Firstly we need to praise with what Christ is. In verse 2 we see this. “Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured upon thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee forever.” This is Christ’s being, Christ’s person. He is a man, a fair man, the man who is fairer than all men. As a man, He is full of grace, and God has blessed Him forever. Hence, in the person of Christ, there is the fairness, the grace, and the blessing. From verse 3 through verse 5 we have Christ’s accomplishments—the fighting, the overcoming, the riding through. Today Christ is fighting, overcoming, spreading Himself and riding triumphantly. Here it says, “Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride triumphantly...” Do not think that the Lord is so silent. If we have spiritual eyes, we will see how the Lord is riding through the whole universe. He is spreading Himself by riding and overcoming—this is the way He takes to ride on. I am assured it will not be long before He will be here, He will return.
In verse 6 we have the kingdom. “Thy throne, O God [He is God] is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.” After riding through triumphantly, Christ comes to establish the kingdom. We need to praise Him along all these lines. In verse 7 we see the sweet relationship between Him and God. He loves righteousness and hates wickedness. Righteousness represents the things related to God, and wickedness the things related to the wicked one, Satan. This means that the Lord loves everything related to God and hates everything related to Satan. Therefore God delights in Him and anoints Him with the oil of gladness above His companions. This does not mean that the companions are not anointed, but that they are anointed not above Him, but under Him. We are the anointed ones under the anointed One; so we are His anointed companions. Hallelujah!
Following this, in verse 8 we have the fragrance of all His doings. The garments in this verse signify the Lord’s deeds. What He does is so filled with the fragrance of His death (the myrrh and aloes) and the fragrance of His resurrection (the cassia). Whatever the Lord does is always based upon the principle of His death and resurrection and therefore is filled with these fragrances.
At this point we read of ivory palaces where there are stringed instruments which make Him glad. What is the meaning of this? Ivory here signifies the unbroken life of resurrection. When Christ was on the cross, none of His bones were broken (John 19:36). Ivory is a kind of bone. Eve was formed out of a bone from Adam (Gen. 2:22), typifying the church which has come out of the unbroken, resurrection life of Christ. Hence, the ivory palaces are not the heavenly mansions, but the local churches, which issue from Christ’s resurrection life. Out of the local churches the music, the singing and the praising rise unto Him. So, you see, what we need in the local churches is the raising up of praises. We need to praise Him according to all these verses.
We have seen that the church is mentioned as the ivory palaces in verse 8. In other words, the church in this verse is pictured as a building. Then in verse 9, the church is also mentioned, but this time as the Queen. The palaces are the building, and the Queen is the wife. In the entire Bible God always uses these two figures to signify the church. In Genesis 2 there are firstly all the materials for the building and secondly a bride, Eve. Then when we come to the end of the Scriptures, we see the completed building; it is the bride, the wife of the Lamb. So in this Psalm we see the church on one hand as the dwelling place of the Lord and on the other hand as the wife of Christ. How many praises we can compose out of such experience! If we are praising Christ, we can never forget the church. Christ and the church are forever joined together.
Now let us read verse 9: “Kings’ daughters were among thy honorable women...” This is the praise to Christ, but about the saints, the kings’ daughters. Spiritually speaking, before the Lord we are all females; we are the kings’ daughters. We were poor sinners, but now we are royal, we are kingly, we belong to the King’s family. Do not imagine that the kings’ daughters are one group and the honorable women another. No, the kings’ daughters are the honorable women. The kings’ daughters speak of our royalty; the honorable women speak of our honor and majesty. We should not be proud, but we must all realize that we are so kingly, so honorable. What praise this will inspire! When you walk on the street, do people sense something honorable about you? We should not forget our royal state and our honor. This is praise about us, but this is praise to Christ. If others say, “Look at those poor Christians, what miserable beggars they are!” that would be a shame to Christ. However, when people recognize or sense something in us of our royal and honorable nature, though they may not agree with us, that is a real glory to Christ. How much praise we too can render to Christ for all we see of Him in the kings’ daughters and honorable women.
Verse 9 goes on to say, “Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.” The kings’ daughters are the saints, and the Queen is the church. Individually speaking, we are the saints, but corporately speaking, we are the church. We are all one Queen; the Queen is a corporate body. And the Queen is at His right hand. Brothers, if you have your dear wife standing at your side, and I speak commendably of her, you will feel quite happy. The praise is about your wife, but it goes to you. The praise here is about the Queen, but it goes to the King. When we say, “Look, look at the resplendent glory of that golden Queen,” the glory goes to Christ. Every time we speak well of the church, Christ in heaven is made glad. When we say, “Praise the Lord for the church in Los Angeles,” or, “Praise the Lord for the church in Houston,” He is well pleased. Whenever we commend or speak well of the local churches, it is a kind of praise to Christ.
