Song of Solomon 8

Song of Solomon 8:1-4

“I would” Son 8:1-4“O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised. I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate. His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.” The request of love This last chapter of this inspired Song of Loves begins with an ardent desire expressed by the church, the Bride of Christ. It is the desire of every believing soul. It is the request of every heart in which the love of Christ is revealed. The request is just this, “O Lord, give me constant, intimate communion and freedom with you. Let me always know your presence” (Deuteronomy 5:29; Job 23:2; Psalms 14:7). “O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised” (Son 8:1). As Martha sat at the Savior’s feet and heard his word, so the believing heart longs ever to live in communion with him who loved us and gave himself for us, that we may learn of him. She was already wed to him. He had taken her to be his bride; and she had taken him to be her Lord and husband. Their hearts were already knit together. But the marriage had not yet been publicly solemnized. The marriage feast had not yet been spread. She was obliged, for the sake of decency and respectability, to keep her distance. The Bride and her Beloved, when they met in public, could not be so intimate and affectionate as they might desire. Therefore, she wishes that she might be looked upon as his sister, and that she might have the same chaste and innocent familiarity with him that a sister has with her own brother. A brother and a sister who had nursed at the same breasts might be most affectionate, intimate, and free with one another, without any fear of reproach or shame. This is a prophetic prayer of the Old Testament church for the incarnation of Christ. Our Lord, by means of his incarnation, has really and truly become our Brother. He is not ashamed to call us brethren; and he is made to be the Elder Brother, the Firstborn, of the family of God (Hebrews 2:11; Hebrews 2:14; Hebrews 2:17). We have been adopted as the sons of God (1 John 3:1). His Father is our Father (John 20:17). We, and our Lord are of the same nature and disposition. In the incarnation, he assumed our nature. In regeneration, he gave us his nature. His love toward us is compared to the love of a brother (Proverbs 18:24). Like a brother, he sympathizes with us in all our afflictions. Like a brother, he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Like a brother, he helps us in all of our trials. Like a brother, he is tender, compassionate, and caring. The Lord Jesus Christ is a Brother indeed. He is a Brother who is near at hand, ready and willing to help. This is truly the desire and prayer of every believing heart. Those who know Christ love him. And all who love him desire uninterrupted, intimate communion with him. In essence, this is what she is saying - “O Lord, when I find you present with me, I will embrace you, kiss you, and show my love to you, as a sister would show her love to her brother. Without shame, I will own you, acknowledge you, and love you, even in the presence of your enemies. I will publicly avow my love to you.” “I would kiss thee and continue to kiss thee.” Earlier she cried, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine” (Son 1:2 cf Luke 15:20). Here she longs to kiss him. Those who have been kissed by him in grace wish to kiss him in gratitude. He gave me a kiss of forgiveness; I will give him a kiss of faith. He gave me a kiss of peace; I will give him a kiss of praise. He gave me a kiss of acceptance; I will give him a kiss of adoration. He gave me a kiss of redeeming love; I will give him a kiss of returning love (1 John 4:19). This text will find its ultimate fulfillment in that day when God’s elect shall meet Christ in the clouds. The Bride, the Lamb’s wife, will not be completely ready until the time of his glorious appearance. But then all his redeemed ones shall be admitted to the nearest possible embraces of Immanuel. With unspeakable pleasure, we will embrace our Redeemer and enjoy him eternally! “Yea, I should not be despised.” That is to say, “He will not turn his face away from me, when I reach out to embrace him and kiss him. And those who now despise me will despise me no more. They will envy me.” John Gill pointed out that “The whole (verse) expresses her boldness in professing Christ, without fear or shame, in the most public manner.” This is the request of love – “Let me embrace thee and kiss thee, as a sister would embrace and kiss her beloved Brother, without shame or fear.” The resolve of love Here is the desire, determination, and resolve of love. “I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate” (Son 8:2). Here, the church, the believing soul, makes a resolution to improve the opportunity she would have for cultivating a more intimate and full knowledge of Christ if she could always enjoy his communion. Those who have experienced the goodness, grace, and love of God in Christ desire others to have the same joyous blessing (Romans 10:1). “I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house.” The believing heart, enjoying personal fellowship and communion with Christ, says, “I will bring you into the house of God with me. My mother, the church of God, and her children need to be acquainted with and enjoy your presence too.” (Compare Galatians 4:26.) As a young woman wants all her family to know and love her chosen husband, so we want all God’s elect to know and enjoy all the bounty of grace that is ours in Christ. We want the whole family, our mother and all her children, to enjoy sweet, intimate communion with Christ, and to experience the blessed influence of his manifest presence. All who know Christ should bring him with them into the house of God, the assembly of his saints (1 Timothy 3:15). When Christ comes, the dead are made alive, the guilty are forgiven, the fallen are lifted up, the heavy-hearted are comforted, the troubled are granted peace, and the fearful are made calm. Perhaps you think, “How can I bring the Lord Jesus with me into the house of God? What can I do to secure the Lord’s presence in the midst of his church?” Here the bride speaks of leading him into her mother’s house. Our Savior must be led, like a royal king would be led by one of his subjects into his own home. Would you lead the Lord Jesus Christ into this house? Love him. Reverence him. Rejoice in him. Call upon him in prayer, asking him to come with you. You cannot lead him into the assembly of the saints if you do not come. But do not merely come; come together with God’s saints in the house of worship in his name (Matthew 18:20), trusting him, seeking his will and his glory, and the good of his kingdom. As we thus gather in his name, he promises to meet with us. When Christ meets with his people, then the ministry of his church is profitable and effectual – “Who would instruct me.” The allusion here is to a wise mother, who takes her newly wed daughter aside and teaches her how to behave toward her husband, so that she may have his affection and live happily with him. The church, the house of God, is a school of instruction, where souls are taught the ways of Christ, the gospel of Christ, and the will of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-16). Believers should always crave such instruction. And that instruction is sure to be profitable and effectual, only when Christ himself is present to teach us by his Spirit (Psalms 45:10-11). All true, spiritual instruction is instruction from the Word of God, which is able to make us wise unto salvation. It comes through the ministry of God’s servants, gospel preachers, pastors according to God’s own heart, who feed his people with knowledge and understanding (Jeremiah 3:15). It is effectually brought to ours hearts by the power of God the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 1:5). When the Lord meets with his people, those who know him will offer the sacrifices of their hearts to him (Hebrews 13:15). – “I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.” The spiced pomegranate wine was a very rich, flavorful wine, which was delightful to the taste, but less inebriating than other wines. It refers to the graces of the Spirit and the exercise of grace in the believing heart. These are the things that give our Lord pleasure; and are preferred by him to the best of wines (Son 4:10). “Those that are pleased with Christ,” wrote Matthew Henry, “ must study to be pleasing to him; and they will not find him hard to be pleased.” This is the resolve of love – “I would lead thee and bring thee into my mother’s house, both to be instructed by thee and to make my sacrifices of love to thee.” The rest of love I hope you can enter into the rest of love described in Son 8:3. “His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.” This is one of those texts of Inspiration that is so full of meaning that its depths can hardly be fathomed. Certainly, it speaks of the blessed rest of faith in Christ, who is our Sabbath. When we come to him and he comes to us, we enter into the blessed rest of love (Hebrews 4:9-11). Our Savior’s embrace implies his love of us. Our willingness to be and desire to be embraced by him speaks of our love for him. “We love him because he first loved us.” Being embraced in his omnipotent arms, we are assured of his unfailing support. “Underneath are the everlasting arms.” In those arms of almighty goodness, grace, and love we are safe and secure. No evil shall befall us in his arms.

This is our place of confident rest, and it is glorious (Isaiah 11:10). When our Lord reveals himself and makes his presence known, our hearts are at peace. We rest in him! The responsibility of love All privileges bring responsibility. Our Lord has come to us. He has granted to us his presence in this place. “His left hand is under my head; and his right hand doth embrace me.” It is our great joy and privilege in this place to rest in his love. Now, “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor awake my love till he please.” So long as our Lord is pleased to dwell in our midst, let us be careful not to disturb him, grieve him, and drive him away (Ephesians 4:30). Remember what it is like to be without him (Son 5:6). Remember the evil which grieved him before (Son 5:1-6). Remember always to remember him, honor him, and embrace him in the arms of faith, gratitude, and love, and kiss him with the lips of prayer.

