You can turn in your Bibles to the Psalms, Psalm 45. We will return, God willing, to our exposition of John's Gospel in a week or two, but this morning, another Messianic Psalm, one that is connected to Psalm 2. We also see Messianic Psalms throughout the Psalter. In fact, we could say the Psalter itself is Messianic, but there are some that specifically outline and foreshadow and prefigure and announce what the Lord Jesus Christ will do when He comes to save His people from their sins.
Remember, the Psalms are written long before the coming of the Savior. Psalm 45 is a description of a royal wedding. Essentially, it's Christ and His church. So I want to read beginning in Psalm 45 at 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 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, 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.
Our God and Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You that the scope of Scripture is our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We see that displayed in this altar. We see that displayed in specific psalms along the way.
And here we find that King, that blessed One, that One who is all-glorious, the One who is altogether lovely and chief among ten thousand. We pray that you'd give us eyes to see and our hearts to receive these things. Do forgive us for all of our sins and unrighteousness and cleanse us in that precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that he is King of Kings, that he is Lord of Lords, that he is enthroned at the right hand of God Most High, where he ever lives to make intercession for his people, where he rules and reigns over all things for the church.
And we look forward to that reality wherein he brings all of his enemies into subjection. He does conquer, He does vanquish, He does deal with all those who rise up in opposition against Him. May we be encouraged and may we be strengthened as the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, to know that our head and our champion leads the way, that He is foremost and in the forefront in terms of the battle. And help us to be faithful, help us to be upright, help us to be diligent followers of the Lamb.
And we pray through Christ the Lord. Amen. Well, as I said, we have a connection between several psalms in the Psalter that highlight the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hundreds of years before He was born, hundreds of years before the incarnation of the Son of God, we have these announcements littered through the prophets, littered in the Psalter, concerning what He would do and how He would do it.
Well, there's four particular parts to this psalm. I want to look first at 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 and 17. One commentator, J.A. Alexander, has said the allegorical idea of this psalm is carried out in the Song of Solomon.
Now, there have been interpreters in our own generation, I think they've been there before as well, but it seems to have come to a fever pitch, at least in the last several years, where the Song of Solomon is simply relegated to a performance manual relative to the conjugal relation between a husband and a wife. Well, the ancient church, the church in her best ages, has always seen the Song of Solomon as a depiction of God or Yahweh and Israel, as well it foreshadows Christ and his church. And so the Song of Solomon shows us in allegorical form what we find in this particular passage in Psalm 45. We see not only the king, but we see his bride, we see the church, we see the body of Christ addressed in this particular psalm.
Intention of the Psalmist
So let's look first at the intention of the psalmist. Notice in verse 1, he says, my heart is overflowing. So as he takes pen to paper, he has a particular mission. He has a particular theme.
He's going to reveal that to us in just a moment. But notice he's not some cold, dry theologian. Rather, he is a man that loves his Savior. He is a man that adores the Christ.
He is a man that has this overflowing heart. It's also translated as boils or bubbles up. It denotes the language of the heart, full and ready for utterance. So it's not, again, just this dry theological treatment, but rather it is a composition, a song of love, as we see in the superscription above.
And then notice the subject of his composition. He says in verse one, my heart is overflowing with a good theme. Well, what is that good theme? Well, the theme is our blessed savior.
The theme is the one that the bride describes as altogether lovely and chief among 10,000. The good theme is our Lord Jesus Christ. And he reveals that to us in verse 1C. Notice I recite my composition concerning the king.
I recite my composition concerning the king. Spurgeon says here, 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 spiritual eyes see here Jesus only. So that's the theme, that's the message, that's what David, or the sons of Korah here, are writing concerning. And then notice at the end of verse 1, my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
It reflects the bubbling over of his heart. In other words, he has this love for Christ and it fleshes itself out in his writing of this psalm of love to Christ. Now,
Description of the King
notice the description of the king in verses 2 to 9. He describes first the perfections of the king, and then secondly, the person of the king. Notice the perfections of the king in verses two and following.
Perfections of the King
He speaks of the blessing of God's grace upon the king. Notice in verse two, you are fairer than the sons of men. Grace is poured upon your lips. Therefore, God has blessed you forever.
Christ has supreme fairness. In fact, the word is doubled in Hebrew. It's literally, you are fairer, fairer. Or, you are beautiful, beautiful.
You are the fairest, or thou art more beautiful than. He is showing us the superlative glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is not simply revealing something that is about a creature of the earth. He's not looking at a landscape and saying, wow, I want to compose this song of love because of that glorious vision.
No, rather his subject matter is the one who is altogether lovely and who is chief among 10,000. Again, Spurgeon says Jesus is so emphatically lovely that words must be doubled, strained, yay, 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." I think Spurgeon's absolutely correct there and absolutely right.
Those of you familiar with the Old Testament know that in many ways there's a difference between the Old and the New Testament. The difference isn't in the subject matter. The difference isn't in the author. The difference is in the way that it comes to us.
In fact, in the Old Testament, you get a lot of narrative concerning people. You get heroes presented to you in the Old Testament. Again, not that the apostles in the New Testament are not heroic men, but in the Old Testament, you've got King David of Israel. You've got Samson.
You've got Jephthah. You've got the judges in Israel. You've got Gideon. What is one consistent testimony that brings these men together?
They all have flaws. They all have issues. They all have problems. They all have challenges.
