Song of Solomon 3

Song of Solomon 3:1-11

THE CHURCH IN CHRIST’S EYESSong of Solomon 3-8.THE reader of this volume will recall that in the introduction, taken bodily from “Jamieson, Fausset and Brown”, we quoted Origen and James as having said that “the Jews forbade the reading of this volume by any man until he was thirty years old”.But recently I had in my pulpit a blessed minister of the Gospel, a man of deeply spiritual mind, who is in his sixty-fifth year, and when I asked him what he thought of the Song of Solomon, he answered instantly, “Up to the present I have never dared to attempt its interpretation.”As is said in the introduction, “It certainly needs a degree of spiritual maturity to enter aright into the holy mystery of love which it allegorically sets forth.” To such as have attained this maturity, to whatever age they may have reached, “the Song of Solomon is one of the most edifying of the Sacred Writings.”Since the commencement of this series, the Book has constantly grown upon us, until we regret our decision to contribute so few chapters to the same. However, the plan laid out for the forty volumes that make up this work is such that we cannot rearrange at this date. We proceed however, with the consciousness that scores of its suggestive texts are either passed over in entire silence, or touched but superficially, in this brief treatment.Taking up, therefore, this extensive Scripture lesson of five chapters, we prefer to discuss them under the following suggestions: Christ Beholds Great Beauty in His Bride, Her Indifference is Truly Heart-Breaking, But Her Neglect is Soon Forgotten and Forgiven.CHRIST BEHOLDS GREAT BEAUTY IN HIS BRIDE“Behold, thou art fair, My love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead.“Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them.“Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks.“Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.“Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.“Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.“Thou art all fair, My love; there is no spot in thee”.The figures employed are rural and oriental. It will be remembered that in the New Testament Christ turned to nature again and again for illustrations. His parables involve the sower and the seed, the tares, the mustard seed, the laborers in the vineyard, the wicked husbandmen, the seed growing secretly, the lost sheep, the unprofitable servants, and so forth.Here also the open country makes matchless contributions. The “doves’ eyes”, the silken black hair of the goats, the flock of freshly sheared and washed white sheep, the “thread of scarlet “, the “pomegranate”, the “two young roes”—all of these are figures of the beauty found in the features of His Bride—her eyes like the doves’ eyes; her hair like the goat’s hair; her white teeth like the washed and even shorn sheep; her lips like the thread of scarlet, her temples like the pomegranate, and so forth.It is a suggestive thing (and yet one that finds easy explanation, since Christ was God, and hence all wisdom was with Him) that He employed figures, the meaning of which time does not destroy nor world-changes deleteriously affect.Figures from city life are not so lasting as those of country life.

In cities, changes are too rapid and radical. But not so with the open spaces of nature’s face.

To this hour there is not a parable of the New Testament that is not clearly, and even easily, understood; and to this good hour also the figures here found are of ready comprehension. The dove’s eyes are soft, kindly and beautiful; the black hair of the oriental goat is silken indeed; the even shorn and freshly washed flock of sheep are to this day the figures of white and splendid teeth; the thread of scarlet a hint of healthy and beautiful lips; and the pomegranate a picture of temples shining through the locks.It is a habit of true love to see in nature likenesses of physical and mental graces; and, though the language of these six verses may seem to some exorbitant, they are to the eyes of affection, suggestive but inadequate.His affection is such as sees no faults.“Thou art all fair, My love; there is no spot in thee” (Son 4:7).Possibly among the New Testament chapters few are so uniformly popular as 1 Corinthians 13.It is a dissertation on love. In that discussion Paul says love “thinketh no evil”. In fact, love’s eye is blind to defects in its subject. There may be short-comings, but it does not dwell upon them.It is glorious to believe that Christ beholds only the beauty of the Church; that to Him she is “all fair”; that He overlooks her defects, and sees her as she shall eventually be, the “Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”. There can be little doubt that the seven Churches of Asia were rather poor specimens of spiritual life, faulty and defective in the last degree, and yet, how much of beauty He beheld in them!

At Ephesus He commended the works, and labor and patience; of the people of Smyrna He dwelt upon their works, and tribulation, and poverty; and of Pergamos, their works in an evil station and their exemplary discipline; at Thyatira He thought of their works, and charity, and faith, and patience; at Sardis He sought out the few who had not defiled their garments and promised them that they should walk with Him in white; at Philadelphia He rejoiced that they had kept the Word of His patience and promised to keep them against the hour of temptation; and even at Laodicea, where so little was commendatory, He counselled them to buy of Him gold tried in the fire, that they might be rich; and white raiment that they might be clothed. There were defects in each of these Churches, glaring and terrible.

