Psalm 45 - Here Comes The Bride

Hope that you are ready for a whole new week of seeing what God's going to do in you and through you.

And I'm looking forward to today's episode of Tabernacle Talk. We've got a royal wedding song today. Many times today, you'll have a bride walk down the aisle to something like, here comes the bride at Samantha and I's wedding.

She walked down the aisle to the song, I Get To Love You, and it was beautiful. Great, great day. Obviously, I view it even more fondly.

But this is a wedding song. Oftentimes, in the ancient kind of Near East, you would have these commemorative songs that would be sung about kings and so that they would be remembered in subsequent generations.

I don't know how well often those songs worked to keep alive the memory of a particular king. But here, as this one is part of God's inspired word, we're still talking about it.

Two and a half, three thousand years later, the inscription for this song reads this.

For the choir director, according to the lilies, which would have been a specific tune that would have been known at the time, it says, a masqueal for the sons of Korah. So again, that's that music group.

And it's a specific type of song for this music group to do. And it says, a love song. And the text reads this.

My heart is moved by a noble theme, as I recite my verses to the king. My tongue is the pen of a skillful writer. So here's this song about the king.

This one who is going to be married. It says, you are the most handsome of men, or of the descendants of Adam. Grace flows from your lips.

Therefore, God has blessed you forever. Mighty warrior, strap your sword at your side. In your majesty and splendor, in your splendor ride triumphantly in the cause of truth, humility and justice.

May your right hand show your awe-inspiring acts. Your sharpened arrows pierce the hearts of the king's enemies. The people's fall under you.

Here, as the writer starts off, and declaring the greatness of this king, in phrases that would be pretty normal for the time, it's grace flows from your lips, that you speak well, you speak elegantly, you are handsome in your appearance.

We might not have the same type of thing today.

I think it might be a little bit odd if perhaps whoever ends up in office in November, or if someone were to write a song now, we think it was a little bit weird if, I'm just going to throw out some artist names, you know Bruce Springsteen or Taylor

Swift or Kid Rock or someone, if they wrote a song and they were like, oh, Donald Trump, you are the most handsome person, or Kamala Harris, your beauty is beyond compare. We think that was a little odd, but this was more commonplace back in these

days. And so the person is saying, hey, you are gracious in how you talk with others. You are beautiful. You are skilled in your actions, in your wisdom and in your fighting.

And so God has blessed you forever and ever. The war exploits that you are going out to do to defend your people, you are doing so. And it is awe-inspiring.

And people, they, if you will, fall in line. They stop trying to perhaps invade Israel or something because of the actions that you do and how you do it. I do find it interesting.

I read in one thing, verse number four, in your splendor, ride triumphantly in the cause of truth, humility and justice.

Oftentimes, in the nations around them, Egypt, Syria, Babylon, et cetera, you might have, yes, for the cause of truth, sometimes for the cause of justice. Maybe sometimes that would be a motivating factor.

But very, very, very rarely would any nation around them describe their rulers as humble. Humility was viewed as like a weakness. Like, why would you be humble?

You know, you're a descendant of the gods was one of the very common, like, claims to kingship was, oh, I'm descended from the Greek god Marduk. I'm descended from Osiris or from Ra.

And so that's part of the reason why I deserve to be the pharaoh or the king. And the kings of Israel were called to be totally different, that their kingship was not because they deserved it. It's because God had been good to them.

It's because God had given them their kingdom. And so one of the things that showed their, you know, relationship to God was their humility, a recognition of the fact that I did not get here on my own.

And I don't, like, inherently deserve to be here. I am here because God has been kind to me and my family. You can look at David.

That David didn't earn it. He wasn't even like the oldest son of his own family. He shouldn't have inherited anything.

And yet he was given the kingdom over all of Israel. And so here there's that thing that's highlighted here of a king of Israel, a king over God's people is one that is humble.

I think even of Jesus in the Book of Matthew, when Jesus says about himself, he says, come to me, all you that are weary and laden down, heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and learn from me because I am gentle and lowly in heart.

