Psalm 45:2 - therefore God hath blessed thee for ever

[Steven Avery]

Psalm 45:2 (AV)
Thou art fairer than the children of men:
grace is poured into thy lips:
therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.

Romans 9:5 (AV)
Whose are the fathers,
and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came,
who is over all,
God blessed for ever.
Amen.

The commentators should have remembered this when they reached Romans 9:5!

 

[Steven Avery]

Spurgeon

Treasury of DavidPsalm 45

archive.spurgeon.org

Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.
Calvin reads it, Because God hath blessed thee for ever. Christ is blessed of God, blessed for ever, and this is to us one great reason for his beauty, and the source of the gracious words which proceed out of his lips. The rare endowments of the man Christ Jesus are given him of the Father, that by them his people may be blessed with all spiritual blessings in union with himself. But if we take our own translation, we read that the Father has blessed the Mediator as a reward for all his gracious labours; and right well does he deserve the recompense. Whom God blesses we should bless, and the more so because all his blessedness is communicated to us.

John Gill
https://www.christianity.com/bible/commentary/john-gill/psalm/45

Verse 2. Thou art fairer than the children of men,.... Here begins the psalm, and this is an address to the King Messiah, the subject of it, commending him for his beauty and comeliness; which is not to be understood of his divine beauty or his glory, as the only begotten of the Father, in which he is the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person; for this admits of no comparison, nor is the beauty of angels and men to be mentioned with it; but of the beauty of his human nature, both in body and soul, which being the immediate produce of the Holy Spirit, and without sin, and full of wisdom, grace, and holiness, must transcend that of any or all the sons of Adam. They are all deformed by sin; and whatever spiritual beauty there is in any of them, they have it from Christ; they are comely through his comeliness the outward beauty of men is vain and deceitful, and soon perishes; but Christ is ever the same, and he esteemed of by all that know him, as exceeding precious, altogether lovely, and transcendently excellent and glorious. The Hebrew word here used is doubled in its radicals, which denotes the exceeding great fairness and beauty of Christ, especially as Mediator, and as full of grace and truth. It follows,

grace is poured into thy lips; by which is meant the matter of his speech, or the Gospel preached by him; these words of grace, as Kimchi on the text expresses himself; or gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, Luke 4:22. The Gospel of the grace of God was given him to preach; it was put into his mouth, and that in great abundance; it was given at sundry times and in divers manners, and by piecemeal, to the prophets before him; but it was poured into his lips, and he was abundantly qualified for preaching it, by having the Spirit without measure given him; and so was poured out in a graceful manner, with great authority, and as never man before him spake, in doctrines of grace, gracious invitations, precious promises, excellent prayers, and even words of eternal life; see Song of Solomon 5:13;

therefore God hath blessed thee for ever; or, "because {e} God hath blessed thee for ever"; in his human nature, with the grace of union to the Son of God, and with all the gifts and graces of the Spirit of God; and as Mediator, with all spiritual blessings, with grace and glory for his people. Hence all his comeliness, grace, and gracefulness.

{e} Nk-le "eo quid," Tigurine version; "propterea quod," Musculus, Piscator; "quia," Gejerus.

https://books.google.com/books?id=dng9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA70

 

[Steven Avery]

Psalm 21:6 (AV)
For thou hast made him most blessed for ever:
thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.

 

[Brianrw]

"God hath blessed thee for ever" in the Greek OT Ps. 45:2:​

εὐλόγησέν (verb) σε (object) ὁ θεὸς (subject) εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα

Because God is the one performing the blessing, a verb is employed and an object in the accusative (σε) receives the action of the verb.

Deut 2:7
ὁ γὰρ κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν εὐλόγησέν σε ἐν παντὶ ἔργῳ τῶν χειρῶν σου
For the Lord (subject) our God has blessed (verb) you (object) in all the works of your hands

Deut. 15:6
ὅτι κύριος ὁ θεός σου εὐλόγησέν σε
For the Lord your God (subject) has blessed (verb) you (object)

(see also Gen. 49:25, Deut. 12:7, 15:6, 14)

True Parallel to θεὸς εὐλογητός in Romans 9:5 - Psalm 67:19, 20 LXX​

Note that the LXX verse numbering differs from English

κύριος ὁ θεὸς εὐλογητός εὐλογητὸς κύριος ἡμέραν καθ᾽ ἡμέραν κατευοδώσει ἡμῗν ὁ θεὸς τῶν σωτηρίων ἡμῶν διάψαλμα
"The Lord God is blessed, blessed be the Lord day by day, and the God of our salvation shall prosper us."

(Also, the construction εὐλογητὸς ὁ θεὸς, which occurs numerous times in the OT, does not differ in actual meaning, but in English we follow the word order for emphasis, "blessed be God.")

Other constructions ("Blessed by...")​

καὶ νῦν σὺ εὐλογητὸς (adjective) ὑπὸ (preposition) κυρίου (genitive) (Gen. 26:29)
"You are now blessed by the Lord"

εὐλογημένοι (verb) ὑμεῗς τῷ κυρίῳ (dative) (1 Sam. 23:21; 2 Sam. 2:5; Ps. 113:23 LXX)
"Blessed are you by the Lord"

εὐλογήσουσιν (verb) γὰρ τὸν θεὸν (accusative) τὸν ἀληθινόν (Isaiah 65:16)
"Will be blessed by the God of Truth"

εὐλόγησεν (verb) ὁ θεὸς (subject) Ισαακ (object) (Gen. 25:11)
"God blessed Isaac"

ὁ θεὸς εὐλόγησέν με (Josh. 17:14)
"The Lord (subject) has blessed (verb) me (object)"

 

[Steven Avery]

"God hath blessed thee for ever" in the Greek OT Ps. 45:2:​

εὐλόγησέν (verb) σε (object) ὁ θεὸς (subject) εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα
Because God is the one performing the blessing, a verb is employed and an object in the accusative (σε) receives the action of the verb.

