The Prophetic Pre-Trib Psalm of the Church: Parable of the Virgins DECODED

While working on the new LSV Bible translation, I was recently struck by an often overlooked psalm: Psalm 45.  You know when you've seen something a hundred times, but have never really seen it?  That was my experience.  And I'll tell you, translating the Bible has fundamentally shifted my thinking (or perhaps added to it) in two key areas:


1. I used to think that Jesus' message and the New Testament books frequently touched on Old Testament Scripture, but were largely innovative.  That is to say, God was revealing lots of new things after the establishment of the Church.  I don't think that anymore.

Yes, there are most certainly new truths revealed, but virtually every bit of Jesus' message can be directly tied to the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), even down to His parables.  Regarding the gospel, the entirety of the good news can be found in Isaiah 53, including Jesus' atoning death, His burial, and His resurrection.  It's all there.  Even the prophesied existence of the Church, in cryptic form, can be routinely found in the Prophets.

The New Testament is less an addition to the Old Testament, and more a fulfillment and unveiling of it.  It is the culmination and fulfillment of the Prophecy of the Seed that began back in Genesis.  What was just an image in the Artist's mind in the Old Testament, becomes the completed, unveiled, crystal clear picture in the New.


2. I once thought that the Bible's primary audience was you and me.  Now I think that the primary audience of the Old Testament was Christ Himself and the primary audience of the New Testament is the Church.

I won't dive too deep into this one as that's a subject for another time, suffice to say, the Hebrew Bible presented a coherent message, along with a set of rules that the Jewish people thought was about them, yet they didn't keep the rules.  They held the rules in highest esteem, thinking that their unique possession of the rules made them God's corporate prophetic "son" (see classic Rabbinic interpretation).  Yet the routine employment of the Son of God, Servant of the LORD, Son of Man, Branch of Jesse, Son of David, and so forth in the Old Testament, were not ultimately references to Israel or to some mere human Israelite, but to a Man who is truly God—and God's Son.

This divine Man would actually keep the rules and actually fulfill the prophecies.  How would He know which rules to follow if not for the Hebrew writings that had been written in advance of His coming?  He was born just like you and me, in mortal flesh.  He had to learn (Heb. 5:8).

We don't usually give much thought to this, but how did Christ discover who He is and what He had to do and accomplish?  Did God just download everything into His mind at a certain age?  Did angels come in secret and tell Him everything?  Neither of those possibilities is mentioned in Scripture, though we know that angels briefly ministered to Him during the two most trying times of His life: after His temptation (Mt. 4:11) and in the Garden of Gethsemane (Lk. 22:43).

I imagine it is a virtual certainty that His mother and earthly father recounted to Him the bits and pieces they were told by angels and in dreams at the time of His conception and after His birth.  He would have learned from them that He was God's Son (Lk. 1:35) and the Messiah (Lk. 2:11).  His loving, but imperfect parents, would perhaps share with Him as much from the Scriptures as they could.  As He grew, His sinless mind surely absorbed much Scripture from synagogue.  And by the time He was 12, Jesus was clearly listening to the Jewish authorities and asking them questions (Lk. 2:46), though by that point He seems to have already had a greater grasp of Scripture than them (Lk. 2:47).

Around the age of 30 when His public ministry was about to begin, His understanding of His purpose seems to have become so clear that He knew the very timing of when things would get underway (Jn. 2:4) and that He would be the atoning sacrifice for the sins of everyone, Jews and Gentiles alike (Jn. 1:29, 36; Jn. 3:14–15).

This brings us to an intriguing saying of Christ recorded in Luke:

And having taken the Twelve aside, He said to them, “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things will be accomplished that have been written through the prophets to the Son of Man, for He will be delivered up to the nations, and will be mocked, and insulted, and spit on, and having scourged they will put Him to death, and on the third day He will rise again.”

- Luke 18:31–33 (LSV)

Note the preposition the LSV supplies before "the Son of Man": to.  A number of older translations do the same (ASV, ERV, WNT, and YLT), which makes sense given that Son is in the dative case and the preposition must be supplied in English (often to in the dative, whereas of or from would be used in the genitive when no preposition is explicitly given in the Greek).  Yet modern translations universally insert concerning or about, which in similar passages is supplied as περὶ in the Greek (cf. Lk. 24:44; Jn. 5:39).  I believe the LSV, YLT, and these other translations are more accurate in this instance.

The Old Testament wasn't primarily written for the Jews or for the Church.  It was written by the Jews for Christ (unbeknownst to them), because Christ would be the One to actually read, do, and observe all commanded in it in order to 1. fulfill the Prophecy of the Seed, and 2. save us all.  In fact, though the Hebrews were the ones to record the Scriptures, given that the Scriptures are God-breathed, God is the real author.  The Scriptures were written by God, concerning God, for God.

