Psalm 45, excuse me, Psalm 45. Psalm 45 is a fitting place for us to inform our thoughts concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. He is indeed the subject, the topic, the focus, and the scope of this particular psalm. So I'll begin reading in verse 1.
To the chief musician, 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, O 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 cacha, 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, 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. 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 the written word. We thank you that it testifies concerning the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly he is the subject, the darling of this particular psalm. And as we enter into the supper tonight, we pray that you'd fill our hearts with good thoughts, and may we imitate the psalmist here.
May our hearts bubble over with praise to the one who is altogether lovely and chief among ten thousand. We pray that You would forgive us now for all of our sins and our transgressions against a holy God. We thank You that if we confess and forsake those sins, You are merciful and just to forgive us. And so we plead the merit and the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We pray that You would wash us in that fount that is open for sin and uncleanness, that You would wash these things away. Cause us now to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Cause us as we eat the bread and drink the cup to proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. And our Father, to this end we pray for the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
We would pray that you would send Him forth, that we would know His presence and His power in our midst tonight. That you would comfort and encourage your people and God save those who are outside of Christ. Do this for Your glory and for Your honor and for Your praise, and we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Introduction: A Royal Wedding Psalm
Well, as I was working through this particular psalm, it occurred to me that in my lifetime there have been several royal weddings, and typically they televise those royal weddings, and persons are sort of glued to the TV watching those particular things. Well, in some sense that has some pedigree. This is the celebration of a royal wedding. It's the king, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and his bride, the church.
It is very similar in terms of composition and focus with reference to the book of Song of Solomon. In fact, J.A. Alexander says the allegorical idea of this psalm is carried out in the Song of Solomon. At least temporally, the marriage of Solomon, no doubt to Pharaoh's daughter, is in view.
But it's obvious by the wording, it's obvious by the language, that David is looking far beyond his son Solomon. In other words, he is ascribing this to the Messiah. because it is the Messiah who is described in verse 6. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. There is no way that could be written concerning Solomon.
It's certainly a psalm concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. So it's a royal wedding psalm. It's a psalm calling the people of God to rejoice in the mercy of God, in the marriage of the Messiah to the church. And
Sermon Outline Announced
I want to look at four things tonight. First, the intention of the psalmist in verse 1. Secondly, the description of the king in verses 2 to 9. Thirdly, the instruction to the bride in verses 10 to 15.
And then finally, the declaration concerning the king in verses 16 to 17. But
The Psalmist's Intention
notice in verse 1, the psalmist says, my heart is overflowing with a good theme. In other words, he takes pen to paper now because of the focus of his meditation. This is the way we ought to respond when we consider our Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps we're not poets, perhaps we don't write music, we can't write lyrics, but we can certainly praise the God of heaven and earth.
As the Lord Jesus Christ comes to mind, may we be like the psalmist. My heart is overflowing with a good theme. This could also be translated, my heart boils or bubbles up, and it denotes the language of the heart, full and ready for utterance. This ought to be the people of God in the house of God when we come to the supper of God.
It's a good occasion for us to have our hearts overflowing with a good theme. Notice the subject of his composition. He says in verse 1, I recite my composition concerning the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
So, that bubbling up or that boiling over in the heart finds expression or vent through his tongue. And in this case, with reference to the psalmist, he writes it down. He pens it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. As Spurgeon comments concerning the reference to the king, 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, well-focused, spiritualized, see here, Jesus only. So David, perhaps again on the occasion of his son's wedding, uses the opportunity to speak of his greater son's wedding, even the Messiah, and his marriage to his bride, even the church.
The Description of the King
Now note, secondly, the description of the king. It's typical or difficult at times in Psalms to sort of break it down in an orderly, structured manner. So we're just going to kind of glom it all together under two heads. First, the glory of the king, and then secondly, the person of the king.
But notice,
The Glory of the King
with reference to the glory of the king in verse 2, he says, you are fairer than the sons of men. The word here is actually doubled. And this is why it's translated, you are fairer. Literally, it's beautiful, beautiful.
