[0:00] Well, if we could, with the Lord's help and the Lord's enabling this evening, if we could turn back to that portion of Scripture that we read. Book of Psalms, Psalm 45.
[0:17] Psalm 45, and let me just read again from the beginning. I want us to consider the whole psalm, but let me just read again from the beginning. My heart overflows with a pleasing theme.
[0:31] I address my verses to the King. My tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. And so on. As you know, last Lord's Day evening, we were considering the Song of Solomon.
[0:49] A song which Solomon described as the Song of Songs. He called it the Song of Songs. He said it was the best song because it's Solomon's love song about Jesus Christ and his bride, the church.
[1:06] But I would argue that Psalm 45 is the real song of songs. Psalm 45 is the real song of songs because Psalm 45 is the greatest song.
[1:19] It's the Father's love song. It's the Father's love song about his son and his son's bride, the church. The songs are similar in theme, but I would argue that Psalm 45 is the real song of songs because it's the Father's love song.
[1:38] And I say that because Psalm 45, it's a messianic psalm. It's a psalm about Jesus. And it's a psalm that is quoted a number of times in the New Testament in reference to Jesus.
[1:51] Because when you read, especially in Hebrews chapter 1, we're told that God has spoken. He's spoken in various ways. He's spoken through creation, we're told.
[2:02] He's spoken through his prophets. But now the writer to the Hebrews says that God has spoken to us through his son. And he says that God not only speaks through his son, he has also spoken to his son.
[2:16] Because in Hebrews chapter 1, verse 8, we're told, And to the son, God the Father says, then he quotes from Psalm 45, verses 6 and 7, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
[2:32] A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions.
[2:44] The Father speaks to his son, which emphasizes and explains to us that Psalm 45 is the Father's love song.
[2:56] Psalm 45 is the real song of songs. It's the greatest song in the Bible because it's all about Jesus Christ and his bride, the church.
[3:09] And so I'd like us this evening to consider the Father's love song. And I want us to consider it just under two headings. The Father's declaration and the Father's daughter. The Father's declaration and the Father's daughter.
[3:24] So first of all, the Father's declaration. We see that in verses 1 and 2. We read there, My heart overflows with a pleasing theme. I address my verses to the king.
[3:36] My tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. You are the most handsome of the sons of men. Grace is poured upon your lips. Therefore, God has blessed you forever.
[3:48] Now, I'm sure that you're aware that in the past month, there has been a lot in the media publicizing and promoting Pride Month.
[4:02] Sadly, the month of June. I don't know why. It's been claimed and called Pride Month, which is the month of the year when the LGBT, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community, they get a platform to publicize and promote their point of view about love.
[4:20] But as the Bible reminds us, pride comes before a fall. And of course, the Father's love song here, it doesn't publicize or promote the LGBT point of view when it comes to love.
[4:35] Because as the Bible teaches us, God is love. God has created love to exist and to be expressed within the covenant of marriage. Not on Love Island on the telly.
[4:48] Neither is marriage to be defined by the state, but by our sovereign God in Scripture. And as we know, marriage is to be mirrored on the creation ordinance of marriage.
[4:59] It's to be mirrored on the first marriage between one man and one woman, between Adam and Eve. I know this is why Paul even taught in the New Testament. He taught the Ephesians the importance and the integrity of marriage.
[5:13] But Paul, he not only wrote about the creation ordinance of marriage and the covenant relationship of marriage, but he also presented and promoted in Ephesians 5 the perfect marriage.
[5:26] Christ's marriage to his bride, the church. And remember Paul said in Ephesians 5, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.
[5:39] And it's that marriage which is to be mirrored. It's that marriage which the father sings about and acts even like a scribe. He says, the father speaking in verse 1, My heart overflows with a pleasing theme.
[5:57] I address my verses to King Jesus. My tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. So like a scribe with a pen, ready to write his love song about his son and his bride, God the father opens his song by declaring about his son, verse 2, You are the most handsome of the sons of men.
[6:21] Grace is poured upon your lips. Therefore God has blessed you forever. And you know what I love about the father's declaration there in verse 2, is that the father literally says about his own beloved son, He says, You are beautifully beautiful.
