[0:00] Can we turn again to the psalm that we read in the book of Psalms, Psalm 45. Now I know that over the time we've looked at a verse here and a verse there, but I want us today just very briefly to look at this psalm in its entirety because really it is a quite magnificent psalm, quite a majestic psalm really.
[0:25] It is, as we know, a wedding song and it's a psalm that, of course, is a very messianic psalm. The first part of the psalm speaks really of the bridegroom and the second part of the psalm speaks about the bride.
[0:44] And, of course, we know that this is a messianic psalm. It is quoted in Hebrews chapter 1. A couple of the verses there speak, quoting this psalm in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[0:57] So we know we have full authority to take this as a psalm that speaks to us about the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we read here, the psalmist is saying that, My heart is overflowing with a pleasing theme.
[1:14] I address my verses to the king. My tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. And we can see that the psalmist is somebody whose heart is, it's like it's boiling over.
[1:26] It's passionate. It's full of expression and wanting to really tell everybody what he thinks. It's really quite powerful, quite moving.
[1:39] And the psalmist says here, You are the most handsome of the sons of men. Now, again, while this is initially taken in its literal sense, we know that spiritually, which is the way the church has to take it in relation to Jesus, that this is a realization of the beauty that the believer sees in Jesus.
[2:06] We do not know what Jesus looked like physically. We have no actual description of him. We know of some people, like for instance, of Joseph, and of David, and of Absalom, that they were handsome, that they were good looking.
[2:19] But it doesn't give us any description like that regarding the Lord Jesus. So we do not know what he looked like.
[2:30] There are many paintings. It is only people's impressions or people's idea of what he may have looked like. But at a spiritual level, he is the most handsome.
[2:43] He is the most beautiful. And that straightaway divides between two groups of people. Today, if you're a believer, you know that beauty that is in Jesus.
[2:56] You know that attraction. You are attracted to him. It's not just an attraction. It is such a sense of belonging to him that you know there is nobody else really in the world that you want more.
[3:17] You would love to see him more clearly. I don't believe there is anybody in here today who says, My vision by faith of Jesus is clearer than I would ever want.
[3:30] I see him so clearly, I don't need to see any more. I think it's very often the reverse. That we say, I want to see more.
[3:41] I want to have a greater sight. There is this desire within your heart to see more of Jesus. And that is, if you're like that today, and supposing you're saying to yourself, I can't even see him, but I want, there's nothing I want more in the world than to be able to see Jesus because I love him.
[4:05] I would say you have to be a Christian. Even if you say to yourself, I don't know if I am or not. But if that is how your heart is, because it tells us very clearly in the world that the natural, when we talk about the natural person, that is a person who does not have saving grace within their heart, that they see no beauty in him that they should desire him.
[4:30] There is nothing appealing or nothing attractive. Oh yes, they might admire some of his teachings and things like that. But there is no great longing to have him, to belong to him, to be part of him.
[4:45] And so straight away, this is something that separates and divides the believer and the non-believer. And may I say to you today, if you are questioning where you are spiritually, and you say to yourself, you know, I don't really know, but when I hear you saying that, that I can't even see him, but my desire is to see him.
[5:07] And there is nothing, nobody that I want more to have, to be sure of in my heart. I would say that that is a voice of grace.
[5:18] So we see here that it tells us that he is the most handsome of the sons of men. Grace is poured upon your lips.
[5:32] So not only is this person as attractive with regarding to their passion, but also attractive regarding their speech. And we know that that is also true with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, because we're told in the word, no man ever spoke like him.
[5:50] Even his critics, even his worst detractors, who were always trying to find fault with him and trying to ruin him and trying to destroy him.
[6:02] Sometimes you would hear them say, well, we've never heard anyone speak with this authority. It was said, never a man speak or spoke like this man.
[6:15] They were baffled as to his authority and to the way that he was able to speak. And the wonderful thing about the speech of Christ is that it is a speech that overcomes obstacles.