As one famous lexicon says, you are the fairest, thou art more beautiful than. Literally, you are fairer, fairer, or you are beautiful, beautiful. And again, Spurgeon makes this observation. Jesus is so emphatically lovely that words must be doubled.
Have you found that experience in your own worship of the living God? Jesus is so emphatically lovely that words must be double. This is why we often say, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Because Jesus is so emphatically lovely, words must be double.
He goes on to say, strained, yea, exhausted, before he can be described. 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. This is what the psalmist indicates.
You are fairer than the sons of men. Grace is poured upon your lips. And there's one particular instance where this is evidenced in the life and ministry of our Lord. You can look at Luke chapter 4.
This idea of grace being poured upon the lips of our beloved Savior. In Luke chapter 4, very specifically beginning in verse 22, Well, picking up at verse 21, Jesus in a synagogue, He reads the prophet Isaiah chapter 61 in verses 18 and 19. Verse 20, He closes the book. He gives it back to the attendant.
He sits down. All in the synagogue were fixed upon Him. And in verse 21, He began to say to them, today the Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. And let that sink in.
Jesus Christ picks up the scroll. He picks up the prophet Isaiah. He reads 61, 1 and 2, and then he says, today this has been fulfilled in your hearing. And he means it's been fulfilled in your hearing by his presence, by his appearance here at this particular place.
It says in verse 22, so all bore witness to him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, and they said, is this not Joseph's son? So as the psalmist rehearses the glory of the king, he says, you are fairer than the sons of men, grace is poured upon your lips, therefore God has blessed you forever. This beloved one, this darling of heaven, this chief among the sons of men is the recipient of God's grace. Notice secondly in terms of the glory of the king, his commitment to truth and righteousness.
Verse 3, gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one, with your glory and your majesty, and in your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness. The picture is of a warrior. The picture is of a warrior prepared for battle, and this warrior goes into battle not with carnal weapons, but with truth, humility, and prosperity. He indeed, or rather righteousness, and as a result, he rides prosperously.
The weapons of his warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty for the pulling down of strongholds. As Pastor Porter read from Revelation 19, verses 11 to 16, what's the armament that Christ has? It is the sword that proceeds from the mouth. It is the word of the living God.
And the same thing is evidenced in his testimony before Pilate. You can look at John chapter 19, just taking some New Testament passages to sort of shine the light and to see how these do relate to the Messiah, to the Lord Christ. Notice in John, I'm sorry, John 18, Jesus before Pilate. Beginning in verse 33, Pilate says, are you the king of the Jews?
Jesus answered him, are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning me? Pilate answered, am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you to me. What have you done?
Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now my kingdom is not from here. Pilate therefore said to him, Are you a king then? Jesus answered, You say rightly that I am a king.
For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my word. Christ, the sword of Christ proceeds from the mouth of Christ and his commitment to truth and righteousness is celebrated here by the psalmist and everywhere celebrated by Christ in his earthly ministry. Now, just by way of a real practical observation, if Christ so values and so prizes and so esteems truth, what ought we as the church to do with truth? become very commonplace in our modern society, but I realize it's not just modern.
It goes back in the history of the church where persons sort of grasp the truth with a limp-wristedness. There's this sort of, well, you know, it's not that important. We shouldn't divide over such things. There's a whole host of things that we really shouldn't divide over.
I mean, we happen to use blue-colored hymn books. If somebody down the road uses red ones, we, you know, don't. square off against them and pronounce the anathemas of God upon them. But brethren, when it comes to those things most surely believed among us, we need to hold them firmly. For the truth is what constitutes the church.
It's what we're about. You see, the Sunday worship of the living God is just that. It's the worship of the living God. And Christ calls us to worship the living God in spirit and in truth.
