Will you please turn to the Song of Songs, the Song of Solomon?
The Song of songs, which is Solomon’s.
My beloved is mine, and I am his.
I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.
I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me.
Set me as a seal upon Thy heart,
As a seal upon Thine arm:
For love is strong as death;
Jealousy is cruel as Sheol;
The flashes thereof are flashes of fire,
A very flame of the Lord.
Many waters cannot quench love,
Neither can floods drown it:
If a man would give all the substance of his house for love,
He would utterly be contemned.
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed unto His death;
If by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead.
Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, how we do praise and thank Thee. It is because of Thy great love toward us, manifested in Christ Jesus, that we are able to gather together unto Thy name this morning.
We do praise and thank Thee, knowing that Thou art here with us. We have read Thy Word, and now we trust Thy Holy Spirit to quicken Thy Word to our hearts and draw us, that we may enter into the reality of Thy Word, to the praise of Thy glory.
We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Of the thirty-nine books in the Old Testament, three books are attributed to Solomon: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs.
Proverbs speaks of wisdom. Ecclesiastes tells us of vanity. And the Song of Songs shows us love.
Chronologically speaking, it may very well be that Solomon wrote the Song of Songs in the vigor of his youth, Proverbs in the accumulated wisdom of his middle age, and Ecclesiastes in the maturity of perception in his advanced years.
But according to the order we find in the Scriptures, we find Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. I believe this is put in a spiritual order.
Spiritually speaking, Proverbs comes first. In other words, there needs to be wisdom first, and the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.
Then, out of that wisdom—the fear of the Lord—comes the understanding that under the sun all is vanity.
But this is not all, because it moves us into the heavenly realm. There we find the reality of the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Ecclesiastes delivers us from the subtlety of this world. The Song of Songs ushers us into the reality of love.
Solomon wrote three thousand proverbs and one thousand and five songs. He spoke of the trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, creeping things, fowls, and fishes.
Of the one thousand and five songs, we have no trace of any of them. The only one that is left and remains is this Song of Songs, which is the song of love.
In other words, we find that everything fades away, for love never faileth.
We can look at this Song of Songs from different standpoints. Many Jewish writers consider the Song of Songs as the design of God to give us an apprehension of the sacredness of married love.
They think that this song sings of the blessedness of wedded life.
Some of the more spiritual among the Jewish writers look deeper into the Song of Songs. They recognize in it the love relationship between the Lord and the nation of Israel, because in the Old Testament we find that sometimes God is looked upon as the husband and the nation of Israel as His wife.
So they call this the book of communion.
In the Christian age, people look at this song mainly with two different views. One is that they look upon the Song of Songs as typifying that sacred love relationship between Christ and His church.
There we find the conquering love of Christ and the response from the church.
The other viewpoint is that it speaks of our personal, individual relationship with Christ, and that there is a love relationship there.
So, all in all, we can say that we can look at this Song of Songs from four different viewpoints:
Nobody is sure of the background story of this Song of Songs. There are many theories.
One is the so-called shepherd hypothesis. It is advocated by Delitzsch, Ginsburg, and others. They think that there are three main figures in this Song of Songs, and Solomon is the villain of the song.
There is an unnamed shepherd, and there is a love relationship between that unnamed shepherd and the maiden, the shepherdess. Here you find Solomon trying to come in and entice this virgin away from the shepherd, but he fails. That shows the purity of married love.
Now, that is one theory. There is another theory, and that is that we have two main figures in the Song of Songs: Solomon and the Shulamite. It typifies the love between Christ and the soul.
Ironside tried to construct a story for it. I just mention it to you.
He says Solomon had a vineyard in the north country of Israel, in the district of Ephraim, and he arranged that vineyard to keepers.
Her family were Ephraimites. Evidently, the father and husband of the family was dead, so there was a mother, at least two brothers, and two sisters.
The elder sister is the Shulamite. She is the Cinderella of the story. Her brothers did not treat her well. Her brothers forced her to keep the vineyards—to trim and prune the vines, to set traps for the foxes, and even commanded her to keep the flocks and the kids in the wilderness.
Now, one day, while the shepherdess was watching her flock, she lifted her head. To her embarrassment, she found that a tall, handsome shepherd was looking intently at her.
