23. Communion with the Well-Beloved…………………. 93
CONTENTS
Chapter Page 1. The Song of Songs………………………………………….. 5 2. The Soul's Self-Knowledge………………………………. 10 3. The King's Voice…………………………………………….. 13 4. The Banqueting House……………………………………. 17 5. The Call of the Risen Christ……………………………… 21 6. The Clefts of the Rock……………………………………… 24 7. The Valley of Trouble………………………………………. 27 8. The Power of His Resurrection…………………………. 30 9. The Heavenly Life……………………………………………. 27 1o. The Resurrection Side of the Cross……………………. 41 11. The Blessings in the Heavenlies………………………… 44 12. The Fellowship of Christ………………………………….. 48 13. The Shrinking Soul's Reply………………………………. 52 14. The Trial of Faith…………………………………………….. 56 15. The Faithful Soul…………………………………………….. 60 16. The Hidden Life………………………………………………. 65 17. The Shulamite…………………………………………………. 69 18. The Soul's Failure in Abiding…………………………. 73 19. The Soul Equipped for Service…………………………… 76 20. God's Fellow-Worker……………………………………….. 82 21. The Soul "Out of Touch"……………………………………. 86 22. Leaning on the Beloved………………………………….. 90 23. Communion with the Well-Beloved…………………. 93
Chapter 1
"Ye are My friends, if ye do the things which I command you" (John 15:14).
THE SONG OF SONGS
"The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's"(1:1)
Solomon prefigured the crowned Conqueror of Calvary, the risen and ascended Jesus, when He had by Himself purged our sins and "sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3). It is important to remember that He is now the Glorified One, that He has completed His work of redemption, that He has sat down a triumphant Conqueror, that He is now a waiting, expectant Lord – this one who gave His life to redeem out of the earth, from among fallen sinners, a Bride to share His Throne, lifting up a "beggar from the dunghill" to "inherit the throne of glory" (1 Samuel 2:8). It is essentially the song "which is Solomon's," because it is the Song of the Heavenly Bridegroom over each soul who is a member of His purchased Bride; and it is a song shared in by the purchased one, because it is His song in her, as she is brought into heart union with her Lord – for all in her is of Him through the Holy Spirit. The song of the Bridegroom finds an echo in every bridal soul. "No man could learn the song" save they that had been "purchased out of the earth" (Revelation 14:3). It is a song to be sung through eternity. In the Song of Songs we have unveiled to us the heart history of the redeemed one who is led on to know the Lord. Veiled in language to be understood alone by the teaching of the Eternal Spirit, we see how the Heavenly Bridegroom woos the soul for whom He died, leads it on from one degree of union to another, draws it with the cords of His love to forsake itself and its own life, and then causes it to know in real experience one life with Him "who was declared to be the Son of God with power…by the resurrection of the dead" (Romans 1:4). In the first chapters of the Song the Bridegroom simply calls His purchased one His friend (1:9, 15) His "companion," or, as it is in the text, His "love." He describes her as the "fairest among women' (1:8), calls her His dove because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in her, but not yet His bride. This marks the earliest stage of the surrendered life; for friendship with Christ means obedience to His will and loyalty to His interests – an intercourse very precious, but far removed from the union that He desires. "Ye are My friends, if ye do…." (John 15:14). These words speak of a stage of fellowship beyond that of a servant, but far short of that of a bride.
The Soul's Cry After God
"Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth" (1:2) The Soul is already a purchased one; she has heard the Savior say, "Thou art Mine." She has answered, "I am Thine," and has found peace through the blood of the cross. It may be that she has remained at this point many years, knowing nothing of her Redeemer as the Bridegroom of her soul. But the heavenly vision has come! Somehow, somewhere, by the grace of God, she has had the revelation of a life of union with Christ that stirs her heart to intense desire. By the inworking of the Divine Spirit, she is moved to ask for the fullest knowledge of her God that is possible. "Let Him kiss me!" she cries. She has known the Father's kiss of reconciliation when she fled to His feet as a prodigal child. But this is more. This is the cry of the soul for the most intimate communion and fellowship with the Father and the Son that is conceivable. It is the cry of the bride-spirit, drawn forth by God Himself, "for whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son" (Romans 8:29), "even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love" (Ephesians 1:4). The soul must always have a heavenly vision to draw it out of itself and away from the things of earth. The "eyes of the heart" must be illumined to know the hope of its calling. The clearer the vision, the more entire the dependence upon the Holy Spirit for its fulfillment and the more intense the thirst after God – a "furnace of intense desire" which must be created by the Eternal Spirit Himself, and which is the supreme condition for knowing God.
The Soul's Vision
"Thy love is better than wine" (1:2) We shall prove ourselves to be little worthy of the heavenly calling if we think alone of what we "give up." "Thy love is better," exclaims this soul in the Song of Songs. We lose only the dross when we exchange the earthly treasures for the heavenly ones. All that is of earth lasts but for a moment, but God satisfies forever.
The Soul's Choice
"Thy Name is as ointment poured forth; therefore do the virgins1 love Thee.
Draw me; we will run after Thee" (1:3-4).
1 Almah, the Hebrew word translated "virgin" here, is derived from the root word awlam, meaning "to veil from sight." In that sense, virgins are "hidden ones" – as spoken of throughout this book.
It is the "Name," as representing the Person of the Lord, which always attracts the soul – for our hearts need a Person. "Thy Name is as ointment poured forth; therefore do the virgins love Thee." The young ones have been won by Him, and they love Him at first for all the joy He gives them; they love the Giver for His gifts. But the soul who has had the heavenly vision cries, "Draw me, we will run after Thee." "That I may know Him" is the cry awakened by the Divine Spirit. Moreover, as the purchased one follows on to know the Lord, these "virgins" will be drawn too. Unless we press on to full growth in the spiritual life, we stand in the way of others; but we unconsciously exercise an attractive force towards God if we seek to know Him more fully and to walk with Him. The surrendered soul knows, too, that the work is His, and that He, by His Spirit, must draw her out of herself into Him as her abiding place. "We will run after Thee," she says. Her part is in the will alone; she can but abandon herself to the skillfulness of His hands and respond to His drawing.
