Psalm 45, beginning with verse
1. My heart is indicting a good
matter. I speak of the things which I
have made, touching the king. My tongue is a pen of a ready
writer. Thou art fairer than the children
of men. Grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore God hath blessed thee
forever. 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. Thine arrows
are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people
fall unto thee. Thy throne, O God, is for ever
and ever. A scepter of thy kingdom is a
right scepter. Thy love is righteousness, and
hate is wickedness. Therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy feathers. All thy garments smell of myrrh
and aloes and cassia out of ivory palaces whereby they have made
thee glad. King's daughters were among the
honorable women. Upon thy right hand did stand
the queen in the gold of Ophir. Hearken, 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 wrought gold. 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. Instead of thy fathers shall
be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. I will make thy name to be remembered
in all generations. Therefore shall the people praise
thee forever and ever. You will turn back with me now
to Psalm 45. The Book of Psalms is a collection
of inspired songs written and sung, meant to be written and
sung by those who are true Jews. True Jews. These songs were specially
written for those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Every
word inspired by God. And I'm talking about a Jew inwardly
whose heart is circumcised in the Spirit and of the Spirit,
and whose praise is not of men but of God. A true Jew is circumcised
with a circumcision not made with hands. And putting off the body of the
sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. We're buried with
him in baptism. wherein also were risen with
him through the faith of the operation of God who raised him
from the dead. We're all, all, Paul said, children
of God by faith in Christ Jesus. And these are songs that can
only be sung by the redeemed. By the redeemed. These sacred
songs have no joy, no interest except to intellectuals who like
to quibble over its words and glory in their wisdom. These
songs are sung from the heart. Sung from the heart. Now it says
at the top of your psalm, if you look at it, the hymn is written
for the sons of Korah. Who are they? Who are these sons of Korah?
Well, they're sons of the infamous Korah, who along with Dathan
and Abiram defied the Lord's servant Moses. And Moses told
the whole company, everybody's on the Lord's side, line up right
here. Everybody's with them, line up over there with them.
And Brother Barnard said God took them to hell with their
shoes on. He opened up their earth and swallowed them up in
judgment and wrath. And all of their cattle and their
tents and everything that belonged. The only thing that was left
of Korah was his sons. His children. And it doesn't
say why. Maybe they were too young to
be cognizant of what was going on. Maybe they were in their
youth. Maybe that's why God spared them.
It doesn't say. But God spared the sons of Korah. And their women came to Moses.
And they pleaded for their father's inheritance, that they be not
put out, left alone to live with the heathen. And Moses went to the Lord, and
the Lord granted them permission to have that inheritance. God had plans for the children
of Korah, didn't he? You familiar with the prophet
Samuel? That's where he come from. That's where he come from. The sons of Korah. Under David's reign, the sons
of Korah became the top elite soldiers in his army. And they
served with distinction And they were appointed because of their
distinction. They were appointed as singers.
Sanctified singers. Their job, it was set apart for
them to take these wonderful hymns that David wrote and sing
them. Sing them. They were singers
who experientially knew something of the mercy and grace of God.
