SHOSHANNIM
SHOSHANNIM
Psalm 45; Song 2;
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Easter Sunday
April 8, 2012
Psalm 45:1: “To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim…A song of love. My heart over flows with a good theme. I address my verses to the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.”
“Shoshannim” means “lilies” and reveals the principles of the Passover, Resurrection and Purity.
“We call the prophets the penmen of scripture. In reality, they were only the pen. The tongue of the most subtle disputer, and the most eloquent orator, is but the pen with which God writes what he pleases.” (Matthew Henry)
Psalm 45 is a prophecy of Messiah the Prince. It is pure gospel, and points to Jesus as the bridegroom with His Bride; and as King ruling in and for His Beloved.
- The Psalm speaks of the royal bridegroom who is Christ.
- The glory of His person.
- The glories of His victories.
- The righteousness of His government.
- The splendor of His court.
- Of His royal bride, which is the church?
- The consent of the Bride to her duties.
- The train of the Bride.
- The sons for the throne.
Ps. 45:2-4: “You are fairer than the sons of men; Grace is poured upon your lips. God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword on your thigh, O Mighty One, Your splendor and your majesty! In your majesty ride on victoriously for the cause of truth, meekness and righteousness. Let your right hand teach you awesome things.”
“Grace is poured into His lips”. By his word, his promise, and his gospel, the goodwill of God is made known to us and the good work of God is begun and carried on in us. The gospel of grace is poured into his lips; for it began to be spoken by the Lord, and from him we receive it. He has the words of eternal life.
The word of God is the sword of the spirit. By the promises of that word, and the grace contained in those promises, souls are made willing to submit to Jesus Christ and become his loyal subjects. He goes forth in his glory and his majesty as a great king triumphant over death, hell and the grave. In his gospel, he is great, excellent, bright and blessed in the honor and majesty which the Father has laid upon him!
Christ both in his person and in his gospel had nothing of external glory or majesty to charm and awe men. He took upon himself the form of a servant. However, he carried the majesty of His authority so majestically that the church leaders dared challenge him to reveal the secret of his power, “under whose authority are you?”
“In thy majesty ride on victoriously for the cause of truth, meekness and righteousness.”
Messiah is a conquering King. Men are brought to believe on him because he is true and to learn of him because he is meek. The gentleness of Christ is a mighty force. Yet His right hand will teach terrible things. The right hand is a symbol of power. This means to stand in awe in fear and trembling. The heart must be pricked, conscience must be startled, and the terrors of the Lord must make way for his consolations.
The next verse describes these terrible things.
45:5-6: Your arrows are sharp in the heart of your enemies; whereby the people fall under You. Your throne, O God is forever and ever; the scepter of Your kingdom is a right scepter.”
The throne of God is forever and ever. It shall continue on earth throughout all the ages of time. Even when the kingdom shall be delivered up to God the Father, the throne of the Redeemer will continue. The scepter of His Kingdom is the administration of His government exactly according to the eternal counsel and will of God.
45:7: “You love righteousness, and hate wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your fellows. All Your garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made You glad.”
Because Jesus humbled himself, God has highly exalted him. His anointing denotes the power and glory to which he is exalted. His garments of state are glorious not for their pomp, but the sweet fragrance of His Presence.
45:9: King’s daughters were among Your honorable women; upon Your right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.”
The church is here compared to the queen herself, whom, by an everlasting covenant, he has betrothed to Himself. This is the bride, the Lamb’s wife, whose graces, which are her ornaments, are compared to fine linen, clean and white.
In the Song of Solomon, the Shulamite is a type of the Bride of Christ.
Song 2:1: “I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys.”
The Shulamite is speaking here. She is seen as a type of the Bride, the House of God, mansions or dwelling places of God.
That the Easter Lily is the flower of Easter is symbolic throughout the Bible of purity and the resurrection of Jesus Christ as well as the Bride of Christ as a Lily people in the earth among thorns.
Song 2:2: “As the lily among thorns so is my love among the daughters.”
The Bride of Christ learns that the secret to being Christ’s habitation is the Cross; that union with Christ in His Life is based upon fellowship with Him in his death. Her purity in Psalm 45:9 is compared to the gold of Ophir for its costliness. For as we owe our redemption, so we owe our adorning, not to corruptible things; but to the precious blood of the Son of God.
The Bride is a chosen vessel. The King has given all to reach her. Like the King, she has been anointed above her fellows. The thorn speaks of the curse. Jesus Christ was crowned by mother earth with a crown of thorns, then exalted and crowned by the heavenly Father with glory and honor. Jesus has lifted His Bride out of the curse of the dust and into the heavens.
A lily cannot retaliate against the pain and ugliness of the thorns about it. The Bride unlike the thorns would rather be wounded than wound another. The Bride will maintain the pleasantness of the fragrance of the King in the midst of hurtful people.
