Episode Transcript
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A reading from God's word this morning
is from Psalm Forty Five, a rather
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unique psalm in the PSALTER. Psalm
forty five. Listen, for this is
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the word of the Lord. My
heart overflows with a pleasing theme. I
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address my verses to the king.
My tongue is like the pen of a
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ready scribe. You were the most
handsome of the sons of men. Grace
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is poured upon your lips. Therefore, God has blessed you forever. Gird
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your sword on your thigh, O
Mighty one, in your splendor and majesty,
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in Your Majesty, ride out victoriously
for the cause of truth and meekness
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and righteousness. Let your right hand
teach you awesome deeds. Your Arrows are
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sharp in the hearts of the king's
enemies. The People's fall under you.
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Your throne, O God, is
forever and ever. The scepter of your
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kingdom is a scepter of uprightness.
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
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Therefore, God, your God,
has anointed you with the oil of gladness.
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Beyond your companions, your robes are
all fragrant with Murr and aloes and
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Cassia from ivory palaces, stringed instruments
make you lad daughters of kings are among
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your ladies of honor. At your
right hand stands the Queen in Gold of
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O. Fear here, O daughter, and consider and incline your ear.
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Forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty,
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since he is your Lord. Bow
To him. The people of tire
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will seek your favor with gifts.
The richest of the people, all glorious
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is the Princess, in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold, in
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many colored robes, she is led
to the king, with her virgin companions
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following behind her. With joy and
gladness. They are led along as they
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enter the Palace of the king.
In place of your father's shall be your
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sons. You will make them princes
in all the earth. I will cause
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your name to be remembered in all
generations. Therefore, nations will praise you
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forever and ever. Thus far the
reading of God's word, you may be
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seated now. As we may know, the Book of Psalms covers a a
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wide variety of of themes and an
expressions, everything from psalms of deep lament
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to psalms of praise, everything from
Psalms Express wresting frustration or even anger at
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God for what seems like God's own
lack of action, to psalms of Thanksgiving
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for God's miraculous and saving work.
And yet, even with all this variety,
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this forty five psalm is somewhat unique
among the psalms. In fact,
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scholars seem divided over what to do
with this song. Most simply place it
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in the category of of Royal Psalms. Royal Psalms are the ones where the
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king is the focus of the attention, though the Lord is still addressed the
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the main theme of the Psalm will
be the king, not just any king
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right, but the King of Israel. Like Psalm Seventy two says give the
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King Your Justice, Oh God,
and your righteousness to the Royal Sun,
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and in others see parallels between this
psalm and and love poetry. Did you
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hear that in the in the words
of this psalm? So, rather than
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being exclusively royal, they view it
as primarily maybe, a love song.
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These differences of opinion highlight the uniqueness
of what's going on here in Psalm forty
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five. Where other psalms reference the
king, no other Psalm mentions the king's
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bride, where others reference the king's
glory and splendor. No other mentions what
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looks like a royal wedding. And
our author begins in rather unique way as
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well. The palmist begins by stating
his reason for writing. My heart,
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he says, overthrows with a pleasing
theme. I address my verses to the
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king. My tongue is the pen
of already scribe. Now this seems to
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lack some of the urgency you find
in other places throughout this altar. Compare
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this to psalm thirty five, which
begins contend o Lord, with those who
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contend with me, fight against those
who fight against me. You hear the
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urgency of that. The salmost there
begins with an urgent request, or others
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break forth instantly into amazing trays.
Their urgency is not because of any present
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danger, but because God is that
Praiseworthy, and so leaves burst forth with
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the first few verses. This is
true of one of the shortest psalms,
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one hundred and seventeen. Praise the
Lord all nations. It begins extol him
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all people's and only then explains why
right for great is his steadfast love.
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Toward us. But this song seems
to be taking its time. Rather than
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an immediate start, he begins with
this personal pause. And where many psalms
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make these appeals to groups, beginning
with an invitation, perhaps, like Psalm
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Ninety Five, oh come, let
us sing to the Lord, let us
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make a joyful known is to the
rock of our salvation, oursalm is almost
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a private a private song, isn't
it? It begins with not a let
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us, but he says with,
he begins with a my my heart overflows
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with a pleasing theme. And so
who is our PSALMIST writing too? He's
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not writing to a congregation, but
he's writing to the king. I address
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my verses, he says, to
the king. And with this opening,
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we don't really hear an invitation to
participate, do we? And yet,
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and it is personal and as individual
as this psalm is, he's still at
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least writing it down, he says. My tongue is a ready scribe.
