“Listen, daughter, and pay careful attention: Forget your people and your father’s house.  Let the king be enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord.” Psalm 45:10-11 NIV

“Listen to me, O royal daughter; take to heart what I say.  Forget your people and your family far away.  For your royal husband delights in your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord.” Psalm 45:10-11 NLT

“Now listen, daughter, don’t miss a word: forget your country, put your home behind you.  Be here—the king is wild for you.  Since he’s your lord, adore him.” Psalm 45:10-11 Message

“Listen, O daughter, Consider and incline your ear; Forget your own people also, and your father’s house; So the King will greatly desire your beauty; Because He is your Lord, worship Him.” Psalm 45:10-11 NKJV

Take a few moments to meditate and dwell on these two verses with me.  It may seem kind of redundant that I included four versions, but I do not always get the message the first time that I hear it.  Sometimes I need it to be repeated for me over and over again.  Plus look at the beautiful bouquet of words that are so elegantly brought together through the combination of translations.

“Let the king be enthralled by your beauty” 

“Your royal husband delights in your beauty”

“The king is wild for you”

“The King will greatly desire your beauty”

Do you think you are beautiful?

That question seems like a great place to begin our exploration of these verses this morning.  Do you think that you are beautiful?

My reflex thought is “No, I’m not beautiful”.  Then it’s like the flood gates open and all of the depressing thoughts I have about myself come pouring out drowning me in negativity.  It begins with the physical traits like, I’m fat.  It is followed by reminders of the times I fail, the cruel things I say and the people I have hurt.  Then I am pounded by all of the things that I am not.

But those are my thoughts, not the thoughts of the Lord.  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord” (Isaiah 55:8).

I question my beauty all of the time.  I wonder.  I doubt.

This is a picture of me.  It’s one of the best ones that I could find of me just being me.  It’s who I am.  As I was scanning through photos, trying to figure out which one to use I passed this one over.  I instantly thought it wasn’t a beautiful picture of me.  This is an average day for me.  I’m not dressed up.  I’m not posed perfectly.  The parts I’d like to remove, like my legs are still visible.  It’s got a giant wooden moose in it.  That’s silly.

This is me.

I am beautiful.

I am beautiful not because I said so, but because the Lord who loves me so, said it was true.  I am handcrafted by Him.

So are you.

You are beautiful!

Go back to the top, scroll up and re-read each version of the verses from the Psalm.

Do the verses question at all whether the Lord thinks us beautiful?  Does it sound like God is trying to decide whether we are beautiful?  Is He pondering it?  Is He waiting for us to change ourselves?  Has He asked for us to loose weight?  Has he said that because we’ve got curves and stretch marks and wrinkles and graying hair that we do not qualify?

No.  There’s no questioning  here.  There’s no conditions that He places before us; no hoops to jump through to attain beauty.

The NIV version says, “let the king be enthralled by your beauty.”  Let the King.  Do you know how Webster describes the word let?  The word can be defined as to free as if from confinement, or to permit.  God already considers us beautiful.  We need to let Him.  To stop confining Him and to stop blocking the thoughts that we are lovely whenever we can with our opinions of contradiction.

Webster defines enthralled as being mesmerized or enchanted.  We need to accept the truth that God isn’t just slightly amused by our beauty.  There’s no mediocrity here.  God is mesmerized by our beauty.  He is captivated by us right now as we are.

Speak these words with me, say it out loud.  God is enthralled by me!

Did you feel silly and maybe a little dumb?  Me, too.  Let’s say it again.  God is enthralled by me!

Are you smiling with me, or still doubting?  It can be so hard to believe in our hearts.  Trust me, I know.  I’m right there with you.  I’m sitting here writing this in flannel pj pants, a sweatshirt and a quick pony tail.  I doubt.

If God is enthralled by me, shouldn’t I let go of my opinions and just let Him love me for me.

Let’s look at some of the other words used in the additional translations.  Delights, to give great pleasure.  God takes great pleasure in our beauty.  His is pleased by you right now.

Wild, growing or produced without human aid,  not subject to restraint or regulation and indicative of strong passion, desire, or emotion.  We do not have to do anything, no human aid.  Nothing we can do can restrain God’s desire to love us.  God loves you wildly!  He loves you with passion, desire and emotion.

These are powerful words, not weak ones.  They come from a perfect Lord, who is incapable of lying because that would contradict who He is.  He is Truth.

You are beautiful!  There is no doubt that God loves you.  He’s enthralled by you.  He delights in you.  He’s wild about you.  He desires you.

Dear and Beloved Lord,

Thank You so much for never doubting that we are beautiful.  Thank You for the ways You pursue us and press into our lives with Your desire to delight in us. 

Lord, today, right now, may we lower our pride and release our defenses.  May we just fall into You and allow You to delight in us.  May we be dropped in humbleness as we accept Your desire for us and at the same time uplifted in confidence that we are beautiful.  

In response to it all may we honor You with our praise and all of the love we are capable of through You.  In Jesus’ name, amen.