Their fathers were cursed, but they were spared. Their fathers
partook of the wrath of God. They were partakers of His mercy,
and they knew it. In 1 Chronicles 9, verse 33,
you can read about them, but here's what it says. These are
the singers, chief of the father of the Levites. That's part of
the priesthood. Now the Psalms were written to
be sung with sanctified tongues. That's my point. They're written to be sung with
sanctified tongues of people who have tasted, Peter said,
that the Lord is gracious. And then he uses this word up
there in the title, Shoshanim. And it's kind of a mystery. Some
say it's a lily-shaped trumpet, some say it's a six-stringed
instrument, but most say it simply means lilies. And you go back
to 1 Chronicles and you can read about the building of Solomon's
Temple and they had these huge columns that went up on the porch
of that temple. And at the top was chapters,
those big decorative tops that go around, and they were covered
with lilies. covered with lilies. There was
baths, I forget how many baths for the priest to wash in. They
were completely surrounded with lilies. And when he talks about
these sanctified tongues singing this hymn, they sing it from
a bed of lilies. Or they sing about him who is
the lily of the valley. Or they sing with their mind
on the church whose name he gives in Song of Solomon. The Lily
of the Valley. We wear his name. We wear his
name. I tend to think it's talking
about lilies because he tells us this is a song of loves. That's what it's about. It's
a nuptial song. It's a conjugal hymn, one writer
said. It's a song about the bride and
her husband and her husband's father. It's a song of the grand
introduction. Try to imagine a royal court. You remember the Queen of Sheba
came to Solomon. And most of these writers believe
Solomon wrote this. But the Queen of Sheba came to
Solomon to see what all the fuss was about. And she was breathless. She couldn't even talk when she
sang it. And she said, the half has never
been told. Can you imagine this grand introduction
in the royal courts? And he's talking about his bride
coming in. Now every female in this thing
is a picture of the church. The queen, the daughter, her
virgin companions, I don't care what you're talking about in
this psalm, they all represent the church. No one relationship
could possibly describe the church, and he uses all these relationships
to describe her. It's a song of her grand introduction
into the royal courts. And David begins to think on
these things and he said, my heart is inditing a good matter. And that word indict, according
to Strong's Concordance, means to gush, to bubble over like
a geyser. It sets down there under pressure
and under pressure and under pressure and pretty soon, pow,
it blows the lid off and up in the air it goes. And that's what
David said. I was contemplating this These
things that I've made, what things did He make? Well, He wrote the
Psalms. He wrote the Psalms. He was a
prophet. He declared God's Gospel to Israel. He spoke of the coming Redeemer.
These things that I've made. He said, I'm thinking on these
things. I'm thinking on all of these
things and my heart is just, boy, here it comes. And he begins
to think on these things and see things as they are in heaven
by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. And he said, my heart
is like a geyser. It means to bubble over, to overflow. And as he thought on these things
being divinely inspired, he could not hold them in. To indict also
means to sit down in writing or compose. I'm composing a good
matter. Spurgeon said this, only the
most important things, wonderful things, terrible things are written
down. And there's no writing like that
dictated by the heart. He also said this, heartless
hymns are an insult to heaven. Do I pick this book up and just
muddle some words? Or is this my heart singing about
things that I've experienced? Heartless hymns are an insult
to heaven, and a good heart can only be satisfied with good thoughts. It may have evil thoughts, but
it's not satisfied with them. What was about to be written
sprang forth from the inmost part of this man, his heart. My heart, he said, is in my heart,
not yours. He couldn't possibly know how
anybody else would receive it, but he's talking about his heart.
My heart is indicting a good man. There's not a man who frigidly
studies the mechanics of poetry and writing, but one who stanzas
are the outpouring of his soul. He's talking about things that
he's experienced. You can't tell what you don't
know. And what is it that brings a
person to such a height of mind and heart? What is it that causes
his heart to be like a geyser? And the more he thinks about
it, the person, he has to tell it. He can't keep it in. Three things. First and foremost,
the king. First word of his hymn, the king.
The king. Here is the subject that brings
the heart of God's elect to surge with emotion when they think
on their king. This man is not some poor defeated
reformer that religion makes him out to be. He's Lord. He's
victorious. He's not defeated. He's victorious. He's not up there wiping his
brow and pacing and looking over the banister ahead and wondering
if things are going to work out. They already worked out and he
sat down. He's victorious. We think on
the king, victorious, sitting at the right hand of his father,
sitting in the palace, exalted. I've given him a name
above every name God said. And at his name, every knee is
going to bow. Every tongue is going to confess.
This is the subject that brings the heart of God's elect to surge
with emotion. The king, king of kings, Lord
of lords, the blessed and only potentate. Not one that usurps
authority and power in the abstract. He just, you know, that power
exists. But this is a power separate
from everything else. The King of Glory whose power
was given Him, it says, expressly to give eternal life to as many
as the Father has given to Him. He gave Him this power. Does
He exercise it? You bet He does. You bet He does. In the present state of our country,
Is it not your prayer and strong desire that God would raise up
a man and give him the strength and the wisdom and commitment
to turn this place around? Here's one that did. And one
that can. All wisdom. He's the wisdom of
God. Love. He is the love of God. One of my friends, Man is in a much worse state
than this nation. Let me give you just a few scriptures.
