SONG OF SONGS 2
It may be noticed that the utterances of the King to the spouse throughout this book are with a view to produce certain movements on her part. He tells her what she is in His eyes that she may move in concert with Him. When no movement is called for His utterances are very brief. From verse 16 of chapter 1, to verse 7 of chapter 2, she is with Him in intimacy and restfulness. His love is known and enjoyed, and the section closes with the expression of her desire that nothing may disturb the restfulness of His love. In such restful conditions He does not need to say much, and it is very blessed when this is the case. To the fathers in 1 John 2 very little is said. The young men and the babes need exhortation, but to the fathers it is only said that they have “known him that is from the beginning”. This first section of the Song presents a spiritual state so blessed that the Lord does not need to say much. He can rejoice over His saints, and rest — or be silent — in His love (Zephaniah 3: 17). Being made to sit down together in the heavenlies is a restful position, and what is brought before us in this part of the Song is a “favoured hour” when no movement is called for. He can rest in His love, and she can rest in His love, and the only thing to be guarded against is any movement that would disturb the rest of love, The King says little in such conditions. He conveys in few words what she is in His sight [p. 43] She is fair as having spiritual perceptions — her eyes are doves — and she is marked by beautiful contrast with the daughters around her. “As the lily among thorns” she is seen in harmlessness, simplicity, and irreproachableness in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation (Philippians 2: 16). There is no description here in detail, such as we find further on in the book, of different features of her beauty in His eyes. That comes in, as it would appear, to move her, to stimulate her affections into activity, that she may be drawn into concert with Him by the impelling influence of His thoughts of love. But here He does not dwell on detailed features of her beauty, but her general characteristic. She is the lily among thorns; she is in moral contrast with all her surroundings. He adds no more: His words, though few, give her heart to know that He is content with her; she is what He can delight in; no more is needed.
We rejoice to think of the Lord’s activities, but there is something even more precious than His active love, and that is His restful love. His activities are called forth very often by deficiencies or defects on our side, but the rest of His love is secured as things are complacent to Him.
The King did not need to say much to one who could use the language of verses 3 - 6. He is in her eyes pre-eminent and beyond compare. He is “as the apple-tree among the trees of the wood”. It should be most likely the citron-tree — an evergreen with lovely foliage which bears golden coloured fruit of fine fragrance. It is a tree of pre-eminent beauty, and thus a fitting figure of Him who is fairer than [p. 44] the sons of men. It is indeed most blessed when Christ stands out before us in His personal distinctiveness, and in the words of Psalm 14 the heart wells forth with a good matter, and we can say what we have composed touching the King, How incomparable is His worth as God’s elect One in whom His soul delights, His Anointed! God would have us to be able to say what He is in our estimation. We remember how the Lord said, “Who do ye say that I am? And Peter answering said, The Christ of God” (Luke 9: 20). Here the spouse loves to say what He is in Himself, and what He has become to her. Grace has been poured into His lips, and He has become to us the expression of all that is in the heart of God in grace towards men.
We were first truly awakened under that Tree. See chapter 8: 5. What a moment when we opened our eyes to find ourselves under the shadow of Christ! This is the origin of every one who has affection for Christ suited to His bride and spouse. Our mother has brought us forth under the Apple-tree. Paul has told us that Jerusalem above is our mother (Galatians 4: 26). God set up the system of law upon the earth, but it was not productive. Whatever was productive for God found its origin in His promises. But now God has set up a new system of heavenly grace, and that system is a joyful mother of children. It brings forth that which responds affectionately to God and to Christ. What is bridal in character has its origin there. We are not children of a system which genders to bondage, but of a system which is marked by liberty. The very origin of the bride is of grace and of divine calling. God has called us in Christ’s grace. It is Of God’s favour alone that we have realised the place that Christ has on God’s part towards us. We know, and are fully assured, that as to God’s relations to us, and ours to God, it is no question now of law, or even promises, or anything conditional in any way, but of CHRIST. The moment we bring in any principle that is connected with ourselves we have fallen from grace, and Christ profits us nothing. There is no restfulness save as under His shadow; still less could there be rapture. How unmixed and unadulterated is the joy of knowing that all that Christ is is ours; the favourableness of God in its full extent is there It is all of grace that we have been awakened to see it. This is not exactly the side of man’s ruined state being met, though it is met perfectly, but of the heart being awakened to see the blessedness of what is set forth in Christ. Grace as a subsisting principle was not known until Christ came. Grace and truth are really one thing, and it subsists through Jesus Christ (John 1: 17). God is favourable to men, and His favour is in supremacy, and this is being made known in testimony. Grace is not in supremacy in the world, but principles of law and government. But grace is in supremacy in the Person of Christ as enthroned in heaven, and there are those here who appreciate and love Him because they are children of Jerusalem above. We have been awakened and brought forth to appreciate Christ. We sometimes say of one that he is an awakened soul, meaning that he is in exercise about his sins or about himself, and that he is conscious that he needs justification or deliverance. But to be awakened in [p. 46] the sense of chapter 8: 5 of the Song is to have one’s eyes opened to see the surpassing excellence of Christ, and to love Him. That is the true beginning of what gives pleasure to God. There is something brought forth that is a delight to the heart of Christ.
