“Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him” (Ps. 45:10-11).
The Spirit of Christ speaks here to His beloved bride to look to Christ only. God the Father adopted and gave His children to Christ as His Bride before the foundation of the world (Gen. 2:21-24; Eph. 1:4-7; 5:25-ff). What love on the Father’s part! What a stoop on Christ’s part! And what a testimony from the Spirit of God to chosen sinners! She is Christ’s sister by adoption and His Bride by the espousals of His unalterable, everlasting love (Jer. 31:3; Heb. 13:8). He wanted her. So He gave Himself for her in eternal covenant engagements and at the cross (Ex. 21:2-6; Eph. 5:25; Gal. 2:20). He will have her! None will be lost (John 6:39)! And nothing given to Her before the world began will be lost (Eph. 1:3; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2).
Every believing sinner is here exhorted to incline his ear. What God says must become the whole truth about the way things are between me and God. What God thinks must become what we believe (1 Cor. 2:16). This is faith: when we receive the testimony of God by the operation of His Spirit of grace (Col. 2:12), when God sets to our seal that His testimony concerning Christ is true (John 3:33; Rom. 1:16). We must believe Christ. We must believe He has accomplished all of our salvation (Heb. 1:3; 9:12; 10:14). This is where faith starts. This is how faith lives and walks. And believing Christ crucified as all of my salvation, looking only to Him and for Him, is how faith will end in sight.
The Spirit of Christ tells every believer to forget his own people. What we are by nature is “flesh” (John 3:6). What we are by nature profits nothing (John 6:63; Php. 3:4-7). By nature, we are nothing but sin before God (Rom. 8:7). Therefore, we have no beauty in our father Adam's house to leave. When we leave all that we are, we leave the dunghill of our own righteousness. Our earth-born family cannot save us. We must be born of God (James 1:18; Titus 3:3-7; 1 Pet. 1:23). By nature we trust everything that is nothing and see no beauty in Christ. Our eyes are so blind that we cannot see the Sun of Righteousness (Mal. 4:2; John 8:12)! We must be taught of God to come to Christ (John 6:44-45). What is the lesson we are taught? “Forget thine own people and thy father’s house.” Abandon all that satisfies your flesh, especially the good things about yourself that you are striving to put in place by religious exercises, and find your all in Christ and Him crucified (Col. 2:9-10; Gal. 6:14)! Your natural man is from your father Adam. As Abraham, we must leave our "father’s house" and go to the land of eternal salvation that is in Christ alone (2 Tim. 2:10; 1 Pet. 5:10)!
What will we find when we find our all in Christ? The greatest possible soul satisfaction of all! We will hear these words: “So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty!” When we are enabled by God-given faith to hate the garments we naturally hold fast, and flee for refuge and covering to Christ and His finished work, we are told that the Lord Jesus will greatly desire our beauty!?!? What? The King greatly desire thy beauty?! I am reluctant to write those words because I know there is only ugliness in me! Yet, sinners are taught by the Spirit of God to ask to be found in Christ alone! They are taught to forsake all that is their own to be found having only what they have in Christ (Php. 3:9)! As Ruth asked Boaz, “Spread thy skirt over thine handmaid” (Ruth 3:9; Ezek. 36:37; Rom. 5:17)! And when they are so enabled, they look upon what Christ looks upon for them: His righteousness! They trust Christ's righteousness alone as He accepts only His own (Ps. 71:16).
What beauty can a sinner have before God!? Only this: Christ’s own comeliness (Ezek. 16:14; Isa. 61:10; 1 Cor. 1:30-31; Php. 3:3-10)! He is altogether lovely! He has established for His people an everlasting righteousness (Dan. 9:24; Rom. 10:4)! As He looked at His work in creation to tell us the perfections of what He had done, even so and much more, in our everlasting salvation, we are told to hear His testimony. The King has provided clothing for His bride! And what a covering it is!! He has adorned her with His own comeliness! She is “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jer. 33:16) because He is made to her “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jer. 23:5-6)! “Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength” (Isa. 45:24)!
We naturally shrink from taking such bold comfort to ourselves from God’s word. But that is not humility! To do less than receive God’s testimony concerning His Son is to attempt to come to God by my own contribution to the work of Christ. It is to seek or find something in myself as the ground of my confidence before God. But we are taught otherwise here! “Forget thine own people and father’s house.” Leave the rags of your righteousness that your father Adam’s nature loves and clings to, and see Christ as all in salvation, in confidence, in joy and glory (Isa. 8:13-14; Neh. 8:10; Gal. 6:14)! So shall the King desire thy beauty, for that beauty is His own beauty!