So she cried out and said, “Do not look at me. I am black. I am burned by the sun.”
But the shepherd answered her and said, “I see nothing in you but what is fair. You are spotless.”
So gradually, their friendship developed into affection, to such a degree that the shepherd had won the love of the shepherdess.
Then he told the maiden that he was going away, but that he would come back and claim her as his bride. So he left. It was a long time, and there was no information, no news.
But the maiden believed in him, and probably she was the only one who so believed. Sometimes she dreamed of him, as if she heard his voice, but it was just a dream.
Finally, one day, there was a commotion in the village. The royal caravan came to the village.
A messenger was sent to the maiden, saying, “The king demands your presence.”
She went there, and to her surprise, she found that this king was none other than that shepherd. So she cried out and said:
I am my beloved’s,
And His desire is toward me.
Now, that is the story. We do not know whether it is the real background story or not, but this is actually of no significance.
What is important is that we find the Song of Songs as one of the books in the sacred writings. It is divinely inspired. It is the Word of God. We believe that.
It does initially speak of the blessedness of married life, but we need to rise above that and find in it that binding love between Christ and His own. Of course, ultimately, we see that it is the relationship between Christ and His church.
The Song of Songs is a song of love.
Now, brothers and sisters, the whole relationship between Christ and us is a relationship of love.
As we look at the love of Christ, we find how steady, steadfast, faithful, unchanging, longsuffering, and perfect His love toward us is.
But when we look at our love toward Him, we find how easy it is for us to lose our first love. We find that our love often falters and fails.
But thank God, His love will not let us go. We find that the love of Christ is always there, beckoning us, stirring us, disciplining us, and encouraging us.
Until His love has so wrought in us that we arrive at that mature love and that union with Him in eternity.
So this Song of Songs is a story of love.
There are many ways to divide this Song of Songs, but this morning we would like to use the three acclamations of the virgin as the divisions of this song.
As a matter of fact, love is something that you cannot compartmentalize. There is no way to divide love into different things. But, for the sake of convenience, we will say that these three acclamations of the virgin represent, in a way, the development of love—the stages of love.
The first stage is that acclamation of the virgin in Song of Songs 2:16:
My beloved is mine, and I am his.
This is the initial stage of love.
The second acclamation is found in Song of Songs 6:3:
I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.
This is growing love.
Finally, in Song of Songs 7:10:
I am my beloved’s, and His desire is toward me.
This is mature love.
Or we may even say, in the first stage it is courtship; in the second stage it is engagement; and in the third stage it is wedding—marriage.
As we all know, this Song of Songs does not begin with initial salvation. In other words, it does not tell us how a soul comes into salvation, into the knowledge of the Lord Jesus as his Saviour.
It is assumed that this is a virgin. Now, we know a virgin in the Scripture always speaks of a saved one.
Because if we are not saved, we are still wedded to the world, and in the sight of God we are adulterers and adulteresses.
But thank God, because of the blood of the Lamb, our sins are all cleansed. Thank God, because He died on the cross for us, we receive new life—eternal life. So we become virgins in the sight of God.
So this maiden has already experienced the forgiveness of her sins. She has already experienced the gift of eternal life.
Her stiff neck has already been kissed by the Heavenly Father and has been softened. So it tells of a Saviour, a saved one, a believer.
Now, brothers and sisters, we who know the love of God in Christ Jesus, we who have tasted the love of Christ—His atoning death, His suffering for our sins—we who have experienced the blessedness of the gift of eternal life, invariably have in us a desire, a longing, for more of His love.
Or, to put it in another way, we long to know more of Him.
Who is rescued and has no desire to know the One who rescues him? Of course, we want to know Him more. Of course, His love has constrained us, that we do want to love Him. We do want to know Him more. We do want to know more of His love.
That is natural—supernaturally natural.
Now, if it does not happen to a person who is supposed to be saved, then there is doubt even of his salvation. Because in one who has tasted the love of Christ, the cross, the atoning death of our Lord Jesus, and the freshness and livingness of eternal life, surely, brothers and sisters, it stirs within us a longing for Him, a longing to know more of His love.
So here you find, at the very outset of this Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s:
Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth.
There is no need to mention the name of the beloved, because to the maiden there is only one. So she just says, “Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth.”
