Tonight’s Bible study continued our journey through the Messianic psalms as we looked at Psalm 45. This psalm is entitled ‘for a royal wedding’, and was possibly written to celebrate the marriage of King Solomon. Royal weddings are always grand affairs, as those eagerly anticipating the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on 19th May can testify, but this psalm was also taken to refer to an even greater royal wedding than that. Heb 1:8-9 refers to this psalm and makes it plain that the throne which will last for ever refers to Jesus (see also Jn 1:14).
Marriage is God’s idea, and one of the many descriptions of HIs relationship with His people is marriage: God is the bridegroom (see Is 54:1-5, Is 62:1-5, Song of Songs and Hosea in the Old Testament) and His people are called His bride (in the Old Testament, the people of Israel, but the New Testament makes it plain that the church is included in this relationship – see Romans 11, Eph 5:25-32, 2 Cor 11:1-2, Rev 19:6-9, Rev 21:1-4). Human marriage is meant to be a reflection of God’s passion and love for His people and we do well to define marriage through this lens rather than through society’s casual understanding of the relationship.
Ps 45 describes both the bridegroom and bride in some detail, evoking the magnificence and splendour of a wedding through the language it uses. We see God as all-powerful, reigining and ruling in majesty; we smell His beautiful aroma; we note the scope of His reign (not just in Israel, but in the whole world.) Perhaps more surprising to us is the picture of the bride: glorious, beautiful and virginal. Paul says Christ’s sacrifice for the church is to make her ‘holy and blameless’. We are washed, cleansed and dearly loved.
The royal wedding to come between Christ and the church is one that will surpass even our wildest imaginations, and should fuel us with hope and optimism. One day, we shall reign and rule with Christ; all sorrow, suffering, sin and pain will be gone (just as the bride in Ps 45 was urged to forget her people and her father’s house, we have to understand the devil no longer has any claim on us and we are to cleave to our new husband.) We rejoice at weddings and celebrate a couple’s happiness, but we look forward even more to the wedding that is to come between Christ and His bride…
