for the choir director, according to the Shoshanim, a maskil of the sons of Korah, a song of love. My heart overflows with a good theme. I address my verses to 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 on your thigh, O Mighty One, in your splendor and your majesty. And in your majesty, ride on victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness. Let your right hand teach you awesome things. Your arrows are sharp. The peoples fall under you. Your arrows are in the heart of the king's enemies. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of joy above your fellows. All your garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. Out of ivory palaces, stringed instruments have made you glad. King's daughters are among your noble ladies. At your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir. Listen, O daughter, give attention and incline your ear. Forget your people and your father's house. Then the king will desire your beauty. Because he is your Lord, bow down to him. The daughter of Tyre will come with a gift. The rich among the people will seek your favor. The king's daughter is all glorious within. Her clothing is interwoven with gold. She will be led to the king in embroidered work. The virgins, her companions who follow her, will be brought to you. They will be led forth with gladness and rejoicing. They will enter into the king's palace. In place of your fathers will be your sons. You shall make them princes in all the earth. I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore the peoples will give you thanks forever and ever. That's the Lord's blessing. Lord Christ, pull back the veil that your people, your bride, might see you in all of your beauty and your glory, that our hearts might be moved to love you afresh. For we pray it in your name. Amen. Imagine for a moment that you are in the great hall of an ancient castle. At one end of the room stands a figure who is absolutely stunning. He is richly clothed in royal robes. A crown of gold rests upon his brow. And you have no doubt that he is a king. In fact, he is the king. A strong, stately, warrior king. Strapped on his side is a mighty sword. And there is no doubt that he understands well how to use that weapon to greatest advantage. His bow and his quiver are nearby also, and my, those arrows look exceedingly sharp. As you glance around the room, you begin to realize that you are not the only one staring at this great king. Every eye is trained upon him, looking with fondest admiration at his greatness. But then on the other end of this great hall there is a commotion as someone else enters the room. At the center of this small group is a beautiful young princess. She comes upon her father's arm and she is accompanied by her maidens. Slowly they approach the king. As he sees her it is obvious that he welcomes her appearance his eyes sparkle with love as the two come together the princess bows with her face to the ground before her beautiful Lord and he instinctively reaches down takes her by the hand and raises her back to her feet Then he draws her close to him, and he whispers in her ear. She smiles, she nods. Briefly she turns to her father to kiss him goodbye. But then quickly she is back with her king, putting her arm through his, and the two depart from the room to the cheers of the crowd. The glorious scene that I have described for you is the scenario that we find in our psalm tonight as Christ and his church come together in mutual love and adoration. Last week we saw that the church of Jesus Christ is a beautiful church. Tonight I want to show you that she is also a beloved church. that she is both loved and loving, as she is united to Christ, her heavenly husband. And so it's very appropriate that we look into Psalm 45, which is a love song between Jesus and His church. Considering this psalm, let's first look at Christ, the lovely husband. then at the beloved bride and finally at the lover and his beloved. You simply cannot do justice to this particular psalm or to the relationship between Christ and his church without recognizing how altogether lovely Christ is. Your heavenly husband is quite a catch. He is the greatest prize that has ever been available. And in this psalm, the writer lauds the stunning beauty, the great goodness, and the thorough desirability of Christ. It starts out with the three statements in verse 2 to describe His loveliness. You are fairer than the sons of men, Grace is poured upon your lips, therefore God has blessed you forever. Christ is beautiful. He is more beautiful than any of the sons of Adam. There is no human being that has ever lived that has rivaled his beauty, much less exceeded it. Spurgeon says it with his classic eloquence when he says this, in person, but especially in mind and character, the King of Saints is peerless in beauty. The Hebrew word is doubled, beautiful, beautiful art thou. Jesus is so emphatically lovely that words must be doubled, 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. he is lovely everywhere and from every point of view but never more so than when we view him in conjugal union with his church then love gives a ravishing flush of glory to his loveliness I think Spurgeon is very right Christ is lovely in every respect every possible way that he could be lovely he is lovely and each is in its proper proportion so that his character, his being, his loveliness is perfect through and through now this is not just some outward physical appearance and this is where our modern society is so very wrong in its view of beauty Beauty in modern thinking equals a pretty face or a pleasing form. The beauty that the scripture speaks about, the beauty that Christ possesses is much deeper and more thorough and more wonderful. It's not just superficial attraction, but it's a goodness that runs through and through. I don't know if you've ever heard the funny little saying, beauty is skin deep but ugly goes to the bone. I would modify that and say beauty goes to the bone. Beauty as God defines it, beauty as Christ possesses it is such a thorough