He only called attention to them to correct them, and gave the major portion of each Letter to commendation. Love “thinketh no evil”.The fellowship of love is the Lord’s desire.“Come with Me from Lebanon, My spouse, with Me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.“Thou hast ravished My heart, My sister. My spouse; thou hast ravished My heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.“How fair is thy love, My sister, My spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!“Thy lips, O My spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.“A garden inclosed is My sister, My spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.“Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,“Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:“A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon” (Son 4:8-15).It might almost seem a strange thing for Christ to crave fellowship. In His Deity one would imagine He would find a sufficiency; such infinite fullness, such perfect conscience, such conscious power, such wisdom that one would suppose He had no need of anything outside of His perfect Self. But the Scriptures do not so present Him.The greatest and best of men love their fellows. They crave fellowship and seek companionship.He chose twelve that He might be in a college fraternity, and out of the Twelve He selected three as His intimates.

There was never a crisis in His life that He did not long to have the three share the same with Him. Possibly of all the pathetic things recorded of Jesus, the Master, none more pathetic than His appeal to these three that they watch with Him in the hour of His great agony, and His pathetic disappointment at finding them sleeping when the sorrows that rolled over His soul were such that even human companionship seemed a partial but necessary antidote.We do not believe that we are straining the text a bit when we say,“Come with Me from Lebanon, My spouse, with Me from Lebanon.“Thou hast ravished My heart, My sister, My spouse; thou hast ravished My heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.“How fair is thy love, My sister, My spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!“Thy lips, O My spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.“A garden inclosed is My sister, My spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.“Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,“Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices;“A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon”,is a cry for the fellowship of love.He indulges in a riot of words to express the craving for affection. “I’ve found a Friend; oh, such a Friend! He loved me ere I knew Him;He drew me with the cords of love, And thus He bound me to Him.And round my heart still closely twine Those ties which naught can sever,For I am His and He is mine, For ever and for ever!“I’ve found a Friend; oh, such a Friend! He bled, He died to save me;And not alone the gift of life, But His own Self He gave me;Naught that I have my own I call, I hold it for the Giver:My heart, my strength, my life, my all, Are His, and His for ever!“I’ve found a Friend; oh, such a Friend! So kind, and true, and tender,So wise a Counsellor and Guide, So mighty a Defender!From Him, who loves me now so well, What power my soul can sever?Shall life? or death? shall earth? or hell? No! I am His for ever!”HER IS HEART-She sleeps while He knocks and waits.“I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to Me, My sister, My love, My dove, My undefiled: for My head is filled with dew, and My locks with the drops of the night.“I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on?

I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?“My Beloved put in His hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for Him.“I rose up to open to my Beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.“I opened to my Beloved; but my Beloved had withdrawn Himself, and was gone: my soul failed when He spake: I sought Him, but I could not find Him; I called Him, but He gave me no answer” (Son 5:2-6).What a picture this of the Church! How many congregations all across this country sleep; and for that matter, in every country these sleeping churches are found.

A noted statistician called attention a year or two ago to the circumstance that in three denominations in America over eleven thousand churches had not seen a single soul saved in a twelfth month. Sleeping!It reminds us of Holman Hunt’s famous painting of Christ knocking at the door. The door had rusty hinges, and the vines had grown over it showing how long it had been closed; and the fact that it did not open is a further indication of the certainty that only death reigned within.This is not only a picture of the church at its best; but sad to say, it is a picture of the best of the church, under some conditions. Unquestionably James, Peter and John were the choice spirits in the apostolic college; if anybody could be looked to, to watch, when needed, they were the ones, and on that very account they were selected for that awful night of His betrayal and arrest. And yet, while the diabolical deed of Judas is being carried out these three choice spirits slept.We have a custom, I fear, of imagining ourselves more awake in this church than we are. The circumstances that no year goes by without seeing a considerable number of souls brought to Christ, leads us to feel that we are not asleep; but, alas, for the facts that we have to face upon a little reflection.

Hundreds of our members in this church never speak to a single person on spiritual matters; and even those of us who are looked upon as leaders, are often sound asleep at the time when our opportunity of service is not only greatest but most sorely needed.We have a notion that there is a dual sense to Solomon’s proverb:“Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:“Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,“Provided her meat in the summer, and gathered her food in the harvest.“How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?“Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:“So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man”.There is a spiritual poverty that is even greater than the financial, and there is a soul-lethergy that exceeds that of bodily indolence. Think of the time that Jesus“Took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray.“And as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistening.“And, behold, there talked with Him two men, winch were Moses and Elias:“Who appeared in glory, and spake of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.“But Peter and they that were with Him were heavy with sleep” (Luke 9:28-32).How strange, you say!