They all have sin, remaining corruption. I think the emphasis of the Bible is to present one hero, one champion, one king, one Lord, one glorious one, and that is Jesus Christ. And so Spurgeon is right. We need to increase our devotion.
We need to increase our love, our appreciation of, and our adoration toward this one who is fairer than the sons of men, even great men. David was, in fact, a great man, but a great man who committed adultery and conspiracy to murder to cover up that adultery. Samson was a great man. I love Samson.
Samson's probably one of my favorite guys in the entirety of the Bible, and I don't think he's half as bad as the church has made him. Four times we see that the Spirit of God came upon Samson. Where else in the Bible do you find a man upon whom it said four times that the Spirit comes upon him? But all that to say even Samson had his struggles, Samson had his issues, Samson had his trials, Samson had his remaining corruption, but not so Jesus.
In the church today, you have heroes. We have heroes. We look back in the history of the church. We have the apostles, the apostle Paul.
We have men that we love. C. H. Spurgeon is one of them.
I've got a bobblehead of him on my desk that was gifted to me by a dear brother in Seattle several years ago. These are heroic men, but Jesus is fairer. Jesus is more glorious. Jesus is more wondrous.
Men will always, at some level or some point, let you down. Men will always bring to bear upon you the reality that they're imperfect. If you put the thought into your fellows that they need to deliver perfection, you are saddling them up with things they cannot deliver. It is Christ alone who is perfect, and in terms of the song of love, you are fairer than the sons of men.
Grace is poured upon your lips. I think of John 1, 17 here. The law came, or the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth was given through the Lord Jesus Christ. Or you have that scene in Luke's gospel in chapter 4 at a synagogue in Nazareth, where the Lord Jesus takes the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and he reads it, and he says, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
And the people of God there, the people in the synagogue rather, are shocked, and they marvel at the grace or the gracious words that proceed from his mouth. Up until the fact, or up until the time he highlights the judgment of God upon apostate Israel, and then they want to throw him off of a hill. But at least initially they appreciate the fact that grace proceeded, gracious words proceeded from the mouth of our blessed Savior. So as he's composing this song of love, he says, you are fairer than the sons of men.
Grace is poured upon your lips, therefore God has blessed you forever. So the blessing of God's grace and the provision of God, the Father, to the Son, in order to carry out the messianic task. But then notice the commitment to God's cause that is manifested by this king. Notice in verses 3 and 4a, the king's equipment.
Verse 3, gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one. Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one. Now, there are many ways to take this. We saw last week in Psalm 2, at verse 9, that Christ, the ascended Lord, Christ, the King of kings, Christ, the one who has all and absolute authority from the right hand of the Father, wields an iron rod.
And with it, he dashes the nations down like a potter's vessel. And we see God's judgment, or Christ's judgment. In fact, in Revelation chapter 6, When the seals are open and the judgment of God is revealed, we see the strong men of the earth, we see the powerful men of the earth call upon the rocks and the hills to fall upon them and to shield them and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. For who can stand in the day of his fury.
And so with reference to Christ, he dashes his enemies down. But in Revelation chapter 19, a passage we'll look at in just a moment, we see that the sword proceeds from the mouth of our Lord Jesus. So yes, he reigns and rules with overwhelming power. He reigns and rules with transformative power.
He is able to smash and dash his enemies. But he also wields the power of his sword, which is the word of God. And that dashes his enemies as well. Paul speaks of that in Colossians 1.13.
He speaks of the enemies of Christ being transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the son of his love. We were enemies. We were rebels. We were confederates.
We were transgressors against our great God, but now we've been conquered. Now we've been blessed. Now we have been restored to fellowship with the living and true God. So Christ has two ways of ruling and reigning.
Dashing and destroying his enemies, or converting them by the power of his glorious gospel. And we ought to praise him that we have been conquered by the power of his glorious gospel. So he has girt upon his thigh the Mighty One, and then we notice the nature of his ride. So verse 3, "...girt your sword upon your thigh, O Mighty One, with your glory and your majesty." And then notice in verse 4, "...and in your majesty ride prosperously, because of truth, humility, and righteousness." Ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness.
This is a wonderful statement. In fact, turn to the Gospel of John, John chapter 18. John chapter 18, the only time the earthly or physical birth of our Lord Jesus is highlighted. John's Gospel tells us about the fact that he is the only begotten Son of the Father, stresses very clearly the divinity of the Son, that he is from everlasting to everlasting, that he is the second person of the triune God.
The birth narrative is absent in John's gospel. The only reference that Jesus gives relative to his physical birth is when he stands before Pontius Pilate. And Pontius Pilate is pressing him. Pontius Pilate is a stooge in the hands of the godless Jews to try to get at Jesus.
They didn't have authority to crucify. They didn't have authority to engage in capital punishment. They needed Pilate to sign off. So Pilate's a puppet in the hands of the Jews, and Pilate is pressing him.
Notice what Pilate asks in 1837. 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 voice. So consider the word of the Psalter. He rides prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness. It is the godless that advance their cause through deception.
It is the unrighteous satanist that advances his cause through lies. The truth has nothing to fear. The truth does not fear the light. The truth does not fear being brought out in the marketplace.
Truth is truth, and it does what God intends it to do. So Christ doesn't advance His cause by lies and deception. He doesn't say, oh come to me and I'll make sure you have a nice big car, and you'll have a nice big house, and you'll have a nice big wallet, and you'll have a nice big, you know, summer home at the lake. He doesn't lie like that.
