Let us turn to the 45th psalm
again, the psalm that we were reading, Psalm 45. The Lutheran commentator Leupold
says that this psalm concerns the marriage of the king. It divides into two parts, the first
9 verses I suppose are spoken concerning the king and in that
sense it's messianic the king it speaks of of course is the
king of kings and the lord of lords and then the second part
from verse 10 to the end speaks of the king's bride and so Leupold expounds it really in his commentary
as a description of the marriage of the king and it's verse 9
that really marks the transition from the king to his bride. King's daughters were among thy
honourable women, upon thy right hand did stand a queen in gold
of Ophir. and then the description of the
Queen and I want us tonight to consider that description as
it's set before us here from verse 10 through to verse 14. Now text then is here in the
Psalm, Psalm 45 from verse 10 through to 14. Harken, O daughter,
and consider and incline thine ear forget also thine own people
and thy father's house, so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty,
for he is thy lord, and worship thou him. And the daughter of
Tyre shall be there with a gift, even the rich among the people
shall entreat thy favor, the king's daughter is all glorious
within, her clothing is of broad gold, she shall be brought unto
the king, in raiment of needlework, the virgins her companions that
follow her, shall be brought unto thee this remarkable description
and the language that is used to describe something of the
beauties that belong onto the king's bride and that of course
as we know is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, considering
some foreheadings as we take up these verses that we've just
read. First of all, to say something
with regards to the identity of this bride. The identity of
this bride. She's spoken of as the king's
daughter. Arkano daughter. verse 9 Kings
daughters were among thy honourable women but then this particular
daughter is being spoken of at verse 10 following the Kings
daughter and yet what is she by nature? she is of course by
nature a sinner and that is true of all who make
up that Bride of Christ, the Church. All by natures are in
that condition of alienation, enemies in their minds. That
which is born of the flesh is flesh, says the Lord Jesus. That
which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Marvel not then that
I said unto thee, ye must be born again. or the importance
of a new nature, the necessity of that new birth. And here,
of course, in the course of what is being said we have reference
to the daughter of Tyre in verse 12. the king's daughters, in verse
9, Hark! an old daughter there, in verse
10, and then the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift,
even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favour. There are many daughters in a
sense. It's one bride of Christ and yet it's made up of a multitude
of people and amongst them those of Tyre. There's an allusion
then here in verse 12 to the calling of Gentile sinners. and
when we think of Tyre and the city of Tyre and God's judgment
spoken against that particular city in the prophecy of Amos
and there in the opening chapter of the ninth verse I said to
the Lord for three transgressions of Tyrus and for four I will
not turn away the punishment thereof. Well This bride, this
church must learn the truth of its sad condition by nature.
What are we by nature? That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. As I said, we're alienated, we're enemies. We're born dead
in trespasses and in sins and the Lord must come and he must
do a remarkable work, a gracious work in the souls of all his
people. Isn't that spoken of in the previous
part where we have the description of the King himself? Thirst regard
thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory in thy
majesty ride prosperously, because of truth, and meekness, and righteousness. Then thy right hand shall teach
thee terrible things, thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the
king's enemies, whereby the people fall under them. Who is this
one, this bride then? It is those who are dead in trespasses
and sins and yet must learn what their true state is and must
be brought to that place of the conviction of sin and repentance
of sin and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ if they are going
to be those who are the true Zion of God. All the language
that we have in the prophecy of Isaiah the evangelical prophet
who speaks much of Christ and speaks of the bride of Christ
Say ye to the daughter of Zion, behold thy salvation cometh.
Behold his reward is with him and his work before him. He will
accomplish that salvation even in sinners. The king's daughter
then, the church, the people of God, his spiritual children,
his daughters, his daughters, his spiritual children, Remember
the words of the Lord Jesus in Hebrews 2 as the apostle is speaking
there of Christ he takes up the language of Isaiah back in the
8th chapter of that prophecy and speaks of the children which
God hath given birth. Isaiah speaks of those children,
they are part of his message, the names that he gives to his
children. But that language ultimately is taken up in reference to Christ.
