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May turn in your Bibles to Psalm
45 for our meditation this evening. Psalm 45, the glory of Christ. Spurgeon says, with reference
to the subject of Psalm 45, of whom the author is writing, he
says, some here see Solomon and Pharaoh's daughter only. They
are short-sighted. Others see both Solomon and Christ. They are cross-eyed. He says,
well-focused spiritual eyes see here Jesus only. I agree with Mr. Spurgeon. We have divine commentary
and interpretation of this psalm in the book of Hebrews and it
is applied to our Lord Jesus Christ. Just pick up reading
in Psalm 45 beginning in verse 1. To the chief musicians set
to the lilies, a contemplation of the sons of Korah, a song
of love. My heart is overflowing with
a good theme. I recite my composition concerning
the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready
writer. You are fairer than the sons of men. Grace is poured
upon your lips. Therefore, God has blessed you
forever. Gird your sword upon your thigh,
oh mighty one. with your glory and your majesty. And in your majesty, ride prosperously
because of truth, humility, and righteousness. And your right
hand shall teach you awesome things. Your arrows are sharp
in the heart of the king's enemies. The peoples fall under you. Your
throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate
wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has
anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions.
All your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cashew
out of the ivory palaces by which they have made you glad. King's
daughters are among your honorable women. At your right hand stands
the queen in gold from Ophir. Listen, oh 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. And the daughter of Tyre will
come with a gift. The rich among the people will
seek your favor. The royal daughter is all glorious
within the palace. Her clothing is woven with gold.
She shall be brought to the king in robes of many colors. The
virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to you.
With gladness and rejoicing, they shall be brought. They shall
enter the king's palace. Instead of your fathers shall
be your sons, whom you shall make princes in all the earth.
I will make your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore,
the people shall praise you forever and ever. Amen. Well, let us
pray. Father, we thank you for this
wonderful and glowing description of Christ and his love for the
church. We just pray now that you would guide us by your spirit,
that you would cause us to think good thoughts concerning our
King, that we, like the psalmist, would take up our pen as a ready
writer and compose songs of love for the Savior King. How we thank
you that you have not dealt with us according to our sin nor rewarded
us according to our transgression. We thank you for the grace of
God Most High and for the glory of the Gospel, a free and sovereign
grace. We thank you for forgiveness.
We thank you that you have made us acceptable in your sight through
your beloved. And we just pray now that you
would bless our time together, and may it truly be worship.
And we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Well,
as I said, the psalmist is writing here, composing a song concerning
the Lord Christ. The New Testament shines that
light for us. I don't think anybody would take
need the time of persuasion. Obviously what he is writing
here is concerning our beloved Lord Jesus. And he sets out his
theme in verse one. He highlights his particular
intention. And then he highlights the glory
of the Savior, first in his person, secondly in his attributes, and
thirdly in his work. So similar to what we did this
morning, we're going to continue in that vein. If we are told
to look unto Jesus, this gives us great fodder and great ammunition
for our souls that we may indeed consider the Lord of Glory as
we run with endurance the race that is set before us. Just quickly,
let's look at the glory of the Savior stated, or introduced.
Verse 1, my heart is overflowing with a good theme. He says, I
recite my composition concerning the King, my tongue is the pen
of a ready writer. The overflowing heart could also
be translated, it boils or it bubbles over. You've seen a hot
spring or you've seen something bubbling before. That's his soul,
that's his heart as he's concerned or as he's considering the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that ought to be true of
us at least to some degree at some point in our Christian experience. We may not be poets, we may not
be composers of music, we may not have the artistic skill that
this psalmist was endowed with, but we ought to have the overflowing
heart of love and adoration for our Lord Jesus Christ. Spurgeon
says it is a sad thing when the heart is cold with good matter. In other words, we have the best
of matter with reference to our Lord Jesus. It's sad when the
heart is cold. He then goes on to say, and worse,
when it is warm with bad matter. In other words, if we're artists,
it's wicked to use it in an evil way. He says, but incomparably
well when a warm heart and good matter meet together. And this
is precisely what the psalmist is doing. My heart is overflowing
with a good theme. He is looking on to Jesus. He is considering his Savior.
