Am I on, Noah? I invite you to take your Bibles tonight and turn to Psalm 45. Psalm 45. At least for the next two Sunday nights, maybe three, maybe four, I don't know. We're just going to work through Psalm 45, but this evening I'd just like to read in your hearing verses 1 and 2. Psalm 45. verses 1 and 2. And before I begin, you'll probably notice in your reading of the Psalms through the years that most of the Psalms have a title, and that title is not given by the editors of your Bible. That title, in most cases, was part of the original manuscripts, or at least part of the manuscripts that we have some 2,000 years later, in some cases thousands of years later. And they are equally inspired as the text itself. So let's give our attention to verses 1 and 2. My heart overflows with a pleasing theme. I address my verses to the King. My tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. You are most handsome of the sons of men. Grace is poured upon your lips. Therefore, God has blessed you forever." That's for the reading of God's Word. So far in our series on praying through scripture, we've been focusing a lot on the mechanics of prayer, the who, what, when, where, and why of prayer, and teaching, of course, is very important. We want to make sure that we are praying to God in the way that he has taught us to pray. But tonight what I'd like to do is simply point to a very important dimension of our prayer, and very simply it's this, adoration. I want to talk tonight about adoration. I think that oftentimes when we're coming to God in prayer, we're coming in either crisis or thanks. We're coming in either crisis or we're giving a blessing over the food as we come to the dinner table. And accordingly, for example, in crisis, it's all about God helping us get through a difficult time and we're crying out to Him. trauma situation, and there's certainly a place for that. We're pouring out our hearts of hurt at other times toward Him. And in other times, maybe we're just coming with just a list, a list of petitions. I know that throughout the week I pray for all of you. I have a list of all the members of the church, and I try to systematically work through it and just pray for whatever needs that I know that you may have. And that's fine too, but so much of the examples of prayer in scripture include the element of adoration that perhaps sometimes we give short shrift to. All of prayer, I would submit, is worship. And let me just underline that. All of prayer is worship. But I do believe at the same time there are elements of prayer that are more worshipful than others. And to the degree that we can incorporate adoration of the triune God into our prayers, we will be able to focus more on the splendor of the Lord, and as a result, our view will be so elevated of Him that we will desire to worship Him more and conform our lives to Him. So tonight, I don't want to talk so much about how to adore God. Jesus. As much as, at least in these two verses, I just want to put before you a psalm in which He is adored. I want to make much of the adoration of Him, and I want it to be an example to us of how to incorporate adoration in our prayers. So I'm going to begin some reflections tonight, and we'll continue in the next few weeks. Psalm 45 is a maskil. In Hebrew, that very simply means something like an instruction, but it also goes on to say that it's not only a maskil of the sons of Korah, but it is A love song. And as you get into it, you soon recognize that its origin may have been a wedding. In fact, the more you read through it, you may begin to conclude that it was the wedding of a royal figure. And what's fascinating about this psalm as you think about it, it is an ode to a royal wedding that typically in weddings, who is made the most of? The bridegroom or the bride? The bride. But as you read through Psalm 45, it's not that the bride is not there, but it is as if she is eclipsed by the glory and the splendor and the majesty and the sheer handsomeness of this bridegroom. So who is this bridegroom? When you come to verses six and seven, I know we did not read it, but just look at it very quickly in the text. It says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. If you're savvy as to how the New Testament authors use the Old Testament, specifically the Psalms, you'll know that in Hebrews 1, verses 8 and 9, in that beautiful first chapter of the book of Hebrews, where the author is talking about how Jesus is better than the angels, better than Moses, better than all the prophets, better than all the messengers that have come down the pike in the revelation of God. He quotes Psalm 45, 6, and 7, and he specifically attributes it to Jesus the King. And so, oftentimes when preachers come to a text, they kind of take their time, and they kind of ease into how this points to Christ. I'm going to do it the other way. This whole psalm is about Jesus. This whole psalm is about Jesus the King. This whole psalm is about Jesus the Bridegroom, and tonight I want to take the posture, if you will, of a matchmaker. I want to take the posture of a matchmaker who with all of his heart and all of his soul wants to come to you so that you might make much of this Bridegroom. that you might see His loveliness, that you might see His comeliness, that you might see His beauty, that you might see His handsomeness, and that in the midst of seeing those things, you would not only be endeared to Him, but that you would long with great expectation for the marriage supper of the Lamb, where fully and finally, in a perfect body and a perfect soul, you will be married to this Bridegroom forever and ever. I want to take the posture of a matchmaker. I want to come as Abraham's servant to the house of Bethel, seeking a bride for Isaac, and I want you not to be hearers in this endeavor, but I want you to be participants in this endeavor. I