Songbook of Hebrews

Psalm 45.

For the director of music to the tune of lilies, of the sons of Kura, a mascul, a wedding song. My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king. My tongue is the pen of a skillful writer. You are the most excellent of men, and your lips have been anointed with grace since God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword clothe yourself Clothe yourself with splendor and majesty.

In your majesty, ride forth victoriously in behalf of truth, humility, and righteousness. Let your right hand display awesome deeds. Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king's enemies. Let the nations fall beneath your feet. Your throne, oh God, will last forever and ever.

A scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From palaces adorned with ivory, the music of the strings makes you glad.

Daughters of kings are among your honored women. At your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir. Listen, oh daughter, consider and give ear. Forget your people and your father's house. The king is enthralled by your beauty.

Honor him for he is your Lord. The daughter of Tyre will come with a gift. Men of well chamber. Her gown is interwoven with gold. In embroidered garments, she is led to the king.

Her virgin companions follow her and are brought to you. They are led in with joy and gladness. They enter the palace of the king. Your sons will take the place of your fathers. You will find that you will make them princes throughout the land.

I will perpetuate your memory through all generations. Therefore, the nations will praise you forever and ever. Now we're going to read Hebrews chapter one. In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, he had spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom also he made the universe.

The sun is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son, today I have become your father? Or again, I will be his father and he will be my son?

And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, let all God's angels worship him. In speaking of the angels, he says, he makes his angels spirits and his servants flames of fire. But about the sun, he says, your throne, O God, will last forever and ever. A scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.

Therefore, God, your God has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. He also says, in the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe, like a garment they will be changed, but you remain the same and your years will never end.

To which of the angels did God ever say, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet? Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation? Thank you very much, Hannah. And good morning everybody and welcome. My name is Tom.

I'm one of the pastors here. If we haven't met before and lovely to have you whether it's your very last Sunday with us. Maybe not very last but last for a little while perhaps or whether you're here for the first time or whether you're joining us online. It's great to have you. It'd be good to keep Psalm 45 particularly open in front of you.

We finished, if you're a regular here, you'll know we we finished a couple of weeks ago, a sermon series that we've been doing in the book of Hebrews. But as you can see, we weren't quite ready to let go of the book of Hebrews and so we've gone back to chapter one for this morning and don't worry, we're not going to be working our way all the way through the book again but we thought over the next few weeks, these these Sundays in August, we would go back together and look at some of the the songs or the Psalms that the book of Hebrews quotes because the book of Hebrews as we're going to see is not designed just to give us information about the Lord Jesus. It is designed to fire our affections and our worship for the Lord Jesus. And I think that's one of the reasons the book of Psalms is quoted so much in Hebrews because Hebrews is a worship book and it wants us to see that Jesus is to be the object of our thinking and our and our loves. And so we've called this very mini series the song book of Hebrews.

And we're going to be looking at the Psalms which is the song book of Hebrews and 45 is where we're gonna spend our time this morning. So let's pray together. My heart is stirred by a noble theme. Father, we thank you that there is no more nobler theme than our Lord Jesus Christ and who he is and all that he has done for his bride, the church. And we confess and we're sorry that our hearts are often not stirred by him.

They are stirred by other things, things which are bad for us. And so we pray please that maybe for the very first time this morning, that you would use Psalm 45 to stir our hearts for Jesus. That we might see him as the noble, loving king, and that our hearts would love him. We want to please love the Lord Jesus more. So please use this Psalm in our lives, we pray.

In Jesus name, amen. You you may have heard this way of describing people. Sometimes people are described as either a left brained person or a right brained person. I've got a little graphic which you might be able to put up. A left brained person or a right brained person.

The left brain type people are those who are very logical, and they like facts, and they're analytical type people, and they want to know the arguments and follow the arguments, particularly if they're going to be persuaded to do something. And then you've got the right brain people who are, well, as you can see on a graphic, rather more creative, rather more emotional, rather more arty, and are less interested in the logic and the detail and the analysis. And their hearts and minds are captured by grand creative visions of things. So left brain and right brain. Maybe you see yourself as one of those or you think you fit more in one of those than the other.