[6:32] It is the words of Christ change people's lives. And that's why it's so important that people will come to church and that they will come under the sound of the gospel.
[6:44] We use that expression, the sound of the gospel. And that simply means to come under the singing, the reading, the preaching of the word, where people hear God's word.
[6:57] Because that's where faith comes. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And that's why it's so important. And it doesn't matter how hard a person's heart is.
[7:10] There is always hope for a person who will hear God's word. You look at Saul of Tarshish. Was there any man who hated Christ with a passion like Saul?
[7:23] He wanted not only the name of Christ obliterated, but every follower of Jesus obliterated. And he put all his energy and all his time and all his resources into trying to destroy the Christian cause in its infancy.
[7:39] Until he heard and met Christ. Where Jesus revealed himself to Saul. And it changed in a moment.
[7:52] The sweet words of Christ broke Saul. And the man whose heart was filled with enmity and hatred and anger against the church comes to be the man whose heart is overflowing with love and passion and zeal for Jesus.
[8:14] So we see the amazing power in the word. The loveliness of his speech. And so then we're told, Therefore, God has blessed you forever.
[8:27] Now we know sometimes that word forever in the Bible can mean for as long as you live. And sometimes it can mean literally forever and ever and ever.
[8:38] And that's what it means here. That Lord has blessed you forever. And let me say, If you today are a believer, The blessing of God is upon you forever.
[8:52] You know, even if you don't think of anything else, Just to reflect upon that great truth. That as a believer today, God has blessed you forever and ever and ever.
[9:07] There will never come a point throughout the endless ages of eternity when that blessing will cease. Where the Lord will say, I have no more blessing for you.
[9:20] The moment you begin to receive his blessing through his grace, it never ever stops. It's an amazing thought. That's what the word tells not just here, but in many other places as well.
[9:37] And then, Verses 3 to 5, It speaks here of the Lord's kingly majesty and glory.
[9:49] Gird it. This is more kind of almost like a warlike scene. Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, In your splendor and majesty. In your majesty ride out victoriously.
[10:02] And so on. Now, one of the things we've always got to remember about Jesus, The Bible shows us that he is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
[10:16] But that he is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He is both the Lamb and the Lion. And that's something we've always got to remember.
[10:28] Just now, we are in the days where he is still operating as a lamb. But there is going to come a time when he will come as a lion.
[10:40] Because his wrath will be displayed. We're told that. That there's going to come a day when the wrath of the Lamb will be shown. And there's going to come that day when the peoples in this world who have rejected Jesus are going to call out to the rocks and to the hills to fall on them, to shield them and to shelter them from the wrath of the Lamb.
[11:09] Isn't that an extraordinary thought? But that's what the Bible tells us. And that is why it is so vital and so important for us to find refuge and strength in Jesus.
[11:22] Today, it is the Jesus of the grace and of the mercy who is holding out his arms. Holding out his arms in gospel offer.
[11:33] Inviting you to come. And if there's anybody here today who has never received Jesus, I urge you to take him now. Ask your Lord and your Savior. Don't turn away. You've turned away long enough.
[11:45] It's time to make your peace with God in Jesus Christ. And so we find here that it talks here about this. It's almost like warlike.
[11:58] But at the moment, as we say, he is dealing spiritually with us. And the weapons of his warfare, we're told that elsewhere in the New Testament, are not carnal.
[12:09] In other words, they're not earthly. They're not even human. They're spiritual. And Jesus today is invading people's hearts and lives through the power of the gospel, through the work of the Spirit.
[12:26] The arrows of the king. That's something we should be praying for. That the arrows of the king would enter hearts that right now are hard against him.
[12:39] You might be sitting here today and you're thinking of people. And you might just now be praying for people. And you prayed for them for 5, 10, 15, 20, 30. Maybe, I don't know.
[12:51] Prayed years and years and years and years. And you say to yourself, I have no more prayer left. I'm prayed out.
