In Psalm 45, you see in the heading of this
psalm, it says, to the chief musician
upon, or concerning, Shoshanim. That word means the lilies, the
lilies. for the sons of Korah, Maskel,
a song of loves. The subject of this psalm is
Shoshanah, that is, the lilies. That's the subject, is the lilies.
And this is a song of loves, plural. A song of loves. It's plural because it's the
song of the loves of Christ toward his people and of his people
toward Christ, which is the result of his love. And you remember
in the Song of Solomon, Christ says, I am the rose of Sharon
and the lily of the valleys. And then speaking of his bride,
he said, as the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. So they're the lilies, Christ
and his bride. But there's another love for
which this is in the plural, and it's the love of God the
Father toward his son. And as I've studied this psalm,
I'm convinced that the author of this psalm is God the Father. And I'll show you why. First
of all, he begins in verse one, he says, my heart is indicting
a good matter. You ever been so in love that
your heart bubbled over? That's what he's saying. If you
see the margin there, that's what he's saying. The author's
love for his subject makes his heart to bubble over. He says,
with a good matter, a good subject. It's the best subject. And he
tells us what the subject is. He says, I speak of the things
which I have made touching the king. He says, I speak of the
things which I have made concerning the king. God the Father is the
maker. He's the author of eternal salvation. Between Christ our king who accomplished
that salvation for his bride. He's the maker of all things
in salvation. And that's who's speaking here.
The subject that makes the author's heart bubble over is the glory
of his son. It's the glory of the king and
how Christ has adorned his bride so that she's all glorious within
and without. This is what's making his heart
to overflow. Remember Christ said, therefore
doth my father love me because I lay down my life that I might
take it again. Now we're not told who wrote
this psalm, who was actually used to pin the words that were
dictated to him, but the author of it says this. Look at verse
1. He says, my tongue is the pen
of a ready writer. My tongue is the pen of a ready
writer. Rarely, if ever, does somebody
speak something and it be with the skilled and accomplished
oratory that's better than if somebody sat down, a skilled
writer sat down and wrote and edited what he's writing. When
you speak, it generally doesn't come out like that. like it would
if you sat down and wrote it and edited it and carefully wrote
out what you wanted to say. But the writer says my tongue
is the pen of a skilled, accomplished writer. Because this psalm, like
all the scriptures, is God-breathed. This is God the Father speaking.
So that's the first reason I say this is God the Father speaking
of his son. But secondly, and even better,
The Word of God tells me this is God the Father speaking of
His Son. Look down at verses 6 and 7. It says, thy throne,
O God. This is the Father speaking to
Christ. Thy throne, O God, is forever
and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is
a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and
hatest wickedness. Therefore, God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Hold
your place here and turn over to Hebrews 1. We're specifically
told here who is speaking that and to whom he's speaking. Look
here in Hebrews 1, he says, God has spoken to us by His Son,
and then in verse 4, He says, Christ being made so much better
than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent
name than they. For unto which of the angels
said He, said God the Father, at any time, Thou art my Son,
this day have I begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a
father, and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he bringeth
in the first begotten into the world, he, God the Father, saith,
Let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels, he, God
the Father, saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers
a flame of fire? But unto the Son, God the Father
said, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity, therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. It tells us
right there God the Father spoke this to his son. So that's the
second reason I'm saying that this psalm is the father speaking
of his son and to his son. But the third reason I say this
is because back there in Psalm 45, if you look down at the last
verse, he says in verse 17, I will make thy name to be remembered
in all generations. Therefore shall the people praise
thee forever and ever. Who but God the Father? could
make that promise. And who would he make that to
but his son? This is God the Father speaking
of his son. I've titled this A Song of Loves. And here's the reason. Psalm 45 is a song of loves because
it's God the Father speaking of his love for his son. as he tells of his son's love
for his bride, which results in his bride's love for his son. This is a song of loves, plural. God the Father speaking of his
overflowing love for his son. And that's what we'll see here.
Now, first of all, God the Father's heart overflows with the beauty
of His Son. He says in verse 2, Thou art
fairer than the children of men. God the Father speaking to His
Son. Thou art fairer than the children
of men. Grace is poured into thy lips.
Therefore God hath blessed thee forever. God the Father says
here, Out of all the children of men, That's you, me, and everybody
that's ever walked the face of this earth. Out of all the children
of men, he says the Lord Jesus is fairer. The Hebrew word here
means exceeding great beauty. That's what the word fairer means.
