Song of Solomon 2-3

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Song of Solomon 2:1-17

I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. 2 As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. 3 As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. 4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. 5 Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of [with] love. 6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me. 7 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please. 8 The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. 9 My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice. 10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. 11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; 12 the flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; 13 the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. 14 O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. 15 Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes. 16 My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies. 17 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.”

Introduction

[Audio Version: http://resources.ccphilly.org/WED880]

“Guys as we move into this, we’re remembering it is probably in one way the most difficult Book to teach in the Scripture, in some ways. It’s probably the easiest to enjoy personally, when you’re sitting alone with it. It no doubt reflects again an historical reality between Solomon and the young woman that he was in love with. But the Bible, you know, God’s people have no Kama Sutra, no tantric book on sex. Sadly some of the ways it’s been interpreted recently has just ruined it. And it isn’t that at all. The ancient Hebrew scholars said that young men under 30 shouldn’t read it, because of this, I think out of 117 verses, there’s 470 words that deal with intimacy in one way or another. It was read on the Passover, interestingly enough. All of the ancient rabbis felt that it reflected the love between Jehovah and Israel. The Church fathers certainly saw it as a picture, because of Ephesians 5 and many places in the New Testament, of Christ and the Church. So there’s a historical facet to it, you don’t throw out the window, you can’t ignore it. You can’t make everything allegorical either. There are many pictures in type, as we go through the Book, and I personally enjoy working through this as a picture of my own personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Aqqaba, one of the ancient rabbis, said all of the Scripture is holy, but the Song of Solomon is the holy of holies. Spurgeon’s favorite Book, John Gill’s favorite Book…Moody’s favorite Book, you go down the list. Because my challenge to you guys is this, look, sit alone with it. Let it speak to you. Don’t worry about, you know, ‘What does this mean? what does that mean?’ Sit alone with it and read it, and be brave enough, ask the Lord for enough faith, that you would be able to hear him saying some of these things to you. Those of you who are broken and have been abused, the Lord’s voice is in this for you. All of you tough guys out there, you want to stand up, all you tough guys? I’m telling you, if you sit alone with this, you let it talk to you, it will melt you down. Those of you who are growing in grace and are having a hard time seeing the Lord’s love, you’ve come out of a legalistic background, if you let this speak to you, it will blow your mind. And my challenge, is like, I pray ‘Lord, just let me by your Spirit bring a bit of flame to verses here and there, make it incendiary, where hearts will be warmed and encouraged so that the folks in Calvary will go home and sit alone with it, that it actually burns in their hearts.’ So, that will be my interpretation, and I’ve already shown everybody who doesn’t agree with each other on what it really means. So I’ve come just really to enjoy the Book, it doesn’t mention Jehovah, doesn’t mention God, doesn’t mention salvation, doesn’t mention theology, and yet all of the scholars, it’s always been included in the Hebrew Scriptures right where it is, with all of the Hebrew scholars there’s never been a doubt that it belongs in the Scripture. Of course there’s the King of kings, Lord of lords, the holy of holies, there’s the Song of Songs, and this is it. And it begins of course giving us a picture of that maiden, that young girl, who doesn’t feel at all worthy of the love that the king is lavishing upon her. We did the first chapter last time we were together, several weeks ago, looking at these things. Chapter 1, verse 15 says “Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes.” he’s speaking to her, “Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green. The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.” (verses 16-17) that’s as far as we have come.

‘Ya, You’re Common Like The Lily Of The Valley, But You’re A Lily Among Thorns’

