Psalm 45

Psalm chapter 45. We're going to change the tone here okay. It's been dark, but Psalm chapter 45 is a completely different. This is one of the kingship or the royal Psalms. In this Psalm, the writer rejoices in the majesty of the King and His bride. Can I just tell you very quickly before we go into this that I believe wholeheartedly and I have good reason to, it's not because I'm smart. I have every reason to believe that this is a Messianic Psalm, you know why? It's quoted in Hebrews chapter 1, part of it is. And it is it is ascribed to Jesus Christ. And that's how we know that this is speaking of the Messiah. So this is one of those wonderful Psalms that is looking ahead to that coming period of time when the King takes His bride. The Messiah takes His. Do you know who the bride is? It's us, and that's a little weird for us guys in the room because, to think of myself as a bride is a challenging thought. I got to be honest with you. I've seen a lot of brides and I know all the trouble they have to go to fix their hair, and put on makeup, and I'm not going there, frankly. But the beauty of the bride though, in the scripture always speaks of character and virtue. Okay? Keep that in mind as we read this. It begins this way, verse 1.

I'm ready to write these things down. I'm bursting at the seams, he says, to write down this beautiful description of the King. He goes on in verse 2.

Stop there for a moment. You need to understand something about the description of the King here because we know that when Jesus came physically into this world, there was nothing physically about Him, we're told in the Book of Isaiah, that anybody would desire Him. There was nothing. I don't think Jesus in His earthly stature or visage had any… I don't think he was this super model type, handsome dude. He was just a guy. We have all these paintings and pictures, that artist renderings of Jesus, and they always have a little circle of light above His head. But, Jesus was just a guy. He was a Jewish guy. And the Bible says there was nothing about Him that was special in His appearance. However, we're not seeing Jesus from the standpoint of an earthly visage. We are now, I should say, the psalmist is directing you and I to the glorified Jesus Christ, the beauty and the majesty of His person and so forth. And so he says, “You are the most handsome of the sons of men;” Look at this next line here in verse 2, “grace is poured upon your lips;” That's an interesting phrase. Remember something people, Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. You with me? Jesus is the Word of God. Prior to His incarnation, meaning prior to His birth, where was Jesus? The Bible says He was with God in the beginning, right? And he is God. Here's what John says,

He was with God in the beginning. Prior to being named Jesus, which is an earthly name. He is the Word of God, the everlasting Word of God, right? Isn't it interesting that as we begin to read about the description of this incredible King, it says grace is on His lips. In other words, to speak forth truth, and we're going to find out that truth is a big deal to Him. He says at the end of verse 2, “therefore God has blessed you forever.” Here's another reference to the Word. Look at verse 3.

Notice that. “Gird your sword on your thigh.” What is the sword? When we look at the, we just went through this recently in the Book of Ephesians, when we were talking about the full armor of God. What is the sword? It's the Word of God, isn't it?

Once again, a reference to this great and mighty Messiah King, who is the Word of God, who bears the sword of the Word of God, and whose lips are anointed with the grace to speak, and so forth. Some beautiful references here to Jesus Christ. He goes on.

Notice now what He does. He's got the sword, the Word of God. His lips are anointed to speak the truth. And what does He go out? He goes out and rides “victoriously for the cause of truth. (he says) let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!” You got to remember that in ancient thinking, the right hand was always spoken of as representing a person's strength or skill. And so your right hand, goes before you and so forth. Verse 5,

Again, referencing the Word of God and so forth, coming forth even as an arrow. He says, and then look at this

Verse 7,

Now, this is a beautiful passage, and this is the part that is quoted in the Book of Hebrews, chapter 1, when the writer of Hebrews is describing the majesty of Jesus Christ, he quotes this very Psalm to pinpoint the fact that this, first of all, is a Messianic Psalm, but also to speak of the majesty of Jesus, speaking of Him as God. Now, this is what's confusing, though. If I were a Hebrew before the time of the New Testament, I might have read this passage and cocked my head a little bit because it's basically saying that, He is God. He says, “Your throne, O God, … (will last) forever and ever.” But then he goes on to say in verse 7, “Therefore God, your God, has anointed you…” And you're going, wait, God anointed God?

