The 45th psalm bears this title. To the chief musician upon Shoshanim,
for the sons of Korah Masgil, a song of loves. A song of loves. And rather like the song of Solomon,
this is a psalm concerned with the love between Christ and his
bride. Between Christ and his bride.
And Christ and the king's daughters. It speaks of the glory of Christ. And it speaks of the glory of
the king's daughter. Verse 13, the king's daughter
is all glorious within. Her clothing is of wrought gold. The song of loves. The love between
the saviour and his people. This is why the psalmist opens
with these words. My heart is indicting a good
matter. I speak of the things which I
have made, touching the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready
writer. or an introduction his heart
is indicting a good matter of all the things he could talk
about of all the things that could be in his heart or her
heart of all the things in the heart of all the things that
one could be concerned with there's nothing greater than to indict
than to be concerned with, than to speak of the Saviour, His
glory, His love, His royalty, His sovereignty, His throne,
His kingdom, His power, His majesty, His righteousness, His grace,
His salvation, His bride. My heart is indicted a good matter. And what does your heart dwell?
What concerns you? What concerned you yesterday? What concerned you this morning? What will concern your heart
tomorrow? And what does your heart dwell?
What does your heart desire? What does your heart crave after? What fills your thoughts and
your affections? Are they the things concerning
Jesus Christ? Are they the things concerning
the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords? Is your tongue the
pen of a ready writer? Are you ready to speak and to
declare the good matter concerning Jesus Christ? Or are you all
taken up with everything else that could fill your mind, your
heart and your affection. Are you taken up with the passing,
the transient, the fleeting things of time and sense, upon which
you place such attention, upon which you strive so greatly to
attain to? You try to grasp all that there
is in this world, all that you think there is to be gained.
seeking after this and seeking after that, striving after this
and striving after that, all of which is fleeting, is passing,
all of which perishes. Even once you've claimed it,
even once you've got it, even once you've attained to those
things you strive after, time soon passes and you become old. and they fade away and fall from
your hands like sand in the hands. And when old age comes and death
comes your way, all is left behind. And what is there left of what
your heart sought? The psalmist indicted a good
matter. The psalmist's tongue was the
pen of a ready writer. The psalmist here was taken up,
his heart was taken up, with love for the King and his glory. He speaks, firstly, of the glory
of Christ. Thou art fairer than the children
of men. Grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore God have 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. They are
not fairer than the children of men. Of whom can the writer
speak here but Christ the Son of God? No one else fits his
description. No one else. No one else in their
majesty rides prosperously because of truth. and meekness and righteousness
there is none righteous no not one says Paul speaking of men
speaking of men and women born of Adam there is none righteous
there is none that have done good there is none that have
sought after God you me or anyone else but there was one man one
man born of a virgin born in Bethlehem. There was one man
of whom it is written, he is the way, the truth, and the life. There is one man who was righteous
from the day he was born to the day he died, all his days. There was not one sin, one transgression,
one corrupt or evil thought. that ever entered into his head,
his heart, or came forth from his tongue, as a king, as the
son of the Most High, as one of royal lineage, even on earth,
born the seed of David, born the descendant of King David
and Solomon, born of the seed of David, made of the seed of
David, according to natural lineage,
yet born of the Holy Ghost, out of Mary. Here is one of royal
descent. Royal descent in earthly lineage,
and royal descent as he is a divine person, the Son of God, the Son
of the Most Sovereign. the King of Kings and the Lord
of Lords. No one else fits this description. No one else is fairer than the
children of men. No one else has grace poured
into his lips. What a description of him, to
begin with, that grace is poured into thy lips. Here is a gracious
man, a gracious saviour, a gracious king. Of whom can you speak these
days in that manner? How many people do you come across
of whom you could describe them as truly being gracious? Or they're
being grace poured into their lips? Or of what they do as being
the actions of one full of grace? There's none. Men are so selfish. So greedy, so arrogant, so proud, so angry. There are few who show
any grace. Yet this man didn't just show
some grace. Grace was poured into his lips. Everything he said flowed forth
from a gracious heart. Therefore God have blessed him
forever. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh,
O Most Mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. He's a king. He's full of majesty. He comes
with a sword. He's powerful. O Most Mighty,
there's none stronger, there's none greater than he. And he
comes with his glory. in thy majesty ride prosperously
because of truth and meekness and righteousness and thy right
hand shall teach thee terrible things. Christ simply, because
