John Calvin Commentary Psalms 45:10

"Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; Forget also thine own people, and thy father`s house:" — Psalms 45:10 (ASV)

Hearken, O daughter! and consider. I have no doubt that what is said here concerns the Egyptian woman, whom the prophet has described as standing at the right hand of the king. It was not, indeed, lawful for Solomon to marry a foreign woman; but this in itself is to be counted among the gifts of God, that a king as powerful as the king of Egypt sought his alliance.

At the same time, as the Law appointed, it was required that the Jews, before entering into marriage, should endeavor to instruct their wives in the pure worship of God and free them from superstition. In the present instance, where the wife spoken of was descended from a pagan nation and who, by her present marriage, was included in the body of the Church, the prophet, to draw her away from her corrupt training, exhorts her to forget her own country and her father’s house, and to adopt a new character and different ways.

If she did not do this, there was reason to fear not only that she would continue to observe in private the superstitions and false ways of worshipping God to which she was accustomed, but also that, by her public example, she would lead many astray into a similar evil course; and, indeed, this actually happened soon after.

Such is the reason for the exhortation the prophet gives her here. To give his discourse more weight, he addresses her by the title of daughter, a term it would have been unsuitable for any private man to have used. To show more clearly how much it was incumbent upon the new bride to become an entirely new woman, he uses several terms to secure her attention: Hearken, consider, and incline your ear. This is certainly a case where much vehemence and urgent persuasion are needed when the aim is to lead us to a complete renunciation of those things in which we take delight, either by nature or by custom.

He then shows that there is no reason why Pharaoh’s daughter should feel any regret in forsaking her father, her relatives, and the land of Egypt, because she would receive a glorious recompense, which ought to allay the grief she might experience in being separated from them. To reconcile her to the thought of leaving her own country, he encourages her with the consideration that she is married to such an illustrious king.

Let us now return to Christ. And, in the first place, let us remember that what is spiritual is described to us here figuratively, just as the prophets, because of human dullness, found it necessary to borrow comparisons from earthly things. When we keep in mind this style of speaking, which is quite common in the Scriptures, we will not think it strange that the sacred writer here mentions ivory palaces, gold, precious stones, and spices; for by these he means to suggest that the kingdom of Christ will be filled with a rich abundance and furnished with all good things.

The glory and excellence of the spiritual gifts with which God enriches His Church are indeed little valued by people; but in the sight of God, they are more valuable than all the riches of the world.

At the same time, it is not necessary that we should scrupulously apply to Christ every particular listed here; for instance, what is said here about the many wives Solomon had. If it should be imagined from this that there may be several churches, the unity of Christ’s body will be torn apart.

I admit that as every individual believer is called the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:17 and 1 Corinthians 6:19), so also might each be named the spouse of Christ. But properly speaking, there is only one spouse of Christ, which consists of the whole body of the faithful. She is said to sit by the side of the king, not that she exercises any dominion of her own, but because Christ rules in her; and it is in this sense that she is called the mother of us all (Galatians 4:26).

This passage contains a remarkable prophecy concerning the future calling of the Gentiles, by which the Son of God formed an alliance with strangers and those who were His enemies. Between God and the uncircumcised nations, there was a deadly quarrel, a wall of separation which divided them from the seed of Abraham, the chosen people (Ephesians 2:14); for the covenant which God had made with Abraham excluded the Gentiles from the kingdom of heaven until the coming of Christ.

Christ, therefore, by His free grace, desires to enter into a holy matrimonial alliance with the whole world, just as if a Jew in ancient times had taken a wife for himself from a foreign and pagan land. But to bring His bride chaste and undefiled into Christ’s presence, the prophet exhorts the Church, gathered from the Gentiles, to forget her former way of life and to devote herself wholly to her husband.

Since this change—by which the children of Adam begin to be the children of God and are transformed into new men—is so difficult, the prophet more earnestly stresses its necessity. By reinforcing his exhortation with different terms—Hearken, consider, incline your ear—he suggests that the faithful do not deny themselves and lay aside their former habits without intense and painful effort; for such an exhortation would be unnecessary if people were naturally and voluntarily inclined to it.

And indeed, experience shows how dull and slow we are to follow God. By the word consider, or understand, our dullness is implicitly rebuked, and not without good reason. For what is the source of that blind self-love, that false opinion we have of our own wisdom and strength, the deception arising from the world’s fascinations, and, finally, the arrogance and pride natural to us, if not our failure to consider what a precious treasure God is presenting to us in His only begotten Son?

If this ingratitude did not prevent us, we would without regret, after the example of Paul (Philippians 3:8), count as nothing, or as dung, those things we admire most, so that Christ might fill us with His riches. By the word daughter, the prophet gently and sweetly soothes the new Church; and he also sets before her the promise of a bountiful reward to persuade her, for Christ’s sake, willingly to despise and forsake whatever she valued previously.

It is certainly no small consolation to know that the Son of God will delight in us when we have put off our earthly nature. In the meantime, let us learn that denying ourselves is the beginning of that sacred union which ought to exist between us and Christ.

By her father’s house and her people is doubtless meant all the corruptions we carry with us from our mother’s womb or derive from evil custom. Indeed, this expression includes whatever belongs to human beings by their own nature, for there is no part of our nature sound or free from corruption.

It is also necessary to notice the reason that is added: namely, that if the Church refuses to devote herself wholly to Christ, she rejects His due and lawful authority. By the word worship, we must understand not only the outward ceremony but also, by the figure of speech synecdoche, a holy desire to yield reverence and obedience.

If only this admonition had been thoroughly weighed, as it should have been! For then the Church of Christ would have been more obedient to His authority.

And we would not in these days have such a great struggle to maintain concerning her authority against the Papists, who imagine that the Church is not sufficiently exalted and honored unless, with unrestrained license, she may insolently triumph over her own husband.

They, no doubt, in words ascribe supreme authority to Christ, saying that every knee should bow before Him; but when they maintain that the Church has an unlimited power of making laws, what else is this but to give her free rein and to exempt her from Christ’s authority, so that she may break out into any excess according to her desire?

I will not pause to note how wickedly they claim for themselves the title and designation of the Church. But it is an intolerable sacrilege to rob Christ and then adorn the Church with His spoils.

It is no small dignity which the Church enjoys in being seated at the right hand of the King, and it is no small honor to be called the Mother of all the godly, for to her it belongs to nourish and keep them under her discipline.

But at the same time, it is easy to gather from innumerable passages of Scripture that Christ does not elevate His own Church in such a way as to diminish or impair His own authority in the least.