These are notes collected from studying with brothers in Christ. Anything good comes from the Lord. Everything else is from us!
I’ve been touched by the dependence the bride shows on the Lover:
TAKE me away with you…LET THE KING BRING me into his chambers 1:4
FOLLOW THE TRACKS… 1:8
LET HIM LEAD ME to the banquet hall 2:4
STRENGTHEN ME…REFRESH ME 2:5
His LEFT ARM IS UNDER my head, and HIS RIGHT ARM EMBRACES me (which I take as a picture of him supporting her head and body) 2:6
So then it’s interesting how she is on her own in chap 3 (after turning him away? 2:17), and that’s the only time I see her leading him somewhere: “I had brought him to my mother’s house” 3:4
Seems there was a break in the union at some point.
Regardless, may I know more of being led and held up by Our Great Lover, and go with him wherever He leads (which I think she failed to do at the end of ch. 2)
Been thinking a bit about S.S. 4:16-5:1. Here the bride is focused on her garden, and giving it to her Lover. This is the same garden she previously neglected (1:6). But instead of tending it for herself or others or neglecting it altogether, now she wants to give it to Him alone.
The result?
The Lover says:
I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride;
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice.
I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey;
I have drunk my wine and my milk.
Notice all the “my”s. 9 times God says your garden is really my garden. When she understood that, she gave it to Him freely. And later it seems he shares it with others too.
Love the Lord with ALL your heart. Likewise, give ALL your garden to Him…it’s His anyway. Then He can share it with whomever He wishes. Glory to God!
Love that SS focus is on the Person of the Lover and bride, not the blessings they may give you.
Reading through Song of Solomon this time I was struck by the literal and practical wisdom this book offers. I was thinking about the following refrain that shows up throughout the book:
“Don’t excite love, don’t stir it up,
until the time is ripe—and you’re ready.”
God is love, and God’s design for marriage is one way that we can understand and experience one of the many facets of HIS love for us. When reading this book from a literal standpoint, a lot of it is a celebration of love and a relationship, but this warning refrain keeps popping up among all of the poetic language celebrating love. God knows how good love, sex, and intimacy are within the context of marriage (he created it after all), but he is warning us of the dangers of seeking these things outside the context of marriage.
These awesome products of God’s creation can actually be harmful to us if we don’t follow his design and we decide to “stir them up before the time is right.”
If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.
Song of Solomon 8:7
Surreal testimony:
Tonight I was convicted that we were focusing too much on selling our current house (just lots of labor to make it THAT much more sellable). And I prayed that our focus would be on the Lord and that our love for Him would grow, and He can focus on the house for us and do what needs to be done as He wishes. After praying this my mind wandered to the wealth this new house could bring and the wealth our current house brought. Then I picked up the Scripture to see what God would speak and—oh boy!—S.S. 8:7 nailed me right between the eyes. I’m still a little taken aback by it all, but praise the Lord He sees and He speaks!
One things for sure: our love affair with Christ is of infinite more value than building wealth, houses, etc. May our life reflect this reality
fmi360 