Keith Simons explores Psalm 45, a beautiful depiction of a royal wedding that symbolizes God's perfect king, the Messiah. He emphasizes the king's beauty, grace, and righteousness, contrasting it with the fleeting beauty of earthly kings. The psalm illustrates the love between the king and his bride, representing God's people, and highlights the eternal nature of the king's rule. Simons encourages listeners to understand the deeper meanings of the psalm, focusing on the themes of love, honor, and divine kingship. Ultimately, the sermon reveals how the Messiah's reign is characterized by righteousness and everlasting glory.

Welcome. Psalm 45 is a psalm about a splendid royal wedding. But who is the king who's married in this psalm? My name's Keith Symons, I'm a Bible teacher from England, and in these talks I take you through psalms from the King James Bible, going through them word by word and verse by verse and exploring the meanings of those psalms. So today we're looking at Psalm 45 and the answer to that opening question, who is the king? And if you've heard these podcasts before you'll know my answer to that question because when we read about the king in the book of psalms we're reading about the kings from David's family, but we're looking beyond those kings, we're looking at God's Messiah, God's perfect king and his rule. And this psalm is no different, that's the picture here. So the heading of the psalm, the ancient title which we have is this, to the chief musician upon Shoshanim, for the sons of Korah, Maskil, a song of loves. So this is a song about love, about true love. It was to be sung in the temple, God's house in Jerusalem, to be sung by the sons of Korah, in other words descendants of Korah, a man who rebelled against God and against Moses and against Aaron, and who died in the judgment of God because of that. But his descendants, who are here called the sons of Korah, became important musicians in the temple. Upon Shoshanim, that means upon the lilies, it's a flower very much associated with love. You find it mentioned a few times in the Song of Solomon, which in some ways is similar to this psalm. The other unfamiliar word there is Maskil, that is a Hebrew word, it means a poem that teaches. So expect to learn lessons as we go through. Let me read you now the author's description of himself in verse one. My heart is indicting a good matter. I speak of the things which I have made touching the king. My tongue is a pen of a ready writer. My heart is indicting. In the Hebrew language, the word which is translated indicting means boiling over, bubbling over, overflowing. He's saying that his heart or his spirit within him is full of thoughts and wonderful thoughts. Why? Because he's thinking touching or concerning or about the king. He's seen a royal wedding or perhaps a royal wedding is soon to take place. But this has stirred his spirit in him to see beyond that royal wedding, which he would describe to us, to see God's Messiah, God's perfect king, and the love which God's perfect king, the Messiah, has for his people. My tongue is a pen of a ready writer. Writing was a skilled task that only a few people could do in Bible days. And he's saying, just as that skillful writer produces beautiful letters, so my tongue is going to speak this poem of such great beauty. Verse two, he speaks to the king. Thou art fairer than the children of men. Grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore, God hath blessed thee forever. Thou art fairer. You're beautiful. You're more beautiful than other men. And grace is poured into thy lips. In other words, from heaven, God has poured such beauty, such fine speech into your mouth, that when you speak, you speak with the most wonderful grace, the most wonderful delicacy, the most wonderful beauty. Now, of course, that grace, that gracefulness can be deceptive and beauty can deceive people, but not this beauty, not these graceful words, because God hath blessed thee forever. When I hear you speak, when I see you, I'm seeing someone who God has blessed and blessed not just with a blessing that passes, but blessed for all time. That is why you are so beautiful. That is why your words are so beautiful. So this is a beautiful king. Now, Absalom, who was a son of David, who tried to make himself king instead of David, he was a very beautiful man, but he was an evil man. And to be beautiful means nothing unless that beauty comes from God. We sometimes speak about God's glory, his great beauty, and that is the beauty that this king has. Yet this king is not just beautiful, he's also a hero, a champion in war, an expert soldier, a victor over the enemies. Let me read you verses three to five. "'Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty, and in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness, and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall unto thee.' What does it mean? "'Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, get your sword ready for war, with thy glory and thy majesty, in honour and in kingly power, prepare for war, and in thy majesty prepare for war, ride prosperously, get on your horse, and ride to success, because of truth and meekness and righteousness.' That might mean because you stand for truth and meekness, which means humility, and righteousness, because you