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

Prophecy note, 19 February 2017
The entire Bible
is a divine romance,
a record of
how God
courts His chosen people
and eventually marries them:

The Lord’s recovery
is for the fulfillment of
Matthew 16:18
and Revelation 19:7-8
—the building up of Christ’s church
and the preparation of Christ’s bride.

When we as God’s people
enter into
a love relationship with God,
we receive
His life,
just as Eve received
the life of Adam.

It is this life that enables us to become one with God and makes Him one with us.

We keep the law,
not by exercising our mind and will
but by loving the Lord
as our Husband
and thereby partaking of His life and nature
to become one with Him
as His enlargement and expression
to be
the living portrait of God.

We are
not letter-keepers of the law
but loving seekers of God;
we love Christ
as our Redeemer,
as the life-giving Spirit,
and as our Bridegroom.

In order
for God and His people
to be one,
there must be
a mutual love
between them.

The love
between God and His people
unfolded in the Bible
is primarily like the affectionate love
between a man and a woman.

As God’s people
love God
and spend time
to fellowship with Him
in His word,
God infuses them
with His divine element,
making them one with Him
as His spouse,
the same as He is
in life, nature, and expression.

Psalm 45,
the highest and greatest
of all the psalms,
is one of the psalms
of the sons of Korah,
a song of love
according to the melody of “lilies”;
it praises Christ
as the King
in Himself,
in the church
as His queens,
and in the overcomers
as His princes:

The great work of God
is to restore
the desolated building of God
and to recover
“the sons of Korah”
by transforming rebellious ones,
through His unlimited mercy and grace,
into Christ’s overcomers
to make them
the constituents of
His bride, His overcoming queen.

If we are those
who affectionately love the Lord,
we eventually become
His love, His favorite.

A lily
denotes a pure, simple, single life
of trusting in God.

If we have
an affectionate love
for the Lord Jesus,
our tongue
will be
the pen of a ready writer,
ready to write
our love for Him
and our praise to Him
with our experience and enjoyment of Him
according to all
that He is
in His full ministry.

Psalm 45
praises Christ the King
as unveiled in the four Gospels:

The psalmist
praises Christ the King
in His fairness;
Christ is fairer
than the sons of men:

Grace
is poured
upon Christ’s lips.

Because the man Jesus
is fair, sweet, and full of grace,
God has been moved
to bless Him forever.

The psalmist
praises Christ the King
in His victory:

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.

In His splendor
Christ rides on victoriously
because of truth, meekness, and righteousness;
regardless of
what the situation is on earth,
regardless of
what the nations are doing,
Christ is riding on
triumphantly, prosperously;
from the day of His ascension,
He began to ride on,
and He
will continue to ride
until He
comes back
in victory.

His right hand
performs awesome deeds;
Christ’s awesome deeds
include His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension;
everything that the Lord Jesus does,
whether great or small,
is awesome.

His arrows
are sharp
in the heart of His enemies,
and the peoples
fall under Him.

The psalmist
praises Christ the King
in His kingdom:

As God,
Christ’s throne
is forever and ever,
and the scepter of uprightness
is the scepter of His kingdom.

As the King,
Christ
has loved righteousness
and hated wickedness,
and God the Father
has anointed Christ
with the oil of gladness
above His companions.

The psalmist
praises Christ the King
in the sweetness of His virtues:

All His garments
smell of myrrh and aloes
and of cassia:

Garments
signify Christ’s deeds and virtues,
myrrh and aloes
signify the sweetness of His death,
and cassia
signifies the fragrance and repelling power
of Christ’s resurrection.

The way
to experience Christ
in His crucifixion
by the power of His resurrection
is by the Spirit Himself,
who is in our spirit.

From palaces of ivory,
harpstrings
have made Him glad:

Palaces
signify the local churches,
ivory
signifies the resurrection life of Christ,
and harpstrings
signify praises.

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

Psalm 45
praises Christ the King
in praising the queen, the church, His wife,
as revealed in the Epistles:

The queen
typifies the church,
especially the overcomers,
as the unique wife of Christ,
and the honorable women around the queen
signify Christ’s overcoming guests;
this indicates
that the bride of Christ
is actually a group of overcomers:

The daughters of kings
signify the believers of Christ
in their royalty.