He is reflecting upon the Messiah. He is reflecting upon God's King,
God's man, for the particular task of salvation. He sets forth
the theme in verse 2. He says, you are fairer than
the sons of men. The Hebrew word is double. It's
literally, you are fairer, fairer. Or we might say, you are beautiful,
beautiful. You ever looked into the eyes
of your beloved and said, you are beautiful, beautiful. You
are handsome, handsome. I don't think your beloved would
say, why do you say it twice? I think the emphasis highlights
the reality that you really think there's something good. And that
is what the psalmist is doing. My tongue is the pen of a ready
writer. I've got a bubbling heart, I've
got a flowing heart, I've got this desire, and I've got this
wonderful theme. You are fairer than the sons
of men. You are the fairest of all. Or
you are more beautiful than every other single thing on the face
of this earth. Again, Spurgeon says, Jesus is
so emphatically lovely that words must be doubled, strained, yea,
exhausted before he can be described. It's a great concept, a great
thought. Listen. He goes on to say, Among
the children of men, many have through grace been lovely in
character, yet they have each had a flaw. But in Jesus we behold
every feature of a perfect character in harmonious proportion. You
will never be let down meditating upon Jesus. You will never be
let down describing Him, the Pharaoh, than the sons of man. So that's the theme, that's the
direction the poet wants to take us. Now notice the glory of the
Savior in His person. He describes him as the God-man. Notice in verse 7, he highlights
the humanity of Christ. You love righteousness and hate
wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has
anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions.
This is precisely what we find in the New Testament. The Lord
Jesus Christ comes. He is man. He is fully man. He has true humanity. He sorrows. He weeps. He hungers. He thirsts.
He's tired. He lays down in a boat and he
takes a nap. The Lord Jesus Christ is true
man and we must never diminish that reality from our Bibles. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
only man, though. The Lord Jesus Christ is God.
He is deity. The self-same one described in
verse 7 is also given this statement in verse 6. Your throne, O God,
is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of your kingdom. This is the mystery of the second
person of the Godhead. He is deity. He takes on flesh
in the incarnation, one of the most glorious and wondrous things
that ever took place. Paul the Apostle describes this
in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 9 in a passage where he
is appealing to the church to give liberally to those who have
need. He uses the Lord Christ as an
example, and He points to this reality in terms of His incarnation. 2 Corinthians 8-9, He says, For
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He
was rich, refers to deity. He was rich. He is Almighty God. The verbs that the apostle employs
are the same sort that we find in John's prologue in John chapter
1. It tells us that the Word was
with God. It also then tells us that He
became flesh. He took on flesh. And this is
what Paul goes on to say, that though He was rich, yet for your
sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become
rich. When you look at the Lord Jesus
Christ, you have one that is fairer than the sons of men.
Not simply by virtue of his perfection, but by virtue of his person.
He is not like any other man. And so when the psalmist here
composes this song of love concerning the king, he highlights his person. And we need to think on that.
We need to meditate on who Christ is. I think at times, and it's
not bad, but at times we look at what God gives us. It's not
wrong to do that. Please don't go from here and
say, I can't thank God for what He's given me. But we need to
think on who God is. We need to dwell on who Jesus
Christ is. Not only what he has accomplished
for us. Theologians refer to that as
the work of Christ. And that is very important. Atonement,
substitution, sacrifice, expiation, propitiation. reconciliation,
redemption, salvation. All those terms apply to the
work of Jesus Christ. But we need to know Him in His
person. We need to know this theanthropic one. That means
the God-Man. We need to marvel. We need to
be amazed. We need to realize that when Christ comes into this
world, He is God Most High. He is from everlasting to everlasting. The eternal comes to the created. And it truly is an amazing reality. So as he takes up his pen to
write, as he comes to compose this song, he states his theme,
you are fairer than the sons of men, and he highlights the
reality that this one is in fact man, but he is in fact God as
well. Again, Spurgeon said, the psalmist
cannot restrain his adoration. His enlightened eye sees in the
royal husband of the church, God. God to be adored, God reigning,
God reigning everlastingly. He says, blessed sight, blind
are the eyes that cannot see God in Christ Jesus. When you get to the New Testament,
what do you find? You find specifically this, the
God-Man. You find the One who in the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And we beheld the Only Begotten,
full of glory, full of truth. We see Him expressing and exhibiting
that divine nature. We see Him expressing and exhibiting
that human nature in such a way that we ought to just marvel.
