Part II – A Tragic Beginning

As we consider the King’s daughter we must take a look at who she is as well as who she pictures. First, just like we found with the word “within” we must not miss the fact that this Psalm may very possibly depict a specific woman, but there are also a couple of different pictures drawn from her story. The King’s daughter can embody Israel, the church and even the individual Christian. Our primary focus will be on the individual.

Throughout the Bible there are many tiny connectors from one passage to another. That is exactly why I love to do word studies. In Psalm 45, there are several of these connectors that lead us to very important moments in the life of the King’s daughter. One, something so simple as the fabric that her clothing is made of, leads us to Ezekiel 16. There we find, not only the start of her story, but an accounting of much of her life. Hers was a tragic beginning.

The Lord is speaking specifically to Jerusalem, but I do not think you will find the application to our personal lives difficult to understand. Ezekiel 16:4-5 says,

“And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.”

Can you imagine a woman giving birth to a child and then casting it out into the field to wallow in the afterbirth, unbathed, uncared for, naked and exposed to the elements? Can you imagine a child in such a miserable state that those passing by would not pity it, would not have compassion upon it, but would instead loathe it?

I described it this way to the ladies in Kenya: Have you ever seen a drunk, who was so intoxicated that they had passed out on the side of the road, their face bloodied, bruised and swollen? I once had a very personal encounter with one such man in Russia, the following is my description of him from my journal:

“Igor, a man in his 30’s, had been severely beaten. Above his left eye a wound still seeped blood and puss, while the eye itself was blackened and puffy. His right eye was completely swollen shut, the bruise underneath it being so large and the skin so tight that it appeared as though it would burst from the pressure of the blood and fluids under the surface. All across his forehead, in his hairline and down into his ears dried blood could be seen. The remainder of his face was a mess of nicks and bruises. How the man stood upright, I will never know…He was a gruesome sight.”

I asked the ladies in my classes, How do passersby usually respond? The ladies began laughing immediately. They knew what usually happens. Some people make fun of them, others turn up their noses and go a long ways out of their way to avoid them. But very few of them will ever stop to help.

That miserable state, so vile that no one will stoop to help her, is how God describes the state of Israel when He first found her. And it is similar to our own wretched state. We are all born as sinners. Our soul is in desperate condition. We are alienated from God. (Colossians 1:21a – “And ye that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works…) We fall short of His standard. We cannot obtain our own righteousness, for even our good works are as filthy rags. Isaiah 64:6 says,

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

Do you know how dirty this is? This is not just any dirty rag, this is the dirty rag used in menstruation. THAT is the worth of our good works. We are no better off than that baby, left there in the field to be despised and mocked as we lay in our own filth, death our clear destination (for the wages of sin is death)… A tragic beginning.

So, how did such a wretch become the King’s daughter? Be looking for Part III. The answer is beautiful.