Morning, brothers.
Morning, ma’am.
This is intimidating, having my two sons-in-law sitting right there.
I’ll ask you to open, please, to the book of Song of Solomon.
As we come to the study of God’s Word, we come to look at His precious truth. I remind myself, and I remind you again, of that principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable: total reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit.
We praise God for all of the academics, and we must have it. We must do the human side. We must look at the book as a book. But then we must come to the Lord and say, “Now, dawn Christ upon us. We need to see You.”
There is no study, no labor, no research, no academic endeavor that will ever unveil Christ. Only God can reveal God.
I’d like to share the indispensable verse this morning from the book itself. If you just glance—it is a little bit out of the context of Song, but it contains a principle—glance at Song of Solomon 5:2.
I was asleep,
But my heart was awake.
A voice! My beloved was knocking:
“Open to me, my sister, my darling,
My dove, my perfect one!
For my head is drenched with dew,
And my locks with the damp of the night.”
I pray this morning, as you have testified in prayer and in song, that your heart is awake. The groom is at the door. Behold, a voice! The groom was knocking.
When you think of a voice, you think of words. And may I just suggest: here we have the voice of God—the Bible. That is His voice. And I believe you will find it true in the balance of Scripture: every time He speaks, He knocks.
Behold, a voice! The groom is knocking. And every time He speaks, He seeks entrance. He seeks to come in. He desires to have union with us.
And so, as our heart is awake, and as the groom speaks and the groom knocks, I just pray—and let’s pray together—that we will have open hearts, receptive hearts, and invite Him in to do all His pleasure.
Father, once again, we thank You that You have been so faithful to speak, to knock, to come to our heart’s door over and over again, seeking entrance, seeking to have the one that You have called Your dove, Your darling, Your perfect one, and Your unique one.
Lord, we are amazed at Your estimation of Your bride, but we praise You. We ask that You would give us the grace to open the door wide this morning as You speak, as You knock. We ask that in the all-prevailing name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
I want to give just a little bit of a review of what we looked at last night. I see a couple of brothers who were not here last night.
Let me do what I attempted to do last night, God assisting. I attempted to lay before you at least the burden on my heart, and I am quite convinced it is the burden on the heart of the Lord as well, in His revelation of Himself in this marvelous Song of Solomon.
I called attention last evening—and I will just mention them again—to four general observations about the book as a whole, just to get us all on the same page and going in the same direction.
My first observation was this: Song of Solomon is the record of a love story of two worlds—human love illustrating heavenly love.
As you know, our emphasis this weekend will be upstairs. It will be on the heavenly side. We want to look at the groom as He draws the bride, and the bride as she responds to the drawing of the groom, and so on. But that is the message of Song: it is a love story.
And it is not enough to say, “The groom loves me.” That is true, but it is not enough. It does not go far enough. He is in love with you. That is what this book is about. The groom is in love with His bride, and it is a love story on two levels.
Now, in my own Bible, when I open Song, I do not see Song of Solomon 1:1 as the first verse. I have put Hosea 6:3 as the first verse of Song. Here is why:
So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.
That, to me, just summarizes the book. It is especially appropriate because the book of Hosea and the book of Song of Solomon ought to be studied as sister books. They ought to be studied together because it is the same message.
Song of Solomon gives it on the positive side. Hosea gives the same truth on the negative side. Song of Solomon tells us how God’s heart rejoices when we respond as His bride. Hosea is the broken-hearted love of God when we do not respond. But it is the same message, just looked at another way.
Hosea 6:3 says, “Let us know. Let us press on to know the Lord.” That word know in Hosea is used as it is in Genesis 4:1:
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived.
It is talking about the intimacies of the marriage bond, the intimacies of relationship. Matthew 1:25 says that Joseph knew her not until she had brought forth her firstborn Son.
And so, that word know is a very precious word. It talks about that intimacy of the marriage bond. Song is a love story of two worlds in which we are to know and press on to know, and all the intimacies that that union suggests. Know; press on to know the Lord.
The second observation is this: Song presents us with the climactic redemptive experience. It is climactic because it takes us as far as we can go in this world.
Of course, it is in seed form. It is in the language of poetry. It is sort of veiled, but it is all there. It is redemptive because it is a spiritual union, a union of faith. And it is experience.
We called attention to that last night. It is not just theoretical. It is not just theological. It is not just holding some positional truth. He desires an actual, a real, a vital, living union with Him. That is His heart.
The third general impression was in terms of the many appearances of the groom. As you go through Song, He keeps coming. Then He comes again and again. He is ever coming in this book.
