Before we go any further this evening, I'd like to give another book recommendation. Some of you have made a few comments to me of how grateful you were for the last book recommendation, something that we want to do more. It is good to read good books, and the book I'd like to recommend to you tonight, there's a few versions of it in the library, but this one's called Missionary Patriarch, the True Story of John G. Patton. John G. Patton was of Scottish descent, and he was a Protestant missionary to the New Hebrides in the South Pacific. And in the New Hebrides, the people there were cannibals. And oftentimes, saints in his church, in ascending church, tried to warn him against going to the New Hebrides. They told him, You're gonna be eaten alive. And yet it was that very desire connected to knowledge of which we heard this morning that propelled him and his family out into the missionary field. And they served there for many, many years. There were obviously ups and downs in their ministry. In fact, a few details which would be of interest. Three months after their arrival, Peter Robert Robson was born to them on 12 February of 1859. But 19 days later, Mary, his wife, died from tropical fever, and that was soon followed by the newly dug grave of Peter at 36 days of age. So very early on in his missionary ministry, he buried both his wife and his son. Instead of going back, he stayed there, and he continued and labored on. Not only did he preach and teach and plant a church, But he also brought them education. He developed small industries for the people there, such as hat making. And one of the things that many people don't know is that he also advocated against a form of slavery in that time, where slave traders would come and kidnap the natives and force them to work in New Zealand. I'd just like to read a small excerpt, and if you've been in the Vespers before, you've actually heard me read this, and this is an excerpt from John Patton's diary where he talks about the influence that his father had on him, and I want to highlight this because What kind of parenting does it take to propel a man in his later age, in his adult age, to go to the missionary field, specifically to a missionary field filled with cannibals? Well, it takes a father and a mother who believe firmly in the promises of grace, who believe in the promises of God, and who want to instruct their children under them, And as John G. Patton was walking away to college, his father walked him all the way to the place where he was going to depart. And I'll just read from John G. Patton's diary. He said, My father walked with me the first six miles of the way. His counsel and tears and heavenly conversation on that parting journey are fresh in my heart as if it had been but yesterday. And tears are on my cheeks as freely now as then, whenever memory steals me away to the same. His tears fell fast when our eyes met each other in looks for which all speech was vain. He grasped my hand firmly for a minute in silence, and then solemnly said, God bless you, my son. Your father's God prosper you and keep you from all evil. Unable to say more, his lips kept moving in silent prayer. In tears, we embraced and parted. I ran off as fast as I could and went about to turn a corner in the road where he would lose sight of me. I looked back and saw him still standing with head uncovered where I had left him gazing after me. Waving my hat in adieu, I climbed the dike to see if he yet stood where I had left him, and just at that moment I caught a glimpse of him climbing the dike and looking out for me. He did not see me, and after he had gazed eagerly in my direction for a while, he got down, set his face towards home, and began to return, his head still uncovered and his heart, I felt sure, still rising in prayers for me. I watched through blinding tears till his form faded from my gaze and then hastening on my way vowed deeply and oft by the help of God to live and act so as never to grieve or dishonor such a father and mother as he had given me. The appearance of my father when we parted as often through life risen vividly before my mind and does so now as if it had been but an hour ago. In my early years, particularly when exposed to many temptations, His parting form rose before me as that of a guardian angel. It is no Phariseeism, but deep gratitude which makes me here testify that the memory of that scene not only helped to keep me pure from the prevailing sins, but also stimulated me in all my studies that I might not fall short of His hopes, and in all my Christian duties that I might faithfully follow His shining example. What a testimony of what you parents have done with your children and what you parents with small children, I trust, are doing. Obviously, our efforts are shot through with imperfections, but the Lord promises to superintend our efforts to bring about His will. And we have seen, not only in our families, in this place, but in families of friends who are also Christians, generation after generation after generation of Christian testimony. May the Lord be pleased to carry that out in our congregation as well. So I commend this to you, Missionary Patriarch. There's also another copy in the library. You can check them out, and hopefully it'll be a blessing to you. Well, this evening, I ask you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 45. If you're following along in the Pew Bible, you can find that on page 471 in the Old Testament. This is now part three of our treatment of Psalm 45, and I've titled this Adoring the King in Our Prayers. I just want to remind you, one of the things that we're trying to do as we look at this psalm is to fold into our prayers adoration for our King. We want to fold into our prayers adoration for our King. And we've seen in the last two installments of Psalm 45 that as Christians, we can come to a text like this and recognize that there are two horizons. There is the original context where, as we've seen in past weeks, this is a love song, really, that was recited to the king and the queen on their wedding day. But in the second horizon of the hermeneutic that the apostles give us in the New Testament, we can come back to Psalms like this and see kind of a greater fulfillment A greater fulfillment where we look beyond that temporal king and we see the greater king, Jesus Christ. And we look beyond that temporal queen and we see the greater queen, His church. And so this love song, really, for us as Christians, is an ode to the king and His queen. It is an ode to the king and His church. So this evening, I'd like to just read in your hearing verses 6-12, and we'll just give a few brief thoughts on them. So Psalm 45, verses 6-12. 