Song of Solomon 8:5-7

Leaning on Christ Son 8:5-7“Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee. Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.” Faith in Christ is described by many symbolic actions. Faith toward Christ has nothing whatsoever to do with physical acts, physical posture, or physical movement. But, in the Word of God, faith is described symbolically by many actions of the body. Faith is looking to Christ and seeing him. He says, “Behold me, behold me…Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:1; Isaiah 45:22). Our Lord says, “This is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on him may have everlasting life” (John 6:40). Saving faith is looking to Christ, like the perishing Israelites looked to the brazen serpent and were healed. Faith is coming to Christ. “He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). Saving faith is coming to Christ, acknowledging him as Lord and trusting him as Savior. We come to you, our Savior, for pardon, for redemption, for righteousness, for life. We have come to him. We are coming to him. And we shall yet come to him. Faith is fleeing to Christ. We have “fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us” (Hebrews 6:18). Christ, “the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” (Proverbs 18:10). Realizing that were are under the wrath of God, and knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ is God’s only appointed place of refuge for guilty sinners, we flee to him. We venture our souls on him, on the merits of his blood and righteousness. We cast ourselves into his arms of power and grace, trusting him alone to save us. Saving faith is fleeing to Christ in hope of mercy. Faith is laying hold of Christ. Like a drowning man lays hold of the line thrown to him, we lay hold of Christ and cling to him. Faith is receiving Christ. “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12). It is not receiving Christ into the head that brings salvation, but receiving him into the heart. It is not receiving the doctrine of Christ that saves us, but receiving Christ himself. True faith receives the whole Christ as he is revealed in Holy Scripture. We receive him in all his offices, for the whole of our acceptance before God. In all his teaching (doctrine), and in preference to all others. But in this passage we see faith described in richer, fuller, more intimate connection—“Who is this that cometh up out of the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?” Here is faith, but it is something more than “looking for life,” or “coming in hope,” or “fleeing for mercy,” or “laying hold of help,” or even “receiving a Savior.” This is intimate, confident, loving, admiring, adoring faith leaning on Christ. Here is a description of the church of God and of every true believer. The people of God are as a bride coming up out of a dark, dangerous, and desolate wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ;. Leaning First, we see faith leaning. – “Who is this that cometh up out of the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?” There is no better description of true faith than the picture of a sinner leaning on Christ. Like a cripple man leans on his crutches, the children of God lean on Christ. Like a timid, frightened women, passing through some strange and dangerous forest at night, might lean upon the strong arm of her husband, we lean upon our Beloved. We lean upon him, because he has proven his love for us and his faithfulness to us. We lean upon him, because he is mighty and able to protect us. There is a clear connection between the sweet fellowship with Christ described in Son 8:1-4 and faith in Christ. The more we trust him, the more heavily we lean upon him, the more constant and real our fellowship will be. Some suggest that this question was raised by Christ. But it seems most likely to me that it is a question raised by the daughters of Jerusalem, when the Shulamite had solemnly charged them not to disturb her Beloved. The people of God in this world are passing through a wilderness. To the heavenly pilgrim, this world is a barren and desolate wilderness. Sometimes our pathway leads us through rivers of woe, deep waters of affliction, and seas of temptation. There are many dangers to be overcome, many snares to avoid, and many enemies to face. The world, the flesh, and the devil oppose us. The lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life make our journey a troublesome one. But onward we must go. Don’t ever forget, child of God, we are only pilgrims here. Be sure that your heart is fixed upon Immanuel’s land, and not upon the things of this world (Hebrews 11:8-10; Hebrews 11:14-16; 1 John 2:15-17; Colossians 3:1-3). But our pilgrimage is not a lonely one. The Bride is not alone. Her Beloved is with her. Every soul that journeys toward heaven has Christ for its companion.

Our Lord allows no pilgrim to the New Jerusalem to travel alone. Christ is with us in tender, deeply felt sympathy. Whatever our temptations may be, he has been tempted in every point, just as we are. Whatever our afflictions may be, he has been so afflicted. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Our Savior is also with us in reality (Isaiah 43:2-5; Isaiah 41:10).

He is always at hand (Philippians 4:4). This is not a dream, or a piece of fiction. It is fact, a blessed, glorious fact. “The Lord is at hand!” And though our pilgrimage sometimes seems long, we are passing through this bleak land. “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness?” We shall not be in this wilderness forever.

“Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come: ‘Tis grace that brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.”

Throughout our pilgrimage here, it is our privilege and joy to be leaning on Christ, “Leaning on her Beloved.”

“Learning to lean, learning to lean I’m learning to lean on Jesus; Finding more power than I’d ever dreamed, I’m learning to lean on Jesus.”

Do you know anything about this posture of faith? Do you know anything about leaning on Christ? That is what faith is, it is leaning on Christ. Faith leans on Christ for all things and at all times. “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6). Trust Christ, lean on him for all your salvation, for all things relating to daily providence, and for all things regarding the future.

“Every hour of everyday, Every moment, and in every way, I’m leaning on Jesus, He’s the Rock of my soul, I’m singing His praises wherever I go!”

The bride leans upon her Beloved. Christ is the Beloved. He is Beloved of the Father. He is Beloved of the angels. He is Beloved of the saints in heaven. He is the Beloved of every saved, believing soul. Is the Lord Jesus Christ your Beloved? (1 Peter 2:7; 1 Corinthians 16:22). There is no better description of faith than leaning on Christ. We lean on the person of Christ for acceptance with God. We lean on the righteousness of Christ for justification. We lean on the blood of Christ for pardon and cleansing. We lean on the fulness of Christ to supply all our needs, both physical and spiritual, temporal and eternal . In prayer, we lean on Christ. In worship, we lean on Christ. In giving, we lean on Christ. In praise, we lean on Christ. All our hope of acceptance with God is Christ, so we lean on him. Oh, may we evermore learn to lean heavily upon the Son of God. Go ahead and lean on him! He can bear all the weight of your soul. This word “leaning” has many shades of meaning. It suggests a picture of the bride casting herself upon her Beloved, joining herself to her Beloved, associating with her Beloved, cleaving to her Beloved, rejoicing in her Beloved, strengthening herself in her Beloved, and clinging to, or hanging onto her Beloved. This is the posture of faith. – “Leaning upon her Beloved.” Remembering Second, we see faith remembering. – “I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought the forth that bare thee” (Son 8:5). Reading only the English translation, we would assume that these words were spoken by Christ to the church. But in the Hebrew, the pronoun “thee” is masculine. So again, the Bride is speaking to her Beloved. She remembers the past. “I raised thee up.” That is to say - I have wrestled with thee in prayer and prevailed upon thee to help me and to comfort me (Psalms 44:23; Psalms 34:1-6). Like the disciples raised Christ up to help them in the storm, crying, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” the children of God raises him up in prayer. He is ready and willing to yield to our importunate cries of faith. Out of the bitter pains of conviction and repentance, Christ is found in the soul and brought forth in travail, like a son born of his mother’s travail into the world. Out of the depths of desperate need, agony of soul and heaviness of heart, believing sinners cry out to Christ in times of trouble and raise him up to help. The bride here looks prophetically to the future. Christ came in the first advent, in his incarnation, being conceived in and born into this world out of the womb of the Old Testament church (Revelation 12:1-17). Our Lord himself uses this metaphor to describe the joy his people will have at his second advent (John 16:21-22). Praying Third, we see faith praying (Son 8:6). – “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm.” As she makes her pilgrimage through this world, she prays that her union with him might be confirmed, that her communion with him might be constant, and that her fellowship with him might be intimate. Each of us, as believers, might very well take these same words to express the prayer and desire of our hearts. “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm.” Let me have a place in your heart and an interest in your love. The allusion is to the High Priest (Exodus 28:11-12; Exodus 28:21; Exodus 28:29-30). It is enough for me, and all I desire, that Christ be my sin-atoning High Priest, that he carry me upon his heart when he stands before God. Let me never lose the place that I have in your heart. Let your love be secured to me, as a deed that is sealed cannot be broken (Ephesians 1:14; Ephesians 4:30). Let me always be near and dear to you. “Set me as a seal upon thine arm.” The allusion here is to those bracelets that young lovers wear with the name of their sweethearts engraved upon them (Isaiah 49:13-16). Let your power be engaged for me as token of your love for me. Oh my Beloved, defend me and protect me with the right arm of your power! Persevering Fourth, we see faith persevering (Son 8:6-7). – “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.” All true faith is persevering faith. It perseveres in love for Christ. If ever a man comes to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, he will continue in both faith and love toward him. Love for Christ is the vigorous passion of the believing heart. It is strong as death. His love for us was stronger than death. And the love of true believer for Christ is as strong as death. Love for Christ makes the believer dead to everything else. Jealousy is cruel as the grave. We are jealous of anything that might draw us away from him, because we love him. We are jealous of ourselves, lest we should do anything to provoke him to leave us. Love for Christ is an all-consuming fire in the hearts of his children. Love for Christ is the victorious passion of the believing heart (Son 8:7). “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.” Neither the substance of this world nor the swelling floods of death could quench our Savior’s love for us (Romans 8:38-39). And where there is true love for Christ, it cannot be destroyed. Waters of affliction cannot quench love. It only grows stronger. Floods of trouble cannot destroy love. It only clings more firmly to its object. All the riches of the world cannot buy love. Even life itself would be despised, before love could be sacrificed. May the Lord graciously grant us this holy faith and this love for Christ that rises from it! May his love constantly be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and constantly inspire and constrain us to lean upon him as the solitary Object of our souls’ faith and love.