[6:41] That's how it's literally written. You are beautifully beautiful. More beautiful than any of the descendants of Adam. All the descendants of Adam, as we know, they sinned in Adam.
[6:53] They fell with Adam in his first transgression. Pride came before the fall. Because at the fall, as our catechism teaches us, all mankind, by their fall, lost communion with God.
[7:06] They're under His wrath and curse. So made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever. But you, this is the thing he says, But you, says the father, you are beautifully beautiful.
[7:22] You are more beautiful than all the descendants of Adam. Why? Carry on in the psalm. There's no sin upon your lips.
[7:33] No grace, he says. Grace is poured upon your lips. You're blessed of God. You're sinless. You're spotless. You're perfect in knowledge and righteousness and holiness.
[7:45] You are God incarnate. You're fully God and fully man. You're God in your divinity. And yet, you're Adam in your humanity. You're the last Adam. You're the best Adam.
[7:56] You're the beautifully beautiful Adam. You are beautifully beautiful. You are beautifully beautiful. But as you know, my Christian friend, you know there was a day in your life, and there was a day certainly in my life, that we didn't think of Jesus as beautifully beautiful.
[8:20] because in our blindness, we saw no beauty in him, that we would desire him. And for years, he passed us by in the gospel, and we did not receive him.
[8:33] We rejected him. We may even have ridiculed him. He wasn't beautifully beautiful in our eyes then. But when the Holy Spirit enlightened our mind in the knowledge of Christ, he made us see him like we have never seen him before.
[8:52] We saw him in many ways like Solomon saw him. We saw him as the lover of our soul. We saw him as the fairest among 10,000, one who is altogether lovely.
[9:04] And tonight, the amazing thing is, we are here in church. And you know, you should never, never lose sight of that, that you are out midweek. I always find it amazing that I have a desire to come to church.
[9:21] And we should never lose sight of that, that we are here because we want to see Jesus more clearly. We want to hear him more powerfully. We want to love him more earnestly.
[9:32] We want to walk with him more closely. We want to serve him more faithfully. Why? Because he's the Father's Son. And to us, he is beautifully beautiful.
[9:43] He is beautifully beautiful. And what makes him beautifully beautiful is what he has done for his bride. Because his bride doesn't deserve it.
[9:54] She doesn't deserve any of it. She hasn't earned his favor or merited his grace. She's unworthy of the least of his mercies. And yet the Father's Son is beautifully beautiful because he loved his bride and gave himself for her.
[10:13] But as you know, the Father's song, it continues. It continues. The love song continues in verse 3. And you know, in my mind, even reading through the psalm, in my mind, the Father is, he's singing.
[10:27] He's singing about how this happy couple came to be. He's singing about the covenant relationship between Jesus Christ and his church.
[10:39] A covenant that was agreed in eternity. Which means in many ways, this marriage between Christ and his bride, it was an arranged marriage. Because in the realms of eternity, before the foundation of the world, as we know, the Father elected and gifted his church to his Son.
[10:58] It was the Father's love gift to the Son. It was, his bride was his gift to his Son. And in that eternal covenant of redemption, the Father said to his Son, you must go and rescue your bride.
[11:14] You must go and redeem your bride. You must go and restore your bride. And with the eternal covenant of redemption ratified between the Father and the Son, the Father says to the Son in verse 3, Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one.
[11:34] In your splendor and majesty, in your majesty, ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness. Let your right hand teach you awesome deeds.
[11:47] You know, these verses of the Father's love song and following, they're full of covenantal language, emphasizing and explaining to us that God the Father sent his Son into the world to rescue us, to redeem us, to restore us, to reconcile us to God as his bride.
[12:09] And the Son, we're told, he rode out as the King of heaven. He rode out as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. he rode out on a horse, which isn't an unusual image or illustration because the Bible often prophesies and portrays Jesus as a horseman.
[12:29] So the Father said, ride out victoriously with the word of truth and righteousness and do it all in meekness. Do it all in humility.
[12:42] Humble yourself from your throne. But always remember that as he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. But humble yourself. Humble yourself from the crown of glory to the cradle in Bethlehem.
[12:58] Humble yourself all the way down to the cross of Calvary so that through the cross of Calvary the sharp arrows of the king will pierce the hearts of the enemy.