Now he's not speaking of the sun's divine beauty. as the Son of God, if we went
back to Hebrews 1 and verse 3, it says He is the express image
of God. He's the brightness of His glory.
He's speaking here of the beauty of His human nature. The beauty
of Him as the Son of Man. When Scripture speaks of Christ
as the Son of God, He's talking about only begotten son of God. When he speaks of him as the
son of man or as the son of David, he's speaking of him as the man,
Christ Jesus. He's the God man. And here he's
talking about how beautiful he is as a man, as a man. And he says he's more beautiful
than the children of men, than all the children of men. God
the Father blessed the Lord Jesus as a man with grace. He says
there, grace is poured into thy lips, therefore God hath blessed
thee forever. This is why he's so beautiful
to God. In his human nature, the Lord
Jesus is not of Adam like the rest of the children of men are.
Everybody else is of Adam, so that we were conceived in sin
in our mother's womb so that we come forth so sinful that
God in His holiness is of too pure eyes to even look upon us. That's how sinful we are before
God. But Christ is not like us. He
is holy from the womb. He is full of grace and full
of truth. all beautiful, so that God says
of him, he's fairer, more beautiful, more exceedingly beautiful than
all the children of men throughout the history of time. And also
another reason he speaks of him as beautiful is he says, when
he says grace is poured into his lips, it's in that God gave
him the gospel of God's grace to preach, to come forth from
his lips. In time past, you know, the scripture
says God spoke to us by the prophets. But the prophets saw like we
see. They saw like looking through a dim glass. But our Lord Jesus
Christ, it says, grace was poured into his lips without measure. Now, you remember this over in,
go to Luke 4 and look there. Our Lord that day when he went
to the synagogue, and he stood up in the synagogue and it says
they brought him the scriptures and he opens to Isaiah and it
says in Luke 4 and verse 18, it says here, this is what he
began to read, the spirit of the Lord is upon me and it was
upon him without measure. Grace was poured into his lips. He said, because he hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal
the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of
Jubilee. And then he closed that book and he gave it to the minister
and he sat down and the eyes of all of them that day in that
synagogue were fastened on him. And I bet you could have heard
a pin drop in that place. They were just looking at him.
And look what it says. And he began to say unto them,
This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bear him
witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of
his mouth. Grace was poured into his lips
and grace came out of his lips and they heard it. You remember
the Pharisees, they didn't want Christ preaching. They wanted
to shut that down. And they sent some officers to
arrest him. And John chapter 7 verse 45 says,
Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees and
they said unto them, Why have you not brought him? They came
back empty handed. And they said to those officers,
why didn't you bring him back? And the officers answered, never
man spake like this man. They went there to arrest him
and they heard him preach. And they came back and said,
we never heard a man speak like this. They never heard a man
speak the word with such accuracy of truth. They never heard that. They never heard a man speak
in the gracious manner in which he spake. I can't even imagine
how our Lord preached, but it was more beautiful to God than
anybody's ever preached the gospel or ever will. And there never
was a man spoke with the authority he spoke with either. Song of
Solomon says, his lips like lilies drop sweet smelling myrrh. That's the gospel he preached.
So, do you see now the utter foolishness of any son of man,
even imagining that God's going to be pleased or impressed with
anything that you and I do by nature. Do you think God would
be pleased with anything that a sinner like us can give Him
or do for Him? He says of His Son, As the Son
of Man, He's more beautiful than any of the sons of men. So don't
try to come to God thinking there's something that you've done that's
gonna impress God or make Him accept you. We gotta come through
faith in Christ. This is who God's pleased with.
He's pleased with the Lord Jesus Christ. And all our comeliness
and all our spiritual blessings come from Him alone, only from
Him. only from Him, by our gracious
head, and that's the only way. He had grace poured into His
lips, and grace came from His lips.
Now, secondly, go back to our text, Psalm God the Father's heart overflows
when he speaks of Christ as the captain of his people's salvation.
Look what he says here in verse 3. Now he's speaking directly
to the Lord Jesus, and he says to him, gird thy sword upon thy
thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. and in thy majesty ride prosperously,
because of truth and meekness and righteousness. And thy right
hand shall teach thee terrible things, or thy right hand shall
accomplish terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the
heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under
thee. God the Father says, Son, gird
thy sword upon thy thigh. We know what this sword is. The
Scripture says it's the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.
