Psalm 45:10-11 (NIV): Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear: Forget your people and your father’s house. The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord.
God’s call to His people is always a call to leave behind our allegiance to the kingdom of this world, and to live wholeheartedly in His kingdom. To forsake our primary allegiance to mother and father, and to turn to Him as the true Father of our souls. (cf. Luke 14:26) To turn away from all earthly attachments and the pursuit of things that the world hold dear, and to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. (Matthew 5:33) To make God our first love, beyond which everything else fades quickly into the background. (cf. Revelation 2:4-5)
To some this seems too strong, too harsh. (It has always been so.) To others it feels like death to all that they currently hold dear, and they shrink back from it. But after God redeems a soul; after He saves a person from an eternity in hell; after He, of His own free will, sent His Son, Jesus, to die as a sacrifice on our behalf; is complete devotion to Him too much to ask? Is it not an affront to all that He has done for us, saving us from an eternity of loss and separation from Him and giving us instead life to the full that we will live in from now throughout all eternity; after all of that, is it not an affront for us to live as if we were our own? To make decisions about our lives without taking God’s plans for us into consideration? To occupy ourselves with entertainments that, at best, do not take God or His priorities into account, or, at worst, go against all that He stands for?
God gave His all for every person who comes to Him in faith. His call to each of us is to forget our people – to no longer consider ourselves people of this world, but to become whole hearted HIS people, a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging entirely to God. (1 Peter 2:9) God’s call is to forget our father’s house. Before we became His people, we were children of darkness, enslaved to the enemy of our souls. When we come to God He releases us from all of that, and calls us to forget the darkness entirely; to live instead as children of light. God’s call is to honor Him as our Lord, the one who has bought us at a very dear price, and who now has the right to call us to live in the ways of the kingdom.
God often uses the figure of a bride and groom to describe the relationship between Him and His Church, (cf. Ephesians 5:31-32), and it is a good analogy. Just as a bride is called to become one with her husband, body and soul, so God calls His people to become one with Him, body and soul, so that we will be united with Him forever.
Father, You did save me out of a darkness so deep that it nearly crushed the life out of me. You did set me free from gates of bronze and bars of iron (Psalm 107:16). You did breathe your life-giving Spirit into me, enlivening my dry-as-dust bones, giving me true life now, and the sure promise of eternal life with You forever. And, because of all of these and so much more, I am Yours forever, with nothing held back. Help me to live every moment of every day as your man. Help me to hear Your voice clearly, and to make knowing Your will and doing Your will one single motion every day, all the rest of my life. I love You with all my heart! Amen.