Psalm 45 - Our King, Our Bridegroom
INTRODUCTION:
Interest:
This morning we are going to attend a wedding. Weddings are usually considered very happy occasions. Now I say usually because weddings frequently require that we get dressed up and gather with many other people. I expect that there are a few of you listening this morning who are curmudgeonly enough that you do not consider such things enjoyable. But if you are that much of a curmudgeon, you probably are well aware already that you're in the distinct minority. Most people enjoy weddings. They are times of celebration and joy. Many of us have fond memories of our own weddings. We have likely attended weddings for good friends and are able to reflect fondly on these times of great joy.
I thought a few times that I am grateful that there were no weddings planned in our church this past month as it would have been very disappointing to the bride and groom to have to work around the pandemic restrictions. I feel bad enough for all the seniors who are missing their high school and college graduations along with a lot of class trips. Having a wedding impacted would have been sadder in my opinion.
This last week I saw comic in which the minister was standing before two laptops placed upon the kind of pedestals that are typically used to hold flowers at weddings. The bride was connected on one laptop through video chat and the groom was on the other laptop. The minister was addressing the laptops saying, “Now do you take so and so to be your wife…” The comic was clearly representing the challenges facing weddings in our current stay-at-home, video-dependent situation that we are living in at this moment.
Involvement:
Well, as I said, this morning we were going to be attending a wedding. A wedding that is a very exciting time for us as well as for the original participants.
Context:
It is this wedding context that makes Psalm 45 a most unusual psalm. The psalm was written to be read, and then was eventually turned into a song to be sung, at a wedding. But this is not an ordinary wedding, this is the wedding of the king of the nation of Israel. It is a royal wedding of the king who would sit on the throne of David, governing the nation of Israel. It is a wedding that would be filled with all the pomp and circumstance that accompanied a Queen being added to the throne.
Illustration
Many of us, I'm sure, have seen pictures or maybe even watched the royal weddings over the past few decades in England, or even possibly in other countries. You may remember when Prince Charles married Princess Diana. Or maybe watched when Kate Middleton married Prince William. Or more recently there was Prince Henry’s marriage to Meghan Markle. Since we do not have a Royal family here in America, it seems as if the weddings of the Royal family of England draw an extraordinary level of attention for us. If you have watched any of these weddings, you recognize that these are grand affairs of state that captivate the thoughts and attention of the entire country. Remember the fine clothing and exquisite music, the elegant decorations and the prestigious men and women who attended. These were magnificent affairs for men who may be king someday, but who were princes at the time of their weddings. Our psalm is for a reigning king who already sits on the throne.
We are not given the name of the particular king for whom this psalm was written. Most likely this psalm came to be used in many of the weddings of the kings of Israel. More significantly, though, this psalm points to the ultimate King who will sit upon the throne of David, our Savior Jesus Christ. When we look at this psalm this morning, we will have to consider both its original context and its ultimate fulfillment in our Lord and Savior.
Preview:
As I've already alluded, as New Testament believers we need to recognize that this psalm applies to us in that it instructs us as to how we are to think about our Lord and our relationship to Him. The main lesson for us that we find in this psalm is that We are to celebrate the glory of our King and Bridegroom! We have both a glorious King and a glorious bridegroom combined in the person of Jesus Christ. That gives us great cause to celebrate.
Transition from introduction to body:
We are to celebrate the glory of our King and Bridegroom! Let's begin working our way through the psalm. The first verse is…
BODY:
I. Anticipating the King’s Wedding, v. 1
Let’s read this verse…<read Ps 45:1>.
The writer of this psalm is bubbling over with excitement that the day of the King's wedding has arrived. He also recognizes that he is well prepared as an artist to write these words that celebrate this grand affair. He has prepared a song that he will offer to the King on this grand day. He obviously loves his King greatly and seeks to express that love with this psalm.
Application
As we begin looking at this Psalm, let me ask you, what excites you? What is it that causes you to bubble over with excitement? Was it the NFL draft this past week? Are you like me, that you get excited when your wife takes fresh baked chocolate chip cookies out of the oven? What is it that you anticipate with eager excitement for it to arrive?
Transition:
Remember, We are to celebrate the glory of our King and Bridegroom! let's move on to verses 2–5…
II. Praising the King & Bridegroom, vv. 2–5
Let’s read these verses…<read Ps 45:2–5>.
The psalmist now addresses the king directly as the king is both his king and the bridegroom at the center of this day. As the psalmist enters the throne room, he sees the king sitting on his throne and is struck by his glory. The psalmist extols the king for the majesty that he possesses. He praises him for the blessings that fall from his lips to his people. Numerous images are used to emphasize what a mighty ruler this king is; none can stand before his military might. His people are blessed to have him ruling over them. He is a champion of truth and righteousness. He takes up causes that are just. Ultimately though, verse 2 makes it clear that he possesses these things because he is blessed by God. For that reason, the king’s victories should be seen as the victories of God and those who see the king should be awed by the one whom God has chosen to lead this nation.
