“the pen of a skillful writer”

[Psalms 45]

                ‘Among all the members of our body, what member is the most difficult to control?  It is our short tongue.  God has given us two natural defenses to control our tongue.  These are teeth and lips.  If bad or evil words come out, we have to bite our tongue with our teeth.  Also, we have to close our lips when the tongue breaks through our teeth.  Despite the presence of these two defenses, we can commit any number of sins through our short tongue.  We Christians must build virtue with our lips.  We must declare hope with our lips.  If we speak violently, the we are blocking the door of evangelism.  We must remove any evil that is hidden in our tongue by examining ourselves with the word of God and praying constantly to Him.  That’s the virtue that the believers must build’ (Internet).  So prophet Isaiah said, “The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of disciples, That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple” (Isa. 50:4).

                The psalmist in Psalms 45 said that his tongue is “the pen of a skillful writer” and he wrote a poem about the king because his heart was stirred by a noble theme (v. 1).  In other words, when the psalmist saw the excellency of the king, he confessed about the king by using his prepared lips strangely.  While meditating on the psalmist’s confession in three ways, I would like to think about what our attitude toward the king should be.

             The psalmist's first confession is “You are the most excellent of men”.

                Look at Psalms 45:2 – “You are the most excellent of men and your lips have been anointed with grace, since God has blessed you forever.”  Here, as the psalmist was praising the king, he described with his tongue that “is the pen of a skillful writer” that the king was more beautiful than life.  This word indicates that the virtue is superior to the appearance (Park).  The psalmist says that the lips of the king, who was superior in virtue to his appearance, “have been anointed with grace” (v. 2).

                I remember the hymn “My Lord Had Garments so Wondrous Find”: “My Lord has garments so wondrous find, And myrrh their texture fills.  Its fragrance reached to this heart of mine, With joy my being thrills.  Out of the ivory palaces Into a world of woe, Only His great eternal love, Made my Saviour go” (v. 1 and chorus).  As I sing this song with my lips, I ask the question, ‘How should I reveal the beauty of Jesus?’  As I ask this question, I remember what Henry Nowen said in his book “Compassion”.  All of our instincts are to pursue a life of upward.  But living a downward life like Jesus is a great discomfort to our hearts.  Although everyone is relegating to a better life, a higher salary, and a more honorable position, we are responsible for reproducing Jesus' downward life on earth.  We are responsible for manifesting the beauty of Jesus in low and ugly places.  This is what Nowen said about God's compassion:

                ‘Compassion isn’t taking sympathetic attitude toward those who have not achieved

a life of upward.  On the contrary, compassion directly reaches those people, go into

the place where the suffering is most extreme and settle there.  …  (God’s) …

compassion is the compassion of the One who keeps approaching the most forgotten

places in the world.  It is the compassion of the One who cannot rest comfortably

unless He knows that there are people with tears’ (Nowen).

We must remember Isaiah 53:2 – “For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.”  The beauty of Jesus cannot be seen with the eyes of the world.  The reason is because Jesus has no appearance that we should be attracted to Him.  Therefore, like Jesus, there may be no beautiful appearance that worldly people should be attracted to us.  Actually, there shouldn't be.  Never should we pursue worldly beauty.  What is the reason?  The reason because even though the worldly beauty can be “a life of upward’, he life of Jesus was “a life of downward” (Nowen). We must keep in mind the fact that the beauty of Jesus is revealed in our downward life.  And we must not forget that God blesses a life that reveals the beauty of Jesus: “…  since God has blessed you forever” (Ps. 45:2).

             The psalmist's second confession is ‘The King is the Victor.’

                Look at Psalms 45:4 -  “In your majesty ride forth victoriously in behalf of truth, humility and righteousness; let your right hand display awesome deeds.”  Here we see the King of war.  The purpose of the war is “truth and humility and righteousness” (v. 4).  For this, the psalmist prays, “In your majesty ride forth victoriously” (v. 4).  This prayer shows that the psalmist considered the king as a victor.  The king who has been blessed forever by God rides on a horseback and is victorious in a war.  The right hand of His power is creating all the amazing things (Park).  So the psalmist says: “Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king's enemies; let the nations fall beneath your feet” (v. 5).  Described as an unbeatable general, the king goes to war and breaks the heart of his enemy.  This triumphant king refers to Jesus Christ, the King of Hosts.  He is the spiritual victor (Rev. 19:11-21) (Park).