Now, you and I understand it from the concept of the New Testament revelation of the Trinity. In fact, the word, anointing, would speak of the person of the Holy Spirit. Right? So you've got God, God, and the Holy Spirit, all in one passage. In other words, you've got the one God who is known as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit right here in this passage, but these are just illusions in the Old Testament. The Old Testament does not teach the revelation explicitly of the Trinity, you have to go to the New Testament for that. But we see these illusions throughout the Scripture that, again, if I were a Hebrew not understanding the Trinity, I would be a little bit confused by this. Because it says, You are God, therefore, but Your throne, O God, will last forever, therefore Your God has anointed You. You and I don't, aren't messed up with that, because we understand. And those passages like this, and there are many others in the Old Testament, they are the foundation for what we would understand to be the Trinity. Verse 8 goes on to describe Him,

Ophir was a prominent source of gold during the Old Testament. We don't know where it is, which is probably a good thing, or there'd probably be a gold rush there. But anyway, it was the good gold that came forth. And this queen is adorned, standing at the right hand. The king is the queen. Now, where is Jesus? Jesus is at the right hand of the Father. Where is the bride of Christ? At the right hand of the groom, right? Your queen stands at your right hand. It says here, verse 10 here,

Alright, stop there. Now we're addressing the bride. Right? And what are the words that are spoken to the bride? It says, “Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear: forget your people and your father's house.” Now, this is an interesting statement and it sounds a little bit, I don't know, a little bit strange. Forget your father's house.

Now if we're going to assume that the bride here is the bride of Christ, which is just an allusion to the bride of Christ, these statements about leaving family would frankly be consistent with what Jesus speaks to us about as it relates to becoming a disciple, and becoming part of the bride of Christ. Because do you know that Jesus is supposed to be more important to us, even than family. I want to put a passage up on the screen for you that frankly challenges a lot of people. From Luke chapter 14, it goes like this.

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be my disciple.” And that's a really challenging verse, and I've had people ask me in the past, what is that even mean? Does God want me to hate my family? No, God is not telling you, Jesus is not telling you that you have to hate your family. What He is doing is, He's using a method of argument, a method of making a point that was popular back then. And essentially what you would do is you would highlight a high calling, or an exalted something by comparing it to something else, and using extreme words to contrast them. Right? In other words, our love for Jesus should be so great that our love for others, even family, will look like hatred by comparison. You with me? Again, Jesus isn't telling you to hate your family. He's saying, by comparison, your love for me should almost look like hatred. And again, that's using an argument where a hyperbole of contrast is presented to make you understand how great this love for Jesus is supposed to be. Well, in the same way the psalmist is speaking now to the bride and saying, forget your people and your father's house. Look what he goes on to say in verse 12. He says, “The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people. 13 All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold. 14 In many-colored robes she is led to the king, with her virgin companions following behind her.”

Again, we're getting this picture that is being painted for you and I here in this Psalm of the King and His bride both before and after the wedding. It speaks of her as the queen. Now we're going back in time, speaking of her as this coming princess who's being led now to the King and so forth. Now this is not the only place in the Word of God where the scripture makes reference to the wedding of the Messiah and the church. It's actually talked about several places and Jesus used several parables to describe this relationship, but it is also referenced in the Book of Revelation. Let me show you on the screen from Revelation 19. It says,

“Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, (the Lamb, of course, another name for Messiah) and his bride has made herself ready. (Look at this next part) Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (And then John tells us, parenthetically, what that fine linen represents, he says,) (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) And when John sees this bride adorned in this beautiful clothing, this beautiful, glorious bride coming forth, he knows that beauty is a picture of our righteous standing before the Father because Jesus Christ has accomplished it on the cross for us, okay? Again, we see these pictures of this wedding throughout the Word of God. Back to the Psalm, verse 15. “With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king.” Great rejoicing and celebration. And look what it says in verse 16. “In place of your fathers shall be your sons; you will make them princes in all the earth.” In other words, this is saying that from the union of the king, or in our understanding, the Messiah and His bride, they bring forth children who are princes in all the earth. Verse 17, “I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore nations will praise you forever and ever.” And with that, we finish chapter 45.