Psalm 45, Christ our Savior King. I don't normally look at the
little byline if you've got a King James version of the Bible, where
it says, to the chief musician there, the lettering's so small
you can't hardly read it, and it says, upon Shoshanim, for
the sons of Korah, a mass scale, a song of love. And I thought
about that going through this because Shoshanim, we don't really
know exactly what that is, but some scholars say that it was
like a musical instrument upon which a particular tune was played
in singing this song. And others say it's literally
the word for lilies. Now, I'm not a Hebrew scholar. You know, I speak English sometimes. But some say it's a word that's
derived from lilies. And I thought about that. Well,
Christ is the lily of the valley and the rose of Sharon, so I
like that. Whether it means that or not,
that's what he is, isn't he? Christ, the lily of the valley,
the rose of Sharon. And he was referred to in that
way in the Song of Songs in chapter two. And of all the Psalms of
the Bible, 11 of them are attributed to the sons of Korah. And so
those are descendants, I guess, of a man named Korah, who really
was a rebel back in the days of Moses. But these may have
been priests or whatever. But that word, mask, is what
really, that M-A-S-C-H-I-N, that's what really drew my attention. Because what that means, it's
an instruction. This is a psalm that gives us
instruction in spiritual and heavenly matters. So in other
words, this is not just poetry. Now it is poetry, and it's beautiful
poetry. I like poetry. But it's also
to teach us. And it teaches us some great
things. Look at what he says, my heart
is indicting a good matter. Literally, my heart's bubbling
over. My heart is overflowing. So whatever
it is that the Lord God revealed to the psalmist here is just
welling up in his soul with joy and majesty and worship. And he says it's a matter that
pertains to the goodness of God, God who alone is good. Think
about this. Whenever we meditate, think about
our right relationship with God and all the blessings that God
has given us. Our focus cannot be on anything
within us that we would call good and say, boy, I did a good
job there and I deserve all this. No. Whenever we meditate upon
that, our focus has to be on Christ. and on Him alone, and
that's what this psalm is. It sets our focus, our view,
our joy on Christ and Him crucified. We're sinners saved by grace,
and that grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. He says, I speak of the things
which I have made, touching the King. You see that? things that
I have made touching the king, my tongue is the pen of a ready
writer. I'm ready to spill this out,
to tell you about it. And that's what I believe, that's
the spirit of evangelism that God has given to his people.
We want to tell people about Christ, don't we? And it's sad
that there's not too many that want to hear about him. I know
what, I've gone through that. But that's what this is about.
This is our shepherd king. the Lord Jesus Christ, and knowing
him makes us eager and ready and willing to write and speak
of him, the glory of his person. I wanna talk about who Christ
is. I wanna talk about what he's accomplished. I wanna talk about
his righteousness. To me, that's the main issue,
who Christ is and the righteousness that he established by his obedience
unto death as our surety, our substitute, and our redeemer.
And this is what makes my tongue the pen of a ready writer, of
a speaker. And look at verse two, he says,
thou art fairer than the children of men. Now that's speaking of
Christ's humanity. He, as God, He is so high. Christ is the second person of
the Trinity, the Son of God. He's so high above us that there's
no comparison, but God the Son became incarnate and dwelt in
sinless human flesh, and even as that, He's fairer than the
children of men, but that's not referring to His physical makeup. He's more beautiful. Look over
at Isaiah 53, or I can just read it to you. But when we talk about
the humanity of Christ, we're talking about a sinlessly perfect
person who never became a sinner, who was never contaminated with
sin, who was always perfect love and perfect obedience, all of
that. That's who we're talking about,
the God-man. All right, but his outward appearance,
it says in Isaiah 53, it says in verse two, for he shall grow
up before him as a tender plant and as a root of a dry ground.
He hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there's
no beauty that we should desire him. What he's talking about
here is, as you looked at the human nature, the humanity of
Christ, there was nothing inherent in that visual that would draw
us to him. I think some of these preachers,
they kind of describe him as if he was, you've seen these
paintings, and listen, Those paintings that say that's Jesus,
that is not Jesus. That's just some Renaissance
painter's view. And they'll have the halo on
his head, you know, and all of that glow about him. The Bible
says, verse three, he's despised and rejected of men, a man of
sorrows, acquainted with grief. And yet, and yet, it says here
in verse two of Psalm 45, he's fairer than the children of men.
And I think about what the apostle John wrote about him. In John
chapter one, he's talking about Christ, the word made flesh,
and he says in verse 14, this is John 1, 14, the word was made
flesh and dwelt among us, literally tabernacled among us, and we
beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now who's the we there?
That's his children. That's all whom God has revealed
his glory in the face of Jesus Christ. So the world, just looking
at the physical humanity of Christ, would see no beauty, no comeliness. But when God opens our eyes and
our ears to his glory in Christ, we see his beauty. And that's
what the psalmist here is saying. Thou art fairer than the children
of men. He's so high above. What we are,
we're born in sin. Even the best of us, even the
best looking of us, even the strongest of us, we're born in
sin. He was born of the Spirit. You
see that? We could compare all that. All
of the beauty and glory of sinful humanity will fade away. And
it says in verse two, grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore
God hath blessed thee forever. Christ himself as the mediator
of his people, he was blessed. He had the spirit without measure.