                This is what Deuteronomy 20:4 says: “For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”  The triumphant God is the God who fights for us and makes us triumphant.  So Apostle Paul said, “but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57).  We can overcome ourselves, sin, the world, and Satan through the God who gives us victory.  But there is a question we have to ask here.  It is the question of how Jesus triumphed.  We must ask how Jesus fought and won Satan.  The answer to that question is that Jesus triumphed on the death of the cross.  So Apostle Paul said, “’Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?’  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law’” (vv. 55-56).  Jesus overcame the stinging sin of death by dying on the cross and washed away all our sins.  And God gave us eternal life.  Therefore, the secret of a victorious life is that we “die every day” (v. 31).  Every day, we need to “hit my body and obey” (9:27).  We must beat our body and make it our slave (9:27).   

             The psalmist's third confession is ‘You love righteousness and hate wickedness’.

                Look at Psalms 45:7 – “You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.”  In building His Kingdom, the victorious Lord builds His kingdom that is eternal because His kingship is “justice” (v. 6).  The reason why the kingdom of God is justice is because the Lord, the King, “loves righteousness and hates wickedness” (v. 7).  So there is joy in His kingdom.

If we look at Isaiah 11:1-5, there is a prophecy about the Messiah.  Look at verses 3-5: “And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear; But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.  Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist.”  As we have the vision in building the Christ-centered workers to expand the kingdom of God, we must live a life of pursuing justice like the Lord.  We must remember Micah 6:8 – “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?”  One of the things God requires of us is to “do justice.”  In order to do that, we must love righteousness and hate wickedness, like the king in Psalms 45.

The “king” in Psalms 45 refers to the Messiah, Jesus Christ.  Jesus, the King of the kings, is the beautiful Lord, the victor, the Lord who loves justice and hates wickedness.  What should be our attitude toward Jesus?  There are three things we can think of:

(1)   We must cut off our ties with this world and long for the Lord only.

Look at Psalms 45:10 – “Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear: Forget your people and your father's house.”  Here the psalmist speaks of the queen.  This queen compares the believer who can be said to be the bride of Christ (Park).  Therefore, our attitude toward the king Jesus must forget our people and our father's house.  We must end our relationship with the world and seek only the Lord (Park).

(2)   We must worship the Lord.

Look at Psalms 45:11 – “Then the King will desire your beauty. Because He is your Lord, bow down to Him..”  Here the psalmist teaches what kind of believers God sees beautifully.  Those believers are the ones who worship the Lord.  God finds beauty in those who worship Him.  The beauty of the believers lies in humbly worshiping God.  Those who humbly worship God obey.  They live a life of worship.  They preach the gospel through their life of worship.  Therefore they see the spiritual offspring.  Look at verse 16: “In place of your fathers will be your sons; You shall make them princes in all the earth.”  Here, " In place of your fathers will be your sons" is a metaphor that means ‘a believer sees spiritual descendants through evangelism’ (Park).  Our responsibility is to expand the kingdom of God by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, the King.  In that way, we have a responsibility to obey the will of the Lord, that is to preach the gospel.  In the midst of that, all kings will be made through Jesus, who is the King of kings (Rev. 5:10) (Park).

(3)   We must have hope in the Lord.

Look at Psalms 45:15 – “They will be led forth with gladness and rejoicing; They will enter into the King's palace.”  Our hope is to enter the Lord's palace and worship Him forever.  Look at verse 13: “The King's daughter is all glorious within; Her clothing is interwoven with gold.”  Here, “The King's daughter” also refers to us, the believers.  And the psalmist says that we will be guided to the palace with gladness and rejoicing in order to enjoy “all glorious” in the palace (vv. 13-15).

With the desire to pursue the beauty of the life of downward in the hope of entering the royal palace of Jesus, the King of kings,

James Kim

(Praying for victory in the battle against myself through the victorious Jesus)