And there is definitely some truth about it. That's why these things are are humorous because we recognize ourselves and other people in those sorts of descriptions. So for instance, left brain type person, for a left brain type person, a spreadsheet is a thing of enormous beauty. They love a spreadsheet. And to see multiple tabs and things they can scroll through and they can work out their processes.

They get a piece of IKEA furniture and they believe that the instructions have been given for a reason, That they're to be opened and looked at and sort of followed along. If they're looking at a recipe, they will say, well, the reason it says 450 milliliters is because that's how much has got to go in. And I'm not going to cook by feel like you do. It's 450 milliliters. Yeah.

That's a that's a sort of left brain person. For a right brain person, a spreadsheet is a form of spiritual warfare. They hate them. They don't want to be emailed them. They don't want to look at them.

They don't want to run their lives that way. They've got 47 kind of creative projects on the go, none of which they know how they're going to actually bring into reality, but they're great ideas, and everyone else should think they're great ideas as well. And that's how they live their lives. And when you bring these two people together in relationships, in a marriage, in in a team, they can complement each other very well. They can also grate on each other a little bit.

And so, you know, left brain, right brain, I think there's something in these in these descriptions. But what we mustn't conclude from all of that is that god has made some people for thinking and some people for feeling. As if when he makes us, he says, you are going to be a brain and no heart person and you are going to be a heart and no brain person. That's not how he makes us. Rather, he makes us all with our different personalities to be those who think and feel and who love and who express praise.

Paul prayed it in his prayer just now. We pray that you would speak to our hearts and to our minds. Because that reflects a biblical concern. We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our minds, and with all our strength. We are not thinkers or feelers.

We are thinkers and feelers. That's how we've been made to be. Let me give you some examples from from the Bible. If you wouldn't mind putting Luke chapter one up. We're gonna be starting a a series in Luke in in September.

So we'll come to this introduction very soon. This is how Luke begins his gospel. I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning. I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things that you have been taught. He sounds rather like a left brain type person, doesn't he?

Yeah? I want, I have carefully investigated. I have put together an orderly account. So that you may know the certainty of things taught. And the left brain people are thinking, finally, a gospel for me.

You know, an orderly gospel. But then you remember purpose of why it was written. It's written to most excellent Theophilus and that name means lover of God or friend of God because he doesn't want Theophilus just to think that this account about Jesus is excellent and well put together. He wants the affections to be fired, and he wants his heart to be moved, and he wants to wants Theophilus to love Jesus and not just understand Jesus. When you think again about Hebrews one, we've just had it read.

It is a it is a very well crafted logical chapter. It's a left brain chapter. The way it sets out the arguments for who the lord Jesus is and yet as I've just said, the purpose of the book of Hebrews is that we might worship the lord Jesus and see his name as superior and treasure his name above every name. It's not going to be enough for those who attempted by the forms and shadows of religion just to understand that Jesus is a superior name. If they're going to break with that decisively, they need to love him and treasure him and trust him.

And so the book logical as it is is meant for worship. Something similar is true with the Psalms. I know some of you in this room just don't naturally gravitate towards the Psalms because it's poetry and it's right brain and it's arty and it reminds me of something I did a long time ago in school where Shakespeare was involved and I didn't like that either I don't like this. It's not my type of genre. It's too arty.

But then you look at Psalm 45 and you think that would be a woeful mischaracterization of what it is. Psalm 45 engages the mind in glorious ways as it sets forth an argument about who Christ is and Christ's beauty and all that he has done. And so we are we are heart and mind. Scripture is for heart and mind as as we are. And so with that in mind, I want to ask you, and I wanna ask myself a question from verse one.

And it's this, what is it at the moment that is capturing your heart and your mind? What is it that moves your heart? In verse one to two, this author is reciting his his verses. He's got a pen, and he sat down with his parchment, and he's writing about the things that move him and stir his heart. Well, how about us?

If we were to do that, what would we be writing about? What is it that moves our hearts? What are we daydreaming about at the moment? What are you planning for? If we would be a if we could see your search history up on this screen.

And to look at the last six months of search history, what would we conclude about the things that move you and that you're interested in and that capture you? In the ESV, another translation of the Bible verse one is, My heart overflows with a pleasing theme. Christian Standard Bible has it, My heart is moved by a noble theme. What is it that stirs your heart, that moves your heart? What is overflowing from your heart at the moment?

