Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

A couple of weeks ago Jodee and I (like a lot of people at this time of year) celebrated our wedding anniversary.

(June is the month for weddings, after all—how many of you were married in June?)

Our wedding was right here in this sanctuary—many of you were there that day.

I don’t know if I can remember exactly who was here—I know it was packed—but my memories are pretty much just centered on one person in particular!

It’s a peculiar irony in our culture here in 2019 that, as much as marriage itself is under very real attack, weddings have never been more popular!

In fact, the average cost of a wedding in the U.S. these days is almost $34,000!

Contrast that to the cost of a wedding a generation or so ago—Mom and Dad were married at the West Liberty Baptist Church and had their reception in the basement!

And isn’t it interesting that those weddings that cost a few hundred dollars have lasted 50 years or more, and these days a wedding that costs more than a new car only last about 8 years, on average!

Our culture’s marriages are so fragile because we have turned away from God’s commands concerning marriage—that marriage is to be between one man and one woman for life.

We began by rebelling against the “for life” portion of that command, and then against the “one man, one woman” portion of that command (and are already laying the groundwork for our rebellion as a people against the one man one woman command!)

And so we need not only to pay attention to what God says about marriage in His Word, we need to submit to Him!

It is important for us to see that here in this psalm (which is a wedding psalm, by the way—the only wedding psalm in the entire book!), that there are only two verses that contain any sort of command—look at verses 10-11:

The bride is called in the strongest possible terms to pay attention to the King (“hear”, “consider”, “incline your ear”), to forget her people and her father’s house, and to bow to her King.

This psalm was written as a wedding song, to be sung at the marriage ceremony between a king and his bride—many commentators understand it to be written of Solomon’s marriage to an Egyptian princess:

But Matthew Henry dissents, noting that the King is described in verses 3-5 as a great military conqueror—

Which Solomon was not—that sounds more like David!

But whatever the original context of this psalm, all of the commentators agree that it refers to far more than an ordinary marriage:

This psalm is a description of Christ’s marriage to His Church

I say this because of verses 6-7:

This is far beyond a description of a mere mortal, isn’t it?

The inhabitant of the Throne is God Himself—and yet God is His God as well!

In fact, we have very good authority for saying that this psalm is about Jesus Christ Himself: because the original commentator on this passage—the writer of Hebrews—specifically quotes this passage in his opening statement on the deity of Jesus:

So this psalm not only teaches us about the way a bride should love her husband and a husband his wife—this psalm teaches us how the Bride of Christ, the Church, is to love her King!

So what I aim to show you this morning from Psalm 45 is that

The Church is to magnify the glory of Christ by our glad submission to His glad sacrifice.

The psalmist splits up this psalm into two sections—Verse 1 is an introduction to the psalm:

In the original language (and the 1611 King James Version), the psalmist says his heart “bubbleth up” with a noble theme—like a fountain overflowing with exuberance and joy over the glory of the King and the beauty of His bride.

In verses 2-9 the psalmist describes the King preparing to receive His bride—putting on His royal robes and preparing His palace to welcome her in.

And in verses 10-17 the psalmist turns his attention to the bride as she prepares to go out to meet her Husband.

Let’s look at each section, starting with verses 2-9.

The psalmist is praising

I.

The Glory of the King: Glad Sacrifice

The glory of the King is in His glad sacrifice.

In verses 3-4 the psalmist praises Him for His courage in going out to war for the sake of truth.

Look at verses 3-4:

The King is glorious because He gladly sacrifices for truth.

(Ps.

45:3-4)

He doesn’t keep His head down or keep quiet, He’s not afraid to wade into the battle “for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness!

The King is not “meek” before men, afraid to speak for the cause of truth and righteousness (obedience to God’s Law)—He is meek before God, and is willing to be at odds with the entire world for the sake of submitting to His truth.

The King is glorious because He gladly sacrifices for truth, and

The King is glorious because He gladly sacrifices for goodness.

(Ps.

45:6-7)

Verses 6-7:

The King loves righteousness and hates wickedness—again, He is willing to go to war against wickedness for the sake of goodness, and the psalmist praises Him for it.