Over and over again, He comes. Then the bride turns around and He is gone. Then He comes again, and then He disappears, and then He comes again. Sometimes He comes without leaving. He just keeps coming and coming and coming.
Each coming, I think—I perceive—is more personal and more intimate than the one before. That is the progress in this book.
Every time He shows up, something happens. Something happens in the life of the bride. That is also the progress in your life and mine. Every time He shows up, something happens. That is what the Christian life is all about.
Finally, when we closed last night, I was pointing out how personal this book is. The story is told one on one: the groom and the bride.
It does not deny corporate truth. That is all the way through the book. You go through the book, and you are going to see the body. You are going to see the church under many figures: my mother’s house, my brothers, my sisters, the groom’s companions, the virgins, the shepherds, the daughters of Jerusalem, the daughters of Zion, the watchmen, and the keepers of the vineyard.
It is all talking about the church in one of its forms. But the focus is on the groom and the bride. It is told as if there were only two people in the book.
And so, as we study the book together, we want to look at it that way. Praise God, we are all here as a body, for God has brought you here. But it is about you and Him. It is about me and Him.
The only way to bring the church into this experience is to enter in yourself. The only way to bring the body in is as the individual enters in. That is why Song of Solomon 1:4 says:
Draw me; we will run after Thee.
Sometimes we get so busy trying to bring everybody in that we have not entered in ourselves. May God have mercy on us.
Now, that is the review. Let me lay before you what I think is the plan of this book, and then we will begin to look at some of its precious truths.
Now, do not put a lot of stock, please, in the outline I am going to share. As I said last night, the surest way to kill a love poem is to try to outline it.
They say a good love letter is one where you do not know what it is going to say before you start writing it, and then, after you have written it, you do not know what you have said. That is a good love letter.
Well, when you see the Song of Solomon, you know I am sort of ruining it by outlining it. Yet I think it is important, just so that we can follow it together.
I want you to note, first of all, verse 2. The poem starts off on high ground—very high ground:
May He kiss me with the kisses of His mouth!
For Thy love is better than wine.
I think on other occasions when we have been together, I suggested to you how beneficial it has been for me to have a year verse and to have a year book. Any excuse to get into the Word.
I have just found it so helpful. I ask the Lord to give me a verse for the year, and that verse stays with me. Then I study that book. In fact, my wife and I share our year book together. We choose the year book together, and then through the year we study that book.
Well, this year my year verse is right here, Song of Solomon 1:2, and my year book is Song of Solomon. So this conference is a little early. We should have met at the end of the year, after the Lord had dawned some more on my heart.
But you are only two verses deep, and you have this expressed desire:
May He kiss me with the kisses of His mouth!
For Thy love is better than wine.
Now, wine is the book of Ecclesiastes. That is why. That is the joy the earth gives—the joy that leaves a hangover. Natural joy.
That is why it is held in contrast to the Spirit of God. That is why we read in Ephesians 5:18:
And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit.
God holds that one over against the other. The world’s wine, to this bride, has already been found to be vanity.
“Thy love is better than wine.” That is where the book begins.
A kiss is just about universally the symbol of affection. His mouth—you know, who gives this expression of love and affection? Kisses here is plural. It is not singular: kisses, not one; many kisses of His mouth.
“May He”—the King James says, “Let Him kiss me.” It is a sigh. It is a desire. It is a longing.
So the book, when you are only two verses deep, opens with this concept: the desire of the bride. She has already tasted the world’s wine. She has rejected the world’s wine. She has embraced the love of her groom.
Now her sigh is that He would express Himself over and over and over again and keep showing how much He loves her. That is how the book opens. That is why I chose it as my year verse.
That is my prayer for this year: that my heavenly Bridegroom, the Lover of my soul, would continually express love to me through the year—not once, but with the kisses of His mouth.
For I have found this world’s wine to be a vanity of vanities, and I am beginning to find His love to be a Song of Songs. That is my prayer for this year.
I call attention to that because, would you not think Song of Solomon 1:2 should be Song of Solomon 8:14? That is the last verse. That is my point.
Do you not think such a passion, such a desire—to have somebody who has looked at this world’s wine and said no, looked at the Lord and His love and said yes, and desired only that He would continually express His love to her—would be a great goal for this book?
That would be a nice place to end up. It is not the goal. It is the starting point.
If you went to a week of special meetings around this precious book and the lovely Lord Jesus, and then later I talked to you and asked, “How did it end up?” and you said, “What a conference we had.”