But look at verse three, he says, gird thy sword upon thy thigh,
O most mighty, with thy glory and majesty. This is Christ like
the warrior and his sword is his word. Remember in Revelation
when John's vision, you had the sword coming out of his mouth,
that's his word. That's his weapon, his word. That's what it takes to bring
a sinner to our knees. It's either his word of grace
and power which brings his chosen people to bow down and submit
to him as the Lord our righteousness, or it's his word of judgment
which puts all opposition down. Every knee's gonna bow and every
tongue is gonna confess. And verse four says, and in thy
majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness,
and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible or awesome things. All of this for the glory of
the Christ is himself the truth. He said that, he said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And he comes in obedience to
the Father to work, to do what? To work righteousness for his
people. And that righteousness was worked
out on the cross in his obedience unto death, and it's that which
is imputed to us. And here what it talks about
in his right hand shall teach thee terrible things, his right
hand refers to his just acts to do both, to teach us awesome
things. Isn't that what he's done? You
know, when you hear the gospel, that's an awesome thing, isn't
it? We should never get over that. God justifies the ungodly. Wait a minute, who are you talking
about? We're talking about a God who must punish sinners to whom
sin is charged, who cannot forgive sin except on a just ground. Well, where are we gonna find
a just ground? Only in the person and work of
Christ. Where are we gonna find righteousness established? Only
in the person and work of Christ. Verse five says, thine arrows
are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people
fall under thee. And again, I would relate that
to the arrows of his word. It always hits its target, he
never misses. Remember that old story about
Robin Hood? He was a master archer, and he'd shoot the arrows, and
he went into a contest, shot a bullseye, and then one of the
kings, who was an enemy of Robin Hood, he shot a bullseye. Robin
Hood reared back, and he split the arrow that he shot. Well,
that's the way Christ is, only better. He never misses his target. And the arrows of his target,
do you know where it comes to? It comes to his people. And his
arrows are always aimed at our hearts, our minds, affections,
and will. And it always cuts to the quick
and brings us down off of our self-righteousness and pride
and brings us to submit to Christ as the Lord our righteousness.
Now, he shoots arrows at the unbeliever too, the ones who,
the non-elect, you'd say. And it hits its mark, too, to
pronounce them damned forever. But these are the issues. He
said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. So look at verse
six. Now here's a passage that is
quoted in the New Testament. It's quoted, first of all, in
Hebrews chapter one. verses eight through nine, and
what he's talking about is the writer of Hebrews, who I believe
was Paul, ultimately the Holy Spirit wrote. And he's showing
that this refers to Christ. We're not spiritualizing these
passages when we point to Christ. If you miss Christ, you've missed
the point of the passage. Remember what he told the Pharisees
in John 5, you do search the scriptures. In them you think
you have eternal life. They are they which testify of
me. Remember when he set down his disciples and he taught them
the things concerning himself out of the law of Moses, out
of the Psalms and the prophets. And it says here, listen to it,
verse six, thy throne, oh God, is forever and ever, an eternal
throne. Jim, you spoke of that eternal
union. Here's the sovereignty of it. Here's the glory of it. Christ is upon his throne, and
here's the ground of it. Verse six, the scepter, which
that refers to the sovereign rule of the king who sits on
this throne. The scepter of thy kingdom is
a right or righteous scepter. He rules in righteousness. And that righteousness is that
which he worked out on the cross. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And he says,
thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. You know,
it's common for preachers today, they'll say, well, God loves
the sinner, but hates the sin. If God loves the sinner, It has
to be in a way that the sin is removed, taken care of. That's why the Bible says, blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Who shall anything
to the charge of God's elect? And I know people don't want
to hear about God's hatred. Preachers tell people today,
God doesn't hate anybody, but God's word says that he does.
Says he hates all the workers of iniquity. I believe that's
Psalm 5-5. And you might ask the question,
well, we're all workers of iniquity. What he's talking about there,
we're all sinners, that's true. But what he's talking about in
Psalm 5-5, those workers of iniquity are sinners to whom that iniquity
is imputed, charged. And that's why David said in
Psalm 32, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not
iniquity. Yes, we're sinners, but God doesn't
charge us with our sins. We're not imputed with them.