It is remarkable in this book that the spouse never thinks of having to establish any title to be where she is. It is all His doing. “The king hath brought me”, “He hath brought me” (chapters 1: 4; 2: 4). Is Christ precious to you? is His fruit sweet to your taste? Then you need no other title. The fact that He is desired and appreciated proves that one has been brought forth as a child of Jerusalem above.
If the language of Song of Songs 2: 3 - 6 is prophetically that of the remnant who will be “bought from the earth”, and from men, as first-fruits to God and to the Lamb, it surely does not go beyond what may be taken up by saints of the assembly now. Such affections have their seat in the assembly now; we may love Christ with intense fervour now as they will in their day. These utterances set forth affections which are only found at the present time in the assembly. I have no doubt the Spirit of God intended this book to have a profound effect upon us now, in giving us divine and spiritual impressions as to the love which is in the heart of Christ towards His saints, and as to their love for Him. Israel in the millennium will be the earthly bride (Hosea 2: 16, 19), but before that day there will be a remnant who will know the love of their Messiah, and will respond to it, while He is yet publicly rejected. The character of their knowledge of Him, and of their affections, is thus very similar to that which is found [p. 47] now in saints of the assembly. Israel will be in that day the “little sister” who has no breasts. Her affections are as yet undeveloped, but there will be a bride who can say that her breasts are like towers. Her affections are developed under the known love of Christ. Such affections are in the assembly today; that is to say, the work of the Spirit is to produce and maintain them, It is ours, like the remnant, to know a suffering Christ, and to love Him, and to “follow the Lamb wheresoever it goes”. There is a surpassing excellence about the bridal relations in which the assembly stands to Christ; but the Spirit would use the Song of Songs to stimulate in our hearts affections which are suitable to relations of that character. We may see in the household at Bethany a lovely picture of the affections which the Lord found in a remnant when He was here, and which He will find again when the assembly period is over, but such affections are only to be found in saints of the assembly now. How happy would it be if they were in full flow in all our hearts!
There are many precious divine thoughts brought out in the Old Testament in connection with Israel which are now secured in relation to the assembly. The covenant, the kingdom, the flock, the priesthood, the house, the temple, the bride, sonship, even the thought of an assembly of God, are not new thoughts, nor are they limited to those who form the assembly of God today. They all have their place in relation to that assembly now; they are secured there, but they will all be secured in Israel in another day. The one thing in which the assembly is unique is that it is the body of Christ; no other [p. 48] family, heavenly or earthly, ever had, or ever will have, that place. But all the thoughts of God which we have referred to, and which were brought out afore-time, have been made good in saints of the assembly. They now form part of the spiritual wealth which resides in the assembly; the assembly is now the treasury in which are stored all the rich thoughts of God. So the affections which are expressed in the Song have their present seat in saints of the assembly. In viewing things thus we do not take away anything that is peculiar to the assembly but we enrich it by bringing into it every precious thought of God. It is a great help to see that every divine thought that came out in former times is brought to fruition in a spiritual sense at the present time. The all-various wisdom of God is thus made known through the assembly. Every divine thought centres there.
“In his shadow have I rapture and sit down; and his fruit is sweet to my taste”. Every thought of divine favour for men is secured in Christ and expressed in Him. His fruit is all that comes to us from God through Him. Romans 5 gives us a wonderful cluster of His fruit — peace, favour, hope of glory, salvation, reconciliation, ability to boast in God as having received the free gift in grace and the abundance of grace, the free gift of righteousness, and grace reigning through righteousness to eternal life! We have but to sit down and eat His precious fruit. Rapture is found in His shadow. The thought of His “shadow” suggests protection from influences that would otherwise beat down upon us like the burning heat of the sun. The influences of [p. 49] the present day are all contrary to the enjoyment of rapture and rest. But under the shadow of Christ every desire may be satisfied, the heart may be in perfect repose, and know all that is conveyed in the word “rapture”.