“Many of God’s people saw the vanity of this world and the wine of this world and turned it down. They saw the love of the Lord Jesus and embraced it. Now their hearts are panting. They are desiring more and more that He would express Himself to them over and over again as time went on.”
I would say, “What a glorious place to end up. What a glorious goal. You had such a great conference.”
But that is not the Song of Solomon. That is not where it ends up. Brothers, that is where it starts.
You are only two verses deep, and you have this bride already having rejected this world, embraced the groom, and desiring that He would express His love.
This book is not about getting people to seek the Lord. It is not about that. It is about the progress of those who are already seeking Him.
You have got to note that. That is what I mean when I say this poem starts on high ground.
When you open the pages of this marvelous book, you do not see a poor sinner in need of a glorious Savior. It looks like that has already been settled by the time you open this book.
You do not see a backslider in this book in need of restoration. She is already desiring Christ. This is not some worldly Christian who needs to be delivered from the wine of this world. She has already tasted both and chosen one.
She has rejected this world. She has chosen her groom. It starts on that high ground and then goes forward from that.
Somebody prayed this morning and mentioned anointing. Only God can teach this book. I am going to share a few little thoughts, but only the Lord can communicate this.
We are on high ground. There are no lows in this book; there are only low highs. It goes from mountain to mountain to mountain to mountain. It is glorious, and only God can communicate it.
It starts with those who desire Christ and Christ alone. That is why we call it the climax of the redemptive experience. It begins with a seeker, and then God shows how He is going to take that seeker forward.
This is not a progression that leads to a seeking heart. It is a progression that begins from a seeking heart.
Where do you go from here? How does God manifest and draw into a more intimate union someone who has started in verse 2? Well, God help us, that is what we want to look at.
Now, as I understand it, with my present light, there are certain stages in this progress. The movements in this book center around these three passages. I think you have already received these verses, but let me look at them with you.
Song of Solomon 2:16-17:
My beloved is mine, and I am His;
He feedeth his flock among the lilies.
Until the day be cool, and the shadows flee away,
Turn, my beloved, and be Thou like a roe or a young hart
Upon the mountains of Bether.
What I want you to notice, especially in verse 16, is the emphasis. The emphasis is on her interest in Him. Oh yes, His interest in her is mentioned also, but the emphasis is this: “He is mine.”
“He is mine. Oh yes, I am His too, but He is mine.” You would expect stage one to be full of, “Let me tell you about my personal Savior.” That is stage one. That is the beginning. He is mine—my interest in Him.
The second verse is Song of Solomon 6:3:
I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine;
He feedeth his flock among the lilies.
Did you notice she flipped it over? Did you notice she turned it around? Now it is His interest in her.
She does not say, “He is mine, and, oh yes, I am His too.” Now she says, “I am His, and He is still mine.” But the emphasis is now on His interest in her.
Then the final movement is in Song of Solomon 7:10:
I am my beloved’s,
And His desire is toward me.
This time she completely drops the emphasis of her interest in Him. All that takes up her heart and her affections is this: “I am His. I am His.”
The other is still true, but it is not her life anymore. It starts off with, “He is mine; I am His.” As she goes on, she says, “I am His; and He is mine.” When the book ends up: “I am His, and all His desire is toward me.”
I am suggesting there is a progress: to move from my interest in Him to His interest in me.
Brother Stephen Kaung noted those same divisions in his wonderful book, and he called it The Stages of Love. He calls that first section “initial love,” the second section “growing love,” and the third section “mature love.”
But he was careful not to give chapter-and-verse divisions to divide it up. He did not give the outline. He is wiser than I am.
You see, some people do not think they get married until the end of the book. They say the first part is about a courtship, then an engagement, and finally it ends up in marriage.
I have a big problem with that particular approach. I have a problem with the union they are having and the relationship they are having if they are not married early in the book. That just bothers me.
I think it is the testimony of a woman as she describes the episodes of love as she came to know her bridegroom lover.
Now, I will give you the chapter-and-verse divisions that we will use this weekend. After this weekend, do me a favor: throw them away, and do not tell anybody I gave them—especially Stephen.
I believe that first stage, that experience of the seeker, is found in Song of Solomon 1:2 through 3:5. If you are going to understand God’s heart, I would suggest that you write down this key word: revelation. Revelation. That is stage one.
I think the second experience of the true seeker, as she moves from her interest in Him to His interest in her, is found in Song of Solomon 3:6 through 6:10. The key word is surrender—submission.
I think the climactic stage of that redemptive experience—the climax of the union, when it is all His interest in her—is Song of Solomon 6:11 right through the end of the book. This time there are two key words: rest and fruit.
