Song of Solomon 5

CHAPTER 5In this chapter there seems to be a certain amount of conflict in the mind of the bride about whether they should spend time in fellowship and communion or in going out to discharge their responsibilities. Both are essential. We need to be doing both. We need to sit at the feet of Jesus, but we also need to follow those feet as they go out on the hillsides looking for the lost sheep. We need to follow those feet out into the world, which is a field in which to plant the seed of the Word of God.

Song of Solomon 5:1

He is inviting her to join with him in fellowship. Our Lord says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Rev_3:20). That is the fellowship we need. And in connection with fellowship, John writes, “…These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full” (1Jn_1:4). Not only does He want us to have fellowship, but He wants us to have a good time. Are you having a good time as a Christian? Wonderful letters come to me in response to our radio broadcasts. There are people in hospitals and in rest homes who tell about their sufferings and the diseases with which they are afflicted. But they also write about the wonderful fellowship they have with the Lord Jesus. The tears came to my eyes when I read a letter from one dear lady, who wrote, “At night when the nurse tucks me in I cannot sleep but lie awake for another hour or two. During that time I pray for you until I go to sleep. Then I wake up about 4:30 in the morning and I pray for you again.” Then she continues in her letter to tell how wonderful it is to have fellowship with the Lord Jesus. That is beautiful!

Song of Solomon 5:2

THE WAKING SLEEPNow we come to the fourth canticle, or the fourth song. These are like folk songs. Now it is the bride who speaks. She says her heart is awake. She is on the alert, watching for him. “The voice of my beloved"he has been busy out in the night while the bride crawled into bed. The church needs to hear this message today. All believers need to hear this message. Let’s get out of bed and get busy. If the Lord has given us health, let us start moving out for Him.

Song of Solomon 5:3

Now she starts to rationalize. She is already in bed. She has washed her feet to go to bed, and she doesn’t want to get out of bed and get her feet dirty.

Song of Solomon 5:4

Her “bowels,” that is, her emotions, were moved for him.

Song of Solomon 5:5

The background for this was a lovely custom that they had in that day. When a man was in love with a girl and wanted to express his love, he would go to her home and instead of leaving a calling card, he would leave a fragrance. The door was so constructed as to leave an opening so that one could reach through to the inside and remove the bar unless it was locked as well as barredwhich was the case on this occasion. When there was no response from the sleeping bride, the bridegroom placed myrrh on the inside handle of the door to let her know that he had been there. Then she finally came to open the door, the wonderful fragrance was transferred to her fingers. He had left the sweetness of his presence. The bride is a picture of the church today. The church doesn’t go very far from home. Very few get out from under the shadow of the church steeple. Most folk don’t even get off the church steps. As a result, they have lost fellowship with the Lord Jesus. Actually, that is one of those little foxes which destroy the grapes. We lose our fellowship when we step out of the will of God. That is what it means to quench the Spirit (see 1Th_5:19). It is quenching the Spirit to refuse to go where He wants us to go or to do what He wants us to do. I think that if we today would get up off our beds, begin to move out and start doing something for God, we would find the sweetness of His presence on the handle of our own bed chamber. We would experience the sweetness of His fellowship. This is the briefest of the songs, but what a little gem it is!

Song of Solomon 5:6

THE SORROWING SEARCH FOR THE BELOVEDNow we come to the fifth song. In this love story King Solomon has brought this humble Shulamite girl from the hill country of Ephraim to the palace in Jerusalem. In these songs the bride reveals how impressed she is by everything therethe palace, the throne, and the banquet table of the king. Her song includes her worship and adoration of the king. But when he came to rouse her to come with him as he was out doing his work as a shepherd, looking for the sheep that were lost, she didn’t want to get out of bed. When she finally did go to the door, he was gone. She opened the door and called to him, then she went out to look for him. You see, the fellowship had been broken. I personally believe that there are a great many Christians who have done one of two things: they have grieved the Spirit by sin in their lives, or they have quenched the Spirit by not being obedient to Him. That breaks fellowship with Him and causes us to lose our joy. It does not mean that we lose our salvation, but we will surely lose the joy of our salvation. It does not mean that we have lost the Holy Spirit. He still indwells the believer. We can grieve Him, but we cannot grieve Him away. However, we certainly can lose fellowship with Him, and many Christians are in that position. Sometime ago a man said to me, “You speak of the reality of Christ in your life. I don’t have it.” That was a dead giveaway that he was quenching the Spirit of God. He was out of the will of God. I know the man quite well, and I believe the problem was that he was doing what he wanted to do instead of doing what he knew was the will of God. A person can try to mask the truth and say that he is doing the will of God. If he does not have the joy of the Lord, it is a giveaway that he is actually doing his own will. The bride here has lost her fellowship. I tell you, if you are not doing something for the Lord, you haven’t lost your salvation, but you surely are missing sweet fellowship with Him.

