Year One, October 21

My Beloved Is Mine, and I Am His1

It is possible that in those golden days when Solomon walked with God, he was inspired to write the matchless book of The Song of Solomon. It is the Holy of holies of the Scriptures, standing like the tree of life in the midst of the garden of inspiration. The song is highly allegorical or symbolic. It describes Christ and his church as a bride and bridegroom who sing to each other and about each other.2 The passage we are about to read is a dialogue.

  

Song of Solomon 2

The Bridegroom speaks first.

1 I am a rose of Sharon,

a lily of the valleys.

2 As a lily among brambles,

so is my love among the young women.

Who can this person who is both a rose and lily be except Jesus?

“White is his soul, from blemish free,

Red with the blood he shed for me.”3

He paints his church as a single lily growing in the middle of a wilderness of thorns. Among the thorns, but not of them. The beauty of his church is all the more easily seen in contrast to the prickly brambles of the world.

Then the Bride or the church exclaims:

3 As an apple tree among the trees of the forest,

so is my beloved among the young men.

With great delight I sat in his shadow,

and his fruit was sweet to my taste,

Fruit trees are superior to other trees. They provide shade and fruit. Jesus is more excellent than all others. He provides protection and all our needs. To us who believe in him he is everything!

4 He brought me to the banqueting house,

and his banner over me was love.

5 Sustain me with raisins;

refresh me with apples,

for I am sick with love.

Love to Jesus sometimes becomes such a strong feeling that the soul cannot handle it. The body is so frail, it is ready to faint under the supreme excitement.

6 His left hand is under my head,

and his right hand embraces me!

7 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

by the gazelles or the does of the field,

that you not stir up or awaken love
      until it pleases.

The bride now hears the voice of her husband. She rejoices to see him coming to her with all the sacred haste of omnipotent4 love.

8 The voice of my beloved!

Behold, he comes,

leaping over the mountains,

bounding over the hills.

9 My beloved is like a gazelle

or a young stag.

Behold, there he stands

behind our wall,

gazing through the windows,

looking through the lattice.

10 My beloved speaks and says to me:

“Arise, my love, my beautiful one,

and come away,

11 for behold, the winter is past;

the rain is over and gone.

12 The flowers appear on the earth,

the time of singing has come,

and the voice of the turtledove

is heard in our land.

13 The fig tree ripens its figs,

and the vines are in blossom;

they give forth fragrance.

Arise, my love, my beautiful one,

and come away.”

Dark days may come and go. Let us spend our joyful times walking with our Lord in the light while the light lasts. When doubts, fears, trials and distresses are over and the heart is full of music, we should make the most of it; rejoicing in holy fellowship and delighting ourselves in the Lord Jesus.

The Bridegroom continues speaking and calls to his beloved:

14 “O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,

in the crannies of the cliff,

let me see your face,

let me hear your voice,

for your voice is sweet,

and your face is lovely.

Come out from the hiding places of fear or worldliness and acknowledge the Lord.

15 Catch the foxes for us,

the little foxes

that spoil the vineyards,

for our vineyards are in blossom.”

The church (the Bride) sings again:

16 My beloved is mine, and I am his;

he grazes (or pastures his flock) among the lilies.

17 Until the day breathes

and the shadows flee,

turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle

or a young stag on cleft mountains.

If we have lost our sense of the presence of the Lord, it is our duty and our privilege to cry to him to return swiftly; like the nimble deer that leaps over every barrier and obstacle.

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¹ Song of Solomon 2:16

² This view is not held by all Christians. Most Jews saw the Song of Solomon as a picture of Jehovah and his chosen people, Israel. For the first eighteen centuries after Pentecost, most of the Church understood it as a love song about Christ and his Church. Many now view it as simply a historical love poem. In the New Testament, Christ alluded to himself as the groom and the Church as his bride. Perhaps in the future, the Church will once again more fully appreciate the intimate relationship between Christ and his bride.—editor

³ Believed to be quoted from a book of pulpit helps by William Nicholson (circa 1862).

⁴ omnipotent, omnipotence - all powerful, almighty, absolute and supreme power, having unlimited power.