at what is going on in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. But
he doesn't stop there. He now goes on to describe the
glory of the Savior in his attributes. And by attributes, we mean those
things you say about someone. You met a new girl, you met a
new guy, and you were describing him to your friends. You'd say,
He's about six feet two, he's got great big guns, and he's
just solid. Those are attributes. You're
attributing something to him. Hopefully he'd say, he's godly,
he fears the Lord, he's in church, and he does all those things
because he loves the Savior. Hopefully that would be the first
thing. I was just kind of giving you an illustration. Attributes. Think about those. What is, or
what does the Bible say concerning God? He is everlasting. He is
holy. He is righteous. He is just.
Those are the attributes of God. Theologians classify that in
the incommunicable and the communicable. The incommunicable are those
things that are true of God alone. God is everlasting. He doesn't communicate that to
the creature. There are those, however, that
are communicated, goodness and righteousness and justice. Those
are communicable attributes. Well, when this psalmist takes
up his pen to write, when he declares that the king is fairer
than the sons of men, he highlights his glory in his person. He is
both God and man, but he's also glorious in his attributes. And
the first thing to notice is that he's eloquent. And what
do I mean by eloquent, but that he's a good speaker. And he's
a good speaker because of what he says is true. Notice in verse
2, grace is poured upon your lips. There is an incident in
Nazareth when the Lord Jesus Christ teaches. He goes into
the synagogue, he takes the scroll of the prophet, and the people
marvel. the people are amazed at the
gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. The Lord Christ
in His promises, the Lord Christ in His invitations, the Lord
Christ in His encouragements, the Lord Christ in His reproofs,
the Lord Christ in everything that proceeds from His mouth
is calculated to do good to His sons. Grace is poured upon His
lips. We need to understand this refers
to His blessed Word, to His blessed Gospel, to that statement concerning
His person and His work, the reality that He came into this
world, the reality that He obeys the Father's law, the reality
that He dies as a sacrifice and He rises again. And then that
blessed statement of invitation, come to me, all who are weary
and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Is there any more lips
in this universe more glorious than Christ? Isn't it the case
that the sons of God can say grace is poured upon your lips? Where do you find comfort in
this world? Hopefully from your spouse, hopefully from your children,
hopefully from your friends and whatever social network you tap
into. But hopefully as the believers
in the gospel, as the children of God, you find comfort in the
scripture. You see, that's something I think that people who have
been Christians longer than a year can testify. When all is said
and done, you know where our strength lies? When all is said
and done, you know what is the secret to our perseverance on
this race? It's the powerful word of Christ.
We need to value and we need to prize that word. If you're
not reading your Bible, I don't want to beat you up tonight.
I don't want to say, you horrible, wretched, perverse sinner. I
want to say, take and read. Grace is poured upon the lips
of our Savior, and that grace flows through His Word. Genesis
to Revelation declares one true and living God. Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit declares His works of creation, His works
of providence, and His works of redemption. Take and read
for the goodness of your own soul. Listen to the Savior. There is no surer word in this
world than what you have in your lap right now. We need to prize
and we need to value this book. We need to esteem this book.
We need to make it a part of our lives for the glory of God
to be sure and for our well-being. Sometimes people say, you know,
when I read, it's just like I'm just not getting it. Well, then
read more. Discipline yourself. Something
I fear for the young people. The young people, and even to
a degree when I was growing up, everything is image oriented.
To sustain thought anymore. I mean, we go from information,
from information. We can click and learn of a bombing
at a Boston marathon, and then you go check Canuck scores in
like 10 seconds. We don't take the time to agonize
and weep and sympathize and empathize for the people that just lost
loved ones. We click on this. Oh, wow, that's too bad. Well,
how did my Canucks do last night? Wait a minute. Something's wrong
with that. Maybe you saw last week that
plane. Somebody caught on their dashboard cam a plane just crashed,
just into a fireball. It feels weird watching that,
seeing people die. And yet we can go from that image
to the next image to the next image. And very often, young
people and children, you're not being trained to think. You have
to spend time in the book. You have to carve out time for
the book. You have to be alone with the
book. And you have to have the spirit who gave the book. You
don't just say, well, I tried to read Psalm 45 and it just
didn't make any sense, so forget it. No! God help me to get what
the psalmist sees here. Help me to understand, Lord.
