Psalms 45:11

So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty.

The beauty of the Church desired by Christ

I. The believer’s beauty.

1. It is all derived, and not natural. Our Lord Jesus first makes men beautiful through His comeliness put upon them, and then He commends and takes pleasure in the works of His own hands (Ezekiel 16:14).

(1) The believer is covered with the rich and ornamenting robe of the righteousness of His glorious surety. He is “clothed with the garments of salvation” (Isaiah 61:10).

(2) The believer is also “all glorious within,” by the working of the Holy Spirit. His heart and affections ascend heavenward.

(3) The believer is fair and beautiful in respect of his outward conversation. The truly godly do not talk and walk at random: “Honey and milk are under their tongue,” and they endeavour through grace to set the Lord always before them, and to regulate every part of their conduct according to the rule of His Word.

2. What are some of the qualities of the believer’s beauty?

(1) It is a derived beauty.

(2) It is real (Song of Solomon 4:1). The judgment of Christ concerning His children, and the world’s opinion of them, are very different.

(3) It is of a spiritual nature, His adorning is the hidden man of the heart (1 Peter 3:4).

(4) It is of a growing and increasing nature (Proverbs 4:18; Romans 8:18). Every new discovery that the believer gets of the King in His beauty by the eye of faith, in the glass of his own word, adds to his spiritual beauty, and carries him forward to a further degree of likeness and conformity to Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18).

(5) The Lord Jesus will perfect the beauty of His Bride and Spouse in due time. The beauty of a believer is perfect as to parts in the day of regeneration (2 Corinthians 5:17); and he that hath once begun the good work of beautifying a soul with salvation will finish it (Philippians 1:6).

II. The delight which the Lord Jesus is pleased to take in the believer’s beauty.

1. He does so by looking upon it with pleasure and delight. He beholds the upright with a pleasant countenance (Psa 11:17). We see with what pleasure he beheld the integrity of Nathaniel (John 1:47). And as He looks upon the beauty of His people with delight, so He is never more taken with it than when they are entertaining the lowest thoughts of themselves.

2. He does so by commending it (Job 1:8; Song of Solomon 2:14).

3. Christ evidences great delight in the beauty of His people by keeping company with them, and admitting them to the enjoyment of sweet fellowship and communion with Himself (Revelation 3:20)

4. He evidences the pleasure and delight which He takes in the beauty of His people, by letting them into the knowledge of these things which are hid from the men of the world (Psalms 25:14).

5. He evidences His delight and complacency in the beauty of His people by the many endearing characters and designations which He gives them; such as, His Sister, His Spouse, His Love, His Dove, His Undefiled, etc.

6. He does so by the honourable services He employeth His people in. He, as it were, ornaments Himself with them (Isaiah 62:3).

7. Christ evidences His desire of, and delight in, the beauty of His people by intimating His will to the Father, that they may be admitted to be where He is after they have served their generation according to His will in the present world (John 17:24).

III. USE.

1. For information.

(1) We may infer that man is by nature vile and loathsome in the sight of an holy God, and so liable to the Divine displeasure; he has lost the glorious and beautiful image of God that was instamped upon him in his first creation by his fall in the first Adam.

(2) Hence, see what it is that can render a man truly beautiful and comely in the sight of God; it is his being clothed with the righteousness of His Son, and His being made a partaker of the grace of His Spirit.

(3) Hence, see how it is that any come actually to partake of the beauty of holiness, and that is in their being espoused to Christ.

(4) Is our Lord Jesus pleased to take complacency and delight in the beauty of His people? Then we may see how careful and diligent they should be to become still more desirable in His eye by growing in likeness and conformity to Him.

(5) Hence, see that believers in Christ need not be much moved on account of the disrespect and contempt which a carnal world is disposed to cast upon them.

(6) We may see matter of reproof to all such as are instrumental in marring the beauty of the Church, whether by persecution, error in doctrine, neglect of discipline, or by perverting the exercise of it, or by the introduction of human inventions into the worship of God.