How almost unthinkable that men should sleep under such circumstances! Asleep! at a time when they were called to pray and yet were asleep; at a moment when Heavenly visitors were present; and still more, asleep through the very hour of Christ’s glorification.Doubtless these things are recorded as our warning; and yet it must be confessed that we learn not from them. It is little wonder that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians of the Coming of the Lord,“But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that Day should overtake you as a thief.“Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.“Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.“For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.“But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-8).We speak sometimes of a “revival”. What does it mean? It really means a waking up of the Church. How greatly is that needed!

Of all the Prophets of the Old Testament Isaiah is truly the evangel. It is interesting to run through his Volume and see how often he calls upon the people of God to awake, anticipating the day of the Lord’s Coming,“Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise” (Isaiah 26:19).

And then his appeal to his people, “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city. * * Shake thyself from the dust. * * For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought” (Isaiah 52:1-3). Then still further, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee”.Not once, but often do we hear some man in impassioned prayer calling upon God in this language: “O wake us up!” and there is occasion.James Montgomery must have been dwelling upon the very language of the Prophet Isaiah when he wrote: “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, Thy beautiful array;The day of freedom dawns at length, The Lord’s appointed day.“Rebuild thy walls, thy bounds enlarge, And send thy heralds forth;Say to the south, ‘Give up thy charge,’ And ‘Keep not back, O north!’She responds only when it is too late.“I opened to my Beloved; but my Beloved had withdrawn Himself, and was gone: my soul failed when He spake: I sought Him, but I could not find Him; I called Him, but He gave me no answer.“The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my Beloved, that ye tell Him, that I am sick of love” (Son 5:6-8).He has gone! How often in human history it has been so! The antediluvians were wakened at last! But, alas, too late! The storm of judgment had broken; the flood was at its full. The last dread enemy, death, was victor, the Lord was gone.San Pierre wakened at last; but not until its citizens were all dead beneath the ash heap of the exploded mountain.San Francisco wakened at last. But not until its heart had either been swallowed up by the earthquake, or licked clean by fire.Father Ryan, the poet priest, would forgive me I know for changing and accommodating some words from his pen which must express the loneliness of that heart that knew Christ and loved Him, but slept through all His appeals and drove away His presence: “Gone, and there is not a gleam of you, Tour face has floated into the far away.Gone! and we can only dream of you. Dream as yon fade like a star away;Fade as a star in the sky from us, Vainly we look for your light again;Hear ye the sound of a sigh from us? Come, and our hearts will be bright again.“Come! and gaze on our faces once more Bring us the smiles of the olden days;Come! and shine in your place once more, And change the dark into golden days.Gone! gone! gone! joy is fled from us Gone into the night of the nevermore,And darkness rests where you shed for us A light we will miss for evermore.”Originally this was spoken of earthly friends; but it has its truest meaning when applied to the Heavenly Ones.Cowper perhaps has voiced this experience as no other uninspired writer has done; and yet voiced it as every backslidden Christian has felt it. “Where is the blessedness I knew When first I saw the Lord?Where is the soul-refreshing view Of Jesus and His Word?“What peaceful hours I then enjoyed! How sweet their memory still!But they have left an aching void The world can never fill.“Return, O Holy Dove, return, Sweet messenger of rest;I hate the sins that made Thee mourn, And drove Thee from my breast.”Cowper concluded his poem with the only language that will ever conclude this slumber, this sense of loneliness, this unspeakable loss, and with the very language that nine out of ten present-day Christians should employ, namely: “The dearest idol I have known, Whatever that idol be,Help me to tear it from Thy throne, And worship only Thee.”The world sleeps and one day it will awake; but alas, too late! It will awake to a ruined universe, to an earth shaken in every part by fire and earthquake, to a day when the sun shall be black as sackcloth, and the moon as blood, and the stars have fallen, and the heaven itself has departed as a scroll, and every mountain and island has been moved out of its place; then its kings and its great men and rich men and chief captains shall hide themselves in the rocks of the mountains and say to the mountains, “Fall on us, and hide us”, for the great day of His wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand?This picture of a departed Christ is followed by a strange, and yet very natural suggestion:The Church, His Bride, defends Him against all competitors (Son 6:1-4). Strange we never prize love at its best until we have lost it; nor esteem the lover as he deserves until he is gone. So it is with our Divine Lover. When He is with us daily we accept it as a matter of course and fail to appreciate the fullness of His affection. What wife ever saw a husband’s virtues in the full light until he was taken away; what Christian ever esteemed the ineffable Person and Presence of Christ as He deserved, until by some sin or spiritual drowsiness His companionship was lost!Doubtless the five foolish virgins had some appreciation of the bridegroom’s presence and also of the feast that had been prepared for the occasion; but the full sense of their loss was never felt until they knew the door was closed; and admission to his presence and the appointments of joy and rejoicing were denied them.You say it is very strange that one who thought her Lover as the “Chiefest of ten thousand” should have slept while He knocked and slumbered until He slipped away.But strange as it seems to us, our. conduct is not less selfish, nor even less sinful, nor does our belated language contribute to the glories of His Person.