Help me to know something of the grace that is poured upon
the lips of this one called Jesus of Nazareth. Brethren, the book
is most valuable for your Christian growth and maturation. If you're
not valuing the book, your running the race isn't going to be good.
It won't be with endurance. Christ is eloquent. Christ is
the best preacher who ever lived. I know I speak with fondness
of C. H. Spurgeon. There's no comparison. There is none whatsoever. Christ is the best, and Christ
has spoken, and we have His written word. Secondly, the psalmist
says that He is mighty. The psalmist says that He is
mighty. Verse 3, gird your sword upon
your thigh, O mighty one. Do you understand that your Savior
is mighty? Your Savior is almighty? Your
Savior is powerful? One of the blessed truths that
the Bible sets forth concerning the person of Christ is that
he fulfills three offices. He is our prophet. He speaks
from God to man. He's also our priest. He takes
our longings and our intercessions and our prayer requests to the
Father. But he's also a king. And the
catechism speaks and the confession speaks of his role as a king
to defend his church. to protect His church. Yes, to
rule and governor, to be sure, but to protect and watch over
her. Our King is almighty. There is
nothing that can happen to you when you are walking with the
King. He will keep you. He will watch
over you. If you go through the trials,
if you go through the travail, you have the Mighty One of Israel
with you in the midst of the trial. He is, thirdly, blessed
of God. Blessed of God. Therefore, God
has blessed you forever, is what he says in verse 2. Therefore,
God has blessed you forever. And I love this passage. I love
the concept. I love what we find in the New
Testament. You see, when the Lord Jesus
Christ fulfilled His work as the surety of a better covenant,
when the Lord Jesus Christ poured Himself out unto death, When
He, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross,
despising the shame, and actually accomplished and executed that
task, what does the Scripture say was the Father's response
to the Son? Therefore God has highly exalted
Him, and given Him a name which is above every name. that every
knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of the Father." So God Almighty is pleased with
the work of Christ and He blesses Him forever. Fourthly, the Lord
Jesus Christ, this King that is being written of here, is
glorious. Glorious. Notice in verse 3,
"...gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one, with your
glory." Now if you're a student of the prophets, you'll remember
the prophet Isaiah who says that God will share his glory with
no other. Doesn't he? Does God share his
glory with others? Does God say, you know, you're
such a wonderful guy or you're such a wonderful girl, I want
people to glorify you. That doesn't happen. He does
not share His glory with a creature, but He certainly shares His glory
with His only begotten Son. The Lord Christ is glorious. The Lord Christ is wondrous. The Lord Christ is to be glorified
in His churches, and this is what the psalmist is telling
us. Fifthly, he is majestic. Notice verse 3 again. With your
glory and your majesty. If you want to get a view of
the majesty of Christ, turn to Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6 sets forth
the majesty of Christ in a most blessed way. Isaiah 6, beginning in verse
1. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted
up. This was actually 740 BC, in
case you want to date this particular time in history. You see, the
Bible isn't myth. The Bible isn't fable. The Bible
isn't story calculated to make you feel good. The Bible is rooted
in objective history. And this is what the prophet
recounts. The year that King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train
of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood Seraphim. Each
one had six wings. With two he covered his face,
with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one
cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. and the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him
who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said,
Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." Now you say, how do
you know that that's referring to Jesus? John chapter 12, John
the Apostle tells us, these things Isaiah spoke when he saw his
glory. Majesty of Christ, you see the
theme or the scene here. His robe filled the temple. Attending
to him were these seraphim, were these cherubim, were all of these
holy angels crying out non-stop. I know we read verse 3, Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. Doesn't even take us about five seconds. But this is what
they continued to say. back and forth, back and forth,
back and forth. That's their job. If you ask
these seraphim, what is your job in the eternal state? I stand
at the throne and say, holy. What a great job. You know, we
hear that and say, come on, how could you do that for eternity?
