A Devoted Marriage

Well, good morning, church family.

It is good to be back in the pulpit, opening God’s word together

I think I am sufficiently recovered from being away at student camp so I am eager to get into God’s word together

If you are a guest, my name is Stefan and I am the pastor of preaching here at Harvest

We are continuing our Summer in the Psalms series

So go ahead and open your Bibles to Psalm 45.

And in Psalm 45 this morning, we are going to get a picture of “A Devoted Marriage”

Psalm 45 is a love song in which a bride is presented to a king on their wedding day

But this isn’t just an ordinary wedding

And to understand why, we need to get on the same page about how the Bible talks about marriage.

In Ephesians 5, Paul is speaking to husbands and wives and he uses the relationship of Christ to the church as the basis for his instructions to husabnds and wives.

Then, Paul quotes from Gen. 2:24 where God brings the first woman to the first man and we are told that the “two will become one flesh.”

And then Paul says this in Ephesians 5:32 “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”

What is he saying?

He is saying that from the very beginning, marriage was teaching us about the relationship of Christ to the church

Meaning, Christ and his church is not a reflection of marriage

But marriage is a reflection for Christ and his church

Mankind was made to reflect the truth about God

And when a man and a woman are married, that is meant to be a reflection of the truth about Christ and his love for his church

And his church’s love for him.

And then, Heb. 1:8 quotes Psalm 45 and says that it is about Jesus

So that means that you can’t understand the full picture of Ps. 45 apart from Christ.

This is why it is so important to let Scripture interpret Scripture…

If we don’t, we will just think this is a psalm about a king and his bride

When we listen to Eph. 5 and Heb. 1, we learn that in reading this Psalm, we are standing at a royal wedding of King Jesus and his bride, the church

And as we read this Psalm, and see the picture of Christ that it is painting, we will grow in our love for him and our devotion to him.

So, let’s give these words of Psalm 45 our full attention

Psalm 45 “To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah; a love song. My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; 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. Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, 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! Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions; your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad; daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear: forget your people and your father’s house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him. 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. In many-colored robes she is led to the king, with her virgin companions following behind her. With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king. In place of your fathers shall be your sons; you will make them princes in all the earth. I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore nations will praise you forever and ever.”

These are God’s words for us as his people - May we have ears to hear them and hearts to obey them

Big Idea: The perfect bridegroom deserves a devoted bride [7:00]

Given what Paul says in Eph. 5:32 and how Heb. 1:8 attributes this Psalm to Christ, we must see the bridegroom as Christ and the bride as the church

And Jesus Christ is a perfect bridegroom who deserves a devoted church as his bride.

But this begs the question…

[Bridge question] What makes Christ the perfect bridegroom and therefore deserving of a devoted church as his bride?

And we are going to see 6 qualities (yes, I said 6… buckle up)… 6 qualities that prove that Jesus is the perfect bridegroom who deserves for the church to be a devoted bride.

Christ is the perfect bridegroom because…

And as we walk through this psalm together, we're going to see six qualities of Christ as the perfect Bridegroom and why there is no one more worthy of our devotion than Him.

He possesses all goodness (1-2) [8:00]

Notice how the psalm begins…

Psalm 45:1–2 “My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king.”

Before the psalmist tells us anything about the King, he tells us how he feels about the King.

That word "pleasing" is the Hebrew word for "good."

The word 'good' in Scripture should always point us back to creation in Gen. 1-2 where God declares what he has created as being “very good”

For something to be truly “good” means that it is the way God intended it to be according to his good design in creation.

And so the psalmist is declaring, “This is how it should be”

And look at v. 2

"You are the most handsome of the sons of men."

The phrase "most handsome" is actually a repetition of the Hebrew word for beauty.

The psalmist is saying, "You are the beautiful, beautiful one."

And the word translated "men" is the Hebrew word “Adam”.

Literally: “You are exceedingly more beautiful than the sons of Adam."

Just like v. 1, the Psalmist is taking us back to Genesis…

Adam was created good, but he rebelled against God and was corrupted in his nature

And every person born after him shared in that rebellion and corruption

And the rest of the Old Testament is looking for a new Adam who will come and will not fail like Adam did

Yet all of the sons of Adam failed in the same way he did…

And the Psalmist is saying in v. 2, “Here he is - Here is the truly beautiful son of Adam.”

This king possesses the goodness that no one before him did.

And you might say, “But Stefan, it says beautiful… not good.”

Well, let’s talk about beauty for a minute…

Beauty is not physical attractiveness… not in the biblical usage at least.