The king’s most prized women
signify the believers of Christ
in their honor and majesty.

The more
we hear
the Spirit’s living, up-to-date speaking
and forget the past,
the more beautiful
we become
in Christ’s eyes.

The king
desires the queen’s beauty;
the queen’s beauty
signifies the virtues of Christ
expressed through the church:

In verse 1
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.

Christ is worthy
not only of the church’s love
but also of her worship.

In Psalm 45
the queen
has two garments:

The first garment
is the gold of Ophir,
the woven work
inwrought with gold:

This garment
corresponds to
Christ as our objective righteousness,
which is
for our salvation.

The queen’s being covered with gold
signifies the church’s appearing
in the divine nature.

The garment of woven work inwrought with gold
signifies that the Christ
who has been dealt with
through death and resurrection
is the righteousness of the church
to meet the righteous requirement of God
for her
to be justified
before God.

The second garment
is the embroidered clothing:

This garment
corresponds to
Christ “embroidered” into us
by the transforming work of the Spirit
and lived out of us
as our subjective righteousnesses,
which are
for our victory.

As our subjective righteousnesses,
Christ is the One
dwelling in us
to live for us a life
that is
always acceptable to God.

The garment of embroidered clothing
signifies that the church
will be led to Christ
at their marriage,
clothed with
the righteousnesses of the saints
to meet
the requirement of Christ
for their marriage.

The king’s daughter
is all glorious
within the royal abode,
and the virgins
will enter the King’s palace:

The king’s daughter
is the queen,
signifying the church,
and her being all glorious
within the royal abode
signifies the glorious church
taking Christ
as her royal abode.

We take Christ
as our abode,
we become His abode,
and this mutual abode
eventually becomes the palace,
which signifies
the New Jerusalem.

Psalm 45
praises Christ the King
in praising His sons, the overcomers
as the princes, as seen in Revelation:

“In the place of Your fathers
will be Your sons;
/ You will make them princes
in all the earth”
(v. 16):

Here fathers
signifies Christ’s forefathers
in the flesh,
sons
signifies the overcomers of Christ
as His descendants,
and princes
signifies the overcomers of Christ
as His co-kings,
who will reign with Christ
over the nations.

Only Christ the King
reigning on the earth
with the overcomers
as His helpers
in the kingship
can solve the problems
of today’s world.

Christ’s name
will be remembered
in all generations
through the overcoming saints,
and Christ
will be praised
by the nations
through His overcoming and co-reigning saints.

Day 5
Psa. 45:9-11
The daughters of kings
are among Your most prized;
the queen
stands at Your right hand
in the gold of Ophir.
Hear, O daughter,
and see;
and incline your ear;
and forget your people
and your father’s house;
thus the King
will desire your beauty.
Because He
is your Lord,
worship Him.

In Psalm 45
the bride of Christ
is typified by
the queen,
and His overcoming guests
are typified by
the honorable women around the queen.
The bride of Christ, therefore,
is actually the group of overcomers.

In verses 9 through 15
we have
the praising of the king
in the praising of the queen
with the daughters of kings
among the king’s most honorable women
and the virgins, the queen’s companions.
…In verse 9a
the daughters of the kings
signify the believers of Christ
in their royalty,
and the king’s most honorable (or, glorious) women
signify the believers of Christ
in their honor and majesty.
Not only does the king
have honor and majesty,
but the queen and the women around her
also have honor and majesty.
This is
a type, a picture,
of the church with the believers.

Instead of praises in Psalm 45:10
we have
an instruction to the queen
which is exceedingly meaningful.
Sometimes
even the instructions
given to the local churches
are the same as
praises in the ears of Christ
because proper instructions
given to the church
make the church
more of a reality;
therefore,
these too
are praises.
These are
the instructions:
Hear and forget.
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 ways,
the old background.
We must forget our people
and our father’s house
—“Thus
the King
will desire your beauty”
[v. 11].
The more
we forget the past,
the more beautiful
we become
in His eyes.