stand for what is right. Or it could mean to defend those who are meek and poor, yet are righteous and do what is good and right. "'Thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things,' means terrible things are awesome deeds, great deeds, fierce deeds. The right hand teaches or leads him in these things, so it's by using his sword he defeats his enemies. And also, verse 5, by using his arrows. Now arrows are difficult to fire accurately, and yet this king shoots them, and they reach the king's enemies. They hit into the king's enemies and kill them, and the enemies fall under him. Now King David was a soldier before he became king, and King David had to fight a battle in order to marry his first wife, Michal. And it's maybe taken from that this picture, but King Messiah fights a different sort of battle because of the love he has for his people. You can read about that in Revelation chapter 19. You can read about how he defeats his enemies. And who are those enemies? It's not people. No, it's the evil spirits that have fought against God's people. It's the evil spirits, the devil and his angels who have opposed what is good and right, and it's the defeat of them that leads to God's rule upon the earth. Verse 6, spoken now to the king. "'Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.'" So these words, it explains to us in Hebrews chapter 1, are spoken by God the Father to his son, the Christ, the Messiah. "'And God the Father saith to him, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.'" Yes, the Messiah is called God. And he is a ruler, he is a ruler, and his rule never ends. His royal seat, his sceptre, that's his stick which represents his rule, his right, his rule continues for all time. Why has God separated him in this way? Why has God blessed him with such wonderful things? Because he stood for righteousness. He stands, God's Messiah, for what is righteous. He rules the world rightly. He opposes everything that is wicked. And that's why God, God the Father, has separated him. Anointed, it says, with the oil of gladness. Separated from the people who are like him, from his brothers, says Hebrews chapter 2. And now he's anointed with the oil of gladness, and that's suggesting to us this royal wedding. But now there comes a picture of the royal wedding in verses 8 and 9. "'All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad. King's daughters were among thy honourable women. Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of offer.'" This seems to be after the wedding, when the two of them are united. And so it describes him in his beauty. His garments almost seem to be made out of wonderful spices with wonderful scents that fill the entirety of the palace, out of the ivory palaces. Ivory is a substance, white substance, made from the tusks of elephants. And this was used as a decoration inside the palaces. So as the king comes out of the palace, there's this intense smell of these beautiful scents. And there are king's daughters, maybe the daughters of kings from other nations who've come to give honour to this king on his wedding day. And there is the queen, the bride, his wife, upon the right hand of the king. In other words, on the right hand side, she's standing there in the place of honour next to her king. So the king and queen are standing together and the queen is dressed in gold of offer, precious gold that's come from a foreign country called Ophir. Now the psalmist speaks to the bride. We've seen her there dressed in gold of offer, but now he's going to speak to her and he's going to call her daughter. And the reason he calls her daughter is that he's going to give her some advice. Verse 10. So he tells the bride to hearken, to listen, to incline her ear. In other words, to turn her ear towards him. She's to leave behind her own family because now her lord or her master is not her father, but the king. And it's to him, her husband, she's to give honour. The king loves her, he desires her beauty and she must show her love to him. By giving him honour, worship thou him. To worship means to give honour. Verse 12. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with the gift, even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favour. The kings of Tyre were very friendly with David and with Solomon. They built their palaces, they arranged for the construction of the temple and it seems the king sent his daughter here with a gift for this queen. This rich king wants to give honour to this queen. Why even the richest of the people entreat her favour. They desire for her to be pleased with them. That is how glorious it is, how wonderful it is for this queen on her wedding day. Perhaps before she was an unimportant person from an unimportant family, but now the richest people on earth desire her. Remember that the bride in this, in the context of Messiah, is a picture of the people of God and of the honour which the people of God receive because Christ has chosen them, the Messiah has chosen them to be his bride. We've now got a picture of the wedding ceremony, the royal wedding, perhaps earlier than what we've just been reading because it begins in her home within or inside her private home, her father's house and she's going to be brought to the king's palace. Let's listen to that section, verses 13 to 15. Confusingly, the