A Wedding Song
Notes
Transcript
“Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us together today. Mawage, that blessed awangement, that dweam wifin a dweam. And wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva. So tweasure your wuv. Have you the wing?” — The Impressive Clergyman in “The Princess Bride”
It’s not marriage that bwings us together today, exactly. However, the psalm we’re going to read today is a wedding psalm. Psalm 45 is a wedding song. Look at the title of Psalm 45.
Psalm 45 (NIV)
For the director of music. To the tune of “Lilies.” Of the Sons of Korah. A maskil. A wedding song.
The timing of my preaching this psalm is a happy coincidence. Meghann’s and my 13th wedding anniversary is this Tuesday, two days from now.
As I was thinking about this wedding song/psalm, I thought about other wedding songs, including the songs played/performed at our wedding.
Our friend Susan played ‘More’, a Bobby Darin song that featured at my parents’ wedding on the same day 33 years before.
A handful of friends sang a song arranged around the melody of Pachelbel's Canon.
Our friends Lindsey and the incomparable Calvin sang ‘The Prayer’.
And then, at the end of the ceremony, we walked out as husband and wife to Louis Armstrong’s ‘What a Wonderful World.’
Songs play a big part in a wedding. As a rule, a wedding ceremony itself is a big deal. Very rarely is a wedding low-key or understated. There’s a lot of pomp and circumstance to go along with the mood of the day, and rightly so.
It’s a big deal; for me, our wedding is the second best day of my life (second only to the day Jesus saved me and called me to Himself).
A wedding is a significant moment. The wedding of a king and a queen is an especially big deal.
There’s some fascination with the royal story; always has been, I’d imagine. In my lifetime, I haven’t spent ten minutes concerned about what the royal family is up to. I don’t get the obsession with Princess Diana or William and Kate, or his brother and that other guy (king what’s his name)…I don’t get the obsession, but to each their own.
If they were monarchs over us, I’d probably pay a little more attention to them. More than the none I pay now.
For the people of OT Israel, however, who the king was and what the king was up to mattered very much. The Sons of Korah write this little ditty for the king and his bride.
Of course, it’s meant for more than that, whether the sons of Korah knew that or not. This—Psalm 45—is more than a song for one of Israel’s king and his queen. This we’ll see as we read through and think about this psalm.
>If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to Psalm 45. As you are able and willing, please stand with me for the reading of God’s Holy Word.
For the director of music. To the tune of “Lilies.” Of the Sons of Korah. A maskil. A wedding song.
1 My heart is stirred by a noble theme
as I recite my verses for the king;
my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.
2 You are the most excellent of men
and your lips have been anointed with grace,
since God has blessed you forever.
3 Gird your sword on your side, you mighty one;
clothe yourself with splendor and majesty.
4 In your majesty ride forth victoriously
in the cause of truth, humility and justice;
let your right hand achieve awesome deeds.
5 Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s enemies;
let the nations fall beneath your feet.
6 Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;
a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.
7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
by anointing you with the oil of joy.
8 All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia;
from palaces adorned with ivory
the music of the strings makes you glad.
9 Daughters of kings are among your honored women;
at your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir.
10 Listen, daughter, and pay careful attention:
Forget your people and your father’s house.
11 Let the king be enthralled by your beauty;
honor him, for he is your lord.
12 The city of Tyre will come with a gift,
people of wealth will seek your favor.
13 All glorious is the princess within her chamber;
her gown is interwoven with gold.
14 In embroidered garments she is led to the king;
her virgin companions follow her—
those brought to be with her.
15 Led in with joy and gladness,
they enter the palace of the king.
16 Your sons will take the place of your fathers;
you will make them princes throughout the land.
17 I will perpetuate your memory through all generations;
therefore the nations will praise you for ever and ever.
May God add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!
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This is a psalm unlike any other. What we have here is truly unique. It really is a wedding song.
And that makes it difficult to conceive of how we might glean anything.
What does this mean to us?
What’s here for the Christian today?
Is this just a song for some ancient king’s wedding?
Something we should be singing at our weddings?
Those are the questions we’re going to answer here this morning.
As I’ve said, a royal wedding is the theme. In the traditional view, this psalm is celebrating the marriage of Solomon to the princess of Egypt. We don’t know if that’s correct, but it’s as good of a guess as any.
This psalm has been composed for a specific occasion—a wedding—without our knowing whose exactly. It’s not a problem, our not knowing who this is about. It could apply to many of the kings in biblical times.