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He doesn't simply recite these verses,
he writes them down. So, although
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they are for the king, he
is here writing for an audience larger than
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one. So is hearers of this
psalm. Well, we're not called exactly
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to participate. In the same way. He does invite us into this scene,
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doesn't he? It says, if
we're ore shirt into the back door
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perhaps and get to witness what's about
to happen. Now we know this is
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a wedding psalm because we've just read
the whole thing. But notice that up
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to this point of the opening here, he hasn't really told us what's to
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expect. The wedding imagery doesn't occur
till about halfway through this psalm. All
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we know is that his heart is
overflowing with good things, and we're only
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really beginning to see why that is. We're brought through the back door,
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as it were, sitting quietly in
the back row. What's the first thing
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our eyes are to focus upon?
Was this is a song for the king.
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The first thing we're shown is the
King Front and center. The king
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is described by this beautiful appearance,
most handsome of the sons of men.
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The king is also praised for his
beautiful speech. Grace is poured upon your
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lips. As we focus on the
king, we get a brief head to
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toe description. His face is handsome, his lips are eloquent. On his
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thigh there's a sword here is a
mighty one right, not just a man
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of speech but also a man of
action. He's to put on his sword,
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he's to put on his glory and
majesty. Think of a glorious robe.
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That's how the King's Royal Glory is
described. For instance, when Solomon
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was anointed as king, we read
in First Chronicles Twenty Nine, the Lord
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made Solomon Very Great in the sight
of all Israel and bestowed on him such
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royal magic, T or glory as
had not been on any king before him
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in Israel. Now that's not necessarily
a literal robe going over the king,
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but it's this royal glory that is
bestowed. This glory is placed upon the
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king like like a robe. So
even from the back row we can see
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this kid is a king who is
ready for action, and our Psalm describes
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what he's about to do. In
Your Majesty, ride out victoriously for the
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cause of truth and meekness and righteousness. The king here is getting ready for
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a battle, for a war campaign. Let your right hand teach you awesome
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deeds or, more literally, fearful
deeds. In fact, the Hebrew word
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for teaching is the same word for
shooting. With a bow and Arrow.
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We see that our king is equipped
with arrows as well. We're told these
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arrows are sharp in the hearts of
the king's enemies and that the people's fall
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under you. So then, we
are about to watch awesome deeds. The
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king is about to ride out victoriously. He's weighed down with the weapons of
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war. We can almost hear the
the royal fanfare, the war drums sounding,
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the march. Plus, our king
go is to battle with the Lord's
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Blessing. In verse two, he
says God has blessed you forever. In
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verse seven he says God, your
God, has anointed you. These verses
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are what we'd expect to hear.
He's talking to the king right, he's
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describing the way in which the Lord
has blessed the king. But it's in
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between these verses of blessing that we
find something a bit out of place.
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Just like this psalm doesn't quite fit
in a simple category with the other psalms,
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there's a verse here that doesn't quite
fit in the rest of this psalm.
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In verse six, the Psalmist,
to who began talking to the king
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and goes on to talk to the
king, suddenly says your throne o God
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is forever and ever. So,
without warning, has our psalmist simply switched
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to he's addressing? Is he now
talking to God? He's been talking to
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the king about his royal attire,
the King's royal weaponry. Does he set
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that aside to talk about God's Royal
Throne, or is he addressing the king
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with the title of God? Translators
actually struggle with what to do here.
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It's almost humorous to see how how
translators try to soften the tension and resolve
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the tension that this verse creates.
They'll say your throne is a godly throne
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or your throne is like God's,
but that's not what it says. Whoever
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this king is, our psalmist calls
him God. So what do we do
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with this tension? Well, clearly
it's it's intentional. This almost wants us
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to do a double take. Care
we're supposed to ask the question. Who
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is he addressing? Is he calling
the King God? Why would he do
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that? He wants us to ask
these questions even though he'd won't answer them
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right away. He creates this tension
on purpose, and this is not the
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only double take we find in these
verses. For right away we find another
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bit of tension. Because what's he
been describing up until now? What's been
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the theme? A King Robe With
glory and honor and majesty. He's got
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his sword on his side, his
bow in his hand, his arrows are
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sharp, ready for war. It's
as if we've been sitting in the back
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row of an army of soldiers about
to watch as our king takes the battlefield.
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We're told to expect to see something
awesome, even fearful, we're just
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told, and we're just about to
cover our children's eyes and ears. And
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then everything changes. The imagery of
or the imagery of weapons of victory and
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violence. It fades away and is
replaced almost immediately by oils and aloes.
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Fragrance smells God. Your God has
anointed you with the oil of gladness.
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Beyond your companions, your robes are
all fragrant with Murr and aloes and Cassia.