The praise about the King must undoubtedly come first, but the praise regarding the Queen should follow. Suppose you were the King: what part of the praise would make you happier? If I were the King, I would delight more in the praise about the Queen. Christ is deeply gratified when we speak well of the local churches. Our praises must not only be about Christ, but many times about the Queen, about the churches.
The Queen is seen in gold of Ophir. Gold in typology signifies the divine nature. The church’s beauty is not in anything but the divine nature. She is royal and she is divine; she is in gold of Ophir, the best gold.
Then the Psalmist immediately turns to the Queen and says, “Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house...” Here we have instead of praises an instruction to the Queen which is exceedingly meaningful. But, I tell you, sometimes even the instructions given to the local churches are the same as praises in the ears of Christ. Why? Because the proper instructions given to the church make the church more really the church; therefore these too are praises. All the local churches must learn how to hear and how to forget: how to hear the Spirit’s living, up-to-date speaking, and how to forget the past—the old relationships, the old way, and the old background. We must forget our people and our father’s house—“So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty.” The more we forget the past, the more beautiful we become. Whenever I hear some people speak of their past, I have the sense of ugliness. If we would leave all the past and go on with the Lord in a new way, we would obtain beauty in the eyes of the King.
In verse 1 of this Psalm Christ is the King, in verse 2 He is a man, in verse 6 He is God, and in verse 11 He is the Lord. Because He is the Lord, He is worthy of our worship. “He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him.” The Bible allows us to worship only God; anything or anyone that is not God, we should not worship. But here we have the proper worship, because it is the worship of the Lord. He is the King, He is a man, He is God, and He is the Lord—He is everything! Worship Him!
Verse 12: “And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favor.” Here we see that if the local church is in a proper condition, the people of the earth will come to it. Not only the poor and the lowly will come, but the rich and the honorable, on the one hand with a gift, and on the other hand to entreat the church’s favor. All these are praises about the church, but praises to Christ.
Now let us go on to verse 13. “The king’s daughter is all glorious within the inner part of the palaces: her clothing is of wrought gold.” Here we have not the daughters, but the daughter. In verse 9 we read that the Queen was arrayed in gold, but here the clothing is of wrought gold. Gold, as we have seen, signifies the nature of God. Wrought gold, however, signifies Christ. Christ is not only gold, but wrought gold. He with His divine nature has undergone so many sufferings and has been dealt with in so many ways that the gold in Him has become wrought gold. Now this wrought gold, this Christ, is our clothing, our righteousness that we may stand in the presence of God. We are all justified with Christ; Christ becomes our righteousness before God. Hallelujah! What a source of praise!
In verse 14 we read, “She [the Queen] shall be brought unto the king...” You see, it does not say that she shall be brought unto God, but unto the King. Wrought gold is sufficient for us to be in the presence of God, but we need an added factor that we may stand in the presence of the King. “She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of broidered work.” This raiment of embroidered work is the pure and white linen as the righteousnesses of the saints mentioned in Revelation 19. What is this? The clothing of wrought gold, as we have seen, is Christ. The raiment of embroidered work here is also Christ. But the first is the objective Christ; the second is the subjective Christ. The objective Christ is our righteousness that we may stand in the presence of God; the subjective Christ is Christ Himself woven into our character, embroidered into our being, that we may stand before the King. The latter is not merely a garment that we put on, but one that is worked into us, stitch by stitch. Christ as the wrought gold is the righteousness put upon us—that is our salvation. But following that, the Holy Spirit day by day is working to embroider Christ into us stitch after stitch. Thus, we will have another raiment. We will have two robes: the first is for God the Father’s satisfaction; the second is for Christ’s satisfaction. It is by the second that we will be brought unto Christ. All these are definitions and descriptions of the Queen, but praises unto Christ.
I believe that nearly all of you have upon you the wrought gold as your clothing. But I also believe that there is a real shortage of the embroidery. All the brothers and sisters in the church life are indeed precious, and we praise the Lord for them. But in another sense everyone is a little needle. In the local churches we need many needles to do the embroidery work that Christ may be wrought into our being. Then we will have another garment that will be a real praise to Christ. In Revelation 19 we see that it is by this garment that the bride is made ready. Praise the Lord, we have the first robe, but we need the second robe that we may not only praise Christ, but be a praise to Christ.
Verses 14 and 15: “The virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king’s palace.” The virgins also are the saints. They shall be brought with gladness and rejoicing—they are all praises to Christ. They shall enter into the King’s palace. All the saints shall be brought into the New Jerusalem.