2. For trial and examination. Are you possessed of that beauty that is amiable in the sight of Christ? If so, we think that you have seen your natural blackness and deformity; if ever you saw yourselves in the glass of the holy law set before you by the Spirit, this must have been the case with you. You have seen and felt an utter inability in yourselves to acquire that beauty that is pleasing to Christ. But again, if you are partakers of this beauty that is so desirable to Christ, then your remaining sin and deformity is your burden. In a word, if you are blessed with the begun participation of spiritual beauty, it is your real concern to have it increased and perfected. You are sensible there is much lacking in it (Philippians 3:13).

3. For exhortation.

(1) As to you who are the children and people of God, and whom He has begun to beautify with His salvation, we exhort you to bless the Lord for His goodness to you; for His works of wonder done, both for you and in you; though you were once lying among the pots, yet mercy has lifted you up. To be upon your guard against everything that tends to stain your beauty. Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. “Be not conformed to this world.” (T. Bennet)

For He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him.--

Religious worship

I. Its nature.

1. Its internal principles. There must be reverence, and this in the highest degree, because of its object. Not terror, but sacred awe and delight. And there must be also deep humiliation, for we are sinful creatures. Anything like self-satisfaction and complacency must be offensive to God. See parable of Pharisee and Publican. And such humility has ever characterized God’s true worshippers. Another principle of worship for fallen man must be trust in atonement. No acceptable worship ever was presented but through sacrifice. The history of Cain and Abel illustrates this. And thus is it now. All access to God is by the sacrifice of Christ. Then there must be submission, See the attendant seraphim whom Isaiah saw in his vision of “the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up.” They were engaged in reverential worship. Another principle is love. Not gratitude alone, but supreme affection delighting in God.

2. Its external manifestations. And here we have--

(1) Acts, such as prayer, thanksgiving, commemoration, sitting before the Lord to hear His word, which is a real act of worship, and not as some thoughtlessly say, to be distinguished from it.

(2) Places--the closet, the family, the church and the great assembly.

II. The ground and reason of worship. “For He is thy Lord.” This declares--

1. The Divine greatness, for the Lord of the Church is Lord of all.

2. His absolute dominion over us. That dominion extends to our being, and to all by which our being can be supported. All the blessings of life are by Him distributed, withheld, restricted, or multiplied, or withdrawn. Our felicity is from the light of His countenance; our pain from the pressure of His hand.

3. He is our Lord legislatively. He has given us a law to obey, a law holy, just and good. And He has sanctioned it by the penalty of eternal death. But as we have broken the law, all the more reason wherefore we should worship.

4. But to the Church especially it may be said, “He is thy Lord.” For the Church is a society of such as are actually reconciled to God by Jesus Christ; it is the separated company of pardoned believers. And to this company He stands in the special relation of a gracious Sovereign.

III. The importance of worship. We speak now only of public worship. For the proclamation of the great fundamental truths of religion. This, therefore, has ever been felt to be a duty. Good men have struggled, not for mere freedom of opinion, but of worship. Let us uphold the worship of God. Beware of a careless formal service. Seek in it to be increasingly spiritual. (R. Watson.)

The duty of all to pay divine worship and homage to Christ

I. The designation the father here gives to Christ. “He is thy Lord.”

1. This designation implies that there is a mutual relation between Christ and the Church: He is her Lord, and she His servant; He her King, she His subject; He her Head, she His member; He her Husband, she His spouse.

2. It implies His eminency in the Church. Whatever persons come into it He alone is Lord and Sovereign there.

3. It implies His sovereign power and authority in and over the Church. He is the sole Lawgiver to the Church (Isaiah 33:22). He is the great Speaker in the Church, to whom alone she owes the hearing of faith (Matthew 17:5). Yea, so large and extensive is His dominion, that it reaches to heaven, earth and hell (Revelation 1:18).

4. It implies that it is the indispensable duty of the Church, and every particular member thereof, to yield cheerful and ready obedience to the will of Christ in whatever He is pleased to command.