[13:13] That's what he says in verse 5. Your arrows are sharp in the hearts of the king's enemies. The peoples fall under you. And is that not what happened?
[13:25] In your experience and in my experience, whilst we were still sinners, whilst we were still enemies of the king, Christ died for us. He loved us and gave himself for us at Calvary and yet through the preaching of the cross, through the proclamation of Christ and him crucified, those sharp arrows of King Jesus, those arrows of truth and righteousness, they were fired from his bow, from the word of God and they pierced our hearts.
[13:59] Because, you know, when King Jesus rode out victoriously and he rode into our lives through the proclamation of the gospel, his word pricked our conscience.
[14:12] His word pierced our heart. And we were brought to see our sinnership before a holy God. And we fell on our knees. As it says there in the psalm, we fell on our knees in surrender and submission to King Jesus.
[14:28] And where we were once unwilling, unwilling, unwilling to commit our lives or confess Jesus as Lord, he made us willing. He made us willing.
[14:39] He convinced us of our sin and misery. He enlightened our minds. He persuaded us and he enabled us to see our need of salvation. He made us willing to come to him in submission and surrender.
[14:54] But, you know, we not only saw our need of salvation, we saw the wonder of our Savior. That he's the Father's Son. He's the beloved Son.
[15:05] He's the unique Son. He's the one and only Son. He's the one of a kind Son. He's the only begotten Son. He's the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
[15:19] And tonight, he's our King. He's our Lord. He's our Savior. He's our Savior.
[15:30] And, you know, in the Father's declaration of his Son, there's all this beautiful imagery that's being given to us which describes the one who is beautifully beautiful.
[15:41] We're told that his sword is sharp. It's a double-edged sword that pierces the soul. His arrows are arrows of truth and righteousness that pierce the heart.
[15:54] His throne, we're told, is from everlasting to everlasting. His scepter is a scepter of uprightness. His kingdom has none end at all. And he has been anointed.
[16:04] He has been Christed with the oil of rejoicing. And his robes, his robes of righteousness, they have this sweet-smelling savor of life unto life.
[16:19] More than that, we're told in verse 10 that standing at his right hand, right hand, which was a place and position of power and honor and blessing, standing at his right hand, we're told, is the king's bride, his queen, his church.
[16:38] It's the Father's love song. He's singing about his son and his bride. The Father's love song where we hear the Father's declaration.
[16:50] But then secondly, he speaks about his daughter, the Father's daughter. So the Father's daughter, look at verse 10. He says, Hear, Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear.
[17:06] Forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your Lord, bow to him. Since he is your Lord, bow to him.
[17:20] You know, as the Father writes his love song about his son and his bride, the church, the Father describes this betrothal. He describes the engagement and the promise between the son and his future bride.
[17:35] And he says, Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear. Forget your people and your father's house. And what you have there in verse 4, in verse 10, are four imperatives, four commands given by the Father.
[17:55] Listen, O daughter, consider, and incline your ear. Forget your people and your father's house.
[18:06] Listen, consider, incline, forget. Listen, consider, incline, forget. You know, it's the call of the gospel. Listen to the word of truth and righteousness.
[18:19] Consider your ways. Incline your ear and live and forget your father's house. Forget the house you came from.
[18:32] Forget the house of Adam, the house of sin and sickness and suffering and sorrow. Forget this world, he says, and all the empty promises.
[18:44] Forget it all and follow King Jesus. Hear, O daughter, and consider and incline your ear. Forget your people and your father's house. But this command, forget your father's house, it's only relevant because King Jesus is promising to provide another house.
[19:06] He's promising to provide a home in his father's house. So he says, forget your father's house. Forget this world, but remember my father's house.
[19:20] Remember my father's house. And you know, is that not what Jesus said in John 14? In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you.
[19:32] I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there, you may be also.
[19:46] And you know, we love those words at the beginning of John 14, don't we? But what we often misunderstand about those words and what Jesus is saying is that those words in the opening verses of John 14, they're words of betrothal.
[20:02] They're words of engagement because they promise to provide a home in the father's house for his bride. And to the Jewish ear, for those disciples who heard Jesus in the upper room, they would have been very familiar with what Jesus was saying.
