Such believers need to consider the book of Hebrews. Hebrews is a book not on Christ's love but on the kingdom. Regarding the kingdom, Hebrews gives us five warnings, and each of these warnings concerns either reward or punishment. Furthermore, in Hebrews we have two kinds of words. The first is the good word of God (6:5), the word of the beginning of Christ (v. 1), which is the milk the believers taste when they believe in the Lord (5:13). The second kind of word is the word of righteousness (v. 13), which is solid food (v. 14), embodying the thought of God's justice and righteousness in His dispensational and governmental dealings with His people. In Hebrews 12:5 through 7 we have such a word of righteousness. "You have completely forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with sons, 'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when reproved by Him; for whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.' It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons." Today many believers do not want to hear such a word of righteousness. Instead, they prefer sugar-coated messages.

Psalm 45 is not on the Father's love; that is, it is not on love in life but on love in affection. This is why this psalm is called a song of love.

In this message we will cover the first eight verses of this psalm. These verses are on the praise of Christ as the King from four directions: His fairness, His victory, His kingdom, and His virtues. First, the psalmist praises the King in His fairness (v. 2a), in His handsomeness. Christ is truly fair; He is really handsome.

Christ's fairness, however, is balanced by His victory (vv. 3-5). Many husbands who love their wives have fairness, but they do not have victory. Instead, they have defeat after defeat. Thus, they are not balanced. But Christ, having both fairness and victory, is balanced. Yes, He loves us, but, as the four Gospels reveal, He also exercises His victory with its requirements. Because of His victory, He has high requirements.

We see Christ's victory and His requirements not only in the Gospel of Matthew but even in the Gospel of John. For example, in John 15, a chapter which speaks about abiding in Christ, the Lord Jesus tells us that if we do not bear fruit, we will be cut off and lose the enjoyment of Christ (vv. 2, 6). Whereas all believers love Matthew 1:21 and 23, they may not appreciate 5:20, a verse which says that unless our righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens. Likewise, today's believers may not pay attention to the parable for faithfulness in Matthew 25:14-30. Verse 30 says, "Cast out the useless slave into the outer darkness. In that place there will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth." The point here is that Christ's fairness is balanced by His victory with its requirements. Hence, in Psalm 45 fairness and victory are a pair.

A second pair in this psalm involves Christ's kingdom (vv. 6-7) and His virtues (v. 8). The kingdom is higher than the victory. Christ's kingdom is the issue of His victory. If there were no victory, there would be no kingdom. Victory produces the kingdom. Because Christ has won the victory, the kingdom belongs to Him. The matter of His kingdom, however, is balanced by the sweetness of His virtues. Therefore, in the praise of Christ as the King in Psalm 45, there are two balanced pairs: fairness and victory, kingdom and virtues.

Let us now go on to consider this psalm in more detail.