5. It implies that our Lord Jesus has the burden and care of the Church lying wholly upon Him.

6. It implies that He is God equal with the Father and Holy Spirit. “He is thy Lord,” faith the Father to, the Church, “and worship thou Him.”

II. Is what respects Jesus Christ may be called lord of the church.

1. He is so by the designation and appointment, of God the Father, who saith concerning Him (Psalms 2:6).

2. He is so in virtue of His own actual compliance with the Father’s designation of Him to that charge (Psalms 40:6; Isaiah 50:5).

3. Jesus Christ is the Church’s Lord by purchase and conquest; He is her Lord-Redeemer, both by price and by power. He has purchased the Church at the costly price of His own precious blood (1 Peter 1:18).

4. He is Lord in and over the Church, as He is her Husband and she His spouse.

5. He is Lord in and over the Church by her own consent.

6. He is Lord of the Church, inasmuch as it is from Him that she expects, and is to enjoy the reward, when her service in this world is accomplished (2Th 4:7-8).

III. The worship and homage which the church owes to Christ as her lord.

IV. Use.

1. For information.

(1) Hence, see that the Church is a highly dignified society.

(2) Is Jesus Christ Lord in and over the Church? Then we may see the sin and danger of usurping any of the prerogatives which belong to Him by adding to, or taking from, His institutions.

(3) Hence, see with what care and diligence the Church and every particular member thereof should, in their places and stations, strive together for the faith of the Gospel.

2. For trial and examination.

(1) What acquaintance have you got with Christ as your Lord and Redeemer?

(2) How are you pleased with the laws of Christ by which He rules His subjects?

(3) What think ye of Christ--of His person, of His love, His righteousness, offices and fulness; in all these He is truly precious to them who believe.

(4) Of what quality is your obedience to the royal law of Christ? Is it of an evangelical nature? Does it spring from faith in:Him, love to Him, and a tender regard to His authority displayed therein?

3. For exhortation.

(1) We exhort you who have been brought, by the power of grace to take Christ for your Lord, “to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of your Lord.”

(2) We exhort you who are strangers to Christ, and so in a state of rebellion against Him, to consider the woeful condition you are in. (T. Bennet.)

Worship

Praise and thanksgiving are the two necessary elements in all worship. We praise God for what He is--love, mercy, patience, justice, power, these are but some of the attributes of the Deity, and the more we realize their extent the more unfeignedly shall we praise Him. We offer up our thanksgivings for all that He has given and is giving us; material and spiritual blessings have been given to us so abundantly that we must be amazingly blind or monstrously ungrateful if our thanksgivings do not daily ascend to our loving Father. Worship is of immeasurable value to ourselves; it has a transforming power, in that it ever directs our thoughts away from ourselves outwards to our God. Besides this, the more our thoughts are uplifted in worship the more we shall grow like the God we worship. A Greek writer has told us of a temple at the entrance of which hung a magic mirror; every worshipper on entering the temple glanced into the mirror, and there saw himself in the very likeness of the God he worshipped. The legend but dimly veils “a great truth; why do we love to see our children true hero-worshippers? Is it not because we believe they will become more and more like the hero they respect so intensely? We ourselves delight in the companionship of a noble, heroic character. Or it may be we look back with thankfulness to the time we spent in such an one’s company; and why is the memory so sweet? We found a new strength through that friendship; in some degree we became like our friend. So, with humble, adoring love, we worship the God who condescends to be our friend, in the glorious expectation of gradually attaining to His likeness. So worship is to transform the various chequered experiences of our daily life, and even while it does so it shall transform our whole characters, till we “come unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” In our worship do we praise God because we daily prove what He is? Is our worship the outward expression of the faith and loyalty we show every day of our lives, or is it but the expression of virtues which should exist in us, but are never manifest? What does God see? Our worship should inspire us, should brighten the dark hours of our lives, nay, should even transform our lives by the “renewing of our minds.” Have we to confess that our worship is not a power in our lives, doesn’t cheer us when in sorrow, perplexity or temptation, doesn’t draw us closer to our God? What does God see? (A. Aitken.)