Word of Salvation – Vol.14 No.39 – September 1968
The Church’s Wedding Song
Sermon by Rev. Prof. G. Van Groningen, M.A., Th.M., on Psalm 45.
Scripture Readings: Psalm 45; Hebrews 1
Suggested Hymns:
Psalter Hymnal 307:1-3 (New); 438:1-4; 83:1-3,5,6; 373:1-4; 376:4
Beloved people of God:
Oh, if there’s only one song I can sing
When in His beauty I see the great King,
This shall my song in eternity be
Oh, what a wonder, that Jesus loves me.
As this sermon was being prepared, the words of the song just quoted floated through the house. “If only one song to sing” – which would it be? What song is more or less the theme song of your life? If you don’t have one, or if you have one that does not honour the Lord Jesus Christ, you may well adopt Psalm 45 as your song.
It is important that we understand this Wedding Song of the Church if it is to be a theme song. The song was written by a poet for all redeemed to sing. However in the first part of the song we hear the voice of the Bride. In the second part we hear the Bridegroom. And as said before, this is the song for us all to sing.
The setting of the song is the palace courtyard. The king’s palace is surrounded by loyal attendants. All await the king to come out of the palace entrance. He is to step forth and receive his bride. All things have been made ready to receive the chosen one who very likely has come from another country. Now as you carefully read this psalm you may note that there seems to be a reference to more than one wife. Possibly the Oriental custom of polygamy is reflected. This fact stands out however: the king is to receive his true Bride. She is the Bride of brides.
But where is the Bride? On one side of the court yard are the servants’ quarters and also the special reception room for visitors, where they can clean themselves up and prepare to visit the king. The bride, in the reception room, has been receiving the last touches. The door opens, she steps into the courtyard.
The bride is a stranger. She has been brought in from her country, from family and friends. Is she hesitant? Is she afraid? Is she homesick already? Is she forced into this marriage? She is human. Her exact future is unknown…..!
And then – the Bridegroom steps forth from His palace.
The Bride sees Him.
The Bride sings: “My heart overflows, what a lovely song I can sing.
I sing to the King.
My words flow like water from a fountain” (verse 1),
Oh, if there’s only one song I can sing
Now in His beauty I see the great King
This for eternity my song shall be
Oh what a wonder that He loves me!
What makes the Bride burst out in rapturous song? Simply this: she sees her King, her Lord, her Husband.
What is so wonderful about Him?
Granted, she sees a man. Was it king David? Most likely the psalm was written for Solomon. We assume that the ministry of music, prepared by David, is being used to good advantage by Solomon.
The bride’s words explain her joy.
“You are the fairest of the sons of men”.
You are the most handsome.
Your face has noble features.
Your physique is that of a strong athlete.
Your face and voice reveal tenderness, love, compassion.
You are so perfectly man – so big hearted – so fragrant
– so intelligent – so wise – so glorious – so MAJESTIC!
Verses 2-5 present the oriental way of listing the virtues and character of the King.
Her husband is truly a wonderful man: That’s why she sings as she adoringly looks at Him.
Suddenly the bride sings a line which really is quite startling. So startling, in fact, that some Bible translators and commentators try to change the line. To no avail…! In the original, the text is as clear as can be. The bride sings, “Your throne O God – is forever”.
No, she has not turned her eyes upward to heaven. She is not imagining things. She is not seeing a vision. Nor is she becoming romantically sentimental: “Oh, isn’t he divine?”
She is definite. O God – as she looks to the King.
Now we know that heathen people sometimes considered their king to be a god, or that their god was the king. But this is not a heathen psalm. This psalm fits right into the Biblical setting. In Psalm 93:1,2 the Lord is said to reign. He is robed in majesty, girded with strength. His throne is established from everlasting. The Psalmist sang that, knowing that God had promised David that David’s house was to be eternal and his sons were to rule eternally (2Sam. 7). Then when Jesus was born the angels announced that David’s Son, the King, was born who is Christ the Lord. And now if we turn again to Hebrews 1 we find the clinching word. We read of Jesus Christ, of whom great things are said in the first verses. Of Him it is said, “Your throne is eternal”. Psalm 45, our text, is quoted!
The bride looks at a man – the king. She sings “O God”. No, Solomon is not God. But He represents God. He is a type of Jesus Christ. However, for the Old Testament bride, God is present and active in and through the King, His throne and Kingdom. She can sing, “Immanuel – God with us”. Is it any wonder she sings?
She also sings about His specific virtues. Hebrews 1:1-4 presents a number of theological statements which explain who Christ Jesus is. But the bride describes her lover – Lord – Husband.
Your throne is eternal because you are the eternal Lord. “Never will you disappear, never will your rule come to an end”. For the bride, this means blessed assurance for all time. It spells security and ground for steadfast hope. With gladness she (and we) sing (No.368 New P/H):
Rejoice the Lord is King, Your Lord and King adore….