Behold I and the children which God hath given me. This is the
king's daughter then. We are to understand it in terms
of the church of Jesus Christ. His bride. And what is the provision
that is made? Well here of course we read much
concerning the clothing of the bride. There is a description
of a her outward beauty there in verse 9 upon thy right hand
did stand a queen in gold of Ophir and then again at the end
of verse 13 her clothing is of wrought gold she shall be brought
unto the king in raiment of needlework these are the the beauties that
the Lord God Himself has provided, the garments with which He is
pleased to clothe His brides. And again, we see it in the language
of the prophets. And there in Isaiah 61, for example,
and the words that we have at verse 3, "...to appoint unto
them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the
oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit
of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified. Beautiful ashes, the oil of joy
for mourning, the garment of praise, the robe of righteousness,
garments of salvation. Oh, we're reminded, aren't we,
of that great exchange that is involved in the salvation of
the church of Jesus Christ that he has come and identified himself
with his people made in the likeness of sinful flesh it says and for
sin. He who knew no sin made sin for
us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
We have these various verses, these different statements scattered
throughout the Word of God. There is an exchange. It is Christ
who comes and identifies with His people and takes upon Himself
all their sin. Their sin is reckoned to His
account. Their sin is imputed to him and
in exchange that righteousness of Christ is imputed to his people
and reckoned to their account the blessed exchange he comes
to live a life of complete and utter obedience to all the commandments
of God he fulfills all righteousness he honours the law, he magnifies
the law by his obedience it is obedience is not only in life
obedience to all those holy precepts and commandments it's obedience
unto death even the death of the cross and so that righteousness
of his is imputed to his people as their sin is imputed to him
and he dies, the just for the unjust to bring sinners to God
or the great doctrine of justification and the significance of imputation
and we see it really in that fourth chapter of the epistle
to the Romans where the apostle remember makes reference to the
scriptures he quotes from the 32nd Psalm as he describes something
of the faith of Abraham. In verse 3 of Romans 4 he asks
the question what sets the scripture? Abraham believed God and it was
counted on to him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is a
reward not reckoned of death, not reckoned of grace but of
death. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin. now the significant words
in this passage that we've just read are the words counted in
verse 3 it was counted unto him for righteousness and then the
words reckoned in verse 4 to him that worketh is the reward
not reckoned of grace but of death So we have the word counted,
we have the word reckoned, and then we have the word imputed.
In verse 6, Even as David also describeth the blessedness of
the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Again at verse 8, Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now, the interesting
thing is that these words counted, reckoned, imputed, it's all the
same word really. It is exactly the same word that
is used but it's translated by these different words in our
English version and it simply brings out something of the fullness
of what is there really to impute is to reckon or to count and
what God has done for his people in making the church so beautiful
is to account to them all the righteousness of Christ just
as all their sins have been reckoned to his account so all his righteousness
is imputed to them and how Paul came to understand that blessed
truth this man who was once a pharisee of the pharisees he was a son
of the pharisee and what does he say when he comes to know
that salvation that is in Christ is one desire to be found in
him or to be found in Christ not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law but that which is to the faith of Christ
the righteousness which is of God by faith. It's by faith in Christ. That
was the faith of Abraham. That was Abraham justified by
the righteousness of Jesus Christ, imputed to him. That was the
case with all the saints of the Old Testament. And that is the
case with all the saints of the New Testament. And has been the
case throughout all the ages. And it's the case of course in
this day of grace. The great doctrine then of justification,
the outward beauty. This is the name whereby he shall
be called the Lord our righteousness. Jehovah said, can you? Simply
the Hebrew word that's translated, rightly translated, the Lord
our righteousness. And that was Paul's desire you
see, to be clothed in that righteousness. And it's interesting isn't it,
as there in Jeremiah 23.6 we see that that is the name whereby
He is called, and that is the King, that's the King's name,
the Lord Our Righteousness, and then later in chapter 33 at verse
16 it says this is the name wherewith She shall be called. The Bride
has the same name. The name wherewith She shall
be called is the Lord Our Righteousness. His righteousness has become
her righteousness just as her sin has become His and He has
honoured the law by paying the dreadful penalty that was demanded
when He died just for the unjust. Here is the outward beauty, the
clothing of the bride. Here in verse 9, upon thy right hand did stand
a queen in gold of Ophir. And then again there at verse
13. Her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the
king in raiment of nadal work. And when we come to the end of
Scripture of course we have it don't we there in Revelation.