What binds us together here is the truth of the gospel. There's a lot of social institutions out there. There's, you know, there's a lion's club in town, there's, I don't know if there's a moose or an elk, but those are certainly sort of social places that they have in the states. I don't know if I've seen moose or elk here in Chilliwack, but I know there's a lion's club.
Those are social interaction centers, and you can certainly go and have that discourse and intercourse, and I mean in a non-sexual way with other persons. That's not the first and primary thing that binds us together. It's the truth. How does Paul describe the church in 1 Timothy chapter 3?
It's the pillar and the ground, not of entertainment, not of social interaction, not of coffee sessions, but it's the pillar and the ground of the truth. If Christ esteems the truth and even describes himself as truth, says that it is essential to his very nature, I am the way, the truth, and the life, the church of Jesus Christ must be marked by the truth. And if the psalmist celebrates that in the Savior, then the church ought to as well and ought to imbibe and hold on to that truth very, very tenaciously. So he is committed to truth and righteousness.
The psalmist goes on in describing the glory of the king to highlight his triumph over his enemies. What is that indicative of? He not only goes to battle, But he wins the battle. He not only engages the enemy, but he defeats the enemy.
Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies. The peoples fall under you. It's a blessed and a glorious description of our king, our Messiah, our Christ, waging warfare and engaging in victory. It's the same sort of concept that was read in Revelation 19 verses 11 to 16.
Ralph Davis comments, he says, we must catch the vision of the faithful and true sitting on the white horse. This is a comment on Revelation 19. 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." In other words, as believers, we need to see Christ as victorious.
I've said several times in our studies on Wednesday night or Saturday morning or whenever the book of Revelation comes up, it's a woeful thing to consider the way that the book of Revelation is viewed in the modern church. It's a book that's scary. It's a book that looms in a mysterious sort of way. Do you ever consider what Revelation is about?
It's about revelation. Revelation means to reveal. How's that for some lexical analysis? It is the revelation of Jesus Christ.
And you know what is primary in terms of the focus in the book of Revelation? It's not on the beast. It's not on the Antichrist. It's on the Christ and His crown, His victory, His glory, His majesty.
Yes, beasts rise up. There's a beast from the sea and a beast from the land. But what happens to them? They are judged by the warring Christ.
What happens to the false prophet? What happens to the whore Babylon? What happens to all contenders with reference to Christ? They are subdued under his feet.
That's what the book of Revelation is about. It is a long, a long treatment of what the psalmist says right here. And in your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility and righteousness. Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies.
The peoples fall under you. And then notice the anointing of God the Father upon him in 7b. You love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you.
John Gill explains, who though he is called God and is truly so, yet was not anointed as such, but as man and mediator to the office of prophet, priest, and king, and not with material oil, but with the Holy Ghost, his gifts and graces. And then in verses eight and nine, it describes the king's attire, his essence, his fragrance, and then his entourage. King's daughters are among your honorable women. at your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir." So you see, there's this description of the king and it focuses upon his glory. But as well, notice his person.
And
The Person of the King
this is verses 6 and 7. It highlights the divine nature of the Messiah, the divine nature of the king. I told you before of that radio program, Dr. Greg Bonson and a Jewish rabbi and a Roman Catholic priest were interviewed by Dennis Prager.
And a question came up concerning the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament scriptures. Did it testify that the Messiah would be divine? And of course, the Jewish rabbi said, absolutely not. There's no way that Jews had an expectation for a divine Messiah.
And Dr. Bonson said, well, it most certainly did. Now, you may not appreciate that particular doctrine, you may reject that doctrine on theological grounds, but on literary grounds, you cannot deny that the text of Scripture asserts that Messiah would in fact be divine. Well, Psalm 45, 6 highlights this, the divine nature of our Lord Jesus.
Notice in verse 6, your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
Hebrews Applies Psalm 45 to Christ
Turn to the book of Hebrews to see its application to our Lord Jesus Christ. The deity of Christ, the divinity of Christ, Christ according to the form of God, is here asserted by the psalmist in Psalm 45.6. Notice in Hebrews 1, beginning in verse 5. This is showing the exaltation of Christ over the angels.
