I. Introduction
A. This morning I would like to focus our attention on Ps.45, which is a wedding Psalm — the only wedding psalm.
1. In it we have all the trappings of a wedding. There is a handsome groom, a beautiful bride dressed in glorious attire, leaving her parents and her childhood home. We have bridesmaids, wedding gifts, beautiful music, a beautiful location.
2. But this is not an ordinary wedding, it’s a royal wedding. It’s the wedding of a king, taking place in the king’s palace.
3. There are two almost-equal halves in this psalm.
a. First half about the groom
b. Second half about the bride
c. Verse 9 is the fulcrum, the pivot, between the two halves.
B. Read Psalm 45:1-17.
II. Let’s look first at the description of the groom/king in the first half of this psalm.
A. 2-5 “You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever. 3 Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty! 4 In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds! 5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you.”
1. One of the big questions that confronts us in this psalm is who this king is.
2. Here in these first verses it sounds as if some great and majestic king is being described.
a. v.2 handsome, eloquent, blessed by God
b. v.3 standing there in splendor and majesty with his sword on his thigh
c. v.4-5 some words spoken about the king's great victories over his enemies, and how he has labored for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness.
B. But then you come to v.6 “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;”
1. And you think: Oh! It must be about God as King!
2. But then you remember v.2 which said that the king was blessed by God, and you wonder, How can God be blessed by God?
C. And then it gets even more confusing in v.7 “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;”
1. 6-7 “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever...Therefore God, your God, has anointed you.”
2. This God has a God! What is going on here? Who is this psalm talking about?
D. The Psalmist is talking about a king who is God and who is anointed by God.
1. This language only makes sense if it is talking about Jesus, the God/king, the divine king.
2. In fact, the language of v.7 reflects this: “God, has anointed you.” This Hebrew word translated anointed is the verbal form of the word messiah. That’s what messiah means: anointed one. In the Greek translation of the Hebrew OT, the word which translates messiah here is the verbal form of CHRISTOS, Christ.
3. And in case you still have any doubt that the God/king of Psalm 45 is Jesus, it specifically says this in the book of Hebrews. There, in the first chapter, the author of Hebrews lists places in the OT where God speaks about Jesus. And in Hebrews 1:8–9 he quotes Psalm 45:6-7 as referring to Jesus. “But of the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.’ ”
E. This doesn’t mean this Psalm was not composed on the occasion of the wedding of some king. But if it is about the wedding of a merely human king, that king is a type, a picture, a foreshadowing of the Messiah who was to come, to such a degree that at times the language rises to such a level that it cannot have a merely human fulfillment.
1. Kidner: "This paradox is consistent with the incarnation, but mystifying in any other context. It is an example of OT language bursting its banks, to demand a more than human fulfillment."
F. If we had more time we could go back over the psalm in detail, thinking about it from this new perspective. For example:
1. 2a “You are the most handsome of the sons of men;” — makes us think of Fairest Lord Jesus, Beautiful Savior, and when he is called "the chiefest among ten thousand" in SoS 5:10.
a. How beautiful the hands that served the wine and the bread and the sons of the earth
b. How beautiful the feet that walked the long, dusty roads and the hill to the cross.
c. How beautiful the heart that bled, that took all my sins and bore them instead.
d. How beautiful the tender eyes that chose to forgive and never despise.
2. 2b “grace is poured upon your lips;” — makes us think of:
a. Luke 4:22 “All were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips.”
b. And of the story of when the guards were sent by the Pharisees to arrest Jesus, and yet returned dazed and empty-handed, saying: "No man ever spoke the way this man does." (John 7:46)
3. 2c “therefore God has blessed you forever.” — makes us think of when the Father spoke out of heaven re: Jesus: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
4. 3-5 “Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty! In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds! Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you.” — reminds us of the glorious vision of Jesus riding forth on a white horse in Rev. 19:11–18.
G. Well, if this wedding psalm is about King Jesus, then who is the bride?
1. The bride of Christ, of course, is the church, Christ’s people. (See 2Cor.11:2; Eph.5:22-33; Rev.19:7, 8; 21:2, 9; 22:17; Ezek. 16:8–14.)
III. And that leads us to the second half of Psalm 45 (v.9b-15), which describes the bride.
A. v.9b “At your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.”
B. 10-12 “Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear: forget your people and your father’s house. 11 and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him. 12 The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people.”
1. This wedding thing isn’t all easy for the bride. She is being asked to leave her old life and family — everything she’s familiar with — behind in order to cleave to her new husband.
2. But she’s being assured that she’s a winner in this proposition, not a loser.
a. First of all, she will be adored by the king beyond anything she’s ever known.
b. Second, she’ll be loved and honored by the greatest people on earth.
c. (This is us. It may be hard to leave our earthly securities behind, but we are trading for something much better: the devoted love of the world’s champion/savior and the love of the greatest people on earth — Christ’s people.)
