Praising Christ the King in His Kingdom and in the Sweetness of His Virtues (Psa. 45)

Psalm 45 is full of the praise of Christ, and in the first eight verses we see praising Christ the King in His fairness, His victory, His kingdom, and His virtues; our Christ, the King, is more than worthy to be praised and spoken well of!

He is fairer than the sons of men – He was not fair or handsome outwardly, but He expressed God, and grace was poured upon His lips (Luke 4:17-22). Our Christ is so wonderful in all that He is and He does, both in what He did when He was on earth (see the four Gospels) and in what He is doing today in our life and on earth.

When we touch Christ and enjoy Him in His word, He speaks to us the word of His grace, and we enjoy God and love Him more.

On the one hand He is fair and full of grace, and on the other hand He is the King in His victory; to us He’s so sweet and dear, but to the enemy He is the mighty One with majesty and splendor riding on victoriously.

In the eyes of Satan and his fallen angels, Christ is the mighty One who has girded His sword upon His thigh, the One with majesty and splendor as signs of His victory.

Since His ascension, Christ has been riding on victoriously, and regardless of the situation on earth, He rides on prosperously. In country after country and continent after continent, Christ rides on as the word of God is preached, men are saved, saints enjoy the Lord, the Body is built up, and there’s much fellowship and blending among the churches.

Our Christ is the Leader and Savior; He is the Prince, the Ruler of the kings of the earth to rule over the world. He rules sovereignly over the whole earth with His authority, making sure that the environment is fit for God’s chosen people to receive His salvation.

As He rides on victoriously, the Lord gains and produces His overcomers, those who love Him, live in His presence, express Him, and overcome any negative thing through Christ, so that these would join Him in His final battle with Antichrist at Armageddon.

The Lord will not singlehandedly destroy Satan; rather, it will be Christ and His armies – Christ with His overcomers – who will ride on victoriously and will destroy the Antichrist with all the rebellious angels and kings on earth.

Hallelujah, Christ performs awesome deeds, and everything He does is just awesome! How we love this One, and how we praise Him!

Praising Christ the King in His Kingdom: His Throne is Forever and Ever!

In Psa. 45:6-7 the psalmist praises Christ the King in His kingdom; His throne is forever and ever, and the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of His kingdom.

The kingdom of Christ is a result of Him being victorious over His enemies; through His death on the cross, Christ overcame Satan, gained the victory over him, and now He is the King of the heavenly kingdom, and His throne is forever and ever (Psa. 45:6; Heb. 1:8).

The writer of the book of Hebrews applies the words in Psalm 45 to the Lord Jesus – He is God, and His throne is forever and ever! And His scepter is upright; the authority of many officials today is not upright, but Christ’s authority is altogether upright, for He loves righteousness and hates wickedness.

Christ the King has loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God – His God – has anointed Him with the oil of gladness above all His companions (Psa. 45:7; Heb. 1:9). The more righteous we are, the more authority we have; however, if we are involved with wickedness, we lose our authority.

The more we take Christ as our life and live Christ, the more righteous we are, and we share in His authority. Hallelujah, our Christ has been anointed with the oil of gladness – the Spirit of God – above all the believers in Christ (“His companions”).

God the Father has anointed Christ with the Holy Spirit above all His believers; His kingdom is altogether a spiritual kingdom, and Christ has been anointed to be the King in God’s kingdom.

The oil of gladness is the Spirit, which includes all the ingredients show in Exo. 30, such as olive oil (the Spirit as the base), myrrh (the sweetness and effectiveness of the death of Christ), calamus (the precious resurrection of Christ), and cassia (the repelling power of Christ’s resurrection).

Christ has been anointed for the purpose of the kingdom, and His kingdom is a spiritual matter.

As believers in Christ we are part of Christ’s kingdom – we are His “kingdom people”, taking Christ as our King and enjoying all that God is to us in His kingdom. How pleasant and wonderful it is to be in Christ’s kingdom, under His authority, enjoying all the rights and privileges of the kingdom people!

In God’s kingdom in spirit we enjoy righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. In God’s kingdom in spirit we enjoy the blessing of the Spirit, who anoints Christ the Head and also His Body.

The scepter of Christ is upright, He loves righteousness and hates wickedness, and He has been anointed by the Father with the Spirit. Praise the Lord!

Lord Jesus, we praise You as the King in Your kingdom! You are God, and Your throne is forever and ever. Lord, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom. We praise You, Lord, for as the King You loved righteousness and hated wickedness, and God the Father has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your companions. We praise You, Lord, our King and our Lord! Praise You for what You are and for what You have done. Praise You for bringing us into the kingdom of God to enjoy God in righteousness!