Verse 5 says, For to which of the angels did he ever say, You are my son, today I have begotten you? And again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. But then He, again, brings the firstborn into the world. He says, when He brings the firstborn into the world, He says, let all the angels of God worship Him.
Now, all of these texts are Old Testament texts, and they all ascribe deity to the Messiah. So as Bonson said, from a literary point of view, you can't deny the Scriptures say this. Theologically, you may have an ax to grind against the reality that the Messiah would be divine, but in terms of what is written, you cannot deny it. So verse 7, and of the angels, he says, who makes his angel spirits and his ministers a flame of fire.
But to the Son, he says. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.
Therefore, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions." Now, there are evasive tactics employed to try and get out of the clear meaning of the text. You'll hear it from Jehovah's Witnesses. You'll hear it from, perhaps, Jews who deny the deity of the Messiah. But if you want further information in terms of the grammar and the exposition and the explanation, I cannot suggest anything better than John Gill, as he deals with the detractors, as he deals with the shift in the grammar, and saying it really doesn't mean what it says here, because if we move, John Gill says, no, it's translated accordingly.
What the psalmist is doing is he's telling us that in verse 2, this one who is fairer than the sons of man is very God of very God, true God from true God, light from light, begotten not made, one in being with the Father. This is the Christ who will indeed appear on the scene to save His people from their sins. This is prophesied previously to His arrival. C.
H. Spurgeon makes this comment concerning the deity of the king. He says, 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 everlasting. Blessed sight, blind are the eyes that cannot see God in Christ Jesus. It's beautiful, isn't it? Your throne, oh God.
Notice the eternity or eternality of His kingdom. Your throne is forever and ever. Notice the equity involved in the reign of His kingdom. Verse 6, a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is very God. Our Lord Jesus Christ is true God from true God. But notice, he goes on to describe or highlight the reality that Christ is also a man. Verse 7, you love righteousness and hate wickedness.
Now note the language in verse 7, therefore God, your God, has anointed you. The psalmist does not believe in two gods. The psalmist is a strict monotheist. The psalmist is a Trinitarian.
The psalmist understands something of the glory of God Most High. So this one who comes in the fullness of the time, sent forth by God, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, is very God and very man. And notice specifically, therefore God, your God, has anointed you. One commentator says it will take the New Testament ultimately to explain what's going on in terms of Father and Son.
Again, I don't believe that we can, I don't believe we can construct the same sort of Nicene doctrine of the Trinity with only the Old Testament, but these things are present in the Old Testament. You remember Warfield's sort of an analogy with reference to the Trinity in the Old Testament. He says, it's like a dimly lit chamber. All the furniture is in the chamber, and when you turn on the lights, it's not that something new is there.
What was always there is there. It's now been illumined further by the flipping on of the light. The same sort of thing. All of the equipment or all of the furniture or all of the doctrine is there.
Father, Son, and Spirit are present in the Old Testament. It's that New Testament that sort of flips on the light and gives us that hermeneutic or that ability or those tools to say, oh, that's what's happening there. Oh, that's what's going on there. You cannot deny that the psalmist here ascribes divinity to the Messiah, and he ascribes humanity to the Messiah.
And in the language of our confession of faith, it tells us that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person without conversion, composition, or confusion, which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man. So you see, with reference to this royal wedding, the description of the king is given, him in his glory, him in his person. Now, there might be some of you that like to watch those royal wedding things. I'm sure that they have it live streamed.
You can sit in the internet. To me, I'd rather watch paint dry than see a royal wedding. It's just not something I want to do. But in this royal wedding, it's something to gaze upon.
It's something to marvel at. It's something to worship as a result of. This King there in His glory, this King set before us in His majesty and His excellence, this King who is both God and man, who came down from heaven for us men and for our salvation, this blessed one is set forth in His glory.
Instruction to the Bride
Notice though, with reference to the bride, instruction to the bride in verses 10 to 15. Again, we'll move somewhat quickly through this section. But there are some things we need to highlight.