That word stirred or moved is only used this one time in the Old Testament. And it is related to another word to do with boiling. So you're imagine, you're to imagine a pot of stew boiling on the hob, bubbling away. What is it that is bubbling away in your heart? What's it boiling with at the moment?

Because for this writer, this writer of Psalm 45, his heart is very clearly taken up with the Lord Jesus. In Hebrews chapter one, Psalm 45 is quoted Because Psalm 45 is ultimately about Jesus. Of the son it says. This is about him. And it's not just about him, it's also for him.

You can see that in the introduction, we're told that this is a wedding song or a love song. So this is not just a Psalm about him, it's directed to him, it's for him. This heart's author is bubbling with the Lord Jesus. How does that sound to you? Does that sound strange?

Does that sound like the experience of a Christian who's really keen about their faith? But not my experience. The plan for the next few minutes then is to walk through this Psalm, and we're gonna ask ourselves the question, what is it about Jesus which stirs the heart in verse one? And then at the end, we're gonna come back to us. Because you see, I think a problem that many of us will recognize, and it's certainly my own problem, is when you read Psalm 45 and you find this gushing affectionate song about Jesus, I kind of know that I ought to feel that way more than I do.

And I think that these things are true about Jesus. But sometimes we can't honestly say that the heart is moved and that I'm stirred and I'm bubbling away with King Jesus in my heart. And so the question is, do we do if we read this Psalm and it feels like the experience of somebody else and not us? That's what we're gonna come back to at the end. So firstly, if you wouldn't mind putting it up, we're gonna see this in verse one to nine.

Here is a description of a lovely, gracious, powerful, divine king. And in verse one to two at the beginning of the Psalm, we find something like a best man speech. So this is a wedding song. We're at a wedding. And this is something like a best man speech, except in this one, there are going to be no crude jokes.

And the best man is not going to use his moment with the microphone as an opportunity to embarrass the groom. It's gonna be the total opposite. See verse two, you are the most excellent of men. More literally, you are the most handsome of the sons of men. And at this particular time, you know, or right the way throughout Israel's history, royal kings often were physically handsome.

Kind of came with the territory that if you were going to be a king, you had to look the part and so you remember Saul who was the very first king of Israel. We're told about him that no one among the people of Israel was more handsome than him. He was handsome and good to look at. Needed to be tall. About this sort of tall probably.

Needed to be dark haired. Needed to be pleasing on the eye. Because they didn't want a ruler who wasn't those things. You can't have a a king or a pastor who isn't those things. Okay?

They've gotta be handsome to look at. Yeah? But it's more than that because Isaiah actually tells us that the beauty of the lord Jesus was not the outward. In some ways, there was really nothing about his physical appearance to commend him. He was actually one from whom men turned their faces, particularly at the end.

There was something ugly about what he had become, particularly on the cross. But when it came to his character, he was the most handsome of the sons of men. There has never been one more beautiful and more attractive and more compelling than the Lord Jesus. Friends, I wonder, is there anything in the character of the Lord Jesus which moves your heart? Have you not in your own life tasted something of his patience with you or his kindness towards you or his willingness to be merciful towards you?

Has that has nothing in the beauty of his character stirred your heart? Well, look at his speech, verse two. Your lips have been anointed with grace. You might remember that scene in Luke chapter four where Jesus has just finished preaching in the synagogue. It's his opening sermon as he begins his public ministry and we're told in Luke four verse 22 that all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.

And in context, even those who are actually about to turn on him to begin with or at least as they hear him say, these are amazing gracious words. There is something different about the way this man speaks. You might remember the temple guards in John's gospel. They're sent to arrest him and they come back empty handed and the Pharisees are saying, what's your problem? You had a clear mission and they say, look, no one ever spoke like this man.

This man is unusual in his speaking. There's something authoritative and gracious about the way he speaks. Well, how about that for us? Is there any promise that Jesus has given you through his word which has quickened your heart? Have you ever heard him speak to you through the Bible and felt gracious words begin to stir your affections and your love for Christ?