He tells us in this world you will have tribulation, but he encourages us to be of good cheer because he's overcome the world. He advances his cause in truth and humility and righteousness. Again, it is Satan's schemes to use lies, to use pride, and to use unrighteousness to advance his wicked cause. It's only unfortunate that so many people fall subject to that or fall prey to that.
We've accepted lies. We've accepted deception. We've accepted political leaders and the media and everyone around us to just lie to us constantly and regularly. But not so in the kingdom of Jesus.
It's advanced by truth. It's advanced by power. It's advanced by His glory, His nature as a humble and glorious Savior and righteous. And then notice back in the psalm, Psalm 45, as we consider His commitment to God's cause, it sort of now moves into the triumph over God's enemies.
Look at 4b and 5. So verse four, 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.
This idea of your right hand shall teach you awesome things. Kind of a curious or interesting statement. Let me quote John Gill here. He says, or thy power. which the right hand is a symbol of, shall perform terrible things as it did in the work of redemption, by conquering and destroying the enemies of his people, and of himself, and as it does in the conversion of men, which makes terrible work in their consciences, as the instances of the three thousand, of Saul, and of the jailer show, and as it has in judgments on his enemies, the Jews, in the utter ruin of their nation, city, and temple." He's referring to AD 70. and will do on all the anti-Christian powers in the latter day." In other words, what he says concerning your right hand shall teach you awesome things is the demonstration of the power and the glory and the majesty of Jesus Christ as he carries out the messianic task.
On the one hand, to bless and to save his people from their sins. And on the other hand, to curse and reject and cast away those who continue impenitent and unbelieving. See, when it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ, He's as glorious in His judgments as He is in the application of His grace. And so the right hand of the power of Jesus shall demonstrate awesome things.
And then notice what the psalmist says in verse 5. Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, the people's fall under you. Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies. The people shall fall under you.
Now you can turn to the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19. Where you see the rider on the white horse.
Specifically verses 11 to 16. 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." Sounds as if John, under the inspiration of the Spirit, while he's on the island of Patmos, for the Word of God and the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ, has a lot of Old Testament in his head. In fact, the book of Revelation is the most Old Testament-ish book in the entirety of the New Testament.
That doesn't mean there's as many quotes necessarily, but there's allusion, there's thematic, there's an intertextuality, as scholars refer to it. What do you think is behind this statement? What do you think is behind this statement in terms of he who sat on this white horse was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war? Certainly wouldn't surprise me if Psalm 45 was in his head.
Certainly wouldn't surprise me if the thought of the sons of Korah, descripted in this song of love, is in the mind and heart of this man under the inspiration of the Spirit. Notice in verse 12, 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 a 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. I love Ralph Davis in his commentary on the book of Joshua. He says, we must catch the vision of the faithful and true sitting on the white horse, the one who judges and makes war and righteousness, Revelation 19, 11 to 16. He says, 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. I need to make a confession in my prayer. I stole a brother's prayer. When I spoke of Jesus as the captain leading his bride, that came out of prayer meeting this morning.
So I want to make sure everybody knows that. It's a rich and beautiful image. The captain of our salvation doesn't trail the church. We may think that at times.
It looks as if at times that the church has fallen on hard times. It looks like we're not going anywhere. It looks like the world is winning. It looks like the wickedness and the lawlessness on high places in terms of the civil polity is victorious.
Nothing could be further from the truth. We've got Christ on the white horse, waging and making war. We've got Christ protecting and providing for his people. We've got Christ fighting for us as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
We've got the blessed Christ who does what the psalmist says here in Psalm 45. He rides prosperously in truth, humility, and righteousness. Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies. The peoples fall under you.
Where's the Roman Empire that was so about persecuting the people of God? It's done. Where's Nero, Caesar, that wretch who fiddled while Rome burned and he blamed the people of God? That wretch under whom the Apostle Paul was beheaded?
That wretch who was described by John Fox as a beast? That wretch who many of us see as the actual beast in the book of Revelation? Revelation isn't about our future. Revelation is about the people of God in the first century.
Their first persecuting enemy was the unbelieving Jews. The great city that our brother read of is identified in chapter 11. It's Jerusalem. It's a spiritual Sodom and Gomorrah.
It's a spiritual Babylon that turned its guns against the professing people of God that sided with Jesus the Messiah. So what happens to them? Christ, from the right hand of the throne of God Almighty, brings judgment to bear upon them via the Roman armies. What happens when the Roman Empire rises up against the people of God?
They're put down too. In other words, if you look back at history, everybody, every system, every government that has opposed God Most High and His Christ has not prospered. You don't do better as a body politic in rejecting and resisting the sovereign God. Why do the nations rage and the people plot of vain things?
Why do the kings set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against Yahweh and against His Christ? Well, the answer is simple, because they're sinful fools. They're foolish, they're folly, they're engaged in rebellion and treachery and transgression against the Holy God. The finite is trying to oppose the infinite.
The creature is trying to oppose the Creator. That's why Psalm 2 says, why did the nations rage? Do they know what they're doing? To steal Albert N.
Martin's sort of illustration again, when I come out to my front porch and I see a line of ants, and they say, we're going to get you, I laugh at them. I hold them in derision. I will distress them in my wrath, because they cannot mount an effective opposition against me. I can with foot lower it upon them, or I can with raid extinguish them.
So when the creature rises up against the creator, the question is legit. Why do they do that? You're not going to prosper. You're not going to win.
