THE BEAUTY OF THE SAVIOR....Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Psalm 45:2  NKJV

You are fairer than the sons of men;
Grace is poured upon Your lips;
Therefore God has blessed You forever..

Those of you who have known me for a while know of my love for the Psalms.  Through the years as I have become more familiar with them my appreciation has increased as the joy I have in them has abounded.

I love Psalm One.  The 23^rd Psalm is for me both a theological masterpiece and a practical amazement.  I love Psalm 51, and Psalm 73 is for me a friend, counselor, and my resting place in discouragement.  And I cannot complete this small survey without mentioning Psalm 96 and 99.  They need no recommendation.

But for beauty, theology, and descriptive literature--both prophetic and practical--there is no equal to Psalm 45.  This without doubt is a Messianic Psalm.  As a lover of Scripture it does not matter if you subscribe to fewer or a greater number of Messianic Psalms this one makes the list.

Verse one is An alert to us what is to come.  The author “boils” with his subject and his desire to address it.  He has difficulty holding it in.  The subject threatens to boil over as he considers it.

In verse two we find him beginning an extensive description of his subject.  There are three grand statements made.  Any one of them is adequate for an extensive study.  But briefly: 

1.  You are fairer (more beautiful) than the sons of men.  Very rarely were Hebrew men handsome.  It is so unusual that whenever it is so, attention is drawn to that person, such as David’s unusual comeliness.  So this must not be taken to mean physical beauty.  The person described as “fair” in this way would be one with natural features that did not draw attention to defects, one that had the charisma that lights up a room, and a personality that displayed his equity and amiable disposition.  This one described in Psalm 45 had this “fair” quality in a superlative degree, above that of the natural male population.  As the kings of Israel were all “sons of men”, this is something other than a normal quality.  The humanity of Christ should not ever be considered separate from his superlative natural beauty.
2. Grace is poured upon your lips.  This can mean nothing less than he was endowed with a superlative measure of grace in his speech.  Those who heard Jesus speak we are told “listened gladly.”  His enemies said of Him, “no man ever spoke as this man”.  I have a red letter Bible that I use frequently.  I did not choose it, it was given to me.  I would rather not have Christ’s words set apart because all the words of Scripture are there by God’s choice.  But you cannot tell me that there is not something different in His words.  They marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.  We should marvel also at the grace beyond measure which was poured into His lips.
3. Therefore God has blessed you forever.  Calvin translated “therefore” as “because”.  He understood the “beauty” and “grace” to have a cause, God had blessed Him.  He went on to say these qualities, His beauty and gracious speech, were ample reasons to understand His special standing with God.

This would mean we should understand that in Himself and His words He is come as our mediator.  This is His commitment to bring us to God.  He is well fitted to do this.