Whether this psalm has, or had, a local application or is wholly idealistic cannot be certainly determined. It matters very little, for it is one of the songs which inevitably is Messianic in its deepest and fullest meaning. After an introduction which speaks of the fullness of his heart, the singer addresses the king, telling of the glory of the king's person, the perfection of his rule, and the beauty of his bride (verses Psa 45:1-9). He then turns to the bride, and in view of her high calling, counsels her to forget her own people and surrender herself wholly to her husband (verses Psa 45:10-12). If the King in mind was Solomon and the bride the daughter of Pharaoh, the suggestiveness of the song becomes the more remarkable.
The singer then describes the queen gloriously arrayed for her marriage (verses Psa 45:13-15) and ends in words of promised blessing to the king. If the inclusive truth of this psalm be larger than we are able to grasp, there is a personal application full of value and full of beauty. It is, as we see, the glory of the Lord that we become ready to renounce all our own people and possessions that we may be wholly to His praise, and so the instruments through whom the royal race is propagated and the glory of the King made known among the generations and the peoples.