of who he is in his person, is glorious and majestic, he's the
son of God, he's perfect. He's eternal. All that he does,
all that he says is perfect and righteous. He's glorious in his
own being. But he's glorious in all that
he does. His glory is seen in his coming
into this dark and this evil world. His glory is seen in His
entrance when He came into this world which despised and rejected
Him. This world of darkness into which
entered the light in the Son of God. His glory is seen in
His coming and on His birth the angels gave praise and glory
unto His name. His glory is seen in all He does. But His glory is also seen in
that the reason He came. and his ultimate work was to
go to Golgotha, was to head for Jerusalem and to be taken outside
the city to Golgotha, the place of a skull, where the head of
the church, Christ, the head of his bride, should be slain. The head slain in the place of
the skull. His glory was seen that He came
to head for Jerusalem to deliver His people from their sins, to
die a ransom for them, to die as a Redeemer of his people,
to pay the redemption price, to set the captives free. He came to Jerusalem. He came
to the city of David. He came, he was born in the city
of David Bethlehem and he came to Jerusalem, where the throne
is, where the temple is, where the people of God were. He came
to Jerusalem below to deliver his people. who were captive
because of their sins. He came riding as one most mighty. And in truth, and in meekness,
and in righteousness, his right hand brought their deliverance. His death was an act of meekness. He was taken. He used not violent
means to escape the hands of his captors. Peter took his sword and Christ
rebuked him. Christ was meek. He knew his
hour had come. He came for this reason. He came
to deliver his people and he let them take him because it
was not they who would take his life. he had the power to lay
it down and he had the power to take it again and he allowed
them to do what God had purposed now was his hour, now is the
hour he said and he was led and he was led as a lamb to the slaughter
full of meekness full of truth full of righteousness he went
to the place of slaughter to take the sins of his people,
to bear them, to be made sin in their stead, in their place,
in their room and their stead. He went to that place of execution
that God should lay upon him their sin, and God should judge
it in righteousness, and Christ should take it away, that by
taking away their sin, that by paying their debt in full, He
might deliver them, He might take away the condemnation and
the penalty, and He might for them bring in, in the place of
their sin, the very righteousness of God. In thy majesty ride prosperously
because of truth and meekness and righteousness. Thomas goes
on in verse 5, Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's
enemies, whereby the people fall under thee. Thine arrows are
sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall
under thee. Now in this verse, it speaks
of sharp arrows in the heart of the king's enemies. whereby
his enemies fall. We do in fact see, secondly,
another example of his grace. He came into this world to a
people of whom everyone was his enemy. He came into a world full
of darkness, full of sin, full of hatred. If he ever comes unto
you in his gospel and speaks unto you and has dealings with
you, you will meet him, you will encounter him firstly as his
enemy. You and I by nature are set against
him. We've gone astray. We've gone
our own way. We've sought our own things.
We've turned our back upon him. We care not for this king of
glory. We care not for this man who
rides prosperously because of truth, meekness, and righteousness.
We care not for him. We're his enemy. But if we're
ever to become his friend, if we're ever to be delivered from
the captivity into which our sin has brought us into which
our own rebellion and our own rejection of this one our own
apathy towards him if we're ever to be delivered from the very
captivity that our own opposition and enmity towards him has brought
us into he must come unto us in grace And he must send us
truth into the heart. He must speak unto us the truth. He must fire the truth into our
heart as a bowman takes an arrow, as a marksman takes an arrow
and fires it and it hits the target. when Christ begins to
speak unto you and to I he will fire an arrow and the arrow is
sharp and it will hit us in the heart we will find it to be sharp
in our hearts as the king's enemies and yet that arrow will begin
to teach us what we are it will begin to show us what we are
before him. It will begin to show us the
state of our own heart and the iniquity within and the rebellion
within. And when it begins to be exposed
by his truth and his gospel, when he begins to speak unto
us, we feel convicted. We feel brought down and humbled. We fear because we come to know
that we are under conviction. that we are condemned already,
that we have no strength, that we have no righteousness, that
we have no ability to cleanse ourselves. We find ourselves
broken before Him and we fall under Him. He comes unto us as
a mighty conqueror and when His truth comes our way we fall,
the arrows hit our heart and they're sharp and we know He's
right. When he speaks, as it were, as
Nathan spake unto David, and says, Thou art the man. This
is the wretched tale of a guilty man, and Thou art the man. You are the one that's turned
from God. You are the one that has dealt
wretchedly with him and your neighbour. You are the one that
has failed to worship as he deserves to be worshipped. You are the
one that has stolen the time and the energy that he gave you.