The queen’s beauty
signifies the virtues of Christ
expressed through the church.
This psalm
praises Christ
not only concerning the things
that are of Him directly
but also concerning the things
that are of Him indirectly
as manifested
through His church
and His overcomers.
Our speaking well of
the church and the believers
is also a praise to Christ.

In Psalm 45:1
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.
As the Lord of the church,
Christ is worthy
not only of the church’s love
but also of her worship.

The woven garment
in Psalm 45:13
signifies the Christ
who has been dealt with
through many sufferings
and through death and resurrection
to become the righteousness of the church
to meet the righteous requirement of God
that the church
may be justified before God.
Thus,
the woven work
inwrought with gold
refers again to
the first layer of covering
—Christ as our righteousness,
through whom
we are justified
—signified by the gold of Ophir
in Psalm 45:9.

The embroidered clothing
in Psalm 45:14
is another garment,
the second layer
of her covering,
signifying that the church
will be led to Christ the King
clothed with
the righteousnesses of the saints
to meet
the requirement of Christ
for their marriage.
The queen in this psalm
has two garments.
The first garment,
“the gold of Ophir” (Psa. 45:9),
the woven work
inwrought with gold,
corresponds to
Christ as our objective righteousness,
which is
for our justification.
The second garment,
the embroidered clothing,
corresponds to
Christ “embroidered” into us
by the transforming work
of the Spirit
and lived out of us
as our subjective righteousnesses,
which are
for our victory.
The first garment
is put upon us
that we
may stand
in the presence of God,
whereas the second garment
is woven into our character,
embroidered into our being,
that we
may stand
before the King.

Day 3
Psa. 45:2-4
You are fairer
than the sons of men;
grace
is poured upon Your lips;
therefore
God has blessed You forever.
Gird Your sword
upon Your thigh,
O mighty One,
in Your majesty and Your splendor.
And in Your splendor
ride on victoriously
because of truth and meekness and righteousness;
and let Your right hand
teach You awesome deeds.

Psalm 45
is a praise
to Christ the King,
who is typified by Solomon.
The first section,
verses 1-8,
is a praise
concerning the King Himself,
the second section,
verses 9-15,
is a praise
concerning the queen, the King’s wife,
and the third section,
verses 16-17,
is a praise
concerning the King’s sons, the princes.

Verses 1-8
are the praise of Christ the King
from four directions:
His fairness, His victory,
His kingdom, and His virtues.
In this praise
there are
two balanced pairs:
Christ’s fairness and His victory,
and Christ’s kingdom and His virtues.
Christ’s fairness
is balanced
by His victory with its requirements,
and His kingdom,
the issue of His victory,
is balanced
by the sweetness of His virtues.

In Psalm 45:2
the psalmist
praises the King
(signifying Christ)
in His fairness.
When the Lord Jesus
comes to us,
He comes
first in the aspect of His fairness.
This is
why, when we
preach the gospel,
we need to preach
mainly Christ’s fairness,
telling others
how good and loving
Christ is.
We may say
that this kind of gospel preaching
is a “hook”
with a tasty “bait.”
Everyone
who believes in the Lord Jesus
and loves Him
has been “hooked”
by Him.
Blessed are they
who have been hooked
by Christ!

Now the One
who has come to us
in His fairness,
the One
who has caught us
and who loves us,
wants us
to love Him
in return.
We need to love Him
and even become His love.
This is
the issue of
Christ’s showing us His fairness
and of
our enjoyment of Christ
in His fairness.
It is impossible
for us
to speak in full
concerning Christ’s fairness.

According to verse 2a,
as the King Christ
is fairer
than the sons of men.
…Verse 2b indicates
that grace continually proceeds
out of His mouth.
Concerning this,
Luke 4:22 tells us
that the people
marveled at the words of grace
proceeding out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus.
…In Psalm 45:2c
the psalmist
continues the praise of the King.
…Because the man Jesus
is fair, sweet, and full of grace,
God has been moved
to bless Him forever.
Thus,
Romans 9:5
speaks of Christ
as “God…, blessed forever.”

In Psalm 45:3-5
we have
the psalmist’s praising the King
in His victory.
Adam
and all his descendants,
including us,
have been defeated.
Only Christ
is the Victor.
The Gospels reveal
that He
has overcome everything
and has gained the victory.