The Bride's Call to Repentance
Note the need for repentance. The need for repentance on the part of the bride. In other words, here's your king, here's your bridegroom, here's your husband, here's the glorious one, here is the excellent one. When you walk down that altar to take his hand, You must forsake, you must leave, you must depart.
Listen, O daughter, verse 10, consider and incline your ear, forget your own people also and your father's house. The bride is instructed to forget her people and her own father's house. Perhaps the background is Genesis 2.24, the whole idea of leaving and cleaving. You don't leave with your mom and dad when you cleave.
You leave your mom and dad and then you cleave. I've done a lot of weddings in this church and I have yet to see a bride or a bridegroom walk up the altar and their parents stay. If I saw that, I'd say, OK, brethren, you need to go sit down, because what's happening here is something other than that. So there's a leave and cleave principle.
The father walks the wife, or the father walks the bride down, but he gives her away, sometimes very happily. I'm just kidding. He gives her away. The leave and cleave principle, this is what's in view.
The glory of the bridegroom has been described. Now the bride is told, listen, O daughter, consider and incline your ear. Forget your own people also and your father's house. You don't come to this bridegroom with your sin.
You don't come to this bridegroom with your idols. You don't come to this bridegroom with prior commitments. You don't come to this bridegroom with your boyfriend. Motier says the heaping up of four verbs of command places enormous emphasis on the bride's need to put the past behind and find her all in all in her new relationship.
John Gill says Christ is to be preferred before natural relations. Converted persons are not to have fellowship with carnal men, though ever so nearly related. Former superstitions, whether Jewish or heathenish, are to be buried in forgetfulness. sinful self and righteous self are to be denied for Christ's sake, and the world and all things in it are to be treated with neglect and contempt by such who cleave to him." This is the admonition. This is the instruction.
This is the command for the church who goes out to meet her bridegroom. You cannot take Baal with you. You cannot take Asherah with you. You cannot take these commitments to your idols.
You're to turn from the useless idols to the true and living God. You're to put those things to rest. You're to put those things to death. This is a fitting admonition on the eve of the supper or just prior to coming to the ordinance.
Brethren, it's not for profane and ungodly men. It is for those who are walking in faithfulness before God, not sinlessness, not perfection, because then we could never take. But have we and can we say we have forgotten our own people also? We have forgotten our Father's house. liken it to Solomon and Pharaoh's daughter.
She wasn't to bring in all of her previous allegiances to the marriage to Israel's king. She was not to bring in all these other items of worship when she was a citizen of the Commonwealth of Israel. She was to forsake that. She was to forget that.
She was to turn her back on that. the same is true for the bride today. It's a worldliness that sticks to us. There is an ungodly association that we hold to. I'm not one of these, you know, people that say, you know, you can't have friends that aren't believers.
You can, but it's It's for the purpose of witness and testifying and being faithful and kind and gracious and demonstrating the love of God. We're not supposed to be changed by them. We are not to succumb to the temptations and tendencies of this world and of this age. We are to be a people that have listened to the admonition, that have considered, that have inclined our ear, that have forgotten our own people and our Father's house.
Christ means anything, He means everything. And we need to give Him the allegiance that is fitting and due to one who is described in this psalm. He is fairer than the sons of men. Why wouldn't we want to abandon everything else to be with Him?
The Bride's Call to Worship
Notice the necessity of worshiping the King. Verse 11, the King will greatly desire your beauty. Because He is your Lord, worship Him. Again, this isn't Solomonic.
David's not suggesting that Pharaoh's daughter bow her knee to Solomon and confess him Lord and Savior. This is a psalm of Christ. It says, the King, the Lord Jesus, will greatly desire your beauty. The church, a beauty that He has beautified you with.
It's not a natural beauty. We didn't, you know, gussy ourselves up and make ourselves ready, but rather it is a beauty conveyed or conferred by Him to us. But as a result, He is your Lord. Worship Him.