That Jesus, though he is God, though he had every right to come in and just demand things from us, he came in humility. He came to declare God's truth.

He came to bring justice, that we who justly deserved to be condemned now can be justly reconciled and made right with God because of Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf. I'm going to highlight again and again and again.

Obviously, this was written for this King of Israel, but as we look at the course of all of God's Word, the true King of Israel, the one who will reign on the throne of Israel forever and ever and ever, is Jesus.

So all of these things, though, they did apply to some king in the distant past, it applies to the King of Israel even now, Jesus Christ. Verse number six, he says, Your throne, God, is forever and ever.

The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of justice. You love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of joy more than your companions.

Myrrh, aloes, and cashia perfume all your garments. From ivory palaces, harps bring you joy. King's daughters are among your honored women.

The queen adorned with gold from Ophir stands at your right hand. So here, there's this exultation of this king. And here, some of the lines kind of blur between God and this king.

So there's this statement that the throne of God is connected with this throne of Israel, that just as God is eternal, just as God reigns forever and ever, so this king will have an everlasting kingdom.

That it is an eternal throne of God, a scepter is kind of a sign of military might and rule that the person is able to protect and to preserve the people. And so the scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of justice, that it's not just I dominate.

And so that is why you all need to fall in line. He's saying the sign of his rule, this scepter of his kingdom is a scepter of justice that is doing right by people, doing what is equitable. Man, we all want that for our world.

We want our world to have justice. And that is what Jesus brings. I think it's in Hebrews 1 or 2 that the writer brings in several of these statements to talk about Jesus and to say, like, hey, the Old Testament told us that Jesus was coming.

And look at the descriptive words that it gives of this coming Messiah. Verse number 7, where this king loves righteousness and hates wickedness, he says, Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of joy.

We know that the word Messiah or the word Christ means the anointed one. And Jesus here is the one that loves righteousness, that everything he did was right. And he hated wickedness.

And he hated wickedness so much that he paid the price for all sin himself. And took that price. So, then it talks about how wonderful he is and everything that beautifies his presence.

Myrrh, aloes and cashia, perfume all your garments. You can think of the fact that Jesus, even as a child, was given the gold, frankincense and myrrh. That here what belonged to a king was given to this king even as a child.

We can think even of what we heard from the story of Mary at the end of the Gospel of Mark, that she came in and anointed his body for burial. They are from Ivory Palace's Harps.

Bring you joy that these places that have the most extravagance and greatness, that there is music made to exalt him. I know some Christian traditions have said, okay, we don't want any instruments or anything in the praise of God.

I think the Psalms indicates to us that not only is it okay for us to have instruments, but we have almost a command, a push to, hey, if you have anyone that can play instruments, use it in the employ of God.

If he's praised with these harps from Ivory Palace's, then certainly we ought to praise him with the instruments that we have.

Verse number nine, it says, King's daughters are among your honored women, that the people that are in the court of this king, they are honorable people, and those that would often be married off to future kings, here, King's daughters would be

married off to future kings. He says, those are the people that are in your court. You're not just some local tribal king, you're a noble king, that other people recognize who you are and your greatness.

Can I tell you today, if you are a female and you know Jesus as your Savior and as your Lord, you are the king's daughter, and you are in the court of Jesus from Ephesians chapter two, that we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that right

now you are in the presence of God, that this anointed one, this Messiah, this king of Israel, you are within his court, and you are the king's daughter. You are made a child of God because he has adopted you. You are now part of his family.

And I see there the queen adorned with gold from Ophir. That is the finest gold in all of the land, stands at this king's right hand. And here we know that the church is the bride of Christ.

It's what Paul tells us in Ephesians 5, where he starts off kind of talking about marriage and husbands and wives, but then he goes, OK, what I'm really wanting to talk about is the fact that Jesus loves the church, his bride, he died to purchase it

for himself, so that she would not have a spot or blemish or anything like that, but that she would be holy and blameless before him in love. And we are the bride of Christ, and we are at his right hand, we are treasured by him and we are given his

best, the finest gold, we are given the very presence of God in the Holy Spirit. He has given us spiritual gifts. He has given us an eternal home in heaven. What a wonderful king this is.