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

Splendor
is the expression of glory.
While Christ
was on earth,
the only time
He showed His splendor
was when He
was transfigured
on the mountain.
But after His resurrection and ascension,
He showed Himself
in His splendor and majesty
to Paul and to John.

We understand
the word teach
in Psalm 45:4b
to mean perform.
Christ has performed
many awesome deeds,
including His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.
The most awesome deed
performed by Christ
was His crucifixion.
Christ’s crucifixion
was a great event
that threatened
Satan, the demons,
and the fallen angels,
the powers of darkness in the air.
The cross of Christ
is the most awesome thing
in the universe.
Whereas we
appreciate the cross,
Satan
flees from it.

Psalm 45:5
goes on to say
that the King’s arrows
are sharp
and that the peoples
fall under Him.
His arrows
are in the heart of His enemies.

Day 1
Jer. 2:2
Go
and cry
in the ears of Jerusalem,
saying,
Thus says Jehovah:
I remember
concerning you
the kindness of your youth,
the love of your bridal days,
when you followed after Me
in the wilderness…

Rev. 19:7
Let us rejoice and exult,
and let us give the glory to Him,
for the marriage of the Lamb
has come,
and His wife
has made herself ready.

Throughout the centuries,
God has had
a romance with man.
God created man
with the purpose of
having a counterpart.
…After creating man,
He chose a people,
the children of Israel,
to be His spouse.

The entire Bible
is a divine romance.
This means
that the Bible
is a very romantic book.
…As a divine romance,
the Bible is
a full record of God’s wooing,
even of His “dating,”
of man.
Again and again
in the Scriptures,
God comes to man
in this way.
…The Bible is
also full of God’s courting of man.

Although the Lord
often spoke
as a Bridegroom
conversing with His bride,
not many Christians
have realized
this aspect of His word.
…The Lord’s coming to us
is His “dating” and courting
of us.

The mentioning of love
in Exodus 20:6
indicates that God’s intention
in giving His law
to His chosen people
was that they
become His lovers.
In bringing His people
out of Egypt
and giving His law
to them,
God was
courting them,
wooing them,
and seeking
to win their affection.
Jeremiah 2:2; 31:32;
and Ezekiel 16:8
indicate that the covenant
enacted at the mountain of God
through the giving of the law
was an engagement covenant,
in which God
betrothed the children of Israel
to Himself.
The Ten Commandments,
especially the first five,
gave the terms of the engagement
between God and His people.
The highest function of the law
is to bring God’s chosen people
into oneness with Him,
as a wife
is brought into oneness
with her husband.
In order for God and His people
to be one,
there must be
a mutual love between them.
The love between God and His people
unfolded in the Bible
is primarily like the affectionate love
between a man and a woman.
As God’s people
love God
and spend time
to fellowship with Him
in His word,
God infuses them
with His divine element,
making them
one with Him
as His spouse,
the same as He is
in life, nature, and expression.

The entire Bible
is a divine romance,
a record of
how God courts His chosen people
and eventually marries them.
When we
as God’s people
enter into a love relationship
with God,
we receive His life,
just as Eve
received the life of Adam.
…It is this life
that enables us
to become one with God
and makes Him one with us.
We keep the law
not by exercising our mind and will
but by loving the Lord
as our Husband
and thereby partaking of
His life and nature
to become one with Him
as His enlargement and expression.

In Matthew 16:18
the Lord Jesus said,
“I will build My church.”
You may say
that this is
a promise,
yet we still have to realize
that this is
a prophecy.
…We still cannot see
that the church
is fully built up.
The fulfillment of
this prophecy in Matthew 16:18
has not been fully realized,
so even today
this prophecy
still remains unfulfilled.

Revelation 19:7-8
speaks of
the coming marriage of the Lamb,
when His wife, the bride,
has made herself ready.
Strictly speaking,
doctrinally speaking,
that will be
the fulfillment of prophecy,
but this fulfillment
is still not here.
So these verses
indicate that a prophecy
is going to be fulfilled.
This prophecy
is that the bride of Christ
will be made ready.
We need to be impressed
that there is
a great prophecy
in the Bible
regarding the building up
of the church
and the preparation
of Christ’s bride.