Song of Solomon 8:6-7

A choice prayer for saints and sinnersSon_8:6-7“Set me as a seal upon thine heart, a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.” What a description this is of the love of Christ, the “love that passeth knowledge.” It is Christ who speaks in Son 8:5, “I raised thee up under the apple tree.” It is Christ who says, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and with loving-kindness have I drawn thee." It is God our Savior who declares, “I drew them with cords of love, and with the bands of a man.” He found us in a desert land, and in a waste howling wilderness. “Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it.” The Lord Jesus here declares his love to his church, and she replies, “Set me as a seal,” not only on thy heart, but also on your arm—the place of your love and the place of your strength—the place of the most tender emotion and deepest passion, and the place of power, safety, and work. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? His love is invincible and irresistible as death. It is a jealous love, as unyielding and unalterable as the grave. Its comparable to fire,—coals of fire,—the very flame of Jehovah. Here, then, is the love of Christ! Its breadth, length, height, and depth, are absolutely immeasurable. Our fear This is not the prayer of a soul that is longing for fellowship. That prayer is – “Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest.” This is not even the prayer of the soul that has some fellowship, but longs for more. Then the prayer would be – “O that thou wert as my brother!” And this is not the prayer of one that once enjoyed the fellowship of Christ, but has now lost it. That cry would be – “Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?” Then the sorrowful soul goes about the streets of the city, saying, “I will seek him, for I am sick of love.” This is the prayer of the believing soul who has the present enjoyment of Christ’s fellowship, but is fearful that the sweet communion might be interrupted. Therefore, the spouse here pleads for something that would be to her a token of the covenant between her and her Beloved when his manifest presence might be withdrawn. This is the prayer of the spouse when she has been coming up out of the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved. The thought seems to strike her that he who has sustained her is about to be taken from her for a season because it is expedient and more useful for her. Therefore, she prays that, before he leaves the earth and enters again into his heavenly kingdom, he might be pleased to enter into a covenant with her, never to forget her, and that he might give her some sign and pledge of his love to her. She wanted to know that she would always be near to his heart while she waited for his return. I take this to be the prayer of the church in this present gospel age. Today Christ is before his Father’s throne. The Bridegroom is no longer with us physically. His bodily presence has been taken from us. He has, in that sense, left us. He has gone to heaven to prepare a place for us. He told us that he must go away, and that his going away was expedient for us (John 16:7). But he promised that he would come again, and that when he returns we will be together with him forever (John 14:1-3). Today we long for his coming. In the language of the last verse of this Holy Song of Love, we say, “Make haste, my Beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.” Or, in the language of the Revelation, we hear him say, “Surely I come quickly.” And our hearts respond, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” Yet, before he went away, as we read the gospel narratives, it seems as though his church was saying, “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm.” This is the prayer of God’s church today. Though our Lord’s bodily presence is absent from us, we want to be near him, near his heart, and we want to have the blessed consciousness of the fact that we are upon his heart.

“I ask my dying Savior dear To set me on His heart; And if my Jesus fix me there, Nor life, nor death shall part.

As Aaron bore upon his breast The names of Jacob’s sons, So bear my name among the rest Of Thy dear chosen ones.

But seal me also with Thine arm, Or yet I am not right. I need Thy love to ward off harm, And need Thy shoulder’s might.

This double seal makes all things sure, And keeps me safe and well; Thy heart and shoulder will secure From all the host of hell.” Our prayer This is a prayer which arises from the earnest hearts of God’s believing children. Yet, it is a prayer any sinner desiring mercy, grace, and salvation might make at the throne of grace. — “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm.” The allusion here is, as I have shown you, to the high priest in Israel. The prayer is really twofold. She longs to know that she has an interest in the love of Christ’s heart, and she longs to experience the power of his arm (Exodus 28:12; Exodus 28:29-30; Exodus 28:36-38). Believers know the meaning of this prayer by personal experience. It is the longing, the desire of a sinner seeking grace to know that his name is engraved upon the Savior’s heart. In the language of the psalmist, we say to the Lord Jesus, “Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.” I desire an interest in your love; but I want more. I want to know that I have an interest in your love. Write my name in your heart, and engrave it as a signet upon your heart, so that I may see it and know it. Without question, there are many whose names are written on our Lord’s heart who do not yet know it. Christ has loved them from all eternity. His heart has been set upon them from everlasting. But they have not yet seen the signet with their names written upon it. In all of his work our great High Priest bears the names that are upon his heart. For them he makes intercession (John 17:9; John 17:20; 1 John 2:1-2). He bore their sins in his body upon the cursed tree (1 Peter 2:24; 1 Peter 3:18), and endured all the wrath of divine judgment to the full satisfaction of justice for them (Isaiah 53:9-11). He made atonement for them, putting away their sins by the sacrifice of himself (Hebrews 9:26). He obtained eternal redemption for them by the merit of his blood (Hebrews 9:12). Upon them he pronounces the blessing of God (Numbers 6:24-27; Ephesians 1:3-6). We want to know, to experience the power of our Savior’s arm. We want always to see and know that our Redeemer’s heart and hand are eternally engaged for us, engaged to accomplish our everlasting salvation. This is our souls desire. We want to know and be assured that the Lord Jesus Christ is our High Priest, our Advocate, our sin-atoning Mediator before God. If we can know that we have a place in his heart of love and that his arm is set to do us good, we want no more. All is well with our souls. His arm preserves us, protects us, and provides for us. This is the prayer we make. What more could we desire than this? – “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm.” Our plea Anytime we go to God in prayer, it is wise to not only make our request known to him, but also to offer a plea, an argument, a reason why he should grant the thing we ask. Be sure that you understand this: The only grounds upon which we can appeal to God for mercy are to be found in God himself (See Psalms 51:1-5). Our hope, our basis of appeal with God must be found in him. See how the spouse here urges her request. She says, “Make me to know your love for me, because I know this concerning your love—It is as strong as death. —It is as firm as the grave. —It is as intense as fire. —And it is as unquenchable as eternity. With these four pleas, she backs up and presses her suit for mercy. Show me your love, for your love is strong as death. —“Love is strong as death.” The love of Christ is as irresistible as death. The love of Christ triumphed over death for us. As death refuses to give up its victims, so the love of Christ refuses to give up its captives. Nothing shall ever cause the Son of God to cease loving his people and let them go. Show me your love, for your love is as firm as the grave. —“Jealousy is cruel as the grave.” These words would be more accurately translated, “Jealousy is as hard as hell.” Our Lord is jealous over his people. He will not allow those whom he loves to be taken from him. You will more likely see the gates of hell opened, the fires of hell quenched, and the spirits of the damned set free, than see the Son of God lose one of those who are engraved upon his heart (Romans 8:28-39). Those whom God has chosen, he will never refuse. Those Christ has redeemed, he will never sell. Those he has justified, he will never condemn. Those he has found, he will never lose. Those he has loved, he will never hate. Show me your love, for your love is as intense as fire. —“The coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.” These words seem to allude to that fire which always burned at the altar and never went out. Those coals of fire were always kept burning in the typical Levitical dispensation. The flame was originally kindled by God. It was the work of the priests to perpetually feed it with the sacred fuel. The love of Christ is like the coals of that altar which never went out, and more. The love of Christ for his own elect is vehement, blazing, intense love that never diminishes. The only cause of his love for us is in himself. There is nothing, no form of love to compare with his love. The love of Christ for his elect is free, sovereign, eternal, saving, immutable love. Show me your love, for your love is as unquenchable as eternity. —“Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it” (Romans 8:37-39). No other love is really unquenchable, but our Savior’s love is. His love is eternal and everlasting, immutable and unalterable. The love of Christ is infinitely beyond that of a father or a mother, or a brother or a sister, or a husband or a wife. The love of Christ is the one and only love that passes knowledge, the one love that nothing in heaven, or earth, or hell is able to extinguish or cool, the one love whose dimensions are beyond all measure (Ephesians 3:14-19). Our Redeemer’s love is here compared to fire that cannot be quenched. As such it is affirmed that “waters,” “many waters” cannot quench it. Christ’s love for us is something the floods cannot drown (Psalms 69:15; Psalms 93:3). The waters of God’s wrath could not quench the love of Christ for his people. —“Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them to the end.” It was our Savior’s matchless love for us that made him willing to endure all the horror of God’s wrath in our stead. The waters of shame and suffering sought to quench and drown it. They would have hindered its outflowing, and come (like Peter) between the Savior and the cross, but his love refused to be quenched on its way to Calvary. Herein was love! It leaped over all the barriers in its way. It refused to be extinguished or drowned. Its fire would not be quenched. Its life could not be drowned (Psalms 69:1-7). The waters of death sought to quench it. The waves and billows of death went over the great Lover of our souls. The grave sought to cool or quench his love; but it proved itself stronger than death. Neither death nor the grave could alter or weaken his love for us. It came out of both death and the grave as strong as before. Love defied death, and overcame it. Even the floods of our sins could not quench the love of Christ for us. The waters of our unworthiness could not quench nor drown the love of Christ for our souls. Love is usually attracted to that which is loveable. When something ugly, unlovely, unattractive comes love (as it is called) withdraws from its object. Not so here. All our unfitness and unloveableness could not quench nor drown the love of Christ. It clings to the unlovely, and refuses to be torn away. The waters of our long rejection sought to quench it. Though the gospel showed us that personal unworthiness could not arrest the love of Christ, we continued to reject him and his love. We continued to hate him and despise his love. Yet, his love for us rose above our enmity to him, rose above our unbelief, and survived our hardness. In spite of everything we are and have done, his love was unquenched. Though he has saved us by his matchless grace, the waters of our daily inconsistency seek to quench his love, but blessed be his name, without success! Even after experiencing his adorable grace, we are constantly spurning his unspurnable love! What inconsistencies, coldness, lukewarmness, unbelief, worldliness, hardness, and utter ungodliness daily flows from us against the Savior’s love like a mighty flood to quench its fire and drown its life! Yet it survives all; it remains unquenched, unquenchable and unchanged! All these infinite evils in us are like “waters,” “many waters,” like “floods,” torrents of sin, waves and billows of evil, —all constantly laboring to quench and drown the love of Christ! They would annihilate any other love, any love less than his. But our Savior’s love is unchangeable and everlasting.

Song of Solomon 8:7

Unpurchasable love Son 8:7“If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contemned.”Love is unpurchasable. That is a general truth, which may be applied to every form of true love. You cannot purchase love. True love cannot be bought, nor sold. It is free, spontaneous, and faithful. I am not talking about the silly, sentimental passions and emotions that people call love.

