Episode Transcript
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A mascul of the sons of Cora, a love song. My heart overflows
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with a pleasing theme. I address
my verses to the king. My tongue
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is like the pen of a ready
scribe. You are the most handsome of
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the sons of men. Grace is
poured upon your lips. Therefore, God
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has blessed you forever. Gird your
sword on your thigh, O Mighty one,
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in your splendor and majesty, in
Your Majesty, ride out victoriously for
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the cause of truth and meekness and
righteousness. Let your right hand teach you
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awesome deeds. Your Arrows are sharp
in the heart of the king's enemies,
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the People's fall under you. Your
throne, O God, is forever and
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ever. The scepter of your kingdom
is a scepter of uprightness. You have
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loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed
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you with the oil of gladness.
Beyond your companions, your robes are all
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fragrant with Murr and aloes and Cassia
from ivory. Palace's stringed instruments make you
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glad. Daughters of kings are among
your ladies of honor. At your right
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hand stands the Queen in Gold of
Oh fear here, oh daughter, and
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consider and incline your ear. Forget
your people and your father's house, and
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the king will desire your beauty,
since he is your Lord. Bow To
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him. The people of tire will
seek your favor with gifts. The richest
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of the people. All glorious is
the princess in her chamber, with robes
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interwoven with gold and many colored robes. She has led to the king,
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with her virgin companions following behind her. With joy and gladness they are led
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along as they enter the Palace of
the king. In place of your father's
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shall be your sons. You will
make them princes in all the earth.
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I will cause your name to be
remembered in all generations there, for nations
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will praise you forever and ever.
To the choir master, may God bless
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his word. Please be seated.
When we think about the great marriage texts
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of the Bible, the great love
texts, the things that we go to
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in lessons on marriage or in times
of premarital counseling or the these kinds of
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things, one of the places that
we often go is not here. It's
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Ephesians five right. We read there
of the Great Love that Christ had and
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has for the church. I'll read
to you from Ephesians five hundred and twenty
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five. Husband's love your wives,
as Christ loved the Church and gave himself
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up for her, that he might
sanctify her, having cleansed her by the
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washing of water with the word,
so that he might present the church to
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himself in splendor, without spot or
wrinkle or any such thing, that she
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might be holy and without blemish.
Well, these instructions to husband's based on
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the great love of Christ, is
put in this metaphor of marriage. We
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are told that the church is the
bride of Christ. But there is another
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important passage in the Bible that also
speaks of this marriage between the son of
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God and his church, and that's
this text, Psalm forty five. It's
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specifically tells us it's a love song. Again, when we think of the
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love songs of the Bible, I
don't understand why this one is always forgotten,
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because it is a beautiful love song. On this picture of the bride
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and the groom, soul, handsome, so beautiful. It's a very evocative
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and filled with all kinds of praise
in need the one writing the song.
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We get a something of the heart
of the narrator explicitly. In Verse One,
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he says my heart overflows with a
pleasing theme. I address my verses
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to the king. My tongue is
like the pen of a ready scribe.
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He's so happy, he's so happy
about this king in particular and this marriage
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that's described here, that he finds
his heart overflowing with goodness, with a
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pleasing theme, he can't help but
write. His tongue is ready, he's
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ready to go, and indeed he
he goes, he jumps right in verse
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two, you are the most handsome
of the sons of men. This these
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great, great descriptions, but as
we read on we find out that this
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is a no ordinary wedding. It's
not even an ordinary royal wedding, because
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this king is no ordinary king,
this bride is no ordinary bride. I'm
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perhaps you caught this, or maybe
we're even a little surprised by this as
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I was reading it earlier. We
have this description of a man. You
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are the most handsome of the sons
of men. Grace is poured out on
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your lips. Talks about a sword, him riding out in Majesty, conquering
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his enemies, and then, all
of a sudden, verse six, Your
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Throne, Oh God, is forever
and ever your he addresses this one to
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whom he has been speaking, this
great man among the sons of men,
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as God. The scepter of your
kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. You
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have loved wickedness or right you have
loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore,
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God, your God, has anointed
you, beyond, anointed you with the
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oil of gladness, beyond your companions. Well now you, perhaps you would
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be additionally confused. We have this
person who seems to be described as God,
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and then yet we are he.
It talks about him as having a
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God. He says, therefore,
God, your God, has anointed you.