It's the Gospel. And this is the sword. This is
that sword that the Hebrew writer says is that two-edged sword
that's sharper. It's sharper than any two-edged
sword and it cuts even to the heart. It reveals the thoughts
and intents of the heart. You really want to find out what
a man really thinks of Christ. Preach the gospel to him. Preach
the truth. It will reveal what he really
thinks in his heart. With his gospel, Christ Jesus
is mighty. He's mighty. In his glory and
in his majesty, he rides prosperously. That's what the Lord said. You
ride forth in your majesty and in your glory and ride prosperously. And that's how he rides without
the possibility of failure. There is no possibility of failure
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Not at all. And he rides prosperously
because of these three things he says here. Because of truth. Because he, first of all, he
is the truth. He is the truth. He is the gospel. He preached the truth. That means
he preached himself because he is the gospel. He established
his people in truth. And he teaches us the truth in
spirit and in truth. We can't worship God any other
way but in spirit. That means with a new heart,
a spiritual heart whereby we worship him as he is to be worshiped
in spirit and we worship him in truth. And then he says he
rides prosperously because of meekness. That sounds rather
odd coming in there, doesn't it? You got him riding in his
majesty and his glory, and he's speaking of his power, and it
says, and he rides prosperously because of meekness? We don't
really understand what meekness is. Meekness is toward God, first
of all. And our Lord Jesus prospers in
meekness because it was in meekness to His Father's will that He
took the form of a servant. Rather than coming and expecting
to be served, He came to serve. In meekness, He walked this earth
trusting the Father in perfect faithfulness to the Father. He's
the, when God looks over the sea of his believing people,
there's one believer that he looks upon as perfectly in meekness
trusting him, and that's his son. And you and I are seen in
his son. Every believer, it's not our
faith that's perfect, it's Christ's faith that's perfect. God sees
us in his son. It was in meekness that he laid
down his life for his people. You think of the meekness of
this one who had the power to speak and make those men fall
backwards that came to arrest him. They couldn't even stand
up straight when he said, I am. And yet in meekness he went and
laid down his life because it was his father's will to do so.
And he did it in place of his people. And it's in meekness
that he calls us to himself and teaches us. This is why he prospers. Remember what he said? Take my
yoke upon you and learn of me. Learn about me and learn from
me, being your teacher. And what was the reason he gave
that we should take his yoke upon us? He said, because I'm
meek and lowly in heart. He won't cast you out if you
come to him. He won't turn you around and make you ashamed if
you come and ask Him to be your teacher. He's meek and lowly
in heart. He'll receive you and He'll teach
you. And you'll find rest for your soul. And He rides prosperously,
He says here, because of righteousness. Because of the righteousness
of His holy nature. and the purity of his life so
that everything he did under the law, he's working out a perfect
righteousness, giving the law perfect obedience for his people.
He did that in righteousness. I would love to be able to fulfill
the law. I was thinking when Brother Adam
was reading that psalm, when God teaches us to do his statutes
and to walk in his testimonies and obey his commandments, You
know what He teaches us to do? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what He teaches us to
do. Follow Him. Look to Him. Trust Him. It's because of His righteousness.
Because of the righteousness with which He established that
law and justice by bearing our sin and our curse, the sin and
curse of His people. And it's because of the righteousness
that He Himself is in us and to us. He's our righteousness
before the law of God, He's righteousness for us, and He's the righteousness
in His people. And so it's for these three reasons,
because of truth, and because of meekness, and because of righteousness,
He never fails. He prospers as He goes forth. And He says there that His right
hand, that right hand is power. And it's by that right hand,
by his power, that he accomplishes terrible things, mighty things,
fearful things, great things, like he accomplished redeeming
his people and purging us of all of our sins. He accomplished
that. I love how on the Mount of Transfiguration
they talked about the death he should accomplish. His death
was an accomplishment. He accomplished the redemption
of his people. He accomplished purging our sins. When he said it's finished, he
meant it is finished. He forever justified everybody
for whom he died. And with his power, he accomplished
bruising the devil's head along with all his enemies. When he
took away the sin of his people and he satisfied justice for
his people and he made it so that God in justice can never
again charge his people with sin, he took away all the devil's
power. The devil is the legalist. The
devil is the greatest will worshiper there is. And that's what his
doctrine is. Free will. He wants you to believe
that and go to hell hanging on to it. And he teaches you to
to, you better keep the law. And then he tells you, well,
you hadn't kept it, but now you better get to work on it. And
he keeps you in constant bondage using the fear of death. Well,
when Christ accomplished putting away our sin and satisfying the
law and conquered death for his people, he crushed the devil's
head. And he accomplishes converting
and preserving his people. This he does with his right hand,
his mighty power. And God the Father's heart, he
said, it just overflows when I think of him and how he accomplishes
these terrible things, these great things. And it's because
of this. His arrows always strike their
mark and accomplish his purpose. Wherever he shoots an arrow,
he hits the mark, and he accomplishes his purpose. I have a friend
down at the church, and we're both Mike Walker pastors.