In the first 9 verses, the psalmist tells us about the king. He’s all excited. His heart is stirred up. He’s bubbling over; can’t keep it in.
In Praise of the King
In Praise of the King
He launches into his description of the king: the most excellent of men. Your Bible might say, “the most handsome of the sons of men” or “thou art fairer than the children of men.”
Whatever the words, that’s some lofty language. Some high praise.
Verses 3-5 praise the king’s military success. The honors to the king continue in verses 6-9. The king’s righteous character is highlighted: a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness.
The king has strong and godly passions. There are very few (if any) of Israel’s or Judah’s historical kings of whom it could be said, “you love righteousness and hate wickedness.” Most of the kings were mostly wicked themselves.
In verses 8-9, the psalmist comments on the king’s impressive splendor. He smells good, lives in beautiful palace, with music and attendants and the queen.
We have to go back and look at verses 6-7 and spend some time there. I hope these two verses caught your attention as we were reading through them.
I’ll put these verses back up on the screen:
6 Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. 7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.
This is the NIV translation. If you have a different version, it may differ slightly. That’s because every language scholar, translator, theologian works really hard to make these verses make sense.
It’s one thing for a writer to address a king with lofty language, with hyperbole and exaggeration. But what are we to make of the psalm when it comes right out and says, to the king, on his wedding day, “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever”???
Now, in some places at the time, and even today in some circles, the king is divine. In the time this was written, the king of Egypt was considered a ‘god’. But not in Israel. The king of Israel was absolutely not thought of as a ‘god’. He was just a man.
Some Bible translations make a choice here to say, “Your throne is like God’s throne, eternal.”
But the NIV and other translations like it, really are the simplest and most straightforward. We have to work to figure out why the psalmist would say this, like this, in these words.
Alexander Maclaren wisely wrote, “Either we have here a piece of poetical exaggeration far beyond the limits of poetic license, or one greater than Solomon is here.”
In fact, the author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 45. He uses verses 6-7 to prove the superiority of God’s Son—Jesus—to the very angels. The argument of Hebrews is this: about the Son, about Jesus, and only about Jesus does God say what is said in Psalm 45.
We are to assume, then, that while the poet is writing about a specific Jewish king, whose identity is unknown, he is also looking ahead and upward to that ideal and promised King. The King whose perfect and eternal reign is foreshadowed here.
In Praise of King Jesus
In Praise of King Jesus
Part of the rub is that in verse 6 the psalm addresses the king as God, but then in verse 7 (still speaking to the king) says, “God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you…”
So the king is called God and then we hear that God is his God.
Derek Kidner clears this up for us.
He writes, “this paradox—(God, whose God is God)—is consistent [only] with the incarnation (Jesus taking on flesh and being born among us). The language in Psalm 45 is consistent with the incarnation, but mystifying in any other context. It is an example of Old Testament language bursting its banks to demand a more-than-human fulfillment.”
The OT does this all over the place.
When referring to the coming Messiah, in Isaiah 9:6 He is called “mighty God.”
He is not only the shoot from Jesse [David’s father], but the very root of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1, 10).
David pretty clearly calls the Messiah “my Lord” in Psalm 110.
And then, in Zechariah 12:10, one of those weird Minor Prophets, there’s a mysterious grammatical switch of pronouns. There, the LORD Yahweh is speaking and He says, “They shall look on me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn over Him.”
There’s one like a son of man in the book of Daniel who is clearly a human, but also God. Daniel 7:14 says, “all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him.”
These are just a few indicators in the OT that the coming messianic king was indeed divine. The One to come would be God Himself, God incarnate, God in the flesh.
It’s a wonder why we are so shocked (or confused) when we read it here in this psalm.
Dale Ralph Davis, I think, is right. He says, “The problem may be with us: it’s totally unexpected. We don’t think anyone would say this.”
It’s like some of the things that come out of your kids’ mouths. For instance, I never expected to hear Makai refer to his stomachs. Plural. Some time ago, he informed us he has 4 stomachs, like a cow. Friday at lunch, I asked Makai if he was full and he shook his head and said, “No, I’m just now on my second stomach.”
Totally unexpected. Something like referring to the king of Israel as ‘God.’
We shouldn’t be surprised here with Psalm 45. In verse 1, the author of the psalm told us he is simply bubbling over. His heart is bursting at the seams, overflowing with joy for the king.