Our extravagant terms of personal affection do not excuse, in the least, the daily indifference to His calls; and more than one of us have had to endure the fears of His lost love, and to search long and diligently for His presence as a result of our own sinful sluggishness and wicked slumbers.However, as we pursue this study, another feature of His matchless character comes to the surface.HER NEGLECT IS AND Her beauty ravishes His heart. In Son 6:4-10, He voices this thought.

In response to her statement that He is “chiefest among ten thousand” and the One “Altogether Lovely”. He answers, “Thou art beautiful, O My love”. “There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number. My dove, My undefiled is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her. * * Fair as the moon, clear as the sun”. And He for whom the Bride sought not, turns about and seeks instead, calling, “Return, return, * * that we may look upon thee”.In my work as a minister I have married a great many couples. Occasionally it is easy to see why the bride has been sought out. Her beauty is evident to all; her graces of person are most manifest.

But on thousands of occasions it is not so; only the husband’s eyes could see beauty in some brides. But evidently the true husband, who has given his heart with his hand, must behold that beauty whether others can see it or not.

Such is the influence of love.When we think on God’s people and know them intimately enough to understand their deficiencies we marvel all the more that Christ, God’s only Son, and the King of Glory, finds in them attractive features. The explanation is not so much in either their attractiveness or their accomplishments as it is in the manifestation of His affection.That is why the poet could write: “Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God;He whose Word can ne’er be broken Formed thee for His own abode.“Lord, Thy Church is still Thy dwelling, Still is precious in Thy sight;Judah’s Temple far excelling, Beaming with the Gospel’s light.”Her absence is His anguish.“I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded.“Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib.“Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies” (Son 6:11-13).We know that the individual Christian suffers when he or she feels that there is no further communion between his soul and Christ.But is it not certain that Christ suffers still more? Undoubtedly Peter, James and John were ashamed of their neglect when once they were wakened out of slumber and knew that they had failed Christ in the hour of His greatest need. But was their suffering comparable to that through which He passed as in the garden great drops of sweat were on His brow; and in the wisdom that was His own, He understood that they had failed Him in that awful hour?Christ was human and as such He craved human fellowship. What man or woman is there who is normally and Divinely constituted, and yet can live contentedly without the conscious love of life’s choice one?Again and again it has been my duty to lay away either husband or wife after a long period of fifty or sixty or more years of walking together; and I have noticed that when that walk has been intimate and sweet, the old man or the old woman thus left alone, longs for the end and is happy when it comes.

Beyond question that is due to the circumstance that he believes that this fellowship will be renewed in another land; and to live alone after one has gone, makes life a desert and Heaven a land of rejoicing. Who doubts that Divine love is as much more intense than human love as the Divine thoughts are high above the human ones, and that Christ Himself is anguished whenever the members of His Bride, the Church, are indifferent and are practically out of communion with Him.If one would take the time to read Son 7:1 to Son 8:7 he would discover thatHER IS HIS It would seem as we pass from chapter six to seven that His cry, “Return, return”! has not been in vain.The language that follows indicates her presence, and consequently, pleasure.

The statement of the Bride, “I am my Beloved’s” indicates the same. “Love is strong as death”. “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it”, are sample sentences of the mutual expressions that follow.I wonder if people, in general, have noticed what has often impressed me, namely, how we can measure the pulse of affection by the language that r is unconsciously employed to express the same? Older friends, who have long walked together, quite often introduce the spouse as Mr. or Mrs. Smith or Jones; but not so with the young husband or wife.Their introduction is on another basis—“This is my husband,” “This is my wife,” with the emphasis upon the possessive pronoun. That is a natural expression of a keen sense of possession, of pride and joy in the same.That possessive pronoun also has played conspicuous place in both Old and New Testament. On the one side it voices the believer’s affection for Christ; and equally on the other, Christ’s affection for the Christian. Beyond all question, the Psalmist’s love to Christ reached no higher expression than the twenty-third Psalm; and in that Psalm his language is, “The Lord is my Shepherd”.

Perhaps hundreds of times this single phrase will be found in that Book of the Psalm, “My God”. It is the language of love, and it is also appropriating faith, and it is justified by the Divine attitude.Jesus said, “As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in MY love.

If ye keep My Commandments, ye shall abide in MY love”. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword”? Nay, rather, can we not say with the Apostle, We are “persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”?