The Portrait of the Bride
A. Maclaren, D. D. Psalm 45:10-11 Listen, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear; forget also your own people, and your father's house;… The transference of the historical features of this wedding-song to a spiritual purpose is not so easy or satisfactory as in the case of the Bride's consort. There is a thicker rind of prose fact to cut through, and certain of the features cannot be applied without undue violence. But in its main broad outlines this portraiture of the Bride tells of the Church of Christ as did that of the King tell of Christ Himself. I. THE ALL-SURRENDERING LOVE THAT MUST MARK THE BRIDE. In all real wedded life, as those who have tasted it know, there comes, by sweet necessity, the subordination, in the presence of a purer and more absorbing affection, of all lower, howsoever sweet, loves that once filled the whole heart. The same thing is true in regard to the union of the soul with Christ. The description of the Bride's abandonment of former duties and ties may be transferred, without the change of a word, to our relations to Him. If love to Him has really come into our hearts, it will master all our yearnings and tendencies and affections, and we shall feel that we cannot but yield up everything besides by reason of the sovereign power of this new affection. It will deal with the old loves just as the new buds upon the beech-trees in the spring deal with the old leaves that still hang withered on some of the branches — push them from their hold. Love will sweep the heart clean of its antagonists. Christ demands complete surrender. Ah! I fear me that it is no uncharitable judgment to say that the bulk of so-called Christians are playing at being Christians, and have never penetrated into the depths either of the sweet all-sufficiency of the love that they say they possess, or the constraining necessity which is in it for the surrender of all besides. II. THE KING'S LOVE AND THE BRIDE'S REVERENCE (ver. 11). Here are two thoughts that go, as I take it, very deep into the realities of the Christian life. The first is that, in simple literal fact, Jesus Christ is affected, in His relation to us, by the completeness of our dependence upon Him, and surrender of all else for Him. We do not believe that half vividly enough. Again, in the measure in" which we live out our Christianity, in whole-hearted and thorough surrender, in that measure shall we be conscious of His nearness and feel His love. There are many Christian people that have only got religion enough to make them uncomfortable. They must not do this because it is forbidden; they ought to do that because it is commanded. They would much rather do the forbidden thing, and they have no wish to do the commanded thing. And so they live in twilight. And they cannot understand the blessed experience of the man who really walks in the light of Christ's face, and they miss the blessing that is waiting for them because they have not really given up themselves. III. THE REFLECTED HONOUR AND INFLUENCE OF THE BRIDE. The Bride, thus beloved by the King, thus standing by His side, those around recognize her dignity and honour, and draw near to secure her intercession. Translate that out of the emblem into plain words, and it comes to this — if Christian people, and communities of such, are to have influence in the world, they must be thoroughgoing Christians. IV. THE FAIR ADORNMENT OF THE BRIDE. "The King's daughter is all glorious within." The Book of the Revelation dresses her in the fine linen clean and white, which symbolizes the lustrous radiance and snowy purity of righteousness. The psalm describes her dress as partly consisting in garments gleaming with gold, which suggests splendour and glory, and partly in robes of careful and many-coloured embroidery, which suggests the patience with which the slow needle has been worked through the stuff, and the variegated and manifold graces and beauties with which she is adorned. V. THE HOMECOMING OF THE BRIDE. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; WEB: Listen, daughter, consider, and turn your ear. Forget your own people, and also your father's house.