Psalm 45

We're going to read a hymn instead of sing one. Psalm 45, please. Psalm 45 is really the companion psalm to Psalm 69, where we started the day in the excellent Bible reading this morning.

Psalm 45, please, and verse number one. My heart is indicting a good matter. I speak of the things which I have made touching the king.

My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men. Race is poured into thy lips.

Therefore God hath blessed thee forever. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness.

And thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under thee. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.

The scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad. King's daughters were among thy honorable women. Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophia.

Now their little introduction is to the chief musician upon Shushanim, for the sons of Korah muskil a song of loves. We do trust that God will bless his word to us at the close of this conference. When you come to Psalm 69, as we thought this morning, it's a psalm of very low things.

In fact, the writer, the chief musician, would have taken it and would have handed it to those men who had the deep bass voices. When we come to Psalm 45, it's a psalm of very high things. The chief musician would have taken it and he would have handed it to the tenor singers and the sopranos, those who could hit the very high notes.

When we come to Psalm 69, that Shushanim psalm, that lily psalm, it's the lily, and it's the lily in the valley, and it's wilting under the storm clouds of the wrath of God. But when we come to Psalm 45, it's the lily on the mountain top, and it's basking in the glory of the sunlight, of the goodness, and the majesty, and the glory of God. And so we have these two Shushanim psalms, and they are both messianic psalms.

One deals with the depths of the sufferings of Christ, and one deals with the heights of the glory of Christ. You'll notice in this little introduction there, it says to the chief musician upon Shushanim for the sons of Korah, masculine. You say, what's masculine? Well, it's really the Old Testament word for doctrine.

Now, when I was a young believer, and I went along to minister meetings, and somebody said, we're going to deal with doctrine, I thought that that meant it was going to be a very dull and a very boring thing. But doctrine just means teaching. And over this weekend, there has been a lot of teaching that has been given of various colors, and hues, and natures we trust all from the Word of God.

And so when we come to Psalm 45, the idea is we're going to be instructed. We're going to learn something, and we're going to learn something about one who is the King of glory. But then you'll notice it's instruction, it's a song of loves.

We're going to learn something about love. Now, this isn't some soppy sentimental thing from the 1960s. You know, this isn't the soppy sentimental sort of nonsense that occasionally I try and prune down the phone to my wife when I'm away from her as I am now, and I try to tell her to put her sweet lips a little closer to the phone, or I try and prune down and tell her, I love you because, and all that sort of sentimental rubbish.

No, no, this is something higher, and holier, and grander, and greater. It's a song of loves, and so we're going to learn something from it. He says, my heart is inditing a good matter.

Now, that word inditing is a very interesting word. It means it's overflowing. Now, I trust that that's where we were as our brother Scott has said this morning.

Our hearts were overflowing with a good matter. They were bubbling over. Now, I'm a very practical sort of man, and a few years ago, we have a gospel trailer.

We take it to agricultural events, and we take it to various places where we can distribute gospel literature from it, and we always take a cup of what we call back home air flasks. They hold about two liters of water each, and we boil the water up and put them in, and we can have free tea and coffee throughout the day, which is sometimes very useful on cold days. Well, one day, I was filling up these air flasks, two liters, and the kettles are only 1.7 liters, so therefore, to fill them both up, I was going to have to fill the kettle up on three occasions, but I noticed above the 1.7 liter water mark, there seemed to be quite a lot of space that could be filled up with water, and so I thought, well, why not just fill them up, and I'll probably get two liters into each, and I'll only have to boil the thing twice, and that'll save us a little bit on the electric bill, and so I filled the kettle up right over up to the top, and I turned it on, and I got a wonderful illustration of inditing, bubbling over.

The water came through the top and out of the spout and all down the side and all over the kitchen work surface, and I got a fairly good roasting from my wife for being so stupid, but you see, that's the idea. The kettle was unable to contain what was in it. My dear brother, my dear sister, what about it in your life and mine? Are we containing what we have of Christ, or does it bubble up, and does it overflow in thankfulness for all that he is and for all that he's done? My heart is inditing a good matter.

That's the Old Testament word for gospel. My heart is overflowing with the gospel. Now, last year, I was severely rebuked by our brother Murray.

I'm sure I'm the only person here who has ever been rebuked by our brother Murray. I'm sure there is nobody else who has ever been told off by him, but you see, I went in, we went into a filling station, we filled the truck up, and I went in to present the card and to make payment, and I came out, and I got into the truck, and I put the seatbelt around me, and I started it up, and Murray said, well, what did the young lady behind the counter say when you gave her a gospel tract and an invitation to the gospel meetings? Ah, I didn't have a gospel tract or an invitation on me. No, he says, I know.

I was waiting for you to open the door and take one so that when you went in, you had one to give to her. You see, what was the difference? Murray's heart was inditing a good matter, the gospel. All I was inditing was making sure that I paid for the fuel that was in the vehicle.

You see the difference? Well, he says, my heart is inditing a good matter. I speak of the things which I have made touching the king. You see, he's made them.

He's made them his own. Now, young people, you need to get down to the Word of God. It's not going to be zapped into you.

You're not going to sit there and receive some sort of vision from God and say, oh, there it is. How was it that Brother Scott was able to lead the Bible reading this morning and just take us through 1 Corinthians chapter 11? Did he receive some special ministry from an angel that zapped it into him? Did he receive some little computer thing that was in here that received something from heaven? No. He studied and he worked and he made it his own.

Brother Skates, when he was ministering yesterday on the sad events of Nadab and Abiyu, was it that he was programmed in? No, he worked and he worked to make it his own. That's the whole idea here, the things which I have made touching the king. But then he says, thou art fairer than the children of men.