The reference to the daughter of Tyre coming with a gift, the rich among the people seeking your favor, probably means Gentile inclusion among the people of God. And then notice it describes the bride in verses 13 to 15. She has glory. Verse 13, the royal daughter is all glorious within her palace.
That's the church. We're glorious. Not intrinsically, not inherently, but reflectively, because God has saved us, because Christ is in us, the hope of glory. we radiate the very being of Christ. Again, not in some weird, mystical, strange, dark way, but the idea being is that when we worship God in spirit and truth, when we are faithful to this book, when we seek to employ this book in our daily life, we reflect the glory of the God who saved us.
Doesn't Jesus say this? Let your light so shine before men that they see your good works and give glory to who? Give glory to God, not you. Oh, you're great, you're wonderful.
No, we are simply a means by which the glory of God is reflected. Her glory is indicated in 13a. Notice her garments are indicated in 13b and 14. Again, in that royal wedding, oh, and look at what the bride is wearing, and look at how beautiful the jewelry, and look at, you know, it just goes on and on and on, it seems like.
Well, here specifically, notice, that is highlighted. 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." Isn't that a blessed reality?
He clothes us with His own righteousness according to Philippians 3. He clothes us with His own righteousness according to Zechariah chapter 3. He clothes us with His own righteousness according to 2 Corinthians 5.21. He clothes us and fits us for communion in his presence.
And that brings us to verse 15. With gladness and rejoicing, they shall be brought, they shall enter the king's palace. This is the apex, this is the pinnacle, this is the climax. The bride now enters in to the palace of the king.
The bride is now having communion with the king. The bride is now in union with the king. where they will live happily ever after. It is a most blessed and wondrous movement. The Lord Christ, Most High, bids them to come.
The Lord Christ, Most High, tells them to forsake family, friends, and everything that allured them in the past. He clothes them with His righteousness. He reflects His glory through them. They enter into the palace of the King, and there they sup with Him.
There they feast with Him. There they delight with Him. And note the attendant blessings. They do it with gladness and rejoicing, brethren.
How many times do we enter into the house of God absent of gladness and rejoicing? Where's the spirit of David in Psalm 122? I was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the house of the Lord. I understand we come into this place burdened, sorrowful, oftentimes beaten down by the week that we've had.
We fight the flesh, we fight the world, we fight the devil. We come into this place and sometimes we're staggering, sometimes we're limping, sometimes we can just barely fall in here. But once we're in here, We're in union with our King. We're in communion with one another.
Let us engage in a gladness and a rejoicing. With gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought, they shall enter the King's palace. There is that blessed sort of anticipation. We're going to be with the King.
Certainly, when they are with the king, the one who is fairer than the sons of men, fairer, fairer, beautiful, beautiful, more than all of the sons of men. Certainly, gladness and rejoicing ought to be appropriate. Let me encourage you, as we sing, as we pray, as we hear the Word of God read and preached, this isn't the drudgery of the Christian life. This isn't suffering for Jesus.
This is the cream. This is the joy. This is the time we are to express thanksgiving and happiness and delight. When you go back out in the world, that's when you'll have the absence of gladness and rejoicing.
Just kidding. You should still have gladness and rejoicing because you're always in union with the king. You see, the king and her bride come together, and what is it for the bride? No, it's not that.
I've often thought this, parents. Kids will learn from us about church attendance. Kids will see and mirror how we are. So if when they're five, you're one of the sorts of parents that says, oh, we got to go to church.
Oh, I wish we'd rather go anywhere else. Don't be surprised if when they're 15, they're doing the same thing. Think about this. You may not have a heart filled with gladness and rejoicing.
I'm not suggesting that you fake it. I'm suggesting that you reflect on passages like these. that you take up David's psalm of praise. David's literally, according to the superscription, a song of love. Brethren, this is the God whom we serve, this is the God we come to meet, this is the Christ of our salvation, there in His glory.