And in terms of the history of the world, this is programmatic. And in your majesty, right, prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness. We have a blessed God who has sent his Son to save us from our sins. Look at Psalm 110, another messianic psalm in particular, but look at how we see the Messiah as conqueror depicted at the end of the psalm.
Notice in Psalm 110, we know verse 1, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. God the Father says to God the Son, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. In other words, you're going to win. There's no question.
So you don't come to the Bible and say, I wonder, are the wicked gonna win? Does the devil triumph? Is he victorious? Is that all there is for us?
No, the Bible everywhere tells us he's not gonna win. The Bible everywhere tells us that Christ wins. So notice verse two, the Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies.
Your people shall be volunteers in the day of your power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning. You have the due of your youth. The Lord is sworn and will not relent. You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek." See, that's an interesting facet concerning our blessed Redeemer.
He's King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but he's also a prophet and a priest. We need a priest, don't we? If we're going to enter into heaven, there needs to be blood atonement. The apostle says this in Hebrews 9.22, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.
So what does God do? He provides his son, his only begotten son. He takes on our humanity, the son, and he assumes that position as mediator, which means he's prophet, priest, and king. So the same king that rules and reigns over his enemies is the same the same son, rather, that became a priest to offer himself up for the sins of his people.
That's what the psalmist is saying here in verse four. The Lord has sworn and will not relent. You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Now, you may not be a believer here this morning, and there might be a resonating in your heart in terms of the kingship of Jesus.
Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of bad things going on in this world. It's a lot of horrible things. We see abortion. We see euthanasia.
We see the mutilation of children now, violating the seventh commandment. Oh, we got to affirm them at eight to go ahead and engage in mutilation that is going to affect them forever. Yeah, I'd like a king to be able to stomp on these enemies. I'd like a king to be able to crush these enemies.
So if that's resonating in your heart, good. That resonates in my heart too. But let the priesthood of Jesus resonate in your heart. And dare I say, even more for a little time?
Because you need a priest. You need a victim. And Christ is both priest and victim. When John the Baptist announces the earthly ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, do you know how he doesn't do it?
Behold the king who's going to dash his enemies and who's going to crush them like potter's vessels. No, he says, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. You may resonate with the kingly office of our Lord Jesus Christ and good on you, but you need to look to the priestly office of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches that we're sinners.
The Bible teaches that our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. The Bible teaches that this is a comprehensive problem. It's not just me. Though I'm part of it, it's not just Paul who says he's the chief of the sinners.
It's not just the rest of us here who are in this room. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So what's the answer? What's the hope?
What's the remedy? Do I need to get better? Well, that's gonna be a fool's errand, because you're not gonna get better. I just hate to break that to you and shatter your bubble today.
Oh, I just need to do more and perform better and work harder. Well, you'll do more and work harder and perform better on your way to hell. There is one hope for sinners. The hymn writer said it this way, foul I chew the fountain fly, wash me savior or I die.
He says, nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. It is Christ alone in whom there is forgiveness and a righteousness by which we enter into heaven. And so it's faith in Jesus, looking to that priestly office, hearing that prophetic word from him, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and that blessed promise, and I will give you rest. Come to Him.
Find shelter under the shadow of His wings. Find that refuge. Find that place of forgiveness and mercy and grace. Find that place of not just temporal safety.
Christ isn't just an insurance plan for the next 40 years in your life. Christ brings eternal blessing. Hence this song of love in Psalm 45. He is fairer than the sons of men.
He doesn't just deliver a generation like Samson does. He doesn't just deliver a generation like King David does. No, he's fairer than the sons of men. He delivers his people from their sins.
Well, what's the means? What's the way? How do I access these resources or these riches? By faith.
By faith, by looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a man, he was a jailer in Philippi, and he was about to kill himself. And the apostle Paul and Barnabas said, don't do that. And so this man comes and falls down before them, not the other prisoners.
He comes and falls down before Paul and Barnabas, not the other prisoners. And he says, sirs, what must I do to be saved? You know what they didn't say? Go try harder.
Go do more. Be better. Be a better version of you. No, that's not what they said.
It said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. It's faith in the Redeemer. It's faith in this priest. It's faith in this one who has a priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek.
It's not like the Levitical priests that had to offer up sacrifices daily for their own sins and then for the sins of Israel. He's the holy, harmless, and undefiled one. So back to the psalm, this same king, Psalm 110, is a priest and he's a prophet. He speaks to us because we're ignorant and we need to hear his word.
Now notice the Messiah as conqueror in verses five to seven. The Lord is at your right hand. He shall execute kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the nations.
He shall fill the places with dead bodies. He shall execute the heads of many countries. He shall drink of the brook by the wayside. Therefore, he shall lift up the head.
Beautiful martial imagery applied to the Savior in his conquering here. Notice, he shall drink of the brook by the wayside. Why does he do that? Well, the same reason Samson, after he killed a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass, said, you know, Lord, you just gave me this great deliverance.
You're going to let me die of thirst here? There was this fountain open for him to refresh himself. Because I don't know, but I'm guessing that killing 1,000 people with the jawbone of an ass probably saps your energy a bit, probably taxes you just a little in terms of your energy levels. We can't walk up a hill without breathing and sucking air.
Samson stood toe to toe with 1,000 Philistines and dispatched them. That man was heroic, but what does he do? He needs water. What does the psalmist say concerning our blessed Savior?
