Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 45:1

"My heart overfloweth with a goodly matter; I speak the things which I have made touching the king: My tongue is the pen of a ready writer." — Psalms 45:1 (ASV)

My heart is inditing – That is, I am engaged in inditing a good matter, though implying at the same time that it was a work of the heart – a work in which the heart was engaged. It was not a mere production of the intellect; not a mere work of skill; not a mere display of the beauty of song, but a work in which the affections particularly were engaged, and which would express the feelings of the heart: the result or effusion of sincere love. The word rendered “inditing” – רחשׁ râchash – is rendered in the margin, boils or bubbles up.

It means properly to boil up or over, as a fountain; and the idea here is that his heart boiled over with emotions of love; it was full and overflowing; it found expression in the words of this song. The Hebrew word does not occur elsewhere in the Bible.

A good matter – literally, “a good word”; that is, it was something he was about to say that was good; something interesting, pure, important; not only a subject on which his heart was engaged, but also which was worthy of attention.

I speak of the things which I have made – literally, “I say my works to the king.” That is, My work – that which I meditate and am about to compose – pertains to the king.

Touching the king – He is to be the main subject of my song. (Compare the notes at Isaiah 5:1). If the remarks made in the introduction to the psalm are correct, then the “king” here referred to was the future Messiah – the great personage to whom all the writers of the Old Testament looked forward, and whose glory they were so anxious to see and to describe. (Compare the notes at 1 Peter 1:10–12).

My tongue is the pen of a ready writer – Let my tongue in speaking of him be as the pen of a rapid writer. That is, let my tongue rapidly and freely express my thoughts and feelings. The word rendered “pen” – עט ‛êṭ – means a stylus, usually made of iron, used for the purpose of inscribing letters on lead or wax. (See the notes at Job 19:24). The idea is that the psalmist’s mind was full of his subject, and that he desired to express his thoughts in warm, free, gushing language – the language of overflowing emotion.