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Scripture Reading: Psa. 45:1-8
In this message we will begin to consider Psalm 45, the highest and the greatest of the one hundred fifty psalms. To enter into the significance of such a psalm is not easy. All seventeen verses of Psalm 45 are quite common, but the way this psalm presents Christ is very peculiar.
The title of this psalm tells us that it is a song of love. The word love in the title refers not to a father's love for his son but to the love between a male and a female. This is indicated by the fact that the Hebrew word for love here is in the feminine gender. Thus, the love in Psalm 45 is a feminine love.
In order to understand this psalm, we need to turn to the particular book in the Bible which is concerned with love — the Song of Songs. Psalm 45 is a psalm of love, and Song of Songs is a book of love. In that book the word love is used in both the masculine and the feminine gender. According to the English translation of Song of Songs, the Lord Jesus is called "the Beloved"; however, the Hebrew word is simply the word for love in the masculine gender. Likewise, when the Lord calls His seeker "My love," the Hebrew word for love is in the feminine gender. Moreover, Psalm 45:2a says, "You are fairer than the sons of men." This is similar to Song of Songs 5:10, where the seeker speaks of her beloved as "the chiefest among ten thousand." This is a further indication that Song of Songs helps us to understand Psalm 45.
In one of the life-study messages on Hosea 11—14, we pointed out that throughout Hosea Israel is depicted as the wife of Jehovah. However, when God's everlasting love is touched, Israel is called God's son (Hosea 11:1), indicating that Israel has the Father's life. God's everlasting love is not a love in affection, like the love of a husband toward a wife, but a love in life, like the love of a father toward a son. Love in affection does not transform, but love in life transforms people. It is in the Father's love, the love in life, that Israel is transformed. A husband who loves his wife in affection may spoil her, but a father who loves his son in life never spoils his son. Rather, a father's love in life perfects his son.
I am not suggesting that Christ's love for us as virgins, as those who are females in relation to Him (2 Cor. 11:2), is a love that can spoil us. According to the biblical truth, Christ's love does not spoil His believers. Nominal Christians, false Christians, do not know Christ's love. Genuine Christians, those who have a heart for the Lord, enjoy Christ's love, but they may enjoy it according to their own concept or feeling. As a result they are spoiled not by Christ's love itself but by their wrong application of Christ's love. For instance, if you speak to them concerning the kingdom truth, dispensational punishment, and the casting of certain believers into the outer darkness (Matt. 22:13; 25:30), they may say, "You are teaching heresy. Jesus loves me. He is not cruel, and He would not put me into outer darkness. As long as Jesus loves me, everything is all right." This indicates that even genuine believers have been spoiled by their mistaken application of the love of Christ.
Such believers need to consider the book of Hebrews. Hebrews is a book not on Christ's love but on the kingdom. Regarding the kingdom, Hebrews gives us five warnings, and each of these warnings concerns either reward or punishment. Furthermore, in Hebrews we have two kinds of words. The first is the good word of God (6:5), the word of the beginning of Christ (v. 1), which is the milk the believers taste when they believe in the Lord (5:13). The second kind of word is the word of righteousness (v. 13), which is solid food (v. 14), embodying the thought of God's justice and righteousness in His dispensational and governmental dealings with His people. In Hebrews 12:5 through 7 we have such a word of righteousness. "You have completely forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with sons, 'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when reproved by Him; for whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.' It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons." Today many believers do not want to hear such a word of righteousness. Instead, they prefer sugar-coated messages.
Psalm 45 is not on the Father's love; that is, it is not on love in life but on love in affection. This is why this psalm is called a song of love.
In this message we will cover the first eight verses of this psalm. These verses are on the praise of Christ as the King from four directions: His fairness, His victory, His kingdom, and His virtues. First, the psalmist praises the King in His fairness (v. 2a), in His handsomeness. Christ is truly fair; He is really handsome.
Christ's fairness, however, is balanced by His victory (vv. 3-5). Many husbands who love their wives have fairness, but they do not have victory. Instead, they have defeat after defeat. Thus, they are not balanced. But Christ, having both fairness and victory, is balanced. Yes, He loves us, but, as the four Gospels reveal, He also exercises His victory with its requirements. Because of His victory, He has high requirements.
We see Christ's victory and His requirements not only in the Gospel of Matthew but even in the Gospel of John. For example, in John 15, a chapter which speaks about abiding in Christ, the Lord Jesus tells us that if we do not bear fruit, we will be cut off and lose the enjoyment of Christ (vv. 2, 6). Whereas all believers love Matthew 1:21 and 23, they may not appreciate 5:20, a verse which says that unless our righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens. Likewise, today's believers may not pay attention to the parable for faithfulness in Matthew 25:14-30. Verse 30 says, "Cast out the useless slave into the outer darkness. In that place there will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth." The point here is that Christ's fairness is balanced by His victory with its requirements. Hence, in Psalm 45 fairness and victory are a pair.
