Sermon of the week

DRAWN BY POWER

 
“Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: 
therefore God hath blessed thee for ever,” Psalm 45:2.   
 
 
If you see the context in which our verse is written, you will notice in verse 1 
that it is speaking of the king: “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.”
 
 
This speaking of the king is a prophetic insight that the psalmist had of the 
Lord Jesus Christ in His kingly position, and it points to that blessed 
condescension of that King in verse 2: “Thou art fairer than the children of 
men: grace is poured into thy lips.” He is seeing the overwhelming beauty in the 
grace and tender love that comes forth from the King of kings.
 
Many of the Old Testament writers spoke of the blessedness of our lovely Saviour 
in a prophetic way as we see from Song of Solomon 5:16: “His mouth is most 
sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, 
O daughters of Jerusalem.”
 
We see such a beautiful parallel between this verse and our text. The writers 
see such preciousness and such beauty in the words of the King of kings and in 
His loving condescension.  
 
 
The love of God for His people is eternal, and that has been the source of 
drawing His people to Him from eternity. I want you to turn with me to Jeremiah 
31:3: “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee 
with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”
 
The Old Testament writers saw and understood what had been from the beginning. 
This was not a new exposition. It is an eternal love, and they see the 
blessedness in that eternal love of God. The word therefore shows that because 
of this everlasting love, He has drawn us with lovingkindness. It does not say 
that He has driven us. The Lord does not use the law as a whip to drive us to 
Christ. He draws us with the blessed revelation of that love. He does not drive 
us to Christ out of a slavish fear. 
 
 
The gospel has a drawing love. The love of God draws us to repentance. This is 
what gives us a different attitude. I saw a man one time who whip-broke a horse, 
and he could crack a whip one time in the corral and a horse out in the pasture 
would come running to him and stand there trembling. That is not how the Lord 
draws His people to Him. The Lord draws us with the everlasting love of Christ.
 
Our blessed Saviour tells us how sinners are drawn to Him in John 12:31: “Now is 
the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” The 
prince of this world will no longer sit as king on the throne of your heart. The 
Saviour is showing us how He will accomplish this.  
 
 
Continuing in verses 32 and 33 we read: “And I, if I be lifted up from the 
earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should 
die.”
 
Much more is to be understood here than just that we see His human body hanging 
on a tree. What death did He die? We read the answer in Romans 6:10: “For in 
that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.” 
If we start to see the love that was in the ignominious death of our dear 
Saviour and how He died unto sin, then sin becomes exceedingly sinful. This is 
what has to be lifted up before our eyes—that tender love of God, of how He gave 
His Son, and that tender love of the Son, how He hung on the cross. It was not 
the nails that hung Him there. It was His love.
 
These gracious lips of our Saviour are what makes Him “fairer than the children 
of men” to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. He is pleading with 
His church. He is pleading with His lovely bride. He is telling them of His 
love. He is showing them how He was lifted up from the earth, and how He was 
hung there from a motive of love. This is what causes us to hunger and thirst 
after righteousness. You and I will never have enmity against sin by the whip of 
the law. We will only see the sinfulness of sin and have that hunger and thirst 
after righteousness as our eyes are opened to see the love of God. Amen.
 
Jesus is tenderly calling thee home—
Calling today, calling today;
Why from the sunshine of love wilt thou roam 
Farther and farther away?
 
Jesus is calling the weary to rest--
Calling today, calling today;
Bring Him thy burden and thou shalt be blest;
He will not turn thee away.
Fanny J. Crosby, 1883
 ----------------------