With the light I presently have, that is my understanding of the progress. I think God will take the true seeker, the one who desires that He express Himself and reveal Himself, from revelation through surrender, into rest and into fruit.
Right at the beginning of the book, there is the expressed desire not only to have Christ manifest Himself over and over, but the bride, right at the beginning, sees her need to be drawn into that union.
Song of Solomon 1:4: “Draw me.” She wants to go forward in Him. She wants Him to express His love. She wants to experience intimacy. But she has the good sense to know it is not going to happen unless He draws her.
Draw me; we will run after Thee.
This is part of the discovery of our fallen hearts: we need to be drawn. It is an amazing truth of the Bible, brothers, that from sin we need to be restrained, and to union with Christ we need to be drawn.
What are we made of? We are dust—so frail that we have to be held back from sin, and in order to know the Lord, we have to be drawn into it. What does that tell us what we are?
Hosea 11:4 says:
I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love.
Jeremiah 31:3 says:
Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love:
Therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
John 6:44 says:
No man can come to Me, except the Father that sent Me draw him.
Psalm 110:3 says:
Thy people offer themselves willingly
In the day of Thy power.
Exactly so. The bride wants to be drawn to the groom. From height to height she moves, from one mountaintop to another, because He is drawing her. He heard her prayer: “Kiss me with the kisses of Your mouth. Let Him kiss me. Draw me, and we will run.”
He begins to do it through all these stages. The power to pursue the Lord, as much as I love Bible study, does not come from studying the Bible.
The power to pursue the Lord, as much as I love it and enter in, is not generated by worship songs. Praise God for worship songs, but that is not what draws you.
The power to pursue the Lord is not created because we are involved in ministry or some service to the Lord. It is not because God in His grace has led us to a good fellowship. That is not what draws us to the Lord.
Only He can draw us to Himself. It is a Person.
As you read the book, one thing strikes you. I was discussing this with Bill this morning—an amazing thing.
If I did not know—I speak as a fool—if I just read the book, I would say, “I know who wrote that: the bride.” It looks like she wrote it. She is talking about her experiences: “I was in the bed. I was looking for Him. I went here. I asked them, ‘Help me.’” It is all her testimony.
It looks like the thing was written by the bride. But remember, the bride did not write this book. The groom wrote the book. Solomon wrote the book—King Solomon.
This is not a book saying, “Look how I saw Him and what I found.” This is a book on, “Look how I drew her.” He wrote the book, and it is about how, in His relationship, He drew her into these intimate experiences with Him.
This is easier understood on heavenly ground. I say that my heavenly Groom has drawn me. I sing the song, but He wrote the song.
But as I said, it is a love story of two worlds. Do you realize, you married men especially, the awesome responsibility God has given you as you reflect Him in your union with your wife?
Brothers, you are writing her song. Your relationship with her is going to be the song that she will sing.
May God help us to be like Jesus as we write the song our wives will have to sing. It is a love story on both levels.
He draws her and continually draws her, as we are to continually draw our own life partners.
Let’s begin. God help us, please.
Once again, we are going to look at it in terms of the outline: Song of Solomon 1:2 through 3:5. I suggest that the key word, or a main word, in this section is revelation.
When I start where the bride started—when in my life I begin where the book of Song begins—with the prayer that He would draw me into union with Himself, having already seen the vanity of this world, having already embraced Christ, and now desiring that I would just know Him and His love: “Draw me into that union, Lord.”
From that moment, here is where it begins: He begins to open our eyes.
This first stage is marked in every place by revelation. Every experience, every turn in this discovery of Him, He is answering her prayer: “Kiss me with the kisses of Your lips.” Every time He kisses her, her eyes open wider and wider and wider. Every kiss is a new revelation.
She sees things that she has seen for the first time. Once you start seeking the Lord, He opens your eyes. You desire Him, and He begins to kiss you, and you see things.
Now, in stage one, I do not want to blame the bride and just say, “Now this is all just theory and doctrine.” But in a sense, she is seeing so much in stage one, and clearly—I think I can show you that—she is not entering in. But she sees it.
If you were to sit down with the bride and say, “Let’s discuss,” she has a lot of light. By the time we are at the end of stage one, she could tell you some wonderful things. Then you look at her life, and you scratch your head and say, “You know so much. You have not entered into that yet.”
And so, we want to look a little bit at what happens when He kisses her.
Now, I do not want you to think that stage one—Song of Solomon 1:2 through 3:5—is all of a sudden, boom: “Now I am going to mention ten things. Her eyes get opened, and she sees this, and this, and this, and this.”