[13:02] Will the Lord ever hear my prayer? Well, don't despair. I believe, A, if the Lord has put a prayer in your heart for somebody, I believe that that prayer is very likely to be answered.
[13:19] The Lord gives us prayers. You might not see the answer. We often don't. Many a person has left the scene of time and have never seen the answer to their prayer. But the answers have come afterwards.
[13:32] Your duty is to keep on praying. But always remember that you're praying to the mighty Lord. And that his arrows have pushed. If you're a believer today, remember, you were once an enemy.
[13:46] I was an enemy. They all had great sympathy to the gospel. And there were times when, yes, I wanted to be a Christian. But there were other times. It was, as many people have said, it was that prayer, Lord, save me, but not yet.
[14:01] You wanted a wee bit more time to do other things. And there was often this sense of, within our heart, maybe some have felt total enemies.
[14:16] But, you know, the great thing is there came a day when that arrow pushed you. It broke you. And every obstacle and every barrier and every enmity and everything that you ever had that was built up against the king, it just went.
[14:33] And the Jesus you didn't want as your king is now the Jesus you're saying, Please, Lord, save me. So this is a wonderful thing.
[14:44] And we also see that Jesus today is fighting with and for truth, meekness, and righteousness. That's the way he operates. It's truth, meekness, and righteousness.
[14:57] And may I say that these qualities, these things, truth, meekness, and righteousness, ought to be evident in his people.
[15:14] This is, if we have been brought into subjection to the king, who is fighting with the sword of the spirit and breaking down the barriers, and if we have submitted under his rule and his authority, remember it's a rule of truth and meekness and righteousness.
[15:38] What a different world we would live in if these were the qualities, if that's how people lived, lived in and with the truth, with meekness, with humility, seeking the good of others rather than ourselves, trying to elevate others rather than ourselves, just battling against the biggest problem in this world.
[16:05] The biggest problem in this world is our ego. The I, me, my. Gets in the way of everything. And it gets in the way in the Christian life.
[16:15] It's a huge, huge problem. And God has to deal with it. It's not just with arrows, but I think it's with sledgehammer. He has to break us. In order that this meekness and the righteousness will be what will be displayed within our life.
[16:32] And then when we come to verse 6 and 7 there, we see your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness.
[16:46] And one of the lovely things that we see here is that we've moved away from, like the man. In the earlier part, it's talking about this handsome man and such like, but now it's coming out absolutely clearly as God.
[17:01] It's speaking there, and it says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. So you see what's happened here. This is a beautiful picture of Jesus, man and God. He's both the God-man.
[17:13] And so we see there that it says that your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. Of course, we remember what the scepter, the king of the scepter.
[17:27] And when you read one of the clearest stories of that is remember in the book of Esther. And King Ahasuerus on the throne, when anybody came to see him, you had to see if the royal scepter was held out, then you were welcomed.
[17:46] If it wasn't, you were banished. You were taken away and probably killed. But Jesus is a scepter, and he's holding that out. In fact, this is one of the things that happens when you come to church.
[17:59] I believe it's whenever we come to worship God, it's as if the royal scepter is held out in invitation. To the throne. What a privilege.
[18:12] Sometimes we don't grasp the privilege. We come to church and we go through the motions. But we are in royal presence today. We are having an audience with the king.
[18:23] And the king is inviting us into his royal presence. And he's saying, look, I've done it all. You can come just as you are. This is the great and the wonderful thing.
[18:35] And then we see the anointing. There's many things. We're just moving. Time's going to move very quickly here. We see that, therefore God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions and so on.
[18:48] Just see, I'm very conscious of the time moving on. Then we come through to, it's like this change at verse 10, where we moved from the bridegroom to the bride.
[19:02] Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear. Forget your people and your father's house and so on. Now the gospel of Jesus Christ really is a love story.
[19:17] It is where one person has wooed another. Where one person's love has conquered another. And we know whose love that is.