In a depiction of His power, of His glory, of His victory, He drinks of the brook by the wayside, and therefore He shall lift up the head. So back to Psalm 45, we see the very same emphasis in terms of his total victory. The people's fall under you. So that's the perfections of the king, verses 2 to 5.
The blessing of God's grace, the commitment to God's cause, the triumph over God's enemies. Now notice the person of the king in verses 6 to 9.
Divine Nature of the King
Notice in the first place the divine nature of the king. We've been working our way through John's gospel in the morning. If you're visiting with us, this is not the norm. Usually, we go expositionally through John in the morning, Ephesians in the evening.
We find ourselves at the end of John 10. We're just about to start, God willing, John 11. But John's emphasis, from the very beginning of his gospel narrative, is to stress the divinity of Jesus. In the beginning was the Word.
The Word was with God, and the Word was God, John 1. John 1.14 deals with the glory of the incarnation. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. John 1.18 highlights the special nature of the only begotten son.
When John says, no one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father has declared him. And then John ends the gospel properly. Chapter 21 is sort of an epilogue, but chapter 20 ends on this high note from doubting Thomas. When he sees Jesus, he says, my Lord and my God.
And then, of course, John tells us the thesis of his book. I write so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing in his name, you may have everlasting life. So John takes pains to stress the divinity of the Son. And along the way, he has butted heads, Jesus has, with the religious leaders.
And one of the things that I have tried to encourage us to understand is that the Old Testament prophesied a divine Messiah. The Old Testament prophesied a divine Messiah, certainly a human Messiah. In Christ, we have that blessed thing theologians call the hypostatic union. That's a big word that simply means he's one person with two natures, divine and human.
So the Old Testament tells us he'll be a man. In fact, this Psalm does in just a moment, but in Genesis 3.15, we have that first gospel announcement that there will be victory for God's people, and it will come as a result of a man born of a woman. It will come as a result of that man born of a woman suffering and dying to bring total victory to his people. And then throughout the Old Testament, we see more facets described concerning this Messiah.
And so for the Jew today and the Jew in Jesus' day to say, well, you know, the Bible never taught a divine Messiah. No, the Bible most certainly teaches a divine Messiah. Isaiah 9, 6, and 7. He's mighty God.
He's everlasting Father. Micah 5, 2, whose goings forth are from of old or from ancient of days. We have all kinds of description in the Old Testament concerning the divinity of our blessed Savior, and Psalm 45 is not an exception. Look at the divinity of the king.
Verse 6, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. Well, why is that? Why do we need a divine king?
Because there's no hope of salvation without a divine king. We need God to save us. We can't do it ourselves. We don't have the wherewithal, the competency, the power.
We don't even have the willingness, until God gives it to us, to want to be saved. Look at the world around you. You tell them about Jesus and His wonderful salvation. What do they do?
Do they flock to Him? Do they run to Him? Do they say, oh yes, let me have Him, let me believe on Him? No!
They can't be bothered. These things are not intrinsic, or these things are not important to them. So we need a divine king, and we need a human king. Because if he doesn't live for us, and he doesn't die for us, and he's not raised again for us, there's no salvation.
See, in Christ we have the perfect mediator. In Christ we have the perfect Savior. In Christ we have the perfect Messiah, or Christ, in terms of saving His people from their sins. So notice the language there.
Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. And if you suspect that I'm making this up in its application to our Lord Jesus, Paul applies it to Him in Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 8. When he's highlighting the superiority and the supremacy of our Lord Jesus Christ, he does so in a myriad of ways in those opening chapters. Christ is over the prophets.
Christ is over the angels. Christ is over Moses. Christ is over Joshua. Christ is over Aaron.
Christ is over the Levitical priesthood. Christ is over this tabernacle that you fools keep going back to and rejecting or resisting the once for all sacrifice rendered by Christ. That's the point in the book of Hebrews. You see, the apostle applies Psalm 45 to the Lord Jesus.
He's both God and man. Spurgeon again makes this observation. He says that 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, blessed sight. He says, blind are the eyes that cannot see God in Christ Jesus. He's right. See, if somebody ever says to you, Why do you follow that Jesus?
He was just a man. He lived a good life. He did a lot of good things. But in the final analysis, he just seemed to be something of a revolutionary in that first century context.
So I'm not suggesting he wasn't revolutionary in the first century context. But it's because of what the scripture says concerning Him. He is both God and man. The second person, the blessed triune God, that takes on our humanity so that He can live for us, die for us, and be raised again for us.
He is God from God, light from light, true God from true God. But as you look back at verse 6, you not only see the divinity of the King, but you see something concerning the eternality of His kingdom. Notice, your throne, O God, is what? It's forever and ever.
It's not here for a generation. It's not here for just a time. It's not here for just a few years. But it's from everlasting to everlasting.
It is forever and ever. You see that in Isaiah 9. You see it in Luke 1. Luke 1, the birth announcement of our blessed Savior.
What's the nature of His reign? Of His reign, there will be no end. It is forever. There's a hymn writer named John Newton.
He writes this wonderful song called Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. Well, the fourth stanza, after you've been singing the other three, is already elevating you to the point where, hey, I could go right now. If it's in your will, God, let this pass.
Let me just go on into the presence of God, singing that last stanza. For when we've been there 10,000 years, bright, shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. 10,000 years is a drop in the bucket. His kingdom is forever. And then notice the equity of His kingdom.
That's a big word today. Our politicians like to bandy it about. Notice, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom.