I am not going to try to develop it all. I am just going to sort of go through it as the book does. But I do not want you to think this happens all at once.
Do not forget: this was written after the fact. She is looking back—or the groom has now written this song: this is how she went. From revelation one, where her eyes were opened and she saw this, to revelation two, when she saw this, there might be a lot of time in there.
In fact, as I went through this, I was very convicted, because there are some things that she saw in stage one—I have known the Lord for forty-six years, and I am just starting to see some of the things she saw in stage one.
God is writing a Bible, and He gives us this climax of redemption. In seed form, He gives the whole story. But it did not happen like that—little by little, as He can draw me.
“I will run after You. Kiss me with the kisses of Your mouth.” He kisses her, and her eyes open wide. So, let’s look at some of those revelations.
The first revelation is in verse 4. By the way, I also think they are in the order that they occur in your life. We are going to mention ten things, or whatever. Maybe some have more or less, putting them together or spreading them out. I think they happen this way. I think this is God’s order. Well, you decide that.
Song of Solomon 1:4:
Draw me; we will run after Thee:
The King hath brought me into His chambers.
You say, “There is a love story. He is the heavenly Bridegroom. He loves me. He is in love with me. My desire is that He would bring me into that union, so I would know that love.”
But it does not start there. By the time you get to the end of the book, He is Lover. But at the beginning of the book, He must first be Lord. First Lord, then Lover.
So she sees Him as King. That is her first revelation: “The King hath brought me into His chambers.” That is the first kiss. Her eyes are opened, and all of a sudden, He is the King.
I think many Christians have tried to know the Lord as a Lover, and they have not known Him as Lord yet. They have not been into the King’s chambers. It has got to begin there.
Until we know Him as King, and Sovereign, and Lord, and Master, we cannot go forward.
Are you glad, brothers, that He drew you—not forced you, drew you—into the King’s chambers? Do you remember singing that song, when you desired Him and He kissed you, and in love you saw who He was? That is where it all begins.
The King has brought me into His chambers, and then she adds, “We will rejoice in Thee and be glad in Thee.”
We sort of read that, “La, la, la, we will rejoice in You.” The Hebrew word is so tremendous. It means to spin around under violent emotion and dance with pure delight. That is the Hebrew word.
She saw Him as King. She saw herself in His chambers, and she began to spin around in violent emotion and dance with pure delight.
When the Lord unveils His royalty to our heart, when we discover He is not who we thought He was, but He is who He said He was—King of kings and Lord of lords—that is the first revelation. Drawn, she sees Him as Lord.
There is another discovery in that first stage. Again, she just saw that she is in the King’s chambers. But, as you will see as you go through the story, she has not quite experienced that yet. Now she could discuss it with you: “You need to know Him as Lord. God said it. That is settled.”
Second discovery: she not only sees Him. Song of Solomon 1:5-6:
I am black, but comely,
O ye daughters of Jerusalem,
As the tents of Kedar,
As the curtains of Solomon.
Look not upon me, because I am black.
It is His great love that He does not let us go on being deceived. First He shows us who He is. You know where we are going. Then He shows us who we are.
She began to see herself—the tents of Kedar. We are told they were made of black goat hair.
One thing I noted: this first stage of love is filled—and you will see it as you go through this first section—with self-depreciating remarks by the bride about herself.
Once she sees herself, she keeps cutting herself down. She is contrasting her own experience with what she thinks a queen ought to be, and she does not think she fits the bill.
In these early stages, she keeps trying to make herself attractive so she can impress the groom. It is all about the jewelry and the fragrances. She keeps trying to make herself beautiful because she has seen herself, and she feels ugly.
She feels unworthy to be united to the King, and He has brought her into His chambers. You see, queens do not have dirty hands. Queens are bathed in milk. Queens have servants all around them. Queens live a life of luxury and ease.
She knows who she is and where she has been. She has worked long hours in the vineyard. She is brown from exposure to the sun. She does not feel like queen material.
Her back is hunched. Her hands are calloused. Her skin is charred. She does not feel soft like a queen ought to feel soft.
When you read of this stage, she sees who He is, and then she sees who she is. She begins to cut herself down: “Who am I? I am nobody. Why did He choose me?”
For example, Song of Solomon 2:1:
I am the rose of Sharon,
And the lily of the valleys.
Now, I know many people apply this as the words of the groom: He is the Rose of Sharon. I do not know if you are familiar with that chorus:
Sweet Rose of Sharon, blooming for me,
Jesus, the emblem of Thee;
Beautiful Flower, fairest that grows,
I’m glad I have found Thee, sweet Sharon’s Rose.