To think about this another way: one could know nothing of the Old Testament and yet be saved, but if Christ did not know the Old Testament He could not have carried out His earthly purpose.  Our life is in Christ who Himself fulfilled the Scriptures, not in the Scriptures themselves (Jn. 5:39).

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Psalm 45

Now I want to turn your attention back to Psalm 45.  As I carefully researched each Hebrew word in this psalm of the sons of Korah, I was suddenly startled as I realized that it is entirely Messianic.  The author of Hebrews recognizes it as such (Heb. 1:8–9; cf. Ps. 45:6–7).  Furthermore, The Parable of the Virgins recorded in Matthew 25, the subject of much debate among those watching the fulfillment of Bible prophecy, appears to be based on Psalm 45.  By recognizing where the inspiration for Jesus' parable came from, might we gain new insight into what the prophetic parable in Matthew 25 foretells?  Let's unpack this Messianic super-psalm verse by verse.  I think you'll be amazed.

V. 1 - TO THE OVERSEER. [SET] ON “LILIES.” AN INSTRUCTION OF THE SONS OF KORAH. A SONG OF LOVES. My heart has stirred a good word, || I am telling my works to the King, || My tongue [is] the pen of a speedy writer.

Here begins this psalm.  It is a love song of sorts, written by the Korahites, the descendants of Moses' cousin Korah.  The opening lines express an overwhelming sense of joy and excitement, arranged in such a way and with a certain formality that commentators believe this would have been considered one of the most important psalms (source).

While the psalm is Messianic in nature, there is some question about the "King" here in verse 1.  Is the psalm addressed to an earthly king of Israel concerning the ultimate King to come, or is the psalm addressed to the Messiah Himself?  Either way, the psalm is entirely about Christ the King.

V. 2 - You have been beautified above the sons of men, || Grace has been poured into Your lips, || Therefore God has blessed You for all time.

Verse 1 is a formal introduction, but verse 2 is where the real meat-and-potatoes begins.  The Messianic King (Christ Jesus) is undoubtedly in view here.  The Messiah is the beautiful one, greater than all the sons of men.  His mouth is full of grace, as, according to the Apostle John, He came "full of grace and truth" (Jn. 1:14).  He is blessed forever.

VV. 3–5 - Gird Your sword on the thigh, O Mighty [One], || Your splendor and Your majesty!  As for Your majesty—prosper [and] ride! Because of truth, meekness, [and] righteousness, || And Your right hand shows You fearful things.  Your arrows [are] sharp—Peoples fall under You—In the heart of the enemies of the King.

When the glory of the Messiah-King is revealed to the world, His enemies will perish.  Notice that He bears a sword and rides out to battle.  There are numerous similarities between verses 3–5 and Revelation 19:11–16:

And I saw Heaven having been opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who is sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war, and His eyes [are] as a flame of fire, and on His head [are] many crowns—having a Name written that no one has known, except Himself, and He is clothed with a garment covered with blood, and His Name is called, The Word of God.  And the armies in Heaven were following Him on white horses, clothed in fine linen—white and pure; and out of His mouth proceeds a sharp sword, that with it He may strike the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron, and He treads the press of the wine of the wrath and the anger of God the Almighty, and He has on the garment and on His thigh the name written: “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

In both passages we see Christ the King riding into battle to vanquish His enemies.

VV. 6–7 - Your throne, O God, [is] for all time and forever, || A scepter of uprightness || [Is] the scepter of Your kingdom.  You have loved righteousness and hate wickedness, || Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You || With oil of joy above Your companions.

Verses 6–7 are directly quoted by the author of Hebrews in Hebrews 1:8–9.  The quotation opens with "but about the Son He says..." indicating that God Himself is calling the Messiah God.  Don't let anyone tell you Jesus isn't God.  God Himself calls Jesus God.

God the Father declares that the throne of His Son will endure forever.  Carefully note that the Son reigns with a "scepter of uprightness."  This is yet another connection to the picture of Jesus' return in Revelation 19.  He will rule the nations with a rod of iron—a rod the Church will also possess (Rev. 2:26–27).

Now get this, not only do we see the distinction between God the Father (speaking) and God the Son (the One being spoken to) in this passage, but there may even be a hint of all three Persons of the Godhead working together.  Note verse 7: "therefore God, Your God, has anointed You..."  Which member of the Godhead anointed Christ?  Was it not the Holy Spirit at His baptism?

God the Father, speaking, tells God the Son that "Your God has anointed You..."  The Divine Speaker refers to God here in the third person doing the anointing of the Son, perhaps indicating a distinction between the Speaker and the One doing the anointing of the Son, yet all three are explicitly called God.

V. 8 - Myrrh, and aloes, [and] cassia || [Cover] all Your garments; Out of palaces of ivory, || Stringed instruments have made You glad.