Somebody help me. I can't remember where it's at
right now. Anyhow, there's a fellow down there that's an archer,
and he's really good. I used to think I could shoot
a bow pretty good. This fellow got a Robin Hood. That's where
you hit the bullseye, and then you hit that arrow, and then
you hit that arrow. And he did that. He got two arrows
split in each other. That's good. But that ain't this
good. Look here, Psalm 45, 5. Thine
arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, in the
heart of Christ's enemies. He's the king, and he's saying,
God the Father is saying to him, your arrows are sharp in the
heart of your enemies, whereby the people fall unto thee. I
love what John Gill said on this. Let me read it to you. He said,
the scriptures are the quiver out of which his arrows are taken.
The gospel is the bow into which they're put and out of which
they're shot. And his ministers are the archers
that draw the bow at a venture and shoot them. But it's Christ
that makes them hit their mark. He makes them hit their mark.
One day Christ hit this enemy right where he was aiming, right
in my heart. I was an enemy of Christ in my
mind. I thought he was my enemy. And
it was all because of wicked works. Works that I was calling
righteousness and goodness and something that God would be pleased
with that God said were all wicked because it was me trying to come
to God by my works. And Christ shot me right in the
heart. Right in the heart. Remember
on the day of Pentecost when those fellas were pricked in
their hearts? What happened? He shot him with
his arrow right in the heart and killed that self-righteous
man. And like Paul said, sins revived
and I died. And he always hits the mark.
Aren't you thankful, brethren, that our Savior rides prosperously? Does that make your heart overflow?
Our God said of His Son, He shall not fail till He has set judgment
in the earth. He set judgment in the earth
on the cross. He's setting judgment in the
earth in the hearts of His people. And He's going to set judgment
in the earth in the last day when He judges this world in
righteousness. And He shall not fail. He rides prosperously.
And then God the Father His heart overflows glorifying His faithful
servant. Look at verse 6. Thy throne,
O God, is forever and ever. This is God the Father speaking
to the Son of Man and He says, Thy throne, O God, is forever
and ever. The scepter of Thy kingdom is
a right scepter. Brethren, our Redeemer is God. He is God. He is Jehovah. Jesus is Jehovah. Jesus is God
and He's upon His throne and He's going to be there forever
and ever. That one that was tempted by
the devil is God who created the devil and then cast him out
of heaven when he rebelled. The one being tempted by the
devil created that devil. That's right. And cast him out
of heaven. The one who cried out and said, I thirst is the
one Isaiah spoke about who said he holds all the waters of this
world in the hollow of his hand. That one, that wicked man crowned
with thorns is the God before whom all the men of this earth,
kings and everybody in this earth are his grasshoppers. He's God. That's who he is. that one who
suffered hell for his people on the cross in darkness is the
one who created the sun and upholds it by the word of his power.
Jesus is God. See, when he came into this world,
he didn't begin being then. He's always been. He's God, eternal
God. He just took the body that God
had made him, and he became the God-man. And right now, at this
moment, right now, seated in heaven, is this same Jesus who
is God. He's glorified, the God-man. A glorified man who is God is
seated in heaven right now in his scepter. You seen a king
with a scepter? You know what a scepter is? His
scepter is a right scepter. It's right for it to be in his
hand, and he's ruling with that scepter righteously in everything
that's taking place in heaven, in earth, and in hell. And you
and I see We see the tip of the iceberg, that's all we see. We
see what we see in this earth and we think we really see a
lot and we don't even see the majority of what there is. You
remember when that young man was so terrified and the Lord
opened his eyes and he saw that host around him of angels and
that heavenly host? That's real, brethren, that's
real. I understand why men can't believe
this because it's just too wonderful for a mere man to believe. God
has to give you faith, and that's all the evidence you need. You
believe. You have all the substance you
need when God gives you faith. You believe every word God speaks
because you know it's so. And that's what He's doing. He's
ruling righteously for His people and He's doing so for His glory
right now on this earth. And the Father praises Him for
His faithfulness. He said in verse 7, He loved
righteousness and He hated wickedness. And therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. See
there? Therefore God hath done this. He's the only man that could
ever be said about. He so perfectly loved righteousness
and hated wickedness that he earned the right to be anointed
above all his fellows because he deserved it. You can't say
that about me or you or anybody, any other sinner in this world
that we deserve anything. He deserved it. And he deserved
it because of how perfectly he loved righteousness and hates
wickedness. And he says, all thy garments
smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of ivory palaces whereby
they have made thee glad. King's daughters, that is his
daughters, were among thy honorable women. Upon thy right hand did
stand the queen in gold of Ophir because he hates righteousness
and loves wickedness and does so in perfection. And because he's our head and
the representative of all his people, we hate righteousness
and, I mean, we love righteousness and hate wickedness in perfection.
