Grace and Marriage

"2You are the fairest of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips;  therefore God has blessed you for ever.  Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one, in your glory and majesty!...6Your divine throne endures for ever and ever. Your royal scepter is a scepter of equity; you love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows; " Psalms 45: 2-3, 6-7 NRSV

One of the few times that the word grace occurs in the book of Psalms is in Psalm 45, which is a wedding song for the king. God's grace toward us is exemplified in marriage when a husband and wife extend grace toward each other. In marriage, it is because of love for our spouse that we put up with annoying habits, careless, thoughtless actions and selfish attitudes. However, our grace filled love can not even begin to match the grace that God gives us.

Psalm 45 is about a king getting married. The Korahites, who were the temple singers who may have composed or collected this song, equate the king's beauty with his grace in verse 2. The parallel structure of the verse says that the king is fair (in the sense of beauty) and grace is poured upon his lips. Although there is no exact meaning to this line of music, the fact that it is a wedding song lends a connotation that the king's beauty is related to his graciousness toward his bride. One of the most beautiful symbols a wedding represents is the idea of grace—each spouse declares favor and grace toward the other, no matter what happens.

In the first chapter of the New Testament book of Hebrews, the second part of the scripture above is quoted. The idea in Hebrews is that the king is the Son of God--Christ, the King, is getting married! We are Christ's bride. Grace is upon His lips—He loves us more than we can ever know. This wonderful King's throne will endure forever and He has chosen us to reign with him throughout eternity. This grace is can never be fully comprehended by us. It is AMAZING!