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The sound of war drums is almost
replaced with this reference to stringed instruments
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from ivory palaces. The king is
not standing between soldiers and battlefield, he's
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standing between ladies of honor and a
queen dressed in gold but we're preparations for
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a war are now preparations for a
wedding. Sorry, guys, this isn't
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an action film. It's turning into
a romance. Sitting in the back row,
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we get to see another unexpected turn
of events. With this unexpected transition,
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we're introduced to, then, an
unexpected bride. This isn't your typical
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bride. Listen to what she's told
to do, hero daughter, and consider
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and incline your ear. Forget your
people and your father's house and the king
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will desire your beauty. She's told
to forget, forget her people, forget
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her father's house. This is not
your typical marriage vow, is it?
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I mean couples are told to leave
father and mother as they create their own
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household, but to forget her father's
house? That's a bit extreme. Well,
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it would be extreme if the king
of Israel was about to marry an
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Israelite. If she were in Israelite, remembering her people would be a would
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not be a stumbling block to marriage. If she were in Israelite, her
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people would also be the king's people. So why would she be called to
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forget? I think it's pretty clear. It's because she's not in Israelite.
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She's a foreigner. I mean remembering
and forgetting represent strong covenantal language. The
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people are told to remember the law
of God, to not forget his statutes.
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Yet this bride is called to forget
her people, and it's because she's
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marrying the king of a new people. Of viewing this from the back row
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makes us a little uneasy, doesn't
it? Is the King of Israel really
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going to marry a foreigner? Doesn't
Deuteronomy seven explicitly prohibit any Israelite from marrying
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a foreigner? They are God's law
says, you shall not Inter marry with
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them, speaking of the other nations, giving your daughters to their sons or
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taking their daughters for your sons.
And the law even gives a reason why
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this should not happen, for they
would turn away your sons from following me
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to serve other gods. And isn't
this exactly what happens to King Solomon?
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We're told that he loved many foreign
women, and when Solomon was old,
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his wives turned away his heart to
after other gods, and his heart was
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not wholly true to the Lord,
his God. God's law forbids it.
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So why would a King Mary a
foreign bride. Well, to use Solomon
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as an example, we're told that
he made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh,
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King of Egypt. He took Pharaoh's
daughter brought her to the city of David.
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This was common in that day.
Kings would take foreign wives for political
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purposes, to make alliances with the
surrounding nations. And yet, if that
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were the case here, the question
still remains. Why is this foreign bride
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told to forget, forget her people, Forget your father's house? If this
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marriage is merely serving a political,
perhaps sinful, purpose, should be something
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of an ambassador. But if it's
a political marriage, the reason she's there
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in the first places for the sake
of her people and making those kinds of
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treaties and alliances. So we have
all these pieces that they don't seem to
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fit. Why describe the king as
a warrior only then to describe a wedding?
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Why is the king marrying a foreign
bride who won't serve then as an
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ambassador to her homeland? What's the
connection between all these threads? Will notice
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the connection that's found in the description
of her people. Why is she told
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to forget her people? Look at
first five, the arrows of this warrior
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king are sharp in the hearts of
the king's enemies, and it says the
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People's fall under you. Another way
of translating that is the nation's fall under
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you. So why is this foreign
bride called to forget her people? It's
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because they're dead. They've fallen under
the feet of this warrior king. Some
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more questions arise. Right. We
see, therefore, that not only is
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she a foreign bride, she also
appears to be a prisoner of war,
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and we shift even more uncomfortably from
our back row seats. He's marrying a
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woman after killing her family and her
nation. Imagine hearing that traditional line in
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a wedding. If any one hand
it has any reason why these two should
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not be married, speak now or
forever hold your peace. SHOULD WE SPEAK
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UP? Shouldn't we object to what's
about to happen? And yet, as
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we read on, we don't hear
any objections. This bride whose family has
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been slaughtered, she won't share in
their fate, and there's no coercion taking
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place. She's not led to the
king with shackles on hands and feet,
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but with robes interwoven with gold.
The people of tire will seek her favor
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with gifts the richest of the people
in many colored robes. She is led
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to the king. As gruesome as
the events are which led to this engagement,
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this is not a day of of
mourning, it's a day of rejoicing.
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For this Psalmist, with joy,
with gladness, they are led along
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as they entered the palace of the
king. She's not being married for political
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gain. Her nation is destroyed.
There's nothing left to gain from that.
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She's called to forget her people in
her father's house because she's brought, being
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brought to a new people. She's
being given a new house, and it's
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actually kind of a beautiful thing to
witness the same warrior king who can pour
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out violence to defend truth and righteousness
can here bestow such love and such blessings
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on a foreign bride. And after
this magnificence royal ceremony, our author concludes
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as he began. He finishes with
a personal address to the king and from
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the back row our seats we can
we can see that the bridal party has
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exited and once again the psalmist places
the King Front and center and he says,
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in place of your father's shall be
your sons, you will make them
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princes and all the earth. Clearly, this royal marriage will produce royal offspring.