You are the one that has stolen from Almighty God all that he
gave you and used it to your own ends and never gave him a
thought and never said thank you and never used these things
for his glory but you did it to further your ends. It's not
just him over there and her over there and somebody else who's
guilty but thou art the man. You aren't the one. You're the
guiltiest. You're the most evil in his sight. His arrows are sharp. Have you felt the arrows? Have they hit you where it hurts? Have they struck you in the heart? Have you fallen under him? Well,
if you have, you might think that these aren't gracious arrows. These are nasty. These are cutting. These bring shame upon your head. These expose you and break you
and cut you down. They don't feel like the arrows
of grace to you. Yet the reality is, is that if
they strike you, you will thank God that he took aim. and the
arrow didn't fly past you and hit someone else you will thank
God one day that those arrows hit you and they hit you in the
heart where they were sharp because only by doing so would you be
brought to an end of yourself and be brought to fall down before
this one and cry out for mercy fall down before the King that
came your way that rode past where you were and took aim with
his bow and struck you and brought you in before him. Oh, to feel
an arrow of his grace striking you in the heart. Because this
is a king. And to have the king have dealings
with you is greater than anything. Oh, to hear the voice of the
king. the voice of the Son of God. Oh, to be in the grave as
a dead man and hear the voice of the Son of God speak. and
live. The voice of the king. The king
who sits upon a throne. Thirdly, the psalmist speaks
of his throne. Thy throne, O God, is for ever
and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is
a right scepter. He speaks of an eternal and an
everlasting throne upon which this one sits. But he speaks
of this throne and addresses the one who sits upon it as God. He's been speaking of the King.
He's been describing Christ, the Son of God. And yet here
he refers to him as God. Thy Frono God is forever and
ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is
the right scepter. What a throne this one has. What a kingdom he has. What a
sector and a rule and sovereignty he has. For the Son of God, Christ,
is God. He's the King. The King. And he reigns and his throne
is established upon righteousness. righteousness in verse 7 we read
thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness therefore God
thy God have anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy
fellows In verse 6, the psalmist addressed him, Thy throne, O
God, is forever and ever. Now, in speaking to the same
one, he says, Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore
God, thy God, have anointed thee with the oil of gladness above
thy fellows. Oh, the unity of the Trinity
of God that we see here. How he speaks to Christ as one. He's both the Son of God and
God. As God, He sits upon the throne. As the Son of God, His God has
anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows. He loves righteousness and hates
wickedness. It is a throne established on
righteousness. He will not have wickedness.
He will not have any sin in His presence. There will be no sin
in his presence. Then, sinner, how will you come
into his presence? Then, my friend, how will you,
a sinner, one who by nature is wicked, ever come into his presence? He loves righteousness and hates
wickedness. Your sin must be taken away. Your sin must be blotted out. You must be made righteous. And as we said, this King came
to where you and I are, came to the darkness of this world,
came to where sinners dwell, in order to deliver them from
their sins. in order to make them righteous
and in order to do that he had to die he had to die he had to
shed his blood his garments had to be dipped in blood he died
and fifthly the psalmist speaks here not just of his righteousness
but of his garments. Verse 8. All thy garments smell
of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces whereby
they have made thee glad. Oh what glorious garments this
righteous King is arrayed in! All thy garments smell of myrrh
and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces whereby they have
made thee glad. He's perfect! He's gloriously
arrayed! There is a glorious aroma from
his garments. And yet these same garments of
this same king, were once dipped in blood. What makes his garment
so wonderful? What makes his aroma so great? What brings the gladness? Truly, because here is one who
has waded through the rivers of death for his people. These
same garments were once covered in blood. his blood, his own
life's blood, shed for his people that he might wash them clean.