Application
It may be a little hard for us to relate to the idea of coming before a king and praising him. Living as we do in a democracy; we do not really understand the relationship between a king and his people. Furthermore, because of our history with England and the revolution in which we threw off the monarchy, we have tended to grow up with a certain level of disdain for royalty. In our country, we more apt to criticize and speak negatively of our leaders, it seems, than to praise them. Yet, what we should learn from the Bible is that leaders are put there by God. Also, a righteous and just leader is to be both sought after and praised. A righteous leader is to be honored by those under him. This may seem like a foreign idea to us, but it is an ideas that we should spend some time thinking about as Christians because we not only have temporal leaders whom God has put over us, we also have a divine King who deserves our praise.
Transition:
Now, from praising the king and bridegroom, let’s move on to the next set of verses that are…
III. Celebrating the glory of the King & Bridegroom, vv. 6–9
Verses 6 through 9, while still being addressed to the king tell us why the King is to be praised. They celebrate the glory of the king who is also the bridegroom. <read Ps 45:6–9>
Verses 6 and 7 come as a bit of a surprise as they suddenly look beyond the king who is sitting on the throne enjoying his wedding day and look to the ultimate One who will sit on that throne—the Messiah. We must remember that every king who sat on the throne of David was a precursor to the coming Messiah. God had made a covenant with David that he would have a descendant upon the throne of Israel forever. God had promised that when the Messiah took up His throne that the kingdom would never be taken away from Him, but that He would reign forever. Of course, as much as this king ruled with truth and justice, the Messiah would do so perfectly. His decisions will always be upright, and His people will forever be filled with joy. Our psalmist has reminded this king that one of the reasons he deserves praise is because he points to One greater than him who is coming.
In verse 8, the psalmist brings his gaze back to the king before him and praises him for his appearance on his wedding day. He is dressed in glorious wedding robes. He is bathed with sweet smelling perfumes. He is in a room lavishly decorated with ivory. He is surrounded by noble ladies who are part of his court. And most stunning of all, the queen-to-be is standing at his right hand in the position of honor, adorned in the finest gold. She completes the picture of his glory.
Transition:
Our psalmist has praised the king and bridegroom. He has also celebrated the glory of the king and bridegroom. Do you remember our main idea? We are to celebrate the glory of our King and Bridegroom! We have been given an example of what this looks like.
Now, having observed the queen standing beside the king, the psalmist begins…
IV. Praising the Queen & Bride, vv. 10–12
Reading verses 10–12…<read Ps 45:10–12>.
The psalmist addresses the bride directly here for a few verses as she is entering the role of a queen as part of this wedding. For that reason, he encourages her too listen to the advice that he is about to give.
Illustration
This reminds me of times when I am conducting a wedding. I will speak to the groom directly and try to give him some final words of counsel and then I will turn to the bride standing across from him and speak directly to her for a few moments.
That is what we have going on here; you can picture our psalmist looking directly at the bride as he says, “Listen, O daughter.” The advice that he gives may feel a bit foreign at first as well. He tells her to give her entire allegiance to the king and her new nation. Apparently, she is a foreigner who is marrying the king of Israel. She is being instructed to transfer her allegiance to the people of Israel. She is told to submit to the king, her new husband. She is reminded that at this moment he is attracted to her great outward beauty, but if she follows his advice, she will generate an inner beauty that will continue to be attractive. She is also reminded that in her new role she will become the center of attention for many people as they come to seek her favor, even from foreign lands. Implicit in this is the reminder that everything that she does will reflect upon her husband, the King.
Application
As I said, this may feel rather foreign to us because none of us are deeply involved in the affairs of state. I guarantee that none of us have married royalty. Yet if we think about this a little, we can see that the advice that is given here is appropriate to every marriage if we abstract it just a bit. A marriage forms a new family unit. It is necessary for a bride to transfer her allegiance from her original family to her husband as part of her marriage vow. Just as the man is instructed in Genesis chapter 3 to leave his father and mother and to cleave to his wife, the bride must do likewise. Furthermore, Peter instructs wives in 1 Peter chapter 3 to have an attractive, submissive spirit before their husbands. So, while the specifics may be unique for this woman who is standing in a throne room taking on the role of a queen through her marriage, the advice is applicable in a general way for every marriage.
Transition:
Having given praise to the queen and bride, the psalmist continues by…
V. Celebrating the Glory of the Queen & Bride, vv. 13–15
We see this in verses 13 through 15…<read Ps 45:13–15>
The psalmist explains that the Queen is to be praised because of the glory on display. She is glorious both within and without. Her clothing is of the finest imaginable . She's surrounded by her maids who are also dressed in great finery. They formed a great procession as they came to the Palace and entered the throne room for the marriage. All this was done so that the presentation of the bride to the bridegroom would be as stunning as possible.
Did you notice, though, that all the celebration of the glory of the queen is given in reference to her relationship to the king? The queen's role was to enhance the glory of the King. The reason she was dressed in such fine garments, and the reason that she arrived with such great pageantry, was ultimately to draw people's attention to the king as she approached his throne. The bride and the bridesmaids were brought to the king. It was their privilege of coming before him in this wedding that filled them with gladness and rejoicing.