I'm just going to quote them to you. Man that's born a woman
is of a few days full of trouble. His name is trouble, trouble. He drinks iniquity, Job said,
like water. He drinks it to refresh himself. He drinks iniquity. At his best state, he's altogether
vanity. All his righteousnesses are his
filthy rag. His mind is enmity against God. And in his natural state, his
fallen, depraved state, he will not receive the things of the
Spirit of God because there's foolishness to him. Foolishness. What are the things of the Spirit
of God? Preaching of the Gospel. The
Word of God. One man said, I don't care what
the Bible says. Oh, you will. You will. You will one day. I'm not listening to no preacher.
You will. And especially if God in mercy
shuts you up to one. You'll listen to him. Man's in
a pit, a horrible pit. David said, he delivered me out
of the pit. Sold unto sin, no good thing
in him, none righteous, none that understandeth, none that
seeketh after God, no fear of God before his eyes, destruction
and misery in his ways. There is but one hope for man,
and that is that God himself would take up his cause, that
God would intervene on his behalf. Did God intervene? You bet he
did. He did it in his son. That's
what David's thinking about. He's thinking about the one mediator
between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. See man as he really is, a wiggling
maggot feeding on dead flesh. See him as he really is, serving
Satan, serving the lust of his flesh, chasing after the mirage
put in his mind by antichrist religion. See him in his drunken
stupor, drunken from the blood of God's saints and drunk with
the wine of her fornication. What's that talking about? That's
talking about false worship. That's the great horse of fornication. What do we need? We need a king.
That's what we need. We need a king. He needs one to enter into combat
with the strong man and put him in his place. We need a king. He's thinking on the king. What
king? That king prophesied of, that
king long, long promised by the Lord. A king who loves Him. Oh my! What a difference to have
a king that loves you. Not trying to make a name for
himself. He loves you. A king who loves Him and is willing
to give himself for Him. He needs one who is mighty to
save. Salvation can only be had through
one that's mighty. And that king must be a man like
us, bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh. He must be one
appointed of God, sent of God on our behalf. A man coming into
this world as a federal head, a representative, a substitute.
This is the king which causes David's heart to just bubble
over. And he said, my tongue, thinking
on these things, he said, my tongue is like the pen of a ready
writer. What on earth is he talking about?
A ready writer. I talked to Clay, their daughter. I talked to him one time about
writing songs. And he said, boy, you get in
a slump. He said, I'm not inspired. And I'm sitting there. And I
know I have to come up with a song. But I ain't inspired. And I just
sit there. And pretty soon, I put my pen
down. You have to be inspired. Inspired. He said, my tongue
is the pen of a ready writer. I'm inspired. In my heart sometimes I'll be
in my study, and I know that feeling all too well. I just
sit there and I think, oh, how awful, how awful of all the majestic
works of God. I sit and hear them without a
word. Oh, what a feeling. But I tell you, when the Lord
opens my heart, I write so hard and furious, I break the lead
out of the pencil. Pop! Thank God it's got to get me
another. I got to get it down. Man, it's flowing. It's flowing
like a geyser, and I got to get it down. I don't want to forget
it. I don't want to miss anything. And I write furiously. That's
what David said. My tongue is a pen of a ready
writer. I can't write as fast as it's
coming. Oh. And our heart is inspired. And here's the subject, the only
subject worth writing about is the king. What about this king? Oh, listen to what he says. Verse
2. Thou art fairer than the children
of men. What's he talking about? Was
he a handsome fellow? Is that what he's talking about? Thou hast no beauty, he says
in Isaiah, that we should desire him. He has no beauty. He's not talking about his outward
appearance. His beauty is in his heart, it's
in his character. That which grants him his charm
is his own character. That's what makes him charming. Grace, he said, is poured into
thy lips, into the lips of this king. Think about it now. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. This king that he's talking about,
grace is poured into him, not judgment. He said, I didn't come
to judge the world. I could have done that from glory.
I come here to save. I come here to show mercy and
grace. You go learn what that means.
I have mercy, not sacrifice. Grace is poured into his lips. Therefore, God hath blessed him
forever. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Even pervenient grace is based
on His person and work. Of His fullness, John says, the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory.