Verse number 10. Listen, daughter, pay attention and consider. Forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty.

Bow down to him, for he is your Lord. The daughter of Tyre, the wealthy people, will seek your favor with gifts. Here, he's saying, put all of your loyalty and your allegiance to this new king.

And man, I think this has a great spiritual application that I've seen many people make before, that as we join ourselves to Jesus, like, let's forget about the prior priorities of our life.

Let's forget about perhaps the sins that we used to love and to enjoy, or the just vain, empty, earthly things that we used to pursue. And let's pursue our new king. Like, let's go after him.

Let's not worry about the, if you will, borrowing the words from here. Forget the country and the things that used to define us. What defines us now is Christ.

And so let's pursue him because he is worthy of all of it. Let's bow down to him as our Lord.

I think of Philippians Chapter 2, where it says, because of Jesus' sacrifice, God has highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of things in heaven and things in earth and

things under the earth, and that every tongue would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And that is what we are called to do, to bow down.

I love the old Chris Tomlin chorus, we bow down, we lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus, the greatness of his mercy and love. I forget how the rest of the line goes, but you can look up that song. It's a wonderful song that this makes me think of.

And here she's, the writer says that even the daughter of Tyre, like this fabulously wealthy kind of city state, he says even people from there are going to bring gifts to want to do a temporary favor with you, the bride, so that they might have a

relationship with the king. Does your relationship and following of Jesus, the groom, your king and your Lord, does it cause others to want to know him? Can I challenge you? Like, talk about him.

Talk about him glowingly. Talk about the good things that he's doing in you. Talk about the comfort that he brings you in sorrows.

Talk about the joy that being with his family and the rest of his bride. Talk about the greatness that that brings in, the purpose that it brings. Let our lives draw others into relationship with Jesus.

Verse number 13, In her chamber, the royal daughter, that this queen, is all glorious, her clothing embroidered with gold, and in colorful garments, she is led to the king. After her, the virgins, her companions, are brought to you.

They are led in with gladness and rejoicing. They enter the king's palace. These would be the attendants that would wait on the queen.

It says, your sons will succeed your ancestors. You will make them princes throughout the land. These offspring of the king and the queen, they are not going to die.

They're not going to be taken away. They are going to take the place of the family members that pass on. It says, you will make them princes throughout the land.

I think one aspect of this, just as we're going through, that comes to mind is, are you passing on your faith?

Are you, as part of the Bride of Christ, are you looking to make more Christians, to make more believers so that your faith will be passed down so that someone might be able to say, you know, in a hundred years, oh yeah, my grandma led me to the Lord

and she had a friend that led her to the Lord and that friend, their co-worker led them to the Lord. And you might say, man, that seems really outlandish perhaps. And I don't know if that could ever happen.

I can recount the fact that my grandma, a military spouse in Holland back in the late 70s, that she was led to the Lord by just some door knockers that were going around and inviting people to church and telling people about Jesus.

And so then my grandma led my dad and my uncles to the Lord. And then my dad met my mom. They were Christians and they helped lead all of their kids to the Lord.

And Lord willing, one day I can lead, be and Evelyn to the Lord. And it just it passes down generationally. So I have that desire that says this spiritual inheritance that I've been given, it's not going to stop with me.

I'm going to keep on passing down the faith. Then finally in verse number 17, I will cause your name to be remembered for all generations. Therefore the peoples will praise you forever and ever.

That's what we want to do. We want to proclaim the name of Jesus, to lift him high so that his praise would go to all generations forever and ever. Today, who can you tell about Jesus?

I've attached a song written from Psalm 45 called Fairest of All by Shane and Shane. And I know that that song would be a great encouragement to you. Thanks for tuning in and look forward to studying.

Oh my goodness. We've got Psalm 46 tomorrow. Guys, I am so excited.

I love Psalm 46. Oh, it's going to be a good day. See you next episode.