[19:28] It's God's love in Christ has wooed and won us. You see, you might have a man here who loves a woman. And this woman knows that this man loves her.
[19:40] But try as she may, she cannot return that love. Because there's nothing about him that she finds attractive.
[19:51] And that's maybe how it will remain for life. And here's this man and all his life, this is a lady that he would love to have as his own.
[20:02] But that love has never returned. And that's the way it ends. But you know, it never happens with Jesus like that.
[20:14] Because when he sets his love upon any person, that love is all conquering. That love will break down every barrier.
[20:24] And all the hostilities. And all the rejections. And I know that there are many people in here today who will say, you know, there was a day.
[20:35] And that I fought against Jesus being my Lord. But there came a day when he won. His all conquering love conquered.
[20:48] And that's a beauty. That's the wonderful thing about this gospel. And so, as we say, there is this great love affair.
[20:59] And so we're told here, it says, Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear. Forget your people and your father's house. In other words, this has to be a wholehearted commitment to the Lord Jesus.
[21:15] Now, when it says, forget your father's house and your people and so on, that doesn't mean for one moment that when a passion becomes a believer, that they're to turn their back upon their family and everything else.
[21:28] Not at all. Not at all. But really, very simply, what that is saying is, don't, when you become a Christian, keep looking ahead.
[21:43] Forget, now, again, I'm going to qualify what I'm saying. Forget the past. At one level, yes, at another level, no. Don't, never forget the past with regard to where you came from.
[22:00] The Bible, say, for instance, you look at the life of Matthew. Anytime Matthew spoke about himself, he said, Matthew, the publican. He never forgot what he was.
[22:12] When the Bible talks about Rahab, even in the Hebrews, it says, Rahab, the prostitute. Not letting forget what she was. And so, we ought to remember what we were and where we were taken from.
[22:30] Because the king, in his love, has searched out into the gutters. Because, spiritually, that's where we were. You might not think that. But that's where, that's where we were.
[22:42] Without hope. We were down and out spiritually. Our pockets were empty spiritually. We had nothing we could bring and say, well, Lord, I've got this, I've got that.
[22:55] Nothing. We were bankrupt. And it was there that he found us. So, we must never, ever, ever forget that. But what it means to forget our father's house and to, is not to be looking back with a kind of a fondness.
[23:12] Like, remember Israel, they were hardly out of Egypt. When they were looking back, looking back and they were saying, I wouldn't mind going back. They were, they were, they were forgetting all about the slavery and the pain and the genocide.
[23:28] But they were remembering the better times. And you know, sometimes, particularly when the Christian is going through a difficult time, and when there's troubles and sores and trials, Satan will come and tempt you and say, I remember, it was easier then, wasn't it?
[23:47] You didn't have all this hassle before you became a Christian. And Satan's very good at doing that. That's what I was saying to the young people today, like the pelican with the fish and the bird swooping down, hold on to what you have and keep looking ahead.
[24:07] That's what we've got to do. But the wonderful thing here is, as it goes on to say, the king will desire your beauty.
[24:20] Since he is your Lord, bow down to him. Now, see when we come in subjection and we bow down before Christ and he becomes our Lord.
[24:31] Oh, my friends, it's worth it. Because he brings us in to share in so much. And when it speaks here about the likes of Tyre, Tyre was one of the wealthiest places.
[24:43] It was known for its wealth and was the richest of the people. And the Lord gives to us so much, so much regarding the spiritual world.
[24:56] And it then goes on to say that we're all glorious as a princess in our chamber or glorious within. And you may be saying to yourself, I feel anything but glorious.
[25:07] Well, think about it for a moment. King Jesus has come to live through the Holy Spirit in your heart. Your body is the temple.
[25:18] Your heart is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You are being changed to the image of Christ day by day. And as God looks at you, he looks at you covered in the clothing of Jesus' righteousness.
[25:35] righteousness. And so he says, all glorious within. And then we see this wonderful picture where it's like the bride is brought into the presence of the bridegroom or into the king.