Song of Solomon 5:7

Do you realize how impotent and powerless we are if we attempt to go out on our own? We may go out with a great deal of enthusiasm, but enthusiasm will never replace fellowship with Him. Today there is a lot of enthusiasm for knocking on doors and witnessing to people. There are certain people who ought to be doing that; there are others who had better not. I have a friend in another state who, when I am there, asks me to play golf with him. I enjoy playing with him, but I have discovered that he is a man who lacks tact even though he has a zeal to witness for the Lord.

I have seen him make waitresses angry. I have seen him make strangers that we meet angry. He says to me, “You know, there is surely a lot of opposition to the gospel today, isn’t there?” Well, I couldn’t help but say to him, “I don’t think there is as much opposition as you think there is. It might have something to do with the way you present the gospel.” Then I called his attention to the way the Lord Jesus witnessed to the woman at the well. One of the most hostile persons that the Lord Jesus ever approached was that Samaritan woman who came down to the well. She was defiant. Have you ever noticed how He approached her? He didn’t approach her as if He had something to cram down her throat. He asked her for a drink of water. He took the lowly place by asking her for something. Then He very courteously said, “Oh, I could have given you living water if you had asked for it.” Finally she did ask for it, but He didn’t offer it until she asked for it. Before we attempt to cram the gospel down the throats of people, we need to give them a little appetite for it. They should see something in our lives that will make them want to know about the Lord Jesus. However, it is true that there is an opposition to the Word of God, and we find it coming sometimes from unexpected quarters. “The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me.” This girl is having a difficult time. She is being hurt by those who should have been protecting her. This same situation occurs in Christian circles. Many a preacher in our society finds himself deserted by a board that has turned against him because his preaching bothers their consciences. Many times opposition to the gospel comes from those who should be protecting it. Now this girl, the bride, meets the daughters of Jerusalem. Here we find antiphonal singing. The bride sings one part, and the daughters of Jerusalem sing an answering part. This sounds very much like an opera. The bride says:

Song of Solomon 5:8

“If you find him, tell him how much I miss him. Tell him how much I love him, and let him know that I am looking for him.” Her heart is sick and her whole being is yearning after him. The garden has lost its fragrance; the myrrh and frankincense don’t mean much to her now; and the beauty of the flowers has withered. Now in this antiphony the daughters of Jerusalem answer:

Song of Solomon 5:9

Their answer sounds rather skeptical. In effect they are saying, “This one that you say means so much to you, why is he more to you than you might expect another to be to us?” “What is thy beloved more than another beloved?” Who is this Jesus anyway? What makes you think Jesus is different from anyone else? There have been other great religious leaders. Why do you think that Jesus is different from them? Why do you think that He is who He claims to be? Jesus was only a man. That is the kind of skepticism we hear. May I say to you, there has been a lot of discussion about Jesus. There has been more controversy about Him than any person who has ever lived. He is the most controversial figure in history. Let me ask you a question. If someone today tried to show that Julius Caesar was a real rascal, would you get all excited about it and rise to his defense? If someone tried to show that Julius Caesar was a saint, would you be all excited about that and try to argue about it?

It wouldn’t excite me. I’d let anyone think whatever he wanted to think about Julius Caesar. I wouldn’t argue with him. But the minute you mention Jesus Christ, the whole human family chooses sides. It is interesting that God forces us to make a decision about His Son. He wouldn’t let Pilate off without making a decision.

Pilate tried to evade any involvement. He called for a basin of water and washed his hands, saying, “…I am innocent of the blood of this just person …” (Mat_27:24). How wrong he was! The oldest creed of the church, which has been recited for over nineteen hundred years by multitudes of people, includes these words: “Crucified under Pontius Pilate.” Pontius Pilate, you didn’t wash your hands; you made a decision. God forced you to make a decision. Pilate thought that he was the judge and that Jesus was the prisoner.