In other words, she longs for a more intimate relationship with the beloved. Is that not true with every one of us, that we do long for a more intimate relationship with Christ?
We are satisfied, in one sense, that our sins are forgiven, that we have received eternal life, and that we are now God’s children. Yet, on the other hand, there is always that holy discontentment. We want to know Him more. We want to experience more of His love. We want to draw closer to Him in a more intimate way.
Why? Because we have experienced and have known that His love is better than wine.
Wine speaks of what the world can give: the joy, the pleasure, and the comfort that the world can give.
But we have found that our Lord Jesus—His love—is better than wine. It is better than all that the world can ever give to us.
We find that He is all fragrant. Especially, His name is as ointment poured forth, because it speaks to us of what He is.
It is natural for the virgins to love Him.
We remember what the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11: that he had espoused us as chaste virgins to Christ. If we are virgins, surely we love the One to whom we belong.
So in this initial stage of love, we find that there is that longing for the beloved, longing to know Him and to know more of His love.
It is true: in this initial stage of love, probably there is more affection and emotional love.
Because of this affection, this longing for the beloved, we find that she is rewarded by being brought into the king’s chambers.
Now, chambers—rooms in the palace—speak of the different provisions of God. If we really have a longing for Christ, you know, we will be rewarded by knowing the many provisions of God in Christ Jesus.
How He provides for us—not only physically, but mentally, spiritually, environmentally, in every area of life. We find the bountiful supply of our King, how He provides for us.
He will not allow us to be in lack. He knows all that we need, and He will add all things to us. It is just like being led into the king’s chambers and seeing all the provisions that are there.
Not only that, but we find that He also sets us at His table—the king’s table. It speaks of the unsearchable riches of Christ. There we begin to experience some of the unsearchable riches of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Not only that, but we find that He allows us to lie down in green pastures. That bed is green. It speaks of rest in Christ Jesus, how we find in Him our rest.
More than that, He leads us to the house of wine, the banqueting house, and His banner over us is love.
In other words, if there is a longing, a desire, an affection toward Christ, we will be rewarded by His amazing love, His great love to us.
At the same time, the virgin realizes that even though she does have a heart for the beloved, she finds there is a dullness in her. It seems as if she is drawing back. It seems as if she is not able to move as she should.
Therefore, she cries out:
Draw me; we will run after Thee.
Now, brothers and sisters, in our initial stage of love, we do find that we need the drawing of our Lord Jesus. If He does not draw us, we will either stay put or even fall back.
How easy it is for us to lose our first love to Him. So we find that we have to cry out all the time, “Draw me, draw me.” When You draw one of us, the rest will all run after Him.
She also realizes that even though she does have a heart for the Lord, she knows she is black. She is burned by the sun.
You know, it is true even today: the more we try to draw near to Him, the more we realize how black we are.
It is only people who are in darkness who think themselves fair, because they cannot see. The more we draw to the sun, the more the light shines upon us, and we discover our nakedness, our blindness, and our poverty.
That is one side. There is another side. Whenever there is a soul who begins to show a love for Christ and a longing for Christ, immediately you find his brothers and sisters will put him to work.
Whenever there is any indication that you love the Lord, people will say, “All right, go to the vineyards.” They will try all kinds of works upon you until these works just suffocate you.
You neglect your own vineyard. In other words, your own spiritual life suffers because of the many activities that you are being asked to do.
Now, is that not true even today?
Because of this, the maiden cries out, “I am suffering. My spiritual life is suffering. I do not have the time to be with my Lord. I miss that communion with Him. I seem to have even missed His presence.”
Even though the work prospers in her hand, her own life suffers greatly. Because of this, she cries out:
Tell me, O Thou whom my soul loveth,
Where Thou feedest Thy flock,
Where Thou makest it to rest at noon:
For why should I be as one that is veiled
Beside the flocks of Thy companions?
Because of her cry, the beloved answers her, “Now, if you do not know where I am, follow the footsteps of the flock.”
We know that God has only one flock. In John 10, the Lord Jesus said, “One Shepherd, one flock.” There may be many folds, but there is only one flock.
Of course, we know that the one Shepherd is Christ and the one flock is the church. If we do not know where the Lord is, follow the footsteps of the church.
Throughout the twenty centuries, the real church—the church that God has ordained, the church that our Lord Jesus is building—has left footsteps. If we follow those footsteps, we will find the Shepherd.
