Proceeding To The Royal Wedding (Psalms 45:8-9).
Having established the glory of the king's person attention now turns to the Royal Wedding. He is covered in delightful ointments and perfumes, he is welcomed by stringed instruments playing from ivory palaces, he is attended by the daughters of kings, and at his right hand is his noble queen arrayed in the finest of gold, the gold of Ophir. All is ready for he and his bride being united as one.
In the New Testament the bride of Christ is revealed to be the church (2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25-27; Revelation 19:8; Revelation 21:2), composed of all true believers in Christ, and her covering is to be ‘the righteousnesses' of God's people (Revelation 19:8).
‘All your garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia,
Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made you glad.
Kings' daughters are among your honourable women,
At your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.'
The king is rigged out in his finery, and covered in delightful ointments and perfumes, and the procession passes by his ivory palace. Ivory palaces were a sign of ostentation and wealth, and indicated powerful and successful kings (see Amos 3:15). Ahab was famous for his ivory palace (1 Kings 22:39). They were not of course made of ivory, but decorated with inlaid ivory. That there are a number of such suggests the glory of this king, and as he passes by them in his royal procession the musicians are out on the balconies playing loudly and skilfully in order to add to the joy of the occasion. Or the idea may be that it was in such a palace that he was greeted by his prospective queen.
He is so noble and powerful that his honourable women, attending at the wedding, were nothing less than the daughters of kings. The king's daughters may have been other wives, or they may simply have come from their fathers' kingdoms to play their part in the wedding in honour of the King.
But most conspicuous of all is his wife, standing there in her beauty, dressed in gold of Ophir, the finest of imported gold (1 Kings 9:28; 1 Kings 10:11). Here then is splendour indeed, and it demonstrates the magnificence of the occasion, and adequately depicts the even greater glory of the coming Messiah, of whom this king is a type and forerunner.
The identity of his queen is unknown. That it is not Pharaoh's daughter is probable in that there is no mention of Egypt. To marry the daughter of an Egyptian Pharaoh was such an honour, and would have added such prestige to the wedding, that it would hardly have been allowed to pass without mention. It is attractive to think that it might have been the Shulamite of the Song of Solomon. The only doubt is as to whether she was a king's daughter (Psalms 45:13). But see Song of Solomon 7:1. She may well have been the daughter of a relatively minor shepherd king.