And then it seems that the bride, the woman says “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.” (verse 1) you read that, it sounds beautiful, the rose of Sharon is probably in the crocus family, not literally a rose. And where it refers to as the lily of the valley, if you’ve been to Israel, it’s probably the anemone, they’re in red, they’re in blue, they’re in yellow, they’re beautiful. I’ve been to Israel in the Spring when the field or alongside the road is so thick with flowers that we’ve actually had to pull the bus over and let people get out to take pictures, because you can’t believe what you’re seeing. I remember Chuck [Smith] one time, I was getting to Israel, he was at the airport leaving, and I said ‘Chuck, what’s Galilee like?’ he said, ‘The flowers are riotous,’ that’s all he said. [Who was Chuck Smith? See https://unityinchrist.com/history/smith.htm] So common, the rose of Sharon, the plains were filled with thousands of them, the lily of the valley, thousands, and in one sense you think, she’s saying, look, ‘I’m common, you set your affection on me? Who am I? the crowd is innumerable, why me? Why am I in the middle of all of this?’ and of course the groom comes right back and says ‘but you’re as a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.’ (verse 2) And husbands, by the way, there’s great stuff for us to learn here. He always affirms her. She is saying ‘What do you mean I’m beautiful? Look, I’m the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley, they’re thousands like me.’ And of course he comes back, ‘Yes, but you’re a lily among thorns.’ This is a smart husband, that knows how to do this. Because women do that, ‘Honey, do you think I look nice in this?’ what do you think I’m gonna say? ‘Of course you look nice in that,’ but there’s something in the relationship that the husband is to be affirming, there’s something in the relationship with us in Christ, we always need his affirmation. Because everything screams around us and appeals to our flesh constantly proves over and over how unclean we are and what’s wrong with us. You know, his voice crying to us from heaven, from the Word, sometimes is not as demonstrative as the horizontal all around us. And we, I don’t know about you guys, I’m still growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here he says ‘Ya, you’re common like the lily of the valley, but you’re like a lily among thorns.’

She Says ‘You’re Like A Fruit Tree In The Middle Of The Forest’

She says “As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.” (verse 3) Now King James says “trees of the wood,” the idea is ‘the forest.’ He said, ‘Ya but you’re like a lily among thorns,’she said ‘But you’re like a fruit tree in the middle of the forest,’ you know there’s pines and everything else, and all of a sudden you come upon this tree in the middle of the forest that is fruitful, ‘and your fruit is sweet, it’s righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.’ Interesting too, it’s almost an ideal life in this picture, she said “I sat down under his shadow with great delight,” she seems to delight in taking her place next to him “and his fruit was sweet to my taste.” (verse 3b)

“The Banner Over Me Is Love”