Psalm 27 talks about looking upon the “Beauty of the Lord…” but it isn’t talking about his physical appearance

It is talking about his moral character.

He is beautiful because he is good.

The beauty of Christ is not his external appearance.

The beauty of Christ is the perfection of who He is.

His words are good.

His desires are good.

His actions are good.

His character is good.

There is no corruption, or sin, or darkness in him.

He is truly beautiful - Perfect in every way so that when we look upon him, we see the perfect character of God, perfectly reflected.

A common struggle in marriage is that each spouse breaks the other’s trust at some point.

Through what we say

Through what we do

Through looking to our interests at the expense of the other.

Through our own sin, we wrong one another.

But Christ is the perfect bridegroom who can truly be trusted by his devoted bride because he possesses all goodness and nothing corrupt or sinful.

So what is the response of the devoted bride to this perfect bridegroom?

Look at Him.

Behold Him.

Be captivated by the goodness that he embodies knowing that you will never see anything that will break your trust in him

But he is fully worthy of our faith and our devotion, and the wholehearted trust that our hearts long for.

The truth is that where you fix your eyes determines what fills your heart.

We spend so much of our lives fixing our eyes on everything else

our problems, our fears, politics, entertainment, even ourselves

and then wonder why our hearts are empty.

Look at Christ.

Fix your eyes on the One who possesses all goodness.

The more clearly you see Him, the more your heart will overflow with delight in Him, which will lead to being devoted to him.

[Transition] So, that is the first quality of the perfect bridegroom.

Second, Christ is the perfect bridegroom because…

He conquers all his enemies (3-5) [14:00]

Psalm 45:3–5 “Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, 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! Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you.”

This probably isn't the picture we expect at a wedding.

We expect flowers and celebration and the groom in a tuxedo.

Instead, the psalmist shows us a King with a sword riding into battle.

Why?

Because before He receives His bride, He must first secure His bride by conquering the enemies that keep her from him.

Now, when we think about enemies we typically think about human enemies, opponents, rivals…

And we then think about how we can conquer them through our own abilities

But the enemies that keep us from Christ are enemies that we cannot conquer on our own

Satan, sin, and death.

And through Christ’s sinless life, his substitutionary death on the cross, and his resurrection, he crushed the head of Satan, he removed the penalty of sin, he removed the sting of death

He conquered all of his enemies that would keep us from him and he secured us as his bride.

And notice… the king does not wait for the bride to free herself

He fought for her

And only then, when he secured victory, is the bride brought to him later in the Psalm.

Church family, that's true of all of us.

Christ did not wait for us to rescue ourselves before He loved us.

He did not ask us to win the battle before He received us.

He fought for us while we were still helpless - “For while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

And because we now belong to him, we share in the victory that he won.

So we no longer have to fear the condemnation of sin because Christ has paid for it.

We no longer have to fear the power of Satan because Christ has defeated him.

And we no longer have to fear death because Christ has overcome the grave.

Every enemy that stood between the bride and her Bridegroom has been removed by the victory of the King.

And a devoted bride marvels at her perfect, victorious bridegroom.

You should marvel that He fought the battle you could never fight and won the victory you could never win.

We should marvel that he acted before we did - He won before we cleaned ourselves us

[GOSPEL] And if you are here today and you think that that God is waiting for you to win victory before you can come to him, look at Christ

He fought for you, to win victory for you over the enemies that you couldn’t defeat…

You only need to turn to him in devotion so that you can share in his victory, rather than waiting on your own.

Because Jesus conquered all his enemies,

When temptation comes, remember that sin has already been defeated and is powerless over you.

When Satan accuses you of your sin, remember that Christ has crushed him and has removed the sin that would make you guilty.

When death threatens you, remember that your King walked out of the grave.

And because the church is united to a victorious Bridegroom, His victory becomes our victory.

[Transition] He possesses all goodness and so he conquers all his enemies

Third, Christ is the perfect bridegroom because…

He reigns with all righteousness (6-9) [19:00]

Look first at v. 6

Psalm 45:6 “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.”

Now if you've been following the psalm carefully, these verses should make you pause.

Up until this point, the psalmist has been speaking to the King.

But now he says, "Your throne, O God..."

So is he talking to the king? Or is he talking to God?

Yes…

This king is being called God…

So this is no human king

This is not simply another king in the lineage of David

No ordinary son of David could ever be addressed this way.

But then it gets even more surprising.

Psalm 45:7 “you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;”

The King is called God, and yet God is also His God?

How do we make sense of that?