“A lily is buried in the ooze of a pond or stream. There is nothing in the grave of the dead lily that appeals to nostril or eye. But silently the forces of life are working in the dark and the damp to prepare a glorious resurrection. A shaft of green shoots upward toward the sun. This is followed by a cluster of tiny buds. One day the sun smiles with special warmth upon the dank, black ooze, and there leaps into the light a creature of light and beauty; it is the lily, whose look is light and chosen throughout the Bible as a symbol of the resurrection.” (Author Unknown)
The King gave His all to apprehend her, now she must take hold of Him. He tells her of the duties expected from her. Salvation is free, but it is not cheap.
45:10 “Hearken, O daughter, and consider, incline your ear; forget also your own people, and your father’s house.”
Song 2:16: “My Beloved is mine, and I am His and He feeds among the lilies.”
The lilies here are metaphorical of the “pure in heart”. True belonging means to lay down all of our will and desires. He feeds among the purity of His flocks. He must be the sole point of her focus.
Will she give her consent and follow wholly after Him? He refuses to be conformed to her image. She must be conformed to His. It is the commitment of the Covenant.
Abraham had seven separations:
-
- Country ---- all this is familiar and comfortable.
- Kindred---natural and spiritual family. Family members want you to stay in the land of the Ur of Chaldees.
- Egypt----world
- Lot----carnal ones who walk with us.
- A desire to get wealth---love of money.
- Ishmael---Man made attempts to bring forth the promises of God.
- Isaac---The ultimate test—Do we love the promise of God more than the God of the promise. This is worship in its purest sense.
Each of us has been tested or will be tested in all of the above. If she will consent, that is submitting to these conditions of the wedding vows, and brings her will to comply with His;
45:11: “So shall the king greatly desire your beauty; for he is your Lord, worship you Him.” She must reverence him, love him, honor him and obey him. We must worship him as God, and our Lord; that that is the will of God, that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. If she will consent, great honor will be given to her:
Psalm 45: 12-13: “The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall entreat Your favor. The king’s daughter is all glorious within her clothing is of wrought gold”.
The glory of the Church is spiritual glory. Though all her glory is within, yet her clothing is also of wrought gold.
The Lily is sweet, while fruitful and tall. It has six white leaves, within are 7 golden grains. “Within is the glorious gold.” Much of the glory of the Lily is inward. So in the prophetic witness of the Lily we see the completion of the divine nature in the King’s daughter, “all glorious within”. It is prophetic of the 7-fold anointing of the Holy Spirit within those who are anointed with the Oil of Gladness. She is filled with the pure word of god. There is no lack of strength or power. The Lily also denotes purity of faith.
45: 15-16: “She shall be brought to the king in raiment of needlework; the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought to you; with gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought; they shall enter into the King’s palace. Instead of your father shall be your children whom you may make princes in all the earth.”
She shall be brought to the King is indicative of the bridal train. The raiment of needlework is prophetic of the interweaving of the various hues of ministry. Her companions are those who are in preparation for their wedding day.
The Living bible “Your sons will some day be kings like their father. They shall sit on thrones around the world?” These are the Sons of God, the over-comer’s, the Man-child Company; the 42nd generation of Matt. 1.
45:17: “I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore shall the people praise You for ever and ever.”
The praise of the marriage will be perpetual in the praises of the royal bridegroom. The Father has given Him a name above every name, and here promises to make it perpetual, by keeping a succession of ministers and Christians in every age, that shall bear his name which shall endure for ever.
Post Script from the Companion Bible XXL Shoshannim: “…Israel is symbolized again and again by the Vine. In the prayer of Esdras, “…O Lord, that bears rule of all the woods of the earth, and of all the trees thereof, thou has chosen Thy one Vine; and of all the lands of the world thou has chosen the one country; and of all the flowers of the world, one Lily…’ and among all its peoples, Thou has gotten the one people…; now, O Lord why has Thou given this one people over unto many?”
Poem by: Louise Lewin Matthews:
Easter morn with lilies fair
Fills the church with perfumes rare,
As their clouds of incense rise,
Sweetest offerings to the skies.
Stately lilies pure and white
Flooding darkness with their light,
Bloom and sorrow drifts away,
On this holy hallowed day.
Easter lilies bending low
In the golden afterglow
Bear a message from the sod
To the heavenly towers of God.
Our Lord used the glory of the Lily as an example of Faith in one of his sermons:
Luke 12: 22-27: “And he said to His disciples, “take no thought for your life, what shall eat; neither for the body, what you shall put on, life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment…which of you with taking thought can add to hi stature one cubit? If then you are not able to do that thing which is least, why take thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow; they toil not, they spin not, and yet I say to you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”
Preached by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012
Scripture from K.J.V. and NAS; Bibliography: Matthew Henry’s Commentary in One Volume; The Companion Bible ‘Esdras’; Poem by Louise Lewin Matthews; Principles of Present Truth on the Song of Solomon by: Kelly Varner.