And that 19th chapter at verse 8. To her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. For the fine
linen is the righteousness of saints. Oh, it's a robe of pure
gold. It's a robe of pure white. It's
the beauty of the bride. This is her wedding garment. But she's not only one clothed
with outward beauty. there is also an inward beauty
that's spoken of here because it says in verse 13 that the
king's daughter is also all-glorious within all-glorious within it's
not just what she is on the outside it's what she is inwardly as
well well there's not only the justification of the sinner there's
a sanctification of the sinner also She's washed, she's cleansed
in that precious blood of Christ. The conscience purged from all
dead works. Peter speaks of the hidden man
of the heart. Even the ornament of a meek and
quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price. The hidden man of the heart. What is that hidden man? that's
so precious in the sight of God, it's that sincerity, it's that
reality, it's that willing obedience to all the commandments of God,
or behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile, or
to be guileless, to bring to God that sacrifice that is always
pleasing in His sight, acceptable to him the sacrifices of God
a broken spirit the broken and the contrite heart of God they
will not despise are we those friends who desire above all
things that we might be true Christians, real Christians we
fear or we feel hypocrisy, pretence, play acting we want to come with
that singleness of mind we want that godly simplicity we want
to present to God that acceptable sacrifice the broken spirit the
broken, the contrite heart grieving over sins this is her inward
beauty the Lord says a good man out of the good treasure of his
heart bringeth forth that which is good that which is good always
what God has wrought and it's what only God is able to accomplish
in the souls of his people and we have to prove it. We have
to live to prove it. But here is the clothing then
of this bride. We identify her, she is the daughter
of the king but how God calls his people even from amongst
the sinful nations of the Gentiles Even the daughter of Tyre is
there with a gift. There's her clothing. Her outward
beauty. Clothed in robes of righteousness,
the garment of salvation, there's her inward beauty. There's that
godly simplicity. But then also here we're reminded
of the hearing of the bride. What is the exhortation? in verse
10, hearken O daughter and consider and incline thine ear hearken
O daughter incline thine ear he says and they are necessary
that we should have such repetition because what are we by nature?
by nature we have no ear for God no ear for the voice of God
by nature the wise man reminds us doesn't
he there in the opening chapter of the Proverbs as wisdom speaks
what is it that wisdom has to say even there at the beginning
of the book in Proverbs 1 verse 24 because I have called and
ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded but
ye have set at naught all my counsel and would have none of
my reproof." Isn't that the response of man in his natural state?
He will not have this king to rule over him, he refuses him.
Again the Prophet reminds Israel of that awful thing. The end
of the book he says, when I called ye did not answer, when I spake
ye did not hear. Oh that's so deaf. We find so
many statements scattered throughout God's Word that reminds us how
our ears are deaf to the voice of God. We will not hear His
call. Psalm 58 and there at verses four and
five they are like the deaf adder it says that stop at her ear
which will not hearken to the voice of charmers charming never
so wisely or we like the deaf adder refusing to hear and so
the exhortation is given here to the king's daughter hearken
oh daughter and incline thine here all you see the daughter
of Zion must be different that's the mark isn't it of those
who are God's true children his sons, his daughters, his sheep
my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I
give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish says
the Lord Jesus they hear my voice other sheep I have which are
not of this fold them also I must bring and they shall hear my
voice all they all hear his voice there shall be one fold and one
shepherd they will not hearken to the voice of strangers their voice is attuned to the
voice of the good shepherd they know their master's voice O sheep
And that was the great beauty, of course, of the Eastern shepherds. They didn't act as shepherds
in the West and use dogs for rounding up their sheep and so
forth. They lived with the sheep, didn't they? When they put the
sheep in the fold at night, what did the shepherds do? They would
be there in the entrance, they were the door of the sheep. now
the Lord develops all of that there in John chapter 10 he is
the door of the sheepfold by which they come in and go out
he is the good shepherd and his sheep they all hear his voice
they know his voice they know not the voice of strangers well
this is the mark then they they can discern what is the voice
of him who is their true shepherd Harkon, O daughter and incline
thine ear Psalm 18 and there at verse 44 as soon as they hear
me they shall obey me well there's the proof isn't it if we're those
who have heard that voice of the Lord Jesus Christ our great
concern will be obedience have you obeyed the voice of Christ. Have you honored what the Lord
Jesus requires of his sheep? They are to follow him. They
make an open profession of him. He has commanded, has he not,
that the believer is to be baptized, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. as soon as they hear me they
shall obey me or to know something of the spirit of young Samuel
think of that young lad when the Lord calls when the Lord
comes with his call you know the passage there at the beginning
of 1st Samuel in the third chapter isn't it? and the wise priest told him
what to say and he said it speak Lord for thy servant heareth
ought to be Samuels ought to be Samuels speak Lord for thy
servant heareth again the wise man blessed is the man that heareth
me watching daily at my gates waiting at the post of my door
is that us? is that how we come to the word
of God? nor we wait we read we meditate we see this also don't
we in the daughter of Zion she doesn't just hearken she doesn't
just hear inclining her ear she considers hearken her daughter
and consider it says how does the psalm open? the psalmist says my heart is
indicting a good matter. My heart is indicting. It's interesting
isn't it? The margin. Tells us what the
Hebrew literally means. It means the heart is bubbling
up. Overflowing. That's what it means you see.