Again, verse two, your lips have been anointed with grace since God has blessed you forever. Or in the language of verse seven, the Lord Jesus has anointed with the oil of joy. Again, Isaiah tells us that the Lord Jesus was a man of sorrows and that he was acquainted with grief. He knew the grief of the human experience more than any other, and certainly in his time on earth, you could characterize him as a man of sorrow, and yet he was also a deeply happy king, And he remains a deeply happy king. That's really good news, isn't it?

In a world which is so sad, and there are so many things which make us sad, does it not begin to cause a bubbling in our hearts to think that the man in heaven is an overwhelmingly glad king? He's a happy king. We worship a happy king, blessed forever with the oil of joy. And then in the Psalm, if you look back down in verse three to seven, there's a new focus on his majesty. And we are to imagine the Lord Jesus here like he is in Revelation.

Riding out on his white horse in the cause of truth and justice and humility. What better thing is there to give your life to than truth, justice, and humility? Here is Jesus in all of his majesty, riding forth from heaven to pierce the hearts of the king's enemies, to sweep away the king's enemies, to banish lies in the favor of truth, to have injustice swept away for justice. He comes in truth, humility, and justice. That's the king riding on his white horse.

What a scene. Well, then think about his nature with me in verse six. This is the verse quoted in Hebrews one. Your throne, oh god, will last forever and ever. You've never been to a wedding, have you, where the best man turns to the groom and says, your ceremony, oh god.

Your chair, oh god. Here, the best man looks at the groom and he says, your throne, oh god, will last forever and ever. A scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and you hate wickedness. And therefore, God, your God, has set you above your companions.

So he is God in verse six, and he's also exalted by God in verse seven. You see the relationship between them there. Or in the language we might use, this is the divine son of God sat on his throne, exalted by his father God to reign over the church and over the world. The father exalting the son to the highest throne. Your God, oh God, will last forever and ever.

Do you see, he is a lovely, gracious, powerful, divine king. My heart overflows with a pleasing theme. And it's not myself. And it's not the man in the mirror or what he might become, it's Jesus and who Jesus is and how he speaks and what he lives for. Is there anything, anything at all about the Lord Jesus, who he is, the way he speaks, what he does, what he's promised to do, which begins to bubble in your heart.

For this author, as he puts pen to paper and writes about Jesus, he finds his heart follows his pen and he begins to love and be stirred by Jesus. But in verse nine, the focus then moves a bit. It's not away from Jesus, but it moves to the object of Jesus' love, which is his bride. And so here's the second point, if we can please have it up. This is the lovely, gracious, powerful, divine king, and his darling bride.

And from verse nine, if you know your Old Testament a little bit, it it it starts to sound very like the song of songs. In verse nine, which is part of the wisdom literature and it's a love song all about a king who has a great affection for his bride. And in that story too, there's bridesmaids and there's best men and there's a king and a groom. There's lots of similar language and themes. And in verse nine, we are introduced to the queen.

Daughters of kings are among your honored women. So I think these women are something like the bridesmaids, and they're they've got an important role to play. But at your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir. Now, when you try to find it geographically, that place Ophir is a little bit of a mystery. But it was very, very well known in the Old Testament because Ophir was the place to go if you wanted the finest products you could get your hands on.

So the very best wood came from Ophir. And the most precious stones came from Ophir and the finest gold you could get your hands on came from Ophir. If you wanted the best stuff, that's where you'd order from. And the sense of the Psalm is, that's what the king has done. He's gone shopping in Ophir on behalf of his bride.

So, there's been no second hand vintage purchases here. There's been no kind of last minute eBay, you know, bargains. He hasn't even gone just for sort of high street level. He's gone to Ofia to spend as much as he can on behalf of his bride because he loves her and he wants to adorn her with the best that he can get. And so if you've been following along in our Esther series in the evening and I really would encourage you to come.

We've got a fantastic chapter that Thomas is looking at this evening. This king is very unlike Xerxes. Who basically wants his bride to be adorned so that he can satisfy his lusts. He wants her looking her best for him, for himself, for his own warped use. This king is very different.

He wants her looking her best because he wants her to shine and because he loves her, and he wants to honor her and not dishonor her at one of his debauched parties. Two very, very different kings here. And so we are to imagine this bride. Here she is on her wedding day, and she has been dressed with great care, and she looks beautiful. And we're told she smells of perfume.