This is an unmistakable reference to the burial of the Messiah after He died as an atoning sacrifice for sin.  Compare to John 19:39–40:

...and Nicodemus also came—who came to Jesus by night at the first—carrying a mixture of myrrh and aloes, as it were, one hundred pounds.  Therefore they took the body of Jesus, and bound it with linen clothes with the spices, according as it was the custom of the Jews to prepare for burial;

Either the Apostle John made this account up in order to demonstrate that Jesus fulfills Psalm 45 or Jesus did indeed fulfill the words of the psalmist just as He said He would (Lk. 24:44)!

VV. 9–12 - Daughters of kings [are] among Your precious ones, || A queen has stood at Your right hand, || In pure gold of Ophir.  Listen, O daughter, and see, incline your ear, || And forget your people, and your father’s house, || And the King desires your beauty, || Because He [is] your Lord—bow yourself to Him, || And the daughter of Tyre with a present, || The rich of the people appease your face.

The scene now shifts to the King enthroned in His palace.  At His right hand, beside His throne, is a Gentile queen covered in the gold of Ophir (Ophir is the name of a Gentile port city or coastal region from which King Solomon obtained large amounts of gold).  The queen is adorned in the most exquisite gold of her Gentile people.  "Daughters of kings," the queen being one, is a reference to the royal daughters of the Gentile nations who in ancient times would marry the princes and kings of other kingdoms for purposes of alliances and covenants between the royal families.

Not only is her husband the King, He is also her Lord.  She worships Him.  Compare this gold-adorned bride to Revelation 21:9–10, 18.

This queen is a vivid picture of Christ's primarily Gentile Church.

VV. 13–17 - All glory [is] the daughter of the king within, || Her clothing [is] with filigrees of gold.  In various colors she is brought to the King; Afterward, virgins, her companions, || Are brought to You.  They are brought with joy and gladness, || They come into the palace of the King.  Instead of Your fathers are Your sons, || You appoint them for princes in all the earth.  I make mention of Your Name in all generations, || Therefore peoples praise You, || For all time and forever!

This final section opens with a further description of the queen's beauty: she has filigrees of gold (compare to the streets of gold in Rev. 21:21) and is covered in many other colors (compare to Rev. 21:19).  She is brought to the King in the palace.  The Church doesn't enter Heaven by its own power, but is literally "brought" or "carried" (תּוּבַ֪ל) into the Throne Room of God (cf. 1 Thess. 4:16–17; Acts 15:14).  Notice again from the previous section that the queen is standing right beside the King (cf. Rev. 3:21; 4:1–2; 12:5; see also this article).

Now the big reveal comes in verse 14: only after (אַחַר) she comes to the King are her virgin companions brought into the palace.  This is the only place in the entire Old Testament that virgins in a wedding party are depicted entering in to meet a bridegroom.  This processional follows afterward.

Given that virtually everything Jesus said and did as recorded in the gospel accounts was sourced from something in the Hebrew Scriptures, it would seem that Psalm 45 forms the basis of the Matthew 25 Parable of the Ten Virgins.  This connection is further bolstered by the fact that this entire psalm is about the Messiah-King—Jesus Christ—who Himself is the bridegroom in the psalm, just as Jesus is the bridegroom pictured in Matthew 25!

While the question of what the oil in the parable represents is certainly meaningful, it may be a less practical pursuit then who the virgins are.  What we immediately find in Psalm 45 is that the bride and her virgin companions are separate entities.  The bride has already met the bridegroom before her companions do.  This would add weight to the position of the late Jack Kelley, who makes a clear case that the virgins have nothing to do with the rapture and everything to do with the Second Advent—those tasked with being faithful as they await Christ's physical return to earth.

Psalm 45 connects the dots.  It tells us about our glorious and divine King who will vanquish His enemies and marry His bride, the Church, who is stationed with Him in His palace before her virgin companions arrive.

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The Life of Joseph and The Time of Jacob's Trouble

The amazing picture shown us in Psalm 45, which is ultimately fulfilled in Christ, is similar to the prophetic template revealed through the life of Jacob's favorite son Joseph, which perfectly foreshadowed all the major aspects of the life of Christ, including, and up to, the rapture of Christ's Church and the deliverance of Israel during the future Tribulation.  Compare:

