The Sword And Arrows Of Jesus.

THE SWORD AND ARROWS OF JESUS.

Psalm 45:3-5.

PSALM 45:3. Part of the royal insignia of King Jesus is His sword. The Psalmist addresses Jesus here as “O most mighty,” and bids Him “Gird thy sword upon thy thigh” along with "thy glory and thy majesty.”

The preacher commissioned to preach the gospel hardly dare proceed without ‘the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God’ (Ephesians 6:17; cf. Song of Solomon 3:8).

The Word of God, when the gospel is faithfully preached, ‘is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword… and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart’ (Hebrews 4:12). To the ‘saved’ it is the savour of ‘life unto life.’ But to ‘them that perish’ it is the savour of ‘death unto death’ (2 Corinthians 2:15-16).

Jesus holds His sword ready upon His thigh - and when He draws it, He does not draw it in vain. The Word of God will accomplish all for which He has sent it (Isaiah 55:11). Without Jesus, the preacher has nothing to say.

PSALM 45:4. When the Word of “truth” is preached, Jesus rides forth triumphantly, defeating His (and our) spiritual foes, and gathering a harvest of the souls for whom He died. Jesus’ “meekness” has already been seen in His humiliation, which took Him from heaven, through incarnation, to ‘the death of a cross’ (Philippians 2:8). Here, at the Cross, “righteousness” is established: ‘the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ’ (Romans 3:22).

The Psalmist predicts the inevitability of Jesus’ victory, and envisages the King looking back upon the results.

PSALM 45:5. In another vivid illustration, through the preaching of the gospel, the “arrows” of conviction shoot forth. They strike to the “heart.” People fall under their power.

Some will find relief by believing in the One who struck them. Others will prove themselves to be “enemies” indeed by refusing the offered salvation. They shall by and by fall under the “arrows” of condemnation (cf. John 3:18).

But there is ‘therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:1).