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Psalm 45 | King James Audio Bible
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Psalm 45 suggests a joyous meeting of the earthly and the divine. The psalm honours a royal wedding while inviting readers to contemplate greater majesty of God’s eternal reign and spiritual significance of Christ as the divine Bridegroom. It is a poetic masterpiece that celebrates love, beauty, and the enduring nature of God’s sovereignty.
A Joyful Occasion: The psalm opens with joy and celebration, as the psalmist’s heart overflows with words of beauty and goodness concerning the king and his glorious bride. It is a song of praise, written as if the psalmist’s tongue were the pen of a skilled writer, eager to capture the splendour of the moment.
The Royal Bridegroom: The psalmist extols the bridegroom’s unmatched beauty and the divine grace that has been poured into his lips. This earthly king is described with awe and reverence, signifying the admiration and respect accorded to earthly rulers.
Majesty and Righteousness: Amidst the celebration, there is a recognition of the king’s divine attributes. He is depicted as a mighty warrior, wielding his sword with truth, meekness, and righteousness. This portrayal of the king goes beyond his earthly role, suggesting that righteousness and truth are the foundations of his reign.
Divine Anointing: The psalm acknowledges that this king has been anointed by God, emphasizing his divine calling and favour. This anointing sets him apart from others, signifying that his reign is divinely ordained.
The Bride’s Adornment: The royal bride, though less prominently described, is presented as being adorned in splendour and brought before the king in garments of needlework. She represents the beauty and purity associated with a queen.
Spiritual Significance: While Psalm 45 is a song celebrating an earthly royal wedding, it carries spiritual symbolism that points beyond the human realm. The king, in his majesty and righteousness, serves as a foreshadowing of the divine King who reigns with truth and grace. The love and union between the bridegroom and bride symbolize the relationship between Christ and his Church in Christian theology.
Psalm 43 | King James Audio Bible KJV | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ
My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee forever.
Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty.
And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.
Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under thee.
Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: the scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter.
Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.
Kings’ daughters were among thy honorable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house;
So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.
And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favor.
The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.
She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee.
With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king’s palace.
Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth.
I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise thee forever and ever.
Key Themes Of The Psalm For Reflection | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ
- Celebration of a Royal Wedding: The psalm serves as a celebratory song for a royal wedding, expressing joy and admiration for the union of a king and his bride.
- Majesty and Beauty: The psalm extols the majesty and beauty of both the king and the bride, using vivid imagery to describe their splendour.
- Divine Anointing: There is acknowledgment of divine favour and anointing, highlighting the king’s God-given authority and righteousness.
- The Bride’s Adornment: The bride is adorned and brought before the king, symbolizing purity and beauty in the context of the wedding.
- Spiritual Significance: Beyond the earthly celebration, the psalm carries spiritual significance, pointing to the divine attributes of righteousness, grace, and the eternal reign of God.
- Foreshadowing of Christ: The psalm is often interpreted as foreshadowing the relationship between Christ and His Church, emphasizing the role of Christ as the divine Bridegroom.
- Praise and Adoration: Throughout the psalm, there is a tone of praise and adoration, directed both toward the earthly king and the divine King, highlighting the theme of worship.
- Eternal Kingship: The psalm underscores the eternal nature of God’s kingship and reign, emphasizing His righteousness and truth.
- Beauty and Goodness: Beauty and goodness are recurring themes, both in the description of the king and the sentiments expressed by the psalmist.
- The Pen of a Ready Writer: The psalmist’s words are described as flowing freely, capturing the beauty and significance of the royal wedding, highlighting the theme of eloquence and praise.
Some few of the Pharisees now show solidarity with Jesus, warning him that Herod Antipas means to kill him. Herod has previously expressed a wish to meet Jesus (Luke 9: 9), about whom he was perplexed, wondering if John the Baptist had risen again. We do not know whether the Pharisees simply want to get Jesus to go away or if there is danger [ … ]
On Tuesday, His Grace turns to the theme of Jesus’ hidden years. His Grace asks the students to consider questions concerning what really happened: ‘Who, for instance, was Joseph? Was he indeed a carpenter, or has Joseph’s true role in the society in which he lived been misconstrued and forgotten to us? Though it be a beautiful, simplifying image to grasp, which offers to us much that is of value in Catholic faith… ‘A wise elder, which carpenter could mean, or a great engineer, an architekton, which in the Greek does not mean carpenter. But carpenter in the Hebrew could mean a wise man…’ His Grace turns the pages of his Bible back and forth, as if to itemize the paucity of information. Then he says: ‘What I think I can say to you with confidence is that it is of profound significance that we simply don’t know what Jesus was doing for most of his earthly life. There are some very different possibilities. One idea cherished by the Church is that Jesus worked with his father Joseph as a carpenter. Another possibility is that Jesus lived and prayed and studied closely with John the Baptist. They were cousins, and very close, almost the same, in age. Luke’s Gospel tells us clearly that Jesus and John knew each other from within the womb before they were born. So there may have been something quite important happening there. You see, we don’t know – it is an impossible mystery to us – just how much Jesus had to learn. This is because, if Jesus knew everything, humanly speaking, even as a tiny baby, then how can we say he is fully human? We simply can’t probe too far into this mystery, but we can draw extraordinary truth and healing from this thought, which becomes of immense relevance in our own lives. Jesus came to know and to understand himself not merely as a son of God, but as God the Son, and so as self-identical with his Father. It is not an adoptive relationship. Jesus is God. Now so much is hidden here. But this is a great gift. If you think about it, how do we come to know that we are loved by God, that we have our relationship with God? What are we born with in here’ – his chest – ‘and what do we have to learn? This is to say, what is gifted to us by other Christians at our baptism? ‘Jesus must have studied, and experienced profound revelation about who and what he truly was, and, so it seems to be, these studies cannot have been confined to the Semitic world. But this is the important point: there is a hiddenness about all of this. No matter which schools and which sects our Lord might have encountered all these years, this to us is as a desert space. What this means is that we can enter into the hidden life of Jesus, and there we can discover our own being with God, our own sonship. Our own particular being loved by God can come to us, if we can enter within this great unknown – into this desert space, where we are loved by Jesus. I firmly believe that there may be a great Lenten mystery in this period of our Lord’s life.’ A Bishop’s Lenten Homily | Extracted From The Gospel According To Tomàs | Faith And Hope And Love And Sexuality | Part 1 A Bishop’s Lenten Homily | Extracted From The Gospel According To Tomàs | Faith And Hope And Love And Sexuality | Part 2 A Bishop’s Lenten Homily | Extracted From The Gospel According To Tomàs | Faith And Hope And Love And Sexuality | Part 3 A Bishop’s Lenten Homily | Extracted From The Gospel According To Tomàs | Faith And Hope And Love And Sexuality | Part 4 | King James Audio Bible | KJV A Bishop’s Lenten Homily | Extracted From The Gospel According To Tomàs | Faith And Hope And Love And Sexuality | Part 5 A Bishop’s Lenten Homily | Holy Week | Extracted From The Gospel According To Tomàs | Faith And Hope And Love And Sexuality | Part 6
Saint Cyprian of Carthage, a third-century bishop and martyr, profoundly reflected on the Lord’s Prayer in his treatise: ‘On the Lord’s Prayer’. Saint Cyprian viewed the Gospel’s commands as foundational teachings that nourish faith, Strengthen hope, and guide believers toward salvation. Saint Cyprian emphasized that, while prophets conveyed God’s messages, Christ, the Word incarnate, personally delivered these teachings, illuminating the path from the darkness of death to the light of grace [ … ]