It's Jesus Christ. You wouldn't want nothing more
than to stand in his presence and say, holy, holy, holy, holy. He is that glorious. He has attendance. Just exclaiming his holiness. This Lord is majestic. This is
the king. This is the one of whom the poet
is composing this song of love. And then he says, sixthly and
finally, that he is righteous. In verse 4, he says, and in your
majesty, ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness. We need a righteous Lord. We
need a righteous Savior. Remember how he embarked on his
gospel ministry in the book of Matthew. It's been some time
ago, but in Matthew chapter 3, when he comes to be baptized
by John the Baptist, John the Baptist tries to rebuff him and
tries to stop him. But Jesus answered and said to
him, permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us
to fulfill all righteousness. Christ must fulfill all righteousness. Christ must obey the Father. Christ must do the law. Christ
must be the obedient son. And the psalmist here does not
see that as some tack-on, but he realizes that this is an attribute
and a characteristic of his blessed Lord. He is righteous. You know,
we need a righteous one because we're unrighteous. 2 Corinthians
5.21 tells us that God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for
us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. So you see the
attributes of this Blessed One. The glory of this Blessed One
is seen in these perfections. But the psalmist doesn't stop
there. He goes on finally to speak of the glory of the Savior
in His works. The glory of the Savior in His
works. And we see this predominantly
in verses 4 and 5, and then later in verses 10 to 14. The first work is that he wages
war. He wages war. And in your majesty
ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness. And your right hand shall teach
you awesome things. Your arrows are sharp in the
heart of the king's enemies. The peoples fall under you. He
wages war against sin and against unrighteousness. He wages a war
against the world, the flesh, and the devil. And he rides prosperously
in this. What we have here in the poet's
composition is a picture of the warrior king riding victoriously
on behalf of his church. It is that same image, it is
that same picture that we find in Revelation chapter 19. You
may turn there. Revelation 19 verses 11 to 16
are something of commentary, or amplification rather, on what
we find stated in Psalm 45 verses 4 and 5. Whether this was intentional
by the seer in Revelation, I'm not sure, but it certainly seems
to be the case. Notice in Revelation 19 verses
11 to 16. He says, now I saw heaven opened,
and behold, a white horse. And I know a lot of people, a
lot of interpreters take this as the second coming, that what
John is now describing is Jesus is on a horse and he's going
to ride to earth to judge the nations. I don't think that's
what's in view here. I think this is Jesus going forth, conquering
and to conquer in the church age. The Bible never tells us
that Jesus will return on a white horse. You say, well, it tells
us right here. Again, the flow of the narrative,
the flow of the thought in the book of Revelation, I take 1911
to 16 as a description of the work and power and majesty of
Christ in the church age, when he goes forth riding prosperously
because of, or in truth, humility and righteousness. If you disagree,
that's fine. Let's just look at what the text
says. Now, I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and
he who sat on him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness
he judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of
fire, and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written
that no one knew except himself. He was clothed with the robe
dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And
the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean,
followed him on white horses. Now out of his mouth goes a sharp
sword, that with it he should strike the nations, and he himself
will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the winepress
of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and he has on his
robe and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord
of lords." Now when we go back to Psalm 45 and we consider the
poet's statement that he is composing this particular song, when he
is speaking about Jesus being fairer than the sons of men,
Do not make the mistake that what we have typified or pictured
here is some effeminate fellow, sort of trotting around the hills
of Israel doing nice things for people. He is the warrior king. He wages war. He rides prosperously. He is victorious. He most assuredly
accomplishes the task for which the father sent him. You see,
we need a king to rule. We need a warrior to win. Dale
Ralph Davis describes the scene this way. He says, the popular
image of Jesus is that he is not only kind and tender, but
also soft and prissy. So don't make that mistake. When
we read Psalm 45.1, my heart is overflowing with a good theme.