What makes the aroma of the Son of God so great? The fact that he offered himself
up as a sweet-smelling saviour, a sweet-smelling aroma, a sweet-smelling
sacrifice under his guard. The penalty of the law, the righteousness
of God demanded the condemnation of his people. It demanded that
a price must be paid. It demanded that sin must be
cancelled. It demanded that judgment, fire
and wrath should rain down from heaven upon the sinner. But having rained down, having
consumed and burnt up the sacrifice. There was a smell that rose up
as the sacrifice was burnt which was sweet smelling in the nostrils
of God because it said unto God that it's over, it is finished,
the sin has gone, the price has been paid, salvation has been
wrought. There's a sweet smelling savour. It's finished, it's complete,
there's no more to be done. Propitiation has been brought
in. The judgment and the anger of
God has been propitiated, it's been answered, it's been satisfied. God has no more anger with the
sinner because all his sin has gone. All God can see then is
righteousness. He looks upon his son, the other
side of death. having died upon the cross, having
suffered in the hours in the darkness, he looks upon him and
oh, he sees his beauty. He looks upon his garments, he
smells his garments and he smells myrrh and aloes and cassia out
of the ivory palaces. It makes him glad. The son is
glad, the father's glad because he's delivered his people. whose
hearts he will make glad. He did this for his people. He did this for his bride. He
did this for the daughters of Zion, whom he washed in his own
blood. Verse nine, king's daughters
were among thy honourable women. Upon thy right hand did stand
the queen in 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 favour. The king's daughter is
all glorious within. Her cloven 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. Oh what a description of these
daughters we read here. Of those whom the king desires. The king greatly, so shall the
king greatly desire thy beauty for he is thy lord. Worship thou
him. He set his love upon this. He set his love upon her. and
he will bring her into the king's palace. He will array her in
raiment of needlework. She will be accompanied by the
virgins that follow her. She will be the king's bride. What an honour. How tremendous
that this king, this glorious king, this gracious king, this
king of righteousness, this king of truth and meekness, this king
of grace, this king that went to such great lengths to deliver
his people, this king whose garments are so glorious, this king who
shed his own blood. How wonderful that this king
should set his love upon one such as these. King's daughters
were among thy honourable women. Upon thy right hand did stand
a queen in gold of Ophir. Hearken, O daughter, and consider. He says unto you, perhaps. Hearken, and consider, incline
your ear. Forget your people. Forget your
father's house, forget all that you have here and all that you
desire here. The King desires the beauty of
his people. For he is thy Lord. Is he your
Lord? Has he come unto you? Has he
come unto you in his gospel? Has he struck your heart with
his arrow? Has he called unto you? and said, I have shed my blood
for you. You will be my bride. I will
cleanse you. I will array you in fine garments. I will bring you into my banqueting
house. I will array you in raiment of
needlework. I will bring you into the king's
palace. Has he come unto you in the gospel
saying, I have loved thee? I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. I went. to the cross for you. I took your sins, I know your
name, I know all that you've done, fought and said. I took
your sins and I bore them. I bore them in my own body on
the tree and I suffered in your place so that you will never
suffer. so that you will never die so
that you will never perish so that you will be mine forevermore
because I love thee and I will always love thee did he say that
to you? as he said that he desires your
beauty your beauty and what is your response? Does it break you and melt you
to think that the King could desire you and desire your beauty? Do you turn around and say, what
beauty? I'm full of wretchedness. All
I can see is my sin and my rebellion. Oh, how I've treated him. I never
cared for him. I never cared for Christ. I never
cared for the gospel. I found it all a weariness. I
found the worship of God a weariness. He is thy Lord, worship thou
Him. Yet I found that a weariness.
I wanted this and I wanted that. I wanted to go here and go there.
I never sought Him. I never cared for Him. I found
it a weariness. I found the Gospel a weariness. I found the Bible, the Word of
God a weariness. How could He desire my beauty
when I've treated Him so badly? I still treat him so badly. And even having heard of him,
I still treat him badly. I have a heart that's torn. Believer,
you may say, I treat him badly. Even I do. I've heard of him. I know his love. I know his love
for me. He's brought me to him. He's
opened my eyes. He's struck me with the arrows
of his grace. He's revealed himself to me.