The Spirit of Christ speaks here to His beloved bride to look to Christ only. God the Father adopted and gave His children to Christ as His Bride before the foundation of the world (Gen. 2:21-24; Eph. 1:4-7; 5:25-ff). What love on the Father’s part! What a stoop on Christ’s part! And what a testimony from the Spirit of God to chosen sinners! She is Christ’s sister by adoption and His Bride by the espousals of His unalterable, everlasting love (Jer. 31:3; Heb. 13:8). He wanted her. So He gave Himself for her in eternal covenant engagements and at the cross (Ex. 21:2-6; Eph. 5:25; Gal. 2:20). He will have her! None will be lost (John 6:39)! And nothing given to Her before the world began will be lost (Eph. 1:3; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2).
Every believing sinner is here exhorted to incline his ear. What God says must become the whole truth about the way things are between me and God. What God thinks must become what we believe (1 Cor. 2:16). This is faith: when we receive the testimony of God by the operation of His Spirit of grace (Col. 2:12), when God sets to our seal that His testimony concerning Christ is true (John 3:33; Rom. 1:16). We must believe Christ. We must believe He has accomplished all of our salvation (Heb. 1:3; 9:12; 10:14). This is where faith starts. This is how faith lives and walks. And believing Christ crucified as all of my salvation, looking only to Him and for Him, is how faith will end in sight.
The Spirit of Christ tells every believer to forget his own people. What we are by nature is “flesh” (John 3:6). What we are by nature profits nothing (John 6:63; Php. 3:4-7). By nature, we are nothing but sin before God (Rom. 8:7). Therefore, we have no beauty in our father Adam's house to leave. When we leave all that we are, we leave the dunghill of our own righteousness. Our earth-born family cannot save us. We must be born of God (James 1:18; Titus 3:3-7; 1 Pet. 1:23). By nature we trust everything that is nothing and see no beauty in Christ. Our eyes are so blind that we cannot see the Sun of Righteousness (Mal. 4:2; John 8:12)! We must be taught of God to come to Christ (John 6:44-45). What is the lesson we are taught? “Forget thine own people and thy father’s house.” Abandon all that satisfies your flesh, especially the good things about yourself that you are striving to put in place by religious exercises, and find your all in Christ and Him crucified (Col. 2:9-10; Gal. 6:14)! Your natural man is from your father Adam. As Abraham, we must leave our "father’s house" and go to the land of eternal salvation that is in Christ alone (2 Tim. 2:10; 1 Pet. 5:10)!
What will we find when we find our all in Christ? The greatest possible soul satisfaction of all! We will hear these words: “So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty!” When we are enabled by God-given faith to hate the garments we naturally hold fast, and flee for refuge and covering to Christ and His finished work, we are told that the Lord Jesus will greatly desire our beauty!?!? What? The King greatly desire thy beauty?! I am reluctant to write those words because I know there is only ugliness in me! Yet, sinners are taught by the Spirit of God to ask to be found in Christ alone! They are taught to forsake all that is their own to be found having only what they have in Christ (Php. 3:9)! As Ruth asked Boaz, “Spread thy skirt over thine handmaid” (Ruth 3:9; Ezek. 36:37; Rom. 5:17)! And when they are so enabled, they look upon what Christ looks upon for them: His righteousness! They trust Christ's righteousness alone as He accepts only His own (Ps. 71:16).
What beauty can a sinner have before God!? Only this: Christ’s own comeliness (Ezek. 16:14; Isa. 61:10; 1 Cor. 1:30-31; Php. 3:3-10)! He is altogether lovely! He has established for His people an everlasting righteousness (Dan. 9:24; Rom. 10:4)! As He looked at His work in creation to tell us the perfections of what He had done, even so and much more, in our everlasting salvation, we are told to hear His testimony. The King has provided clothing for His bride! And what a covering it is!! He has adorned her with His own comeliness! She is “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jer. 33:16) because He is made to her “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jer. 23:5-6)! “Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength” (Isa. 45:24)!
We naturally shrink from taking such bold comfort to ourselves from God’s word. But that is not humility! To do less than receive God’s testimony concerning His Son is to attempt to come to God by my own contribution to the work of Christ. It is to seek or find something in myself as the ground of my confidence before God. But we are taught otherwise here! “Forget thine own people and father’s house.” Leave the rags of your righteousness that your father Adam’s nature loves and clings to, and see Christ as all in salvation, in confidence, in joy and glory (Isa. 8:13-14; Neh. 8:10; Gal. 6:14)! So shall the King desire thy beauty, for that beauty is His own beauty!
Rick Warta
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