There's an appetite here. there's a great desire to not
just read the word but to understand the words and to receive the
word and to feed upon the word and so there's that willingness
to meditate in the words remember the mother of our Lord
Mary and what we're told concerning that blessed woman that highly
favoured woman what did she say when the shepherds came after
the birth of the child or they had received instruction from
the angels in heaven and they go to the place where the child
was and we read of Mary there in Luke Luke 2.19 and Mary kept
all these sayings and pondered them in her heart she pondered
them, she thought upon them. That's what we have here, isn't
it? Oh daughter, consider. Consider. Think on these things. But it's
not only there, in the earlier part of that chapter, but later
at the end of that chapter, Luke 2.51, again we're told that she
kept all these sayings in her heart. that was when the child
was 12 years old, he's 12 years after the birth of the child
and you remember they'd gone to Jerusalem and they'd come
away with the company and the child had remained behind he
must be about his father's business that's how the Lord spoke to
his own parents oh he must be about his father's business and
what of his mother she kept all these things in her heart, she
thought on these things do we think on these things?
or do we ponder these things? are we those who when we come
to the word of God we consider we pray over the word of God
we don't just read it in a perfunctory fashion I'm not saying that there
won't be times when we do do that alas I have to confess too
often too often one reads a portion and comes away from the word
and within a matter of minutes you've forgotten the whole passage
we read together at home, we read through a book, we read
a chapter one day, when we come to the next day to read, we think,
well, what chapter are we reading? We read that yesterday and we
can't remember anything of what we read. Oh, our wretched, wretched
memories. And we need then to be marching
God's Word and to pray over God's Word that God would help us to
ponder all that He is saying to us. And God does have ways
and means whereby He causes His people to consider. And how does
He do it? Well sometimes He has to act
with us in contrary ways. He has to come with His chastenings.
That verse in Micah, Micah 6, 9, the Lord's voice crieth unto
the sitter, The man of wisdom shall see thy name, hear ye the
rites, and who hath appointed it or when God comes with the
rod when God comes to chasten and to correct when God brings
us into troublesome paths when difficulties and reverses come
into our lives we want to well I want a nice path, a simple
path a straight forward path, no reverses but what does God
say? Hosea 2.14 behold he says I will
allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably
unto her. This is a song of loves. We have
it there in the title of the psalm, a song of loves. How does
the Lord allure his people? Well sometimes he takes his people
into a wilderness. But what does he do there in
the wilderness? Oh, he speaks comfortably. He speaks such gracious
words. You see, he will bring us, won't
he, to ultimately consider the King himself. And who is this
King? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the Lord Jesus. Consider
Him, says Paul. Consider Him that endured such
contradiction of sinners against Himself. lest ye be weary and
faint in your minds. O how we need then to hearken
and to consider. Hearken, O daughter, and consider,
and incline thine ear. Forget also thine own people
and thy father's house. Or there's the separating of
the bride, fourthly. Or there's the separating, we
seek to identify the bride. we seek to say what her clothing
is beauties without, beauties within how important it is that
she's hearing the voice of the king that ultimately there must
be that separation or a man must leave his father and his mother
and he must cleave unto his wife that's the divine order, that's
the order that we have there in creation marriage a creation
ordinance, we know that and so with the bride of Christ
she's a separated bride and we have it here at the end of verse
10 forget also thine own people and thy father's house and remember
the Lord's ministry how it was such a separating ministry wasn't
it how many times do we read a division or a division because
of him a division because of his words, how the gospel comes and separates,
how there's a separating of the precious from the vile, how he comes as a saviour of
life unto life, a saviour of death unto death to others, there's
a separation. the Lord is so discriminating
he calls his people out he calls them out of this world and he
gathers them together in local churches that is what the church
is, isn't it? that's the doctrine of the church,
it's a called out people and he gathers together the outcasts
of Israel or think of Ruth and those remarkable words that
she speaks to Naomi entreat me not to leave thee or to return
from following after thee for with her thou goest I will go
and where thou lodgest I will lodge thy people shall be my
people and thy God shall be my God that's it ultimately there
must be that separation Here are then some of the marks of
those who are the true bride of Christ. We must identify her. All she is clothed, she is justified,
she is sanctified. She hears the voice of the King
and she is obedient to all his call, obedient to all his holy
precepts. and she's separated from this
world she doesn't conform to the world and the ways of the
world but she's transformed by the renewing of her mind she
understands what the will of the Lord is oh God help us in
to look to ourselves and examine ourselves and prove ourselves
and know ourselves is Jesus Christ in us? are we
those who are truly the bright of the Lord Jesus. O God, grant
He might be served for our good and for His glory. Amen.