That is bought and sold at a very cheap price. It is as fickle as water. But true love, that love that is self-denying, self-sacrificing, and devoted, that love which is more interested in its object than it is in self, true love cannot be purchased; and it cannot be sold. “Love is strong as death…Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.” Love is both free and faithful. It cannot be bought; and it cannot be destroyed. The love of a husband or wife cannot be purchased. Every young man and young lady, who is wise, will lay this fact to heart. You cannot buy the love of a husband. You cannot buy the love of a wife. Many homes would be much happier if there were a tithe as much love as there is wealth. It takes more than money, reputation, social standing, and luxury to build a home. A home is a place where love dwells. A home is a place where love is felt, expressed, and active. Many times, love will come in the poor man’s door, making his home a bright and happy place, when it cannot enter the luxury of the rich. Who could purchase a mother’s love? She loves her own child especially, because it is her own child. She watches over her baby with care. She denies herself necessary sleep at night if her baby is sick. She would be ready to part with her life at a moment’s notice to spare the fruit of her womb. Bring another woman’s child, and endow her with great wealth to induce her to love it; and you will find that it is not in her power to transfer her love from her own child to the son or daughter of another. Her own child is exceedingly precious to her. Another infant, that to an eye unprejudiced by love might be far more beautiful, can never receive the love that belongs to her own. Offer her any price; it would be utterly despised. Love cannot be purchased. Even the love of friends is without price. I am showing you that the language of this text applies to every form of true love. The love of Jonathan and David for one another was so great that they entered into a covenant with one another. David did not buy Jonathan’s love, nor Jonathan David’s. And no price could purchase their hearts from one another. It may or may not be true that “every man has his price;” but love has no price. No, if a man should give all the substance of his house even for human love, for the common love that exists between man and man, it would be utterly despised. But here the Holy Spirit speaks of a much higher love. All that I have said about love is pre-eminently true when we come to think of the love of Christ for us, and when we think of that love which springs up in the human heart for the Lord Jesus Christ when the Spirit of God has renewed our hearts and shed abroad the love of God in our souls. Neither the love of Christ for us, nor the love of our hearts for him can be purchased. If a man should offer to give all the substance of his house for either of these forms of love, it would be utterly despised. Christ’s love for us—unpurchasable We will begin at the highest point and the original source of all true love. The love of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people cannot be purchased. Our Savior is no mercenary. He does not auction his love and grace to the highest bidder. It would be a profane and monstrous blasphemy to suppose that the love of his heart could be bought with silver, gold, and earthly stores. If anything could enrage the heart of the eternal God, I am sure it would be the attempts of men to purchase his love and the favors of his love by what they suppose they do for him or give to him. The pride and stupidity of man is so great that he dares to suppose that the love of God is for sale, like the love of a common prostitute. Paul very plainly tells us that those preachers who are peddlers of self-righteousness who preach up law and works, as a basis of salvation, are nothing more than prostitutes. They have prostituted the gospel of Christ. (Compare Philippians 3:2 and Deuteronomy 23:18). The love of Christ is not for sale! If it were, what do you suppose you might give him to buy his love? He has need of nothing. Everything in the vast universe belongs to him (Psalms 50:7-12). There is nothing, which he conceives in his infinite mind, that he could not fashion at once by his mighty power. There is nothing his heart could desire that he cannot command to appear before him. What do you suppose you might do for Christ to win his love? What proud worms we are to think that by giving or doing anything, we can win the love and favor of the infinite God. He is not like us. His love is not for sale. His favors cannot be purchased. The Almighty cannot be bribed. If the love of Christ could be won by us by something we might give or do for him, then it must be concluded that our works and our gifts are of equal merit and of equal value with his love. That cannot be. The silver and gold, which we so highly treasure, is nothing more to the Son of God than the gravel in your driveway. As Augustus Toplady wrote, “Christ loved money so little, that he had but one thief, and he made him his purse-bearer.” In time of pain and trouble, in heaviness and sorrow, in sickness, bereavement, and death, try to find comfort for your soul in your works or in your gifts if you dare. You will find them to be a source of torment for your conscience, but never will they bring comfort to your soul. Nothing can give our souls peace and comfort, except a saving knowledge of the love of God in Christ. If these things will not satisfy you, they certainly will not satisfy God! There is no emotion we have ever felt in our most sanctified moments, there is no holy desire that has ever passed through our hearts in our most hallowed times, there is no heavenly longing that has been begotten in our souls by the Spirit of God, that we should dare to put side by side with the love of Christ, and say, “This is worthy of my Savior’s love.” Everything we have belongs to Christ already. Everything we could possibly do for Christ, we are already lawfully obliged to do for him. Yet, though we could never purchase the love of Christ by any price, every believing sinner, saved by God’s free grace has his love in all its infinite fulness. Child of God, rejoice! The Son of God loves us. He has freely bestowed upon us what he never would have sold us, what we never could have purchased from him. He said, “I will love them freely” (Hosea 14:4), and he does. He has bestowed his love upon us freely, “Without money and without price.” His love for us is an eternal and everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3). His love for us is a sovereign and free love (Romans 9:13). His love for us is a self-sacrificing, redeeming, saving love (1 John 4:9-10). His love for us is an immutable and indestructible love (Malachi 3:6). His love for us arises entirely from within himself. The source, the spring, the cause of our Savior’s love for us is in his own holy Being. Here is the greatest marvel in all the world to me —This unpurchaseable love, this eternal, unending love is mine. “He loved me and gave himself for me!” You, my brother, my sister, if you have been saved by his grace, can always say, “This love is mine. The Lord Jesus Christ loves me with a love that I never could have purchased.” Truly, the love of Christ passeth knowledge. It is, like himself, infinite. It emerges out of every storm or flood. It survives all unworthiness, and unbelief, and rejection. It is this that fills the soul, that liberates us from bondage, that gladdens our hearts in the most sorrowful hour. Love is the true sunshine of life; and with this love Christ is to fill, not heaven only, but also earth when he comes again in his glory. Perhaps the one who reads these lines might think, “O how I wish I could have the love of Christ in my heart.” If you really do want the love of Christ, let this word from God guide you into the way by which you may know the love of Christ. Do not try to purchase the love of Christ; abandon that foolish notion at once. Receive the love of Christ as a free-gift, for which you are utterly unworthy, by simply trusting him. Our love for Christ —unpurchasable As Christ’s love for us could never be purchased, the believer’s love for Christ is not purchased, not even by all the Lord’s many gifts to us. It is true, “We love him, because he first loved us.” The Lord’s love for us caused our love for him. And we are and should be grateful for the many gifts of love he has so freely and bounteously bestowed upon us. But the true believer does not love Christ because of all the gifts his love has given us. Satan’s accusation against Job was false (Job 1:8-12; Job 1:20-21; Job 2:3-10). The believer’s love for Christ does not vary and alter according to our temporal circumstances. Our love for Christ does not vary with our spiritual experiences (Son 5:8; Son 5:10-16). Even the many blessings of grace, which Christ has given us, are not the cause of our love to him. It is the Lord Jesus Christ himself that we love, not the things he gives us. There are several small items I possess that are precious to me. They would not be, except for one thing —They were given to me by people who love me and by people I love. In much the same way, we cherish our Savior’s gifts to us because they are his gifts; but the Object of our love is Christ himself. Christ himself has won our hearts. I believe all the doctrines of the grace of God: Election, redemption, justification, and regeneration. I rejoice in all the blessings of grace: forgiveness, righteousness, adoption, salvation, and eternal life. I rest in the blessed promises of grace: resurrection, glorification, heaven, and eternal glory. But the love of my heart is reserved for Christ alone. I love him. All these other things are the substance of his house. They could never have won my heart until Christ himself was revealed in my heart by the Holy Spirit. “My Beloved is mine, and I am his.” I am truly thankful to know that his crown is mine, his throne is mine, his home is mine, his grace is mine, and his name is mine. But it is Christ himself who charms and wins my heart. Christ himself is mine. And I am His. No substitute for love Our Lord Jesus Christ will accept no substitute for love. The Lord God says to each of his children, “My Son, give me thine heart” (Proverbs 23:26). There are many who wish to think they are God’s children who will give him anything, but love. Man will offer God anything, except that which has to do with the heart. A man will say, or do, or give most anything except bow his heart to God. Until you give Christ the love of your heart, you will never be accepted by him (Luke 14:25-27; Luke 14:33). We receive the Savior by faith in him, not by love for him. But faith in him causes love for him. Any faith that does not bring with it true love for the Son of God is false faith. The believing heart is motivated by love for Christ. Unless love for Christ is the motive and principle of our worship, our service, and our gifts to him, he will never accept them or us (2 Corinthians 9:7). Love is a better motive than law. It does more. It gives more. It produces more. Love is devotion. Love withholds nothing. Love gives all. Here is a point of examination. I have challenged, searched, and tried my own heart by these questions. I call upon you to do the same. Would I do more for Christ than I am now doing for him if I thought it would have any bearing on my eternal salvation? Would my worship, devotion and faithfulness to Christ be any more sincere if I felt that my eternal salvation depended upon it? Would I give more to Christ of my time, my talents, or my money if I thought that by doing so I would gain greater riches in this world, or greater reward in heaven, or if I feared that God might punish me for giving so little as I do? In other words, would I be more faithful to Christ than I now am if I truly felt in my heart that my salvation and my eternal relationship with God depended upon the works of the law, rather than upon his free grace? Of this I am sure—If the threat of punishment or the promise of reward could persuade a person to do more, give more, or behave better than the constraint of love, that person is utterly void of the grace of God. I repeat, it is not love for Christ that brings salvation. Faith brings us into a saving union with Christ. But where there is a heart faith in Christ, there is a heart love for Christ (1 Corinthians 16:22). But those who truly love Christ will not sell their love for him at any price. Offer them what you will. Bribe them with money. Bribe them with imprisonment. Bribe them with their lives. The price that you offer would be utterly despised. True love is not for sale. “If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.” By this test we will prove what we are. True love cannot be purchased. Our Savior would never give us anything as a substitute for love. Let us never attempt to give our Savior anything as a substitute for love. Though we give our body to be burned, what would that be without love? If we bring him gifts, offerings, prayers, tears, money, everything but love, we bring him nothing. Without love, what are the riches of the universe? It is love that our Savior gives. It is love he wants from us. What shall be given in exchange for love? Not for sale “If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contemned.” Look at this from another angle. The believer’s love for Christ can never be purchased at any price. It is not for sale. As his love for us is not for sale, so the love of our hearts for the Lord Jesus Christ is not for sale. I have seen many sell their professed love for Christ at a very cheap price. There are many Esaus among God’s professed people who are ready and willing to make a deal with Satan to sell their birthright for a bowl of soup. There are many Judases among the saints who are quite willing to sell their Master for thirty pieces of silver.