He didn’t realize that Christ was the judge and he was the prisoner. And still in our contemporary society every man must make a decision. “What is thy beloved more than another beloved?” In anthologies of religion, great religious leaders are listed who are called founders of religions: Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Ghandi, Buddha, and all the rest. According to Tertullian, the early church father, the Christians in the early church would rather have died than have Jesus put down on a plane with the heathen deities of the Roman Empire. They refused to even take a pinch of incense and place it before the image of Caesar. They wouldn’t do it, because their Beloved was different; He was God.

Song of Solomon 5:10

THE BEAUTY OF THE BELOVEDNow the bride is going to answer. She is going to respond to their skepticism. You would think that they had her cooled off and that she would tone down what she says about the bridegroom. But it didn’t work that way. Actually, she now waxes eloquent concerning him. There is something here that is very obvious, and that is that she describes him in minute detail. Do you know what that means? It means that she knew him. She knew him intimately. My friend, if you are going to defend the Lord Jesus Christ today, if you are going to witness for Him, you must know Him. Not only do you need to know who He is, but you need to know Him enough to be able to wax eloquent on His behalf. When I say be eloquent, I don’t necessarily mean eloquent in language. I mean full of enthusiasm, excitement, love, and zeal for His person. You and I need not only to know Him, but we must love Him. That is the challenge that we find here. The bride knew Him. She knew Him and she loved Him. She says that He is the chiefest among ten thousand. Many people have written about the person of Christ because He is altogether lovely even in His humanity. Dr. C. I. Scofield, the man who wrote the first notes for The Scofield Reference Bible, wrote about the Lord Jesus in a tract entitled, “The Loveliness of Jesus.” Let me share part of it with you: All other greatness has been marred by littleness, all other wisdom has been flawed by folly, all other goodness has been tainted by imperfection; Jesus Christ remains the only Being of whom, without gross flattery, it could be asserted, “He is altogether lovely.” My theme, then, is: The Loveliness of Christ. First of all, as it seems to me, this loveliness of Christ consists in His perfect humanity. Am I understood? I do not now mean that He was a perfect human, but that He was perfectly human. In everything but our sins, and our evil natures, He is one with us. He grew in stature and in grace. He labored, and wept, and prayed, and loved. He was tempted in all points as we aresin apart. With Thomas, we confess Him Lord and God; we adore and revere Him, but beloved, there is no other who establishes with us such intimacy, who comes so close to these human hearts of ours; no one in the universe of whom we are so little afraid. He enters as simply and naturally into our twentieth century lives as if He had been reared in the same street.