I know he's mine and I am his and yet I still treat him so
badly. Yet I'm so full of sin, yet my
flesh wars against the Spirit and I'm conscious of it every
day. What a shameful servant I am. And yet he says of me that the
King desires my beauty. What beauty? Well it's not yours
by nature. It's not yours naturally speaking. It's not what you've done and
you've wrought and you can wrought. It's not what you can do, it's
not the righteousness that's within you by nature. The beauty
is His beauty that is placed upon you. The beauty is of God. The beauty is the righteousness
of God that He brought in for you through His death and His
blood. The beauty's because He's taken
away all your sin. All the sin that you see, all
the wretchedness you know of, He's taken it all away. It's
no more to be seen. He doesn't see it. You look and
see it, but in His eyes it's gone. He's clothed you in righteousness. All He can see is your beauty. You're without spot and without
blemish if you're His. So shall the king greatly desire
thy beauty, for he is thy lord. Worship thou him. What do you
worship? Who is your lord? Is it he? Is it he? Well if it is you will
wonder. You will be amazed. You will
be astounded that he came and he sought you out and he found
you and he washed you and cleansed you and brought him to you because
you were a stranger. You were a far off. You weren't
deserving of his attention. You weren't a woman that was
dwelling in the courts of the king. You weren't in the inner
circle. You hadn't worked your way up
to the great heights. You were a stranger. You weren't
even a Jew. You weren't even of his nationality. You were a stranger. It speaks
of the daughter of Tyre. The daughter of Tyre shall be
there with a gift. Even the rich among the people
shall entreat thy favour. The daughter of Tyre. Where's
Tyre? Where's Tyre and Sidon? They
are places in Lebanon. They are those where the heathen
dwelt. The daughter of Tyre would never
have found favour with the king in Jerusalem. How would the daughter
of Tyre be there? She was a stranger, she was full
of sin, she was heathen. We read of Tyre in various places
in the Old Testament and in the New. And in 1 Kings 9 we read
of how the king of Tyre, King Hiram, Hiram, was the king that
brought unto Solomon, when Solomon built the temple, the king of
Tyre provided Solomon with cedars of Lebanon and many materials,
great materials that were used in the building of the temple.
Though this was a strange king, he provided that which God used
for the building of his temple. And as a figure the daughter
of Tyre alludes both to the strangeness and the depravity by nature of
the bride of Christ, of his people. But it also shows us what she
brought. The daughter of Tyre shall be
there with a gift. Even the rich among the people
shall entreat thy favour. The daughter of Tyre came. It was out of Tyre that the cedars
of Lebanon were brought and given to build the temple. The daughter
herself is an allusion to that out of which God's temple is
built. There is a connection here to
the Father's house, the temple of God, the dwelling place of
Christ on high. The people of God themselves
are the temple of the Living God. They are the very material
out of which God's temple, His dwelling place, is built. It
says in Ephesians 2, Now therefore ye are no more strangers and
foreigners. Ye are no more a daughter of
Tyre at a distance. but you're brought in as a fellow
citizen with the saints and of the household of God, and are
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus
Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the
building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in
the Lord. in whom ye also are builded together
for an habitation of God through the Spirit. O daughter of Tyre,
you who bring cedars of Lebanon, you who are a tree out of Lebanon,
you are brought and planted as a tree of righteousness by the
rivers of God, by the river of God. and you are built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone. You're fitly framed together
and you grow up into a holy temple of the Lord. You're building
together for an habitation of God through the Spirit, the daughter
here. becomes the house the palace
in which the king and the bride dwell forevermore not only is
she the king's bride But she was brought as a stranger, as
a foreigner, into his very presence and she became the very house
in which he dwelt. She's so one with him, united
to him. His righteousness becomes her
righteousness. His beauty is her beauty. His house is her house. She's wed to him. She shall be
brought unto the king in raiment of needlework. His garments are
her garments. His blood is the blood that washed
her clean. And she shall enter into the
king's palace with gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought. Have you been brought by his
gospel? Has he come unto you and called your name? Has he
found you as a stranger and a foreigner, lying in your filth and wretchedness? And has he taken his blood and
washed you, and brought you into his palace, O daughter of Tyre? If he has, you will come to know
he whose name is everlasting. Lastly, seventhly, 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. Oh, you've come from a strange
place. And your father and your kin
might have been of this world. You might have come from Tyre. You might have had a king, Hiram,
for a father. You might have been a heathen,
you might have been in your sin. But in the place of what you've
left when you come unto this King and into His house, you
will be given children. Wed to this King, you will be
fruitful, you will have children. There will be many who, when
you raise your voice and speak of His glory, will hear and will
be gathered in with you. There will be children and they
will be made princes in all the earth. For they will hear the
glorious gospel of grace from your lips as your heart indicts
a good matter. Your tongue shall become the
pen of a ready writer. You shall speak of the King that
delivered you. And many shall be the children
who hear this gospel and are born, born again of the Spirit. born again of God, gathered in
with the saints, gathered in with the bride, built in the
same kingdom, built in the same temple. Many shall be the children
and they shall be princes in all the earth. And your name
and the king's name shall be remembered in all generations. Therefore shall the people praise
Him forever and ever. O has He taken you? O has He
called you by name? Have you heard His name calling
unto your name? Has He gathered you in as He
made you His bride? Will you, who are the daughter
of Tyre, once a stranger, once a foreigner, Will you, with her,
worship the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Eternal God,
the Son of God, Christ the Saviour? Will you worship the King forever
and ever? Amen.