Perhaps he’s over-the-moon excited as the thinks about the ultimate King to come.
I have to believe the psalmist writes this psalm, in part, in praise of Jesus, the King.
The psalm isn’t all about the king—not totally. The queen stands beside him.
In verses 10-15, the psalmist speaks about her. He starts by telling her to listen.
10 Listen, daughter, and pay careful attention: Forget your people and your father’s house. 11 Let the king be enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord.
This is what’s so refreshing about the Bible. Dale Ralph Davis says it like this: “[The Bible] never kowtows to the settled shibboleths of current fashionable opinion.”
I love that. What he means is: the Bible doesn’t tell us only what we want to hear.
The queen is told she has a new loyalty; she’s told to forget her people. She’s told to honor the king. He’s her lord. But she’s standing there next to the king, decked out in the finest gold.
People come with gifts for the queen, simply because she belongs to Israel’s king.
The princess is glorious in her beautiful gown. She’s led to the king, along with her companions. The scene is beautiful, breathtaking, even. Full of joy and gladness.
It sounds an awful lot like a wedding. A royal wedding at that.
Psalm 45 is different. The psalmist is just going on and on about the king and queen. Whether it’s Solomon or another of David’s descendants, we have reason to celebrate along with the psalmist.
Our Praise of Jesus, the King
Our Praise of Jesus, the King
The king is one of David’s royal line. You remember how the LORD promised David that one of his offspring would sit on his throne forever.
The LORD said to David: 2 Samuel 7:13 “He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
It’s this line from which the Messiah—Jesus, the Son of David—eventually comes.
So, in one sense, the writer’s enthusiasm for this royal wedding is really enthusiasm over the coming of God’s Kingdom. This is really about the promise of God. It’s looking to Jesus.
The apostle Paul tells us, if we realize what actually matters, we won’t be able to help bubbling over with joy at the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.
Knowing Jesus, and being known by Him, is something more precious than all the gold in the world.
At the end of the psalm, we have two verses addressing the king again.
The royal marriage is reason enough to celebrate, but the psalmist anticipates an ongoing kingdom. If the king appoints his sons as princes throughout the land that implies the spread of the kingdom.
The king will be unforgettable through all generations; the nations will praise [him] for ever and ever.
There is more than a royal wedding here; there is a continuing kingdom—a kingdom where the king is praised, for ever and ever.
This song is not about some wedding completely detached from us.
If this is about Jesus (and it is), then this is a picture of a heavenly wedding, and the bride in this psalm probably has something to do with us, the Church.
Like the princess with the king, we are encouraged to cling to Jesus.
She’s told (v. 10): forget your people and your father’s house.
Like Abraham was told: “Leave your country, your people, and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.”
These are strong words. Yet the same thing is said to Christ’s people.
Jesus Himself said:
23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.
No human relationship should keep us from a wholehearted following after Jesus.
“It’s painful to leave behind mother and father, son and daughter. We are attached to the beauties and friendships of this world. Forget them all! The King will more than make up for all. Some day you will look back upon the parting with temporal things and think your hesitation silly and ill-founded. When you sit…in the presence of the eternal King, you will wonder what you saw in those former things.” -William Chantry
Friend, you will never regret giving your life to Jesus. There’s nothing that compares.
He is the answer. He alone is what we need. Our King, Jesus, died in our place to forgive us and reconcile us to God.
Give your life to Jesus. And never look back. There is nothing but Him.
Forget your people and your father’s house. And look ahead.
There’s joy and gladness in relationship with Jesus. And it’s not temporary; it’s eternal. Psalm 45:15 “Led in with joy and gladness, they enter the palace of the king.”
In praise of our King, we long for the day He comes for us, His bride, His Church. We long for Him to take us to His Father’s house, to the place He’s prepared for us; to His Father’s house where there are many rooms.
Then we will be where He is. He will be with us and we will enjoy Him, for ever and ever.
Until that day, we wait and we work.
We wait for Him, ready, with oil in our lamps. Prepared to be with Him. All the while telling others about our King, the One for whom we joyfully give up everything.
Because He is better than anything this world affords. Nothing we desire, nothing we have, compares with Him.
As the psalmist writes here, Jesus is truly the most excellent, the fairest of ten thousand to my soul. In Him alone I see everything I need to cleanse and make me whole.
That’s worth singing a song about.
A song to the King.
The King whose name is Jesus.
