Love is clearly a major theme in the Bible. From cover to cover it speaks of God’s love for humanity. Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is the two-pronged exhortation to love God with all we are and to love our neighbor as ourselves. But for all the discussion about love in the Bible people rarely if ever think of the Bible promoting romantic love. Psalm 45 is all about romantic love. It affirms and glorifies the relationship between a righteous king and the woman he loves.
Consider these words from near the end of the Psalm
Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear:
forget your people and your father’s house,
11 and the king will desire your beauty.
Since he is your lord, bow to him.
12 The people[b] of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts,
the richest of the people.
13 All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold.
14 In many-colored robes she is led to the king,
with her virgin companions following behind her.
15 With joy and gladness they are led along
as they enter the palace of the king.
The Psalmist leaves us with the picture of the young virgin bride, being accompanied by her bridesmaids as she enters the palace of the king and leaves her father’s family behind. The king greatly desires her and her beauty and she is gladly entering his palace. It is a picture of romance and love.
The emphasis of loving God and loving our neighbor is certainly deserving of our devotion. But that should never be to the exclusion of the value God places on the romantic love between a man and a woman. God has created us to be in relationship and to have the deepest and most beautiful of human relationships between a man and woman. Christians are often too quick to pass by the joy and glory of this relationship. If it gets spoken of at all it is usually a very forensic discussion about biblical morality. But this Psalm is a love song, it is not directed to God and the praise of His name, at least not directly. Rather it is in honor of something God has created to exist between a husband and wife that only poetry can begin to describe.
Perhaps our marriages would be stronger if we added a touch of romance and poetry into them. Perhaps if Christ followers were more open to the wonder and beauty of romantic love, there would be a more complete understanding of love. The Greeks had multiple words that we translate as love. The understood that there are numerous facets to love, like the most brilliant of diamonds. Love is full, rich, beautiful, deep, intimate, glorious, and precious. It is the stuff of poem and song. The Bible affirms and even promotes such love and because it does we should embrace it as a gift from God.
Dan Lacich: Provocative Christian Living 
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