The King's Chambers
"Draw me; we will run after Thee. The King hath brought me into
His chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in Thee; we will make mention of Thy love…In uprightness do they love Thee" (1:4). The soul has no sooner been brought to a deliberate choice of God alone than she exclaims, "The King hath brought me into His chambers." Not the "banqueting house," be it noted, but "chambers" – where she will be prepared for fuller knowledge of her Lord. This, in the experience of the purchased one, may be the revelation of the Comforter – the Holy Spirit of promise. He has already imparted to her the gift of eternal life, and all her desires after God are inbreathed by Him, but she has never recognized Him as a Person – as the One given by the Father to take of the things of Jesus and show them unto her. She has therefore been disposed to place too much importance upon her consecration, or faith, rather than upon Him and His inworking. She has therefore not had the comfort of knowing Him to be dwelling in her as a personal Teacher, charged by the Father and the Son to lead her into all the fulness of God. "The King hath brought me in…We will be glad…; we will make mention of Thy love!" exclaims the soul. Through the fresh revelation of God to the surrendered one, the young "virgins" learn to rejoice in the Well-Beloved rather than in His gifts, so that they too see His glory and speak of Him. When they converse one with another it will not now always be of "Christian work," but, leaving the work to the day when it will be tested by fire, they speak of His love. This joyous, spontaneous speaking of the person of Christ is only possible when walking with Him in "uprightness," with "a conscience void of offense toward God and man." O Christ, the Anointed One, "rightly do they love Thee."
The Revelations in the King's Chambers
"I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of
Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon" (1:5) The "terrible crystal" (Ezekial 1:22) of the manifested presence of God the Holy Spirit reveals all that is of earth as blackness indeed. "I am black," cries the soul who has been brought into the light of God. Not "black" with deliberate disobedience and sin, for the purchased one, in seeking to know her God, must have put aside all that was knowingly wrong in her life so as to have been brought into the King's chambers. The Spirit of God deals deeply with all who truly say, "We will run after Thee," as He reveals all that is contrary to the mind of God in heart and life. If the soul is obedient at every point, then the moment comes when the light breaks in and in the King's chambers the redeemed one cries, "I am black!" Not now begrimed with the sins that have been put away and cleansed in the precious blood of Christ, but black in herself, in her creature-life, in all her accursed inheritance from the first Adam. Once she only thought of the blackness of sin; now she sees that her comeliness as a creature is corruption (see Daniel 10:8), and her language is "Mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself" (Job 42:5-6).2 When this self-abhorrence is real and deep, the soul has no hesitation in acknowledging it. Many desire the "self-life" to be dealt with in secret and are not willing to be as honest before others as they are before God; but this pride must be broken ere deliverance comes. All "keeping up" of even spiritually religious "appearances" must be surrendered, so that we may be brought into a life of transparent reality before God and man. "I am black, but comely, O ye daughters," cries the purchased one. "Black in myself as the rough, unsightly tents of Kedar, but comely as the beautiful curtains of Solomon." She turns to the finished work of her Redeemer, knowing that she
2 "Is the soul to cease from active service when this revelation comes?" will be the question of many hearts. Unless under very definite guidance to the contrary, experience says no, for the past can be dealt with at the place called Calvary; and in dependence upon the immediate inflow of the life of Jesus, by "faith in the working of God" (Colossians 2:12), the soul can have power to carry on its service from duty, if not with a sense of delight. However deeply God may be dealing with us, we may always rely upon His energizing power for all that lies in the path of duty if we cast ourselves upon Him. To shrink back because we have lost our "creaturely" delight in service would be giving occasion to the flesh, and yielding to self-pity. That God is dealing with us and revealing our true condition can never be a sufficient reason for refusing to help the souls who come to us in their need. Moreover, if we are conscious that we are involved in responsibilities laid upon us by others, and not by Him, we must commit each difficulty to Him, and in His own time and way He will set us free. He may for the moment use our bonds as the very means for the practical crucifixion of our own life and plans.
is "accepted in the Beloved," and covered with His comeliness in the eyes of a Holy God.
One with Him, O Lord, before Thee,
There I live, and yet not I; Christ it is who there adores Thee; Who more dear, or who more nigh?
All the Father's heart mine own –
Mine – and yet His Son's alone.
W.R.
Chapter 2
"If any man cometh unto Me, and hateth not…his own
life…, he cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:26).
THE SOUL'S SELF-KNOWLEDGE
"Look not upon me…because 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" (1:6)
The purchased one has been an active worker, a "keeper of vineyards," appointed by others. In the light of God she discovers this, as well as the fruitlessness of work that is the outcome of "creaturely activity." She has thought more of service than of conformity to the image of Christ. Like Martha, she has been "distracted about much serving" (Luke 10:40), and in caring for the needs of others, she has failed to sit at His feet to hear His word. The soul now begins to feel the pain of being misunderstood and misjudged by other children of God. They had thought her a most consecrated worker, and cannot understand her bitter self-reproach and her cry that she is "black." Did she not walk in victory? Was she not used of God? Then what does this sudden exclamation mean? They did not know how she had suffered in secret under the increasing conviction of utter failure. They had not seen what was passing between her and her God. It was true that she had laid aside every weight and had walked in victory up to the light she had, but now – all that she had thought beautiful looked black, and all her "consecrated" activity nought but a hideous, loathsome self. "Look not upon me," she cries, "because the sun hath scorched me!" "God is a Sun, a consuming fire – He has scorched me with His terrible holiness: woe is me, for I am undone; I have seen the King" (Isaiah 6:5). The soul is so conscious of what she is in herself that she feels as if she had been laid bare to every human eye, as well as to the eye of God, and all praise or esteem from those around her becomes painful. All desire to be "looked up to," or honored, passes away. She only craves a deeper abasement so that her Lord alone may be seen.
The Soul's Cry to the Well-Beloved
"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 wandereth?" (1:7).
She turns away from the misjudgments of other Christians and the bitter selfknowledge that has broken in upon her and turns to the Beloved of her soul. He at least will understand. He knows how her heart's cry is after Himself, that she has chosen to count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus her Lord. He knows how she loathes herself, and how she rests as never before upon His righteousness as her only merit before the throne of God. He knows, He loves, He cares! She turns to him with the cry of her whole being. "Tell me," she exclaims, "tell me, where Thou makest Thy flock to rest at noon!" The beginning of the new life is likened to daybreak, and its maturity to the noontide, free from all mists and shadows. "The path of the righteous is as the light of dawn, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Proverbs 4:18). "Thy life shall arise above the noonday; though there be darkness, it shall be as the morning"(Job 11:17). It is the purpose of God that each new-born soul should be led on, past the shadows, into the full clear light of life in the Holiest of All; yet how many abide in the twilight and never emerge into that "rest at noon" which pictures the rest in the heart of God in union with the Only Begotten of the Father. "Tell me about that noontide rest," cried the surrendered one, for she fears lest she should lose the vision He has given her. In the midst of all the strife of tongues on the part of those who once made her a keeper of the vineyards, she fears lest she should be turned from her fixity of purpose and become as one tossed to and fro, "one that wandereth" – an aimless soul – beside the flocks of his companions.