A second pair in this psalm involves Christ's kingdom (vv. 6-7) and His virtues (v. 8). The kingdom is higher than the victory. Christ's kingdom is the issue of His victory. If there were no victory, there would be no kingdom. Victory produces the kingdom. Because Christ has won the victory, the kingdom belongs to Him. The matter of His kingdom, however, is balanced by the sweetness of His virtues. Therefore, in the praise of Christ as the King in Psalm 45, there are two balanced pairs: fairness and victory, kingdom and virtues.
Let us now go on to consider this psalm in more detail.
The superscription of this psalm calls it "a Song of Love," and this love is feminine. It is the love between us and the Lord. This love makes us His love. This means that if we are those who love the Lord, we eventually become His love, His favorite. Just as He is our love, so we become His love.
The subject of this psalm is love, and the tune, the melody, is called "lilies." Here both love and lilies refer to the saints. Every lover of the Lord Jesus is feminine and is also a lily. A lily denotes a pure, simple, single life of trusting in God. Our love for the Lord Jesus should be a love full of affection. We should not only have a life of purity and simplicity as signified by the lily, but we should always have an affectionate feeling toward the Lord. According to Psalm 45, we all need to have a pure life with an affectionate love for the Lord.
John Nelson Darby, who lived to be eighty-four and never married, had such a love full of affection. One night in his old age, he was staying alone in a hotel, and at bedtime he said, "Lord, I still love You." When I read about this, I was deeply touched, desiring to have such an affectionate love for the Lord Jesus. Now I can testify that, as an elderly person, I love Him much more than I did when I was young. Recently I had a time of intimate, affectionate prayer to the Lord regarding a certain matter, and in my prayer I told Him, "Lord Jesus, I love You." As I was praying, I fell in love with the Lord Jesus once again.
Verse 1 says, "My heart overflows with a good matter;/I speak what I have composed concerning the King./My tongue is the pen of a ready writer." This verse says that the psalmist's heart overflows; we may also say the psalm overflows. The two are actually the same thing.
For the psalmist's tongue to be the pen of a ready writer means that the psalmist does not need to write a draft of what will be spoken concerning the King. Real love for the King makes a draft unnecessary. Regarding many things we may need to write a draft, but to write a draft of what we want to say to someone we love would be altogether mechanical; it would not be real. If we have an affectionate love for the Lord Jesus, we will have the tongue of a ready writer. Instead of needing to write a draft, we will be ready to write our love and our praise.
In verse 2 the psalmist praises the King (signifying Christ) in His fairness. When the Lord Jesus comes to us, He comes first in the aspect of His fairness. This is why, when we preach the gospel, we need to preach mainly Christ's fairness, telling others how good and loving Christ is. We may say that this kind of gospel preaching is a "hook" with a tasty "bait." Everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus and loves Him has been "hooked" by Him. Blessed are they who have been hooked by Christ! As one who has been hooked by the Lord, I often say to Him, "Lord Jesus, You have caught me. You have captured me. If I had not been captured by You, I would be a different person living a different life."
Now the One who has come to us in His fairness, the One who has caught us and who loves us, wants us to love Him in return. We need to love Him and even become His love. This is the issue of Christ's showing us His fairness and of our enjoyment of Christ in His fairness. It is impossible for us to speak in full concerning Christ's fairness.
According to verse 2a, as the King Christ is fairer than the sons of men.
Verse 2b says, "Grace is poured upon Your lips." This indicates that grace continually proceeds out of His mouth. Concerning this, Luke 4:22 tells us that the people marveled at the words of grace proceeding out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus.
In Psalm 45:2c the psalmist continues the praise of the King, saying, "Therefore God has blessed You forever." Because the man Jesus is fair, sweet, and full of grace, God has been moved to bless Him forever. Thus, Romans 9:5 speaks of Christ as "God blessed forever."
In Psalm 45:3-5 we have the psalmist's praising the King in His victory. Adam and all his descendants, including us, have been defeated. Only Christ is the Victor. The Gospels reveal that He has overcome everything and has gained the victory.
Verse 3 says, "Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O mighty One,/In Your majesty and Your splendor." In the eyes of Satan and of all the fallen angels, Christ is the mighty One who has girded His sword upon His thigh, the One with majesty and splendor. Both His majesty and His splendor are signs of His victory.