Why? Because he charged them to Christ. Christ established
righteousness and he earned this throne. This is an earned throne. God hath made him to be Lord
of both the dead and the living. And that's speaking of his mediatorial
work as the substitute and the redeemer of his people. So he
loves righteousness, hates wickedness, verse seven, therefore God thy
God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. God has given him a position
above all his brethren. Now who are his brethren? That's
the elect. That's the ones whom God chose
before the foundation of the world and gave to him, whom God
adopted into his family. Remember he said, I will declare
thy name unto my brethren. But he has a position above all
his fellows. He has the preeminence. He's
the savior. He's the king. He's the Lord
of glory. He's the bride or he's the bridegroom
and we're the bride. And we're submitted to him and
him alone. Look at verse eight. All thy
garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces
whereby they have made thee glad. All his garments. Whenever you
think of a garment, the first mention of a garment in the scripture,
you had two. In Genesis chapter three, you
had the garment of fig leaves that Adam and Eve sewed together,
representing what? Their sinfulness. That's man's
works. And then you had the garment
that God made for them when he slew an animal and made coats
of skin. And ever since then, the image
of a garment is the image of Christ's righteousness imputed
to us. And that's what he's talking
about. It's a sweet-smelling savor unto God. That's why when
we preach the gospel, that means God accepts it, God loves it,
God is pleased. When we preach Christ, That's
a sweet smelling savor to God. And it's also to his people.
That's the way it is to his people when he reveals the glory of
his salvation to us. These ivory palaces that he mentions
there in verse eight, that's his heavenly abode. That's his
kingdom. He's made glad in the presence
of the father and by the faith of the saints. And here we are. clothed in his righteousness,
imputed to us for our justification, and from which we have life from
the dead, spiritual life. Let's read a few more verses
here. He says in verse nine, King's daughters were among thy
honorable women. King's daughters, that refers
to his people, his family, his kingdom, his bride. We bear his name, the Lord our
righteousness, sets her in a place of dignity. Upon thy right hand
did stand the queen and gold of Ophir, the precious gold.
His queen, that's his church. Verse 10, hearken, O daughter,
and consider and incline thy ear. Forget also thine own people
and thy father's house. We have a new family. Our family
is the people of God. Now I know, here on earth, we
love our physical families. And I know we have responsibilities
towards our physical families, but our eternal family is the
family of God, the church, spiritual family. And one day we'll leave
this physical family totally behind and we'll enter our glorious
spiritual family forever, enjoying the presence of it. And that's
the heavenly abode. As we stand, verse 11, so shall
the king greatly desire thy beauty, for he is the Lord, and worship
thou him. And what is our beauty? I think
about Isaiah 61. Let me just read that to you. That's where he talks about the
garments of salvation. Isaiah 61, verse 10. It says,
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful
in my God, he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation.
He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom
decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself
with her jewels. That's what he's talking about
here. Verse 12, he says, the daughter of Tyre shall be there
with a gift. Even the rich among the people
shall entreat thy favor. All of this is referring in a
physical way to something that symbolizes a greater glory and
beauty and value than we could ever imagine here on Earth. Whatever
he's talking about, which I know what he's talking, you do too,
he's talking about salvation. Talking about the blessings of
it. And in all of that, there's so much more in Christ. We know about it, but we see
through a glass darkly today, don't we? But one day we'll see
him as he is. And look at verse 13, the king's
daughter, is all glorious within. Her clothing is of rock and gold.
How are we glorious within? Because of the presence of Christ
by the Holy Spirit and by His Word. He's given us a new heart. He's given us life within. He's
given us knowledge. The knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's how we're glorious within.
It's not because of our nature. We're glorious with him because
of Christ, because of God's grace, because of the life that he's
given us, the desires that he's put within us. We still have
that flesh, that evil desire, and we have to fight, and it's
a warfare. But the fact that we have that
spiritual warfare is a glorious thing. Did you know that? Somebody
said, well, I wish this warfare was over. Well, it will be one
day. But look here, he says in verse
14, she shall be brought under the king in raiment of needlework. Now, the raiment, again, what's
it talking about? It's talking about what we're
clothed in in Christ, and it's his work, it's his needlework,
it's not ours. We didn't sew this garment, we
didn't make this garment, we didn't produce this garment.
Christ did, and he says, the virgins, her companions that
follow her shall be brought unto thee. Spiritual virgins. You
remember Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, he said, for I have
espoused you to one husband as a pure virgin to Christ. Now when you look at us in our
sinfulness, there's nothing that's virtuous about us. But when we
stand in Christ and have his spirit within, we're espoused
to one husband. We're not to have this God or
that God. Our loyalties to be to Christ,
our husband. And we'll be brought unto him.
Verse 15, with gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought. They shall
enter into the king's palace. You see there, verse 16, instead
of thy father shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes
in all the earth. The king's daughters, her companions,
are all the chosen, justified, redeemed, and called of the ages.
She'll be brought in and the ancient fathers, he mentions
in verse 16, who are those ancient fathers? Well, think about Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, you can go on down the line.
And he says, they're already gone, they're already gone to
be with the Lord. But we'll be brought in, in verse 17 he says,
I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations, therefore
shall the people praise thee forever and ever. Now whose name
are we concerned with throughout all generations? Whose name that
inspires praise from his people? Christ. We're not here to make
a name for ourselves. We're here to preach His name,
to glorify His name. We want people to hear His name.
That's the glory of His person and the power of His finished
work.