It is true that during this period it seems as if this maiden, this virgin, progresses faster than the rest of the daughters of Jerusalem. The daughters of Jerusalem speak of all the believers, but this virgin seems to run faster than any of them.
She is like a steed in Pharaoh’s chariots. Yet her energy is still mainly natural. Even her seeking after the Lord is out of her natural energy.
So here you find the Lord saying:
We will make thee plaits of gold
With studs of silver.
In other words, gold represents the nature of God, and silver represents the redemption of Christ.
You know, brothers and sisters, sometimes we run at great speed. That does not necessarily mean that it is out of divine energy. Sometimes it is our own natural energy.
Formerly, we could use our natural energy to do things against God. Now we can employ our natural energy to serve God, and this needs to be redeemed and transformed.
But in this stage of love, the virgin does experience something of the cross. She experiences the cross in being misunderstood and mistreated by her own brothers.
She suffers because of the many duties that are put upon her. In other words, she does experience something of the cross.
She experiences misunderstanding. She experiences persecution. Through the cross, she begins to see what the world is and to be delivered from pursuing the world.
She may even be delivered from the religious world. She is delivered, perhaps somewhat, from tradition and somewhat from activities, works, and things like that. She knows something of the cross working in her life.
The cross delivers her from sin, from the power of sin, from the world, and from some of the activities of the flesh. She knows something of the cross.
That is the reason why, when she was at the king’s table, she said:
A bundle of myrrh is my beloved unto me;
He shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.
In other words, she knows something of the cross in her life, and she loves it.
This is the first stage of love. During this stage, it can be summed up in her confession:
My beloved is mine, and I am his.
“My beloved is mine, and I am his.” Here you find that even in her spiritual pursuit, she is still the center. “My beloved is mine”—me first—and then, “I am my beloved’s.”
There is more of me and less of Him. She is still self-centered instead of Christ-centered. She is still I-centered instead of He-centered.
Christ does have a place in her life, but it is for her, even though she is for Him. So that is the first stage of our spiritual life.
It is important to know the cross—how the cross delivers us from sin and from the power of sin; how the cross delivers us from the world, just as Galatians 6 says. There is a cross standing between us and the world.
We need to know the cross working in our life, cutting off the works of the flesh. This is important.
For, brothers and sisters, when the cross begins to work in our life and we begin to have some experience of the cross, there is a danger.
In the beginning, we despise the cross. We try to flee from the cross. We do not want the cross.
But once we allow the cross to begin to work in our lives, and we find how good it is and how it delivers us, brothers and sisters, we go to the other extreme and say that we just love the cross.
We love the cross so much that we want to stay eternally in the cleft of the rock and even hide ourselves from Christ.
You know, there are people in this world—and I have to say this—that among Christians today there are very few who know the cross. That is why our Christianity is so shallow.
But when there are people who begin to know the meaning of the cross, begin to experience the cross in some way, and develop a love for the cross, somehow you find that they are all engrossed with the cross instead of with Christ.
The result is that person becomes negative, passive, and unsocial in the spiritual sense. That is, one keeps just to himself. You find a cross written all over his face, and it is death.
So here you find the beloved coming to stir her up. It starts the second stage of love.
The second stage of love is a long period. It begins with a calling to the power of His resurrection, unto ascension life, into the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.
You find this maiden is so satisfied with the first stage of love. She is indeed inactive. She is stupefied. She just wants to stay there forever, and the wall is built around her.
She thinks that it is her wall. She does not know that the beloved is outside the wall, not there with her.
Of course, we need to remember that the Song of Songs is a song of experience. So far as truth is concerned, our beloved never leaves us nor forsakes us. But so far as our experience and feeling go, sometimes we do feel that He has left us behind.
So here you find a new calling, a new start:
The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh,
Leaping upon the mountains,
Skipping upon the hills.
In other words, He is full of life—full of resurrection life.
There you find the beloved is outside the wall. Fortunately, there are still windows. So the beloved looks through the lattice and begins to speak, saying that the winter is past and now it is spring.
Everything is full of life. “Arise, and go with Me.”
But she does not respond. She is so contented with her present state, in the shadow of the cross. She has no desire to rise up and enter into the power of His resurrection.
