Thou art fairer than the sons of men; grace is poured into thy lips therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.
Psalm 45 opens with a writer whose heart is overflowing, and verse 2 is his first word spoken directly to the King. Everything that follows — the sword, the throne, the bride — rests on this verse. It speaks of the King Himself, of His words, and of the blessing God has settled on Him forever.
The Setting of the Song
The praise does not rise out of nowhere. One writer links it to the cry for help in the psalm just before it:
Psalm 45 is about the King. Psalm 21 shows Him after a great salvation. Here He comes out with His sword strapped on His thigh to set up His kingdom. This psalm is the divine answer to the cry of the distressed people in the psalm before it. They call Him "King" (Ps. 44:4), begging Him to arise and "command deliverances for Jacob."
One Person Only
One writer says the words of this verse can only fit one Man:
He is "fairer than the sons of men" — a Son of man, yet above them all. To this personal excellence is added a divine quality of speech: "grace is poured into Your lips." Here is the ground of eternal blessing. It is not the passing blessing God gave man at the beginning (Gen. 1:28). Here is a perfection that will never fade. Here is One fully qualified to stand between God and man. There is only One such Man: there has never been another — a true "Second Man," in every respect.
Beauty That Men Missed
Isaiah says the opposite of this verse — that there was nothing attractive to look at in Him. Writers hold the two together by asking whose eyes are doing the looking:
When the Bible calls certain men "fair" or "beautiful," it means they were beautiful in God's eyes. But they are only a picture of the One about whom it is said: "You are fairer than the sons of men; grace is poured into Your lips; therefore God has blessed You forever" (Ps. 45:2). To us Jesus had "no form or majesty" (Isa. 53:2). We failed to see His beauty. But the eye of God always looks deeper. What He saw was only glory and beauty.
The comparison with "the sons of men" is not a ranking within one family. It marks a different origin:
We know, in the light of the New Testament, why He is fairer than the sons of men. It is not because He is the finest specimen of Adam's race, but because He is not of the first Adam at all. He is "the last Adam," the Head of a new race. He is "the second Man … the Lord from heaven" (1 Cor. 15:45-47).
Grace on the Lips
The word "grace" is rare in the Psalms. This verse shows it at work:
"Grace" is mentioned only twice in the Psalms, here and in Psalm 84:11. In that verse grace is given; in our Psalm grace is displayed. In Luke 4:22 we read: "All bore Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which came out of His mouth."
Grace was poured into His lips, and it poured out again in His words.
Why God's Blessing Rests There
The "therefore" of the verse is the hinge, and it points backwards to what He is in Himself, not to anything done for Him:
His moral perfection filled His lips with grace. "Grace is poured into Your lips." The grace of His words is the outcome of the love of His heart. "Therefore," says the psalmist — because of what He is in Himself — "God has blessed You forever." God blesses others through His work and worth. He alone among men is blessed for His own worth.
Commentators differ on where the emphasis of the blessing falls. Another reads it alongside His obedience and exaltation, quoting Joseph's rise as a picture: "Jesus was obedient, therefore God has highly exalted Him."
Lips Like His
The verse is a description of Christ, yet it sets the standard for how His people speak:
The believer has put on the new man, and Christ is the perfect pattern of it. Did Christ only keep evil out of His speech? No. His words, like His life, gave "grace to those who hear." The words of anyone in communion with Christ will do the same. The more we walk in "the new man," the more our words will sound like the words of the One about whom it is written, "Grace is poured into Your lips, therefore God has blessed You forever" (Ps. 45:2).
Summary
- Person. The King is "fairer than the sons of men" — not as the best of Adam's line, but as the last Adam, the second Man from heaven. No one else fits that description.
- Sight. We saw no beauty in Him; God's eye looked deeper and saw only glory. The psalm records God's estimate, not man's.
- Speech. Grace was poured into His lips and poured out again — heard by those who marvelled at His gracious words.
- Source. The grace of His words came from the love of His heart; His speech was the overflow of what He was.
- Reach. He alone is blessed for His own worth. Everyone else is blessed through His worth. Those in communion with Him begin to speak as He spoke.