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. Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces, string instruments make you glad. Daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor. At your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear. Forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your Lord, bow to him. The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people." I'd ask you tonight to consider three brief comments, three brief reflections on these verses. Number one, consider the everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ in verses 6-7a. Consider the everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ. As I said in weeks past, these verses, verses 6 and 7, are quoted in Hebrews chapter 1, and the author there clearly connects the fulfillment of this declaration, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever to Jesus Christ. Jesus' kingdom is forever. And whenever you look, whenever we look at the current political landscape and we're tempted to get discouraged, I want you to remember this. All the kingdoms and empires of this world are temporal. And I want you to consider with me for a moment, a little thought experiment. Where is the Babylonian kingdom? It's gone. Where is the Persian kingdom? Gone. Where is the Greek kingdom? The Roman kingdom. Where is the French empire? They are all gone. They have folded. Guess what? No one cares about these kingdoms anymore. No one is threatened by these kingdoms anymore. And that is exactly what many will say about the kingdoms of this age a millennia from now if the Lord tarries. As the hymn says, crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane, but the church of Jesus constant will remain. Gates of hell can never against that church prevail. We have Christ's own promise and that cannot fail. And if you are a Christian tonight, you have been begotten again to that kingdom. You've been begotten again from the dead in union with your covenant Lord Jesus Christ to this new kingdom. And so let me just say, as you begin on Monday to look at your news feed from Drudge or CNN or whatever, just remember that these tottering kingdoms should not be that thing that robs your joy, but instead you should turn your eyes to that eternal kingdom which Christ has established. Do not let these tottering kingdoms rob your joy. As John Newton says in his famous hymn, Fading is the worldling's pleasure, All his boasted pomp and show, Solid joys and lasting treasure, None but Zion's members know. You are a member of Zion. You are a member of the heavenly Jerusalem and remember that that kingdom is forever. But consider also here his scepter in verse 7a, 6 and 7. It says, the scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. When we choose to think upon Christ's kingdom rather than these tottering kingdoms, it's not as though the miscarriages of justice that we see in the news are unimportant to our covenant Lord, for they are very important. In fact, Christ's rule and authority is one of equity. Just as the text says here, His scepter is a scepter of uprightness. The reason why the Lord has put him on the throne of an eternal kingdom is that he loved righteousness and he hates wickedness. You see, our covenant Lord is not arbitrary. Our covenant Lord is not a tyrant. Our covenant Lord is not a dictator. He is righteous and therefore all His works are righteous. And when we stand before Him on the last day, there will be no miscarriages of justice. As we confess with the Apostles' Creed, on the last day the Lord will come to do what? To judge the quick and the dead, the living and the dead. His whole aim in the gospel is to make people righteous before God. See Him. See Him in the wilderness as He resists temptation in all righteousness. See Him as He uses, as it were, grist for the mill. He uses Scripture to combat and push back against the evil plottings of Satan, the temptations of Satan. He pushes back with the righteous Word of God, and for this reason His kingdom is established. See how He cleanses the temple in His ministry. He hated wickedness. Zeal for His Father's house consumed Him. See His tears of death at the tomb of Lazarus. Those tears were not simply emotional, flighty tears, but they were tears of deep groaning and anguish because of death that had entered into the world and robbed the garden of righteousness. And He knew that one day He would overturn that death in His resurrection. You see, He came, and He bled, and He suffered and died in order to remove wickedness. Christ and His gospel are opposed to wickedness in all forms. So mark this. Everything we see in the here and now will be rectified on the last day. There will be a reckoning, and you need to remember that. Even in America, where we don't seem to see as much blatant and senseless violence as other countries do, we still see it in our country. We still see it in our age. I think even last week there was another high school shooting. We still see senseless violence, but do not think that there will not be a reckoning for such things. I love the American poet James Russell Lowell. He says this. Listen to this. Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne. Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown standeth Christ within the shadow, keeping watch above His own. You see, our Lord knows what is going on. He's not ignorant. And He will judge the wicked, so let not your hearts be troubled. He has overcome the world. But now secondly, I want you to notice in verses 7b-9, I want you to consider His royal garments and royal entourage. It says in 7b, Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. Since Christ loved righteousness and hated wickedness, God has anointed Him with the oil of gladness beyond His companions. Now, who are his companions in the redemptive historical landscape of biblical revelation? Who are his companions beyond which God anoints him with the oil of gladness? Well, I would submit to you that they are the types which pointed to him but could not match him. They are the types of Abraham and Moses and David, all loyal and good and noble in their own right, and yet falling short of the status to be able to be called Messiah of God's people. You see, the author to the Hebrews tells us in Hebrews chapter 3 that Moses was a servant in God's house, but Jesus was a what? A son. Jesus was a Son, and for that reason the Lord anointed Him with the oil of gladness beyond all of His companions. But look at His garments in verse 8. He is bedecked with a pleasing aroma. You see, there is a sweetness and a fragrance to Christ, is there not? There is a sweetness and a fragrance, and it is the nearness of Christ, the greatness of Christ, which seasons and flavors our thoughts, which seasons and flavors our words, which seasons and flavors even our life. The aroma and atmosphere of a reigning Redeemer is indeed all joy to us. In the midst of these tottering kingdoms, where hope and stability vacillate from one candidate to the next, It is the royal entourage of this sovereign king who injects the fragrant aroma of life into the kingdoms of this world. Look at verses 8 and 9. Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces, string instruments make you glad. Daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor. At your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir." This scene depicts something of a royal procession. It's a royal procession as the king enters his ivory palace. There are string instruments there to give something of a soundtrack to his procession as he enters into these ivory palaces. And who is among that entourage but ladies of honor and the queen of Ophir? When I read this, my mind immediately races to 2 Corinthians 2, 14 through 16, where Paul takes up this imagery and he says, but thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession. And through us, this is the language that we heard this morning in the sermon, that he has called us to our own to His own glory and excellence, His own glory and virtue, such that our faith is a funnel through which our virtue is poured out in our lives and into the lives of those around us. Through us, Paul says, spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere, for we This is crazy. We are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To one, a fragrance from death to death. To the other, a fragrance from life to life. And here in Psalm 45 is a picture of Christ's church accompanying Him in a triumphal procession, taking the gospel into the world. So should not our witness, as those who are part of this royal entourage, should not our witness in the world be one of spreading the fragrant aroma of our King into the world? When He found us naked, dirty, and destitute, what did He do? He spread the corner of His garment over us and covered our nakedness. He made a vow to us and entered into a covenant with us, and we became His. Shall we not continue under this fragrant garment and take his message of love to the world? We are the fragrant aroma of Christ. But finally this evening, consider the appeal given to the bride in verses 10 through 12 and embrace this appeal. It says in verses 10 through 12, hear, O daughter, and consider and incline your ear. Forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your Lord, bow to him. The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people. What do we see here in this final appeal in verses 10 through 12? I would submit to you that this appeal is cast in the language very similar to the language given to Adam in Genesis 2.24, that he should leave his family, as it were, and cleave to Eve, his wife. And we see three imperatives here. Listen, give attention, incline your ear. What is the point of all of this? Here it is. Forget your people and your Father's house. The bride is challenged to leave the old loyalties behind in favor of a new and lasting loyalty in Jesus Christ. Let everything else go. Let everything else be subordinated. Let everything else be put in the last place so that He might be put in the first place. I mean, it's not hard to forget bondage, right? And yet, isn't it interesting that Israel always wanted to go back to Egypt? They always wanted to go back to the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but they were out of their minds. They had a short memory. They thought that things were so much better in Egypt, but in Egypt they were sons and daughters of slavery, and in the wilderness, though they had no place to rest their heads, they were free. They were under the banner of Yahweh Himself, who was directing them through the wilderness with mighty feats of miracles and power. It's amazing. It's amazing. Blessed disengagement, leaving all other loves. So tonight I call you to be like Ruth. My Christ will be your Christ, and Christ's people will be your people. His kingdom, His reign, and His joy will be yours. And look at verse 11. and the king will desire your beauty." Isn't that amazing? You see, the fact of the matter is that we have no beauty. We have no beauty except in the acknowledgement of our unworthiness and our need of Him. You leave all of that behind, and I will desire your beauty, says Christ your King. He will wash you, He will cleanse you, He will justify you, He will sanctify you, and He will present you to the Father in heaven. But some might say, well, He's only looking for beautiful brides. No, no. There are no beautiful brides here. There are no beautiful brides on the earth, nothing but stained and defiled brides. I mean, this is a matchmaker's nightmare, right? There are no beautiful brides to match to this king, but see, this is the matchmaking of God. It is the grace of God that He sends His Son to be that glorious matchmaker between sinning wretches and a holy God, and the Son Himself becomes the very means by which we are wedded to a holy God. He's not looking for holy and beautiful brides. He is looking for those brides who will forget all former things and bring about their defilement and condemnation, and those brides who are willing to cling to Him. What is He looking for? He's looking for believing brides. He's looking for believing brides. Are you a believing bride this evening? Marry Jesus this evening. Come to Jesus through faith. And let us take these reflections of the poet in Psalm 45 into our time of prayer this evening.