You love righteousness and hate wickedness. See, the problem is that they use equity in a Marxist context which basically reverses this. You love wickedness and you hate righteousness. That's the modern conception of equity.
But with reference to God Most High, with reference to the reigning and ruling and glorious Christ, He loves righteousness and He hates wickedness. The fear of the Lord, according to Proverbs 8, is to what? With evil. It's to hate it.
Oh, you Christians, you're so high and mighty. You're so judgmental of everything. No, we're simply following our blessed Savior. He hates evil.
We are to hate evil as well. So with reference to our savior, he's not only the divine one, his kingdom is without end, and a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of his kingdom. He loves righteousness and he hates wickedness. But then notice the divinity of the king, but the humanity of the king.
Look at verse seven, you love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions. So how can this be? Is there two gods?
Is there three gods? No, there's the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. One divine being. One essence or substance.
And in this essence, there are three persons. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so Christ, according to his humanity, refers to the Father as God. So there's no problem theologically here.
You've got the Son of God, who is divine, who takes on our humanity. He counts himself as one of us, in all points like us, and yet without sin. But he does so, so that he can live, so that he can die, and so that he can rise again. You've probably heard me say that a few times.
You're probably wondering, what does that mean? Well, typically, we associate salvation with the death of the Savior, and we should. See, what the death of the Savior is, is washing and purifying and cleansing for all of us sinners. In fact, the prophet spoke of it this way in chapter 13 of Zechariah.
He says, Behold, there will be a fountain open for sin and uncleanness. We sing a hymn that says that there's blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and guilty sinners are plunged in that. Well, what does that mean? It means that we've transgressed God's law.
We have violated his righteousness. We have lacked conformity when he says, do this. We have transgressed when he says, don't do this. We are sinners.
That's a universal problem. And so we need the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, to cleanse us from all sin. But you see, it's not just that cleansing that we stand in need of. We also need a righteousness.
You see, we need to be able to enter into heaven perfect. Well, if you think for a moment about that demand, it should cause you to go nuts. I'll never go into heaven because I'm not perfect. I've never been perfect.
I'm not presently perfect. And I have no intention to try and be perfect because I know that that's an impossibility. You're right. But guess who was perfect?
Guess who was holy, harmless, and undefiled? Guess who said, I must fulfill all righteousness? Guess who never sinned? Guess who never had a lustful thought?
Guess who never engaged in any sort of character assassination? Guess who never gossiped? Guess who never slandered? Guess who never went into a school and shot people for no reason?
Guess who never did that? It's the Lord Jesus. So the beauty of the Christian gospel, or good news, that's all that gospel means, it's good news, is that Christ lived, Christ died, and Christ was raised again. So that every sinner who, by God's grace, looks to Him in faith, receives not only forgiveness, but they get a righteousness.
They get clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. And it's not going to be hard to sort of convince you of that as we move through this song. Because guess what the bride is wearing? Is the bride wearing that perfection that she herself wrought out?
Is the bride wearing that perfect garment that she herself built? No, it's through the imputed righteousness of Jesus and received by faith alone. Our blessed Savior is both God and man. You love righteousness and hate wickedness.
Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions. Now notice it describes the beauty of the king. In verse 8, all your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cacha out of the ivory palaces by which they have made you glad. Describes the king's entourage.
Verse 9, king's daughters are among your honorable women. At your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir. You'd either have to pay me a lot of money or put a gun to my head to have me watch a royal wedding on television. But with reference to this psalm, it invites the believer to stand in awe of their great God.
It calls us to look upon that one who is fairer than the sons of men, that one who is glorious, that one who is altogether lovely, that one who is chief among 10,000. Now notice, thirdly, Thirdly, the instruction to the bride in verses 10 to 15. Notice verse 10. Listen, oh daughter.
This is the bride. This is described the king. Again, Song of Solomon sort of details this and even more. Versification in terms of the allegory.
You've got the bride. You've got the bridegroom. We've got the bridegroom considered thus far. Now notice the bride.
What do you think is necessary in terms of the bride's response to the king? It's what I've been saying. Faith and repentance. Faith means to look unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and while you're looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ, you're turning your back on the sins that once characterized you.
This is what the psalmist says. Verse 10, Listen, O daughter, consider and incline your ear. I love that language. As I mentioned earlier, we just don't think about spiritual things in our day.
We don't think about a life to come. If you ever go downtown, or you go door to door, or you try to talk to people about their soul, about sin, about salvation, about Jesus, about a life to come, people don't care. As long as they get their house, they get their Netflix, they got a six-pack, they're fine. I think we saw that during the pandemic.
As long as you got a TV, you're fine. In fact, you're fighting in terms of COVID by sitting on your couch. Good for you, sanctimonious one. People just don't care.
And so I think the language of the psalmist here is most appropriate for a materialistic age like ours. Listen, oh daughter, consider and incline your ear. Perhaps some of you have not given thought to these things. Perhaps some of you have not entertained the reality of a heaven to gain by God's grace or a hell to suffer because you're a rebel and a transgressor.
She says, listen, oh daughter, consider and incline your ear. Forget your own people also and your father's house. What does that depict but faith and repentance? Coming to the Savior.
Turning your back upon those things that at one time captivated you. They ravished your heart. They were things that you were entrenched in. Look back for just a moment at a similar thing in Genesis chapter 12.
Genesis chapter 12, we talk about Father Abraham, that father of the faithful. We typically don't understand or think about or reflect upon the fact that he was an idolater. He was a pagan. He was living in a godless land, worshiping a false god, an idol.