She tries to find the beloved in her room, in her bed, in the night—many nights. Her response is very slow, very slow, because she is too satisfied with her spiritual condition.
Now, brothers and sisters, how often it is true. When we experience something of the Lord, we are so satisfied, so contented, that we just do not want to move on. Yet our Lord is always moving on.
So many nights she tries to find her beloved in the bed, but she cannot find him. Finally, there is love within her, and the love of Christ constrains her. So she rises up and goes out into the city.
She meets the watchmen. In other words, for a certain period, you just keep to yourself. There is no fellowship with your brothers and sisters. You find that the Lord and you are everything that you need.
But now, when you discover that the Lord has gone on and you are left behind, then you begin to see fellowship among God’s people. You begin to ask help from those whom God has put in leadership, asking them, “Where is my Lord?”
The strangest thing is that the moment she asks, she turns around and finds the beloved.
There you find this virgin entering into a new phase of the life of love. She enters into the power of the resurrection life of our Lord Jesus.
It is only then that you find the beauty of the new creation beginning to be manifested in her life.
It is there that you find she is called, “My spouse, My sister.” In other words, here you find, brothers and sisters, as we move into resurrection ground, as we move into the resurrection life of our Lord Jesus, the characteristics of this new life begin to characterize us.
We begin to be transformed. His character begins to be manifested in us.
Then you find that it is not just knowing the power of His resurrection, but there is a call into ascension life:
Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse.
In other words, we are not only raised together with Christ, but we are being seated together with Him in the heavenlies.
Brothers and sisters, we are now seated with Christ in the heavenlies. Formerly, we looked up, but now we can look down.
In other words, we begin to experience the ascension power of our Lord Jesus. There is no fear of our enemies because we are on higher ground. We can look upon the mountains of leopards and the mountains of lions.
We are in the victory of our ascended Lord. We experience the power of His victory, of His ascension, that is above every principality and authority, every name that is named, because we are united with Him in the heavenlies.
It is during that period of time that we find such transformation has come upon this virgin. She is called, “My spouse, My sister.”
You remember our Lord Jesus: “Who is My sister?” Those who do the will of My Father—these are My mother and My brothers and My sisters.
She is growing in love, not just emotionally, but growing into more union with Christ. During that period, she is like a garden enclosed. She is for the Lord.
The Lord begins to enjoy her.
But this is not the end.
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,
My locks with the drops of the night.
Now, that is the picture of our Lord Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.
You know, here you find that when this maiden begins to experience the resurrection and ascension life of our Lord Jesus, this is the time that she is called into the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.
We may think that knowing the power of His resurrection and having the ascension experience—being in the heavenlies—is such a glorious experience that it must be the peak of spiritual life.
But, brothers and sisters, such experience is not just for us to enjoy. Such experience prepares us to give our life away.
So here you find that she is in bed again. She is resting, staying put, not moving on. She discovers that her beloved is outside again, knocking, knocking at the door.
There is a hole in the door, so the beloved thrusts His hand through the door, and His pierced hand melts the heart of the virgin.
This is a deeper experience of the cross.
We may know something of the working of the cross in our lives, delivering us from the power of sin, delivering us from the enticement of the world, and delivering us from the works of our flesh.
But, brothers and sisters, we need to know the cross to deliver us from ourselves.
Even from this self that has known the cross, the suffering—even this self that is considered holy. “I have washed myself. I cannot defile myself again.”
We want to maintain our holiness, our integrity, our wholeness. But remember, it is still “I.” It is still the self-life.
We are not only to give away our own life. That is the reason why, when people love the Lord and love has drawn them into a deeper depth, they discover that even God is calling them to lay down even their grace and their gifts with which God has beautified them.
God is going to strip them of themselves, that they may be able to give up themselves completely for the Lord.
The fellowship of His sufferings—there is one part of His suffering in which we can never participate, and that is the atoning suffering of our Lord Jesus.
He had to tread the winepress alone for us. We only receive the good of that suffering of His.
But there is another side of suffering to which He calls us to have fellowship with Him, especially as the apostle Paul says:
I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,
And fill up on my part in my flesh
That which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ
For His body’s sake, which is the church.
Brothers and sisters, just as 2 Corinthians 4 says, this earthen vessel has to be broken so that the radiancy of the light within may be manifested.