Now she’s going to talk about him. “He brought me to his banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.” (verse 4) Is it speaking of the banqueting house when he had something further up north, is it the House of the Cedars of Lebanon in Jerusalem? The point is, he brings her to this place of feasting, we’re looking forward to that [cf. Revelation 19:7-9], “and his banner over me was love.” The flag flying over us doesn’t say “remodeling” it doesn’t say “lucky to be here,” it doesn’t say “except for my blood,” she says ‘the banner over me, remarkably, is love.’ You have to deal with that alone, when you sit alone with him, the flag that he’s flying over you. Are you willing to step out of the boat onto the water and to say? ‘You know what, the flag that he flies over my life is love.’ “Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of [with] love.” (verse 5) “flagons” raised cakes of raisins. She says ‘I’m swooning, I’m lovesick, I want you to nourish me, to strengthen me,’ “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.” (verse 6) a picture of intimate love. [We see this in that famous news photograph in Times Square of a sailor embracing and kissing a girl in a dress at the news of the end of World War II, with his left hand behind and under her head, and his right hand around the back of her waist.] We know that Deuteronomy says that underneath are the everlasting arms. And then the cry comes, “I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.” (verse 7) now King James says “nor awake my love, till he please” the Hebrew seems to simply say ‘that I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the hinds of the field, that’s by all that’s good and clean and free, that you stir not up nor awake’ there’s no “my,” you see it’s in italics there, ‘that you stir not up nor awake love,’ and then it kind of reads, ‘till it please.’ i.e. don’t mess with this, don’t go hunting for this, don’t try to spray on a scent that’ll make it happen, don’t try to doll yourself up so much and become bait, don’t mess with this. True love submits to the Lord and waits, lust does not, it wants its way. Look, waiting, girls, waiting is a great creep-filter, it will filter the creeps out of your life, ok? There’s a time, don’t you enter into this before you’re supposed to, don’t you give yourself away before it’s the right time, don’t you do that, because any guy who comes around whose not willing to wait, he wants physical satisfaction with you, he don’t love you anyhow, he can go, he can go, this is a wonderful creep-filter, I’d like to think of other words. “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field,” some of the clean animals as it were, “that ye stir not up, nor awake love itself, till it please.” you know, save yourself, intimacy is not casual, wait. “The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.” (verse 8) there’s no obstacles, it’s not like ‘Oh no, I’m gonna wait and it’s never gonna happen,’ she said ‘No, no, there’s the voice of my beloved, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills, the sight of his coming.’ “My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice.” (verse 9) it’s an interesting idea, the way it’s written, “showing himself through the lattice,” ‘You know, I have glimpses of him, I hear his voice, it’s like one skipping upon the mountains, jumping on the tops of the hills, he’s coming, I know he’s drawing near, and I’m getting glimmers, I’m getting glimpses through the lattice, I get glimpses of him.’ [Comment: looking at conditions in the world and how close we may be to Jesus’ 2^nd coming, we should feel this way toward the Lord, and our future Wedding Feast, which may be very close, historically speaking.] She says “My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” (verse 10) you can let that speak to you on a lot of different ways, by the way. Rise up, are you willing to listen to him say that to you? Try it tomorrow morning. Allen Redpath said in the wintertime he used to pray for ‘blanket victory,’ because he said he would wake up in the summer, it was easy to get up, but in the winter he said ‘I’d wake up in England, and it was cold,’ and when he was in Chicago he said ‘I didn’t want to get out from under that blanket, I wanted to roll over.’ But you know, when you wake up early, it’s not light yet, just see if you hear him say ‘Rise up.’ He has to be that real to us, ‘Rise up, come away, get alone with me.’ Do we believe that he would really do that? “My beloved spake, he said Rise up, my love, my fair one, come away.” Now some, in allegory or types, see the return of the Lord [in this next verse, combined with this past one] “For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;” (verse 11) the cold, dark season is over, “the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;” (verse 12) “the time of singing is come,” Zephaniah said, ‘He will rest over thee, he will joy over thee with singing,’just he will rest in his love and joy over thee. The Lord doesn’t rest in his love right now, he loves us, but he doesn’t rest in it. Nobody rests in the love of their child when they’re in enemy territory. But the day comes when he does rest, ‘he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing, the time of singing is come, the voice of the turtle’ now that’s turtledove by the way, ‘is heard in our land;’ “the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.” (verse 13) “the fig tree putteth forth her green figs,” I know people want to torture that and stretch it to Israel. I’m good with that, Paul said ‘No man knoweth the times or the seasons, you have no need that I write unto you, you yourself know the Day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night,’so you have a picture of a time and a season. I love the fact that I can apply this personally. And you know what’s going to happen tomorrow morning, don’t you, because I told you, I’m going to wake up while it’s still dark and hear him say ‘Arise, come away, you told everybody else last time,’ ‘Oh, Lord, you were listening?’ Beautiful in Israel, I’ve been there many times in the Spring, winter’s over, and this turtledove almost laughs, you can hear it, I was imagining on Resurrection morning, winter was over, the time of singing was come, the voice of the turtle was heard in our land, it’s different from the dove here in America, it laughs when it sings, it’s beautiful, and particularly in that time of the year. [Comment: This applies to the 1^st Resurrection to immortality also, spoken of by Paul in 1^st Corinthians 15:49-56, when the winter of the Tribulation, World War III is over, Jesus has returned to earth, and we, immortal saints with him, his Bride, freshly come from the Wedding Feast.] So, just a picture here of, she says ‘Of my beloved is saying to me, Rise up my love,’ however you want to look at that, he’s saying ‘I want you to myself, I want you to be alone with me, I want you to be alone with me, rise up my fair one, come away.’

The Lord Says To Us ‘I Want To See Your Face, Your Voice Is Sweet’

Look at verse 14, “O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.” “in the clefts of the rock” “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.” “in the secret of the stairs,” isn’t it interesting, listen to what it says here, “let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.” (verse 14b) Look, just see if you can be alone with the Lord and let him say that to you, ‘you, be my beautiful one, sitting in the cleft of the Rock, I want to see you, I want to hear your voice,’ imagine the Lord saying that to you in your own life, ‘I want to hear your voice, because sweet is thy voice.’ Imagine the Saviour saying that to us, ‘sweet is your voice to me,’ you who are blood-washed and blood-bought, and sanctified, “for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely, beautiful.” And you guys can do whatever you want to do with that, it kind of blows my mind when I’m alone with him.