want us to be those who would esteem the bridegroom, who would anticipate, as this psalm does, a royal consummation day. So I'm coming as a matchmaker, hoping that you would be endeared to Christ, and that you, dear church, would see yourself as the bride of Christ. So often, the Bible is geared toward men, but when we think about the church, we need to think men in terms of being the woman in the relationship. We are the bride of Christ, are we not? And men, I want you to be comfortable thinking yourself as the bride of Christ, the one for whom the bridegroom is decked out to come out from behind the curtains and consummate the relationship with his bride. So I want you to notice first tonight how the song begins. Look at verse one. Verse 1 says, my heart overflows with a pleasing theme. I address my verses to the king. My tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. Look at how the psalmist this evening overflows with a heart that has a pleasing theme. He can't help but render to this king appreciation for the majesty of that king. how that is, don't you? I want you to think for a moment of what your hobby horse is. I want you to think for a moment of that dinner party that you've been to, and everybody's passing around the mashed potatoes and the meat and the vegetables, and they're all talking about stuff that in your mind is just superficial and boring, and so you keep your mouth shut because you have nothing to contribute. But the moment they talk about MMA, the moment they talk about shipbuilding, the moment they talk about raising dogs, whatever it is that you're fancy, you've got something to say. And at that point, they can't shut you up. You just keep going and going and going because your heart overflows with a pleasing theme. Well, that's what the psalmist is doing here tonight. But see, his concerns, the things that are dear to him and near to his heart are not things of this world, but they're things of the king who rules over this world. His heart overflows with a pleasing theme. And so it should be with us. All it takes for us, dear children of God, is a priming of the pump to recount to ourselves all the wonderful and glorious things that the Lord has done with us. All the glorious and wonderful things that the Lord has done for a moment, think of it, consider it, in bringing conflict resolution into our lives through the gospel. And how for years and years and years you may have been reluctant or unwilling to forgive that person who had transgressed against you even though they were asking for it, even though they were seeking it. And after a while you read that parable in Matthew 18 about the unmerciful servant who having been forgiven much was choking the one that owed him just a fraction of what he had been forgiven for. and it hit you and your heart dropped and your jaw went to the floor and you realized, God has forgiven me of everything. How could I not turn to my brother or my sister or my coworker or my friend who has transgressed me and extend the same gospel forgiveness to them? All it takes is a little priming of the pump to think of how God has worked in your lives, how God has worked in your marriages, how God has, just sent sovereignly that check in the mailbox that nobody knew that you needed. But God did, and He sent it. And that month you ended up in the black and not in the red because God is a provider. It just takes a little priming of the pump to think of what God has done in our life. And above and beyond that, which by the way are all temporal blessings, that God in Christ has given us His righteousness and He has taken our punishment. That in and of itself, as one of my old friends would always say, God, if that's all you gave us, if that's all you gave us is the righteousness of Christ, those garments of righteousness to cover us and cause us to stand and cover our sins, God, that would be enough. That would be enough. It just takes a little priming of the pump to consider the goodness of God. And when we do, we will find that like the psalmist, our hearts will overflow with a pleasing theme. And when we specifically address them to the King in our prayers, our prayers evince adoration. It was Count Zinzendorf who said, I have one passion and it is He. I have one passion, and it is He. It is Christ. It is Christ. He sounds like Paul, as I quoted this morning, Philippians 3, 7, and 8. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. There is nothing else, dear people of God, that surpasses the knowledge of Christ. So consider secondly, in verse 2, the adoration of the bridegroom. Look at verse 2. You are the most handsome of the sons of men. Grace is poured upon your lips, therefore God has blessed you forever. Why are we often so weak in our faith? Why is it that we, who are often so warm to so many things of this world, are often so cold to the love of Jesus Christ? It is because, as John Owen said, we do not focus our minds and thoughts upon Him. We may be pleased to debate the doctrine of Christ. We may be pleased to sing a song of Christ. We may be pleased to talk about the implications of Christ. We tend to see Jesus as a doctrine and not a person. but it is in the worship and adoration that we are prone to give him his due place, to see him as the God-man, to see him as the God-man who didn't, even though this is true, die for the sins of the world, but more specifically, he died for my sins, who didn't give his righteousness to the elect, but he gave his righteousness to me. See, making it personal is important in our personal piety. I once counseled a man many, many moons ago, a long time ago, so it's none of you, so don't get offended and think that I'm talking about you. I once counseled a man many years ago who had a very, very weak faith, and he had repeatedly sinned against his wife by looking at pornography. The pastors tried to help him. My