Her perfume fills the room. It's a it is a very multisensory Psalm this when you read through it. There's something to see, something to hear, something to smell. She looks great. She smells great.

She's been led to her King who loves her, and she's gonna take her place at his right hand, which is the place of intimacy and the place of authority. And so you can hear the shout go out in verse 13. All glorious is the princess within her chamber. It's what the Psalm says. You can imagine it.

As she comes in, put your hand together for the groom and his bride. All glorious is the princess within her chamber. She looks great and she smells great and she fills the room and she's the object of the highest and purest love in the universe. This bride. What is it that stirs the Christian heart?

What is it that causes the Christian heart to bubble more than anything else? Yes, the king as he is, but also the king as he stands in love for his bride. If that doesn't get the heart bubbling, there's no there is no nobler theme than that. So if that doesn't do it, there's nothing else. That this is what fires his heart.

It's very interesting to note that this Psalm was written by the sons of Korah. And if you know the story, Korah was a bit of a bad egg from Numbers chapter 16. He was a a Levite who organized a rebellion against Moses and Aaron. So, he he gets two fifty leaders together and he decides just not knock that off just quickly. We'll come back to that in a minute.

Thank you. He's a leader who organizes rebellion against Moses and Aaron because although he is a Levitical priest, he doesn't have the highest duties of the Levitical priest and so he's angry because he thinks everyone should be a priest particularly him and long story short, for that, Cora and all of those leaders get judged in the most dramatic way. Korah has the ground literally open up beneath him and swallow him, and it closes over his head. And then those 250 leaders have fire from heaven falling, and it devours them. And so they are graphically wiped off the face of the earth, Korah and all who stood with him.

And you think, okay, well, if if if that's what's happened to Korah, surely his family is done. Because that tends to be how it goes in the Old Testament. If dad does something really awful, the sons and the daughters are, you know, are are are not gonna have a great time either. Yeah? And yet, look at this little note.

Here it is now, Numbers 26 verse 10. This is just amazing. 10 chapters on from the incident. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them along with Korah, whose followers died when the fire devoured the 250, and they served as a warning sign. The line of Korah, did not die out.

And a few hundred years later, after that scene, Psalm 45 is penned by the sons of Korah. And doesn't that give an added beauty to an already beautiful song? That one of the most famous Old Testament rebels who was judged in his sin, thanks to the mercy of God, would have sons who would be lead worshipers in the temple. And that's because the the best praises of Jesus are sinners, aren't they? Sinners make the best praises.

Because this family didn't deserve anything more, and yet by grace, they have been turned into worship leaders. And so surely, when they came to write Psalm 45, they understood that what had happened to the queen in the song they were writing had also been their experience. That they had been loved and made beautiful in a way that they didn't deserve. That's what happens to everyone who puts their trust in Jesus. This is a Psalm about the love of the gospel.

Ephesians five tells us that we are the bride of Christ. We are the bride of Christ, the church, and every child of God who makes up the church belongs to the bride of Christ. And therefore, Psalm 45 is at its heart, a celebration of gospel love. That like this queen, we have been taken away from a life of sin. And that because of his great affection for us, Jesus has opened up heaven's treasure box and he has put everything that is beautiful upon his bride, the church.

He has made us righteous, even though we are sinners by nature. He has taken heaven's golden robe and he's replaced our sinful rags and he's clothed us in his righteousness and he's taken away the stink of our shame. See, my my perfume by nature stinks. I give off a a stink. It is not a pleasing aroma.

It's the odor of death because sin and death has been the language of my heart. But now Jesus has washed me and he's taken heaven's perfume bottle and he sprayed me all over with it. And you, if you're a Christian, so that you smell great to Jesus now, And you look great to Jesus now. And he's led you before himself. You are a multi sensory delight to king Jesus.

Because of the gospel. Because he's what he's made you to be. So that in verse 11, we read, let the king be enthralled by your beauty. It feels almost too good to apply to the church, doesn't it? That as the king looks upon you and I as Christian people in the church, he is enthralled with our beauty.

Not one that is natural to us, but one that has been given to us at the cost of his blood. Sang it earlier loads of times, been washed by his blood, made beautiful by his blood, perfumed by his blood. You you are what you are because of the blood of Christ spilt for us on the cross. Psalm 45 is about the gospel. It's all about the gospel.