“I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee…O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord” (Psalms 116:1-7; Psalms 116:16-17).

“We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

“Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude 1:21).

Song of Solomon 8:8-14

Our sister, our service, our SaviorSon_8:8-14“We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour. Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred. Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it. Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices If we trust the Son of God we are the children of God. In everlasting love the eternal God chose us and adopted us and claimed us as his own beloved sons and daughters (1 John 3:1). We are redeemed. God’s own dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, lived in righteousness as our Representative to fulfill all righteousness for us. And he died at Calvary as our Substitute to satisfy the law and justice of God that was against us. We are born again. God the Holy Spirit has come into our hearts by sovereign and irresistible grace and given us eternal life in Christ. We are believers. Being compelled by grace divine, we trust the Lord Jesus Christ for all our salvation. We trust Christ alone for our eternal acceptance with God (1 Corinthians 1:30). “My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness: I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ the solid Rock I stand! All other ground is sinking sand.” And we are the heirs of God, heirs of eternal glory. Heaven and all its glory is our eternal inheritance. It is our purchased possession. Our Lord Jesus bought eternal glory for us with his blood. It is our predestined portion. Christ has already claimed it in our name, as our forerunner and our great High Priest. The Holy Spirit is that Seal by which we are preserved unto eternal glory. Why are we here? Yet, for the present time, we are required to live in this world. Why? If we are the children of God, redeemed, born again, believers in Christ, and the sure heirs of eternal glory, what are we doing here? Why has our Lord left us upon the earth? This passage of Holy Scripture tells us, at least in part, why we are here and what we are to do while we are in this world. It speaks of our responsibilities as believers with regard to our sister, our service, and our Savior. Throughout this Song Of Love, Christ and his church have confirmed their love to each other. Both have agreed that their love for one another is as strong as death. His love for us is eternal and immutable. And though our love for him is not in anyway such as it ought to be, yet, if it is true, our love for him can never be destroyed. Because our love for Christ is the gift, operation, and work of God’s grace in us, it can no more be destroyed than his love for us can be destroyed. In these last verses we see Christ and his beloved church, like a loving husband and wife, consulting together about their affairs, considering what they are to do. Having laid their hearts together, they now put their heads together, making plans about their relations and their property. In these last few verses, the Song Of Love concludes by giving us some very practical instruction about our responsibilities as believers in this world. Our sister In Son 8:8-10 we see Christ our Lord giving us instruction concerning our responsibility toward our sister. The passage begins with a question of compassion and concern. “We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?” (Son 8:8). The Bride, the Church, raises a question of concern about her young, little sister. “What shall we do for her?” She is saying, “How can I be of help to my little sister?” Who is this “little sister” about whom she is so concerned? It is suggested by John Gill (I think rightly suggested.) that this passage speaks prophetically of the church of God scattered among the nations of the Gentile world. Though the gospel was revealed only to the Jews in the Old Testament, the Lord God had espoused a people to himself from the nations of the world before time began. It was plainly revealed in the Old Testament that the barren and desolate Gentiles would be united to the Lord as a Bride, and that the Church would be made up of both Jews and Gentiles (Isaiah 54:1; Hosea 1:10; Romans 9:25-26). Here the church of God among the Gentiles is called “a little sister”, because Jewish believers and Gentile believers are children of the same Father. They are called “little,” because they had not yet been honored with the revelation of God. During the Old Testament age the Gentiles had no breasts, no Scriptures, no prophets, no covenant, no ordinances, no promises, no breasts of consolation and instruction. Though chosen of God, their election was not yet manifest and revealed. But now in Christ both Jew and Gentile are one (Ephesians 2:11-13). Taking the text in its wider range, it is to be applied to all those who belong to the election of grace, who have not yet been called to life in Christ, who have not yet been given faith in him. All of God’s elect belong to Christ already. Though they have not yet been courted by him and won to him, those unbelievers who are chosen of God are already his, espoused to him in covenant love; and he will have them (John 10:16; Acts 18:10). They are our sisters according to the election of grace. They have no breasts (Ezekiel 16:7). They have no affection for Christ. They have no principle of grace. They have not yet been spoken for. But the day will come when they shall be spoken for, when the chosen shall be called. This is the thing for which we labor. By the Spirit of God, through the preaching of the gospel, each of God’s elect shall be courted and their hearts shall be won by the Lord Jesus Christ. His love and grace will prevail over their stubborn hearts (Psalms 65:4; Psalms 110:3). A blessed day that will be, a day of divine visitation! Does your heart’s experience cry, “Amen! It is so!” What shall we do for our sister in that day? Those who through grace have been brought to Christ should do what they can to bring others to him. This is the design of the gospel. Let us do what we can to seek our sisters who are chosen and redeemed by Christ. Let us do all things for the elect’s sake (2 Timothy 2:10). Use every means and opportunity at our disposal to preach the gospel to them. Pray for them. Earnestly persuade them to consent to Christ and be converted. In Son 8:9, our Lord quietens the hearts of his people by assuring us of what he will do for his elect people. “If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.” He says, “We”, my Father, my Spirit, and I will gather our elect ones and we will save them. It is as though our Lord is saying, - “Let me alone, I will do all that is necessary to be done for my own. Trust me.” He will build his church (Matthew 16:18). He will protect his church. The gates of hell will never prevail against it. And he will perfect his church (Ephesians 5:25-27). We must labor faithfully; but the work of salvation is the work of the Lord. Then in Son 8:10, the Bride acknowledges his favor, his grace, and his faithfulness. “I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.” Having experienced his saving grace, she willingly trusts him with her little sister. She remembers with fondness the work of God upon her, and knows that what the Lord has done for her he will do for all his chosen ones. Let us acknowledge that salvation is altogether the work of God (Exodus 14:13). It is entirely a matter of divine favor. “Then was I in his eyes as one that found favor.” Let us trust the Lord to save his people. We have every reason to do so. We have every reason to be confident concerning the salvation of God’s elect. His purpose cannot be defeated. Christ’s blood cannot be shed in vain. God’s grace cannot be frustrated. His power cannot be resisted. His chosen people cannot perish. Our service In Son 8:11-12, we have a word of instruction regarding the responsibilities we have in our service for Christ. “Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.” Here the Bride consults with Christ about a vineyard they had in the country. – “Solomon had a vineyard in Baalhamon.” As Solomon was a type of Christ, so his vineyard is a type of the church of Christ (See Matthew 21:33). The Church is Christ’s vineyard. The Lord has entrusted each of us with his vineyard, as keepers of it. Though this is primarily the work of faithful pastors, every believer is also entrusted with a part of the work in the vineyard. The service of the church is to be our business in this world; each according to the capacity God has given us. Our Savior’s cause must be our cause. The Lord expects rent from those that are employed in his vineyard and entrusted with it. What will you do for Christ? What will you do for the increase of his kingdom? What will you do for the furtherance of his gospel? Each of us must serve the interests of his kingdom in this world, for the honor and glory of our Redeemer. The best way to honor Christ is to serve Christ in the place where you are. While every believer must keep the vineyard of his own heart for Christ (Son 1:6), as we endeavor to serve our Lord, being motivated only by love for him and zeal for his glory, we shall enrich our own souls. – “Those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.” As Matthew Henry put it, “Those that work for Christ are working for themselves, and shall be unspeakable gainers by it.” (See 2 Corinthians 9:6; Galatians 6:6-8). Our Savior The last word in this Song Of Love has to do with our responsibility toward our Savior. – “Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it. Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.” Here we see a picture of Christ and his Bride as they must for a while be separated. She must stay below in the gardens on earth, where she has a work to do for him. He must ascend to the mountains of spices in heaven, where he has a work to do for her as an Advocate with the Father. Our Lord lets us know that he desires to hear from us often. He says, “Cause me to hear” (Son 8:13). He is saying, “My beloved children, cause me to hear your voice. Speak as freely to me as you do to one another. Bring your cares, your burdens, your needs to me. Pour your hearts out to me.” (Hebrews 4:16). Our Lord, not only hears and answers our prayers, he even courts them. For her part, the Bride, the Church, the believing heart longs for his speedy return (Son 8:14). It is good to be here, dwelling among the gardens of our Lord, laboring in his vineyard; but to depart and be with him is far better. Our Lord is coming again (John 14:1-3). It is our business to work and to live in anticipation of his speedy return (1 Thessalonians 5:6-10). The comfort and satisfaction we enjoy in communion with Christ inspires in us a longing for his immediate presence. The clusters of grapes that we find in this wilderness should make us long for the full vintage of Canaan. If a day in his courts is sweet, what will an eternity within the veil be! Let us ever remind ourselves, “Behold, he cometh!” When you arise in the morning, say to yourself - “Behold, he cometh!” When you lay down at night, say to yourself, “Behold, he cometh!” As we conclude each day of worship, let us do so in hope and expectation. A better day of worship is coming. An everlasting sabbath shall soon be brought in. We must perhaps remain here for a while. While we are here we have something to do. Let us give ourselves whole-heartedly to the work. We have yet some of our sisters who must be sought. We have our service to perform for the good of the church, for the glory and honor of our Redeemer. We have our Savior to watch for in prayer and faith. He says, “Surely, I come quickly.” And our hearts respond, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