The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. And of His fullness have we all
received in grace, pervenient grace. I'm preaching to you from
a psalm that was written hundreds of years before the Lord ever
came here. And the basis of this good news was on what He's going
to do on His accomplished redemption. Prevenient grace. What about
this King? Verse 3, He is the Most Mighty. Who's going to resist Him? Oh,
you ain't going to convince that sinner. No, I never could. But
God can. Because He's most mighty. You're not going to win the battle
with Him. He is most mighty. And see Him
with the sword at His side. We see Him in His glory and majesty
conquering. Conquering the sword at His side.
And he tells us in verse 4, this king is prosperous as he rides
to conquer. His right hand shall teach thee
terrible things. The Bible's a terrible thing,
isn't it? Bloody and filled with fallen adversaries. I'm glad
they don't publish that stuff on TV. You know, I hear young
people, there hasn't even been my son-in-law, Mike, who has
been in all those battles over there
in the East, he don't even talk about it. But we'll be out to
eat or something, and one of these young boys home on leave,
and he's just barely out of boot camp, and he's starting to talk
about all this bloody mess and all this kind of stuff. And Mike
said he'd never been out of the States. He'd never been in a
battle. People going to battle don't talk about it. They're
terrible things, awful things. People's heads blown off and
arms just laying there on the ground. He tells us, He's going to teach
you terrible things. They're in the wake of the gospel
preached of Jesus Christ. Can you see the dead? Can you
see them? Can you see the ones eaten up
with leprosy? The ones in the wake? They're
all not saved. But he saves some. And he's mighty
to save. And when he comes, he'll teach
you terrible things. Terrible things. And he tells
us in verse 5, his aim is perfect. He hits his mark every time.
Huh? He never misses. His arrows always
find their mark in the hearts of his enemies. Can you see the
king? High and lifted up, Isaiah said,
he is trained Build the temple. Thy throne, O God, he said here,
is forever and ever. This king is God. He's God. God and man. This glorious king. God and man in one person. And his garments smell of myrrh
and aloes and cassia. These are all perfumes of the
sweetest savor. Everything he does is a sweet
savor to God. Everything. Always a sweet saver
unto God, in them that perish and in them that are saved. Can
you see Him in His ivory palace? See Him there, exalted, victorious? Alright, here's the second thing
that fills the heart of the singers. The king's daughters were among
the honorable women. Who are they? That's the church. That's the church. The bride
of the king. And all these various relationships
describe his elect. The king's daughters, and the
queen, and the honorable women, and companions of the bride. The daughter of Tyre was there
with a gift. And his bride is of many, but
she's one. She's one. Well, what about her? Well, listen to what it says
in verse 13. Are you still with me? Are you reading with me?
The king's daughter is all glorious within. Huh? What do I see when I look within?
Dead men's bones. What do you see? All glorious. Inside and out. She's without
flaw, without wrinkle or spot or any such thing. She's all
glorious. She's not seen that way in the
earth. She looked down on, she snubbed on the earth. She laughed
at and scorned. She's persecuted and killed.
She has no reputation, but she is in God's house now. And she's
in heaven itself. And she's perfectly righteous.
Her clothing, verse 13, is of rock gold. That speaks of her
purity. And this is where worship is
born. Indicting the glory and salvation of God's elect in Christ. We begin to think on what she
is in Him. And what she is to Him. This
is His bride. Cast out, Ezekiel said at her
birth, but when the Lord saw her in her blood, he took her
to himself and washed her, salted her, wrapped her up, and he said
it was a time of love. He said he made her gloriously
perfect through his comeliness. And oh, let me take this in if
the Spirit of God will grant it. So shall the King greatly
desire thy beauty. I can't imagine. I know what it is to love a woman.
I know what that is. I know what that kind of love.
I know what that love is that you have for your children. And
all these relationships are all pointing to Christ. All of them.