Then being brought to the “house of wine” is clearly suggestive of sharing with Him in His joys. John presents this to us, and he introduces the Son of God as manifesting forth His glory by turning water into wine. It is in John that we read of fulness of joy. “The house of wine” and the banner of love are wonderful figures for the Spirit of God to use, but they are not exaggerated or over-drawn figures. They express just what is divinely and spiritually true and real. And it is even conveyed to us that the conscious enjoyments of divine love may be so great as to be almost insupportable. A feeling that special support is needed to sustain us in presence of the known and enjoyed love of Christ is a truly spiritual feeling. It is possible to have such an overpowering sense of the love of Christ that we need to be sustained and refreshed even to bear it. Daniel had to be strengthened as a man greatly beloved that he might bear communications from God (Daniel 10: 18 - 19). But the spouse in the Song looks for sustenance and refreshment that she may be equal to bearing the exceedingly blessed character of the love that embraces her. The enjoyment is so great that she feels it to be insupportable without a special strengthening. Alas! we are probably more often sick because we are not enjoying His love, like the bride in chapter 5: 8. But here there is the most intimate nearness of affection. “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me”. She is in His embrace, and her only desire is to be supported in enjoyment. How happy to be in such a case! No exercises present in the heart save those which are produced by a sense of the overpowering character of the love of Christ! The Spirit of God brings it before us as an experience that may be realised.
The most casual reader would notice that there is a change of scene and circumstances in verse 8. The voice of the Beloved is known and heard, and His activities in love are perceived, but the spouse has not His company. The Song teaches us to distinguish between things that differ in regard to love’s enjoyments. There is love on both sides here, for she says, “My beloved” repeatedly, and He says, “My love”, but they are not together. His activities are occasioned by the fact that they are not together. She is within and He is without. A wall and windows and a lattice are between them. He moves with the utmost activity, for He comes “leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart”. But He moves thus swiftly because she is not with Him, and His love would call her forth from where she was dwelling to move with Him in a region where all was attractive to Him, and the beauty of which He describes to her to allure her forth to join Him in it.
In the first section of the book the spouse is seen in the King’s chambers, and in His house of wine; yea, she is in His very embrace. It sets forth the closest intimacy, and enjoyment of the love of Christ in all [p. 51] its preciousness according to divine thoughts. But the lovers of Christ — whether in time past, or in time present, or in time yet future — do not always know or enjoy love’s full privilege. And a great part of this most precious book is occupied in shewing how He acts and how He speaks in order to assure His loved ones of the place they have in His thoughts, that they may come into that enjoyment of His love which is normal. The book takes account of conditions on the part of true lovers of Christ which are not in accord with His mind, and shews how He would correct those conditions, either by the attractiveness of Himself and of what may be enjoyed in His company, or by the unhappy consequences which follow upon apathy or lack of response to Him.
It is not intimated here that the spouse is in sinful or unbecoming surroundings, but she is not where He is. She is in winter quarters, if we may so say, when she might be abroad enjoying the wealth of spring in His company. This raises a question as to where we really are in our souls? God does provide “winter quarters” for His saints. What I mean by that is He cares for us providentially in all our circumstances here; He safeguards us from evil, and makes us to prove in a thousand ways that His loving-kindness endureth for ever. The assembly viewed in the 1 Corinthians aspect may also be regarded as winter quarters; we are comforted and succoured and preserved there in view of the cold and hostile elements around us here. But behind all that there are precious activities of the love of Christ going on, and His voice is calling those whom He loves to come with Him into a spiritual region which is altogether [p. 52] beyond the cold and storms of winter. The spring, with its flowers and song and its abounding evidence of life, speaks of a region which can be entered upon in company with Christ. He knows that region, for He has entered it Himself as the Risen One, and He would have His own to enjoy it with Him.
The remnant in a coming day will have a place prepared of God where they will be protected and find mercy during the most bitter winter that this world has ever known, and for their sakes the days of tribulation will be shortened. But this chapter intimates that the Lord will draw near to them in active love to call them into the joy of what has sprung forth in resurrection power in Himself. The “everlasting covenant” and “the sure mercies of David” are made good in a risen Messiah. (Compare Isaiah 4: 3 with Acts 13: 34). The millennial day will be brought in by a risen and exalted and heavenly Christ, and everything which will mark that day is secured in Him before it is brought in publicly. The flowers and the singing and the fruitfulness and fragrance of which He speaks in verses 12, 13 are manifestly not millennial conditions as actually present in a public way, but they speak of conditions which can be entered into and enjoyed in company with Christ before they are manifested in the world. They are conditions which are to be known spiritually, and which may therefore be altogether missed as to present enjoyment if the call of love meets with no response. The application of this to ourselves is as obvious as it is searching. Are we content to remain in winter quarters when we might go forth at the Lord’s call to know the joys of a divine spring-time?