3. She should, therefore, bow to this great king and accept the honor and privilege of his hand in marriage.
C. And she does indeed give herself in this manner, for we read in v.13-15 the story of the bride’s processional: “All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold. 14 In many-colored robes she is led to the king, with her virgin companions following behind her. 15 With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king.”
D. Traditionally weddings end with some wish for fruitfulness (children). That’s what the throwing of rice symbolizes. Psalm 45 is similar. 16-17 “In place of your fathers shall be your sons; you will make them princes in all the earth.” (Both ‘your’s here are masculine, meaning they refer to the king, not the bride.)
1. Christ’s spiritual children surpass His fleshly fathers. They will be the great ones in all the earth because they are the children of the king.
E. And then in the last verse (17) the psalmist seems to make a personal comment to conclude much as he did to introduce in v.1, in both cases speaking to the purpose for which he has written the psalm.
1. 1 “My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.”
2. 17 “I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore nations will praise you forever and ever.”
IV. Conclusion
A. Why did God give us Ps.45?
1. It is not a wisdom Psalm telling us how we should live.
2. It is not a praise Psalm telling us how we should worship.
3. It’s not even especially useful in weddings.
4. Why then? In this Psalm God wants to give us a vision, a glimpse of something in the future that is so glorious that it will change the way we live until the day of the Lord comes.
5. This wedding Psalm is a lot more than just beautiful literature about some ancient wedding ceremony. It is about us! It is about our wedding with Christ! It is about what we are here for! It is about the target at which our whole lives are aimed!
B. This is what marriage is all about.
1. God has painted on the lives of those who are married a glorious picture of man's most exalted destiny.
2. The best part of marriage isn’t the companionship or the sex or the raising of children. The best thing about marriage is what it symbolizes.
3. I have a picture of my family in my wallet. I love the picture, but it’s the reality that I truly love.
C. God said re: Adam, “It is not good for man to be alone.” This has a deeper meaning than mere marriage. It is not good for man to be alone from God. He is the One we were created to be close to, to be in fellowship with.
D. When God created the world, He created it full of pictures of His glory. But it is man's tendency to worship the picture instead of the reality. "They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images... They worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator." (Rom.1:23, 25)
1. But the picture cannot fulfill, only the reality can fulfill.
2. He calls us to a new commitment, and to a much better life. But it does mean leaving.
E. Every time two people get married, there is the laborious and painful and tense stage of preparation.
1. And the more glorious, the more elaborate the wedding is, the more difficult the preparation phase of the process is.
2. The bride doesn't just wake up the morning of the wedding all decked out for the grand affair. The flowers and the bridesmaids and the music don't just spontaneously generate themselves.
3. Not only this, but there is the emotional pain of anticipating leaving father and mother (or at least parents like to think there is), and watching their pain of letting you go.
4. And it is not uncommon for couples to grow discouraged during this stage of the process.
5. But the one thing that keeps them going, that keeps them from despair and from giving up is the glory of that day, and the new life that it will involve. They can endure the hassles and the pressures because of their love for one another and their intense desire for that love to be consummated in their full union.
6. That is what is happening right now. There is a glorious day coming for us, we are the bride of Christ and preparations have already begun for the mother of all extravaganzas.
7. But first, many preparations have to be made. And it is hard. Sometimes it is very hard.
8. You think it is hard to make or pick out or afford a beautiful pure white wedding dress? It is much harder to be purified and whitened inside - Eph.5:26-27.
9. You think it is hard to leave father and mother behind? It is much harder to leave this world behind, and all our attachments to it.
10. But although the preparations are considerably more difficult, the glory that is to come is even more superior, such that Paul tells us that the difficulty of the preparations is not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to come.
11. Our earthly marriages have become part of the preparation for that greater marriage that we will enjoy in heaven.
12. You see, our marriages are not the real thing. Christ’s love for us is the real thing. Our spouses will never give us everything we long for. They are flawed — on purpose!
13. Our marriages are given to us just for a time to teach us about and to prepare us for a greater marriage, a marriage that will indeed last forever, the marriage between Christ and His bride.
a. And all the love stories in human history only give us a glimpse of its beauty and ecstasy, its romance and devotion, its passion and satisfaction.
14. This is what history is all about. God sent His Son into the world to win Himself a bride. And everything is leading up to that great wedding day.
15. This is the day we’re waiting for.
a. “Till with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blessed, and the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.”
b. Right now it is as if we are engaged and we are waiting for that day when we are united with Him as His bride and dwell with Him forever in the place He’s preparing for us.
c. “How beautiful the radiant bride, who waits for her groom with his light in her eyes.”
16. Our Groom is preparing as well. He has already done much by coming and winning us to Himself, laying His life down for us upon the cross. But He tells us in John 14:3 “I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”