And the bride is pictured here as one who responds in repentance and obviously faith, one who holds fast to this King and one who has gladness and rejoicing in His presence.
Declaration Concerning the King
Notice finally how the psalm ends, the declaration concerning the King. This is not instructions or still targeting the bride, but rather goes back to the bridegroom in verse 16. I think it simply means something like this. There is going to be a great posterity.
You are going to have a multiplicity of sons. You are going to have a great number of descendants. And therefore, they will indeed be princes in all the earth. John Gill explains it this way.
This isn't just, you know, I didn't know how to explain it. He just does it a whole lot better. This is an address not to the church, the queen, the king's daughter, spoken to and out of in the preceding verses, but to the king Messiah himself. Instead of your fathers shall be your sons, whom you shall make princes in all the earth. who was of the Jewish fathers according to the flesh, Romans 9.4.
And though he was rejected by that people, yet he had children, not only the apostles who are sometimes so-called, whom he set on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel in a doctrinal way, and sent into all the world to preach his gospel. in which being attended with his mighty power made them triumphant conquerors everywhere, but also a numerous progeny among the Gentiles. All the elect of God are his children, and he stands in the revelation of the everlasting Father to them, they being given unto him as such." In other words, it looks forward to New Covenant era where the gospel goes forth and a great multitude are converted by the power of the gospel under the hand of the Spirit for the glory of the Messiah. And then the psalmist sort of comes full circle. Starts off with his intention in verse 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. He signs off in verse 17 this way.
I will make your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore, the people shall praise you forever and ever." This is the psalmist's conclusion, a fitting end to his description of the Messiah, to his instructions concerning the bride, and to his statement concerning the glorious impact that the gospel of this Messiah will indeed make.
Application and Conclusion
Well, in conclusion, we see in this psalm the glory of the king himself, in his person, what we call the hypostatic union, the two natures, one person. It's a blessed doctrine, a blessed truth, a blessed reality. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who in the form of God did not consider robbery to be equal with God, took the form of a bond servant. This blessed Christ is God and man.
We see His perfections displayed in this particular psalm, His might, His glory, His majesty, His righteousness, and even His gladness and joy. We see the blessedness of the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of His works. He wages war against sin and all unrighteousness. He wages war against the world, the flesh, and the devil.
He wages war against His enemies, and guess what? He wins. And we can praise God that He won the war against us. Those of us who will take the bread and drink the cup, He has subdued us under His feet.
He has subdued us by sovereign grace. We are not here tonight celebrating the person and the work of the Lord Jesus. We are not here tonight eating this bread and drinking this cup because we're good guys and girls. We are here because that word that proceeds from the mouth of Christ slayed us outright. showed us our sin, showed us our wickedness, showed us our depravity, and that word showed us the palm of Gilead.
It directed us to the one who is altogether lovely and chief among 10,000, that one who is fairer than the sons of men. We have been conquered by sovereign grace, so as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we do so in the name of our blessed Savior, our conqueror, our Messiah. In terms of the blessedness of the bride, It is grace wherein she is able to forget her own people and her father's house. It is grace that taught her heart to fear.
It is the beauty, or the beauty given to her by the king is through the redemptive work of the king, his life, his death, his resurrection. the privilege that the bride has of worshiping the king. Do you realize verse 11b describes the aim for which we were created? Because He is your Lord, worship Him. Your kids ever say, why should I go to church?
Because you were made to. Because that's why God fashioned you in His image. Your job, your purpose, the reason you take breath in your lungs is to worship God. This is what Adam and Eve were supposed to do.
Certainly they reject God, they rebel against God, they resist God, they plunge their posterity into sin. Christ comes as the last Adam, and He rescues us by His life, His death, and His resurrection. And when He saves us, guess what we're supposed to do? We're supposed to worship.
This is the best thing. This ought to be the high point of the week. We don't tack on Sunday. We don't tack on church attendance.
This isn't the appendix to a week. This is the apex. This is the glory. This is the best of the seven days.
