A Journey of Love: Insights from Song of Solomon
Today we’re going on a journey of love by looking at some powerful truths regarding our relationship with Jesus discovered in Song of Solomon chapters 5 and 6.
There are so many beautiful revelations within the book of Song of Solomon. This book not only speaks of the love between king Solomon and the Shulamite woman but provides a picture of the love between Christ and His Bride, those within the Church who are committed to Him.
Chapters 5 and 6 show us the process of our relationship with the Lord, from the beginning of our walk with Him all the way to a mature love for Him.
Love’s First Awakening
The beginning of chapter 5 is like the beginning of our relationship with Jesus.
Song of Solomon 5:2 shows the Lord knocking at the door of our heart.
I sleep, but my heart is awake;
It is the voice of my beloved!
He knocks…
The Process of Surrender
In the next verse, the bride essentially complains that the Beloved has come at an inconvenient time, because she’s already gotten comfortable and settled in for the night.
However, His coming still stirred her heart enough to respond.
Song of Solomon 5:3:
My beloved put his hand
By the latch of the door,
And my heart yearned for him.
This is a picture of the beginning of our relationship with Jesus. He patiently and gently knocks on our heart’s door. Although we make the choice to respond out of the beginning stages of our love for Him, we may also still be attached to other worldly desires. It’s like we only want to have just enough of the Lord which is convenient for us.
We still value comfort and haven’t yet gotten to that place of sacrifice out of love for Him. So, He continues to woo us deeper into our relationship with Him.
Eventually, we make the decision to surrender lesser loves and take a step toward knowing Him deeper, even though it costs us something.
Song of Solomon 5:5 says,
I arose to open for my beloved,
And my hands dripped with myrrh,
My fingers with liquid myrrh,
On the handles of the lock.
The myrrh here represents the suffering and sacrifice of our fleshly desires. The Hebrew root word of myrrh means “bitter.” Myrrh is also part of the sweet fragrance of Jesus (Psalm 45:8).
The Silence that Leads to Seeking
However, as soon as we make the step of faith to surrender what keeps us from Him, it appears that this is all for nothing.
Song of Solomon 5:6 says,
I opened for my beloved,
But my beloved had turned away and was gone…
She then goes into deeper seeking and searching for Him, but He is nowhere to be found.
I sought him, but I could not find him;
I called him, but he gave me no answer.
And it only seems to be getting worse:
The watchmen who went about the city found me.
They struck me, they wounded me;
The keepers of the walls
Took my veil away from me.
Have you ever felt like the Lord is silent and nowhere to be found? Does it seem like your efforts toward Him are in vain?
I know I’ve felt this way before. But the good news is this isn’t the end of the story. This is part of the journey of knowing Him.
Sometimes He has to back away for us to develop a deeper hunger for Him. Sometimes He has to give us time for all our lesser loves to fade away.
The key is how we respond to His silence. What will we do during this time? Great rewards are in store if we don’t give up and run back to the world.
In verse 8, the bride makes the right choice in her attitude towards the Beloved. Instead of becoming bitter about His absence, she says she is “lovesick” and asks her friends to find Him for her:
I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
If you find my beloved,
That you tell him I am lovesick!
The bride’s companions (the daughters of Jerusalem) scoff at her by asking why He’s so different from everyone else. It’s as if they have an indifferent attitude and don’t want to be bothered.
In Song of Solomon 5:9, they ask her,
What is your beloved
More than another beloved,
O fairest among women?
What is your beloved
More than another beloved,
That you so charge us?
She wastes no time answering their question.
For the next 7 verses, she answers their nagging question by describing how beautiful and different her Beloved is from anyone else. She really is a lovesick bride who won’t stop talking about her one true love.
The Assignment of His Bride
Chapter 6 opens with the daughters of Jerusalem replying to the bride’s long description of the Beloved:
Song of Solomon 6:1 says,
Where has your beloved gone,
O fairest among women?
Where has your beloved turned aside,
That we may seek him with you?
Her description so captivated them that their attitude completely changed. They want to know Him too.
May we follow the example of the bride by drawing others to come and seek the Lord with us. Let’s not just keep our testimony to ourselves, but be an evangelist to others.
In chapter 6 verse 2, the bride finally finds her Beloved. It’s interesting to me that although she originally didn’t know where He went in chapter 5 and suffered because of it, she suddenly has a revelation of where He is after she stops thinking about herself.
She says,
My beloved has gone to his garden,
To the beds of spices,
To feed his flock in the gardens,
And to gather lilies.
I believe feeding in the gardens speaks of Jesus shepherding His people, and gathering lilies speaks of saving souls.
(In chapter 2 verse 2, the Beloved calls the bride a “lily among thorns,” (therefore, lilies represent people.) Gathering lilies means bringing more people into the Kingdom of God.
This shows the Lord’s heart for His Bride to be concerned with both intimacy with Him and evangelism, and to not exchange one for the other.
The Mature Love
After all the seeking, searching and heartache of the bride, she discovers it’s all been worth it.
She makes a beautiful statement in Song of Solomon 6:3.
I am my beloved’s,
And my beloved is mine…
The Beloved then replies with many verses of praise for her. My personal favorite is verse 5 where He says,
Turn your eyes away from me,
For they have overcome me.
The bride has shown her true devotion and dedication to Him despite her sufferings and His seeming absence. She also took it a step further by leading others to Him even in her time of need.
May we exemplify a selfless attitude toward the Lord. May our single-eyed devotion so captivate and overcome Him. He is seeking our love.