Psalm 45. We looked three weeks ago in the evening at Psalm 44. I wanted to bring Psalm 45 to the morning because of its glorious picture of the beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ. We'll look at Psalm 45 this Sunday and next Sunday and then Lord willing begin Luke on the first Sunday of August. Psalm 45, to the chief musician, set to the lilies, a contemplation of the sons of Korah, a love song. 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 cassia, 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 in your father's house, so the king will greatly desire your beauty. Because he is your Lord, worship him. The daughter of Tyre will be there 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. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would help us to see the glory and beauty of your Son. He is our Lord. Teach us to bow to him, to incline our ear and hear him, to forget our own people in our Father's house. Fill our hearts with the vision of the marriage supper of the Lamb. Let us go forth and look upon King Solomon, the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his gladness, the day of the rejoicing of his heart. Father, we thank you that we are not only invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb, we are invited to be the bride. We ask that you would help that reality sink into our hearts. Let these sayings sink down into our ears, and there bear fruit 30, 60, and a hundredfold. Help me to rise to the height of this great argument. to declare the glory of your son. Make my pen and my tongue like the pen of a ready writer. We pray these things in the name of Jesus, our Lord and husband. Amen. We will linger this morning on the character and costume of our beloved bridegroom. It is he whom we worship. He before whom we bow, and astonishingly, the Psalm says, he is the one who desires our beauty. Next week, we'll look at the bride, the bridal procession into the palace, and his rule over the multi-ethnic empire of joy. This week, we focus on the good news of our divine king and his superlative perfections. The psalm begins with an unnamed speaker. My heart overflows. Whose heart? I've told you that the king is the speaker in all the psalms. Clearly the king is not the speaker in this particular psalm. This psalm is primarily spoken to him rather than by him. This seems to be a wedding guest of sorts, Joe Israelite, a faithful one among the people, the same person who was speaking in Psalm 44, we have heard with our ears, oh God, our fathers have told us what deeds you did in their day. A faithful Israelite who's called to the marriage supper of the Lamb and describes what he sees. That's the one who's singing, and he tells us three things about himself. He tells us that his heart overflows with good news, a good thing, good word. It's the same phrase that we use in English to translate as the word gospel. My heart is overflowing with gospel truth. I've been to a lot of weddings recently, as many of you know, including the last two weekends, and five, around 10 weddings or so in the last two to three years. And at none of them, as good as they were, can I say that my heart overflowed. I was glad with all of the couples. I was happy to be there. I rejoiced sincerely with them. But this wedding guest goes much, much further and says, my heart wells up with joy and excitement over the glory of this wedding that I see. My heart overflows with the good news that this bride is marrying this king. The wedding was not just a good time, it's good news. If you look at the previous context, Psalm 44 and the Psalms before that, really 38 to 44, are a mini-series on the king's passion, his trial, his death, his pain and suffering. Climax, of course, of Psalm 44 is, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. And it is only in the wake of that, the king's death as the Lamb of God saving his bride, that we come to the glory of Psalm 45. There are 150 Psalms, this is the only one titled A Love Song. In this love song, the marriage supper of the Lamb is described and celebrated. The king has successfully saved his bride from God's wrath, from the devil's spite, from the world's corruptions, from her own sin. The wedding is happening. And it is worth celebrating. No wonder this wedding guest's heart is overflowing with good news. Girls, I've heard that this is notorious, that women start planning their wedding at a young age. and envision the perfect romantic day. If that's you this morning, understand that that perfect wedding day is coming. It's in your future. You will get to see and participate in this wedding, not just as the caterer or the flower girl, but as the bride. Guys, the perfect manly man who carries the burdens of the world It fixes all its problems. He really exists. And you will really get to see him and be present at his wedding again. Same imagery as part of this bride. What does C.S. Lewis say? Christ is so masculine that to him we are all feminine. It's the imagery of scripture. Respond to Christ as your bridegroom. Look on Him on the day of His wedding, the day of the gladness of His heart. Love Him, delight in Him, desire His beauty, and show that desire by bowing before Him in worship. That's what Psalm 45 describes, and that's exactly what we are here to do. Let your heart overflow with delight in your bridegroom. Psalm 44, for his sake were killed all day long, counted as sheep for the slaughter. Psalm 45, all of that pain and suffering is worth it because of the glory and beauty of our bridegroom. This is a poem addressed to the king. I recite my composition