The Well-Beloved's Instructions
"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 (1:8). The Well-Beloved immediately responds to the heartcry of the soul with the words, "If thou know not," revealing that, in some measure, she is responsible for her ignorance. Her directions are written in the Book, but her eyes have been restrained from knowing Him as One with the Father and as the door to the Father's heart. He feeds His flock at "noon" within the sanctuary, and did they but know the Great Shepherd of the sheep and the power of the blood of the eternal covenant (Hebrews 13:20), they would go in and out and find pasture from the moment they became His sheep. Although the "rest at noon" describes a maturity of experience, only realized in its fullness as the soul presses on to know its God, yet from the very beginning of the spiritual life the believer is "accepted in the Beloved." Each child of God, at every
stage of growth, may have boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus and is bidden to draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having the heart sprinkled from an evil conscience (Hebrews 10:19, 22), with a certainty of finding grace to help in time of need. The Well-Beloved calls the soul the "fairest among women" in spite of her description of herself as black; for the blacker she is in her own eyes, the fairer she is in His.
"Oh soul, I will show thee the wonder,
The worth of My priceless blood; Thou art whiter than snow on the mountains,
Thou art fair in the eyes of God."
In answer to her desire for instruction, He directs her to go forth in the footsteps of the flock and to continue her work quietly beside the shepherds' tents. When the surrendered one finds that other devoted children of God apparently fail to understand her path, or to comprehend the heavenly vision which draws her on to an obedience to Him they perhaps think unnecessary, there is the danger that she should forsake the "assembling together" (Hebrews 10:25) in the shepherds' tents, or cease to see the necessity of continuing faithful to that which is least in the Master's service, and any special responsibility that has been committed to her hand. In the Holy Spirit's leading of the soul through the stripping of what may be called "consecrated self", and its activity, it is most important that there should be a faithful fulfillment of all outward "duty," that the believer may learn to act on principle rather than on pleasant impulse. Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock," is the Well-Beloved's instruction to His purchased one. Not "shut thyself away with the few who understand thee," but go forth in the path of duty, and leave to the faithful Lord the time and the way in which your petition shall be fulfilled, and you shall know the "rest at noon" in the heart of God. Nevertheless, O soul, as you do go forth with the flock, under the Great Shepherd's tender leading, take heed lest you are more concerned to keep step with the flock than with your Beloved, for you must have your eyes on Him alone, and then He will lead you forth, by the right way, to the city of habitation.
Chapter 3
"He that hath My commandments, and keepeth the, he it
is that Loveth Me;…and I will… manifest Myself unto
him" (John 14:21)
THE KING'S VOICE
"I have compared thee, O My friend, to the steeds in Pharaoh's chariots" (1:9) In answer to her cry, the King Himself speaks to her in words of cheer. She recognizes His voice, even as a babe knows its mother's voice, because the divine life implanted in the blood-bought soul responds intuitively to the voice of its Creator. In this first degree of union with the Lord He seems to speak little and seldom. The "pouring out" is on the side of the one seeking to know Him. He answers her briefly, and encourages her with the renewal of His promises. Unbroken communion with Him is not yet established. Her heart's cry is "My soul followeth hard after Thee" (Psalm 63:8), reminding us of the words of the Lord Jesus, "The Kingdom of heaven is gotten by force" (Matthew 11:12) or, as the original suggests, "Those who have a vehement desire seize upon it." This intense, vehement pressing on to know the Lord3, and the consequent abandonment to the Holy Spirit for His work to be done at any cost, is what the Well-Beloved now beholds in His friend, and what He compares to the swift course and quick obedience of the beautiful steeds harnessed to the royal chariot of Pharaoh. It has been said that it is unnecessary to drive a soul that goes without driving! When once the will is wholly surrendered to God, and the decision made to obey and follow at all costs, the Spirit is able very rapidly to do His work. It is our delay and ceaseless controversy that grieves and hinders the Lord, and ever keeps back the child of God from emerging out of the region of strife into deeper rest.
The King's Promises
3 It is very important that the soul should not lose its rest in seeking to know the Lord. "Thou canst go no faster than a full dependence on God can carry thee" (Wm. Law). The Well-Beloved will lead on safely, if we are but true in aim and quick in obedience to every indication of His will. We must remember at this point the danger of the impetuosity of the creature-life. The Divine Spirit alone can teach true cooperation with His working. We may definitely trust Him not to permit us to lag behind or press beyond His leadings. It is needful that each degree of union should be established before we are led on to the next.
"Thy cheeks are comely with plaits of hair…WE will make thee plaits of gold
with studs of silver" (1:10-11). The Well-Beloved sees much natural comeliness in this seeking soul, much of her own life and strength, with the "plaits of hair" seem to signify – much that might be called beautiful from our earthly point of view. But He promises, by the skillful workmanship of the triune God, that the life of earth shall give place to that divine life of which gold is always a type. "Plaits of gold" imply much fire, for gold is only workable when melted. Nevertheless "We will" do it, says the Well-Beloved. The triune God undertakes the work – a work that can only be done in fallen sinners upon the basis of redemption. The gold shall have studs of silver – silver typifying the redemption of Calvary. The promise of the Bridegroom may also be taken as the promise to His purchased one of the "crown" – "borders of gold with studs of silver" – when the heavenly Bride will reign with Him, for the word "spouse," in Hebrew, means a "crowned one." The surrendered soul, pressing on for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, is promised, on the word of the triune God, that the work shall be done. She shall know the divine life in union with the Glorified One; she shall sit down with Him in His throne and be a partaker of His glory. O longing heart, your God has promised to fulfill all your desire. Rest upon His royal Word in all that is to come. The word of the Lord may try you, as it did His servant Joseph, but it came to pass then, and it shall be fulfilled in you. You have sought to know one life with your Lord. The promise is yours, "WE WILL." "Hath He said, and shall He not do it? Or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?" (Numbers 23:19). You shall say in His time, in deep humility:
"One life alone between us now,
One life – the life Thou livest." The voice of the Lord restores the calm and brings back to the troubled one the knowledge that the King is sitting at His table within her heart. She had become occupied with self-revelation – the immediate result of her entrance into the King's chambers and the consequent misjudgments of her "mother's sons." The strife of tongues had made her fear lest she should mistake the path, and in agony of soul she had turned to Him. Would He tell her what to do; will He let her go astray? Her very helplessness is her safety, for she knows she must depend upon Him is she is to walk upon that path "where fools shall not err" (Isaiah 35:8).