Well, in the nature of God, There is a unity of God’s being, with a diversity of the persons in the Trinity.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

One God, three persons

And when God the son took on human flesh, he did not cease to be God, but at the same time was fully submitted to the will of the Father.

He lived in submission to the righteous requirements of God’s standard

He loved righteousness… he hated wickedness

In taking on flesh, Jesus Christ as the perfect bridegroom perfectly embodied the righteousness of God

Now, if Jesus Christ were not the God-man, divine and human, eternal God who took on human flesh… these words in Psalm 45 would be blasphemous.

To call a mere human king, “God”

Instead, listen to the words of commentator Derek Kidner

“This paradox is consistent with the incarnation [that’s Jesus taking on human flesh], but mystifying in any other context. It is an example of Old Testament language bursting its banks to demand a more than human fulfillment."

What is happening here is the Psalm is stretching forward to its fulfillment in Jesus

It stretches beyond David.

It stretches beyond Solomon.

It stretches beyond every earthly king and finds its fulfillment only in Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God who became man.

And because he was obedient in his human life, he is exalted on his throne and reigns with all righteousness.

The Bridegroom of Psalm 45 is not merely a righteous man.

He is the God-man.

And because He is God, His reign is perfectly righteous.

Notice what verse 7 says:

"You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness."

There are few things more terrifying than someone who has authority, but is wicked.

Imagine a husband who wields authority in his home for his own benefit… to the harm of his family

That is wicked… and that authority cannot be trusted.

But not Christ - He is the perfect bridegroom who has all authority in heaven and on earth, yet he will always use that authority for our good, because he reigns with all righteousness.

So you and I can trust him - We do not have to fear his authority, but can place ourselves fully under his reign, knowing that his way is right and good

He is the perfect bridegroom… and a devoted bride will trust him.

[Transition] Half-way there… Fourth, Christ is the perfect bridegroom because…

He deserves all allegiance (10-12) [25:00]

Now the focus shifts.

Up to this point we've been looking exclusively at the King.

Now the psalmist turns and begins speaking to the bride.

Psalm 45:10–12 “Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear: forget your people and your father’s house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him. The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people.”

At first, those words sound harsh.

Is the psalmist telling her to forget her family?

No, He's talking about where she has given her heart.

Those things from your old life that had your heart, it is time to let them go

You have a new love now… And there is no room for old loves in this new union.

When a bride leaves her father's house, she enters a new household. Her primary loyalty is no longer to the family she left behind, but to the husband she now belongs to.

[Parents of married children… something to pray about]

So it is when Christ brings us to himself.

Before Christ, you had things you gave your heart to

You had worldly things that you worshiped

You had your own kingdom that you belonged to

You found your identity in what other people said or in what you did

But now, you belong to Christ by faith and he deserves all allegiance.

To walk with him now is to say goodbye to that old life

To forget those old priorities

To leave behind those old sins that he has wiped away

To let go of the shame that you carry for them

To embrace a new identity because of your union with him

But we have to be careful to not miss the reason why we should do this

The bride doesn't leave because she's forced to.

The bride leaves because she has found someone greater.

People do not abandon lesser loves until they are captivated by a greater one.

Following Jesus is not simply saying "no" to sin.

It is saying "yes" to someone infinitely better.

We don't leave our idols because Christianity has stricter rules.

We leave our idols because Christ offers a truer and greater freedom.

We don't leave our old life because we're told to.

We leave it because we have already found new life that is exceedingly better.

Every competing allegiance is ultimately asking you to believe that it can satisfy you more than Christ can.

Money promises satisfaction.

Success promises significance.

Comfort promises peace.

Sin promises pleasure.

But every one of those promises is proven to be empty at some point.

But Christ deserves all allegiance because his promises are never empty.

And so he is worthy of us leaving our old life and clinging to the new life that he brings.

So let me ask you: What part of the old life are you still holding onto?

And what would compel you to let them go in order to take hold of Christ?

And the thing that will compel you to leave your old life behind is to look again at Christ, the perfect Bridegroom.

Because the more clearly you see His goodness...

His victory...

His righteous reign...

the easier it becomes to leave everything else behind and give hime your full allegiance.

And everything else will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace

The perfect Bridegroom deserves a devoted bride.

So leave everything that competes with Him - and cling to Him alone.

[Transition] Fifth, Christ is the perfect bridegroom because…

He shares all glory (13-15) [31:00]

v. 10-12 give us an image of someone speaking to the bride before she comes out… Now we see her entering the palace.

Psalm 45:13–15 “All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold. In many-colored robes she is led to the king, with her virgin companions following behind her. With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king.”