That word fairer, I believe this is the only place it's found in the whole of the Scriptures. It means thou art doubly fair. Now, I used to be in an assembly when I was working in South Wales and there was a dear brother there and regularly he would thank God for the God-man.

Now, I never liked it and I still don't because the Lord Jesus is not and was not the God-man. That sort of makes him part God and part man. The Lord Jesus was ever holy God and holy man and one glorious person.

The theologians here would know that there is a wonderful word and young people if you learn it, you can throw it into conversation sometime and it will just liven up your conversation. It's called hypostatic union, the coming together of holy God and holy man in one glorious person. But then he says this in verse 3, gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty.

Well, we had a coronation, I believe, over in our country last year, the king's coronation, and the crowning moment of that coronation was indeed the crowning moment. When that marvelous crown was placed upon the new monarch's head, that was it. The nation was investing in him all the power and the authority of kingship.

But in Old Testament times, it wasn't the crown upon the head so much, it was the sword at the thigh. And the sword was supported by something, well, over in Northern Ireland to be very controversial, we would call it a sash, which causes an awful lot of problems. It's just basically a belt that comes over the shoulder and down here and it attaches around the thigh and it holds the sword in position.

You see, that was placed over the new monarch's head. The sword was placed in position and it gave the king all the authority and all the power invested in him. That's the Lord Jesus that wears the sword.

But then you'll notice he says this, it says then in verse number 4, and in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness. Now, the idea is there that he's on a chariot and the three horses of meekness and righteousness and truth, they take their character from the one upon whom they are pulling, the one in the chariot. It's three horses and they're pulling the chariot and their character is derived from the one who is in control and has the reins.

But then he says in verse number 5, thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies. Well, we once had our trailer at a particular place, well, it was a tent before we had the trailer actually, called the Hearst Horse Show. Hearst is a little assembly just outside Reading, not too far from Windsor, where Windsor Castle is and where the late queen is laid.

And they asked me to go down there and take my tent to the Hearst Horse Show. And we set the tent up and we set the tracks out and the stalls and various things and then they said, now, would you mind just disappearing for the day? Well, have you ever tried to make somebody six foot five and a half inches disappear? I said, pardon? I've just traveled 200 miles with this tent to put it up here for you. Ah, yes, but you see, we want to speak to the people, not you, because if the people come to the gospel hall, they'll never see you, but they'll see us.

So you just have a day going around the horse show and just enjoy the day. And you can check back on us to see how we're doing, no problem, but we don't want you around, thank you very much. And so I had the whole day going around the Hearst Horse Show.

Well, of course, I went to the farrier, but the one man that caught my attention was the archer. He had his bow and arrows and he had a couple of targets set up, possibly not just quite as far as the back of this auditorium, but not far off. And there were two faces.

Now, this will tell you how long ago it was. One was Bill Clinton and one was Tony Blair, and they both had their mouths open. But of course, you would expect that, wouldn't you, from politicians and probably preachers.

But he would just pick up his arrow, he would draw the bow at a bench, he said, this one's for Bill, bing! This one's for Tony, bing! And he got them into the open mouth every single time. He never missed. And then you could pay a pound for charity and you got three shots.

Well, I didn't have a go, but I watched plenty that did and most of them missed. Most of them fell short and I felt it like shouting out, you've sinned! But I didn't, of course. Murray would have done, but I didn't.

But one man managed to get Bill Clinton in the top of his head, but that was about it. You see, what was the difference? The man was an expert. The arrows never miss their mark.

You've been at the conference today, you felt the arrows. Yesterday, was there an arrow that just hit home, just where you needed a little word from the Lord? Oh, you see, that's the way the Lord works. What about verse number eight, just to close, all thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and casea out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad.

You'll remember when the Lord Jesus was born, possibly 18 months to two years after, there were some wise men that came. Whether there were three or not, we know not, but we do know that they had three gifts and they came to the young child and they presented him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. Ah, there was a fragrance about the Lord Jesus as a young child.

You'll remember in his public ministry, there was a lady by the name of Mary who came with a little alabaster box of ointment, spikenard, very precious, and she broke it and she anointed his head and his feet. And the gospel records tell us that the fragrance spread throughout the house. It was filled with the aroma.

It went up and it went up into the bedchambers and it went right the way down into the basement and it was filled. Ah, wasn't there a fragrance about Christ in his public ministry? Ah, so there was. You'll remember when the Lord Jesus died, there were two men, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.

I think it's Josephus that tells us Nicodemus, his full name was Nicodemus Ben-Gurion. He tells us he was the third richest man in Jerusalem at that time. He was with the rich in his death.

They weren't caught out, those sisters, those ladies were caught out by what happened when the Lord Jesus died. They had to wait until the first day of the week. These men weren't caught out.

They had everything ready, a hundred pound weight of spices. We were talking about Leonard Sheldrake this morning. He wrote a lovely little book called The Plan to Renown.

I thought somebody had written my biography for me, but it's one of the sweetest little books. Just a devotional word on Christ and he says when the Lord Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, he gave him the key to understanding Scripture. A serpent on a pole equated to a Savior on a cross and he suggests then that Nicodemus, possibly with Joseph of Arimathea, they went to Scripture.

They came to Genesis 22. They found out where he would die, the mountains of Moriah. They come to Daniel 9. They know when he's going to die.

They come to Psalm 22. They know how he's going to die. They had everything ready and they anoint the body of the Lord Jesus.

There was a fragrance about the Lord in his early life, in his public life, and in his death. All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and acacia. Psalm 45 takes us to a very high ground and may it be that this conference would finish on a high ground as we worship one who bears the title the King of Glory.