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But, as has been the pattern
throughout our psalm ends with another unexpected
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twist. Undoubtedly the royal marriage will
pro produce royal heirs, but the PSALMIST
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says they will be princes where in
all the earth. How is that possible?
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I thought we were talking about the
King of Israel here. He doesn't
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have that kind of authority. The
king may have some say in which son
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replaces his own reign, but to
say that he'll place those princes throughout the
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earth, truly, the psalmist must
be just exaggerating here, right. He
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can't be serious. And if that
wasn't enough, look at verse seventeen.
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He concludes the Psalm by saying I
will cause your name to be remembered in
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all generations. Therefore, nations will
praise you forever and ever. We were
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asking who does this psalmist think this
king is? Now we're kind of asking
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who does this psalmist think that he
is? He claims he will cause the
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king's name to be remembered in all
generations. That's an amazing claim. But
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what's the one thing he's forgotten.
If that's his goal, what does he
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fail to do? He wants the
king's name remembered for all generations. Why
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didn't he write it down? He
didn't tell us who this king is.
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Not once does he actually name which
Israelite King he's been talking to. And
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yet this double take here is to
draw us back to that earlier double take,
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doesn't it? We see that he
has named this king. The only
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name he addresses to this king is
found in verse six, where he says
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your throne, Oh God, is
forever and ever. Do you see what
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a majestic psalm this is? We
haven't just heard a poem addressed to a
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King of Israel, we've heard a
psalm addressed to the king of Israel.
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We're not just sitting in the back
of any king's power, alas, this
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is the very palace of God that
he's been describing. Verse six addresses the
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King as God, but verse seven
addresses the King as God's anointed God.
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Your God has anointed you. But
it's because both are addressing the king that
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the PSALMIST can describe the king with
such perfection. It's because both verses address
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the King that the book of Hebrews
quotes Verse Seven and verse six when proving
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that Jesus is superior to angels.
The tension that we find in this psalm
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and throughout this psalm is answered only
in in the God man, Jesus Christ.
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This is why the king is able
to make princes throughout the earth,
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this is why his name will be
remembered in all generations. Verse Seventeen recalls
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this promise given to another King of
Israel. Verse Seventeen, the Languige your
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draws our ears to the promise the
Lord gave to David. Verse Seventeen again
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says I will cause your name to
be remembered in all generations. But in
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Second Samuel Seven, the Lord promised
David I will make for you a great
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name. Your throne shall be established
forever. This is a psalm addressed to
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a king like David, but clearly
one greater than David. And so remember
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the the king's robe like glory,
his Robe Like Majesty. From verse three.
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That picture of the King's Royal Magistry
is later imaged in the robes of
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his own bride. All glorious is
the princess in her chamber, with robes
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interwoven with gold. And it's the
book of revelation that then picks up on
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this kind of imagery, for revelation
nineteen seven says, let us rejoice and
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exult and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the lamb has come
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and his bride has made herself ready
and has granted her to clothe herself with
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fine linen, bright and pure.
So though we're drawn into this psalm merely
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as hearers of this royal wedding,
like those given the back seat at a
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wedding, when we carry this image
forward into its fulfillment in Christ, notice
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that we're not left in the back
row watching somebody else take their marriage vows.
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If Christ is the kingly bridegroom,
then it's the church that is his
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captive bride. We're not just guests
at this wedding, but the guests the
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very bride herself. And the refrain
comes to us as well, saying forget
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your people, Forget your father's house, for who were we? We were
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once those numbered among the scattered nations. Who was our father? Our true
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father was Adam, who was our
people? Are People were fallen humanity,
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slaves to sin and death. But
because our king is a warrior king.
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His enemies have been vanquished because of
Christ's life, because of his death and
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because of his resurrection. Those powers
of sin and death lay broken and defeated
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at his feet. So forget Adam, your father according to the flesh.
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Forget the sin that that used to
define your identity, because you've been given
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a new one. Forget the stench
of death that clings to our sufferings in
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this life. Yet we must admit
it's hard. It's hard to forget these
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things. We get daily reminders,
even moment by moment reminders. We're called
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to forget these things of sin and
of death, not because we don't see
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them, not because we don't experience
them in our own bodies. But you
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can forget them because they have no
power over you. They have no claim
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on your life, as Paul says
in Colossians three, for you have died
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and your life is hidden with Christ
in God. Therefore, forget what used
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to define you and remember who you
are in him. Amen.