The bride is “all glorious” as she enters the palace of the king.

Now the question is why? Where does her glory come from?

It would be tempting to say that her glory is in the robes and the companions and the procession leading to the palace

But the reason she has those things is because of her wedding to the king.

This is not pointing to a glory that the princess has in and of herself

It is a glory that she is now clothed with because of her marriage to the king

None of it exists apart from her union with the Bridegroom.

Church family, the church as the bride of Christ is a glorious reality… but make no mistake… it is not glorious because we make it glorious.

It is glorious because the perfect bridegroom shares his glory with us.

Everything that makes the bride beautiful has been given to us by Christ.

And if you don’t believe me… listen to a few passages in the New Testament that make this exact claim

Ephesians 5:27 “so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

Christ is the one who presents the bride in splendor by removing the impurity that kept her from him

But he doesn’t just remove our impurity, he clothes us with purity

Revelation 19:7–8 “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”

It was granted to her.

It was given.

Even the garments of the bride are gifts from the Bridegroom.

Then in Revelation 21:9–11 “Then came one of the seven angels… [who] spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.”

Not her own glory.

The glory of God.

Do you hear the pattern?

The glory of the bride is always the shared glory of the Bridegroom.

Everything that belongs to Christ becomes the possession of His bride by his grace.

Because we are united to Christ as his bride, we become one

He takes everything that belongs to us

our guilt,

our shame,

our punishment,

our sin

and He bears it Himself.

Then He gives us everything that belongs to Him.

His purity.

His inheritance.

His kingdom.

His life.

His glory.

Because the perfect bridegroom shares all glory.

And listen… that changes the way we think about ourselves.

The world tells us to find our glory within.

To celebrate ourselves.

To build our identity around ourselves.

To magnify ourselves.

But the church has never been called to rejoice in herself.

We rejoice in Christ.

Our beauty is His beauty reflected in us.

Our righteousness is His righteousness credited to us.

Our glory is His glory shared with us.

So don't spend your life trying to make much of yourself.

Because it won’t work.

He is the perfect bridegroom, not us - So we should make much of him

As he shares all His glory with His bride.

And finally… Christ is the perfect bridegroom because

He surpasses all before him (16-17) [37:00]

Look at verses 16 and 17.

“In place of your fathers shall be your sons; you will make them princes in all the earth. I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore nations will praise you forever and ever."

In 2 Samuel 7, God made a promise to David that David would have an heir who would reign on throne forever

Yet every king who came after David died

But Psalm 45 speaks about the king who will not lose the throne but will reign forever

His name will be remembered forever.

The nations will praise Him forever.

And listen… Because the Bridegroom lives forever...

His marriage lasts forever.

One of the clearest evidences that earthly marriage is a reflection of Christ’s union with the church is that every earthly marriage will ultimately end

And Jesus tell the Sadducees that in the new heavens and new earth people are neither married nor given in marriage

Because we will be forever married to the perfect bridegroom as his church that he bought with his own blood

His reign is forever, and we will reign with him forever as the bride of the eternal king.

because he defeated death, death is not the end of our union with Christ

And so not even death can separate us from his love.

And because he possesses all goodness, has conquered every enemy that would keep us from him, he reigns with perfect righteousness, he is worthy of our allegiance, and he shares his glory… you know what you never have to worry about?

You never have to worry that this groom will leave you.

That is why Psalm 45 ends with praise.

"Therefore nations will praise you forever and ever."

The praise never ends because the reign never ends.

The joy never ends because the marriage never ends.

The Bridegroom never leaves His bride.

We fear that when people see the real us, they won’t love us anymore

So we live with this unending fear that at some point, they will leave.

Christ knows the real you better than you do… and he won’t every leave you

Instead, you can live with a resolute hope that even when you are faithless, even you have failed, he is forever the perfect bridegroom who has united you to himself

And nothing can bring that marriage to an end.

[Conclusion] 41:00

The perfect bridegroom deserves a devoted bride

He possesses all goodness - So we can behold him

He conquers all his enemies - So we can marvel at him

He reigns with all righteousness - So we can trust him

He deserves all allegiance - So we can leave our old lives and cling to him

He shares all glory - So we can rejoice with him

He surpasses all before him - So we can hope in him

May we be a church that is a devoted bride

And may we all never take our eyes off of the perfect bridegroom.

Amen.

[COMMUNION]

Ordinary bread/juice - Means of grace

Open communion

Do not mock the cross

Directions/GLUTEN FREE

‘The bridegroom is returning for his bride - Let’s stand and sing about that day as we wait for him”