The Treasury of David
by C.H. Spurgeon

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS
(Psalms 45 Verse 13)

Verse 13. The king's daughter is all glorious within. Within her secret chambers her glory is great. Though unseen of men her Lord sees her, and commends her. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be." Or the passage may be understood as meaning within herself -- her beauty is not outward only or mainly; the choicest of her charms are to be found in her heart, her secret character, her inward desires. Truth and wisdom in the hidden parts are what the Lord regards; mere skin deep beauty is nothing in his eyes. The church is of royal extraction, of imperial dignity, for she is a king's daughter; and she has been purified and renewed in nature; for she is glorious within. Note the word all. The Bridegroom was said to have all his garments perfumed, and now the bride in all glorious within -- entireness and completeness are great points. There is no mixture of ill savour in Jesus, nor shall there be alloy of unholiness in his people, his church shall be presented without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. Her clothing is of wrought gold. Best material and best workmanship. How laboriously did our Lord work out the precious material of his righteousness into a vesture for his people! no embroidery of golden threads can equal that masterpiece of holy art. Such clothing becomes on so honoured by relationship to the Great King. The Lord looks to it that nothing shall be wanting to the glory and beauty of his bride.

 

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 13. The king's daughter is all glorious within, etc. When the children of God recollect their glorious and heavenly pedigree, they endeavour to excel others, both in the beautiful disposition of soul and manner of life. The king's daughter, that is, the daughter of the heavenly Father, who is also the bride of the king's Son; every believing soul is all glorious, adorned with a holiness not only glorious to herself, but also to the Father and the Bridegroom, and is the beginning of a heavenly glory; and that chiefly within, not only when she appears abroad, and presents herself to the view of men, but also when she sits in the inner bed chamber in the secret exercises of religion, in which she in private pleases the Father and the Bridegroom, who having a regard to the inward man, she above all endeavours to keep that pure and chaste. Her clothing is of gold; in comparison of which whatever excellency natural men were even possessed of, is but a shining vanity; nay, it was wrought gold, curiously beautified with various resemblances, which represents the perfections of God himself; and of different colours, on account of the different yet harmoniously corresponding graces of the Holy Spirit; or of needlework of the Phrygian embroiderers, or rather the work of the cunning workman, mentioned in So 7:1. Nor is the spouse only beautiful within, but also without; "holding forth the word of life," Philippians 2:16, she practises charity, glorifies Christ, edifies her neighbour, and in this manner she is brought unto the king, worthy to be presented to him. This is the only way by which we are to endeavour to obtain familiarity with him, and the sweetest intercourse of the most chaste love, both on earth and in heaven. Hermann Witsius. 1636-1708.

Verse 13. The king's daughter is all glorious within. The meaning is, either

  1. that her chief glory consisted in this, that she was admitted to such a familiar privacy with the king; or,
  2. that when she sat in the inmost rooms of the king's palace, she was there in her greatest glory, because those rooms were most gorgeously set forth with all kinds of bravery and glorious furniture; or,
  3. that she used to be gloriously attired, not only when she went abroad in public, but also when she stayed within, as being indeed adorned (which may be implied) only for the delight of the king, and not that others might gaze upon her; or,
  4. -- which I like best -- that the inward virtues and endowments of her mind were her greatest ornament and glory. Arthur Jackson.

Verse 13. All glorious within. Saints must shine by the comeliness of Christ, as a gracious husband labours to change his spouse into his own image and likeness by kindnesses, precepts, and example, that he may take the more delight in her person; so does our spiritual Solomon change the hue of his Egyptian queen to deem of things and persons as her Lord and husband judges, and frames her spirit to delight in doing his will and pleasure, and take the highest solace in obedience, to enjoy a heavenly freedom, mixed with amiable and joyful reverence. He roots out of her heart all changeable affections and worldly fancies, and hankering longings after the fond fashions of Shechem, and all carnal inclinations to the daughters of Canaan's lineage, and all the beggardly humours of the besotted world, and to pass by with a holy scorn all the pitiful pageantry of this perishing and fading life, and rise to a mean estimate of the baubles and trifles that enchant a carnal heart. At length she arrives to a noble and generous judgment, counting all but dung and dross that she may win Christ. As her prince of life was crucified by the world for her redemption, so she begins to be crucified to it in token of conformity to him, and at length becomes all glorious within. Samuel Lee, in "The Triumph of Mercy." 1676.

Verse 13. Within. The ark was pitched within by the same pitch with which it was pitched withal; such is the sincere man, within and without alike, inside and outside, all one. Yea, he is rather better than he shows, as the king's daughter, whose outside might sometimes be sackcloth, yet was all glorious within, and her inward garments of wrought gold. Or as the temple, outwardly nothing but wood and stone to be seen, inwardly all rich and beautiful, especially the sanctum sanctorum (when the veil was drawn) was all gold. The very floor, as well as the roof, was overlaid with gold. 1 Kings 6:30. John Sheffield.

Verse 13. Her clothing is of wrought gold. Some read it purled works, or closures of gold, enamelled gold, such as precious stones were set in, which were exceeding splendid and glorious; such were the clothes of service in the tabernacle, and the garments and robes of the high priest, which shadowed forth Christ's righteousness. Exodus 28:11-14; Exodus 39:1-6. William Troughton.

Verse 13. About this time, Father La Combe was called to preach on some public occasion. The new doctrine, as it was termed, was not altogether a secret. Public curiosity had become excited. He choose for his text the passage in Psalms 45:13, The king's daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold. By the king he understood Christ; by the king's daughter, the church. His doctrine was, whatever might be true in regard to men's original depravity, that those who are truly given to Christ, and are in full harmony with him, are delivered from it: that is to say, are all glorious within. Like Christ, they love God with a love free from selfishness, with pure love. Like Christ, they are come to do the will of the Father. Christ is formed in them. They not only have faith in Christ, and faith in God through Christ, but, as the result of this faith, they have Christ's disposition. They are now in a situation to say of themselves individually, in the language of the apostle Paul, "I live, and yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." He did not maintain that all Christians are necessarily the subjects of this advanced state of Christian experience, but endeavoured to show that this is a possible state; that, however intense human depravity may be, the grace of God has power to overcome it; that the example of Christ, the full and rich promises, and even the commands, give encouragement to effort, and confidence in ultimate victory. From the "Life, Religious Opinions and Experience of Madame de la Mothe Guyon."

 

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 13-15.

  1. The Bride's new name -- "The king's daughter." She is the king's daughter for two reasons.
  2. She is born of God; and
  3. She is espoused to the Son of God.
  4. The Bride's character -- "All glorious within."
    1. Because Christ reigns on the throne of her heart.
    2. Because she is the temple of the Holy Ghost.
  5. The Bride's raiment -- "wrought gold," "needlework:" this is the righteousness of Christ; in other words,
    1. His perfect obedience.
    2. His atoning death.
  6. The Bride's companion -- "Virgins that follow her."
  7. The Bride's home going -- "She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework ... With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king's palace."
    1. She shall see the king in his beauty.
    2. There will be an open declaration of his love to her before all worlds. Duncan Macgregor, M.A.



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