I've heard before someone say, I wish we had six Sabbaths and only one day of work. And I don't think it was because that guy was lazy. It's because he wanted to worship God. Brethren, that is the way the heartbeat of the Christian ought to be.
As well, we have the gracious provision of wedding garments. Remember that poor fool in Matthew chapter 22? The king finds him out, then he's without the wedding garment, then he's speechless, so he's cast out into the outer darkness. We, however, have been clothed, we have been fit, we have been prepared, we have been washed, we've been cleaned, we've been purified.
We have the righteousness of Christ placed upon us. We have the Father telling the servants to take that garment and lay it on the back of my son, this son who was lost but is now found, this son who was dead but is now alive. Clean the pig smell off of him and put these beautiful garments upon him. Put a ring on his finger.
Let's kill the fatted calf and let us celebrate. We have the privilege of communion with the King. This is what we do tonight. This is what we are about.
This is what makes us tick. This is what makes us function. Told you before people call, what does your church offer? You know, do you have this program?
Do you have that program? We worship God, man. That's what we do. We try to just come and worship God, because that's what we see our calling to be, to worship God, to praise Him, to preach His truth, to hopefully see the Holy Spirit make more worshipers by the power of the Gospel.
This is our desire, this is our intent, this is our hope. And then as well, the attendant gladness and rejoicing as a result of that communion.
Rejoice Always: The Will of God
There's a text specifically, in fact, let's turn there, 1 Thessalonians 5, that I'm sure some of us gloomy guses need to be reminded of from time to time. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Have you ever wondered, what is the will of God for my life? Have you? I hope so.
It's a good thing to wonder. I just don't think we like the Bible's answer. When we ask, what is the will of God for my life? It typically means something like, which university should I go to?
Which woman should I marry? Which man should I marry? Which cornflakes should I eat? That's how we approach the, what is the will of God for my life? 1 Thessalonians 2, or I'm sorry, 1 Thessalonians 4 gives us something of the will of God.
Look at verse 3. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality. God may not tell you, whisper in your ear, I want you to go to that university or I want you to eat that breakfast cereal, but this much is sure, He wants you to maintain sexual purity. That's the will of God for you.
But notice as well in 1 Thessalonians 5. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." So what's the will of God for you tonight? Well, Thessalonians is packed with it, maintain sexual purity. And as well, rejoice always.
As I said, there's some of us who are gloomy guses. We're down, we're melancholy, we're sorrowful. I don't know what it is about us, but we just have that sort of a bent in our disposition. These are passages we should meditate on.
Psalm 45 is a passage we should contemplate. The gladness and the rejoicing that goes along with communion with Christ ought to be something we pursue. Well, not just to settle it. Well, you know, I'm just that sort of a guy.
I'm always a frowny sort of person. No, rejoice always. Pray without ceasing and everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. You're supposed to be happy when you're having communion with Jesus.
You're supposed to be rejoicing when you're singing praises to Jesus. You're supposed to be glad-hearted when you are intimate with the Savior. That's the will of God for you.
Closing Exhortation
Well, brethren, let us take seriously the psalmist's intention. Let us indeed muse upon the loveliness of the Savior. And specifically, as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we can apply verse 17 very particularly. I will make your name to be remembered in all generations.
Through this bread, through this cup, we do so in remembrance of Christ Jesus. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this song of love composed to celebrate the Savior and his marriage to the bride. How we thank you that he is altogether lovely, the one that is chief among 10,000, that one described in the Song of Solomon that is most excellent and most glorious, that one here described as fairer than the sons of men. Again, that one set forth in the pages of the New Testament that is indeed a mighty warrior who battles via the truth and who beats his enemies through his own life and his death and his resurrection.
And our Father, I pray that we would focus upon this one tonight in a special way in terms of his broken body and his shed blood. Cause us to do this for your glory. Cause this to confirm our faith and to nourish us spiritually. Cause us to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And may this all be attended by gladness and rejoicing. And we pray these things through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.