In answer to her cry, the Well-Beloved speaks and comforts her, telling her that he has undertaken the whole matter and reminding her of His presence, so that again she rests upon His faithfulness and retires within, away from all the exterior tumult, to blessed communion with her Lord. "When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? (Job 34:29). In fellowship with Him, her spikenard (the emblem of humility – a grace only possible through His divine indwelling) sends forth its fragrance, and He fulfills His promise: "If any man . . . open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me" (Revelation 3:20). At His table the Well-Beloved opens His heart to His redeemed one, even as He did the night before His crucifixion to the little band who followed Him all the way to Calvary. "These things I said not unto you at the beginning," He stated (John 16:4). The Beloved has much to say to His own which cannot be said "at the beginning." He must first say, "Follow Me," and draw us away from other interests and other possessions, before He can tell us of a path that is "expedient" for us, one leading to fuller knowledge of Himself. In closest communion at the King's table the soul now learns from the lips of the Lord that if she is to know Him fully, she must expect suffering and sacrifice. Hitherto she has only had glimpses of the heavenly vision of Christ in His glory, which led her to cry, "Draw me; we will run after Thee." Now He asks her if she will follow Him even though it may mean the cross – as if He said to her as He did to His disciples, "Are ye able to drink the cup that I drink? Or to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" (Mark 10:38). Will she turn back? It is one thing to respond to the Savior's call; to have the heavenly vision of the glorified Lord; to willingly surrender the gifts for the Giver. But it is quite another to set our faces like a flint to go to Jerusalem after we have seen a little of what the true following of Christ will mean! The decision must be made, and made so definitely that whatever comes we shall never shrink back. The bridge must be burned behind us, so to speak, so that there never can be a question of retreat. The surrendered one sees that the Well-Beloved must first be a Bridegroom of bitterness, a "bundle of myrrh," before she can know Him in His glory. She reveals the true bride-spirit and proves her heavenly calling by asking no better lot than befell her Lord. She comes to follow Him at all costs; she clasps the myrrh to her breast and exclaims: "My Beloved is unto me as a bundle of Myrrh," yea, even as "a cluster of cypress" (1:14). Myrrh, costly and bitter, is obtained only through the knife's incision in the tree! Cypress, the funeral or cemetery tree of the East, is the tree that signifies death!
O soul, what can you say to the King at His table? What can you say to Him with the pierced hands but, "I will not leave Thee" (2Kings 2:6)? "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed" (Psalms 57:7).
Behold, My bride, how fair My mouth, Mine eyes;
My heart is glowing fire, My hand is grace –
And see how swift My foot, and follow Me. For thou with Me shalt scorned and martyred be,
Betrayed by envy, tempted in the wilds.
* * * And love shall wound, and steadfastness shall slay,
Yet thou shalt love Me still. The spear shall pierce thy heart; My life shall be
The life that lives and moves henceforth in thee.
Then, as a conqueror loosened from the cross,
Thou shalt awaken and be borne above
Upon the breath of Mine Almight love.
(Mechthild of Hellfde, 1277)
Chapter 4
"The Master saith, Where is My guestchamber, where I shall eat…with My disciples?" (Mark 14:14).
THE BANQUETING HOUSE
The Whisper of the King
"Behold, thou art fair, My friend;….thine eyes are as doves" (1:15).
The Well-Beloved beholds the Holy Dove, the Eternal Spirit of the Father, through whom He offered Himself unto God and became obedient unto death, "yea, the death of the cross," shining through the eye of the soul whose gaze is turned wholly toward Him in entire abandonment and trust. Through the power of the same Spirit she has been enabled to yield herself wholly to her Lord, and she is becoming single-eyed in her choice of Christ and His cross at all costs. Therefore He exclaims, "Thou art fair, My friend; thou hast dove's eyes."
The Response of the Soul
"Behold, Thou art fair, my Beloved….Our couch is green. The beams of our house are cedars…our rafters are cypresses. I am …a lily of the
valleys" (1:16-17 and 2:1). The soul in true self-effacement returns all the praise to her Beloved, for she knows that she is "fair" only through the indwelling presence of her Lord. By His grace alone has her heart been set to know Him and her will bent to choose to follow Him fully. His people are "willing in the day of [His] power" (Psalm 110:3). It is all of grace. She is getting to know her Well-Beloved better, and ventures to say "our house" and "our rafters"; Thee and me. "All things are yours….and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's" (1 Corinthians 3:21-23). Her reference to the cypress tree shows that she understands now, however dimly, that union with Christ in His life is based upon fellowship with Him in His death, for the cypress grows in the necropolis, the "city of the dead." Death and life are always linked together in the
teaching of the scripture – death to the old accursed life and resurrection to the new is the one underlying principle throughout, whether given in plain or figurative language. "Thou are fair, my Beloved…but I – I am only a lily of the valleys!" Thus the soul responds to her Lord, saying in effect, "I am but a simple little flower, not worthy of Thy notice."
The King's Estimate of His Friend
"As a lily among thorns, so is My friend among the daughters" (2:2). "If you are a simple lily", says the Well-Beloved, "you are to My eyes as a lily among thorns." He sees His own life already growing up in her – with the selfsame features of humility and meekness – while He beholds others are still dwelling in the thorny life of earth. The earth-life can produce nothing less than thorns, "whose end is to be burned" (Hebrews 6:8). His "friend," who is fair to Him, is as a lily in their midst.
The Soul's Estimate of Her Well-Beloved
"As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons. I sat down under His shadow,…His fruit was sweet to my taste" (2:3).
She compares Him to a fruitful tree, and to her great delight finds in Him all she needs. She has been learning to say "our," and to find all things are hers in Christ; now she discovers that He is becoming all in all to her.
Once she said, "I am of Paul," or "I am of Apollos," as she gloried in men; but now she beholds the glory of Him who is the First-begotten from the dead. She is finding Him to be a shadow from the heat, a refuge from the storm, and, satisfied with Him alone, she sits down in perfect rest, finding His fruit sweet to her taste.
The Banqueting House
"He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me
was love" (2:4).
As the Well-Beloved fills her vision and becomes all in all to her, she finds herself brought in by Him to the banqueting house, where in an overpowering revelation of His love He gives her a foretaste of the union which she seeks.
The spiritual manifestation of Christ in the heart is love. It has now pleased God to "reveal His Son" in her (Galatians 1:16). She had already had glimpses of this when she had fellowship with Him at His table, but now she has a revelation of Himself, and sees that wherever He may lead her henceforth, though it be along the way of the cross, it will be under the banner of love.
The soul is not able to bear the full answer to all its desires. It cries to know all that oneness with the Risen Lord means to redeemed sinners, but it does not understand that it needs to be prepared and strengthened to endure it. "Stay me…for I am sick [with] love" (2:5), cries the surrendered one in the banqueting house. The revelation if Christ in His glory makes even an apostle fall at His feet as dead! (Revelation 1:17).
The soul asks for some support, for it all seems too much; but she remembers that He is holding her even while He reveals Himself to her, and she needs no other stay. "Underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deuteronomy 33:37). "His left hand is under my head, and His right hand doth embrace me" (2:6), she exclaims.
The Word of the King for Rest
"I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem…that ye stir not up,
nor awaken love, until it please" (2:7). The soul is now in retirement with her Beloved; she has entered into rest.
These "daughters" may typify other believers, true children of the Jerusalem which is above (Galatians 4:26), or else professors who know nothing of spiritual fellowship with the Lord – those who have a name to live and yet are dead. In either case, they form a group who are deeply concerned about this soul that is following on to know the Lord. They do not know how fully she is in His keeping, for He Himself has become the jealous keeper of His blood-bought one.
