2023-01-21 – Considering the Bible

My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.

This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.

I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book.

Todays passage is found in Psalm 45, one of a number of royalty / coronation psalms, with the passage speaking of two parties in a wedding.

Verse 2 – 9 speaks of the bridegroom, whilst verses 10 – 17 describes the royal bride. Given a number of verses within the body of the psalm, it becomes apparent this psalm is Messianic, and deliver to it’s readers a description of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Bridegroom, and of the church as His bride.

Hopefully, this will become more evident as we dig into this truly amazing portion of Scripture.

Let’s being with verse 1.

Psalm 45:1

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.

The psalmist begins this passage, giving us notice that this psalm is a song of love. And as a psalm of love, he is overflowing with anticipation, anxious to speak to (or of) the King, prepared to offer his body to be used of God to provide truths he can’t hold back.

How wonderful when the heart is bubbling with an excitement that overflows its banks. The psalmist speaks of his heart overflowing, and the term he uses occurs only once in the Word. This word refers to a bubbling of a fountain or the boiling of water, with the intent of the word communicating the noise associated with the action of the water. This “overflowing” of his heart is resulting in a noise or sound that is of a pleasant theme. And we have previously understood that the psalm’s theme is love, but we have not delved into the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of this love.

Theme

He speaks of the “bubbling of his heart ” as resulting in a pleasant theme. How understated the Word is at times. As we venture into this passage, we will begin to find that this no ordinary love, for that alone is wonderful. No – this is an eternal love springing from the King of Glory, and the psalm simply states it is a pleasant theme. At the risk of introducing my confusion, how could this theme of love simply be pleasant? Is it not a theme that is to be described as miraculous, phenomenal, transcendent, extraordinary?

Let us not depend on superlatives to describe a truth the Scripture describes as pleasant. Let us not go beyond the excitement the author is experienceing, and describ it incorrectly. The theme of love is pleasant, and as we enter further into the passage, we will see that the source of this love is worthy of greater superlatives. The love the psalmist speaks of will be elevated based on the source of the love. Currently, he is speaking of a topic, and not the Person we will be introduced to shortly that will expand the beuty of this topic!

Purpose

The psalmist goes on to declare His purpose. He will address, or utter his message to the King. Many Bibles translate this portion as the psalmist uttering his message of the King, or about the King. Entering this passage, we will become convinced of its Messianic message. Considering this, both translations may have a ring of truth to them. The psalmist speaks to the King, the God and Father of the Lord Jesus, and of the King, the Son of God, Jesus the Christ.

Preparation

The psalmist speaks of his readiness, of his willingness, of his desire to be of service, to listen only (as a scribe) and to record the message of the Author. He is one seeking to be a servant, and not an author, a willing scribe, not interjecting his own thoughts, but only the thoughts of the Author.

Scribes were known as scholars in the Old Testament, principally involved in the accurate transmission of documents of importance. A major characteristic of a scribe was an obsession with accuracy, the continuous rigor of exactness in the message, that the message not be interjected with his own thoughts or reasonings. Transmission of the message was the only intent of the scribes efforts.

Of course with this attitude of accuracy, the scribe also became an expert in the message, absorbing the message, becoming a human container of the truth he toiled so diligently to maintain for the next generation.

Consider our own time with the Word of the King. How scribal are we, in the absorption of the Word? Is it becoming a part of you? Is it working its way through you in your life, in the way you think and act, and eventually in how you speak? Is the message of love interrupting your life, making you consider your ways, changing your perceptions of what is important and what is of no consequence?

This psalm will continue to describe One who, if you follow, will interrupt your life, remold your thoughts, cause you to change your purpose and provide you times of struggle, introducing His ways, which are not our ways. This will inevitably cause struggles in your thoughts, feelings, speech and lifestyle.

For you see, this King is interested in truth, meekness and righteousness. If we are honest with ourselves, we tend toward lies, pride and selfishness. There will be a battle. The battle waged will not be as we expect, but it will be productive, gaining the desire of the King.

And be assured, for the King will be victor!