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We have what you see here,
I hope you're beginning to see,
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is one important passage describing the trinity. Is a relation between father and son,
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both equal in power and glory and
both deserving of that title that is
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only reserve for the one true God. Any doubt about this should be put
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to rest by if Hebrews verse one, or sorry, Hebrews one versus eight
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through nine, I'll read them read
them to you. Hebrews one eight through
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nine quotes this psalm and speaking of
Jesus, who is come, says,
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but of the son that is of
Jesus, he says your throne o God
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is forever and ever, the scepter
of uprightness, is the scepter of your
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kingdom. And he goes on and
he he quotes that the other portions of
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that song. So the spirit of
God himself assigns this particular role, this
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great handsome prince, this king.
He assigns the rule to Jesus. So,
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as I say, Psalm forty five
is no ordinary love song between a
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man and a woman. It's a
love song that describes the marriage of Christ
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and the church. And this is
really remarkable because, in the way that
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Ephesians five in some ways talks about
the ongoing relationship and, of course,
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how it began, Hebrew or sorry, Psalm Forty five describes that day in
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human terms, in analogical terms,
in terms of metaphor and analogy, but
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that is what's being described. God
is helping us to have a theological and
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a very personal understanding of what your
wedding day was like with King Jesus.
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It's a love song that reminds all
Christians of their wedding day with the Lord
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and as such, it's a useful
thing to consider and remember. Husbands and
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wives do this all the time,
and hopefully more than just once a year,
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to think about their wedding, their
marriage, what that day was like,
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what kinds of commitments were made.
As we consider that marriage between Jesus
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and the church, we see UN
that in some ways it's similar to our
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marriages here on earth, but in
other ways it's also very different. So
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let's consider what psalm forty five has
to say about the marriage between Christ and
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the church. First will consider the
glory of this marriage and then the grace
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of the marriage. First it's glory
if you imagine a wedding, even a
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common wedding, but extend that out
for imagination safety, the most grand,
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most expensive, most elaboratively planned wedding. Even these kinds of weddings, the
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weddings of magazines, they still have
their problems, don't they? Every wedding
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has its share of late rivals and
stuck zippers forgotten flowers, not to mention
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more serious and sometimes very deep concerns, fears of the unknown, haunts of
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old sins. These things are present
human marriages too, but in psalm forty
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five there's nothing of the sort,
is there? There's no, I'm accidents
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and bad planning and little things falling
apart and one of the groomsmen not showing
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up. Nor is their nervousness among
any member of the family. Is this
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really supposed to work out? Is
this the right move? There's no hesitancy,
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there's nothing like that. The marriage
between Christ and his church, as
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described here in Psalm forty five,
is nothing but glorious. Nothing but Glorious
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and nothing but perfect, and you
see it particularly in the descriptions of the
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bride and the groom. He is
the handsomest among men. She is singularly
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desired among this see of princesses that
are standing in his court. He he
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has robes that smell expensive. Her
robes are interwoven with gold. He is
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described as a noble king who quote, who are sorry, who wields his
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sword for quote, the cause of
truth and meekness and justice. He sounds
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like a real life superhero, and
indeed he is, because we read that
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this is no pretend person, this
Jesus who comes for the cause of truth
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and meekness and justice. The Psalm
says that God is with him, anointing
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him with the oil of gladness.
He is established and His throne is established
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forever endeavor. She is called glorious, and the train of her companions,
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which are many, are led by
joy and gladness around them, surrounding them,
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is just more beauty. It's in
their clothes, it's in the smells
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of the air, it's in her
looks, it's in the joy and the
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gladness, it's in the company,
it's in the Ivory Palaces that are described.
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It's in the music from stringed instruments
swirling all around them. This is
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how the spirit of God describes the
Church's wedding with the Lord Jesus Christ.
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This is almost dreamlike, isn't it? It's far beyond any magazine picture or
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or a bridle show that you've ever
seen or experienced. This wedding is perfect.
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It's full of glory and nobility and
power. Kings and Queens are flocking
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from all over the world to come
and see this a beloved bride. This
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is the glory of our marriage with
the Lord Jesus well, the second thing
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to notice about the marriage is that
the glory of the bride is guaranteed by
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the grace of the groom. This
is not a marriage of equals and in
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many ways this is where the big
differences between our marriages that go on in
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this world and the marriage that occurs
between us and our Savior, this is
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where are many of the differences are
to be found. This is not a
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marriage of equals. This is not
one very handsome young man and one very
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beautiful young lady coming together because there's
such a lovely couple. She is who
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she is because he is who he
is. She is beautiful because he's made
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her that way. She's beautiful because
he is God. Very early on in
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the Psalm we read that he's the
most handsome of the sons of men.
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Grace is poured upon your lips.
Therefore, God has blessed you forever.
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The very first way that his handsomeness
is described is in terms of grace.
