Psalm 45:8 reads
אָהַבְתָּ צֶּדֶק, וַתִּשְׂנָא-רֶשַׁע: עַל-כֵּן מְשָׁחֲךָ אֱלֹהִים אֱלֹהֶיךָ, שֶׁמֶן שָׂשׂוֹן-- מֵחֲבֵרֶךָ.
Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated wickedness; {N} therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
What is the proper way to translate this? Who is the 'God of thy God'?
The Hebrew literally says, "God, your God". This translation is straight-forward and, as far as I can tell, undisputed. The interesting question concerns the interpretation:
Ps 45 seems to be a psalm about a king, perhaps used in the ordination of kings:
Psa. 45:5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King’s enemies; The peoples fall under You.
Psa. 45:9 Kings’ daughters are among Your honorable women;
Psa. 45:10-11 Listen, O daughter, Consider and incline your ear; Forget your own people also, and your father’s house; So the King will greatly desire your beauty; Because He is your Lord, worship Him.
Etc.
Either way, the king is the main character of the psalm. The "sons of Korah" who wrote the psalm (according to its inscription), were music leaders in the temple (1Chr 6:31-37), which was in Judah. This is therefore about a king or kings of Judah, of the line of David - kings who the Old Testament says were (figuratively) anointed and blessed by God.
This anointing by God is what v7 is speaking of:
Psa. 45:7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.
God is called "God, your God" to distinguish him from the "god" of v6, which is referring to the king himself in exalted terms. The book of Hebrews refers to this as a Messianic prophecy, which makes sense in light of the Messiah being the "son of David", the "branch of the root of Jesse", the one prophesied to restore and fulfill Davidic kingship. Those who see this as exclusively being a messianic prophecy, compare it to Ps 110:1, "The Lord said to my lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool," arguing that the reference to God's God in Ps 45:6-7 cannot be resolved except by Jesus. I respect this opinion, but disagree: calling a king "a god" is no more blasphemy than calling an excellent meal "divine" - it is simply an term of great respect and appreciation. Neither do we object to the term "godly" when describing a man of good moral fibre. Likewise, no one saying of a celebrity, "he/she is a god" means that the celebrity is a non-human deity with supernatural powers. Calling the Davidic king "god" in no way elevates him to divine status - he is clearly distinguished from God by v7, which says that the king was chosen and anointed by God, who is the king's God.
That being said, I am not saying that the text in addition to primarily functioning as a psalm about a king or kings does not also double as a messianic prophecy.
The NT book called "To the Hebrews" interprets Psalm 45 as referring to Jesus, the Messiah:
ESV Hebrews 1:
8 But of the Son [Jesus] he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”
Since the Psalm refers to Jesus as "O god" he is careful to distinguish him from Almighty God by referring to "YOUR God". This makes it clear that though Jesus is referred to as "Oh god" he is not the Almighty, since he has a God. As Paul said:
ESV 1 Cor 11:3 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
So we see that Christ, even in his resurrected and glorified state sits next to God but rules as a god but obeys God Almighty.
Many scriptures explicitly identify the God of Jesus the Messiah as "the Father":
ESV Romans 15:6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
ESV 2Co 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
ESV Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
ESV 1 Cor 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
Peter also identifies Jesus' God as "the Father":
ESV 1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Jesus also identifies his Father as his God:
ESV John 20:17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'”
I could go on but I hope that answers your question satisfactorily, that the God of Jesus is "the Father" aka YHVH.
Please see this related post.
The Hebrew, which has no capital letters, says literally "god your god". So in English, much depends on capitalization. Elohim can mean both the One God of Israel and "the gods" generally. The possessive word אֱ֭לֹהֶיךָ (’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā) is translated here as "your God." However, it could just as well be translated as "your god."
In other words ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā is generic, while elohim is used in place of the God of Israel's actual name (YHWH). So I suggest that "God your god" carries the meaning better than the OP's translation.
To answer the question: the phrase does not speak of God's god, but of the king's deity. It is simply another way of saying "The Lord thy g/God," substituting "elohim" for YHWH.
Answer
God the Father is the God of God in Psalms 45:8.
We can understand this from other parts of the Scripture.
Explanation
I am not a Jew who followed the Tanakh and ended up in the New Testament as a Christian. I am a Christian, which means one who follows Christ and His Apostles, and I understand the Old Testament through the New Testament.
The New Testament is crystal clear in its teachings.
For example, in Hebrews 1:10-12, we see God the Father calling His Son Jesus Christ as Yahweh who created the heavens and the earth:
“God spoke” (Heb 1:1) “but as to the Son” (verse 8) “And, "You, Lord (in the Old Testament, this is Yahweh), at the beginning founded the earth, and the heavens are works of Your hands. They will vanish away, but You will continue; and they will all become old, like a garment, and You shall fold them up like a covering, and they shall be changed. But You are the same, and Your years shall not fail." (Heb 1:10-12).
[The inspired author of Hebrews depicts God the Father as quoting Psalms 102:25-27 which talks about Yahweh who created the heavens and the earth; but God the Father applies this to Jesus Christ]
Hence it is not difficult to understand that the same God addresses His own Son, Jesus Christ:
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever” (verse 8).
So, the One who speaks here is God the Father. He calls His own Son as God.
Like Father like Son.
He calls Jesus, God twice; once as we saw above (in verse 8) and the second in verse 9:
“You have loved righteousness and have hated wickedness; because of this has anointed You O God (in the vocative), the God of You, with (the) oil of exultation above the companions of You” (Biblehub).
For better clarity, I rearrange the above in a better rendering:
“You have loved righteousness and have hated wickedness; because of this, the God of You, has anointed You, O God (in the vocative), with (the) oil of exultation above the companions of You”.
Conclusion
Jesus is referred to as the Creator God (precisely Yahweh) in the New Testament. So, definitely, His God (God of God) is none other than God the Father.
Nowhere is a son different from his father! If father is a human then definitely his son also is human.
So, if the heavenly Father is God, then definitely His “monogenes” Son is also God, just as God the Father proves in the Scriptures.
No wonder, “God” is the English translation of the Greek “Theos” which in turn is the Greek translation of the Hebrew “Elohim” which is a plural word used in singular most of the time.
YHWH or YHVH is Yeshua, who we know as Jesus. Psalm 45:8 is in reference to him and his Father, it is just the same as we hear him say in Revelation 3:12
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
No but the disciples knew his name. But they are one in the sames as 1 John 5:7
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
They are 1 as God does not change and has always been One.
Deuteronomy 6:4
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
John 5:19
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise".
John 6:46
Not that any man hath seen the Father, save He that is of God; He hath seen the Father.
John 5:37
And the Father Himself, who hath sent Me, hath borne witness of Me. Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape.
John 17:6
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
I can go on and on with the full counsel of God's word to prove this to you all if you'd like however it makes for a lengthy conversation.
The easiest way to look at it all is to go back to John 1 and start reading from verse 1 and immediately you'll find out.
Psalm 45:7 is clearly referring to Jesus as God, and God intended to give us a direction that His Son is God, and is equal with Him(and Jesus been equal with God, did not see it as robbery to come to earth to be like mere motals), we know this because Heb 1:4 Tells us this God in Ps 45 is Jesus. We also know in John when he was addressing Philip, He said, and im just paraphrasing, I have been with you all this time but you say show us the father? If you can see me you are looking at the Father. Me and the Father are One. We are also told that the name Jesus is greater than any other name given. Meaning Jesus is great in heaven and in earth..the two places that Jesus created, but before this, Jesus was with God from the beginning. I am the first and the last, alpha and Omega, before Abraham was, I am.
