Psalms 45:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

My heart is enditing a good matter I am about to utter, not rash, vain, or foolish, much less false words, but such as proceed from my very heart, and most cordial affections; and are the result of my most deliberate and serious thoughts: things not only pleasant and delightful, and fit for the nuptial solemnity here intended, but excellent, as the word שׂוב, tob, often signifies: or holy and spiritual, as it is most commonly used: things heavenly and divine, and full of majesty, as is manifest from the matter of the Psalm. Surely this magnificent preface is too sublime and spiritual for such a carnal and earthly subject as Solomon's marriage with Pharaoh's daughter. The word רחשׁ, rachash, here rendered is enditing, properly means boiling, or bubbling up, and is here used metaphorically, for meditating deeply, with fervour and vehemency, in allusion either to water boiled over a fire, or else springing forth from a fountain. I will speak of the things I have made Hebrew, מעשׂי, magnasi, my work, or composition; touching the king The King Messiah and his government. The Hebrew, למלךְ, lemelech, is literally, to the king, and the clause is translated by the Seventy, λεγω εγω τα εργα μου τω βασιλει, I rehearse my works to the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer That is, as some interpret it, “I will recite what I have composed with so much fluency, as shall equal the style of the most skilful and diligent writer.” Or, rather, he means, I am but the pen or instrument in uttering this song. It has another and higher original, namely, the Spirit of God, by whose hand this pen is guided.