There are many choruses that say Christ is the Rose of Sharon: “Jesus, Rose of Sharon, bloom within my heart,” and so on. But as I read this, I am not sure it is a reference to the groom.
I incline to think it is the bride speaking of herself in depreciating terms. Commentators tell us that the rose of Sharon was not a very beautiful rose in the family of roses—sort of plain among the roses, just a rambling rose, a desert flower.
It would be like me saying, “I am just the daisy—just the dandelion.”
Then the groom speaks in verse 2:
As a lily among thorns,
So is my love among the daughters.
She said, “I am just the rose of Sharon.” He said, “No, no, no. You are like a lily among the thorns.”
The point is this: the bride has seen herself. Now, at this stage, I do not want to use the word, but I have to: I think it is just doctrine. I think she has her eyes open, but it is all up here.
She sees both sides. She sees herself out of Christ: “I am not worthy. I am ugly. I am not queen material. I am nobody. I am just a little rose of Sharon.”
“Oh yes, I know I am in Christ, and I have been accepted in Him, and I have His imputed righteousness.” You know, in verse 5 she said, “I am black,” and then she adds, “but comely.”
“I am like the tents of Kedar.” Then she quickly adds, “I am like the curtains of Solomon.” She sees both sides here, but her emphasis is on the dark side. She sees darkness as her environment. That is her tent. That is where she is living at this point, but she has seen both.
First we see Him:
I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.
Then I said:
Woe is me! for I am undone.
Isaiah, when he saw the Lord, saw himself as a leper in a leper colony—unclean lips among an unclean people.
So, the first step: “Draw me, and I will run after You.” He begins to kiss her. He kisses her once; her eyes are opened: “He is the King. He has brought me into His chambers.”
He kisses her again, and she says, “Oh, look at me. I am just like the tents of Kedar. Oh yes, I know, I am like the curtains of Solomon too. I am dark—oh yes, but I am lovely.” She sees both, but she is emphasizing the one.
He kisses her again. The third eye-opener is the revelation of how badly she had been burned by all her activity in the vineyards.
Do you remember, brothers, when you started seeking the Lord and you saw how badly you had been burned by all the activity of working in all the vineyards?
Song of Solomon 1:6:
The sun hath scorched me.
My mother’s sons were incensed against me;
They made me keeper of the vineyards;
But mine own vineyard have I not kept.
Look at verse 7:
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?
I told you in the introduction lesson that there are many believers—the church is in this book. It is more than the bride and the Bridegroom, but it is about the bride and the Bridegroom.
In Song of Solomon 1:6, they are called “my mother’s sons.” In verse 7, they are called “the companions of the groom.”
Who are the groom’s companions? Who are her mother’s sons? Her mother’s sons would be her brothers. It is family. It is family. They are related to the groom. They are the groom’s companions.
If you read it carefully, verse 7, there are those who are family, and they have flocks, but they are not His flock. They are their flocks—the flocks of men.
She has been in the flocks of the companions. These are brothers. This is family. This is not enemies. These are family. Yet these brothers have been speaking with authority: “Get out and work. Get active. Get busy.”
She has been working in the vineyards—in everybody else’s vineyards. She has neglected her own. They have not understood union.
It is almost shocking when He kisses you and your eyes are opened to this. It is almost shocking when you begin to see that the place where I have been pasturing is so dry.
The encouragement I have been getting from my brothers has been to get out and work, and work, and work in everybody’s vineyard. I have been laboring under the sun. I have been so burned by it.
All of a sudden, something happens that she had not noticed in a long time. She cries out in verse 7: “I am hungry.”
She was so busy working, she did not even know she was hungry. “I am tired.” She was so active in everybody’s vineyard, she did not even know she needed rest.
So she says, “Tell me, O Thou whom my soul loveth, where Thou feedest Thy flock. I am so tired of being in the wrong flock. Where do You feed Your flock? Where do You make Your people lie down at noon?”
“I am so hungry. I am so tired. I have been in the flocks of the companions so long, and under the authority of the brothers so long. I wonder, is there another flock? Is there Your flock, where You feed, where I could find refreshment and rest?”
Quite a revelation. A shocking revelation. When God kisses you, and you say, “He is the King.” When God kisses you again, you say, “Who am I?” When God kisses you again, you say, “You know, I have really been so burned feeding in this desert place.”
If I am serious about going forward in union with the Lord, I think that has to happen. That is the order. I think He kisses us, and our eyes begin to open, and we see these things.
Let me mention the fourth revelation. “Draw me, and we will run after You. Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth.”
