I just love the Psalms! I have been teaching through them in my Women’s Sunday School class for over a year so far, and you can believe that we have hit just about every major subject in the Bible. Psalm 45 is a particularly incredible chapter. God the Father is speaking of His Son, Jesus. It goes on to talk of the judgment of the earth (vs. 3-6), and then of the marriage supper (found in Rev. 19 and 20) and the Bride of Christ.
As I was reading this Psalm, verse 13 jumped out at me:
Psalms 45:13 The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.
As I was meditating on this, I began to think of what Jesus says in Luke 18:8 “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” I began to wonder “How glorious IS the bride?”
I am so thankful to know that there are many families who are boldly seeking holiness. I have gotten many letters from women telling me of their struggles and victories in seeking out God’s will for their lives. They are stepping away from the world, as far as they can, yet still being lights to the world. They are putting away worldly programming and entertainment in order to protect their family’s purity, bringing their children home from public schools, and in general, just purifying their lives of worldliness. But just looking at the mass majority of churches and Christians, I am filled with sorrow. It seems that some folks want to see just how close they can get to the world. In many areas, they are fully IN the world, and when you tell them what they are doing is wrong, they label you a “legalist.”
I was struck by the following verses:
Psalms 45:10 Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house;
In Verse 10, the Lord is telling us that He wants us to forget the things we learned before coming to Him. To show us the importance, He tells us to “hearken,” “consider” and to “incline thine ear.” When we come to Christ, we must challenge everything we once thought was right or wrong, and RELEARN everything! We are new creatures! We are of a different Spirit than the world, and therefore must walk by that Spirit. The world is not going to understand us, nor is it going to like us, which is why many will seek to escape eternal damnation through Jesus, but few will seek to actually become His disciple. When we seek to be disciples of Jesus, we must spend time with Him in order to find out what He wants us to do. Though the whole world accepts something as being okay, we must seek the Lord’s will on the subject, and not just accept the world’s ways blindly. We must rethink everything in our lives!
As a Christian, I should wear different clothes, listen to different music, speak different words and talk about different things, have a different attitude, have different entertainment, than I did when I was in the world. If you as a woman learned from the world to “snub” others you are angry at by ignoring them and giving mean looks or whatever, do you really think it is proper to bring that into the church? Does it have any place at all in your Christian walk? Let your words be kind and holy. If the world taught you that good entertainment was watching others have affairs, killing one another, speaking rudely to one another or any number of things on TV, why would it be okay to bring it into a home that acknowledges Jesus Christ as Lord? We must question what we have always accepted as right, unless we got it from the Word.
11 So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.
When we learn and receive the things of Christ and “forget” the old things we once lived by, verse 11 tells us that we become beautiful to the Lord. It is a beauty that honors Him, and it is a beauty that He greatly desires. He becomes not only our Savior, but also our Lord. Only then will we really know how to worship Him.
Psalms 29:2 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the BEAUTY OF HOLINESS.
I want to be beautiful like that to the Lord! I want Him to be pleased with me as one who does His will! I know you do also. Who wouldn’t want His praise?
Psalms 45:16 Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth.
In verse 16 the Lord shows us that though we won’t have the glory of our “fathers,” who would picture the world, we will have the glory of “children.” I believe that the children would be those who we bring to the Lord. Only for a little while on this earth do we have this opportunity to bring others to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Let us spread the earth with “princes”!
Become His beautiful bride who is “glorious within.” Seek to be worthy of the garments that are “of wrought gold” that He may one day place upon you.
-Women of Great Price & Tabitha Faust.