‘Let Us Catch The Little Foxes That Spoil The Vines,’ ‘Separate Yourself Unto The Lord’

Verse 15, King James “Take us the foxes,” the idea is ‘Let us catch the foxes, the jackals,’ “the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.” they, the little foxes, ruin the fruit. It’s almost like, you go through these things, what are the things in my own life? What are the things, there’s a challenge here, let us catch the little jackals, they’re unclean things that ruin the fruit. I think of the writer of Hebrews saying ‘laying aside every sin that so easily doth beset us,’ Camel Morgan says “You can translate that “Setting aside those sins that are sins in good standing around,” you know, ‘That’s not a terrible thing, that’s not a really bad thing,’ and this is talking about an erosion here, this is talking about the little things, ‘I knocked down this big thing, and I knocked down this big thing, and I got this big bad thing, but I kind of allow these little things, it’s kind of like being pecked to death by a duck, my spiritual experience is being robbed and the fruit is being ruined by these little small things that I kind of make allowance for in my mind.’ And the challenge is here, let’s catch these little jackals, the little things that spoil the vines, “for our vines have tender grapes” good fruit, and we don’t want to see that ruined. “My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.” (verses 16-17) the only mention of the mountains of Bether in the Bible. Interesting, just this picture, the night is fading, the darkness is fading, and the light is coming, there’s something beautiful. I think of David in 2^nd Samuel, he identifies himself as the Sweet Psalmist of Israel when he’s signing off, picks up his harp one more time, with his old snarly beat-up hands, and he bangs out one more song. He doesn’t call himself the giant-killer, he doesn’t call himself the king of Israel, he calls himself the Sweet Psalmist of Israel. He had committed murder and adultery, he had numbered the children of Israel, caused a great plague, and as he sits at the end of his life, he sees himself as the Sweet Psalmist of Israel. He was able to sing of God’s love and God’s grace, God’s forgiveness, his fall with adultery and murder, ‘sacrifice and offering thou dost not desire,’ there was no sacrifice for murder or adultery, you were put to death, ‘but a broken and contrite spirit thou wilt not despise.’ He says ‘Create in my a clean heart, bara,’ it doesn’t say ‘rehab me,’ it doesn’t say ‘counsel me,’ it doesn’t say ‘reform me,’ he says ‘create from nothing in me a clean heart, give me something I do not have, create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.’ And then at the end he says ‘You know, the Messiah’s going to come, and his coming is going to be like the light of the morning, even a morning without clouds, the tender grass growing out of the earth with a clear shining after the rain,’ and you know, that songwriter paints this picture of the night fading away, and the herbs of the field having the drops of dew upon them, glistening as the sun comes up, he says ‘that’s what his Kingdom is going to be like, when it finally comes it’s going to be like this fresh herbage, glistening in the sunshine and the drops of renewal and refreshing upon it,’ and you hear “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.” “the mountains of separation,” it can be translated “division,” I like “mountains of separation” because look, separation is something that the Lord asks us for, we should be a separate people. The struggle in realizing that, for any of us, is always relative to whether we see it as separation from, and we’re carnal, or separation unto. You know if it’s separation from, ‘I can’t really do this anymore, I can’t really do that anymore, I can’t really drink anymore, I can’t do this anymore, I can’t really do that anymore,’ you’re saying you want to be as carnal as I can and not go to hell, you know, all I really want is fire insurance. When you fall in love with someone, all you want to do is be around them. Your old friends are saying ‘Hey, we ain’t seen you anymore, guess you’re in love, ya, saw you the other day with that girl, you had the same T-shirts and the same shorts, I thought that’ll gag me, cut me a break.’ You know, there’s a separation unto, because when you love someone, the idea is here, you see that the devout love that’s between them, and it finally comes to the mountains of Bether, the mountains of separation. And for anybody who really knows Christ, yes, there’s always a struggle with the flesh, that’s just on us, the struggle is never ‘This is what I need to give up, this is what I need to be separated from,’ the power of it, the passion of it is ‘This is who I get to be separated unto, I get to be with him. He’s the one who says I’m like a lily among thorns. Yet, I don’t understand this, I’m black, but I’m comely at the same time, I’m like black as the tents of Kedar, but I’m as beautiful as the curtains of Solomon,’ she’s gone through all of these things. So she says here she’s finally come to the mountains of Bether.”