concerning the king. Obviously, many details tell us that this is about the king. But Joe Israelite, the wedding guest, says it very explicitly at the beginning. This poem is about the king and his wedding. This is about the glory and beauty of the one who rules me. The king looks so good. that this wedding guest has to write about it. My heart is overflowing and so I recite my composition concerning the king. This word translated composition in the New King James literally means a thing made, a poem, a work of craftsmanship. And this points us to the truth that we not only can but we should dedicate all of our works of craftsmanship to the Lord Jesus. Not every poem you write will be about him as explicitly as this one. Not everything you do, every act of craftsmanship, but all of us make things and fix things on a daily basis. We might make or fix meals, cars, clean rooms, acts of athleticism, and more. And as you do those things, dedicate them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Your family may not be grateful. Your parents might not appreciate your skill in sports. Your children might not appreciate the meal that you cooked for them. Your customer might not appreciate the car you fixed for him. Right, so it goes. But there is an audience The most discerning critic of them all, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one whose taste in art, in literature, in food, in music, in sports, is perfect. No performance is wasted on Him. Nothing you do is without value in His sight. I recite my verses for the King. I mop this floor for the king. I fix this broken machine for the king. The speaker tells us to do that. This is the way that he speaks. I recite my composition concerning the king. My tongue is like the pen of a well-trained scribe. You can't run an empire or a bureaucracy without a scribe, a very important job in the ancient Near East. Someone who has the ability to write and to calculate and to create documents and store them for retrieval, that person is a scribe. And this poet says, my tongue is as expert as the pen of a well-trained scribe. Being able to speak well is an equivocal blessing. If you can cast a vision, if you have the gift of gab, it's very easy to use that for evil, to promise things that aren't real, to build castles in the air, to bamboozle people with torrents of words. You can have a trustworthiness problem if you have the gift of speech. This scribe does not have that. If you have the gift of language, whether with your tongue or your keyboard, you should be using it for the same purpose this scribe does, to glorify your bridegroom. Don't build your own kingdom, don't erect an empire of lies. Tell the world how glorious is Jesus Christ. The scribe speaks, the wedding guest speaks, he says, you are fairer than the sons of men. He announces his theme right at the beginning. The good theme, the good news, is the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. The scribe mentions at least a dozen qualities of our king, starting with his beauty. This word comes up regularly in scripture. You're familiar with some of its other uses. I've listed a few of them. When Abraham was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarah, look, I know what a beautiful woman you are. Genesis 12, 11. Genesis 29, Leah's eyes were tender, but Rachel had a lovely figure and beautiful appearance. Psalm 115, behold you are beautiful, my love, behold you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves. This word is not just used for women, it's also used for men by the Hebrews. Isaiah 33, your eyes will see the king in his beauty. They will see a land that stretches afar. The King is beautiful. Ezekiel 13, thus you were adorned with gold and silver and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. The Lord Jesus Christ is beautiful. Isaiah 53 says that when He displayed Himself on earth, He had no beauty that we should desire Him. And Psalm 45 tells us that at the second coming, at the day of His wedding, He will show His true beauty. Scripture makes no direct comment about what Jesus looks like, specifically other than to say, in Genesis 49, His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. What does he look like? Artist's conception doesn't begin to capture it. Our Lord Jesus Christ is surpassingly lovely. Have you ever been to a wedding where, as much as you hated to admit it, the happy couple was just ugly? You look up front and you cringe a little bit. This wedding is not that wedding. The wedding guest says, Father in heaven almighty, she is gorgeous and he is even better. It is fitting for the bride and groom to be good looking. It is supremely fitting for the Son of God to be fairer than the sons of men. His beauty is such as to make it all worth it. Everything we endure in the Christian life, suffering and wet feet and lost friendships and lost money, hardships of all kinds of descriptions, opposition from the world, the flesh and the devil, Christ is so beautiful. When our eyes see the King and His beauty, we will understand that we have lost nothing. Grace is poured upon His lips. Luke picks up on this. Luke 4.22, And all were speaking well of him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from his lips. And they were saying, Is this not Joseph's son? They couldn't figure it out. You look at Joseph, he's a normal carpenter. You look at Jesus, he is not a normal carpenter. What happened? How did this man become so gracious? in his speech. He is the Son of God. His lips are anointed with grace. Ordinary people can reach a certain level of profundity in their speech. The truly wise among us can rise a little further. Jesus is in a whole different class in terms of the profundity of the way he talks. Who can just off the top of their heads say, render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and to God the things which are God's? An answer that is perfectly complete, perfectly balanced, sums up everything you need to know about the morality of taxation and how to worship in one sentence. Love to listen to the gracious words that come from the mouth of your bridegroom. And learn to speak with grace. Paul applies this to us. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how to answer every man. Gracious words fall from His lips. He is eternally blessed by God. God has blessed you forever. He is the recipient of God's word of blessing. He is the blessed man of Psalm 1 who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. He is the blessed man of Psalm 41 who considers the poor. He is the blessed man of Psalm 119 who walks, who is undefiled in the way, walking in the law of the Lord, keeping His statutes and rules blameless. He shall be blessed, though all hell, howl, curses, and all earth take His name in vain. He is blessed, and those who bless Him will be blessed. Those who curse Him will be cursed. Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one. He's armed with a sword. Sources seem to suggest that in the ancient Near East, for daily carry, you would wear your sword on your back like a samurai. Ceremonial occasions, you would put it on your hip. The wedding guest says, put your sword on your thigh. This is a wedding. Dress up. Be ready. The most honored of all professions, alongside priesthood and kingship, is the profession of the warrior. Jesus Christ is a warrior. Warriors wear weapons to their weddings, not because they need them there, but because they are comfortable carrying their weapons. Do you think about our current Joint Chiefs of Staff? It's very unclear to me that any of them could win a knife fight with a jihadi or a cartel member. It's their job to manage warriors, but they personally are not warriors. Not so with our king. We need to learn to fear him. Our king is armed to the teeth, but he does not need a sword to break his enemies. With one little word, he will fell the prince of darkness. If his glance is fire, what must his sword be? He possesses divine majesty, and your majesty ride prosperously, your glory and your majesty. Majesty is an attribute of God himself. We say to kings, your majesty, but it's a polite fiction. They walk around like everybody else. They have bodily needs and noises like everybody else. God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is majestic. He doesn't carry a purse. He doesn't carry a wrench. He doesn't carry a rake. He doesn't carry a hammer. The sign of his office is kingly. The insignia he carries is a sword. How majestic is his name in all the earth. Not only that, he uses his power for the right things. He rides prosperously on behalf of truth, humility, and righteousness. Where is the champion of truth, humility, and righteousness? in this world. Where is the great man who will fight for truth? The billionaire who will buy the New York Times and fill its pages with the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The politician who will practice humility. The man who has it all and uses it all for the sake of the church, for the cause of righteousness, who gives billions to missions, who refuses to trade in products and services that sap the moral fiber of society. if any, speak. There are no such champions, or if there are, the world has co-opted them and shut them down to the point where they might as well not exist. Except there is one warrior for truth, humility, and righteousness, and he is the mightiest of all mighty champions, the most victorious of all warriors, the king of kings, and the lord of lords. He is the one who swears that the poor will not always be forgotten. and the hope of the needy will not perish forever. Grace is poured on his lips, so he only speaks the truth. The sword is on his thigh, so the powers of darkness must obey him. The law of his God is in his heart, and none of his steps shall slip." Nonetheless, when he met the world for the first time, it killed him. This psalm is about the second coming. When he meets the world next time, his arrows will be sharp, in the heart of his enemies. His bow is ready, his arrows, razors. Those who fight for lies, those who fight for pride, those who fight for wickedness will be shot in the heart, collapse and bleed out like they deserve. At the second coming, Jesus Christ will stand for truth. He will stand for humility. He will stand for righteousness. And this time he will live and his enemies will die. The same message elaborated even more clearly in Revelation 19. He is all of these things. The peoples fall under Him. And He is God Almighty. That's where the psalm takes it. It addresses Him directly as God. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. He is the divine king who sits on an eternal throne. A throne is a decorative chair that a king sits in. The Psalms have already told us this very clearly. Not just that God is Israel's king, like Samuel said when the people asked for a king, the Lord will be your king. This takes it a step further. Instead of saying the Lord is your king, it says your king is the Lord. This man that you see seated on this throne is God Almighty, and this throne will never decay or pass away. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. The power of his office is not used to enrich his own pocket, to give his cronies plum positions, to favor lawlessness over righteousness. These things happen even in the best-run earthly kingdoms, but they do not happen. in the kingdom of God. A scepter is a ceremonial war hammer. It's a long rod with a big knob at the end that you can use to crush the skulls of your enemies. Kings carry them. As a way of saying, I have power to crush your skull. I'm your king. Jesus uses his scepter only for righteousness. He loves and hates rightly. You love righteousness and hate wickedness. He does not love gluttony. He does not love sloth. He does not love outrage and folly. He does love cultivated fields, joyful families, and heartfelt singing of praise. He loves what is good and hates what is wicked. Our king loves the good, the true, and the beautiful. And by the same token, he hates the wicked, the false, and the defaced. He is in covenant with God. God, your God, has anointed you. Now wait, we're talking to God. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. And now God is introduced as the God of God. God, your God. What is the psalmist talking about? Well, he's talking about exactly what the Nicene Creed says. God from God. Light from light. Very God from very God. He's talking about God the Father and God the Son. And the Son is the King. The one who is in covenant with the Father. The one to whom the Father has said, I will be your God and you will be my Son. He is God's anointed one. God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions. Jesus is not miserable. He is not just the fairest of the sons of men. He is the happiest of the sons of men. He is the world's most joyful man. Jesus has all blessedness. And that's why a dour and sour Christian is a contradiction. Who was it, Calvin Coolidge, who was weaned on a pickle? He always had that face. That is not appropriate for the believer. Jesus is anointed with the oil of joy. More than his companions, that means his companions are also anointed with the oil of joy. You and I are called to be joyful. Cultivate the presence and power of the spirit of joy who anoints your king. Here's another point that you probably are familiar with everything that's been said so far about Christ. This may be new to you. All your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia. Jesus smells good. He's a delight to the nose. He wears these plants as his perfume. Our Lord's body was similarly anointed with these exact spices. John 19.39, Nicodemus brought myrrh and aloes to the tomb. And the Song of Songs says that the bride wears these same scents. Your chutes are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, henna with nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon. With all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes with all the finest spices. Why don't Christians wear myrrh and aloes? Jesus does. His bride does. He's a delight to the nose. He's a delight to the ear. Out of the ivory palaces, stringed instruments have made you glad. An ivory palace is very non-woke. The kind of music that's played in an ivory palace is also very non-woke. This is the kind of beautiful music that accompanies Jesus Christ at his wedding. He's the perfect gentleman. The camera zooms out just a little bit in order to take in the people standing around him. Who waits on this king? King's daughters do. The multitude of people is the glory of a prince, Proverbs informs us. The retinue of Christ, the number of courtiers he has, is enormous. He is surrounded by beautiful women. Kings send their daughters to his court because they have no fear that their daughters will be mistreated there. The king takes ordinary women and makes them his royal ladies-in-waiting. If you're a female believer in Christ today, this verse is describing you. Have you ever thought of yourself that way? I am one of the honorable women, one of the ladies in waiting, who stands in the court of the Lord Jesus Christ to glorify him and to see his beauty. What did the Queen of Sheba tell Solomon? Happy are your men. Happy are your servants who stand in your presence and hear your wisdom. The Queen of Sheba didn't dare to say, happy are your wives. Psalm 45 takes it a step further and says, the women who serve in the court of the Lord Jesus Christ are blessed. They delight in his presence. But more than that, at his right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. This king is the perfect bridegroom. Ladies, if you've dreamed about the perfect bridegroom, you have him. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Queen stands next to him. She is not behind him, not beneath him. She is in the place of honor at his right hand. He brings her forward and honors her. She stands next to him. He honors his Queen. Again, let me explain this a little bit by way of contrast. Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian novelist, writes this about a particularly gross character in Crime and Punishment, Porfiry Petrovich Luzhin. He says, Luzhin, brooded with relish and profound secret over the image of a girl, Virtuous, poor, she must be poor, very young, very pretty, of good birth and education, very timid, one who had suffered much and was completely humbled before him. One who would all her life look on him as her savior. Worship him, admire him, and only him. How many scenes, how many amorous episodes he had imagined on this seductive and playful theme. This is Porfiry Petrovich Luzhin. a sick and slimy guy. He's the opposite of the Lord Jesus Christ, right? Luzhin dreams of the woman who will worship him, whom he can dishonor and debase all day long. Christ honors his queen, brings her forward. In our culture, we give, what, a meager quarter of an ounce or an eighth of an ounce of gold. We call that a wedding ring. The Lord Jesus Christ puts his bride in a dress that's made entirely of gold. At your right stands the queen in gold of Ophir. Verse 13, her clothing is woven with gold. Talking pounds of gold. He is signaling that he provides richly for his queen. He doesn't just honor her. He gives her everything. He wears a sword at the wedding. She wears a dress made of gold. And they don't look like they're trying too hard. It doesn't look tacky. It works. Because of the personal majesty and glory of this bride and this groom. The rest of the psalm applies this to us and then describes the bride further. We'll come back next week and look at that. The first thing I would ask you for application is can you believe in a hero king like this? This one who is fairer than the sons of men, grace poured on his lips, sword on his thigh. The God himself seated on an eternal throne, yet a man like us. A manly man who carries the problems of the world and solves them all. Trust in Him. He's real. This Psalm is not the fever dream of an ancient Near Eastern courtier. It's the literal truth. Can you believe in a queen like this? To reconcile the church you see and live in with the scriptural picture of the spotless bride wearing gold and linen can be very difficult. But the Queen is described as God sees her. Many people are fed up with church, been hurt by church, don't get much out of church, got better things to do than church. Let me just say that that is not how Christ pictures the church. This glorious woman in a dress of gold, standing at the king's right hand. You are invited to be part of that. Who would dare to say, not impressive enough for me, thanks anyway. But also, This is the image to which you're being conformed, the glory of this King. Romans 8, you are being conformed to the image of the Son. The Holy Spirit is in the business of making you beautiful, and of making you gracious, and of making you a champion for truth, humility, and righteousness, and a warrior whom evil fears. Your eyes will see the King and His beauty, You will get to see Him and be like Him. You will bear the image of the man of heaven, grace on your lips, sword on your thigh, smelling like myrrh and aloes. Believe it. It's possible through the death and resurrection of your groom. The application that the psalmist makes is in verse 10. Listen, O daughter, consider and incline your ear. If Jesus is this groom, your duty is to open up your ears and listen to what he has to say. Pay attention to the Word of God. Read your Bible. Study it. Memorize it. Come to church and listen to preaching. Grow in your knowledge of what the King has to say to you. to have the perfect bridegroom puts you on the hook to listen carefully to him. This is strictly hypothetical, of course, but imagine what it would be like to have a wife who never listens. Do you want to be that wife to King Jesus? Oh yeah, yeah, you're the fairest of the sons of men. You're the most wonderful bridegroom ever. I get it, Lord. I got other things to do, though. Daughter, incline your ear. Bow before him. The end of verse 11. Because he is your Lord, bow to him. Porphyry Petrovich Luzhin had a Messiah complex. But our Messiah does not have a Messiah complex. He's the real deal. He has lifted us up from the gates of death and the least we can do is to worship Him for the rest of eternity. Bow in worship before King Jesus. He is your head and husband and He is also your God. This is fundamentally why egalitarian theories of marriage don't work. They are mistaken about the dynamics of the archetypal marriage between Christ and his bride. We bow to Christ, Christ never bows to us. The relationship is asymmetrical, or dare I say it, unequal in that sense. He is your Lord, bow to him. We're going to talk next week, ladies, a little bit more about the application of that to an earthly marriage. But certainly it doesn't mean that your husband has to do what you want just as much as you have to do what he wants. His voice is weightier than yours. You will never see Jesus bowing to the church. Finally, dwell in his house. Verse 15, with gladness and rejoicing they are brought along to enter the palace of the king. How do you dwell in the house of the Lord forever? Well, you do it by dwelling in his house here. Come to church. Love to be in worship. Be at home in the congregation of the saints in a way that you are not at home anywhere else on planet Earth. The house of the Lord is your house by his grace. He will live joyfully ever after, anointed as He is with the oil of joy. And you and I will do so too, if we enter His house and dwell there with Him as His bride. Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Let's pray. Father, help us to incline our ear to forget our people in our Father's house, that the King might desire our beauty. Help us to think of ourselves as ladies-in-waiting in the court of the Heavenly King. Help us to think of ourselves as the Bride of Christ. But help us to think little of ourselves and to think far, far more of the One who is fairer than the sons of men. Father, show us his glory, stamp it on our hearts, mark it on our eyeballs that we might see Jesus Christ and in seeing worship and adore. We thank you that he has shown himself to us and he has lifted us up from the gates of death. Let our hearts overflow. With this good news, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.