Song of Solomon 8:12

Our Lord’s vineyardSon_8:12“My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.” The Song of Solomon is really a series of responsive songs. It must be read and understood spiritually. This poetic book is a symbolical picture of Christ and his church. Wherever we see Solomon speaking, it is Christ speaking to his church. Wherever we see the Shulamite speaking to her Beloved, it is the church speaking to Christ. Throughout this “Song of Songs” we hear Christ speaking to us, his church, his Bride, his Spouse; and then the church responds to his words of love in tones of sincere affection and admiration. The very fact that this is a responsive song makes it at times difficult to understand, because it is not always easy to determine who is speaking in a given passage — Christ or his church. For example, the commentators are just about equally divided over this sentence: “My vineyard, which is mine, is before me.” Some say, “This is Christ speaking to his church.” Others insist, “This is the church speaking to Christ.” Personally, I cannot say. I cannot press the issue one way, or the other. So I will take this sentence (“My vineyard, which is mine, is before me.”) as coming from the lips of our Lord to his church. Then view it as coming from the Bride. I believe that our souls will be greatly profited by both considerations. The church The vineyard spoken of in this text is the church of Christ (Psalms 80:8-10; Psalms 80:14-15). The church is the vineyard of our Lord Jesus Christ, always under his watchful eye and tender care. I use the word “church” here in reference to the church universal, the mystical, spiritual body of Christ. The church is the whole body of God’s elect, the whole family of God. All true believers of every age are in the church. We are all one body in Christ, who is our Head (1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 2:13-14). Other trees may be useful for lumber or firewood, though they bring forth no fruit. But a vine is only useful when it is fruitful. If a vine is fruitless it is useless. It cumbers the ground. It must be cut down and burned. The church is frequently compared to a vine, or vineyard, in the Scriptures (Isaiah 5:1-2; Isaiah 5:7; John 15:1-10). It is compared to a vine because of its fruitfulness and because as a vine, which has many branches, is one, even so the church of Christ is one body in Christ, though it has many members. “My vineyard” “My vineyard, which is mine, is before me.” With these words, our Lord Jesus Christ claims the church as his own and declares his special love and care for it. The Lord here declares that the church is his own special property. He makes the claim twice, “My vineyard, which is mine.” He declares his rights of ownership. He looks upon his church, his believing people, those whom he has chosen and redeemed, and says, “This is my vineyard.” We know that all things belong to our Lord Jesus Christ (Revelation 4:11). All things are his by right of creation. All things are his by the prerogative of providence. And all things are his by virtue of his mediatorial reign (John 17:2). But our Lord here claims a special interest in and possession of his church. It is true that our Lord is providentially good and benevolent to all his creatures. But the special object of our Savior’s love, care, and concern is his own vineyard, his church. In providence he rules over all things and all people; but the object, goal, and purpose of his rule is the welfare of his church (John 17:2; Romans 8:28). The church belongs to Christ by divine gift from his Father (John 17:6; John 17:9; John 17:11-12). The church is the property of all the three persons of the Holy Trinity. She belongs to God the Father by eternal election. She belongs to God the Son by donation, by Suretyship agreement. And she belongs to God the Holy Spirit by his indwelling presence and special habitation (Ephesians 2:20-22). The church belongs to Christ by a lawful purchase (Acts 20:28; Ephesians 5:25-27). There are some who say that all men were purchased by Christ. But God’s people do not believe in such a sham redemption, a redemption which does not redeem. We do not believe in a universal atonement, which extends even to those who were in hell before Christ died. Such an atonement is no atonement at all. We believe in an effectual redemption, a particular and special atonement. We can never tolerate the doctrine of those who would tell us that Christ died in vain, and that some of those for whom he died will perish in hell. Our Lord will never part with his church. He will never lose one of his redeemed ones. He paid too dear a price for us. The church belongs to Christ as a bride belongs to her husband (Hosea 2:14 to Hosea 3:3). He chose us as the object of his love. He redeemed us with his own precious blood. He has courted us, wooed our hearts, and won our love by his gracious Spirit. He will not allow us to be lost. He will never leave us. He will never allow us to leave him. Constant care The church is the special property of Christ. He says, “My vineyard, which is mine.” But there is more. In this sentence, our Lord also declares that his church is the constant object of his watchful eye and special care — “My vineyard, which is mine, is before me.” Those words, as coming from the lips of Christ, are full of meaning for the comfort of our hearts — “My vineyard is before me.” He is saying to us, “Fear not, my eye is upon you. I am engaged to do you good.” (See Isaiah 41:10; Isaiah 41:14). The church is before Christ in the sense that he so loves us that he will never let us out of his presence. The vineyard is so dear to him that he never leaves it. He may sometimes hide himself among the vines; but he is always present (Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5). He still walks among the golden candlesticks. This statement by our Lord also means that he is always caring for his church. His providence is constantly engaged for our everlasting good. He has done us good. He is doing us good. And he will do us good. All things work together for our good. In this expression there is also the assurance that the Lord is knowledgeable of his church. He knows us. He is thoroughly acquainted with us and with all that concerns us. There is a sweet thought here for all who love Christ. You as his church, each one of his people is especially preserved by Christ. We are personally, particularly, distinctly, and eternally the objects of his love and care. Let us ever remember, the church is the Lord’s own vineyard. He will take care of her. He will maintain her cause. He will provide her needs. He will build her walls, establish her gates, and secure her success. The church does not belong to the pastor, or to the people, but to Christ alone. The church belongs to Christ. We are under his care. The keepers Now read Son 8:11-12 together—“Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.” In Son 8:11 several things are set before us. As we have seen, the church of God in this world is Christ’s vineyard. The Lord Jesus has trusted the care of his vineyard to chosen men (Matthew 20:1-2; Matthew 21:33). Gospel preachers are the Lord’s rent-gatherers. They collect his fruit and bring it in to him (John 15:16). The fruit gathered and brought by these keepers of the Lord’s vineyard is all the same. The fruit brought in by each one is “a thousand pieces of silver.” God’s servants all have the same commission to preach the gospel. They have different gifts and abilities. And their outward, apparent successes differ. Some have greater and some lesser success, at least in their own eyes and in the eyes of men. “Yet,” as John Gill wrote, “in the faithful and honest discharge of their work, they are all so blessed by him, as to answer the end of their ministration (ministry) designed by him; so that he reckons that every one, even the meanest (most humble and least gifted), brings in his thousand pieces, as well as the more able and successful.” Our responsibility Now, read this sentence as though it were spoken by the church, as spoken by us to our Savior — “My vineyard, which is mine, is before me.” This is the language of the church about her responsibility to Christ, the Lord. The church is Christ’s vineyard. It belongs to him. But he has let his vineyard out to many “keepers” (Son 8:11). It is our responsibility, as “keepers” of the vineyard, to be faithful stewards over that which the Lord has committed to our care. The care of Christ’s vineyard is not the responsibility of God’s appointed pastors alone. We are each responsible for the Lord’s vineyard. Every believer is responsible for his own heart, his own life, and his own work (Son 1:6). If you are a believer, if you are one of those men or women who belong to Christ, you are a “keeper” of the Lord’s vineyard. He has placed into your hands, under your care, a part of that vineyard which is so dear to him that he paid for it with his own life’s blood. Now, it is your responsibility to faithfully serve him in his vineyard. Keep your heart for him (Proverbs 4:23). Keep your life for him. See that your life upon this earth is a life lived for the honor and glory of Christ (Colossians 3:1-3). Let us learn the lesson he taught Peter in John 21:20-21. Let us faithfully keep to the work which he has given us. Serve the Lord where you are. To serve him is to serve his people and to serve his cause. We are not all called to preach the gospel; but there is something that each of us can do, something we are responsible to do, something that we must do for Christ, for the good of his church, for the furtherance of his gospel. We can all visit his sick and afflicted people, and comfort them in their trouble.

We can all bear faithful witness of Christ. We can all bring people to hear the gospel. We can all minister to the needs of God’s servants. We can all mow grass, rake leaves, wash windows, paint, dust and keep the doors of the Lord’s house (take care of the church property), making a comfortable place for people to hear the gospel and worship our God. We can all give generously to the support of the ministry. We can all look for and seize every opportunity to express and show our love to God’s saints, comforting the hurting, forgiving the offensive, restoring the fallen, and encouraging the weak.

We can all do much for the furtherance of the gospel. And what we can do, what God gives us the means, opportunity, and ability to do we must do for the glory of Christ and the good of his people. There are some who are given special talents and special responsibilities as “keepers” in the Lord’s vineyard. With special talents come special responsibilities. I am given the privilege and the awesome responsibility of being one of the Lord’s pastors, an under-shepherd, a keeper of the Lord’s vineyard. Others are missionaries, evangelists, elders or teachers. Others are deacons. There is one thing, only one thing that our God requires of us in each of our respective places. That one thing is faithfulness (1 Corinthians 4:1-2). As a steward under God, whatever the work is God has given us, let us say, “This is “My vineyard’. It is the vineyard God has given to me. This is the sphere and place of my responsibility. This is the portion of the wall I must build. — It is ‘before me.’” I am not responsible for my brother’s work; but I am responsible for my own. I must always keep my own work before my eyes. I must go about my work, doing what I have to do, just as though there were no one else in the world to do anything. If I see another man prospering more than me, I will thank God for his blessing upon my brother and his work. But still I must say, “My vineyard, which is mine, is before me.” I do not look for, nor do I desire another man’s place. This is the place God has for me. This is the work God has committed to my hands. This is the place where I must faithfully serve him. What about you? Will you be faithful in the place where the Lord has put you, and faithful in the work he has set before you? The fruit “Thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.” This is the declaration of the church to her great Lord. The fruit of the vineyard belongs to Christ and he must have it. Jesus Christ must have the fruit of his vineyard. That is to say, he must receive all the honor, all the glory, and all the praise from his church. We must not applaud ourselves if God’s blessings attend our labors. We must not exalt and magnify those who labor most zealously and those who give most generously.