wife and I sought to counsel him and his wife. And I tried all the things in the playbook of biblical counseling, trying to give him strategies for overcoming sin, trying to show him, hey, you need to repent. I tried to give him strategies for loving his wife, strategies for cultivating godliness, but none of it seemed to help. And as I probed further, what I found, which was quite simple and yet profound, is that Christ wasn't real to this man. Christ just wasn't real to this man. I asked Him to read the account of the crucifixion every day for seven days and just see if there was any ping of conscience in His own soul that Christ, once again, didn't just die for the world, but He died for Him. He died for me, the God-man. But Christ wasn't real to Him. And so it just takes, as I said, a priming of the pump for us to consider how we might adore this God-man. So I want to come once again as a matchmaker seeking to endear you to Christ. And honestly, there's no way, there's no way that I could exaggerate the majesty of Christ. There's no way in my broken words and futile attempts at eloquence that I could exhaust and say everything that could be said, whether it be in quantity or in quality, about the matchless majesty and glory of Christ. But I nonetheless seek to give something. He is excellent in his endowments. He is excellent in his beauty. He is excellent in his person. Notice that he says in verse two, this is superlative language. You ever around somebody who always used the superlative? You're like, what is the superlative? This is the best steak I've ever had in my whole entire life. This is the best car I've ever driven. This is the most amazing hot dog I've ever had. Everything is just superlatives, the most amazing and far out thing that you could say about it. Well, the psalmist uses a superlative here. You are the most handsome. You are the most handsome of the sons of men. There is no comparison between Christ and the sons of men. You are all together, I love this translation, I think it's in the King Jimmy, you are all together lovely. He says, Jesus, you are all together lovely, and it isn't necessarily an outward beauty, right? When you read Isaiah chapter 53 and it talks about Jesus, it said he had no appearance, no comeliness that we might be attracted to him. He was an ordinary, plain-Jane guy. I mean, I say this reverently, but he was a Jew. He probably had a little bigger nose. He might have been short. Maybe he was balding. He was not something or someone that just immediately caused us to be attracted to him. No halo, He was ordinary, and yet in the midst of that ordinariness, there was a fairness, a loveliness that commended itself to men. With His deity hidden, taking the form of flesh, His glory nonetheless shone through in ways that called men to Himself. He is, as Paul says, the radiance. This is crazy. He is the radiance of God's glory. He is the exact representation of God. You wanna know what God is like? Here's the answer. God is Christ-like. That's what God is like. And I'll say, I've said it before and I'll say it again. You think when you get to heaven you're gonna see God? Guess again. Creature, creator, distinction. You know who you're gonna see in heaven? You're gonna see Jesus. Jesus. Jesus has interpreted the Father to us. Jesus is the Word made flesh. Jesus is the bridge between a thrice holy God and man. You want to know what God is like? God is Christ-like. There was none more fair than Jesus in His humble birth. He is more handsome than all the sons of men in His name." What does Jesus' name mean? He will save His people from their sins. He is more handsome than all the sons of men in the place where He was born. Where was He born? Bethlehem. Bethlehem. The house of bread. The Son of God comes to the world and offers for all of the world bread of life. He stoops down and feeds the children of men with His very body. His birth itself, its place, shows us that He is more handsome than all the sons of men. He is more handsome than all the sons of men in the time of His birth. Galatians tells us that He was born in the fullness of time. Most babies are born according to time, but time itself was ordered according to Jesus' birth. He is more handsome than the sons of men in His childhood. He was worshipped by the Magi. He was held by Simeon. You remember that in the temple? We talked about that last week. What did Simeon say with spirit-enlightened eyes as he held that baby in his arm? My eyes have seen your salvation which you prepared. He is Jesus. He is fairer than the sons of men. He is more handsome than the sons of men in his youth. What did he do in his youth but confound the teachers? Here is one who very early in his life already had a conscious awareness of the calling of God upon him. He is more handsome than the sons of men and the things he was accused of." Oh, this really excites me. What did the Pharisees and the Sadducees say of him in Luke 15, verse 2? This man receives sinners and eats with them. This man receives sinners and eats with them. He socializes and hobnobs with sinners. They hated him for that. Don't you love him for that? Don't you love Jesus? One of my favorite hymns, Jesus, what a friend of sinners. I don't think I've ever sang that song without tears coming down my eyes. You want to know why? Because I recognize that I'm a sinner. And I recognize that because of my sinfulness, I am not attractive to many, but Jesus finds me attractive, not because of what is in me, but what He has given to me through His person and work. Jesus, a friend of sinners, they hated Him for that, but we love Him for that. Behold this God, man, fair than the sons of men, more handsome than all the sons of men, from head to toe, not one blemish, not one spot, holy, undefiled, and precious. All of the graces of God were in perfect balance in this God, man. There