of the King is not in external beauty, wealth, and noble birth — all this is nothing compared to her inner, spiritual qualities, which explains why she stands out from the other maidens. After this bride of the King, her companions are led into his palace, who follow her with joy, rejoicing in such closeness to the bride, and through her to the King Himself. Earlier (Ps 44:11) the writer proposed that the bride renounce her family and homeland, so that this attachment might now be transferred to her sons, who will become princes over all the earth. The writer’s final address and his prophecy concerning the universal dominion of Solomon’s successors should be understood not as a prediction of their great historical significance, accomplished in fact, but as the ideal of the king and his successors, remaining faithful to which (to this ideal), they could be princes of the whole world. And it is to this, to dominion over the world, the spreading among it of true knowledge of God, that the Hebrew people was called.

Psalm 44:18. I will make Your name remembered in generation and generation; therefore the peoples will praise You forever and ever. This song of his, which praises the King and queen for their high qualities and contains depictions of the ideal of reign, the writer passes on to posterity, who by his words will praise them among all peoples. The psalm thus has this historical meaning, but it is not exhausted by it. Those features by which the author describes the personality of Solomon and the character of his reign were not accomplished by the latter during all the time of his life. In the later years of Solomon’s reign, the Hebrews suffered from many disorders, both in their internal life and in relations with heathen peoples. Solomon’s successor not only did not become king of the whole world (see verse Ps 44:17), but even lost more than half of his people, who chose for themselves king Jeroboam the first. In verse 8, the reign of this king occasions the eternal establishment of God’s throne, eternal favor from Him to the King and people, which is entirely inapplicable to Solomon, since the latter even underwent reproofs from Him. The literal understanding of the text, where the king is directly called God (such comparison, understood as a poetic depiction, as hyperbole, could not be permissible to a Hebrew writer, who revered before Jehovah, to Whom there is no likeness “neither on the earth beneath, nor in the waters, nor above” (Deut 5:8; Exod 20:4), already clearly indicates that it could not be applied to Solomon-the-man. All this gives grounds to think that the personality of Solomon, the beginning of his reign, and the celebrated occasion from his life elevated the author’s thought to a depiction of such a state in the life of mankind, when his ideal will find historical realization. The establishment on earth of complete peace and the dominion of righteousness is beyond the power of man, as a limited and sinful being; this can only be done by God. In Ps 44:7, the author directly transfers his thought to Him; therefore Solomon, as depicted by the author at the beginning of his reign, when he devoted himself to the care of establishing peace and righteousness on earth, is only a prototype in his activity of the future state of the world. When did God establish or will establish on earth the triumph of righteousness described in the psalm? The answer to this is the earthly ministry of the Savior, Who reconciled man with God, established the law of love and peace in relations among men themselves. His kingdom increasingly spreads throughout the world, subjecting all peoples to itself, and the princes of this world at first were His disciples, who guided and established the laws of Christian-church life, and then their successors — bishops and in general the pastors of the church. The spreading of this kingdom over the whole universe, predicted here by the writer of the psalm, is now in the period of its realization, and its complete completion will come at the time of the Last Judgment, when there will already be the kingdom of truth and righteousness. If under Solomon we must understand the Messiah, then under his marriage with a foreign woman — an indication of the union of Christ with the pagan church, which will reach such a spiritual and moral height that the first members of it (the primitive Christians) by their conduct and life will draw multitudes of people after them. This has been justified and continues to be justified. The small number of believing Christians from among the pagans in the age of the apostles and after them were “the first fruits of believers,” a number which then became immeasurably great and is found in all parts of the world. This psalm is typological.