The Greek OT has no authority, and I was not quoting a Greek text.

And there are multiple widely varying Greek OTs.

 

[Steven Avery]

What the Psalm verse shows is that God blessing Christ (or Isreal through Christ) is a natural Bible reading.

This counters attempts to say that God being blessed is the normative Bible expression.

 

[Steven Avery]

True Parallel to θεὸς εὐλογητός in Romans 9:5 - Psalm 67:19, 20 LXX​

Note that the LXX verse numbering differs from English

κύριος ὁ θεὸς εὐλογητός εὐλογητὸς κύριος ἡμέραν καθ᾽ ἡμέραν κατευοδώσει ἡμῗν ὁ θεὸς τῶν σωτηρίων ἡμῶν διάψαλμα
"The Lord God is blessed, blessed be the Lord day by day, and the God of our salvation shall prosper us."

Psalm 68:19-20 (AV)
Blessed be the Lord,
who daily loadeth us with benefits,
even the God of our salvation. Selah.
He that is our God is the God of salvation;
and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death.

Clearly your first phrase is not even scripture.
You are analyzing nothings.

And there is no "the LXX"
There are multiple wildly differing editions..

 

[Brianrw]

Psalm 68:19-20 (AV)
Blessed be the Lord,
who daily loadeth us with benefits,
even the God of our salvation. Selah.
He that is our God is the God of salvation;
and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death.

Clearly your first phrase is not even scripture.
You are analyzing nothings.

And there is no "the LXX"
There are multiple wildly differing editions..

I wasn't appealing to it for scriptural usage, but only to demonstrate the "natural association" with the words in a Greek construction. I honestly don't care how you view the LXX, nor do I care whether or not that name is falsely attributed to it. It is a piece of Greek literature, containing relevant constructions, so you can deal with it in that respect.

This counters attempts to say that God being blessed is the normative Bible expression.

I'm not sure what you mean by "normative Bible expression." I'd suggest you run a search on "blessed be God," "blessed be the God," "blessed be the Lord." You'll find the doxologies pop up all throughout the Old and New Testaments--about 35 times or so just with just these variations.

 

[Steven Avery]

I'm not sure what you mean by "normative Bible expression." I'd suggest you run a search on "blessed be God," "blessed be the God," "blessed be the Lord." You'll find the doxologies pop up all throughout the Old and New Testaments--about 35 times or so just with just these variations.

Read what I wrote again. It is often Socinians and Unitarians who make the claim of God being blessed as normative, without any reference to Christ.

 

[Brianrw]

Read what I wrote again. It is often Socinians and Unitarians who make the claim of God being blessed as normative, without any reference to Christ.

The meaning of θεὸς εὐλογητὸς itself doesn't change, whether or not we punctuate after "flesh" or after "over all." This is why they claim ὁ ὢν ἐπὶ πάντων θεὸς εὐλογητὸς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας ἀμήν means, "He who is God over all is/be blessed forever." But we wouldn't use ὁ ὢν in that way when referring to a specific individual; such a usage is reserved for the whole class of individuals when an antecedent is not involved.

Without the forced punctuation, the only difference is that ὁ ὢν makes the construction apply to Christ instead (we translate "who is" vs. "he who") and the second auxiliary verb becomes redundant. We use a comma to form an apposition to avoid a doubling of "who is." θεὸς εὐλογητὸς doesn't suddenly become a compound adjective. Two nominatives in Greek like this, where the adjective has no article, together form a predicate adjective construction, not a compound adjective. This is why I say the Greek can't yield the meaning God (noun) + Blessed(adjective) = compound adjective.

That would be a two stage operation: first bring it into English as a noun and adjective, then convert the adjective to a participle and insist a compound adjective in English. It's actually a corrupted meaning of the passage. I'm not saying intentional, but it is a corruption.

 

[Steven Avery]

That would be a two stage operation: first bring it into English as a noun and adjective, then convert the adjective to a participle and insist a compound adjective in English. It's actually a corrupted meaning of the passage. I'm not saying intentional, but it is a corruption.

When you look at the AV text, you can confuse yourself by going back to the Greek, especially since Greek theories can vary greatly.

 

[Brianrw]

When you look at the AV text, you can confuse yourself by going back to the Greek, especially since Greek theories can vary greatly.

No, it's not confusing at all, and no they don't vary greatly. You might make that mistake looking at Greek from an English perspective, or asking amateurs all over the web to confirm your opinion, or looking at arguments by people who don't want a passage to mean this or that.

 

[Steven Avery]

No, it's not confusing at all, and no they don't vary greatly. You might make that mistake looking at Greek from an English perspective, or asking amateurs all over the web to confirm your opinion, or looking at arguments by people who don't want a passage to mean this or that.

I see that you are weak in looking at the English AV text. If you want to claim the AV text is errant from the Greek (e.g. too many commas, botched apposition) that is your right.

You simply botch the natural English, as in the recent posts with (1) and (2) where you staunchly refused to say that there is anything wrong with the non-apposition reading. At that point, your English apposition theory was refuted.

https://www.purebibleforum.com/inde...grammar-sites-for-study.2371/page-2#post-9492

https://www.purebibleforum.com/inde...grammar-sites-for-study.2371/page-2#post-9502