Praising Christ the King in the Sweetness of His Virtues in the Local Churches

In Psa. 45:8 the psalmist praises Christ the King in the sweetness of His virtues, saying that all His garments smell of myrrh and aloes, of cassia; from the palaces of ivory, harp strings have made Him glad. Praise the Lord, our King, in the sweetness of His virtues!

He has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light by His virtues (1 Pet. 2:9), and now we can tell out to others the sweetness of the virtues of Christ. When we preach the gospel and tell others about the Lord, we tell them what He has done for us and what He is doing for us; preaching the gospel is actually telling forth the many virtues of Christ.

The virtues of Christ are nothing else but the expression of His divine attributes. He didn’t just love men: He loved men with the divine love of God being expressed in the human virtue of man. Christ didn’t just have compassion on man but He allowed the divine virtue of compassion to be expressed through His human virtue of compassion.

All the divine virtues are in the divine life, and when we live by the divine life, the divine attributes fill our human virtues and are expressed through them. All the Lord’s garments (signifying His expression, His way of being, His person, His demeanor) smelled of myrrh and aloes (the sweetness of Christ’s death) and of cassia (the fragrance of His resurrection).

As human beings our clothing is our expression; the way we dress expresses the way we are. Christ’s virtues and excellencies, His excellent and glorious virtues, are clearly displayed in the four Gospels; by His virtues He has called us, and now we have His divine life and can express the same virtues by allowing the divine attributes to fill us and be expressed in us.

The way to experience Christ in His crucifixion by the power of His resurrection (myrrh, aloes, and cassia) is by the Spirit Himself (where everything is), and this Spirit is in our spirit (see S.S. 2:8-14; Rom. 8:16; Phil. 3:10).

When we exercise our spirit and live in spirit, we experience Christ in His crucifixion by the power of His resurrection, and what comes out of us will be the living out of Christ, the divine attributes being expressed through our human virtues.

From the palaces of ivory, harp strings have made Him glad (Psa. 45:8) – palaces signify the local churches, ivory signifies the resurrection life of Christ (see John 19:36; cf. S.S. 7:4; 4:4; 1 Kings 10:18), and harp strings signify praises.

The local churches are beautiful in the Lord’s eyes and are His expression, for they are built with the resurrection life of Christ. Where can we praise Christ the King in the sweetness of His virtues? We are praising Christ the King in the local churches.

The local churches, which are beautiful in the eyes of the Lord and which are His expression, are built with Christ’s resurrection life, and from the local churches come the praises that make Him glad.

Christ’s garments – His virtues that are so fragrant and wonderful – have produced the church as His expression (1 Pet. 2:9), and both His garments and the church are full of sweetness.

Lord Jesus, we praise You in the sweetness of Your virtues in all the local churches. Praise You for Your sweet death and powerful resurrection; they are so fragrant and aromatic, and we enjoy them in the Spirit with our spirit. Thank You Lord for calling us out of darkness into Your marvelous light by Your virtues, Your excellent and glorious virtues. We want to praise You as the King in the sweetness of Your virtues in the local churches today! May we experience You in spirit to be Your beautiful bride, matching You for our wedding day!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of the Psalms, msg. 20 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Direction of the Lord’s Move (2016 Thanksgiving Conference), msg. 4 (week 4), To Prepare the Bride as the Counterpart of the Bridegroom (2) – Praising Christ as the King in Himself, in the Church as His Queen, and in All His Sons, the Overcomers as the Princes .
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Hallelujah! sing to Jesus, / His the scepter, His the throne; / Hallelujah! His the triumph, / His the victory alone. / Hark, the songs of His redeemed ones / Thunder like a mighty flood: / Jesus out of every nation / Hath redeemed us by His blood. (Hymns #125)
  # Jesus by His human virtues / Did the subtle one arrest; / He as man withstood the tempter, / Fully passed through every test. / Now in spirit I can take Him, / All His virtues to possess. / In the Spirit of this Jesus / Is His human life so fine. / Human virtues have been added / To the Spirit all divine. / What abundance in this Spirit, / Rich supply for all mankind! (Hymns #1174)
  # Full of myrrh are all Thy garments, / And Thy lips are filled with grace; / In the savor of Thy suffering, / We in love Thyself embrace. / It is with the oil of gladness / Thy God hath anointed Thee; / From the palaces of ivory / Praise shall ever rise to Thee. (Hymns #170)