I recite my composition concerning the king. My tongue is the pen
of a ready writer. Face it, some of you are not
poets. You say, oh, poetry is for sissies. Who sits around
and composes love songs? Who does that? Why does the psalmist
do this? Well, realize that the subject
of the composition isn't soft and he's not prissy. He goes
on to say, as though Jesus comes to us reeking of hand cream. Such a Jesus can hardly steal
the soul that is daily assaulted by the enemy. Davis says we need
to learn the catechism of Psalm 24. Question, who is the king
of glory? Answer, Yahweh, strong and mighty. Yahweh, mighty in battle. We
must catch the vision of the faithful and true sitting on
the white horse, the one who judges and makes war in righteousness. No mild God or soft Jesus can
give his people hope. It is only as we know the warrior
of Israel who fights for us, and sometimes without us, that
we have hope of triumphing in the muck of life. So you see
what we find here in verses 4 and 5 are a description of our warrior
king riding prosperously and rendering judgment upon his enemies
and bringing great blessing and joy to his friends. We see the
conquering Christ set forth and certainly that elicits from the
psalmist this love, this composition of love, this worship and praise
and adoration. We are to love him and honor
him for his person. He is God. He is man. We are
to love and honor him because of His attributes. He is all
the things the psalmist sets forth. We are to love and honor
Him because of His works. He wages war. Decisively, He
deals with sin at the cross. Decisively, He renders a death
blow to the devil. Decisively, He deals with us
at the cross. And in this, we greatly rejoice.
And then the psalmist ends on this particular note of Christ's
love for His church. Notice verse 10. He directs his
attention now. Listen, O daughter, this is the
church. This is the covenant people.
This is the people of God. Consider and incline your ear. This savior, this king, this
Lord, this warrior that he has described is worthy of his church
leaving all for. Listen, oh daughter, consider
and incline your ear. Forget your own people also and
your father's house." You see what he's saying? This Christ,
this King, this Messiah, He's so glorious. Forget everything
behind. Forget your own father's house.
Leave it and come and cleave to the Savior. The song is a
wedding song. The song describes the bride
cleaving to the bridegroom. And here the emphasis falls on
the worthiness of the Redeemer, the glory and majesty of the
Christ, such that we leave everything, that we forget our own people
also, and our own Father's house, and we run to Him. No, I ask
you, if Christ is altogether lovely and chief among 10,000,
and worthy of us leaving our Father's household, certainly
He is worthy of us leaving our sin, leaving our filth, leaving
our garbage, leaving our wickedness, leaving our evil behind, certainly
this to the daughter plays into that
reality as well. What is there in this world that
you'd rather have than this one? What is there in this world that
you'd rather value and prize than this one? What is there
more glorious than the God-man, described as he is, waging war
for the good of his people and the glory of his Father? He is
altogether lovely. He is chief among ten thousand.
Flee to him. Leave to Him. Do not let go of
Him. Notice, the church is Christ's
desire. This is one of the things that
really bugs me about people that rip on the church. Now, there's
probably a lot of things we can rip upon the church for. We're
not holy like we ought to be. I get that. We're not more earnest
like we ought to be. I get that. We don't give more
money like we ought to. We don't show love for each other
as we ought to. But it's very much the trend
today to just rip on the church. It's terrible. Jesus loves the
Church. Jesus prizes the Church. Jesus
values the Church. Jesus dies and rises again for
the Church. There's a great book by Kevin
DeYoung and Ted Gluck called Why We Love the Church. If I
had money, I'd buy a copy for everybody. Not just in this room,
but for every professing Christian. Because they see this reality. To love Christ, brethren, is
to love the Church. Because Jesus loves the church. It's easy to pick on her, it's
easy to see her spots, it's easy to see her wrinkles, it's easy
to see her shortcomings, but we need to appreciate the church. Look at what verse 11 says. So
the king will greatly desire your beauty. He beautifies you,
He cleanses you, He purifies you, and as a result, He desires
to commune with you and to be present with you. What better
place to be than the church? I don't mean simply this building,
I mean the covenant people of God. What better place to be
than what Christ greatly desires? When you meet your spouse or
you meet your girlfriend or your boyfriend, you want to know what
they love and you want to know what they hate. The Bible tells
us these six things Yahweh hates. Yea, seven are an abomination
to Him. We ought to stay away from those
things. But the Bible also tells us what Yahweh loves. And according
to the scripture, He loves us. He loves this church. He loves
His people. He beautifies us. He purifies
us. He cleanses us. He washes us.
And then, amazing I know, but He desires us. It's beautiful. The church worships Christ. Notice in verse 11, so the king
will greatly desire your beauty because he is your Lord. Worship
Him! Isn't it the no-brainer here?
