Psalms 45:2 - Homiletics

Altogether lovely.

"Thou art fairer than the children of men." Immense learning and ingenuity have been expended in the attempt to find some historic occasion for this psalm—some Jewish original of these royal portraits, the king and the bride. Solomon has naturally been thought of, as a type, Calvin thinks, of Christ; but the description does not suit him. Even Jehoram and Athaliah, Ahab and Jezebel, have had their advocates. The great Jewish commentators take the psalm as a prophecy of Messiah. Psalms 45:6 , Psalms 45:7 , quite inapplicable to Solomon, are in Hebrews 1:8 , Hebrews 1:9 applied to Christ. We need not, therefore, bewilder ourselves in a fruitless quest, but may at once see our Saviour in these joyful and adoring words.

I. PROPHECY IS HERE CLOTHED IN POETRY , AND DECKED WITH ALLEGORY . The question, therefore, arises—How far may this description be understood of our Savior ' s personal presence , when he lived as Man among men? The four Gospels contain no single descriptive trait. Some ancient Jewish writers strangely held that Messiah would be a leper , because Isaiah speaks of him as "smitten" ( Isaiah 53:4 ). Some Christians have seemed to find pleasure in supposing our Lord signally devoid of manly beauty. Calvin more reasonably explains Isaiah 53:2 of the absence of worldly pomp and regal state. Bacon, noting that few great men have been eminent for personal beauty—though there are some remarkable exceptions—says, "That is the best part of beauty which no picture can express; no, nor the first view of life." This kind of beauty—the soul speaking through the countenance—is what we cannot suppose absent in our Lord Jesus. We may gather from the Gospels that he had a more than princely nobleness, and a surpassing charm of graciousness. When men came into his presence they were impelled to fall at his feet. Yet little children ran at his call to nestle in his arms. Busy men, when he said, "Follow me," left all and obeyed. The wretched and perishing recognized in him their Deliverer. Jesus alone among men grew from infancy to the prime of manhood with mind and body untainted with sin. It is not said "fairest of men," but "fairer than the children of men;" he is not merely pre-eminent, but alone. "The temple of his body was a fit habitation for "the fulness of the Godhead." Bred to active toil in the pure mountain air, he had a frame capable of immense exertion. He could be heard by thousands in the open air. After a day of toil, not only speaking for hours, but by his intense sympathy taking on himself the burdens of suffering and sorrow he lifted from others, he would climb some mountain with the free step of a mountaineer, and spend the night in prayer. Even in his last inconceivably awful sufferings, we see no evidence of bodily weakness. After the agony of Gethsemane, the sleepless night of insult and torture, the terrible Roman scourge, and six hours on the cross, our Saviour's last words were uttered "with a loud voice," and he expired not from exhaustion, but from a broken heart. Add to all this that in his heart dwelt love, such as no other ever held; and that behind the veil of his human nature was the majesty of indwelling Deity. Who can suppose that the countenance of Jesus was a mask to hide that grace and glory, not a mirror to reflect it?

II. THE BEAUTY OF WHICH ALL OUTWARD GRACE , MAJESTY , LOVELINESS , IS BUT THE SHADOW , BELONGS IN TRANSCENDENT MEASURE TO THE LORD JESUS . The lost "image of God," defaced lineaments of which only remain in our ordinary human nature, reappears in him in full perfection ( John 14:9 ). We read in him all that most concerns us to know concerning God—his character and bearing towards ourselves. The amazing claim made by the Bible (unheard of elsewhere) that man was made in God's likeness, seems contradicted by the whole current of our world's history. But who can deny that no lower style fits the life and personal character of Jesus? (Some of the strongest testimonies are from professed unbelievers.) In the most admirable characters great excellence is commonly balanced by corresponding defects. But what excellence or virtue can you find in him, either falling short of the highest vigour or strong at the expense of some other? What is his chief feature? Love? But not at the cost of the severest truth, the strictest justice. Holiness? Yet he was the Friend of sinners. Benevolence? But you can no more imagine him weakly indulgent, or imposed upon, than deaf to any real cry of need. Would you see the glory of the sunbeam? You must not gaze on the sun itself, but on the flowers, leaves, meadows forests, hills, clouds, ocean, which his light clothes with their endless variety of colour and beauty. So the beauty of our Saviour's character is to be read in the hearts he drew to him, the lives he changed and hallowed, the characters he moulded, the homes he blessed, the love he inspired; in the track of life he has left—he only—in our dark world. But you need the open eye ( Isaiah 53:2 ; John 1:14 ; John 9:39 ). An unbeliever may admire his portrait in the Gospels, as he would a character in fiction. But to those who seek and trust him, Jesus reveals himself ( John 14:21-23 ; 1 Peter 1:8 ; 1 Peter 2:7 ).