He sees the "daughters" ready to intrude. They will seek to "stir up" this soul, when the word of the King is for rest.
Since the hour she said, "Draw me; we will run after Thee," He has tested her surrender and shown her more clearly the conditions of oneness with Him in His life. He has proved that she is steadfastly purposed to follow on to know the Lord. There is now a fixity of will that will enable Him to lead her on through deeper testings, without the delay of reasoning, rebellion or hesitation.
But He will lead on softly. It is needful that she should be allowed some period for repose. "He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust" (Psalm 103:14). Resting upon His faithfulness, in the "assurance of understanding" (Colossians 2:2) that He now dwells in her heart as His settled place of abode, she will be strengthened in His own good time to hear to hear His voice calling her to arise and follow on, so that she may be "filled with all the fullness of God."
The Bridegroom speaks for her to the anxious daughters, solemnly forbidding them to disturb her peace, as if He would say to them,
"The Lord is in His holy temple: be silent before Him, All the earth" (Habakkuk 2:20). "God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved" (Psalm 46:5). "I charge you, O daughters,…that ye stir not up, nor awaken love until she please."
Chapter 5
"Blessed by God…who…begat us again…by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto
an inheritance" (1 Peter 1:3-4).
THE CALL OF THE RISEN CHRIST
"The voice of my Beloved! Behold, He cometh, leaping upon the mountains" (2:8). The soul resting in her Beloved suddenly hears His voice, and recognizes it at once. Not other voice can move her now; others may tell her many things, but nothing pierces the inward ear until He speaks! The Well-Beloved now manifests Himself to His purchased one as the Risen Lord. She sees Him coming toward her, leaping upon the mountains as a gazelle. His title in the margin of Psalm 22 is "the Hind of the morning" – a resurrection type. He seems to approach her as if He were away from her, without and not within her heart, tenderly alluring her into the wilderness to know her God. He has been revealed to her as indwelling in her heart, and we left her reveling in the joy of His presence in a blessed rest that no outward tumult could touch, no voice disturb. Now she needs to be taught a trust in Himself alone, apart from His conscious revelations to her heart. Her faith must rest upon His character and His word, rather than upon His manifestations. She must care more for Him than for His vineyards; she must know that conformity to His likeness is more to Him than service.
The Attitude of the Risen Lord
"My beloved is like a gazelle…Behold, He standeth behind
our wall, He looketh in at the windows, He showeth
Himself [or "glanceth,"] through the lattice" (2:9). The Risen Lord approaches the soul from without, that He may draw her attention from her old experience within. She sees that He is like a gazelle, rapid in movement, and that He is standing, no longer sitting at His table, but as if He were waiting for some response to His voice; "standing," she adds, "behind our wall!" She does not fear to say "our" now; she is growing bolder in her knowledge of Him, and is delighted to think
that He is shut in with her in the banqueting house – in the inner retreat of her heart. She thinks this "wall" is of His planning, but she is mistaken; she does not know that it will hinder the manifestation of Him to others, and that it is part of the old earth-life that has to be dealt with later on. There must come a "breaking down of the walls" (Isaiah 22:5), for there are no "walls" in the heavenly life. The Christ upon the cross of Calvary broke down the middle wall of partition between man and man, as well as between man and God (Ephesians 2:14-16). He died that in Him there might be a new creation, one new man, "perfected into one" (John 17:23). All divisions caused by sin cease in Him. Oh soul, that "wall" that you are calling "our wall" must be broken down, if you are to be one with your Lord in His life of love poured out for others! But the soul in the banqueting house is not thinking of "others"; she is too much absorbed in her days of heaven upon earth. She does not want to look over the "wall" at the broken hearts in this sorrow-stricken world. Like Peter, she would forget the multitude in the glory of the transfiguration mount. Who is there that has known the coming of the Comforter, and the revelation of the Christ within, but will remember the temptation to spiritual self-esteem in those blessed days! There was the danger of looking upon others with something of pity and unconscious judgment – of shrinking from duty for the luxury of retiring within for that inward communion with the Well-Beloved – of such absorption with Him that it was difficult to enter into the interests and affairs, apparently so trifling, of those around us – of incapacity to understand matters of really practical importance, because all outward things seemed only echoes of another world. In the fuller light of the mountain vision, we see the imperfections of those days and understand why our "mother's sons were incensed against" us. They saw the possibility of spiritual selfishness and feared lest the vineyards should suffer. They only failed in trusting the Lord that He who had begun the good work would surely finish it and would lead His redeemed one forth to more Spirit-energized activity in time to come. The soul, rejoicing in the Well-Beloved's presence behind the "wall," fails to notice that His whole attitude expresses movement. He stands, as if ready to depart; He "looks in at the windows" of her soul; He flashes new rays of light; He "glances" through the lattice; He "shows Himself" to allure her to arise and follow – but she is too deeply satisfied with her "banqueting house" experience to understand. Later on, as she learns to know the Lord better, she becomes "quick of scent" in His will and intuitively detects the meaning of His movements; but now she is still too much in the heavy life of earth to understand anything less than plain language. He is obliged to speak plainly, and what is the message?
The Call of the Risen Lord
"My Beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, My friend,
My fair one, and come away…The winter ispast; the rain
Is over….The flowers appear…the time of pruning is
Come….Arise, My friend…and come" (2:10-13) The soul knows His voice, and knows that He speaks to her expressly. His language is plain: "Rise up." What does He mean? He had brought her into rest, had forbidden others to disturb her, and now He says, "Come away!" Where to? The time has come when she must be taught through personal experience her identification with the Lord in His death and her union with Him in His resurrection life, so that He may tell her "plainly of the Father" (John 16:25). "I am the Way,…no one cometh unto the Father but by Me…I go to the Father…Ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you" (John 14:6, 12, 20), He said. He died, the Just for the unjust, that He might "bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). Through the rent veil of His flesh, He – the New and Living Way – seeks to lead us to abide with Him in the Father. The Well-Beloved likens the past period of rest to winter, for inwardly the new life in her was being "rooted and grounded in love" (Ephesians 3:17), "to the end" that she might be strong to "apprehend," and be "filled unto all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:18-19). During the winter season, in nature, the sap goes downward to the roots, and all outward manifestation of life seems checked. The Well-Beloved calls the soul to arise, because the winter is past; it is now becoming spring-time, and the rain of the Spirit has been silently falling and preparing her for His fresh call. He sees the flowers appearing, and a luxuriant growth of waste wood that will need His careful pruning. He begins to deal more definitely with the outward "manner of life," so as to make it occupied with Him. He has been drawing forth strong roots into Himself, that she may be the better able to endure the pruning knife in its time. "Arise, My friend, and come. You must cooperate with Me in all My working; you must work out all that I work in, if you are to know Me and the fullest power of My endless life. Come away, and I will lead you to know the Father." So speaks the Risen Lord.4
4 The question may be asked, "How are we to know when the Lord calls us to arise and follow on? By a deep inward cry to know Him better being awakened in our hearts – an unspeakable yearning after God – created by the Divine Spirit. Desire is always God's preparation for a fuller communication of Himself; it is, so to speak, the vacuum for Him – the emptiness, that He can fill. "We which have believed do enter into rest" (Hebrews 4:3). In the time of repose, resting upon the everlasting arms, let each soul remain there with quiet heart until it hears the voice of the Well-Beloved saying, "Arise and come away."