• Jesus Christ, a Jew, an Israelite / Joseph, son of Jacob (Israel)
• Jesus' miracles make His Pharisee countrymen jealous / Joseph's dreams make his own brothers jealous
• Jesus handed over to death by His own people / Joseph handed over to death by his own brothers
• Christ in the tomb / Joseph in the pit
• Christ raised from the dead / Joseph lifted from the pit
• Christ leaves Israel / Joseph taken to Egypt
• Having overcome, Christ exalted and seated at the right hand of God, to rule all nations / Joseph exalted to the right hand of Pharaoh; Egypt was the world superpower at the time (ruling all nations)
• Jesus begins His ministry at about the age of 30 / Joseph enters the service of the king at the age of 30
• God the Father gifts Christ with an elect body of primarily Gentile saints—His body, His bride, the Church / Pharaoh gifts Joseph with a Gentile bride, Asenath
• Jesus receives His bride shortly before the seven year Tribulation / Joseph receives his bride, Asenath, shortly before the seven years of famine
• Christ and His bride remain in Heaven during the full extent of the Tribulation / Joseph and Asenath remain safely tucked away in Egypt, in palaces of splendor, during the full extent of the seven years of famine
• Israel will enter the Time of Jacob's Trouble, a future seven year period of judgment on all nations; this is the prophetic "woman in labor"; and it happens because of Israel's unbelief in Messiah, thinking He is dead, not knowing He can deliver them / Jacob (Israel) and his sons enter seven years of famine thinking that Joseph is dead, not knowing He already had all the power to deliver them
• In the midst of the Tribulation, Israel begins to understand and believe that Jesus is the Messiah / Two years into the seven years of famine, Joseph's brothers discover that he is alive and second-in-command of Egypt
• God delivers the Israelites in the middle of the Tribulation, taking them to a place prepared outside of Israel for the last half of Daniel's 70th Week / Joseph's brothers and his father Jacob, and their families who remained in Israel, escape the famine, coming to the land of Goshen in Egypt near the middle of the famine where they are provided for by Joseph

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Tribulation, Great Tribulation, and The Time of Trial

Oftentimes the simplest explanations are the correct ones.  I've found that many of my greatest blunders in life have come from overthinking and overcomplicating things.  God's messages recorded in Scripture were not given to create confusion, but to clear it up.  God is not the author of confusion (1 Cor. 14:33).  He blessed us with Scripture so that we could see the world around us clearly and understand Him intimately.  Theology that requires intellect rather than humility to decipher is not right belief.  God's truth is freely available to all who would receive it.  If the plain sense makes sense, seek no other sense—line upon line, here a little, there a little.  Trust the plain words of Scripture.

Connecting with Stephanie's recent article on the Lord's Prayer, perhaps the Church has historically been overthinking eschatology, prayer, and many other things.  Perhaps the most simple answers, if grounded in the literal interpretation of Scripture, suffice.

Jesus clearly told His disciples that they would suffer tribulation (θλῖψις) in John 16:33.  Yet Jesus also told His disciples that they should pray for deliverance from temptation/trial (πειρασμός) in Matthew 6:13.  These are not the same things.

Christians cannot escape tribulation (θλῖψις), but they can escape temptation/trial/testing (πειρασμός).

Little 't' tribulation has been faced by every generation of Christians, yet every generation has prayed for God to lead them away from temptation.  What have we really been praying for?  Scripture says God cannot tempt anyone (Jas. 1:13; verbal form of πειρασμός), so why would we need to pray for Him to not lead us into it?  I can vouch that I've prayed that prayer many thousands of times and yet I never escaped the temptation of sin.  I overcame sin and avoided sin, but have not been delivered from the very temptation itself.  In this body of sin and death temptation is ever-present.  Our escape from temptation itself is yet to come.

Now if God hasn't kept us from the general temptation to sin (πειρασμός), then what πειρασμός are we really asking Him to "not lead us into" when we pray the Lord's Prayer?

Scripture supplies a clear, literal answer in Revelation 3:10:

Because you kept the word of My endurance, I also will keep you from the hour of the trial [πειρασμός] that is about to come on all the world, to try [verbal form of πειρασμός] those dwelling on the earth.

This is the exact same word found in the Lord's Prayer.  Here is a temptation/trial that we can be kept from!  It's a period of time yet to come that will literally effect "all the world."  Revelation 3:10 is the very fulfillment of what the Church has been praying for for 2,000 years!  We've been asking God to deliver us from this time of trial coming on the whole world, and in Revelation 3:10 God says, "Yes!"

Furthermore, in Luke 21:36 the Lord told His disciples that they were to pray for escape:

...watch, then, in every season, praying that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are about to come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.

Perhaps this was just a simple reminder to His disciples to continue the manner of prayer He first taught them as recorded in Matthew 6—the Lord's Prayer.

Just as there is a distinction between general πειρασμός that all Christians face and the coming worldwide πειρασμός that we will be delivered from, so too there is a distinction between the general tribulation of life in a post-Edenic world that no Christian can escape from and the Great Tribulation yet to come (Mt. 24:21; Rev. 2:22; 7:14).

The pre-tribulational rapture isn't escape from trial and tribulation, it is escape from THE trial and THE tribulation.  No Christians escape the former.  All Christians escape the latter.  The rapture is a promise firmly grounded in the plain sense of Scripture.

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