And then when Yahweh calls him, notice the language that Yahweh uses in chapter 12, verse one. Now, the Lord said to Abram, get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. You see, coming to the King, coming to the Savior, coming to the Lord Jesus means leaving things behind. It doesn't mean everything.
It doesn't mean your mother or your father is dead to you now. No, that's not what it means. But in terms of a primary commitment, in terms of allegiance, in terms of a focus or an orientation, we don't just add Jesus to our already complete life. We don't add him the way persons add a beverage to their already complete life.
Mentioned before, a brother saw years and years ago, this is back when church signs were even cheesier, if you can imagine, and one sign had things go better with Coke. I'm sorry, things go better with Jesus. They do go better with Coke, I guess, if you're a seller of Coke, Coca-Cola. But things go better with Jesus?
What is that to do? It's to pull Jesus off the throne of absolute majesty and put him into our consumer-driven age. Well, he's kind of like a bevy. He's kind of like a beverage, kind of like a Coke.
When you have Jesus, things are just better. Brethren, that's not our Jesus. He is altogether lovely and he is chief among 10,000. He is fairer than the sons of men.
So isn't it righteous for God to say, turn your back on those things that at one time captivated you and change your orientation through faith in the Savior and repentance unto life. This is the way you close with the king. And that is precisely what Abram was told. Get out of your country, from your family, from your father's house to a land that I will show you.
You hear people today, well, if I become a Christian, I can't do this or I can't do that. Nobody that I know that's a real Christian ever said that. I mean, they may have, and then they were saved. And then they thought, how foolish was that?
I mean, giving up the city of destruction for the celestial city? You're only a winner. You've only prospered. You've only benefited.
Giving up all things for the glory of Jesus Christ? That's only win-win. There's no negative there. So going back to the psalm, verse 10.
Listen, O daughter, consider uninclining your ear. Forget your own people also in your father's house. Motier makes this observation. 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 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.
I'd love that he says that. Sinful self and righteous self, right? We tell the harlots and the publicans, you need to repent of your wickedness and come to the Lord Jesus. We should tell the righteous, you need to repent of your self-righteousness and come to the Lord Jesus.
Self-righteousness and a godlessness will end you up in the same place. It's not your sin that God has a problem with, because he deals with that through the blood of Jesus. As Gershner said, it's your damnable good works. It's your pride and your arrogance.
It's your thought that, oh, I don't need Jesus. All I need is a bit of moral reform. I don't need Jesus. I'll just stop doing this, and I'll start doing that.
And by stopping and starting, I'll go into heaven, and God will say, wow, you're so great, so good. You don't think that obedience to law must be exact. It must be entire. It must be perpetual.
It must be perfect. There's only one who does that, and that's Jesus. That's why you need to repent of your sins and repent of your righteousness and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So he says, 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.
And then notice in verse 10, listen, O daughter, consider and incline your ear, forget your own people also in your father's house. Verse 11, so the king will greatly desire your beauty. Great, great words, positively wonderful words, especially when you consider that it's Our beauty, he desires. Well, it's a beauty that he conveys upon us.
It's a righteousness that he gives to us. He fits us for himself. The bride, bridegroom rather, prepares the bride for this wonderful event. So the king will greatly desire your beauty because he is your Lord, worship him.
See, that's the reflex. That's natural, right? It's like Paul says in Romans chapter 12, Therefore, beloved, by the mercies of God, I beseech you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice to God, which is what? Your reasonable service.
This is rational. This is legit. It's kind of like Elijah at Mount Carmel. If Baal is God, then serve him.
But if Yahweh is God, then serve him. Or the way Joshua seeks to denounce that self-righteousness at that covenant renewal at Shechem. He basically says, don't even bother. Why is that?
Because He knows the heart of man. He knows what's in us. But with reference to this Lord. So the King will greatly desire your beauty because He is your Lord.
Worship Him. This is consistent. What does that mean? It means come to church.
It means read your Bible. It means pray. It means lead your little ones to God Most High in family worship. And then
The Bride's Clothing and Glory
notice the description of the bride in verses 13 to 15. 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 enter the king's palace. Now again, Motier says we are robed for the occasion. This is using illustration of what I said earlier in terms of the sinners coming to Jesus.
When you come to Jesus in faith, what happens? You're washed in the precious blood of the Lamb. And then you receive by God's grace this righteousness by which you now may enter into heaven. What do you think the robe is?
What do you think the garment is? Remember that prodigal son? He comes back smelling like pig. He comes back smelling like the waste of a life.
He comes back smelling like a mercenary. Oh, if I throw myself on the mercy of God, I'll at least get three haunts and a cot. He's not converted when he goes back to the father. It's the father who runs out on him, not on him, but to him, and falls on him, and kisses him, and puts a ring on his finger, and puts a robe on him.
What does that signify? He's now prepared to enter in to the table of his father. There is this imputed righteousness of Jesus that we desperately need that is given to us in the gospel of our salvation. That's the robes.
The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace. Her clothing is woven with gold. We didn't prepare ourselves for heaven. We didn't get better.
We didn't try harder. We weren't smarter than the average bear. It's God Most High who saved us. It's God Most High who fell on us.
It's God Most High who kissed us. It's God Most High who puts a ring on our finger. It's God Most High who puts the robe of Christ's righteousness on us to fit us for this blessed wedding. It's not us.