royal bride, having just been called daughter, is in this passage called the king's daughter. She is, you could say, the daughter who will soon belong by marriage to the king. So firstly we see the daughter being prepared in her father's house in a private room for their wedding. Her clothing is of wrought gold. In other words, the clothes are decorated with gold thread to make her look beautiful. When she undresses for her king, she must look beautiful, so her undergarments must be beautiful. But when she's brought to the king in public, it's envelopment in clothes of needlework, embroidered clothes, clothes with beautiful patterns, the fine work of skilled clothes makers. And everyone's going to see that, everyone is going to see her beauty, but there's a private beauty that's only for the king. With her are her friends, the virgins, her companions that follow her. They're being brought too to the king's palace because they are going to become the maids in this palace. These were the customs, this was the honour to be given to a bride of a king. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought. They shall enter into the king's palace. So all of them together, the bride who is becoming the queen, together with her friends who are becoming her maids, they go into the king's palace, into the special rooms prepared for them there. And we conclude in verses 16 to 17 with the description of the purpose of a royal wedding. These words, by the way, are spoken not to the queen, the bride, but rather to the king. And to him it said, because of his marriage, instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore shall the people praise thee forever and ever. So here is God's promise to this king who is to rule Israel. That just as the king's fathers, just as his father and his grandfather before him have ruled Israel, his children are going to have places of honour in Israel and across the land. They'll be made princes. In other words, they'll be important people. They will share in the king's rule. They will participate in looking after the people, in making judgments, in making decisions for the welfare and the good of all the people he rules. And God is going to cause his name to be remembered. This rule is not just going to be the short rule of a weak and an evil king who is thrown out and everyone in future generations hates his name and wants to forget him. No, this king's rule will be remembered and the people forever shall speak well of him. Forever they will praise him. Now, of course, we still remember David and we still remember Solomon and there are other kings from Israel's royal family whose name is familiar to us if we read the Bible. But of course it's really King Messiah's name that is remembered in all generations because his rule as the perfect king lasts for all generations because he is God. God the Son. Verse 6. There's other psalms like Psalm 2 that describe him as the Son. He is God's Son and he is himself God and his rule therefore will never end because he is ruling in righteousness. Verse 7. And he has opposed wickedness. Also verse 7. And he has defeated all the enemies of himself and of God. The evil forces, the evil powers, Satan's power that opposes this world. And he's chosen his bride, his people, who he truly loves, to live with him always and to rejoice with him always in the splendor of what he has for them. Just as the king in this psalm brought his queen into his palace to give her great honour and to show his love for her. In a moment I'll read the whole psalm but first let me tell you my email address in case you'd like to write to me. It's 333 kjv at gmail.com. I would love to hear if you've heard this psalm. Maybe you could tell me you've heard the talk on Psalm 45 or maybe some of the other psalms. Write to me at 333 kjv at gmail.com. And now here is the whole psalm. Psalm 45. To the chief musician upon Shoshanim, for the sons of Korah, Maskil, a song of loves. My heart is indicting good matter. I speak of things which I have made touching the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men. Grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore God hath blessed thee forever. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty, and in thy majesty, ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness. And thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under thee. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The sceptre of thy kingdom is a bright sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad. King's daughters were among thy honourable women. Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir. Hearken, O daughter, and consider and incline thine ear forget also thine own people and thy father's house. So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, for he is thy lord, and worship thou him. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift. Even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favour. The king's daughter is all glorious within. Her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework. The virgins, her companions that follow her, shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought. They shall enter into the king's palace. Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore shall the people praise thee forever and ever.