[p. 53] The inspired title of Psalm 22 tells us that it is “Upon Aijeleth-Shahar”; that is, “according to the hind of the morning”. This conveys that after passing through the sorrows and sufferings connected with His being the Sin-offering, Christ would come forth in the morning of resurrection in the activities of love. We see this in a very blessed way in the closing chapters of the Gospels. On the side of the risen Saviour it is “a morning without clouds”; the winter is indeed past. The saints can now be viewed as clothed with beauty and glory apart from any works of their own, for God has been glorified in the death of Christ, and Christ is now their acceptance. “The time of singing is come” (See Psalm 22: 22); and “the voice of the turtle-dove” would seem to speak of the mutual affections which find expression amongst those who have a risen Christ as their joy and bond.
The Lord Jesus moves with all the agility of “the hind of the morning” to call us forth to see things which are now spiritually present, and which He would have us to look upon in company with Him. We have a place here providentially which is ordered of God, and for which we may be truly thankful, but there is a possibility of settling down in providential circumstances in such a way as to be detained from responding to the call of Christ’s love, and moving with Him into the wide expanse of spiritual realities to which He calls us forth. We all have a providential house of some kind, and a shelter “in the clefts of the rock” or “in the covert of the precipice”, but to be sheltered and preserved in the midst of evils here — valuable as it is — comes far short of what the love of Christ desires for us. He would have us with [p. 54] Him as to the precious thoughts of divine love which have been secured in Himself, and He would have our countenances to be lighted up with the joy of these thoughts, and our voices heard in speaking of them to Him. The Beloved calls the attention of His spouse in this chapter to an attractive scene outside the bounds of the enclosed place where she is found. He calls her forth to see and to hear the present result of the working of God.
We may see what answers to this in the Lord’s ways with the two going to Emmaus (Luke 24). It was truly “winter” with them; not one flower of hope remained to cheer them, for He had been crucified of whom they “had hoped that he was the one who is about to redeem Israel”. But see how He stood behind their wall, and looked in through their windows. Not shewing Himself openly to them but, as we might say in the language of this chapter, “glancing through the lattice”. Yet not leaving them until He had given them a very distinct impression that the winter was past, and that spring-time had truly arrived in His own blessed Person as risen. How promptly, too, did they respond, leaving at once their own circumstances and conditions that they might move with Him relative to those new and spiritual conditions which had been placed before them in Himself!
In Mary Magdalene (John 20) we see another who was in “winter” conditions; she was affectionately concerned about her Beloved as dead. But He glanced through the lattice at her, and caused her to hear the voice of her Beloved calling her forth into a new region of life out of death. The spring-time of [p. 55] resurrection had come, and He would have her to share its joys with Him, and also to communicate them to His brethren.
Do we understand that the Lord is calling us forth from the conditions and circumstances in which we find ourselves as in the world to know in a spiritual way a scene of life? We are told in John 10 that “it was winter”, but the Lord said, “I am come that they might have life, and might have it abundantly”; He spoke of Himself as giving life eternal to His sheep. A divine spring-time was present to His heart, and He would have it to be present to the hearts of His loved ones In passing into that region we do not lose anything that we may have acquired through the exercises of the “winter”, for “the fig-tree melloweth her winter figs”. We are disciplined in winter conditions, but the fruit of that discipline is mellowed in the genial warmth of spring. It all contributes to life in a truly spiritual sense. And “the vines in bloom” give fragrant promise of fulness of joy.
But, though the spouse recognises that it is the voice of her Beloved that she hears, and her heart must needs own how attractive is the spring-time which He describes, she does not respond to His call of love. And this would account for His last word being a warning to “take the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards”. Little things come in to counteract the power of His voice, and to hinder the spiritual joy of those whom He loves. How many “little foxes” there are! Things that seem too small to do much harm, and yet their effect is spiritually disastrous! It is not only things which can be recognised as being worldly that spoil the vineyards,
[p. 56] but a thousand and one things which may be right in their place, but which are of the natural order. Friendships on natural or social lines, domestic occupations, business, even activities in service, may all become “little foxes”. Their effect may only be realised when the heart becomes aware that its joy has gone, and that other things have ruled rather than the voice of the Beloved.
The scene before us here is in mournful contrast with what has engaged us in the first section of the book. But perhaps it reveals the true inward condition of many hearts. Here is one who truly loves Him. She rejoices to say, “My beloved is mine, and I am his”. She knows that He feeds His flock among the lilies. She knows that He is coming again, when the day will dawn and the shadows flee away. But she does not respond to His present call of love! He has to go away without her, and yet she calls after Him as He goes. “Turn (or return), my beloved”. She wants Him to come back to her, though she was not prepared to go with Him! I believe it is often like that with us. Spiritual affections are there, and there is light as to where the Lord feeds His flock, and the thought of His coming has a place in the heart, and there is desire to have Him near as a comfort. And yet, with all this, there may be a lack of preparedness to go with Him in spirit into that scene of life to which His love invites us. And, for the time, He becomes lost to us as to present enjoyment. We have preferred to remain in our own house rather than to go with Him.