We give glory to God. In Isaiah 61 verse 10, I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh. My soul shall be joyful in my God. Why?
For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. There's a scene in the prophet Zechariah where Joshua the high priest, not Joshua the son of Nun, Joshua the high priest is standing there. representing the nation of Israel, and he's filthy. He's disgusting.
He is covered with muck. He's covered with grime. He's covered with sin. And the devil is right there, ready to rebuke him, as is true of his very name and nature.
He's an accuser of the brethren. Before he can open his mouth, God rebukes the devil. And what do you think God demands relative to Joshua, the high priest, standing there in his filth? God says, take those garments off of him.
Get rid of the sin. Wash him in that fountain that is open for sin and uncleanness. Get rid of that pig-smelling garment that he's wearing, that is filled with his sin and transgression and rebellion. And then take these beautiful garments and this turban and put them on him.
You see what is taught us there in Zechariah 3 is what many theologians, many centuries later, would write in their catechism. Westminster Shorter Catechism, number 33, asks the question, what is justification? Justification is an act of God's free grace wherein He pardons all our sins. Praise God. and receives us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone.
So when the bride is prepared here, it's not her ingenuity that's celebrated, it's not her ability that's celebrated, it's not her godliness and her holiness that's celebrated. It's God's grace that is amazing. And then notice, with gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought, they shall enter the king's palace. We have been considering the Old Testament.
We're getting close to the end, don't worry. We've been considering the Old Testament in our Wednesday night studies. We've moved from Exodus to Leviticus, and Exodus ends on a tension. Exodus ends with realization.
God says, build me a dwelling place. They do build him a dwelling place called the tabernacle, and then the Shekinah glory, which means the glory of God, comes down and fills that temple. But Moses can't go in. Which, if you know who Moses was, he was the godliest one of all of them.
If anybody could have and should have been able to have access, it would have been Moses. But he couldn't. So that's the tension upon which the book ends. Well, how do we resolve that tension?
The book of Leviticus. These sacrifices, this blood, these offerings, this atonement, this means by which sinful people enter into the presence of a holy God. And then later on in the book of Leviticus, in chapter 16, we learn of the Day of Atonement. You've probably heard of this.
It's called Yom Kippur. It's the Day of Atonement, still celebrated in Judaism. But on that Day of Atonement, one man went in to the Holy of Holies. One man alone, the high priest.
And he didn't go in all of his robes of glory. He basically stripped down to linen. Why? Because it is a sinner approaching a holy God.
And he doesn't go in there alone. He goes in there with blood, and he pours it out on the mercy seat. And once he comes out after having done that, probably two or three times, because there's a lot of sin that has to be dealt with in terms of that blood, he then takes another goat, and he puts his hands upon that goat, and he confesses the sins of Israel, and then he drives that goat out into the wilderness. Well, what is that a picture of?
It's a picture of the gospel. It's a prefigurement. It's typical. It foreshadows.
It tells us what the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, will do. Well, now notice what we have in the New Covenant. Notice that we have access to the king's palace. Notice that we have access to the king himself.
Notice in the book of Revelation, our brother read from chapter 17, chapter 1 tells us where Jesus Christ is in this New Covenant era. He's in the midst of the lampstands. So what was at one time forbidden for most, 99.9% of Israelites, is now opened up to us in and through the blood and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is gospel.
It is good news. And then that last scene, verses 16 and 17, the psalmist is speaking to the king now. The psalmist has spoken of the king, the psalmist has spoken to the church, and now he ends on the high note of declaring the glory of the king. Instead of your fathers shall be your sons, whom you shall make princes in all the earth.
He says, I will make your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore, the people shall praise you forever and ever. See, there's no hint of perhaps this may not be the case. There's no sort of, I kind of hope there's always a people for you in the coming generations.
No, he knows of a truth. He knows that God will always have a church. He knows that God will always have a people. He knows that Christ will say, maybe he didn't know it specifically in terms of Matthew 16, but he knew the promise of Matthew 16, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
In other words, brethren, this king who rides prosperously in truth, humility, and righteousness is not frustrated. The church ain't going anywhere. If the church could be destroyed, the church would have been destroyed. Whatever comes in our future, in terms of any more overreach, or political pressure, or godless pressure from other religions, know this fact.
The Lord Jesus Christ is in the business of assembling together to himself a great multitude that no man can number, from every tribe, every tongue, every people, and every nation. The church will march on. The church will march on not because she's great, but the church will march on because her head, her savior, her king, her champion is great, and he leads the way, and our task is to follow him and to be faithful to the very end. Well, let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the psalmist's description, the song of love composed concerning our blessed Savior. Truly He is fairer than the sons of men. And we rejoice in Your goodness and Your kindness to us.
We rejoice that You have had mercy upon our hearts and souls, that You have given us life eternal in Him. And we pray that all throughout the earth today, as this gospel is proclaimed, it would run swiftly and it would be glorified. and that many would come out of darkness into marvelous light to proclaim your excellencies and to proclaim your praises. And we ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. Well, you can turn in your hymn books and we'll sing a song of praise to our triune God, page 568. 568, we'll stand as we sing together. ♪ Praise God the Lord, all blessings flow ♪ ♪ Praise Him, all creatures here below ♪ ♪ Praise Him, our God, ye heavenly host ♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Amen. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. God, go with us now and cause these things to be true for each of us.
And may you be glorified in our hearts, in our lives, in our families, and in this church. And we pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. We may be seated for a brief time of meditation.