[20:24] Because when a man was betrothed to a woman, they got engaged. They wouldn't move in together as many people do nowadays. Although at that point, even when they're engaged, a Jewish couple, when they're engaged, they were legally married.
[20:38] The redemption price would have been paid. But in that period, this period of betrothal, the period between engagement and the wedding day, the Jewish man would return to his father's home.
[20:56] He would return home to his father and build an extension onto the father's house for him and his future wife to live in together.
[21:06] He would return to the father's house to prepare a place for his bride. That's what Jesus said. I go to prepare a place for you. And then when everything is prepared, when the house is ready, on the day of the wedding, the bridegroom would then appear.
[21:24] He would appear in this colorful procession to collect his bride and take his bride home to be with the father, to be in the father's house where they would get married.
[21:37] They would get married in the father's house. It wasn't the ancient times what Jesus is describing. They didn't get married in a church or a synagogue. They got married in the father's house.
[21:49] And on the wedding day, the bridegroom would take his bride to the father's house to live with her for the rest of their lives. And you know, that's what Jesus was saying to his disciples in the upper room.
[22:03] He was speaking to what was his church. He was speaking to the church at its very beginning and he was betrothing himself to the church and he was saying to them with words of engagement and words of promise in my father's house are many mansions.
[22:23] If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and I will receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also.
[22:39] And my friend, they're beautiful words from the one who is beautifully beautiful. The one who is beautifully beautiful has betrothed himself to you as his bride.
[22:54] But you know, as those who have been invited and entreated in the gospel to listen and consider and incline and forget our father's house, we have been rescued, we have been redeemed, we have been reconciled, we have been restored in our relationship with God, we have been adopted and accepted into the family of God, we have received that spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
[23:20] We have been named and numbered as the children of God where we can say that our father which art in heaven. We can describe God as our father, as the daughter of the king.
[23:37] But you know, what's also interesting about the father's daughter is what the father says about her in verse 12. He says it there, the people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people, all glorious is the princess in her chamber with robes interwoven with gold.
[23:58] In many colored robes she is led to the king. So there's the marriage with her virgin companions following behind her. With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king.
[24:13] So in the father's love song about his son, Jesus Christ and his bride, the church, the father says that the bride will come from Tyre and she will appear in the palace of the king.
[24:28] She will come from Tyre which is very interesting because Tyre, it's actually mentioned for a specific reason. Tyre is Gentile territory. Tyre is a city belonging to the nation of Lebanon which was north of Israel.
[24:43] Tyre was outside the covenant nation of Israel. Tyre was a people who were foreign. They worshipped false gods.
[24:54] They were outsiders. They were Gentiles. They were strangers to grace and to God. And yet the father's desire for his son was to have a daughter, to have a church that was to the Jew first but also to the Gentile.
[25:12] It was to be both. It was to include the Jew and the Gentile. The father's desire was to have a church that included all nations, tribes, peoples, and languages.
[25:27] It's the wonder of the bride of Christ. And you know, we even see the beginnings of this in the book of Ruth. Wonderful book, another love story where Ruth is a Gentile.
[25:40] She's a Gentile Moabite. She's encouraged by her mother-in-law, Naomi. She's told, return to your father's house. But what does Ruth say?
[25:52] Ruth willingly confesses. She says that she has heard, she's inclined her ear, she's willing to forget her father's house, and she says, entreat me not to leave thee or from following after thee.
[26:08] For whither thou goest, I will go. Where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people. Thy God shall be my God. That was the testimony of a Gentile Moabite.
[26:22] And that's a testimony of all of the Lord's people down throughout the centuries. Even as the apostle Peter said to the church, he said, you were once not a people, but now you are the people of God.
[26:37] Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. The bride of Christ, she is both Jew and Gentile.
[26:48] She includes all nations, tribes, peoples, and languages. But you know, as the father's love song draws to a close, he expresses his longing for the wedding day.
[27:05] He expresses his longing for the wedding day. He says in verse 16, in place of your father shall be your sons. You will make them princes in all the earth. I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations.
[27:17] Therefore, nations will praise you forever and ever. There's this longing. This longing for the wedding day. And you often see that with engaged couples, don't you?