Chapter 6
"All we who were baptized unto Christ Jesus were baptized
into His Death" (Romans 6:3).
THE CLEFT OF THE ROCK
"O My dove, that art in the clefts of the rock,….let Me see thy countenance, let Me hear thy voice; for sweet
is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely" (2:14). Wherever we turn in Scripture we find the story of the cross set forth, in many and different types and figures. Jesus Christ, smitten by God for us, is clearly set forth in the rock smitten by Moses in the wilderness (Exodus 17:6). We understand, also, the reference to the crucified Lord in the word of Jehovah to Moses when He said, "I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with My hand until I have passed by" (Exodus 33:22). We easily recognize the same underlying reference to the Crucified One – that "Rock of Ages cleft for me" – as we listen to the voice of the Risen Lord speaking to his redeemed one. He would turn her eyes to Calvary and teach her that she is hidden in His wounded side, planted by the Holy spirit into His death (Romans 6:5). Hitherto she has known Him as her indwelling King. She has had glimpses of the cross, and has agreed to follow Him in the pathway of the cross; but she has not yet fully apprehended her position as buried with Him by baptism into His death, and therefore separated from herself and from all the old life and its claims. She must know that the cross stands between her and the world – that she has died in her Redeemer – to be joined to Him in His resurrection life and, in His ascension, to abide within the veil.5
5 It is because the children of God do not apprehend the two aspects of crucifixion with Christ that they fail to realize abundant life in practical experience. The objective or finished work of Christ in His death and resurrection is the basis of the subjective work of the Holy Spirit in us. Objectively, the death of Christ was not only a propitiation for sin but was, in the purpose of God, the death of all for whom He died. In our position before God we who are believers are in Him, the Cleft Rock – planted into His death. The Holy One became a curse for the accursed ones, that the accurse Adam-life might be nailed to the cross with the substitute, the Lamb of God. Subjectively, it is the work of the Spirit of God to apply to us the power of Christ's death and resurrection; to bring us inwardly into correspondence with our "position" in Christ – crucified, buried, risen, and ascended in the Redeemer. Both the "objective" and "subjective" aspects must be made real to the soul by the power of the Holy Spirit if "life out of death" is to be known in practical reality. On our part, if we have been brought by the mercy of God to truly hate ourselves – our "own life" (Luke 14:26) as well as our sins – and to recognize that all is accursed, being heartily willing to renounce all that we ourselves have, we may turn to Calvary and see that in Christ we are delivered, being dead to that wherein we were held (Romans 7:6). In dependence upon the Divine Spirit, we may appropriate the death
The Well-Beloved reminds the soul of her place in the cleft of the Rock, because He can recognize her as His betrothed one nowhere else! The bride for the first Adam was taken out of his side during his sleep; made of his own nature and presented to him by her Creator – a marvelous foreshadowing of the mystery of Christ and His Church! All the redeemed ones, born of the first Adam and under the curse, were, in the foreknowledge of God, planted into the God-man, the Second Adam, hanging upon the cross of Calvary, and becoming a curse for them. "We thus judge that One died for all, therefore all died" (2 Corinthians 5:14). Planted into Him, baptized into His death, there emerges a Bride, formed of many members, taken out of His side in the deep sleep of death, partaking of His divine nature and eventually to be presented unto Him to share His throne. The Well-Beloved entreats the soul to turn her face toward Him, and to let Him hear her voice in glad response to His call. He sees that her eyes are in the wrong direction. He had drawn her within from all outward things by the strong power of His manifested presence at the center of her being; but now He desires her to turn toward Him as not in her heart – although He is there – but as in His Father's bosom. Sweet is the voice of the blood-bought one to the Beloved Lord; lovely to Him is the gaze of the soul that turns towards Him as the sunflower to the sun. She is to be as the moon that is a faithful witness to the unseen orb of day.
The Soul's Preoccupied Reply
"Take [i.e., Catch] us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the
vineyards….My Beloved is mine, and I am His; He feedeth
…among the lilies" (2:15, 16). She hears the Well-Beloved's voice, sees His attitude, and hearkens to His call to arise, His command to forget the things that are behind. She listens to His message about the cross, to His call to turn her face toward Him, but – she does not understand! She is preoccupied. She evidently has her eyes upon the internal vine and its promise of fruit, and is getting concerned in the keeping of her vineyard. Thus easily the gaze it turned away from the person of the Lord.
of Christ as our death and count upon the immediate inflow of the life of the Risen Lord to possess us to the fullest capacity of the earthen vessel. From this point – the faith position that we have been crucified with Christ – we may expect the Holy Spirit to bear witness, and "make to die" the "doings of the body" in ever deepening power, while He teaches us increasingly to hate the garment spotted by the flesh and to glory in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to us and we unto the world. The Eternal Spirit – charged with the work of applying Christ's death and communicating the resurrection life of Christ – will cause us always to bear about the dying of Jesus. Thus shall be manifested in our mortal flesh the life also of Jesus, and in the power of the endless life we shall be energized to labor according to His working, which will be working in us mightily.
In the King's chambers the soul discovered that she had been too much engrossed in active service, and had neglected her own vineyard. Now she goes to the other extreme and is so occupied with her vineyard as not to be able to understand her Beloved's call. She is fearing lest she should lose the blessed experience of His indwelling, and begins to dread lest the vines should be spoiled. She is frightened as some "little foxes" that are appearing – "little" manifestations of the old life which she thought had gone, and gone forever. If she had remained occupied with her Lord so as to quickly obey when He said, "Rise up," He surely would see to the young fruit and deal with the little foxes – for the Beloved can only manifest His delivering and keeping power while we are walking in His will. "Little foxes" always tell the tale that somewhere we have failed to keep step with the Lord. We have missed His will or failed to understand His voice. We must quickly deal with God over these "little things," for they open the door to great ones if not dealt with at once. Oh soul, be quick and wait upon your Lord; you must fly to the cleft of the Rock and hide in Him. You have failed to understand His message of the cross. You are in Him, upon His cross. Fly to the place called Calvary, and you shall see Him dealing with the foxes and culturing the budding vine. It is not enough for you to rest upon your old experience and comfort yourself that your Beloved is yours, or that He is still in your heart feeding upon the lilies of His own planting within you. You will have to learn that you must press on and walk in His will in sensitive obedience if you are to know the Lord.
Chapter 7
"I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge
their offence, and seek My face: in their affliction they
will seek Me earnestly" (Hosea 5:15).
