SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 2/18/2012 10:01:44 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“The Glorious Bridegroom”
Bible Reading & Meditation
Reference: Psalm 45:7b-17
Message
of the verses: In today’s SD we will
look at the final section of Psalm 45 which has three sub-sections in it. Dr. Wiersbe writes “These verses describe the
royal wedding beginning with “The Preparation of the Bridegroom (vv.
7b-9):” 7b.“Therefore God, Your
God, has anointed You With the oil of joy above Your fellows. 8 All Your
garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia; Out of ivory palaces
stringed instruments have made You glad. 9 Kings’ daughters are among Your
noble ladies; At Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir.”
Dr. Wiersbe writes this about verse
7b, “The anointing in verse 7b is not His anointing as King but as the honored
guest at the wedding feast. It is the ‘oil of gladness (joy)’ representing
the eternal joy that belongs to the happy bride and Bridegroom (Isa.
61:3).” “To grant those who mourn in
Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of
mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be
called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be
glorified.”
When our Lord was hanging on the
cross the soldiers gambled for His garments, but at His wedding feast, His
garments will be fragrant and glorious (v. 8a).
I have to admit that I am having
trouble understanding this portion of the psalm and so I am going to look to an
older commentary by John Gill to help explain the last part of verse
eight: “out of the ivory
palaces; see #So 7:4 1Ki 22:39 Am 3:15; “meaning the places from
whence these garments were taken, the wardrobe; or from whence Christ came, and
where he appears; as heaven, the palace of the great King, from whence he came
down, whither he is gone, and from whence he is expected again; and the human
nature of Christ, in which he tabernacled on earth, and was pure and clear from
sin; and his churches, which are his temples and palaces, where he grants his
presence. Or it may be rendered, "more
than the ivory palaces" {i}, and so be expressive of the excellency of
Christ’s garments above them; and denote the purity of his human nature, the
spotlessness of his righteousness, and the comeliness of his people; “whereby they have made thee glad; or, "wherein" or "from
whence" {k}; in which palaces, the churches, the saints make
Christ glad, by speaking of his glory; by ascribing glory to him; and by the
exercise of grace upon him, with which his heart is ravished, #So 4:9-11. Or
"for which" {l}; garments of salvation, and robe of righteousness;
they being clothed with them, and rejoicing in them, cause joy and gladness in
Christ: or "more than they," or "theirs that make thee
glad" {m}; meaning his fellows and their garments, his being more odorous
than theirs.”
In verse nine the women are
princesses who accompany the bride and in today’s weddings they would be called
bridesmaids.
Now in ancient Jewish weddings
the groom would first be engaged to his future bride, which was as binding as a
marriage, and when we read the account of Joseph being engaged to Mary and
after finding out that she was with child he wanted to actually divorce her
“quietly.” The reason for this was
because the engagement was as binding as the marriage. Now after the engagement the bridegroom would
come to the bride’s house and take his bride to his house. Jesus gave a parable of this in Matthew 25
which pictures Him as the Bridegroom.
As we look at the ancient
ceremony in terms of Christ as the Bridegroom and His Church as the bride we
see that Jesus left heaven to pay the price for His bride when He died on the
cross for her and then He has given His bride the Holy Spirit as a down payment
(like an engagement ring). Someday Jesus
will return and claim His bride and take His bride back His house that He has
been preparing for her. “1 "Do not let your heart be troubled;
believe in God, believe also in Me. 2
"In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so,
I would have told you; for I
go to prepare a place for you. 3 “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again
and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also (John
14:1-3).” Now the event in which
Jesus will return for His bride has named the “rapture,” and it is described here in John 14:3 and also in 1Cor.