Illustration
This is probably the part of this wedding that is most unusual to us. In our context, our weddings are mainly about the bride. It is the bride who spends months and even years planning her wedding. And it is largely the bride at the center of all the attention during the wedding. Think about how it works here in our church. The groom and his groomsmen enter from the side door and stand in the front of the church waiting for the grand entrance of the bride. A special song begins as the bride enters the back of the auditorium. All eyes turned to her. We stand as she approaches. She is dressed in a magnificent wedding dress. She is followed by bridesmaids who are also in special dresses. By contrast the groom and his groomsmen are dressed in much more standard suits or tuxedos. The bridesmaids may carry flowers, but the bride will carry the largest bouquet. The bride is the center most of our attention. Even though she comes to join the groom at the front for the ceremony, the attention never really shifts from the bride to the bridegroom in our experience.
Such is not the case here. This bridegroom is a king. Here the attention is chiefly focused upon him—the king that the bride is marrying.
Transition:
We are to celebrate the glory of our King and Bridegroom! Let's not lose track of our main idea as we look at the final two verses of this psalm…
VI. Cherishing the King’s Wedding, vv. 16–17
Reading these final verses…<read Ps 45:16–17>
As the psalmist ends this song for the wedding day, he looks beyond that day of the wedding to the future. The Hebrew original makes it clear that he is specifically addressing the king with his words these last two verses. He reflects on the fact that through this union an enduring dynasty will be generated. He anticipates sons that will come forth from the union of the king and queen, sons who will have great responsibilities. This dynasty will be a matter of praise even among the Gentile nations—the peoples of verse 17.
In the final verse, the psalmist speaks on behalf of God as he switches to the first person singular, I. God, speaking through the psalmist, commits himself to ensuring that the King will be remembered for all generations. This marriage is part of God's covenant with David. If the king will fulfill God's expectations, then God himself will ensure that the memory of this king last for all generations.
Application
I want us to think about this. God made this promise, but we do not even know the name of the specific king for whom this poem was written. Our lack of knowledge about this day and this wedding—this man and this woman—tells us that this poem points beyond this specific king. In fact, if it does not, then God's promise in this final verse would have failed, which is impossible. I have already mentioned that this poem points to the Messiah. The author of Hebrews uses verses 6 and 7 of this psalm in Hebrews chapter 1 to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is superior to the angels. In fact, verse 7 can only make sense where it says, “God, Your God,” if we place it within the context of the Trinity where God the Father has anointed God the Son. The King, the Bridegroom, that fulfilled all of the expectations of the ideal King described in this psalm is our Lord Jesus. He is the One who is to be praised. He is the One who is to be celebrated.
But, if this poem points to Jesus, then it also must point to His bride—the church. We are the bride of Christ. We are the ones being prepared so as to be presented to Him, spotless as a bride on her wedding day.
Yet, remember what we noticed about the bride in this psalm? The bride's role was to point to the bridegroom. The queen's role was to enhance the glory of the king. That, then, is our role. We are not here to bring glory to ourselves. We are not here to magnify ourselves. We are not here to gather praise for ourselves. Our purpose is to point to the glory, majesty, and praise of Christ, our Savior.
This is completely anti-cultural. It is as completely radical thinking in our society. Our society is all about gaining acclaim for self. Social media thrives bringing attention to self. After all, what makes us really think that that anyone else cares about what we have had for dinner or how many loads of laundry we've done? The only reason we think this way is that there remains a little bit of thought that we should be the center of people's focus, that we are important.
But we are not important! Only our savior is important. Our purpose is to point to Him. Our conversation is to point to Him. Our interests are to point to Him. Our concerns are to point to Him. This does not mean that everything we do and every word we say directly addresses Jesus. To be effective in pointing people to Jesus we must be able to communicate with people across a wide spectrum of interests. But that still means that Jesus undergirds everything that we do and every word that we say.
For example, we should be much more concerned that our neighbors learn from us that Jesus is the only way they can have their sins forgiven than we are that they learn from us whether we agree or disagree with our governor's stay-at-home order. We should be much more concerned that they see Christ reflected in us through a spirit of submission to the authorities that God has placed over us, than that we preserve our right to protest decisions we disagree with. Now, I am not saying that we should not exercise our right to engage in the democracy that God has given us the great privilege of living in here in America. What I am saying that we must engage in such way that visibly demonstrates that we are most concerned with reflecting positively on our Savior. I'm also saying that we will spend more time and energy looking for ways to directly point people to Christ than we spend engaging in hobbies or other personal interests. We are the bride of Christ. We have the duty of pointing people to Him—to Joyfully Magnify Him.
Transition from body to conclusion:
We are to celebrate the glory of our King and Bridegroom!
CONCLUSION
Weddings are times of celebration. We rejoice as we watch a man and woman join together to form a new family. This morning we have seen the celebration of a king and queen joining as bridegroom and bride in our psalm. And we have been reminded that the ultimate king is King Jesus—our Bridegroom as we are His bride, the church.
We are to celebrate the glory of our King and Bridegroom! We do that as we point to Him with our lives anticipating the culmination of our union to Him when He returns to take up the throne of David.
We are to celebrate the glory of our King and Bridegroom!