THE VALLEY OF TROUBLE
"Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be Thou like a gazelle…upon the mountains of separation" (2:17). The soul failed to understand the Bridegroom's call to arise and follow Him, and so He hides His face. He knows that this will cause her to seek Him. He has called upon her to turn her face toward Him, and she answered by talking about the vines and foxes. He tells her about the hiding place from herself in the cleft of the Rock, and she sinks back upon her old experience and says, "My Beloved is mine!" (v. 16). That He should see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied – this is not yet the supreme desire of her heart. She cannot yet give Him the fellowship He seeks. What He is to her is still her main thought. The Risen Lord now hides Himself to see what silence will do. There would have been no need for this had she left the vines and foxes to His dealing and quickly obeyed His call. If we left ourselves entirely to His hands, and responded to His voice without hesitation or self-reflection, or any watching of ourselves and our experiences, how quickly we would be led to dwell in the secret place of the Most High! His silence and the hiding of His face arrest her in her self-absorption. She is evidently conscious that there is a cloud, and she seems to know now that she is not yet so fully in union with Him as she thought. She is still in the "day-dawn" of the spiritual life, but yet the Bright and Morning Star has arisen in her heart to herald the coming day of her one life with Him - a day which will be "as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, a morning without clouds" (2 Samuel 23:4). In the shadow that has come upon her soul through the silence of Him whom her soul loveth, she prays that He will turn His face toward her – turn with gazellelike rapidity as of old – turn upon these terrible "mountains of separation." The "mountain life" seems far from her now, and to her deep humiliation He appears to be alone on the mountain, and she in the valley of darkness. She says she will be content, "until the day dawn, and the shadows flee away," if He will only turn toward her and give her one look! Does He answer her cry? No – The Lord is silent in His love (Zephaniah 3:17).
The Seeking Soul and Her Decision
"By night on my bed I sought Him…but I found Him not.
I said, I will rise now,….I will seek Him" (3:1-2). An old writer suggestively calls this the "night of faith," and the "bed" is the place in the heart where the Lord is wont to rest. This is spiritually true, for the soul is now in the darkness of night. The shadows have deepened instead of fleeing away. She seeks her Lord in the old retreat within her heart, but she seems to find Him not. In her desolation she is roused to activity and earnest seeking. Hither and thither she goes, seeking for her Beloved. Like Job she says: "Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him; on the left hand,…but I cannot behold Him …He hideth Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him… God hath made my heart faint…I am not dismayed because of the Darkness, nor because thick darkness covereth my face!" (Job 23:8-9, 16-17). She is not dismayed because of the darkness but will seek Him with her whole heart. So intent is she on finding Him that all reserve is gone – the "wall" is giving way! She now cares not who in the city knows, so long as she finds Him. She will confess to others that He has withdrawn Himself from her; she will speak to the "watchmen" and ask them if they can help her (v.3)! The suffering is too keen to attempt to "keep up appearances," or to attempt to keep up past experience by more vigorous testimony. She must be honest. What matters it what people think of her! She must find Him! The Well-Beloved has succeeded in his purpose. He had called her to arise, but she did not obey. By hiding His face, He has aroused her from her lethargy; by His silence. He has drawn her to seek Him diligently; by prolonging His apparent absence, He has broken down the wall of reserve and drawn her out of herself. He watched her looking for Him in the old retreat. He noted her desolation, but He gave her no sign. He saw her rushing hither and thither, to this or that place, expecting to obtain "blessing" as of old; but He did not use the old instruments, or instruct the hitherto-much-loved "watchman" with an answer that met her need. He was silent in His love. It was because He desired to lead His loved one on to know Him fully that He allowed her thus to think Him gone. "He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men" (Lamentations 3:33). With joy He witnessed His end attained, and saw His redeemed one "rise up" to seek Him. How tenderly He noted her intensity of purpose, and her determination to find Him at the cost even of her reputation in the religious world.
He has but dealt with her as He did with the disciples on the lake, when in the storm "He would have passed by them" (Mark 6:48), so as to draw out their cry of need; or again at Emmaus, when "He made as though He would go further" (Luke 24:28), so that they might constrain Him to tarry with them.
The Seeking Soul's Reward
"It was but a little that I passed from them, when I found Him,
….I held Him, and would not let Him go" (3:4). How small a step stands often between the soul and freedom! The failure of all things around throws it upon God in utter helplessness. Some great pressure of need, some "desperation point," and the soul is at liberty. For so long as we are able to maintain the outer "wall," cover our failures, hide our deepest feelings, and live in secret through all God's breakings, we can remain within the rigid limits of our narrow selves. In Canticles it was the intense heartcry after the Well-Beloved that drew the soul out of itself, away from old experiences and all created means of blessing. To "pass by" all is simply to part with all preconceived ideas of His working – all plan of time or place or instrument – to be still, and to leave to Him the way of blessing. To "come out of one's self" is to be so broken as to lose all thought of self – all self-interest, self-glory, self-complacency, self-appropriation. To rise and seek Him is but the pouring out at His feet the yearning cry of the heart, the furnace of intense desire awakened by the Diving Spirit. The "vacuum" is ready for God to fill. To "find Him" means that our earnest seeking has given place to quiet resting upon the statement of the Lord, "You are in the cleft of the Rock," and to the turning of the eyes of the heart toward Him as the living One. In a transport of joy the purchased one says that she "found Him," and adds, "I held Him, and would not let Him go" (v.4). His manifested presence is so precious that now she is disposed to watch and cling to it, lest she should lose it again. Ah soul, it is not for you to retain Him. To grasp is to lose in divine things. He will abide if you will trust yourself to Him and learn to let Him go as He wills. It is not for you to watch and rest on His manifestations, but to trust Him and rely on His declaration alone. Nay, even more – He will not veil His presence when you pass from all thought of yourself to dwell in Him; when you yield up your own life to live by Him, as He lived by the Father.
Chapter 8
"Having been buried with Him…ye were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him
from the dead" (Colossians 2:12).
THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION
"I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,…that ye stir
not up, nor awaken love, until it please" (3:5). The Risen Lord again forbids the "daughters" to touch a soul so entirely in His keeping. He knows what she has suffered in the anguish of His apparent withdrawal, and the agony of her self-reproach over the least unfaithfulness or self-absorption. It has been well said that sins are relative. "The more a soul is favored, the greater the gifts entrusted to it, the closer its union with its Lord,….the greater is the sin of the very least and apparently most trifling unfaithfulness. An act which in a stranger would be nothing, is a trusted servant would be a crime. Others may be content with being kept from what is visibly and grossly sin, but the obedient heart, seeking to walk with Him in unbroken communion, cannot excuse the faintest disobedience or lack of sensitiveness to His will. The tender Lord knows all this and again gives His loved one a time of rest, lest, as He says, "the spirit should faint away…before Me" (Isaiah 57:16). The Well-Beloved knows, too, that His purchased one must be strengthened with might by the Spirit before He can lead her further. He again speaks to the eager daughters and bids them not disturb her rest, for He has allured her into the wilderness to speak comfortably to her. The valley of trouble will prove to be the door through which she will pass to a fuller union with her Lord. There He will betroth her unto Him in faithfulness, and she shall know the Lord. There she will learn to call Him "Ishi" instead of Baali, and she "shall sing there" (see Hosea 2:14-16, 20). Oh that the children of the Lord would allow Him to care for His own children! He who has redeemed each soul at such tremendous cost will deal with each one tenderly, according to its need and to its character. They are safe in His pierced hands. "A bruised reed shall He not break, and the dimly burning wick shall He not quench" (Isaiah 42:3).