15:51-58 and probably the passage that most people would turn to in order to
understand the rapture is in 1Thes. 4:13-18:
“13 But we do not want you to be
uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve
as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and
remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord Himself
will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with
the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are
alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore
comfort one another with these words.” When Paul speaks of those who were “asleep” he
was speaking of those who died in Christ, and what he was saying is that those
who have died “in Christ” will have
their bodies go a split second to meet the Lord in the air and then “we who are alive.” The word rapture is a Latin word that
means to “snatch out” and that is what will happen to the bride of Christ when
He returns to take her home with Him.
A personal note here: In Jan. of 1974 I decided to go to Florida on
a mini vacation and while there I began to listen to a series of messages by a
man named Hal Lindsey. The messages were
on the “end times,” which was something that I feared greatly. It was at this time that I received Jesus
Christ as my Savior and Lord and over the next years I began to study the “end
times” (eschatology). It was my fear of
the end times that the Lord used to draw me to Himself, and it has been the end
times that the Lord has used in my life to lead a number of people to the Lord.
“Next come “The Preparation of the Bride
(vv. 10-13):” “10 Listen, O daughter, give attention and
incline your ear: Forget your people and your father’s house; 11 Then the King
will desire your beauty. Because He is your Lord, bow down to Him. 12 The
daughter of Tyre will come with a gift; The rich among the people will seek
your favor. 13 The King’s daughter is all glorious within; Her clothing is
interwoven with gold.”
We see in these verses a queen
sitting within her palace chamber (v. 13) in the finest clothes, and yet today
we see the Church spotted by the world and not a beautiful bride, but according
to Ephesians 5:27 there will come a day when the Church will be without spot or
wrinkle: “That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle,
or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” (KJV)
As this new queen comes into her
palace she must forget about her past life and server her king, and this is a
good thing for believers to do also, “forgetting
what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the
goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:13b-14)
A brief word about the “daughter of Tyre:” The daughters of
Tyre means the people of Tyre just as the daughters of Zion means the
inhabitants of Jerusalem. When David
first became King of Israel it was the nation of Tyre who first recognized him
as king and came to see him. Dr. Wiersbe
writes “There will come a time when the kings of the earth will bring their
wealth and glory into the city of the great King (Rev. 21:24-25).” “The
nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the
daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed.”
“In the next stage of the
wedding, “The Bride is Brought to the King” (vv. 14-15): “14 She will be led to the King in
embroidered work; The virgins, her companions who follow her, Will be brought
to You. 15 They will be led forth with gladness and rejoicing; They will enter
into the King’s palace.”
Dr. Wiersbe writes “It is a time
of beauty and joy as the wedding party enters the banquet hall in the palace
and shares in the wedding feast. (See Rev. 19:1-10.) As the King and His queen leave, the writer
pronounces a benediction (vv. 16-17),
speaking especially to the King. (The
pronouns are masculine.) We may
paraphrase it: ‘No matter how great your
ancestors were, your descendants will be even greater. They will be princes in all the earth, not
just government officers in the kingdom.
You will reign forever and ever and your name will never be
forgotten. The people will praise you
forever.’ Words like these spoken at an
ancient eastern wedding would be considered polite exaggeration, but when
applied to Jesus Christ, they aren’t strong enough! He is bringing many children to glory (Heb.
2:10, 13), and His family will share His glory and His reign.
“Hallelujah, what a Savior!”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: There
have been a number of things that have spoken to my heart this morning as I
studied this portion of Psalm 45. The
first was how hard it was to understand the first section we covered
today. The second was how great our King
is and how thankful I am for being one of His children. I am so thankful for the salvation that was
given to me back in Jan. of 1974, for I was surely not looking for it when I
went to Florida that year, but none the less the Holy Spirit of God had a
greater plan than I did. I can’t help
but feel being spotted and wrinkled as I live here on earth in the body that I
am in, and I wait expectantly for the Bridegroom to come and take me to be with
Him in His house. I would have to echo
the words of Dr. Wiersbe, “Hallelujah, what a Savior.”
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Serve the King.
2. Continue to learn contentment
from the King as He teaches me through the circumstances of life.
2/18/2012
11:54:17 AM
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