going beauty that it is his whole entire person His character, His inward qualities as well as His external appearance. But Christ is also unrivaled in His gracious speech. Grace has been poured upon thy lips. Or as the Song of Solomon says, His lips were dripping with myrrh. When Jesus came to earth, he came full of grace and truth. And as he spoke forth the gospel of grace, he did so in an entirely gracious fashion, to such an extent that even his enemies marveled at him. No man has ever spoken as this man spoke, they were forced to admit. And so even when he was suffering upon the cross, the sweetness of forgiving mercy was dripping from his blessed mouth. There were no harsh words, no bitter recriminations, no angry regrets, no threats. But only, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Jesus is beautiful in his speech. Sometimes you can find a very outwardly attractive person in this world and you see them from a distance and you think, wow, that person is very wonderful. And then you get near enough to begin engaging in some conversation and you find that their heart is full of corruption and their mouth is full of vulgarity and profanity and suddenly the pretty face becomes awfully unattractive because the heart and the lips have shown an inward ugliness But there was no disconnect between Christ's beauty and Christ's speech. In fact, His speech enhances His beauty. The more you listen to Him, the more beautiful and wonderful He becomes. Well, He was also blessed of the Lord His God. because Christ was thoroughly obedient throughout His earthly life, a man of sorrows and a suffering servant. God the Father prospered His Son and He blessed Him, and that blessing also is beauty. He is a blessed Son. His Father has shown the light of His face upon His Son. so that Christ reflects the blessing and the glory of God. When his work on earth was over and he had ascended on high, his father declared in complete satisfaction, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet. And as we see Christ high and lifted up, sitting on that glorious throne of heaven and ruling And overruling, we see the blessings of God showered upon him, the glory of God shown upon him. And it's beautiful. It lifts the hearts. It exalts our minds as we consider him. Well, this king is also lovely in his royal strength and his great splendor. girding his sword upon his thigh, the Mighty One rides forth in majesty. He rides out in the cause of truth and righteousness and meekness. He rides to victory, striking down his foes, piercing the hearts of their enemies with his sharp arrows. King Jesus wins the day. He takes the fields. Mighty Victor, reign forever. Wear the crown so dearly won. Never shall thy people never cease to sing what thou hast done. The king has won the contest. And so he takes up his scepter of his kingdom. And his scepter is a scepter of uprightness. He sits upon a throne of righteousness and holiness and justice for he loves righteousness and he hates wickedness. And from that position of ultimate authority he rules with all power and in great glory. And so this beautiful, wonderful, good, kind, loving husband is also the King of Heaven. He is anointed with the oil of joy so that he and his holy angels and his glorified saints rejoice together. And even that throne room is filled with the fragrant perfumes of myrrh and aloes and cassia. Now as I meditated on that a bit, I thought, you know, I've heard about myrrh and aloes before. Where is that in the scripture? And so I went looking, and there in John's Gospel, you have Nicodemus. Nicodemus, that weak and ignorant teacher of Israel, taking myrrh and aloes and spices and anointing the dead body of our Lord and so his grave clothes were wrapped and drenched in this mixture of perfume and then he rose from the dead and as he rose from that tomb he left the grave clothes behind but the sweet perfume of his presence went with him And as he is ascended and as he is enthroned now, he is so as the resurrected Lord. And that just enhances his beauty all the more because he's conquered not only every earthly enemy, he's conquered death, the last great enemy of his people. And so as we look at this Lord, this King, He's gorgeous. He's wonderful. He is beyond description. As I thought and prayed about this sermon tonight, I was reminded of a phrase of one of my heroes, Pastor Walter Bowie, Jr. Pastor Bowie used to say, I'm just not preacher enough to tell you what you need to know. And I felt like on this topic, I am not preacher enough. Christ, pull back the veil so your people can see you in your glory and your beauty. Words cannot convey it. It must be the Spirit opening the eyes of your hearts to see Him in all the wondrous splendor and brilliant majesty that He is and that He holds in heaven. One day we will see Him with our eyes as He returns to earth in glory. But even now we can see Him by faith as we look unto Jesus and as we pray, Lord, show Yourself to me. May I see You in visions of Your heavenly glory. Pull back the veil for me that I might know You as You truly are the beautiful Lord of life. my heavenly husband, my groom." Well, as the bride is described, his beloved church, she is impressive also. She comes to her king with a beauty of her own, a beauty which the king greatly desires and thoroughly enjoys. He delights to look upon her. She has attracted his attention and he sees her and he desires her. Now this is not some kind of base, carnal lust. This is holy love. This is a pure and proper desire of a husband towards his wife. of a groom towards his bride. Like him, her beauty is not mere outward appearances. The text says, she is all glorious within. Her inner qualities are as wonderful and as beautiful as her outward appearance is attractive. She is a thoroughly beautiful creature and she has been made so by the beautifying hand of her holy God. I think the inward beauty is really highlighted and perhaps crystallized in the second half of verse 11. And there the psalmist states Because He is your Lord, bow down to Him. Now please understand that this is not a degraded, servile, cowering before Him. But rather this is a very beautiful act of inner and outward submission to Him. She recognizes that he is her husband and yet she knows he remains her Lord. And so she bows in submission to him because she loves and adores him. In respect to his headship, she bends her knee and she testifies that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And this is profoundly beautiful. In fact, this is exactly how Peter counsels Christian women in 1 Peter 3, verses 3-6. Peter says there, Your adornment must not be merely external, braiding the hair and wearing gold jewelry or putting on dresses, but let it be the hidden person of the heart. with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit which is precious in the sight of God. For in this way, in former times, the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands. Just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear I know that's going to make the feminist majority go running out the door pulling their hair screaming filing lawsuits accusing of hate crimes but this is real beauty real beauty in a woman or real beauty in the church is not window dressing. It's not the outward appearances of braided hair or gold jewelry or fine clothing. It's that inward beauty of the hidden person of the heart. It is the quiet and gentle spirit that God approves of. it is the humble submission of a wife to her husband that is true adornment so that as Sarah obeyed Abraham and as she called him Lord she gave us a picture of true femininity, of real, godly, thoroughgoing beauty. I would say to you that a submissive church, a church that submits herself to the will of her husband. That is a beautiful and desirable church. That church is the one that Christ looks upon with that great love and deep desire for. But a church that is rebellious, that refuses to submit, that will do its own thing and go its own way and be the captain of its own ship is ugly. and repulsive to Christ and so the beauty of the church is in her submission to her Lord and her willingness to bow before Him because He is Lord but there's also something important to notice about the church that is also very attractive and that is her garments In verse 9, the queen stands at the side of her king in gold from Ophir. In verse 13, her clothing is interwoven with gold and she is led in verse 15 to the king in embroidered work. So while she is all glorious within and has that quiet, gentle spirit and is submissive to her Lord, she is also clothed with glorious golden garments, richly embroidered and dazzling to behold. So what is that about? Is that really a contradiction of 1 Peter 3? No. No. It's something much deeper, something much better. For you see, Christ has clothed his dear bride, the church, in glorious apparel that he himself has made. It is the very righteousness that he accomplished during his life of obedience and suffering upon earth. Again, I just cannot resist quoting Spurgeon. He observes this. How laboriously did our Lord work out the precious material of His righteousness into a vesture for His people. No embroidery of golden threads can equal that masterpiece of holy arts. Have you ever stopped to think about Jesus' ministry as the work of a tailor a dressmaker making a beautiful garment weaving it all together so that he might clothe his bride in this holy garment of his own righteousness and so she stands before him clothed in his apparel And so the scene is such, the altogether beautiful bridegroom, Christ, that majestic and resplendent King, and the King's daughter, all glorious within, whose desirable inward beauty is only enhanced and magnified by her golden wedding gown woven by the very hand of her lover and her Lord. And as they come together, oh, how the love flows between them. He desires her and she embraces him. In my introduction, I suggested that the king whispered into her ear. And maybe you wondered, well, what was he whispering? I believe he was whispering verse 10, forget your people and your father's house. Come away with me. Come be mine. And she sweetly complies. For she loves him with all her heart, soul, strength and mind. He has captured her heart and she cannot but love him. And so in the display of purest fidelity, she surrenders herself unreservedly and unashamedly to his love. She loves him because he first loved her and gave himself up for her he proved the greatness of his great love but on a hill called Calvary he suffered he bled and he died to redeem her for himself and now she echoes and reflects his love by her pure devotion and her unwavering commitments and this is the scene that will play out for endless ages of eternity as Christ and his bride enjoy an everlasting honeymoon of perfect love and perpetual devotion What a joyful thing this will be for all eternity to be with our Lord. The groom already has been anointed with the oil of joy above his fellows. As the wedding party enters into the king's palaces, they are led forth with gladness and rejoicing. Oh, the sheer joy of Christ and his people. as they live together in perfect union and holy love for the endless eons of eternity the good news is this you can be part of this wonderful scene and not just as an observer there is time to join the celebration you can be the bride Or perhaps you could be part of the bride. Christ is whispering in your ear today. Leave your father's house. Forget your people. Give attention to me, my dear. Incline your ear to my voice and come away with me. Come away. Your bridegroom is bidding you to come and savor his love to feel his tender embrace and the soft kisses of his sweet mouth oh how he loves his bride come let's pray oh Lord how lovely you are beyond words how altogether excellent and beautiful and true and good you are to take us to yourself to make us your chosen bride your treasured possession the object of all your affections and all of your love fill us with a similar love a reflective love and draw each one here tonight close in your dear arms. For it's in Christ we pray. Amen.