And so what is it that stirs your heart in verse one? Is there nothing of that as poorly communicated as it is? Is there nothing of that theme which brings gladness to your heart and causes it to to bubble? My heart is stirred by a noble theme. And then look at the end, verse 16.

Your sons will take the place of your fathers. You will make them princes throughout the land. And here comes the the legacy of the king and his bride. I will perpetuate your memory through all generations. Therefore, the nations will praise you forever and ever.

This is the king and his bride who are gonna fill the earth with spiritual sons and daughters. It's another picture of the church, isn't it? Many, many descendants who fill the earth with the praises of king, king Jesus. And so here we have it, the lovely, divine, glorious, powerful king and his bride. And that question again, what what what do you and I really make of this?

If you could put up that last point, please. Here's the question, do do these themes stir your heart? In Matthew 12, Jesus says, the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. The mouth speaks what the heart is full of. The Psalm begins, my heart overflows with a pleasing theme.

Brothers and sisters, what is our heart full of? What do we speak about? When we recite our verses, what are we saying? Very often at weddings, as you know, at least in this country, when the best man makes his speech, the bride is present. So the bride is sat there next to the groom when the best man makes his speech.

Well, in verse nine, we learn that the queen is at the right hand of the king when the best man begins his speech in verse two. Now what is that about? The bride is sitting there as the best man makes his speech. Why is that? Well, surely because as the queen sits there, listening to the best man praise the groom, the intention is that her heart would be thrilled by what the best man is saying about him.

That she would sit there and think, yeah, he's he is all of that. And he's more, and he's mine. And her heart would be excited as she listens to the speech. So different to how the best man speeches sadly often go in this country, is it? Where the bride is thinking, oh gosh, I didn't know that about him and oh, did he really do that with his mates in Ibiza and oh dear, this is awful.

You know, and the bride is thinking, is there any way out of this now or is it, you know, maybe the speeches should come before the vows. That would be an interesting kind of way around, wouldn't it? But here is the opposite. She's getting happier about the wedding and more excited about the wedding as she hears the best man give his speech. That's what the Psalm is for.

That the bride would be thrilled with her groom. And yet, as I mentioned at the start, I wonder if lots of us and maybe if not now, then certainly at some point in our Christian lives, we'll have times where we know these things about Jesus in our minds, but we struggle to join in with the emotional outburst that this Psalm is. And so the question is, what do you know, what do you do when you know that you should love Jesus like this, but when your prayers feel a bit empty and when your worship feels a bit dry and when you read the bible and it doesn't seem to come to life in your heart in the same way it should or once did, And if truth be told, your heart is just drawn and excited by all kinds of other things, which aren't King Jesus. What do we do? What do we do about that?

And I think this Psalm has just a few helps and we'll finish with them. The first is this, let's learn from the sons of Korah. Because we gotta remember that they were from a Levitical family, and it was clearly their delight to praise the king, but it was also their duty to praise the king. They could not sit home and decide not to attend tabernacle service if they didn't feel like it. It was their duty and it was their delight to praise the king.

And in verse one, it seems to be that the enjoyment of the theme comes as they begin to write and speak and preach. Verse one, my heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king. So it seems to be that they get their parchment out and they know they love God, you know, with their minds and but as they begin to write about King Jesus and all that he's done for his people, the heart begins to be stirred by the action of the pen or by the recitation of the truth. The heart begins to bubble. It's like turning the gas up when you commit to doing something.

John Piper was a famous American pastor, written lots of books. He wrote one of his most famous books was called Desiring God. But a follow-up book he wrote was called When I Don't Desire God. What do I do when I don't desire God? And in that book, one of the things he says is that doing is often God's remedy for despair.

Doing is often God's remedy for despair, which is not an argument for hypocrisy, and it's not an argument for dead lifeless works because hypocrisy is when you do something that you know isn't really true. Whereas for lots of us, we we do know these things are right about Jesus and this is the right emotional response to Jesus but we need to get our pens out or we need to just go to the temple to express it. And as we sing of it or express it or share it, we find that our own heart is warmed by the themes that we're thinking about. I I can only say that for me and I think probably for other preachers too, there are times when you read the text that you're gonna be preaching and you look at it and it it does very little to the heart. You read it and you think, I reckon verse two to nine go together and I reckon verse nine to 16 go together, and I can see that particular theme.