[27:29] You're part of their excitement where they're longing for their wedding day. They can even tell you how many days until the big day. I suppose if I was to ask Hugh Ferrier and Natalie how many days until their big day, they would tell me it's about 37.
[27:47] Because they're counting down the days. They're longing for the day when their wedding will take place. And that's what we see here. The father in his love song, he's longing for the day of the wedding.
[28:00] He's longing for the day when his son's bride finally enters the palace. She enters the father's house. He's longing for the day when she is presented before his glory with exceeding joy.
[28:18] As the father sings, on that great day, they shall be brought with gladness great and mirth on every side into the palace of the king.
[28:29] And there they shall abide. And you know, John himself, the apostle John, he was given a glimpse of that in his revelation of heaven where you remember how the curtain of heaven was pulled back and John saw that great multitude that no one could number and they're all gathered there.
[28:49] The bride is there. And she consists of every nation, tongue, people, and language standing before the throne. The church is there and she's prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
[29:04] And then there's that wonderful question. Who are these clothed in white robes? White robes like a bride.
[29:15] Where have they come from? And we're given the answer. These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They've washed their robes. They've made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
[29:27] They're the Lord's redeemed. They are those who have been rescued and reconciled and restored. They're the church of Jesus Christ. And you know, as John is given this revelation, he hears the bride singing.
[29:42] He hears the church singing because we're told that the church is singing hallelujah for the Lord our God almighty reigns.
[29:54] Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory for the marriage supper of the Lamb has come. You know, it's no wonder that the angel said to John, write this down.
[30:12] Write this down because blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
[30:26] And you know, my Christian friend, the wonder is we have been invited. This is something we should never lose sight of. We have been invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
[30:42] We have been invited because we are part of the church. We are the bride of Christ. And one day we will be presented faultless before His glory with exceeding joy.
[30:58] My friend, Psalm 45, it's the real song of songs. It's the Father's love song. It expresses the Father's declaration about His Son and the Father's daughter for His Son, His bride, the church, a church whom He loved and gave Himself for.
[31:23] Us, all, for us. Let's never lose sight of it that we are all invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
[31:35] May the Lord bless these thoughts to us. Let us pray. O Lord, our gracious God, we give thanks to Thee for the wonder of Thy love.
[31:48] We thank Thee, O Lord, for sending Thy Son in order to rescue His bride, to redeem her, to restore her, and even to prepare for her a place in glory.
[32:00] O Lord, how undeserving we are of it. We marvel at Thy grace, that grace is poured forth from Thy lips. And help us then, we pray, to come and to keep coming, to know that we are those who have been called with that holy calling.
[32:18] We were once not a people, but now we are the people of God. We are part of that number when the role will be called up yonder. Help us then, we pray, to keep pressing on towards the mark of the high call of God that is in Christ Jesus.
[32:36] Watch over us then, we pray, go before us, lead us and guide us, for we ask it in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. We're going to sing again this time, well, again in Psalm 45.
[32:53] Psalm 45, picking up where we left off at verse 7 down to the verse marked 12. Psalm 45 and verse 7.
[33:06] Page 267 in the Scottish Psalter. Psalm 45 and verse 7. Thou lovest right and hatest ill, for God thy God most high above thy fellows hath with the oil of joy anointed thee.
[33:23] Of aloes myrrh and cassia, a smell thy garments had, out of the ivory palaces whereby they made thee glad. We'll sing down to the verse marked 12 of Psalm 45 to God's praise.
[33:37] The lovest right and hatest still for all thy own who most shy happiness and joyful of joy and and la down arед by at horns as pase spider as A spell thy garment's hand, Unto thee I repolences, Whereby they may be God.
[34:44] Upon thy womb, And long above, King's daughters were at hand, Upon my right hand, And did the queen A gold of all first hand.
[35:17] O daughter, Arken and regard, Unto thy near impine, Likewise forget thy Father's house, And people that are thine.
[35:51] Then all the King desired shall be, Thy beauty may mend me, Because he is my Lord, Do thou him worship reverently.
[36:25] The daughter thereof, Thy child be, With gifts and offerings great, Though so firmly, Of the blood are rich, Thy favor shall end me.