was in the Son of God an undying patience, a wholesome balance of wisdom, an approachability. There was a righteous anger. There was a deep compassion. There was a glad-hearted, obedience to all that the Father demanded of Him. All of the graces that could be manifested in a man were beautifully arrayed in the God-man, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was full of grace, and truth. One of the questions we always ask our new members that come in is, if you had to say that you're more characterized by grace or truth or law or grace, what would it be? And we always tell them you can't say both because that's basically saying I'm the most humble person in the entire world, right? I have a perfect balance and the fact of the matter is most of us lean in one direction or the other. But Jesus was full of both grace and truth. There was no lack in this blessed man. You see, the longer that you look at us, the more stain that you see. But the longer that you look at him, the more glory and beauty you see. But notice next in verse two, it says, grace is poured upon his lips. Grace is poured upon his lips. All of my life, I have struggled with seasoning my words with grace, all of my life, and I continue to struggle with it. I know some of you are like, amen to that, okay? I continue to struggle with it. But this text says of our Savior that grace was poured upon his lips. He was more handsome than all the sons of men in how he spoke. Never did anybody speak like Christ. Never could anyone say, nor could anyone ever say, I am the way and the truth and the life. Nobody comes to the Father but through me. When the Pharisees and Sadducees came and brought the woman caught in adultery in John chapter 8, brought her before Jesus, you know what? They came with the correct judgment of the law. She must be stoned. And they were right. according to the Mosaic Law. And as you know, Jesus stooped and He started riding in the dirt, and one by one, those accusers started slowly walking away, stones dropping to the ground. And Jesus said to them, to her, woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She said, no one, Lord. And here's the grace upon our Savior's lips. Neither do I condemn you. Neither do I condemn you. That is the grace poured upon our Savior's lips. Neither does he condemn you. Neither does He condemn you. Even though, like the woman caught in adultery, you and I deserve to be condemned. We deserve those stones to come hailing down upon our heads. But Jesus says, neither do I condemn you. Where are your accusers? Where are the accusers? The accusers are the one that nailed our Lord to the tree. He took the condemnation. Gracious is the God-man who sympathizes with the frailness of human flesh and says to all of us who labor day in and day out, come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart. and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Here is the One who says to those who are thirsty, Come to Me, all those who thirst, and I will give you living waters. Here is the One who comes to those who are hungry and says, Come to Me, for I am the bread of life, and I will assuage your hunger. He is the One who says to the thief on the cross, who tells him, Lord, remember me in your coming. And what does Jesus say? Today, today with dying authority, today with glorious authority, you will be with me in paradise. This is the grace that is poured out upon the lips of our Savior. Grace comes from the lips of this God-man. And he tells the dying, the dead Lazarus, come forth from life. Every word of His lips was grace, and so as the psalmist says, grace is poured upon your lips. Beloved, you will not find a Savior who will speak as much grace to you as this Son of God. And as a result, this final section in verse 2 says, therefore God has blessed you forever. Therefore, God has blessed you, Messiah, you, second member of the Trinity, you, Son of Man and Son of God. He has blessed you forever. Every single blessing that we have from God, every single one, now and into eternity, comes to us through the person and work of Jesus Christ. And that is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1.20, for all the promises of God find their yes in Him. All the promises of God find their yes in Jesus Christ. Yes and amen in Him. There is not one blessing of eternality that comes to you outside of the confines of your faith union with Jesus Christ. Your predestination, your calling, your regeneration, your justification, your sanctification, and your eventual glorification, all are funneled through the yes and amen in Jesus Christ. So don't you see, beloved, why this Jesus is fairer than all the sons of men, fairer than all the money in your bank account, fairer than all the temporal blessings that you can conceive of, fairer teenagers than any college that you would get into, any vocation you might acquire, fairer than any husband or wife that you might obtain, children that might be a blessing to you. He is altogether lovely, and if you have seen that tonight, then let our prayers reflect that as we corporately adore Him in the splendor of holiness. Let's pray. Father God, your Son is altogether lovely. And it is fitting that we would have the loveliness and the handsomeness and the majesty of such a Savior to be that covering for us, Father, that allows us to stand. The piercing eyes of holiness that come from a thrice holy God would be intimidating were it not for this robe of righteousness. So Father, as we enter into a season of prayer tonight, we want to give you adoration. Not just to the Son, but to you, the Father who sent him. Not just to the Son and the Father, but also the Spirit who indwells us and so consistently points us back to the mediator, Jesus Christ. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, receive our prayers tonight. In Christ's name we pray, amen.