His kingdom cannot fail, He rules o’er earth and heaven.
The keys of death and hell are to our Jesus given.
Rejoice … Jesus shall come…
And take His servants up to their eternal home.
And the children (old and young) can sing with comfort, “Safe am I, in the hollow of His Hand”. Safe for eternity.
The bride then sings of the King’s sceptre as one of equity. The sceptre refers to rule, government, judgment, conduct of business. The king in all these things is straight. There is no going off to right or left. He is balanced. He will not give a heavy sentence for a small misdemeanour one day, and the next day no sentence at all. He is even, just; each deed, each person, each event is correctly considered and properly dealt with. Never, no never will there be a raw deal from Him. He will deal graciously with the bride, her children, her friends at all times. What a comfort!
The bride proceeds to sing of her King as the truly Good one. He loves righteousness: (vs. 7); the clean – the beautiful – the proper. But much more is meant. He loves God’s will and all things that are according to that will. He loves that which is done in faith, in love and unselfish devotion. Loving righteousness, He will always insist on its presence in the life of His bride.
And He hates wickedness, the impure, the deceptive, cheating deed. He hates the ugly, vulgar, coarse, cheap words and deeds of man. He hates the improper, lewd, low, lustful acts of man.
He hates disobedience in all forms. Crookedness He will not tolerate. Violence and rioting are abominable to Him.
The King loves righteousness in all moral man-to-man relationships, and in all spiritual God-man relationships. This again gives the bride a glorious hope for her future life. She will have nothing to fear, she can only expect the best at all times from her loving Husband.
Truly we can join the bride in her song as we sing (No. 370 New P/H):
Day of Judgment, Day of wonders
Hark the trumpet’s awful sound…
How the summons will the sinner’s heart confound.
But to those who have confessed,
Loved and served the Lord below
He will say, come near, ye blessed
See the Kingdom I bestow
You forever, shall my love and glory know.
One more thing to note in the bride’s song is joy. “You are anointed with the oil of gladness”. This simply means that the thought of the joy of the Lord Jesus which comes when the Holy Spirit is present is a source of great gladness for the Bride. This joy is to be her blessing. This surely means that there is to be singing – laughing – humour in her royal home. Joy, unspeakable joy! Gladness! Songs!
In the midst of the sorrows and trials of life there is a joy – a joy of all the meek. He is the Lord Jesus, the very thought of whom with sweetness fills the breast. (No. 375).
The bride sings of more things – of honour, of wealth and hear what that other voice that is sounding forth so strongly is singing. It is the voice of the Bridegroom.
He has heard the Bride’s rapturous song. He steps forward. He stretches out His hand to receive His bride. His face is lit with love and longing. As He steps forward His voice rings out clear and strong. The words He sings are words for the attendants, all subjects, to sing also.
What does He sing?
“Hear, o daughter, consider and incline your ear”. I’ve heard you. Now listen to Me. Pay close attention. I have some very important things to say if our marriage and love is to be pure, strong and abiding. So,
O royal bride give heed
And to my words attend.
What is she to hear and understand? This:
For Christ the King
Forsake the world and every former friend.
“Bride, forget your people! Forget your father’s house.” The bride is to make a clean break with her past. As in every marriage, a man and wife are to cleave together, each leaving his/her father, mother and parental home so that the two can really make a new beginning. So there is to be a really new beginning between the King and His bride. This of course refers to a true spiritual conversion!
Cut past ties. No more leaning on the past. No nourishing of a few pleasant fancies regarding anyone but the King. Forget: Remove from your heart and mind all that before this time claimed your attention, your time, your energy. As bride of the King all is to become new for you. You are to become a new creature.
Did you hear the words of the King to His bride? Surely you know what it means. We sing it:
For the sake of Christ forsake the world
and every former friend.
Yes, we all know what that means. Are we concerned to do it?
Listen to the King some more. To the bride He sings a lovely line:
“Then the King desires your beauty”.
The bride found the King handsome, majestic. The Bridegroom considers the bride beautiful when she breaks off with the past entirely.
Isn’t this the way it should be? Of course! In every marriage, and especially in the spiritual love relationship between Christ and believers.
The King desires: this means two things. He has His specific preference, in fact, He has His absolute requirements. And secondly, He will insist on these. Now this should not worry the bride, for the King sees what he wants and demands. The bride is beautiful!
No, this is not sentimental nonsense. The King demands beauty. He demands purity first of all. Purity in heart, purity in mind, purity in morals, purity in every possible aspect of life. The bride is purified, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. That is why the Spirit was given.
Purity also refers to sensitivity and grace; it refers to how men and women react to that which is crude, cheap, vulgar. Purity refers to how one acts in the midst of a vulgar world. Grace is the term we use to describe a careful, wise positive rejection of the crudities of the world, and a happy acceptance of living the life of love in our daily environment.