Song of Solomon 3:1-11

“By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. 2 I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. 3 Watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? 4 It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me. 5 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please. 6 Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant? 7 Behold his bed, which is Solomon’s; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel. 8 They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night. 9 King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. 10 He made the pillars thereof of silver, and the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem. 11 Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.”

‘Where Are You Lord? I Can’t Find You’

“Chapter 3, don’t ask my how to do this perfectly, let’s go to do it, “By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.” (verse 1) now we all had that experience, haven’t we? I’m just seeking the Lord, I can’t find him, don’t know where he is. Some people say, almost geographically, ‘I want to get back to the Lord,’ like if you had a…you could find him or something. There’s something that he does with that, and he uses those perceptions. He promised he would never leave us or forsake us, so when we feel like he’s nowhere around, where he really is standing right next to us, wanting us not to feel like he’s around, for some purpose of his own. She says ‘I sought the one whom my soul loved, but I didn’t find him,’ he’s told her twice before, ‘Rise up and come away,’ she says ‘I’ll do it, I’ll do it, I’ll do it, don’t get up tomorrow morning, I promise, even if I don’t hear you say Get up, I’m going to get up and seek you.’ “I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.” (verse 2) Jeremiah says ‘When you seek me with all of your heart, you’ll find me.’ The Lord isn’t hiding. “The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?” (verse 3) there isn’t ever anything wrong with going to another Christian that you think is mature, and saying ‘you know what, I’m struggling, I’m having a hard time in my relationship with the Lord, I’ve been seeking him, I just don’t sense his presence, would you pray for me, would you pray with me, you know, if God speaks to you would you challenge me?’ there isn’t anything wrong with that. ‘The watchmen that go around the city, they found me, to whom I said Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?’ “It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.” (verse 4) you know, that’s just like him, to me by the way, if the Lord says ‘Rise up, come be with me, come be alone with me,’ and I don’t know how many days he says that, and all of a sudden he’s not there, and then it’s like ‘No, no, I need it, tell me this morning to get up out of bed and spend some time with you, even though I’m not going to do it, I need to know you’re there asking me to do what I’m not gonna do.’ And then all of a sudden ‘Oh no, where’s his presence,’ and finally when you find him, he says ‘Oh, nice to hear from you, nice to hear from you, I’ve been waiting to spend some time with you,’ and sometimes it’s in that desperation that we get serious, and to me that’s part of this picture here, it reminds me of myself, that’s why I’m smiling, you can apply it to your own life. And she says ‘Then I found him whom my soul loveth, I held him, I would not let him go until I brought him into my mother’s house, the place of my own origins, into the chamber of her that conceived me, the place of birth, the place of first life,’ the place of first love, you know it can be again, back to that place of birth.