And you you you you you want your heart to come along, but you look at it sometimes and it's just like looking at a blank wall. And yet, when you get your notebook out or you start to type into the screen or speak it, the excitement comes. You you were yeah. Yeah. That's true.

And you might say something to Laura about it, and you think, yeah. That's how I would that's how I would put it. And it's almost as if the the effects the right affections follow the expression of the truth. And so that's certainly true of me, but I wonder if it's true of many of us. And so the question would be, have you have you actually tried to express anything about Jesus recently?

Be a good exercise to actually get a piece of paper and write your testimony down. And just see whether in the articulation of your story, something in your heart doesn't begin to light up. Or could you write a song or something? Or if you've got children, you could sit down over lunch or tonight and say, let's actually write, not just sort of think about, write three things that our family loves about Jesus. Let's write them down and see whether there isn't some kind of emotional following to what you begin to put down.

Or, you know, maybe it's been ages since we prayed for and looked for an opportunity to talk to someone about Jesus who's not a Christian. See, we might find that the remedy for our own spiritual coldness comes as we have an opportunity to say something of how valuable Jesus is to someone else, we might find that our own hearts begin to get excited because we've shared Christ with someone who needs him. We're all different personalities, but I think that's just true that the heart is lifted as we express truth about king Jesus. My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king. That's one help.

Secondly, and this is a sort of another and a tougher question to consider, are our hearts being stirred by the right things? If you could put that Charles Spurgeon quote up. Charles Spurgeon, Victorian preacher wrote this in his commentary on Psalm 45. It is a sad thing when the heart is cold with a good matter and worse when it is warm with a bad matter, but incomparably well when a warm heart and a good matter meet together. That's that's the challenging question, isn't it?

Could it be that we don't sympathize with this level emotion about Jesus because some bad matter is warming our hearts when it shouldn't be? See, it's true, isn't it? That a love for king Jesus expels sin from the heart. There was a famous book like that, the expulsive power of a new affection. When Christ is your new affection, you find it drives out lesser sinful affections.

But the reverse is also true, isn't it? That if we treasure bad matters and we find ourselves bubbling with bad matters, then the things of Jesus will begin to grow dim in our estimation. And we won't feel the emotions for him we ought to because we're warmed by bad matters. Incomparably well, isn't it? When a warm heart and a good matter meet together.

And if that is us, let's finish by going back to this wedding scene and hearing the encouragement in verse 10. Here's verse 10. Now verse 10 is the moment where the best man has a word for the bride. You ever been to a wedding service like that where the best man talks about the groom, but he may occasionally actually speak to the bride and say, he's so lucky to have you or something or doesn't she look beautiful today? You look wonderful.

He'll turn and address her sometimes. That's what happens here in verse 10. The best man addresses the bride. Forget your people and your father's house and let the king be enthralled by your beauty. What's he saying to her?

He's saying in light of the king's love for you, forget your old identities. Leave your old loves. You shall leave your father and mother now and be united to your lover. Leave behind all old objects of worship. Leave behind everything that used to warm your heart and let the king be enthralled by your beauty.

That's what repentance actually is, really, isn't it? That's how we repent of bad matters. We say, I'm gonna leave them, and I'm gonna let Jesus be enthralled by my beauty that he's given me. That's what repentance looks like. And it's the purpose of Hebrews as well, isn't it?

To leave behind every inferior religion and go to the superior love of Jesus, who is our king and our groom. Let's take a moment of quiet. And you can read over the Psalm perhaps. You can say a prayer. And then I'll lead us.

Heavenly father, we we can hardly believe that you and your son might be enthralled by the beauty of your church. And yet we thank you that it is much more than just poetry. It is true because the blood of Jesus has cleansed us from every sin, and we have now been given the gold garments of heaven to wear. So that when you see us as we are hidden in the cross, you are mad about the way we look, and you love us, and we thank you for that. And we pray that you would please help us all to have hearts that are not warmed by bad matters.

You'd help us to forget our people and our old identities and be taken up with this new love. Please stir our hearts by this most noble theme. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.