In the sefer Zera Shimshon on Parashat Lech Lecha (in the sixth essay), the author explains the entirety of Psalm 45 in Tehillim in a novel way: the entire psalm is expounded as referring to Avraham Avinu - to his path in discovering the Creator, his dissemination of faith, his dedication to drawing people close, and the War of the Four Kings and its spiritual roots. We will follow the order of the pesukim and see how he expounds each one.
לַמְנַצֵּחַ עַל־שֹׁשַׁנִּים לִבְנֵי־קֹרַח מַשְׂכִּיל שִׁיר יְדִידֹת׃ רָחַשׁ לִבִּי דָּבָר טוֹב אֹמֵר אָנִי מַעֲשַׂי לְמֶלֶךְ לְשׁוֹנִי עֵט סוֹפֵר מָהִיר׃ - "For the conductor, on shoshanim, by the sons of Korach, a maskil, a song of loves. My heart stirred with a good theme; I say my works are for a king; my tongue is the pen of a swift scribe."
At first, Avraham had no one to learn from, and he pondered in his heart and said: Can it be that this world has no guide? He sought to bow to the sun, but when he saw that its light set in the evening, he said: This is not the Master of the Universe. And similarly with the moon, and with fire - until the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself to him and let him know who He was. This is "My heart stirred with a good theme": at first there was only stirring, searching, seeking divinity. And once he discovered and recognized that there must be a guide here, he said: "I say my works are for a king" - for the King of the universe, Who directs everything.
It is also possible to explain (or alternatively) that he said this even from the very beginning. Even before discovering who the guide was, he had already stated that he wished to bow to none other than the King, the King of the universe, even though he did not yet know who He was, and he exerted himself to seek and find Him. Even at the start of his journey, "I say my works are for a king" was already in his heart, and all that remained was to search and discover who He was.
The quill differs from spoken speech: the written word endures forever, and its grace spreads boundlessly, unlike words spoken by mouth, which are not heard by the entire world, and whoever hears them may forget them, so they do not last forever. There is a distinct advantage to what is written: written words are engraved; written words are preserved.
It is often pointed out: there were many great figures in history of whom no memory remains, simply because they did not leave books behind. And how do we even know that they were giants? From the books of the greats whom we do know, who received approbations (haskamot) from those giants. A remarkable thing emerges: the one who went to receive the approbation is known to us, whereas the giver of the approbation, who was even greater than him, is unknown because he did not author a book. Thus we see that written words are preserved. True, nowadays whatever a person speaks is filmed and recorded, and everything can be recalled when summoned, but in their times, nothing survived except what was written down.
Regarding this, Avraham said: Once I found the One my soul loves, to know the Master of the Universe - to recognize the Creator of the world - I did not pride myself on being unique in my world, nor did I rejoice that the entire world relied on falsehood and would be lost while I alone stood upon the truth and was saved. I did not say: As long as I know, what do I care about the rest of the world? Rather, "my tongue is the pen of a swift scribe" - I exerted myself to convert converts and speak good, truthful words to their hearts, so that they would be firmly fixed in their hearts and never forgotten, just as a quill does. What the quill inscribes for days on end, so I strove to engrave upon the hearts of others.
Apparently, one could also explain this more simply, in accordance with the words of the Rambam. The Rambam describes at length how Avraham Avinu went about disseminating faith, and among his words, he writes that he authored books and circulated them among the nations. According to this, "my tongue is the pen of a swift scribe" is understood literally: what was on my tongue I transformed into a scribe's pen; I wrote these matters down and disseminated them.
יָפְיָפִיתָ מִבְּנֵי אָדָם הוּצַק חֵן בְּשִׂפְתוֹתֶיךָ עַל־כֵּן בֵּרַכְךָ אֱלֹהִים לְעוֹלָם׃ - "You are more handsome than the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever."
For this, the Holy One, Blessed is He, praises him. The word yafyafita ("you are fairer") is doubled, for it would have been enough to say yafita, as in "How fair and how pleasant you are, O love, for delights" (Shir HaShirim 7:7). Rather, this is like yerakrak (intensely green) and adamdam (intensely red), where the duplication of the root indicates intensity. In the understanding of Lashon HaKodesh, duplicating part of a word signifies an amplified action: yerakrak is the greenest of greens, adamdam is the reddest of reds, and this is how the Gemara expounds it (even though Ibn Ezra explains the opposite, that it means faint green and faint red, which is the accepted understanding today). Here too, yafyafita indicates the immense beauty of Avraham Avinu. And the essence of his beauty came to him "from the children of men" - for he would bring people back in repentance and draw them close.