We must not give glory and praise to those faithful pastors, teaches, missionaries, etc. through whom the Lord speaks and works. There is no place in the church of God for the honor of the flesh. “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” No flesh shall glory in his presence. The keepers of the vineyard shall receive their reward as well. There is no promise here of heavenly rewards and crowns being earned by faithful service to Christ. But this fact must not be ignored — Those who honor God, God will honor (1 Samuel 2:30). Each man and woman who faithfully serves the Lord Jesus Christ will find great reward in doing so. Your own soul will be profited by your faithfulness. And such men and women should be highly esteemed by those who profit by their labors. Those who are faithful missionaries, pastors, teachers, elders, and deacons in the church should be given their proper respect and esteem. Those who preach the gospel of Christ are to be rewarded for their labors by those for whom they labor. Every true and faithful servant of God is to be esteemed very highly for his work’s sake (1 Thessalonians 5:12—13). One of the old writers made this observation – “Where Christ gets his due among a people, there and there only do ministers get their due. Where Christ is heartily received, the feet of them that bring glad tidings will be beautiful. Where Christ has his thousand, ministers will have their two hundred.” Those who preach the gospel are to live by the gospel. They are to be generously supported and maintained by their congregations (1 Timothy 5:17-18; Galatians 6:6; 1 Corinthians 9:9-11). This two hundred, which is the reward of God’s servants, certainly includes those chosen, redeemed sinners who are converted by the Spirit of God under their influence (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20). This two hundred shall be the full possession and compensation of every servant of God in eternal glory. Here, we may seem to come far short of it. Poverty, disrespect, and reproach are the common lot of faithful gospel preachers in this world. But there is a day coming when, “they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever” (Daniel 12:3; 2 Timothy 4:6-8). The church belongs to Christ. It is his vineyard, always under his watchful eye and the object of his loving care. It is our responsibility to faithfully serve the Lord Jesus Christ in the place where we are, with the capacity he has given us. Those who faithfully serve Christ, all of them, are to be duly honored by us.

Song of Solomon 8:13

The Lord’s last word to his churchSon_8:13“Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it.” Nothing is more precious in the memory of a woman whose beloved husband has gone to be with the Lord than her dear husband’s last words to her. How often I have sat across the room from a widow, whose husband had departed many years before, and heard her say, “I can remember the last thing he said to me, as though it were just yesterday.” The last words spoken by a loving companion are precious words. Even so, the last words of our Lord Jesus Christ to his believing people are words we particularly, tenderly cherish in our hearts (John 14-17). The Song of Songs is almost ended. The chosen Bride and the Glorious Bridegroom have come to their last stanzas. They are about to part company for a while. The Lord, our Savior, our Great Bridegroom must depart this world for a season. His bodily presence must be taken from us. He must enter again into his glory. And his Bride, the Church, which he has chosen and redeemed with his own precious blood, must remain upon the earth until he comes for her. Therefore, the Bridegroom, our Lord Jesus Christ, bids us farewell. These are the last words of our Savior to his believing people. —“Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it.” In other words, our Lord says to each of us — While I am away from you, fill this garden with my name, and let your heart commune with me. As she sees him rising up into the clouds of glory, the Bride quickly responds — “Make haste, my Beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.” It is as though she said — I know, my Love, that you must go away for a while; but hurry back. As soon as it pleases you, when my work upon the earth is done, come to me again; and take me home to the ivory palaces of glory land. Expedient Even his leaving us was an act of great love and grace. In fact, it was his greatest act of love. If he had not left us and gone to the tree of his death and up to the throne of glory, we could never have been redeemed and saved, we could never have entered into glory. He said, “I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you” (John 16:7). It was truly expedient for our Lord to go away, to suffer, die, rise again, and ascend into glory. By his going away to die for us and to live again for us in heaven, many evils were prevented from falling upon us, which otherwise would have destroyed us. He went away to save us from the heavy strokes of divine justice, the wrath, vengeance, curse, and condemnation of God’s holy law, the eternal ruin, misery and death of hell. Our Lord’s going away was expedient for us, because he went away to obtain for us all the blessings of grace and eternal good for our souls: Redemption—Reconciliation—Forgiveness—Righteousness—Eternal Life—Peace—Heavenly Glory. When we realize what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us, we know that it is best for us that he went away for a while. He has opened for us an entrance into the holiest by the blood of his cross (Hebrews 10:19-22). He has taken possession of heaven and eternal glory as our Representative (Hebrews 6:20). He has gone to prepare a place for us in glory, in the Father’s house (John 14:1-3). He has gone away to appear in the presence of God for us (1 John 2:1-2). He has gone away so that he might send his promised Spirit into the world to gather his elect from the four corners of the earth, to regenerate, sanctify, and preserve them unto his eternal glory (Galatians 3:13-14). Truly, it is best for us that our beloved Savior has gone away. Surely, then the last words of our heavenly Bridegroom must be of special interest to us. — “Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it.” With those parting words, our blessed Savior tells us most plainly what he desires of us while we are yet upon this earth. Our dwelling place First, our Lord describes his Bride as one who enjoys the benefits of a blessed residence. — “Thou that dwellest in the gardens.” The Hebrew construction of this phrase is in the feminine. Literally, the Lord is calling his Bride, his Church by this name, “Thou inhabitress of the gardens.” We who are born of God, we who make up the church of Christ, the body of God’s elect are addressed under this term — “Thou inhabitress of the gardens.” It describes our residence upon the earth, the assembly of God’s saints, the congregation of the Lord. This term distinguishes us from our Lord. He whom we love dwells in the ivory palaces. He has gone up to his Father’s throne. But he has left us in these gardens here below. He dwelt here with us for a while. But now he has finished the work that his Father gave him to do and he has returned to his throne. He is no longer physically present with us. Our Lord’s presence with his Church is real, true, and constant; but it is a spiritual, rather than physical presence, that we now enjoy (Matthew 18:20; John 14:23). Like our Savior, we must remain upon the earth, dwelling in his gardens, until our work upon the earth is done (John 14:12). Our Lord has gone to heaven, because he best accomplishes the purposes of God from there. He has left us upon the earth to serve him, because we best accomplish the purpose of God here. Our place is in the King’s gardens. This is the place of our great employment. Those who serve the Lord serve him by serving his garden, the local church, the assembly of his people. Each of God’s people is placed in the garden for the good of his own soul and for the service of the Lord’s church. “You and I are set in the garden of the church, because there is a work for us to do which will be beneficial to others and to ourselves also.” (C. H. Spurgeon).

It is best for us, for the glory of God and for the church of Christ that we abide here a while longer. Here “ye are the lights of the world.” Here “ye are the salt of the earth.” Here you abide as dew from the Lord in this dry and thirsty land. Have you found out what it is the Lord has for you to do in his gardens? Have you found the tender plants for which you are to care? This is the place of our great enjoyment. This is the place where the Lord meets with us, instructs us, teaches us, refreshes us, and makes himself known to us (Son 6:2). I cannot overstress the importance of the local assembly of God’s saints in the life of a believer (Hebrews 10:26). The Lord himself walks in his garden. The River of the Water of Life flows through the garden. The Tree of Life is planted in the Lord’s garden. This is the place of our great eminence. The greatest blessing God can ever give to you or me upon this earth is the privilege of dwelling in one of the Lord’s gardens. The greatest blessing God ever gave to a community of men is the establishment of a local church where the gospel is preached. And the greatest curse God ever sent to any place was withdrawing from them the witness of a gospel church. This is the place of our great establishment. –“Thou that dwellest” — Those words imply a permanent residence, a permanent establishment. As for me and my house, we are established in the house of God, the garden of the Lord. All things are secondary to this. I am ready to give up anything before I will give up the worship of God, the fellowship of his saints, and the ministry of the Word. How charming is the place Where my Redeemer God Unveils the beauties of his face, And sheds his love abroad.

Not all the fair palaces, To which the great resort, Are once to be compared with this, Where Jesus holds his court.

There is nothing more important to a believer than the blessed residence God has appointed for his people, the Garden of the Lord, the Church of God, the House of Prayer. I leave it to you to judge whether or not you have found the Church of God a garden for your soul and this garden a blessed residence in which to dwell. I love Thy Church, O God! Her walls before Thee stand, Dear as the apple of Thine eye And graven on Thy hand.

For her my tears shall fall, For her my prayers ascend — To her my cares and toils be given Till cares and toils shall end. Our family Second, our Lord speaks of the relationship which the people of God should enjoy with one another — “Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice.” The church of God is a family. A local assembly, if it is what it should be, is a commune of pilgrims, companions whose hearts and lives are wed to one another. The church of God is his family (Matthew 12:48-50). We will be wise to make it ours. Let us endeavor to maintain the unity, peace, and joy of our family (Ephesians 4:3-7). One thing is essential to every family is communication. Families that get along well must talk to one another. They must know one another, encourage one another, and support one another. This blessed communication between believers is what our Lord is talking about — “The companions hearken to thy voice!” Build your relationships with God’s people by personal conversation and pleasant communion. Like marriages, good relationships with other people do not just happen; they must be built. Heaven will, in great measure, be an everlasting communion of saints. If we would enjoy heaven below we must commune with one another. Be sure that your conversations with others are edifying, Christ honoring, and spiritually beneficial. I do not mean that you must always talk to others about spiritual things; but I do mean that you should strive to be spiritually helpful to one another in your speech. When we come together in the house of God, we should be especially careful to assist one another in our conversations before the service and after the service. Be careful to maintain and display real, genuine interest in others.