Our Relationship With Jesus Is A Personal Relationship

“I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake love, till it’s pleased of itself” (verse 5) [last part “nor awake love, till it’s pleased of itself,” I believe he’s rendering the accurate Hebrew] “to arise” is the idea, you don’t mess with this, this is, you can do all kinds of other stuff, but this is something, that it’s none of your business. I think of my own personal relationship to Jesus, I wouldn’t trade it away for anybody else’s. Look, I wouldn’t trade my own relationship with Jesus for Billy Graham’s relationship with Jesus. I kind of think I know what he has with Jesus, but what if I make the swap and it wasn’t right? I at least know what I have with him, you know. And his [Billy Graham’s] relationship wouldn’t fit me anyhow, I’m different. So this issue of personal love between you and the Saviour, your own personal relationship, look, nobody escapes the domain of God’s written Word, that’s constant for all of us. No one accomplishes anything without the power of God’s Holy Spirit, that’s constant for all of us [i.e. what I think he means is that no one accomplishes anything spiritually worthwhile and lasting for the Lord without enabling the power of God’s Holy Spirit acting inside of us, guiding us, empowering what we do for him]. I raised two sons and two daughters, and they were all different, they all responded to different things, they’re all encouraged in different ways. I think of the perceptions of one of them, perceptive, sharp, couldn’t get good grades in school, but had all kinds of things cooking, I knew at the same time, but wasn’t academic, and I was amazed as I watched. The other one, there’s a depth that I admire, and a purity. I got saved out of the world and out of a mess and out of things that I never want any of my kids to get involved in. And I look at that one, and I think ‘Wow, there is a depth and a perception and a beauty and a purity here that I so admire.’ Another one, just the measure of uprightness overwhelms me, just upright, deep, unpretentious. One of them is incredibly perceptive, around me all the time, because I know, every time I look at them, they know what I’m thinking and what I’m feeling. They’re all different, all different. In this room, there are commonalities, there is the regeneration, the new birth, our commonalities, we’re washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, our commonalities, we have the same Spirit, the same Lord, the same faith, our commonalities, we have the same Word, it is to be the rule for all of our lives, there’s no exceptions. And somehow, in the middle of all that, each one of us has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that he honours, because in his genius he made us all distinct and separate. This love thing is not anybody else’s business [between you and the Lord]. You know, if you see me transgressing the Word, you challenge me. You see me doing something I shouldn’t, we have that, we have the Book. But in the context of my relationship with him, you have no right to step in there and try to guess what’s going on, and tell me. You can judge fruit, but you can never judge what’s going on deep within someone and their love for Christ. And who wants to do that? We just should want to encourage one another. So, “I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that’s ye stir not up, nor awake love, until it please[ending Hebrew rendering].”(verse 5)

The Coming Of The Lord In His Royal Wedding Procession

And then “Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?” (verse 6) Solomon now, it seems, has sent, now he’s coming to Jerusalem, he’s going to bring his bride, “Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?” I think of Isaiah 63, ‘Who is this that cometh from Basra, with dyed garments’ and so forth. Just an interesting picture, “Behold, his bed, which is Solomon’s; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel.” (verse 7) 60 valiant men, warriors are around it, of the most valiant of Israel. So, typical in a royal procession, sometimes to a wedding, the royal bed would be carried, there’s a picture here kind of that, and there’s a picture of 60 of the most valiant warriors of Israel all around it as it’s coming. It says “They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.” (verse 8) and it says “King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.” (verse 9) chariot seems to fit, at least it helps us understand, “He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.” (verse 10) Now look, when you study Solomon, and you study his reign, this is a guy, the LORD said in Deuteronomy 17 when you make yourself a king from your own people, which wasn’t God’s ideal design, he said ‘I don’t want him to multiply wives unto himself,’ and we know what Solomon thought multiplication was, he had 700 wives and 300 concubines, maybe he thought that was addition, I don’t know, ‘don’t multiply wives,’ he said ‘don’t go back to Egypt for horses or military might,’ and Solomon certainly did that, his stables were famous. And he says ‘don’t store up gold and silver to yourself,’ it says in the days of Solomon that silver was so common it was accounted as nothing, that silver was counted as the rocks of the field. And one of the scholars I read said that Solomon would get up in the morning, and he had body guards that would run next to his chariot, each one of them had to be over six feet tall, each one of them had to have raven black hair, each one of them wore white silk with a gold sash and a gold sword, and each one of them every morning sprinkled fresh ground gold dust in his hair so when they ran next to his chariot their hair would sparkle. Now this is a guy whose got too much going on, besides storing up peacocks and monkeys and all that kind of stuff. But here this picture, this chariot he puts together, it says the pillars thereof are of silver, which of course is the metal of Redemption, the bottom of it is of gold, representing holiness, the covering of it is purple, the midst thereof is paved with love, just a remarkable picture again, you can do what you want for the daughters of Jerusalem. “Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother [Bathsheba] crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.” (verse 11) so the picture of the king coming in all of his royalty and all of his majesty, with his bride. [That’s us!] [transcript of a connective expository sermon on Song of Solomon 2:1-17 and 3:1-11, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]