The dying of Jesus is in our body, that the life of Jesus may be manifested toward others.
Brothers and sisters, we are called into that fellowship of His sufferings.
Now, this is love. This is not just affection or emotion. Emotion cannot do it.
Love is practical. Love is giving. Love is forgetting ourselves, laying down ourselves.
The Lord said, “If you love Me, lay down your lives for your brothers.”
She cannot respond, but you find that her response is faster than before—not many nights.
The moment she sees the pierced hand, she is moved. She gets up and runs to the streets in the city, trying to find her beloved.
But you know what happens to her? The watchmen smite her. Not like before, the watchmen smite her and wound her. The keepers of the wall take away her veil.
In other words, you find that nobody understands. Nobody understands. They think that she has fallen.
But that creates in her such a love that she cries out for help.
From whom does she cry out for help? From the daughters of Jerusalem.
Now, brothers and sisters, the daughters of Jerusalem are just believers. How can they help her? She has gone far ahead of these daughters of Jerusalem in her relationship with the Lord.
But in her desperation, she has been stripped of everything. She has been stripped of her grace, of her gifts. She is naked.
She cries out for help, even from the believers. She says, “Just tell Him, tell Him that I am sick of love.”
That stirs the hearts of these daughters of Jerusalem, and they ask, “What is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?”
Here she begins to pour out her heart and says that He is the fairest among ten thousand.
That stirs the hearts of the daughters of Jerusalem: “Where is He? We will go and find Him together with you.”
Because of her testimony, she finds Him immediately. She knows where He is.
This is the second stage of growing love:
I am my beloved’s,
And my beloved is mine.
He first; I second. More of Christ, less of self. Now, that is the second stage.
Now comes the last stage. It is mature love.
As this virgin has come through that knowledge of the resurrection and ascension life of the Lord, and entered into the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, here you find there is such a union with the Lord.
She has grown in spiritual stature. There is a stature now, just as Ephesians 4 says: “Till we all attain unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”
There is a spiritual stature in her. She is mature. She is able to enter into a marriage relationship with the Lord. She is now one with the Lord.
For the first time, you find she is called Shulamite. Now, Shulamite is the feminine form of the masculine form of Solomon, the beloved.
So here you find that the character of Christ has completely characterized her. She is now so one with the Lord.
Not only one in life, but one in character, and then one in purpose.
You know, our union with Christ begins with our union with Christ in life. But that union with Christ will eventually arrive at a union with Christ in purpose.
Here you find that the Lord’s purpose is her purpose.
She thinks of her little sister, that her little sister may also grow up into maturity. She is not thinking of herself anymore.
She has a vineyard, a vineyard for Solomon. He can have everything. She does not want anything for herself.
Brothers and sisters, when you arrive at mature love, there is a spirit of rapture in you.
You find that she comes out of the wilderness. She is like Enoch, walking with God for three hundred years. She walked with God, and she was not, for God took her.
In other words, she is ready to be raptured. Her whole desire is His return: “Come back, Lord Jesus.”
Brothers and sisters, this is love.
Her cry to the Lord is:
Set me as a seal upon Thy heart,
As a seal upon Thine arm.
The pledge of love is permanent, like a seal upon the heart—that is affectionate love—and upon the arm—that is power and strength.
For love is strong as death.
Love is powerful.
Jealousy is cruel as Sheol.
Love is possessive.
The flashes thereof are flashes of fire,
A very flame of the Lord.
Love is warm and purifying like fire.
Many waters cannot quench love,
Neither can floods drown it.
Love perseveres and endures.
If a man would give all the substance of his house for love,
He would utterly be contemned.
Love is priceless. You cannot exchange it for anything.
Brothers and sisters, this is the love of God in Christ Jesus. This is the love that has to be wrought into our very lives, that we may love Him as He has loved us.
So this is the Song of Solomon. Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, we have tasted Thy love in Christ Jesus, and we do long for more.
We do praise and thank Thee because Thy love is so fervent—always steadfast, faithful, unchanging, enduring, perfect.
But our love is always faltering and failing. Yet, Lord, we do praise and thank Thee that Thou dost never give us up.
Thou art calling us, stirring us, encouraging us, and disciplining us, that we may be perfected in love.
Oh, that we may love Thee as Thou hast loved us.
We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.