And it can also be said that according to the simple meaning of the verse, there is room for a question, just as Rashi explained on the verse, "And Hashem came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men built" - were they then the children of donkeys or camels? Rather, it means the descendants of Adam HaRishon. And so too here: the primary beauty of Avraham came to him because he was a son of Adam, and was not himself the first father, for had he been the first man, perhaps he would not have been so beautiful. And as explained regarding the Midrash Yalkut on Parashat Bereshit: The Holy One, Blessed is He, said, "If I create Avraham first - if he ruins, I have no one after him to rectify; rather, I will create Adam, so that if he ruins, Avraham will come and rectify." How fortunate that Avraham is the son and not the father: had he been the first and ruined, who would have rectified after him? But now that Adam HaRishon was the father and Avraham came generations later, after Adam HaRishon ruined, the son came and rectified.
The Midrash relates that Terach was an idol merchant, and once he left Avraham to sell in his place. A man came wishing to buy, and Avraham asked him: "How old are you?" The man replied: "Fifty or sixty years old." Avraham said to him: "Woe to that man who is sixty years old and seeks to bow down to something one day old - they fashioned this idol today, look how the material is still soft!" The man would become ashamed and walk away. And since this caused a financial loss to Avraham's family, as he did not sell and did not earn a profit, in response the verse says: "Grace is poured into your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever" - do not worry, you will not lose from this matter, and Hashem will ensure that you have livelihood and profit even without selling idols.
חֲגוֹר־חַרְבְּךָ עַל־יָרֵךְ גִּבּוֹר הוֹדְךָ וַהֲדָרֶךָ׃ וַהֲדָרְךָ צְלַח רְכַב עַל־דְּבַר־אֱמֶת וְעַנְוָה־צֶדֶק וְתוֹרְךָ נוֹרָאוֹת יְמִינֶךָ׃ חִצֶּיךָ שְׁנוּנִים עַמִּים תַּחְתֶּיךָ יִפְּלוּ בְּלֵב אוֹיְבֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ׃ - Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one, your glory and your majesty. And in your majesty prosper, ride on for the cause of truth and humble righteousness, and may your right hand teach you awesome deeds. Your arrows are sharp; nations shall fall under you, into the heart of the king's enemies.
These three verses speak of the war of the four kings. The Siftei Kohen on this parashah asked: How could Avraham go alone with Eliezer to wage war against four mighty kings who had conquered the five, and how could he rely on a miracle? After all, when the Holy One, Blessed is He, performs a miracle, He does so within the framework of nature. A proof of this is from the war of Ai - there too, when a miracle was performed, they did not send a single person, but everyone went out to battle, for one must act in accordance with nature. (Let us emphasize: the Siftei Kohen cited here was one of the disciples of the Ari z"l, and is not the author of the Shach, one of the commentators on the Shulchan Aruch.)
And the verse resolves this: "Gird your sword" - meaning that Avraham's heart was prepared for the resting of the Shechinah, and therefore the Holy One, Blessed is He, told him to gird his sword and go forth to battle.
It is known to us that the intention of the four kings when they captured Lot was to nullify and destroy the spark of King David's soul, which stems from the daughters of Lot, as well as the soul of Rava. For the verse states, "[And they took] Lot and his possessions, the son of Avram's brother, and departed" (Bereshit 14:12). What novelty is there in stating that they took all of Lot's possessions? It is obvious, for they plundered the entire city! Moreover, was it because of the wealth they took that Avraham was stirred with greater zeal to go out and rescue them? Was it money that concerned him? Does not the verse state, "And Avram heard that his brother was taken captive" (ibid. 14:14), and nothing more, making no mention of possessions? If so, why did Scripture tell us that they took Lot and his possessions? And similarly in the other verse: "And he brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his brother Lot and his possessions" (ibid. 14:16) - once again, that same extra emphasis on possessions.