The first kiss, and she sees who He is. The next kiss, she sees who she is. The next kiss, she looks back and sees, “I have been doing it all wrong. I have been in the wrong place. I am so hungry. I am so tired. I need food. I need rest. I am not finding it here.”
She is not only shown the futility of all that vineyard service apart from union with Him, but now her eyes are opened to the true fold, to the real pasture, the true sheepfold.
Now for the first time, she becomes flock-conscious. Very important revelation. She had tried man’s flock, and it made her so hungry and so tired. Now her heart cries out, “Where is the true flock?”
Verse 8, He answers:
If thou know not, O thou fairest among women,
Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock,
And feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents.
The King James says, “Go forth by the footsteps of the flock. Feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents.”
“You mean there is another pasture? You mean there is another fold? And there are shepherds—not companions, but undershepherds that are true shepherds? A flock that is God’s flock, not man’s flock?”
You know, I told you that the book is really me and Jesus, you and Jesus. Though it is just me and Jesus, you and Jesus, I need this revelation: it is also us. It is the flock. It is the body.
In the day of revelation, God will open your eyes to see His flock, His fold, and His undershepherds—the place where you can find real food and where you can find refreshing rest.
You say, “I am so tired of the companions’ fold. I am tired of being burned out by vineyard activity. I am tired of being hungry. I am tired of not having rest. Where do I go?”
His answer is so beautiful. He said, “My sheep leave footprints. Follow them.”
Find someone who has learned to eat and learned to rest. They leave footprints. Follow them. There is a path. If you follow the path of those sheep, you will end up in the Shepherd’s fold.
Brothers, praise God for the pioneers—men and women of God who were ahead of their generation, who were drawn out of the barren wilderness of the companions’ fold, who found their way to the true fold, to the Shepherd. Follow their footprints.
You say, “Well, who are they?” Well, you know who they are. You know who has been satisfied, who is resting, and who is united in fellowship with the Lord.
Some of them are alive and live among us. Follow their prints. Some of them have gone on, but they have left prints. In fact, they have left prints in print. Read their books.
There are those who have found their way. Follow the prints of those, and you will find His flock.
The bride was not only told to follow the sheep, but verse 8 says, “Make sure, as you follow them, that you bring the kids along. Bring your goats. Do not go by yourself.”
Once you start to follow the prints of those who have found their way to the Shepherd, you will be making prints of your own, and others will be following your prints as you go.
God opened her eyes to the wonderful, true flock of God—those who were being cared for by godly undershepherds, where there was food and where she could find her rest.
I must see Him as King. I must see who I am in and out of Christ. I must see how burned I have become with all of the vineyard activity under the authority of man in the companions’ fold.
I must have my eyes opened to see that there is a true fellowship of believers. God will guide me to the true flock as I follow the fat sheep—those who have tasted, those who have gone before.
Let me give one more revelation, and then we will pick up the others tonight. Maybe we will never get out of stage one.
Song of Solomon 2:8. Again, I want you to see: you would think that all of this has now taken place in her life. It has not. She just has it by revelation. She will sit down and discuss it with you. She has all the words. But at this point, it is not in her life.
What I am about to show you has not yet happened. She has just seen the possibility of it.
Song of Solomon 2:8-14:
The voice of my beloved! behold, He cometh,
Leaping upon the mountains,
Skipping upon the hills.
My beloved is like a roe or a young hart:
Behold, He standeth behind our wall;
He looketh in at the windows;
He showeth Himself through the lattice.My beloved spake, and said unto me,
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land;
The fig tree ripeneth her green figs,
And the vines are in blossom;
They give forth their fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock,
In the covert of the steep place,
Let me see thy countenance,
Let me hear thy voice;
For sweet is thy voice,
And thy countenance is comely.
What is the fifth revelation?
He kisses her, and she sees Him. He kisses her again, and she sees herself. He kisses her again, and she sees the futility and vanity of a system of work. He kisses her again, and she sees His flock, His pasture, His shepherds. Blessed revelation.
He kisses her again, and she sees a tremendous freedom—a liberty—that He is offering to her, a freedom that she had never known until He kissed her eyes open.
If you ever had a picture of the Lord in His freedom, you have it here in verses 8 and 9: climbing on the mountains, leaping on the hills, like a gazelle, a young stag.
I do not know what picture that conjures up in your mind, but it is so graphic to me. The groom is as free as free can be. He is leaping over the mountains like a stag. He is just frolicking and gamboling and skipping and hopping. It is the groom.