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That's where the great beauty and the
center, the central aspects of his beauty
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comes from. It's from the great
grace of the king and, as I
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read earlier, Ephesians five tells us
about that grace. What it is that
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grace looks like in means, he
loved her. He gave himself up for
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her that he might sanctify her,
having cleansed her by the wash of the
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words, so that he might present
the church to himself in splendor, without
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spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without
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blemish. You see what the Bible
says. You are glorious. The Church
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of Christ is glorious because she has
been made this way through the grace of
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her loving groom and because it's him, not just some guy, but it's
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because it's the god of the universe
who does these things by his singularly powerful
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what love, this glory that's described
here, is a glory that's not going
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away. It might be hidden in
this in this age, but it's definitely
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present and promised, and it's described
here in Psalm forty five. We know
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from the Scriptures, then, the
church is is a body of people that
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has been possessed, cleansed, sought
after. We read of the great cost
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of this grace, the great ass
of the great cost of his love.
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He doesn't just feel really good about
her, he lays down his life for
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her, he dies for her.
The cleansing that's described for her thought that
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she would be holy and perfect in
every way. Is a cleansing that's done
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by his very shed blood, and
we remember that he did this not for
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someone who was lovely, but's for
someone who is ugly in her sin.
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He loved her while she was still
running after other men. This is some
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of what is described in Jose as. We've been reading this as God's people
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go and adulterate themselves, as prostitute
themselves to other gods. It's in that
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that God extends His mercy and his
love. Jesus doesn't go and find the
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best among us, he finds those
that are described in scriptures as the worst
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among sinners, those who weren't of
many means and nobility, and so forth.
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The glory she possesses did not come
by cleaning up her act, but
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by the cleansing, purifying work of
God bought for her when he died for
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her on the cross. And so, when we read these descriptions of her
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verse thirteen, all glorious as the
princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven
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with gold, in many colored low
robes, she has led to the Queen
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or to the king, with her
virgin companions following behind her with joy and
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gladness. They're let along as they
enter the Palace of the king. These
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commands that are given to her as
well in verse ten. Here, oh
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daughter, and consider and incline your
ear, forget your people and your father's
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house, and the king will desire
your beauty. There is a call here
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to leave something behind, to leave
behind the sin, to leave behind the
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filthy rags that once covered us,
to leave behind the idolatry and to walk
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in the grace and glory of Jesus
Christ, to be long to belong to
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him. It's through this gracious gift
that she, who once wore the rags
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of sin and death, is now
clothed by love in a glorious wedding dress
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of life. This simple fact,
the grace of God and the glory of
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God and his uniting himself to us, should be a constant reminder of who
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we are and how we belong to
Jesus. Psalm forty five, then,
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and should be a great encouragement and, in the scripture, to you,
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one of the great testimonies of God's
love for you. It's a love song
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in many different ways. It's a
love song to the king. It's a
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way that we, with the scribe
and with the bride, can lift up
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our hearts and praise this one who
is who acts in this, in this
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way, who saved US and married
us. But it's also his love song
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to us, because this scribe was
not just a man, but is the
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spirit of God, writing this down
to the praise of himself, but also
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for our benefit. This is a
love song that has been inscribed to you,
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a love poem for you by your
King and your husband, and all
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this I find it very helpful,
and the same way that we look at
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our wedding pictures on the walls,
or we might consider anniversaries of friends and
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families, or perhaps our own psalm
forty five gives us an occasion to remember
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these similar things when it comes to
Jesus, and this is very helpful to
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us, for in a real sense, in a very real sense, our
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husband is a way, he's at
the right hand of God, the Father
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Almighty, as we confess in the
creeds, and is is a taught in
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scripture. We have his spirit,
but we feel away from him and we
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long to be with him and we
await for his bodily return. That is
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difficult. The descriptures describe it as
such and call us to wait and to
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trust in him on in by faith. And while we wait, as we
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all know, our lives often struggle. Our promises of love and obedience to
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our husband are sometimes proved to be
quite empty, and sometimes we even allow
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Satan himself to come between us and
our beloved, to tempt us to doubt
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his love, to tempt us to
grant doubt the grace and the glory that
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are here. But God has golven
a psalm forty five to put these doubts
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to rest, to say that,
although you don't always see this glory now,
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this is who you are, this
is who I've made you to be.
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God has given us a love letter
to remind us of his supreme love.
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In Christ you have a husband who
is everlasting, who is full of
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forgiveness and grace, and his given
you and blessed you with those things and
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with all the attendant glory from the
day of your marriage, which happened before
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the foundations of the world began.
And it's a marriage that will last forever
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and ever because it's established on the
grace and glory and promises of God.
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Let us pray