[25:52] In many colored robes she is led to the king with her virgin companions following behind her. With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king.
[26:07] You know, my friends, this is one of my favorite parts of scripture, this. This sense of a glorious entry into the palace of the king.
[26:22] There are all kinds of pictures. Now, from our point of view, when our loved ones who sleep in Jesus, when we think of that and are taken home, our hearts are broken.
[26:36] We're sad. So many tears, so much pain. But, you know, if we could see it's like Jesus as a bridegroom and he's saying, it's like he's looking, looking, I don't mean this irreverently, but it's like the way that we would look at our watch and maybe our children are out and we'd say, it's time they came home.
[27:01] And, you know, Jesus says that of his people, it's a time to take home. Now, we find that very difficult sometimes to understand because we find it so hard to let go our loved ones.
[27:19] But if we could see the other side, if we could see, because it's not just a matter of entering into the palace of the king, it's being brought in to the palace and it's like being handed over to the bridegroom.
[27:39] It's like the actual language and the whole thing is like Eden all over again where God, remember, put Adam to sleep and he made Eve and he brought her to Adam where the Lord brought and there was a coming together.
[28:01] That's the same idea as happens in glory. Everyone who enters in, not only just, it's not like you enter in and then find your own way.
[28:12] You're ushered in and you're handed over. You're given. You're there handed over. It's the most amazing thought but that's all involved and included in our salvation.
[28:30] What a thought and today this is something we have to look forward to. You know, Christian will often say, oh the best is yet to come. That's for sure.
[28:41] When you think of the royal ushering in and being handed over, to Jesus. It's quite an extraordinary picture that we have here.
[28:55] And then finally it just says there in place of your fathers shall be your sons. You will make them princes in all the earth. I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations.
[29:06] And that's very simply like as it says in Hebrews, it talks about bringing many sons to glory. glory. You know, this is what it's all about. This is what this world is all about.
[29:17] This is what this life is all about. We can be caught up with so many things. things. There's only one thing that God is ultimately concerned about.
[29:31] And that is faith in Jesus Christ. Because remember, everything else is going to be burned up. Remember that. everything else, what is not of faith, is sin.
[29:47] Everything else is going to be discarded. Only what is of faith, and every work done by faith, all that will follow us.
[30:00] The rest is of no use. I hope that our focus is in the right place. I hope we're being caught up with the right things.
[30:13] I hope that Jesus is the one that we desire. Let us pray. O gracious God, we pray to bless us and to now part us with your blessing.
[30:26] Guide us as we go our different ways. Continue with us throughout this day. And may your blessing and grace and peace continue to be on us. Take away your sin in Jesus' name.
[30:39] Amen. We're going to conclude singing from Sing Psalms in Psalm 45.
[30:51] The tune is Glen Cairn. It's 45a. Psalm 45a. Oh, daughter, listen and give ear.
[31:12] Consider what I say. You must forget your father's house, your people far away. Because your beauty is so great, the king is held in thrall.
[31:25] He is your Lord. give him respect before him humbly fall. And we sing down to verse 15. Attendant maidens follow her.
[31:36] And so to you are led. They enter and with great delight the palace courts they tread. I'm going to sing these verses to the tune Glen Cairn.
[31:48] Oh, daughter, listen and give ear. singer. Oh, daughter, listen and give時候 consider what I say.
[32:08] You must forget your father's heart, your people The Father away Because your beauty is so great The King is held in strong He is to guard with every set Before Him has returned In a blessed song I will come to offer gifts to you And wealthy people will approach
[33:14] To haven It utilized He The princess is within.
[33:35] If rich she or not the men it holds, She's brought before the King.
[33:50] A tender and hidden follower, And so to you are there.
[34:04] They enter and with great delight The goddess for Satan.
[34:19] Now may the grace, mercy and peace of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest and abide upon each one of you, Now and forevermore. Amen.