Rather, this certainly does not refer to literal possessions, but that this "property" refers to the holy souls destined to emerge from Lot. And this is also alluded to: Rechuso Ben Achi Avram ("his possessions, the son of the brother of Avram") forms the acronym Rava (רב"א). Thus writes the holy Ari in Sha'ar HaPesukim, that the soul of Rava was there in Sodom, as was the soul of King David: "I have found David My servant" - and where did I find him? In Sodom, for from there He extracted it from amidst the kelipot (as discussed at greater length, along with further hints, in Mishnat HaGilgulim). Avraham went to bring back Lot and his possessions, meaning to rescue those sparks from within the kelipah.
Similarly, "and afterward they shall go out with great wealth." Was this the comfort offered to Avraham - that they would have plenty of money? Did money hold any value in his eyes? After all, it says, "And Avram was very heavy with livestock, with silver, and with gold" - and what does "heavy" mean? If someone gives you a bag of diamonds and says "take it," it is not heavy at all; it feels very light. But a bag of stones is heavy. To Avraham, a bag of diamonds was heavy, an actual burden, for he had no personal need for it. Certainly one can use money to draw people closer to Torah and practice hospitality, but wealth possesses no intrinsic virtue in itself. If so, "great wealth" refers to the immense spiritual refinement with which the Jewish people emerged from Egypt, out of the iron furnace, after which they were worthy of receiving the Torah. This is the true wealth: spiritual riches, not material silver and gold.
The Yalkut Reuveni states that at that time, Avraham was still uncircumcised, and specifically because of this, he held dominion over the right and left sides of the sitra achara (the side of impurity), in order to subdue and nullify the power of the kelipah. For one who stands entirely on the side of holiness finds it difficult, in a certain sense, to battle the kelipah, as he lacks the dimension of "from the forest itself comes the axe-handle that fells it." There is an expression of Chazal: whatever is not of its own kind cannot destroy it. For something to successfully damage another thing, it must possess an element of that same kind. As the Gemara says: in order to chop down trees in a forest, the axe-handle must be made of wood, and then from within itself, wood comes and destroys the wood.
This is also true in the work of outreach: when seeking to influence people who are distant, it is far more effective to bring someone from their own midst, someone who knew all their pitfalls and can rebuke them to their faces - this is destroying something from within. But with someone who is not from among them, if you bring someone entirely foreign to their world to admonish them, the words do not speak to them at all. Bring someone who emerged from within their own ranks, and there is a revolution.
Therefore Avraham was still "of its kind," for he was still uncircumcised, and by virtue of this he could rule over the right and left sides of the sitra achara, as he still carried the impurity of uncircumcision, and thus subdue and nullify the power of the kelipah. Especially since Yishmael and Esav were destined to descend from him, representing the right and left of the sitra achara - he had a hold on them, and therefore had the power to dismantle them. In order to achieve this nullification, he specifically needed to be uncircumcised rather than circumcised, in the manner of "from within the forest itself comes the axe-handle that fells it," where the very wood of the forest produces the axe that fells its trees.
This explains the verse, "Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one" - regarding matters of the thigh. "Thigh" is always a euphemism for the covenant of circumcision, as in "Place your hand under my thigh," where he made him swear by the brit milah. That is to say: your strength to go out to battle comes from the matters of the thigh, from the foreskin that was still upon him. And even though uncircumcision is a disgrace for us, here it served him as glory and majesty.
"Your glory and your majesty" - this refers to left and right, so that the kelipah might be subdued. The sefirot are divided into the aspects of Gevurot (judgments) and Chasadim (kindnesses), represented by the pillars of ChaChaN, BaGeH, and DaTY; BaGeH is the left side: Binah, below it Gevurah, and below it Hod. Thus, "your glory" (hodecha) represents the left side, the aspect of Gevurot, through which the kelipah is subdued. On the other hand, "your majesty" (hadarecha) is the right side of holiness, alluding to the monarchy of the House of David - "and in your majesty prosper, ride on," that he will prosper and ascend the royal throne.
"On behalf of truth" - for truth endures forever. And regarding David it is likewise written, "It shall be established forever like the moon," and "Forever I will keep My lovingkindness for him" - David, King of Israel, lives and endures. This is the very attribute of Avraham, for on account of Avraham, David merited greatness, as Chazal expounded on the verse, "Then I said: Behold, I have come, with the scroll of the book written about me." All of David's greatness came to him through the merit of Avraham, who rescued those souls from Sedom and refined them, until they ultimately attained royalty over Israel.