Many appear to be afraid to speak any word of praise, congratulations, or honor to another. Yet, our God tells us to give honor to those to whom honor is due. And none are more worthily honored by us than those who serve the Lord with us. Truthful and thoughtful commendation is never out of order. Communion with Christ Third, our Lord makes a great, tender, condescending request of us. It is a request that will prove to be for our souls’ good. May he give us grace ever to heed it. — “Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it.” It is as though our Lord were saying to us — “I am going away for a while, and you will see me no more; but I will not forget you. My heart will always be with you. Therefore, do not forget me. Cause me to hear your voice. Though you cannot see me with your physical eye, nor audibly hear my voice, I can see you and hear you. So cause me to hear your voice.” This is a very natural request. Love seeks the company of its object. It is a request that seems to have many implications. Our Savior seems to be saying, “Cause me to hear your voice in prayer, in praise, in intimate communion. Cause me to hear the voice of your heart.” Our ever-gracious Christ desires to hear the inmost groans and sighs and feelings of our hearts, as well as the joy and laughter of our hearts (Hebrews 4:16; Philippians 4:6-7; 1 Peter 5:6-7). He says, “Cause me to hear your voice frequently, reverently, in faith and honesty. Cause me to hear your voice.” Our responsibility There is one more thing hidden in our text. The text could be translated like this, — “Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: Cause them to hear me.” Read this way, our Savior is saying, “Since you are among them, and they hear your voice, be sure that you cause them to hear of me. Make those who dwell in the garden with you hear your voice speaking of me.” We should often speak to one another, and to those strangers who happen to come into the house of worship, and to those we meet in the streets, of Christ. The Lord has given us the gift of speech; we should use it to tell of him. Cause Christ to be heard. Use your voice to speak of his glorious person, of his wondrous works, and his amazing, saving, bounteous grace.

Song of Solomon 8:14

Come, my beloved Son 8:14"Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices." The Song of Solomon is an allegorical song which describes the love of Christ for his people and the love of all believing hearts for the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord’s last word to his church in this Song of Love was that he might often hear her voice. “Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it.” But the last verse of the song comes from the heart of his Bride upon the earth. It expresses the intense desire of every believing heart in this world and the great longing of God’s church that the Lord Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven, should return again. This last verse of the song is a prayer for our Savior’s glorious second advent. “Make haste, my Beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.” This is very much like the prayer John recorded at the close of the Book of Revelation. — “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” You promised, when you went away to prepare a place for us, that you would come and receive us unto yourself, that we might forever dwell in your presence. Our hearts are filled with hope. We look for you. We wait for you. We long for you. Even now we pray, “Come, my Beloved.”Is this your heart’s desire?

Do you long for the Lord’s glorious advent? Do you desire his speedy return? Are you looking for his appearing? I am afraid that far too often we accept the doctrine of the second coming in our heads, but have no real desire for it in our hearts. As we conclude our study of this blessed Song, I want to do what I can to stir up that blessed hope that is within us. May God the Holy Spirit arouse in you and me an earnest desire for and anticipation of our Lord’s second advent.

We who believe should live everyday upon the tiptoe of faith, anticipating our Lord’s second coming. We look for no signs. We set no dates. But we are to look for Christ, as it were, upon the very tiptoe of expectant faith. The Beloved First, I call your attention to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is the beloved object of believing hearts. Here is the title his bride gives him—“My Beloved.” True religion has many sides. True religion is practical. True religion is doctrinal. And true religion is personal. But it matters not how practical, doctrinal, and personal our religion is, if our religion does not produce in us a genuine love for Christ our religion is not true. All of God’s people love Christ. We do not love him as we should. We do not love him as we would. And we do not love him as we shall. But we do love the Son of God. He is the Beloved of our hearts (1 Corinthians 16:22; 1 Peter 2:7). This is the true testimony of all believers, “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). We do not love him as we should. Our love for Christ is not in anyway worthy of his love for us; but we do love him. He loved us before we loved him (Jeremiah 31:3). He loves us infinitely superior to our love for him (1 John 3:16; 1 John 4:9-10). And his love for us is the cause of our love for him. “We love him, because he first loved us.” But if we are true believers we do truly love the Lord Jesus Christ. We love him sincerely, love him supremely, and love him growingly. We love him, because of who he is. And we love him, because of what he has done. Where there is true faith in the heart, there is genuine, sincere, increasing love for the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 14:25-27; Luke 14:33). We may be reluctant to sing the words of the hymn, ashamed because our love for our Redeemer is so indescribably unworthy of him; but every child of God can sing with A. J. Gordon, and can do so honestly…

“My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine, For Thee all the follies of sin I resign; My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou; If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

I love Thee, because Thou hast first loved me, And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree; I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow; If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus ‘tis now.

I’ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death, And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath; And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow, If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

In mansions of glory and endless delight, I’ll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright; I’ll sing as I’m casting the crown from my brow; If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.”

Believers are people whose lives are ruled, governed, and motivated by the love of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14). It is not our love for him that is the proof of his love for us. The proof of his love for us is our faith in him (Hebrews 11:1). But the fruit of faith in Christ is love for Christ. It is written, “Unto you therefore which believe he is precious” (1 Peter 2:7). Upon the mountains Second, the Lord Jesus, our Beloved, is to be seen upon the mountains of spices. – “Make haste, my Beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.” What does this mean? She is calling for him to come from the place where he now is, “the mountains of spices.” As we have gone through the Song of Solomon, we have seen four references to mountains. “The Mountains of Bether” (Son 2:17) —Bether means “divisions.” There was standing between us and our God three great mountains of divisions (God’s righteousness, his justice, and our sins) which separated us from him. We could never cross over them to God, but our divine Savior crossed over them and reconciled us to God. Christ our Mediator has leveled these mountains of division. “The Mountains of Leopards” (Son 4:8) —Like dark mountains filled with leopards, sin, death, hell, and Satan terrified our souls. The Lord Jesus, our Beloved, the mighty Conqueror has overcome these. “The Mountain of Myrrh” (Son 4:6) —Myrrh is both bitter and fragrant. Oh, what bitterness our Beloved endured that he might be for us a sweet-smelling savor to God! When the Lord of Glory, the Son of God who knew no sin, was made to be sin for us, he was forsaken by his Father! His Father, at the very height of his obedience to him, abandoned him! But more, all the just anger, wrath, and fury of the Almighty against sin was poured out upon him to the full satisfaction of divine justice! Willingly, because of his love for us, Immanuel drank the cup of bitterness, until the last bitter dregs of divine indignation were gone! It was all bitterness to him; but his sin-atoning sacrifice is sweet fragrance to God for us (Ephesians 5:1-2). “The Mountains of Spices” (Son 8:14) —The mountains of spices are the mountains of heaven itself where our Redeemer dwells today. He sits as King upon his holy hill in Mt. Zion. John Gill wrote, “The joys and glories of the heavenly state are here intended; where the church desires to have everlasting and uninterrupted communion with her Beloved, and that speedily, if it was his will; where she should be on high, and out of the reach of every snare and every enemy; where she would be safe, secure and immoveable, and in the possession of pleasures that will never end.” He continues, “These mountains may denote the height and sublimity of this happy state. It is above. It is an ‘inheritance reserved in heaven; a hope laid up there, a prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.’ (They) may express the permanence and everlastingness thereof. It is a ‘city which hath foundations,’ and these immoveable. It is a ‘building of God, eternal in the heavens.’ These habitations are everlasting, from whence there never will be a remove. (They) may signify the exceeding pleasantness and delightfulness thereof: that state may well be represented by’ spicy mountains, seeing in the presence of Christ there ‘is fullness of joy, and at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore.’ No wonder, then, that the church should so passionately wish for the enjoyment of this happiness; and close this song in the manner she does, saying, ‘Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of spices.’” What are the spices of the high, immoveable mountains of heavenly glory? The spices cannot be anything other than the merits and efficacy of Christ’s blood and righteousness and intercession for his own, and his everlasting praise as our all-glorious Redeemer, Savior and God. The prayer Every believing heart should desire and anticipate the coming of Christ, ever crying, “Make haste, my Beloved.” “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.” (Titus 2:11-14; 2 Peter 3:11-14). Why should we be so anxious for the speedy return of Christ? Why should we so eagerly anticipate the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ? This is the result of true love. A loving wife longs for the return of her husband who has been so long away from her. When our Savior comes, he will bring an end to all the conflict we now endure. When our Lord comes, there will be a great resurrection, and we shall see his face forever (Job 19:25-27; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17). When King Jesus appears in his glory, he will create all things new, and God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. When our great God and Savior comes in power and in great glory, he will sit upon the Great White Throne of Judgment. His is a throne of sovereign power. His is a white throne of absolute purity and judgment. It will be a great day indeed when the great King of Glory sits upon the Throne of Judgment. In that day, he will put all things in order and show all things in their true light. He will clear his own elect of all charges and accusations. He will show the honor of his name in all that he has done. He will display the glory of his grace in his people. He will tread upon the necks of all his enemies. He will be glorious! “Behold, He cometh!” “Every eye shall see him.” What will become of you when you see the Lord Jesus Christ in his glory?