He is not one of the ancients. How wholesomely and genuinely human He is! Martha scolds Him; John, who has seen Him raise the dead, still the tempest and talk with Moses and Elijah on the mount, does not hesitate to make a pillow of His breast at supper. Peter will not let Him wash his feet, but afterwards wants his head and hands included in the ablution. They ask Him foolish questions, and rebuke Him, and venerate and adore Him all in a breath; and He calls them by their first names, and tells them to fear not, and assures them of His love. And in all this He seems to me altogether lovely. He is altogether lovely. Now the important question is this: Is He altogether lovely to you? Are you able to speak of Him with the enthusiasm the bride had for her bridegroom? We must know Christ intimately if we are to witness of Him. And we must love Him. When one comes to Christ it is not a business transaction. He is wonderful, and I do not think that we laud Him, glorify Him, lift Him up, worship Him, and bow before Him with thanksgiving enough. He is wonderful any way that you look at Him. Let me quote again from Dr. Scofield’s essay: The saintliness of Jesus is so warm and human that it attracts and inspires. We find in it nothing austere and inaccessible, like a statue in a niche. The beauty of His holiness reminds one rather of a rose, or a bank of violets. Jesus receives sinners and eats with themall kinds of sinners. Nicodemus, the moral, religious sinner, and Mary of Magdala, “out of whom went seven devils"the shocking kind of sinner. He comes into sinful lives as a bright, clear stream enters a stagnant pool. The stream is not afraid of contamination but its sweet energy cleanses the pool. I remark again, and as connected with this that His sympathy is altogether lovely. He is always being “touched with compassion.” The multitude without a shepherd, the sorrowing widow of Nain, the little dead child of the ruler, the demoniac of Gadara, the hungry five thousandwhat ever suffers touches Jesus. His very wrath against the scribes and Pharisees is but the excess of His sympathy for those who suffer under their hard self-righteousness. Did you ever find Jesus looking for “deserving poor”? He “healed all their sick.” And what grace in His sympathy! Why did He touch that poor leper? He could have healed him with a word as He did the nobleman’s son. Why, for years the wretch had been an outcast, cut off from kin, dehumanized. He lost the sense of being a man. It was defilement to approach him. Well, the touch of Jesus made him human again. A Christian woman, laboring among the moral lepers of London, found a poor street girl desperately ill in a bare, cold room. With her own hands she ministered to her, changing her bed linen, procuring medicines, nourishing food, a fire, and making the poor place as bright and cheery as possible, and then she said, “May I pray with you?” “No,” said the girl, “you don’t care for me; you are doing this to get to heaven.” Many days passed with the Christian woman unwearily kind, the sinful girl hard and bitter. At last the Christian said: “My dear, you are nearly well now, and I shall not come again, but as it is my last visit, I want you to let me kiss you,” and the pure lips that had known only prayers and holy words met the lips defiled by oaths and by unholy caressesand then, my friends, the hard heart broke. That was Christ’s way. As I read this essay from Dr. Scofield, my thoughts turn back to the very beginning of the Song of Solomon in chapter 1, verse Son_1:2: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.” He wants to bestow His love, His affection, His care, His grace, His mercy upon us today, and we are as hard as that poor sinning girl. Again, I quote from Dr. Scofield: Can you fancy Him calling a convention of the Pharisees to discuss methods of reaching the “masses”? That leads me to remark that His humility was altogether lovely, and He, the only one who ever had the choice of how and where He should be born, entered this life as one of the “masses.” What meekness, what lowliness! “I am among you as one that serveth.” He “began to wash His disciples’ feet.” “When He was reviled He reviled not again.” “As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.” Can you think of Jesus posing and demanding His rights? But it is in His way with sinners that the supreme loveliness of Christ is most sweetly shown. How gentle He is, yet how faithful; how considerate, how respectful. Nicodemus, candid and sincere, but proud of his position as a master in Israel, and timid lest he should imperil it, “comes to Jesus by night.” Before he departs “the Master,” Nicodemus has learned his utter ignorance of the first step toward the kingdom, and goes away to think over the personal application of “they loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” But he has not heard one harsh word, one utterance that can wound his self-respect. When He speaks to that silent despairing woman, after her accusers have gone out, one by one, He uses for “woman” the same word as He used when addressing His mother from the cross. Follow Him to Jacob’s well at high noon and hear His conversation with the woman of Samaria. How patiently He unfolds the deepest truths, how gently, yet faithfully He presses the great ulcer of sin which is eating away her soul. But He could not be more respectful to Mary of Bethany. Even in the agonies of death He could hear the cry of despairing faith. When conquerors return from far wars in strange lands they bring their chiefest captive as a trophy. It was enough for Christ to take back to heaven the soul of a thief. Yea, He is altogether lovely. And now I have left myself no room to speak of His dignity, of His virile manliness, of His perfect courage. There is in Jesus a perfect equipoise of various perfections. All the elements of perfect character are in lovely balance. His gentleness is never weak. His courage is never brutal. My friends, you may study these things for yourself. Follow Him through all the scenes of outrage and insult on the night and morning of His arrest and trial. Behold Him before the high priest, before Pilate, before Herod. See Him brow-beaten, bullied, scourged, smitten upon the face, spit upon, mocked. How His inherent greatness comes out. Not once does He lose His self-poise, His high dignity. Let me ask some unsaved sinner here to follow Him still further. Go with the jeering crowd without the gates; see Him stretched upon the great rough cross and hear the dreadful sound of the sledge as the spikes are forced through His hands and feet. See, as the yelling mob falls back, the cross, bearing this gentlest, sweetest, bravest, loveliest man, upreared until it falls into the socket in the rock. “And sitting down, they watched Him there.” You watch, too. Hear Him ask the Father to forgive His murderers, hear all the cries from the cross. Is He not altogether lovely? What does it all mean? “He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.” “By Him all that believe are justified from all things.” “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.” I close with a word of personal testimony. This is my beloved, and this is my friend. Will you not accept Him as your Savior, and beloved and friend? That is the end of the quotation, and I want to add my own “Amen” to it. That means I agree with every word of it. My Beloved is the chiefest among ten thousand. He is the One who is altogether lovely. Was it merely the son of Joseph and Mary who crossed the world’s horizon more that nineteen hundred years ago? Was it merely human blood that was spilled on Calvary’s hill for the redemption of sinners? What thinking man can keep from exclaiming, “My Lord and my God”? “This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem” (v. Son_5:16). She knew Him. She loved Him. She makes Him known.