Every one of them. Can you imagine the King of Glory
looking down on you, Larry, with desire? Huh? All my soul. So shall the King. Greatly desire
thy beauty, for He is thy Lord. Not somebody else's. Yours. Now watch this. The daughter
of Tyre shall be there. Who's that? That's the Gentile. She was born a dog, less than
a beast. Cast out, separated from true
Israel. Yet by the blood of Christ, the
Gentiles are brought nigh unto Him. Made one. And see her in the king's courts
with the gift of her love and gratitude. She has a gift. And then lastly, consider her
entry into the royal courts. How does she get there? How did she get there? How did
she get in these courts? It says, she shall be brought
unto the king. Huh? What's going to bring her? Betching grace. What's going
to bring her? Betching grace. God's going to
bring her. He's going to send his spirit.
He's going to send his preacher. He is going to arrange His providence
for her to be brought. Where is He going to bring her?
In the presence of the King. He is going to bring her right
into the very courts of God. If she had left herself, she would
not have come. If she had left herself, she would
have perished in the wilderness. But fetching grace has brought
her to Christ. How does she come? Enrainment
of needlework. See it there? Oh, a royal dress sewn especially
for her. Every girl who's ever went to
the prom wants that dress that's different from everybody else's
dress. They've got to have a special dress. I drove my daughters over
three counties hunting dresses for the prom. Here she comes. And she's coming into the very
courts of God. And here, what's in these courts?
Angels! Desiring to look into this thing,
this eternal thing of salvation in Christ, and here comes the
bride! And she's dressed in a dress
unlike anything you've ever, you can't even imagine! In the
Scriptures, it says the Queen stood there, what, in a garment
of the gold of Ah, pure gold. Pure gold. And her dress had
gold in it. Let me tell you something. This
is the second thing. Fits her to a T. Ain't nothing worse than
finding the perfect dress and putting it on that don't fit. Oh, I seen my daughter powder
for two days over her dress. Beautiful dress, but it didn't
fit. This one fit. It fit her to a tee. It was made
especially for her. And one look at her and you knew
she wasn't no commoner. She was somebody. And here she
comes into the presence of the king's father and she's dressed
in flawless needlework. No other garment like it anywhere
in the world. How does she come? She comes with an accompaniment. The virgins, it says, her companions
that follow her shall be brought unto thee. And these are the
betrothed to Christ as chaste virgins. They are they who are
there with the bride, having heard her testimony and believed,
and are all one together in his courts. her and those who accompanied
her. How does she come? Oh, with gladness
and rejoicing shall they be brought. Rejoicing. Boy, when she comes
in, things get quiet and then you start to hear the roar, you
start to hear the applause, you start to hear the rejoicing. Who are these arrayed in those
white robes? Who are these people? Where'd
they come from? These are they that come up out
of great trouble, great tribulation, and wash their garments in the
blood of the Lamb. She comes with gladness and rejoicing. That's how she's brought. There's
no unwilling, unhappy, unconcerned people brought to the Lord. If
that's your attitude, He's not bringing you. When He brings
you, you'll be glad. You'll be thankful. You'll be
happy. They're all filled with gladness and rejoicing. They
shall enter into the king's palace. I love that verse. Don't you
love verses that says they shall? I do. They shall. There's nothing iffy about this.
Nothing iffy about this. They shall. No doubt. No reservation. They shall enter the king's palace. And then I'll close with this.
She marries the Lamb. She marries the Son of God. She
marries the Christ. They're joined together in one.
And instead of fathers, that is glory in the fathers, That's
what the scribes and pharisees did. You search the scriptures
for in them you think you have eternal life, and there they
which testify of me. But you won't come unto me that
you might have life. We gloryed in the fathers. We
gloryed in the writings. We gloryed in all of the types
and symbols. We gloryed in the ceremonies.
We gloryed in the fathers. In the fathers. But he said instead
of fathers, That is, glorying in the fathers, living in the
memory of them, instead of fathers shall be thy children whom thou
mayest make princes in all the earth. From whom is the church? Where does she come from? Where
do converts come from? Huh? They're children of the
church. That's right. Paul said, I have begotten thee
through the gospel. The fathers gave testimony of
the son, but we have the son, and he has us, and by him the
elect are born into his kingdom. And for all these things, God
says this, verse 17, and I'll close. I will make thy name to
be remembered in all generations. Therefore shall thy people praise
thee forever. That's not talking about the
bride. That's talking about her husband. That's talking about
Christ. But if you talk about him, you're
talking about her, because they're one. They're one. May the Lord
add his blessings to the preaching of his gospel.