SCRIPTURE: Song of Solomon 4
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain. Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices. [Song of Solomon 4:12-14]
Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread everywhere. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its choice fruits. [Song of Solomon 4:16]
This is very intimate poetry, describing the romantic and sexual love in poetic language.
It makes sense that many interpreters have spiritualized this writing, rather than deal with the r-rated content that a plain reading involves.
I do not recall reading this stuff when I was in Sunday School, or having it explained to me.
And yet this too is a part of God’s good creation, a gift from God for us to enjoy and celebrate.
“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’ ? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” [Matthew 19:4-6]
God designed us as physical and spiritual beings, and the union of husband and wife is a part of this – one in flesh, not just one in spirit.
Sin is what has ruined this precious gift, and we have twisted it into an impersonal, self-serving and dehumanizing experience.
What God designed to be a part of a whole relationship, we have separated into an isolated experience – one night stands and multiple partners and ‘friends with privileges’ and affairs and rape and pornography…
Divorce is not the only problem, any separation of the beautiful gift of intimacy and oneness from a covenant relationship of committed love.
Our society is messed up in many ways, including intimacy.
People are experiencing the consequences – loss of self-esteem, loss of trust, loss of commitment, loss of faithfulness, loss of relational depth.
For all the ‘liberation’ that we have experienced in regards to sexuality, we are more in bondage and misery than ever.
This song reminds us that God had something else in mind…
PRAYER:
Lord, I agree that we are messed up, and that we were made for intimacy. Help me to see the way sin is hindering my experience of Your precious gift.
What a love story!
Infatuation is the word that comes to my mind. Love and obedience. My all in all. My heart is stolen. You are the treasure I seek. You are my heart’s desire. My eyes are only for you. Total commitment. The garden fountain of my life.
That must not only be my earthly relationship to my wife, but also my Saviour who is the fountain of life everlasting. I have used parts of this love song in cards written to my wife when separated for periods of time. God has given us the standard of what our relationship should be here on earth not only with a man and wife, but above all, with Him.
The first garden was the All experience. His presence was everywhere and recognized by Adam and Eve. They walked and talked with Him. So too, I need that experience each day, walking and talking in love and obedience with my Saviour and that has great implications in my daily relationships.
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Refrain
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.
Refrain
Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,
But our toil He doth richly repay;
Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross,
But is blessed if we trust and obey.
Refrain
But we never can prove the delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor He shows, for the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.
Refrain
Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet.
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way.
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey