Good morning and welcome back to our fourth Anchored in the Word morning reflection. As we've been working our way through this passage of scripture this week, we've been focusing in on how it describes the prince, the prince who's getting married. This morning what we're going to do is move from the focus on the prince to the prince's attitude toward his bride. And so what we will see is that this psalm is going to celebrate the attitude of the prince, the king, the Lord Jesus Christ, toward his people, the church. And so let's go ahead and dig into this psalm one more time and look at what it has to say about the bride. Psalm 45 verse 1. My heart is indicting a good matter. I speak of things which I have made touching the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men, grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore God hath blessed thee forever. Gird thy sword on thy thigh, O most mighty, with the glory in thy majesty. In thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness. And thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thy narrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under thee. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above all thy fellows. This morning we're focusing in on how this passage is going to show us that while we are delighting in the king, he is delighting in us. Notice what it says in verse nine. The king's daughters were among the honorable women. Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir. Hearken, O daughter, and consider and incline thine ear, for get also thine own people, thy father's house. So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, for he is thy lord, and worship thou him. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift. Even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favor. The king's daughter is all glorious within. Her clothing is wrought of gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework. The virgins, her companions that follow her, shall be brought unto thee. Now as we think about this passage of scripture, we saw that the first part was focusing in on the beauty, the majesty, the power, the goodness, the righteousness of the king. The second part of the psalm is going to focus on the king's attitude toward his bride. And so as we look at this, I'd like us to first of all ask ourselves, what is going on in this picture? What is the illustration? And it is a picture of someone who is at a wedding, a royal wedding. And so I don't know if you've had the ability to go back in time, and maybe you've watched some wedding that was of a dignitary or someone who was very, very powerful and influential. But in those situations, the people that would come to that wedding, who'd be invited to it, would be people who had power and prestige. And they were coming with gifts that were going to basically be a part of honoring not just the couple getting married, but also their parents, their nations, all those kinds of things. That's the idea of what's going on in the passage in front of us. And so in verse 9 it says, You see the people from both families that are coming together, all of them are royalty. Secondly, the passage calls the bride to respond several different ways. In verses 10 and 11, he says to the bride, forget also thine own people, thy father's house. So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty. He is thy lord. Worship thou him. Now, what exactly does he tell the bride to do? Well, the first thing he tells her to do is to forget. Forget your former family. Your allegiance is not to them, not to your homeland. It's now to your husband, to the king of a different realm. So forget them and turn and embrace him. Secondly, we see the word rejoice. delight in your husband's love for you. It's not just delight in your husband, and that's something that she would have done because of the kind of man that he is as he's described in these verses, but delight in the fact that this king has set his affection on you, and that is something that ought to bring you great delight and joy. The third word is the word worship. Now this would be unique only to the psalm and to this particular arrangement because the king is God. And so when he says worship, he's reminding us of who the groom is in the picture that's here. Now what exactly is he saying ultimately? He's saying that you, the bride of Christ, ought to worship and love and adore your King, the Lord Jesus, and forget who you were once aligned with, the kingdom of this world. So that's the first part. The second and third parts are this, he describes the way that Gentiles who surrounded this area would respond to the wedding. I love this statement in verse 12. It says, the daughters of Tyre shall be there with a gift, even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favor. The idea is that there are people from around who are not a part of the family, not a part of either realm, but they want to be a part of the celebration and they want to honor the king and his new bride. Fourthly, he describes the bride's beauty as the object of the king's affection. Verse 13, the king's daughter is all glorious within. Her clothing is of wrought gold. I want to remind you that this description of the bride, it's telling us about more than just a human who loves another human. This is an analogy of Christ's love for his church, and so what it ultimately does is it describes the way that Christ views his bride, the church. And we see this illustration all throughout scripture, but in this passage it reminds us of how much he deeply loves and cherishes the church. It reminds us that he's going to present it to himself without spot and wrinkle. It describes, it's a description that is only possible if God has worked in the church the way that he has. And in fact, he's done that. And so I want to remind you this morning, as we think about this passage, as you think about the love that you and I should have for Christ, don't forget the love that he does have for us. I think of Ephesians chapter five. It says, husbands, love your wives. As Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water of the word, that he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blame before him in love. I'm reminded of passages like in Colossians where it says, put on as the elect of God, holy and beloved bowels of mercy. What does that text do? It reminds us that we have been called out of this world unto God and we are his beloved. He loves us dearly. And so this morning, I don't want you to just glory in the Savior. Do it. but glory in his grace, glory in his love. Realize that he has set his affection on you, not because you are worthy and not because you are righteous and good, but because you have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ. You are a child of God through redemption. And so may we glory in that this morning. Have a blessed rest of your day. Lord willing, we'll look at this passage one more time tomorrow as we look at some final thoughts, and I hope that there'll be an encouragement to you going into the weekend. Talk to you later, bye now.