What are we supposed to do in light of His works? What are
we supposed to do in light of His power, in light of His majesty,
in light of His attributes, in light of His person? Worship
Him! Don't play games. Don't enter
in here on a Sunday and say, man, it's so hot, I'm going to
tune out. Worship the Lord! You can do all manner of things
that you set your mind to in all manner of circumstances and
conditions. Certainly, for an hour on the
Lord's Day, or an hour and a half on the Lord's Day, we can tune
our minds, we can discipline our bodies, we can respond the
way the Bible says, and worship our Christ. That's what it's
about. It's a wonderful thing to come
in here on the Lord's Day and see people, isn't it? It's a
wonderful thing to catch up with people that you haven't seen
for a week. It's a wonderful thing to hear
the blessings reported by a brother or sister. Yeah, I got a promotion,
or yeah, good things happened to me. That's good. But you know
the primary emphasis on the Lord's Day Sabbath is on the Lord of
the Sabbath? The primary emphasis as to why
we come to church is not first and foremost to encourage the
brethren, though that does happen. The first and the primary emphasis
of Lord's Day worship is on worship. Not entertainment. Not playing
games. Not having fun. I guarantee you,
if you wanted to have fun, this is not the church you're going
to come to. I understand that. The king desires us, what's the
inevitable response? Worship. The church is glorious as a result. Verse 13, the royal daughter
is all glorious within the palace. You see, this is because of Christ,
because He wages war, because He has those attributes. Because
He is the God-Man, because He saves, because He beautifies,
because He purifies, the royal daughter is all glorious within
the palace. Not an intrinsic glory, but what
is happening is that we reflect the glory of God Most High. In
other words, if someone was standing in that parking lot and they
looked in here tonight, it would reflect the power and the glory
and the majesty of the One who saved us. We are not here because
we're wise. We are not here because we're
good. We are not here because we are law keepers. We are here
because Jesus is wise, Jesus is good, Jesus is a law keeper,
and Jesus died for us and rose again. The church is a trophy
case to exhibit the power and the majesty and the excellence
of the Lord Jesus Christ who saved us. That's the emphasis
of the passage. And then finally, notice what
verse 13b says, the church is clothed by Christ. Her clothing
is woven with gold. We know what it took for the
Lord Jesus Christ to put together this garment to put upon His
bride. It was His blood, it was His
life, it was His death, it was Him to the uttermost suffering
on behalf of His church so that He might be able to cleanse us,
to wash us, and to clothe us in a righteousness that avails
with God Most High. So the psalmist takes out his
pen. He's considering his theme. He says to Christ, you are fairer
than the sons of men. He ascribes to him humanity and
deity. He ascribes to him these blessed
attributes. And then he tells us what Christ
is all about in terms of saving his people. in waging war and
in conducting all of these things for their well-being. Verses 14 and 15, the church
enjoys communion. She shall be brought to the king
in robes of many colors. The virgins, her companions who
follow her, shall be brought to you. With gladness and rejoicing,
they shall be brought. They shall enter the king's palace. Brethren, in light of this morning's
message, please take Psalm 45, or may I encourage you to take
Psalm 45. And looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God. Run with endurance the
race that is set before us. not in your own strength, not
in your own performance. Don't run because you read your
Bible. Don't run because you prayed. Don't run because you
went to church. Run looking unto Jesus, doing
those things as a means of looking unto Him. And if you're not a
believer here tonight, this, as imperfect as I set it forth,
is the Lord Jesus. There's only one way of salvation
in this world. It is not through Islam. It is
not through other philosophies or other religious systems. Jesus
Christ, the one spoken of here in Psalm 45, says in John 14,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through me. If you are in your sin tonight,
may I encourage you to look at this Psalm to see the power,
the glory, and the majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ. And by
God's grace, cast yourself upon His mercy. Believe on Him. Believe the truth of the Scripture
concerning Him. And you will be saved. Well,
let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for
the Lord Jesus. We thank You for this description
in Psalm 45 of this blessed King. God, help us to marvel, help
us to adore, help us to run with endurance, looking unto Jesus
Christ. how we thank you for him, how
we thank you for his work on our behalf. God, as we consider
what we are about to do in terms of the Lord's Supper, it does
truly amaze us that one so glorious would come to such like us, who
would die and who would rise again for us. We just praise
you through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