Furthermore, in Avraham's merit, the Jewish people were privileged to witness miracles and wonders in the days of Haman, as it is written there, "Now when the turn (tor) of Esther came" - which corresponds to the turtledove (tor) and the young bird of the Covenant Between the Parts, where Avraham took a tor and a fledgling, alluding to "the turn (tor) of Esther," as cited in the Yalkut. This is the meaning of "and your right hand shall guide you (ve-torecha) to awesome deeds": "your right hand" (yeminecha) refers to Mordechai, who was called an Ish Yemini (a Benjamite), and "ve-torecha" refers to Esther, who represents the tor, whose turn arrived by virtue of the turtledove and fledgling of Avraham Avinu.
"Your arrows are sharp" - One might ask: are not ordinary arrows sharp, for if not, they cannot kill? Rather, it comes to teach that they were extraordinarily sharp, exceedingly sharp, penetrating deep into their inner core to subdue the kelipah (the shell of impurity). For we are not speaking here of mere physical arrows, but of arrows aimed at battling the kelipah, wrenching their prey from their mouths and rescuing Lot, from whom the dynasty of the House of David would emerge.
"Nations fall beneath you" - Did they not die and perish? Why then does it say "fall beneath you"? Rather, this is an allusion to the subjugation of the kelipah: the kelipah falls beneath him. For this is not merely a physical battle, but a spiritual war.
Why specifically "in the heart"? Because the wicked are controlled by their hearts, as our Sages teach. The heart, as explained several times based on the Malbim, is the guide of a person, and the wicked person is guided by his heart. And what is the heart? The Hebrew letters of lev (heart) hint at ba li ("I feel like it"). All physical desires stem from the heart. As discussed in a previous shiur regarding the difference between Avraham and Bil'am: Avraham Avinu represents fulfilling the will of Hashem in perfection, whereas Bil'am stands for doing whatever he feels like, following wherever desire pulls. Therefore it says, "In the heart of the king's enemies": the arrow must be shot straight into the heart, into their vulnerable spot, which is the dominion of their heart.
Furthermore, one may explain "Nations fall beneath you": do not grieve or worry lest there be among them even a single righteous person or God-fearing individual. For we find in the Midrash that Avraham was distressed over this, until the Holy One, Blessed be He, told him, "Fear not, Avram" - I promise you that they are all enemies of the King. Avraham feared lest he had killed someone destined to convert, or someone from whom a righteous person was destined to descend.
We have already seen such apprehension throughout history: Moshe Rabbeinu "saw that there was no man" and only then "struck down the Egyptian," for he foresaw that no worthy person was destined to descend from him. Likewise, "And Yaakov was greatly afraid, and he was distressed," upon which Rashi explains: "He was afraid" - lest he be killed; "and he was distressed" - lest he kill others. And the homiletic interpretation asks: Who is "others" (acheirim)? Rabbi Meir - for Yaakov feared lest he kill those destined to descend from Eisav, as Rabbi Meir, who would convert, was destined to emerge from him. Thus, there is genuine reason to fear lest one kill someone from whom goodness will yet arise. Therefore, the Holy One, Blessed be He, reassured him: Fear not, Avram, I promise you that they are all enemies of the King.
Psalm 45 is expounded here in its entirety in reference to Avraham Avinu: "My heart was stirred" - his search for the King of the Universe; and "I speak my works to the King" - his resolve to bow only to the true Leader; "My tongue is the pen of a ready scribe" - that he was not satisfied with keeping the truth to himself, but engraved it upon the hearts of others, like a quill preserving words for generations; "You are fairer than the children of men" - a twofold beauty, stemming from returning people in repentance and from being the son of Adam HaRishon who came to rectify his flaw; "Grace is poured into your lips" - his rebuke in the idol shop and the blessing granted to compensate for the loss. And from that point on, the war of the four kings: not a war over money and property, but the rescue of the holy sparks of David and Rava from within the kelipah, through the power of "Gird your sword upon your thigh" - from within itself, in the aspect of majesty and splendor, left and right, through "and your right hand shall guide you to awesome deeds" which hints at Esther and Mordechai, and "Your arrows are sharp" which pierce the heart of the king's enemies - the ultimate subjugation of the kelipah itself, under Hashem's promise: Fear not, Avram.