Charles Ellicott 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)

Inditing. —A most unfortunate rendering of a word, which, though only used here, must, from the meaning of its derivative (a “pot,” or “cauldron”), have something to do with a liquid, and means either to “boil over” or to “bubble up.” The Septuagint and Vulgate have apparently thought of the bursting out of a fountain: eructavit. Symmachus has, “been set in motion.” The “spring,” or “fountain,” is a common emblem of inspired imagination:

“Ancient founts of inspiration well through all my fancy yet.”

TENNYSON: Locksley Hall.

A good matter. —That is, a theme worthy of a poet’s song. Luther: “A fine song.”

I speak of the things which I have made touching the king. —This rendering follows the Septuagint, Vulgate, and most of the older translations. Perhaps, however, we are to understand Aquila and Symmachus as rendering “my poems;” and undoubtedly the true rendering is, I am speaking: my poem is of a king (not the king, as in the Authorised Version).

My tongue ... —So lofty a theme, so august a subject, inspires him with thoughts that flow freely. The ready or expeditious scribe (Septuagint and Vulgate, “A scribe writing quickly”) was, as we learn from Ezra 7:6, a recognised form of praise for a distinguished member of that body, one of whose functions was to make copies of the Law.