Purity thus refers to how we dress (men as well as women), how we care for the hair, (men as well as women), how we prepare our faces. The King desires beauty! Not the artificial excesses and extravaganzas of the world. No, the King does not say: never care for your hair, never put anything on your face, don’t you wear any of the latest fashions. The King says, “I want your natural born-again beauty!” The King desires the glow of love radiating from the heart through the sparkling eye, the smiling face, the well-dressed body. The King has His own standard for beauty. He may well strongly reject some of the modern ideas, products, and expressions of beauty.
If we sing (No. 379 New) with conviction the following words:
Lord Jesus I long to be perfectly whole
I want Thee forever to live in my soul.
Break down every idol, cast out every foe,
Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
then, though we are wrinkled and old,
though we are heavy or skinny,
though we may have a rough or oily skin,
though we may have unusual features,
though we may have scars and blemishes,
nevertheless, we will be beautiful in the King’s sight!
Love brings beauty. Love can radiate through any being and transform it, so that beauty radiates forth.
The King desires your beauty. Sing then:
“Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me,
All His wondrous compassion and purity;
Oh, Thou Saviour divine,
All my nature refine,
Till the Beauty of Jesus be seen in me.”
There is one more thing we should make mention of in this song of the Bridegroom. “Since He is your Lord, bow to Him”.
We read that Sarah called her husband Lord. That was correct for her to do. Lord means master, protector, guide and provider. But it definitely includes the idea of authority. “Bride, recognize the headship of your King. Submit to the Sovereignty of your Lord”. No, the bride does not become co-lord, co-master, co-guide.
“Bow to Him”. The term bow means to worship. It is the same word that is used in the second commandment. Don’t bow down to, nor worship any idol. But worship your Lord.
This calls for complete surrender and submission.
This calls for a complete giving up of everything for the sake of the King.
This calls for complete obedience to the Lord.
This calls for the bride to honour and accept the virtues and will of her Lord as her own. It means that in nothing is she to seek her own selfish goals or ideals. The King, the Lord will always be greatest in her life.
She will sing and mean it: (No. 373 New P/H)
Beautiful Saviour, King of creation,
Son of God and Son of Man,
Truly I’d love Thee, Truly I’d serve Thee,
Light of my soul, my joy, my crown.
Fair are the meadows, Fair are the woodlands,
Robed in flowers of blooming spring;
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer;
He makes our sorrowing spirit sing.
Fair is the sunshine, Fair is the moonlight,
Bright the sparkling stars on high;
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer
Than all the angels in the sky.
Beautiful Saviour, Lord of the nations,
Son of God and Son of Man,
Glory and honour, Praise, adoration,
Now and forevermore be Thine.
After the singing – what happens in the courtyard? The Bridegroom takes His bride. Together they enter the palace.
The people of Tyre (vs.12) offer the bride worldly riches. Others offer her great wealth. But she enters the palace.
Farewell home – world with your allurements.
Farewell friends with your sick and cheap ideas of fun and good times.
Farewell passions of Baal.
Farewell games of Athens glorifying human bodies.
Farewell modes and fashions
of Egypt, Phoenicia, London and Hollywood.
Into the arms of true love I go!
Safe in the arms of the King; secure on His gentle breast.
Wrapped and kept in the power of divine love.
How blessed it is to be the Bride of the King.
These words of the bride and Bridegroom are also to be our words! We are to identify ourselves with the King and His Bride. In fact, we are to see the Bride as our representative. Even more, we too are included in the bride. All that the King sang to the bride He sings to us. And what the bride sings to the King, we sing to Him. Unless this is so, there is something radically wrong with us spiritually.
Maybe there is something radically wrong. You can determine this by simply asking yourself again: what is the theme song of my life? Or, what songs do I find appealing and captivating? Can we, young people, truly sing (no. 319 New P/H):
All glory be to Thee Most High,
To Thee all adoration…
and have the walls of our rooms splashed
by pictures of Elvis Presley or Normie Rowe?
Can we truly sing:
“Fairest Lord, Jesus, truly I’d love, thee, truly I’d serve”;
and also join in singing:
“I’ll make a world of my own and I’ll be satisfied?”
Understand well, it is not suggested that you throw out all folk and pop songs. But if it wrong to tell a lie, is it not just as wrong to sing lies? You can’t be two faced. You can’t sing opposite things if you truly join the bride in her song. The King’s demand for total separation, beauty and submission is unalterable and unavoidable.
So – what do you sing – father, mother, young people? If you don’t sing at all, there is something very wrong in your life. If you join the world in its songs of selfish love, of lust and passion, of joy in passing fads and outward glitter, then you can’t sing the wedding song of the church!
But, now I call upon everyone who truly loves the King to sing to Him:
No.373:1-4.
Amen.