Christ’s claim to our love has a triple basis: He claims us because He can meet all our needs by His grace; He claims us because of what He is in His own glorious person; and He claims us because of the love that He has for us, love that led Him into the deep suffering of death on our behalf. Psalm 45 declares these three great things, and though this psalm may have the earthly bride in view in the coming glorious Millennium, yet we believe we are fully justified in using it for our present purpose, for it is full of Christ. It speaks of Him, and He showed His disciples things concerning Himself out of the Psalms. The end in view is that the fair daughter of a distant land might be attracted to the great King, for His joy and glory. Hence He is spoken of to her in glowing words that can apply to none but Christ.

Grace is poured into His lips. He speaks in tender tones to the heart, as many proved when He was here upon earth, when He spoke words in season to them that were weary: the woman by the well of Sychar, for instance, and she who wept at His feet in Simon’s house, and the widow who mourned her only son, and the palsied man who groaned beneath a load of sin, and Zacchaeus, and the children, and a host of others—all these found Him to be fairer than the children of men because of the grace that was poured into His lips.

And has our experience been less blessed? We have heard His voice speaking in words of pardon and peace to our once troubled and burdened hearts. Grace has poured out of His lips for us. Yes, we know from blessed experience what grace is His. We have heard His voice saying, “Lay down, thou weary one, lay down thy head upon My breast.”