Verse 4a continues, "And in Your splendor ride on victoriously/Because of truth and meekness and righteousness." Splendor is the expression of glory. While Christ was on earth, the only time He showed His splendor was when He was transfigured on the mountain (Matt. 17:1-2). But after His resurrection and ascension, He showed Himself in His splendor and majesty to Paul (Acts 26:13-15) and to John (Rev. 1:9-20).
Psalm 45:4b says, "Let Your right hand teach You awesome deeds." Here we understand the word teach to mean perform. Christ has performed many awesome deeds, including His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. The most awesome deed performed by Christ was His crucifixion. Christ's crucifixion was a great event that threatened Satan, the demons, and the fallen angels, the powers of darkness in the air. The cross of Christ is the most awesome thing in the universe. Whereas we appreciate the cross, Satan flees from it.
The Lord Jesus did many awesome things during His life and ministry on earth. Actually, everything He did was awesome. For example, His boldness in rejecting His natural relationship with His mother was awesome (Matt. 12:46-50). Likewise, His way of dealing with Peter in Matthew 17:24-27 was awesome. Peter spoke presumptuously concerning Christ's paying the temple tax, which was equal to a half-shekel (vv. 24-25a). After Peter did this, the Lord corrected him. Eventually, as part of His correction of Peter, He said to him, "Go to the sea and cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up. And when you open its mouth, you will find a stater [equal to one shekel]; take that and give it to them for Me and you" (v. 27). Because Christ is the Creator, He could do such an awesome thing. Everything the Lord Jesus does, whether great or small, is awesome.
Psalm 45:5 goes on to say that the King's arrows are sharp and that the peoples fall under Him. His arrows are in the heart of His enemies.
In verses 6 and 7 the psalmist praises the King in His kingdom. We have pointed out that the kingdom is the issue of the victory. Hence, before one can be a king, he must first be a victor. According to the ancient custom, the person who was victorious over the enemies became the king.
As God Christ's throne is forever and ever (v. 6a; Heb. 1:8a).
"The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom" (Psa. 45:6b). The scepter signifies authority. The authority of many of today's high officials is not upright, but Christ's authority is altogether upright.
As the King Christ has loved righteousness and hated wickedness (v. 7a; Heb. 1:9a). The more righteous we are, the more authority we have. However, the more we are involved with wickedness, the more we lose our authority.
Psalm 45:7b continues, "Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You/With the oil of gladness above Your companions." The oil of gladness signifies the Spirit of God, and the companions signify the believers of Christ. God the Father has anointed Christ with the Holy Spirit above all His companions, above all His believers. This indicates that Christ's authority and kingdom are altogether a spiritual matter. He has been anointed for the purpose of the kingdom. Christ's authority, throne, scepter, and everything related to the kingdom are under the anointing of the Spirit and therefore are spiritual.
In verse 8 the psalmist praises the King in the sweetness of His virtues. Regarding Christ's virtues, 1 Peter 2:9 speaks of telling out "the virtues of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." When we preach the gospel, we tell others what Christ has done for us and what He is doing for us today. To preach the gospel is actually to tell forth the many virtues of Christ, including His love, kindness, and forgiveness.
Christ's virtues are the expression of the divine attributes. For instance, with God the Father the divine love is an attribute of the Godhead. This attribute is in the divine life. As Christ lives out the divine life, He lives out the divine attribute of love. In Christ's living there is the virtue of love, and this virtue is the expression of the divine attribute of love. As we preach the gospel, we should tell others about the attributes of God expressed in the virtues of Christ.
Psalm 45:8a says of Christ the King, "All Your garments smell of myrrh and aloes, of cassia." A person's garments signify the virtues of that person, because the way we dress is an expression of the kind of person we are and indicates our attitude and demeanor. For this reason, we can know something about a person by the way he dresses. Actually, as human beings we are under two kinds of covering — our clothing and dwelling place, both of which express what kind of person we are. Here in Psalm 45 garments signify Christ's virtues; myrrh and aloes signify the sweetness of Christ's death; and cassia signifies the fragrance of Christ's resurrection.
Verse 8b says, "From palaces of ivory harpstrings have made You glad." In this verse palaces signify local churches; ivory signifies the resurrection life of Christ (John 19:36); and harpstrings signify praises. The local churches, which are beautiful in the eyes of the Lord and which are His expression, are built with the resurrection life of Christ, and from the local churches are the praises that make Him glad. As we praise the Lord, we need to appreciate what He is in His virtues and what He has done to produce the church to be His expression. In a very real sense, Christ's garments, His virtues, have produced the church as His expression, and both His garments and the church are full of sweetness. May we all learn to praise Him more, especially at the Lord's table.