Because he does and him we do. And that's how God sees it. We
hate wickedness. And we love righteousness perfectly
because he does. And so God's anointed him to
be our prophet, priest, and king because he deserves it. Now all
his garments, he says there, smell of perfection to God. That pretty well just sums up
what all those different fragrances mean. It smells like perfection
to God. It smells well-pleasing. It's
a sweet-smelling savor to God. That's all his garbage. That's
what Christ smells like. That's what he smells like. I
know a certain young man that's really into cologne right now,
and he told me one day that one of the nicest things you can
ever have somebody tell you is, man, you smell good. Well, this one right here smells
good. He smells good to God. And this is the thing, he's clothed
you and me with his very same garments. So we smell good to
God. You don't want to come to God
smelling like you smell. You don't want to come to God
with your perfume on that you've made. You want to come in his
garments smelling like he did. You remember how Jacob fooled
his father and he put those garments on so he smelled like his brother
Esau. That's a beautiful picture. And
he got the blessing. Why? Because he smelled like
his brother. He smelled like the son that
his father loved. We come robed in Christ's garments
and we smell like the son the father loves. And that's how
he'll receive us. And we stand therefore at his
right hand in the place of honor. And we stand there as his queen
in the gold of Ophir. That's the righteousness of Christ.
A good scripture that says the same thing that this verse says
is when Paul said to the Colossians, in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. That's what God just said of
him. And you are complete in him, which is the head of all
principality and power. Now next time we're going to
go through the rest of this psalm, and I don't have time to go through
it, but I do want to read it, and I want you to listen. Verse
10. Hearken, O daughter, and consider and incline thine ear,
and I pray God give us grace to do that. Forget also thine
own people in thy father's house. Leave everything. and come to
Christ and he says, so shall the king, he's talking about
Christ his son, so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty
for he's thy lord, worship thou him. Look at verse 13, the king's
daughter It says, Christ's daughter is all glorious within. Her clothing is of wrought gold,
and Christ wrought it. He worked it. Listen to this. She shall be brought unto the
king in raiment of needlework. The virgins, her companions that
follow her, shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and
rejoicing shall they be brought. They shall enter into the king's
palace. Now, all of that's going to be
so, and it's going to be so because the father has promised his son,
and here's what he's promised him in verse 16. Instead of thy
fathers shall be thy children. God the father promised his son,
instead of these children being called my children or being only
called my children, he promised his son they're going to be called
your children. And He says this, Whom thou mayest make princes
in all the earth. God the Father is speaking to
His Son. He said, You may make them princes in all the earth.
Scripture says He makes us kings and princes unto God. We're a
royal kings and priests. We're a royal priesthood. He
makes us princes and priests, a royal priesthood. And God said,
And you may do it. because justice satisfied by
his blood says it's the right thing to do. You can make them,
you may make them princes. and priests because you satisfy
justice. And look here, this is going
to be certain. He's going to bring all his bride,
he's going to bring his queen, he's going to bring the daughters,
he's going to bring them all robed in his righteousness into
his palace because this is what God promised him. Verse 17, I
will make thy name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore
shall the people praise thee forever and ever. That's how
overflowing God's heart is with his son. He said, I shall make. You just think about how men
strive in this world to try to make a name for themselves that
people will remember forever and ever. And we always forget
it. There's nobody we continue to
remember. We always forget men. But God says, this is God's saying
this, and he says of his son, I'm going to make men remember
you forever. They'll never stop remembering
you. And that's so men in hell will spend hell for eternity
remembering the name of God's son forever. And God says, I'm
going to do this so that all my people will praise you forever
and ever. That's how God's heart overflows
for his son. And I pray he give us grace now
and make our heart overflow for him just like that. Amen.