From His point of view, there are no mountains between Him and her. He just gallops over the mountains as if they were not there, right into her life.
Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.
With shoutings of “Grace, grace,” He is free, and He comes running, springing over hill and dale, over the mountains. There is no problem to Him in leaping over the highest mountain. He shows that He is coming in triumph.
So He comes leaping. She is looking, and she sees Him. Here He comes leaping. When He arrives, where is she?
Song of Solomon 2:9:
Behold, He standeth behind our wall;
He looketh in at the windows;
He showeth Himself through the lattice.
What a picture. There He is, all free and running like a gazelle, and she is behind the wall of her own building. She is looking out through a lattice fence.
You know what a distorted view you are going to get of somebody as you stare through a lattice. Did you ever try fellowship with somebody who is standing on the other side of the wall? Did you ever try to call to somebody through a closed window? Did you ever try to gaze at somebody through a lattice fence?
She, at this point, has this lattice vision of the Lord—distorted, uncertain, vague. She is looking through this, and she sees Him. He is out there running, having a great time.
So she does what anyone would do when you see a glorious groom like that: you want to invite Him into your box.
“Come on in, Lord. I have been waiting for You.”
But He will not come into your little box. Instead, He makes a proposal to her. Verse 10:
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
It is time to get out of that little box.
He invites the bride to leave her winter conditions and to run free with Him in the glory of the spring—to dance with Him on the mountains, run away, and see Him with an unobstructed view.
This is an amazing revelation: God has not meant for us to be in this little confined enclosure. He wants to set us free and let us out to run with Him.
I remember those early days before God began to kiss my eyes open. I had Him charted out. I had squeezed Him into my little system of theology.
I had studied the great creedal statements and made sure that God fit in all these creedal statements. I knew what I believed dogmatically, why I was right, and why everybody else was wrong.
I knew all that, but I was not enjoying Him. I did not know Him.
Somehow, you feel safe inside your little box, inside your little enclosure.
As she looked through that lattice, the world where He was seemed so radical, so reckless, so large. Part of your heart is saying, “Wow, I would love to be out there and run free with Him.”
Another part says, “I am not sure I am supposed to do that. That does not sound evangelical. That does not sound so orthodox.”
So we squint through the lattice and we look. What does He do? He winks through the window. He stands out there, so free. He says, “Rise, my darling. Come along.” Then He gallops away, and she stays in the box.
But her eyes have been opened, and she has seen the possibility. She has not entered it yet, but she has seen the possibility of a freedom: that He can take me out of this lattice look, out of this little enclosure, out of this narrow, constricted view.
He is beginning to answer her prayer: “Kiss me with the kisses of Your mouth. Draw me, and we will run after You.”
He kisses, and her eyes are opened. He kisses her, and she sees herself. He kisses her, and she sees the futility of the system of work. He kisses her again, and she sees the true flock—those who are being fed and nurtured by God’s undershepherds.
He kisses her again, and she sees that there is a liberty possible if I would run with Him.
Because He is gracious, He comes galloping back, gets off His horse, starts walking down the street, and she gets all excited. She goes out and grabs Him.
We will close with this. Song of Solomon 3:4. This is how the section ends:
Scarcely had I passed from them,
When I found Him whom my soul loveth:
I held Him, and would not let Him go.
The bride is clinging to the groom. You say, “That is good. Finally, she has learned to cling.” No, that is not good—not the end of the book.
She is not clinging at the end of the book. At the end of the book, she is leaning on her Beloved, coming up out of the wilderness. Leaning is better than clinging.
But now she is clinging. You know why she is clinging? Because that is stage one. That is her interest in Him.
Our relation, our union, depends on my grip on Him. She is clinging because she thinks, “If I let go, He is gone.”
She does not understand His love yet. She is starting to see. He is beginning to open her eyes. She is going to have to enter into all this revelation. But first He lets her see it—one thing after another.
We have not even hardly touched it. There are other things that God is going to open her eyes to, and she sees for the first time: “I see that He is Lord. I see who I am. I see that works are not going to make it. I see the true church. I see God’s real shepherds. Then I can be fed there. I begin to see the freedom that is available.”
As He draws her, first you must see, and then He will draw you so that you enter in.
Let’s bow.
Father, we thank You for this marvelous song. It is our song, but You have written it. You have written this song, and we have sung it already. We have begun to see these things, and how thankful we are that You draw us to Yourself.
Help us, as we continue to meditate on this precious book, that we might truly not only see what the bride has seen, but then continue to follow all the way—press on to know the Lord and all the intimacies of the marriage union.
Will You work this in our hearts? We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.