(for kings and priests took office through an official anointing with oil, like our swearing in). When they read psalms that mentioned the king, they thought of this coming ruler.
As the years went by and Israel's kings failed miserably, Israel's longing grew stronger and stronger. People looked for "the consolation of Israel" (Luke 2:25). The word for "the Anointed" became Messiah, or (in Greek) Christ.
Only when "the Anointed" came - in Jesus - did the extravagant language of Psalm 45:6-7 (along with unusual descriptions in Psalms 2 and 110) make sense. These verses were quoted in Hebrews 1:8-9 to show that the king the Jews had long expected could be no ordinary man. The king turned out to be God - as verse 6 had suggested. The poem that seemed to be only about a king's marriage turned out, in the end, to be about God's marriage to humanity. |