The Transfigured Soul
"Who is this that cometh up out of the wilderness like pillars
of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense?" (3:6). After the period of retirement commanded by the Well-Beloved, the daughters see the betrothed one emerging from the wilderness, and they glorify God in her. They had known of her sorrow; for did she not go about the city seeking the Lord? Did she not ask the watchmen to help her? Her friends exclaim, "Who is this?" What a change has taken place! She was then desolate, broken, weeping, but now she is a transfigured soul, and the days of her mourning are ended. She is coming up out of the wilderness with the glory of the Lord seen upon her, and they liken her to a "pillar of smoke." This expression is used by the prophet Joel in describing God's wonders in the days when He will pour out His Spirit in Pentecostal fullness upon His servants and handmaidens (Joel 2:28-30). The God of glory also manifested His presence in a "pillar of cloud" (Exodus 13:22) when He went forth before His people Israel. From these references we may therefore gather that the soul emerges from the wilderness manifestly in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the "wall" that hid her indwelling Lord from others has been broken down. It is worth going through the wilderness for this; worth the cost of the apparent forsaking by the Well-Beloved, to come forth perfumed with myrrh – with the fragrance that alone can come from fellowship with Him of whom it was written, "It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief" (Isaiah 53:10). She is also a melted soul, no longer hard and unbending, but tender and broken with His love; so pliable and yielding to His will that she is compared to frankincense, a liquid distilled gum. The melting power of the love of God can now be manifested through her, so that others are broken at His feet.
The Victorious Soul
"Behold, it is the litter of Solomon; threescore mighty men
are about it….All handle the sword and are expert in war.
Every man hath his sword…because of fear in the night"
(3:7-8). The daughters exclaim, "Who is this?" and then they add, "Behold, it is the litter of Solomon!" They see a triumphal procession emerging from the wilderness: the palanquin of the King guarded by mighty men equipped for war. Historically, this is said to refer to the Lord Jesus emerging from His conflict with the Adversary in the wilderness.
The soul united to the conqueror of Calvary shares in His triumph over principalities and powers, for at His cross He put them to open shame (Colossians 2:14-15). Abiding in the victorious Lord, she will be carried safely over all the pitfalls and wiles of the devil, for she is encompassed by angels of light, "mighty men," who are expert in war against the legions of darkness (see Revelation 12:7-11). These legions of darkness are "wicked spirits" who attack, always in the dark and suddenly, when the soul is passing through a "night" of trial.
The God-Possessed Soul
"King Solomon made himself a palanquin of the wood of
Lebanon,…the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof Of gold, the seat of it purple, the midst thereof being inlaid
With love, from the daughters of Jerusalem" (3:9-10). The description here in not of King Solomon but of the vehicle in which he travels; hence it points to the soul who is a "habitation of God through the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22). The daughters of Jerusalem have seen the glory of the Lord upon the one now united with Him in His resurrection and seated with Him in the heavenlies. They see that she is entirely His workmanship. Having spoken of His royal litter they now describe this car of state, made by Himself. It prefigures the soul whom the Well-Beloved has transformed for His own habitation. The "wood of Lebanon" speaks of her humanity – "the earthly house of our bodily frame" (2 Corinthians 5:1); the "pillars of silver" of her redemption at Calvary – redeemed by the precious blood of Christ; the "gold" of the divine life of her indwelling Lord; the "purple seat" of His throne as King. He rejoices in making the place of His feet glorious, so His temple is paved with the love of the daughters of Jerusalem.
The Crowned Christ
"Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold King Solomon
….crowned…in the day of his espousals, and in the day of
the gladness of his heart" (3:11). The "daughters of Zion" are bidden to behold the conqueror of Calvary with yet another crown upon His royal brow. The redeemed one is now "a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem in the hand of [her] God" (Isaiah 62:3). These "daughters" may be those of whom it is written, "Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the Living God" (Hebrews 12:22) – souls who have
already been brought into union with the glorified Lord; "overcomers" upon whom He has written the name of the city, the new Jerusalem (Revelation 3:12); members of the Bride, who rejoice to see the Bride-spirit in other souls, and are glad for the gladness of His heart.
Chapter 9
"Hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6)
THE HEAVENLY LIFE
"Behold, thou art fair, My love (4:1). The Lord opens His heart to His beloved one who is seated with Him in blessed rest in the heavenlies. He can safely do so now, for she will not appropriate any of His praise to herself. She has been brought to such deep self-abasement in the wilderness that union with her Beloved in the heavenlies will keep her walking humbly with God – more sensitive to sin, more honest in confession of it, more conscious (in the clearer light of God's holiness) of her need of the blood of sprinkling upon the mercy seat to keep her in unbroken communion with her Lord. In the time of quiet which followed the conflict and suffering in the wilderness, she has also learned to be silent before the Lord. In the early days, when she was so eagerly longing to know Him, most of the "talking" was on her side; He spoke very rarely and briefly. He knew that she would "blaze abroad the matter," and so He could not trust her with more than that which supplied her need. Indeed, she gave the Lord no time to speak! She entered into His presence, began to talk immediately – poured out her heart – and then left the place of access without waiting to hear His voice or to know His mind. "My soul, wait thou upon God, for my expectation is from Him" (Psalm 62:5) is now the attitude of the hidden one. There is silence in her whole being as she abides in her Well-Beloved – the silence of reverence and godly awe. He speaks from the deep hush of His sanctuary within her soul. Let us listen, as she does, to Him who "quickeneth the dead, and calleth the things that are not as though they were" (Romans 4:17), and let us learn the secret of becoming partakers of the divine nature through the promises (2 Peter 1:4). The bridegroom says, "Thou are fair"; the soul responds in the humility of faith, "Be it unto me according to Thy word!" (Luke 1:38), and her God becomes her "beauty" (Isaiah 60:19). She rests upon His "thou art," knowing that He will confirm His word with signs following. She no longer turns toward herself for evidence. She judges Him faithful. His word is sufficient. He is the eternal "I Am" who "speaks, and it is done." At the creation of the world He said, "Let there be," and "it was so" (Genesis 1:6-7).