In verse 8 we see the King preparing for His Bride’s arrival by filling His palace with beauty:

He is preparing for His bride’s arrival with beauty—beautiful surroundings (ivory palace), beautiful music (stringed instruments to make them glad) and even beautiful fragrances (myrrh, aloes, cassia).

He has prepared for His queen to be adorned in the gold of Ophir—Ophir was a region south of Egypt known for the purity and costliness of its gold.

The idea the psalmist wants to put across here is that

The King is glorious because He gladly sacrifices for beauty.

(Ps.

45:8-9)

The King has spared no expense for His queen!

He delights in her so much that he has spent lavishly on beauty to surround her with.

And this is why the Psalmist is praising the glory of the King—because of His glad sacrifice for the sake of truth, beauty and goodness.

He is eager to spend Himself for truth, He gladly reigns to defeat evil for the sake of goodness, He delights in beauty for the sake of His bride.

And, in fact, as the psalmist moves on to address the bride in verses 10-11, he says that the king not only delights in preparing beauty for His bride, He delights in making her beautiful as well:

The glory of the King is in His glad sacrifice,

II.

The Beauty of the Bride: Glad Submission

I mentioned earlier that there are only two verses in this psalm that have any sort of command in them—the psalmist has praised the King, and now as he turns to the Bride, he immediately calls her to do three things:

First, the psalmist says that

The Bride gives her attention to the King (Ps.

45:10a)

—look at how many ways the psalmist says it: Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear!

He wants her to see the glory of her Husband, to consider His glory—His glad sacrifice for the sake of truth, beauty and goodness—and to listen to Him!

The Bride gives her attention to the King, and

The Bride gives her heart to the King.

(Ps.

45:10b)

The psalmist tells her: Don’t look longingly back on your past life in your father’s house!

Don’t constantly compare your new life with your husband with your old life when you were growing up! (If this really was a psalm celebrating the marriage of Solomon with an Egyptian princess, then this is a very strong statement that she must leave behind her father’s gods as well!)

In verse 11, the psalmist says that

The Bride gives her obedience to the King.

(Ps.

45:11)

“Since He is your Lord, bow to Him!” And she is not to do this grudgingly or resentfully—she is to gladly give herself in submission to her King.

We see that in verses 13-15:

They don’t follow the Bride into her husband’s palace saying, “You poor thing!

You’re in for such a miserable, oppressed life!” No—they are overjoyed for her!

In verse 13, when the psalmist describes “the princess in her chamber”, putting on her wedding gown, he says that her robes are “interwoven with gold”—the “gold of Ophir” that her Husband has purchased for her!

He has called her out of her idolatry, He has given her beautiful raiment to wear, and He has prepared a beautiful place for her to come and be with Him forever!

And not only this, but the psalmist goes on to say that the King has promised His Bride eternal glory as well!

Verses 16-17:

Again, if we have Solomon’s marriage to the Egyptian princess in view here, look at what this psalm is saying: That the sons that the Bride bears to the King will take over the place of her father’s throne (in Egypt), and in all the earth!

In other words, the psalmist is saying that your Husband’s Kingdom will grow to take over all the kingdoms of the earth!

His dynasty will take over the world!

(Again—no mere mortal or earthly kingdom can make such a claim!)

And so, in light of this amazing, supernatural glory—the glory of this King who delights to sacrifice His strength for truth, beauty and goodness—the Bride is called to gladly submit to Him!

Beloved, we see here in this wedding psalm the glory of the King in His glad sacrifice for His Bride, and the beauty of the Bride in her glad submission to Her King.

This psalm is God’s pattern for

III.

Our Glad Sacrifice and Submission

First of all, as it relates to marriage, we learn from this psalm that true masculinity gladly sacrifices for the sake of truth, beauty and goodness, and true femininity responds with glad submission in love and respect.

It is no accident that the New Testament repeatedly calls wives to submit to their husbands:

and for husbands to love their wives:

Turn with me to that passage in Ephesians 5 (p.

978)—what we see here is just what we see in Psalm 45: the King gladly sacrificing for the sake of the Bride, and her glad submission to Him:

Husbands, you are called to love your wives as Christ loved His Bride, the Church.

And how did Christ love His Bride?

He sacrificed for her—giving Himself up for her to make her holy.