Psalms 45-55

The Facts (Chapter number: Verse)

45:9-15 - "Daughters of the king are among your ladies of honor; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. Hear, O daughter, consider and incline your ear; forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him; the people of Tyre will seek our favor with gifts, the richest of the people with all kinds of wealth. The princess is decked in her chamber with gold-woven robes; in many colored robes she is led to the king; behind her the virgins, her companions, follow. With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king."

Psalms 46 - No mention of any women.

Psalms 47 - No mention of any women.

48:6 - "Trembling took hold of them there, pains as a woman in labor."

Psalms 49 - No mention of any women.

50:20 - "You sit and speak against your kin; you slander your own mother's child."

51:5 - "Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me."

Psalms 52 - No mention of any women.

Psalms 53 - No mention of any women.

Psalms 54 - No mention of any women.

Psalms 55 - No mention of any women.

My Comments

Psalms 45 is titled "Ode for a Royal Wedding" and is subtitled as a love song. I am uncertain if this Psalms is being told by a woman, it seems very unclear on that point. The first stanzas wax poetic about how handsome the king is who apparently "girds his sword to his thigh," which is either a metaphor for his huge penis or a very odd way to speak about his actual sword (which seems misplaced in a "love" song). The entire Psalm does not seem to be obviously written by a man or a woman so I will go with the default and assume it's a man. If anyone has any information that says otherwise please let me know so I can go ahead and add the rest of the Psalm to this post.

I love how the woman who is marrying the king is to forget all about her biological family once she is married. The Psalm actually seems to imply that if she does not forget about her old family that she will be less beautiful and desired by the king. It all just seems so cold and I wonder if girls as children had a difficult time forming meaningful relationships with any of their family since it was pretty much a given that at some point in time they would no longer be a part of the family. Maybe it didn't cause any additional issues at all. I mean, girls weren't highly valued to begin with and it's not like these people traced lineages through the mothers. It is highly likely that this really wasn't a big deal to the family and it's possible that the girl being taken by her husband was a relief because that meant one less non essential family member to take care of.

Again I despise the lack of real knowledge we have of women's real lives during these times. These questions will pretty much never be answered because the only written accounts of women are written by men, and there really is no way to get an accurate telling of a woman's life that way. It really is a shame.

Wednesday: More Psalms