2022-5丨General Subject：Loving the Lord and Loving One Another for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ

Loving the Lord and Loving One Another for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ

Message Two Song of Songs—the Progressive Experience of an Individual Believer's Loving Fellowship with Christ for the Preparation of the Bride of Christ

S.S. 1:2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! / For your love is better than wine.

S.S. 1:3 Your anointing oils have a pleasant fragrance; / Your name is like ointment poured forth; / Therefore the virgins love you.

S.S. 1:4 Draw me; we will run after you—The king has brought me into his chambers—/ We will be glad and rejoice in you; / We will extol your love more than wine. / Rightly do they love you.

S.S. 2:8 The voice of my beloved! Now he comes, / Leaping upon the mountains, / Skipping upon the hills.

S.S. 2:9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart. / Now he stands behind our wall; / He is looking through the windows, / He is glancing through the lattice.

S.S. 3:8 All of them wield the sword and are expert in war; / Each man has his sword at his thigh / Because of the night alarms.

S.S. 3:9 King Solomon made himself a palanquin / Of the wood of Lebanon.

S.S. 3:10 Its posts he made of silver; / Its bottom, of gold; / Its seat, of purple; / Its midst was inlaid with love / From the daughters of Jerusalem.

S.S. 4:12 A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride, / A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

S.S. 4:13 Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates / With choicest fruit; / Henna with spikenard,

S.S. 4:14 Spikenard and saffron; / Calamus and cinnamon, / With all the trees of frankincense; / Myrrh and aloes, / With all the chief spices.

S.S. 4:15 A fountain in gardens, / A well of living water, / And streams from Lebanon.

S.S. 4:16 Awake, O north wind; / And come, O south wind! / Blow upon my garden: / Let its spices flow forth; / Let my beloved come into his garden / And eat his choicest fruit.

S.S. 6:10 Who is this woman who looks forth like the dawn, / As beautiful as the moon, / As clear as the sun, / As terrible as an army with banners?

S.S. 6:13 Return, return, O Shulammite; / Return, return, that we may gaze at you. / Why should you gaze at the Shulammite, / As upon the dance of two camps?

S.S. 7:11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the fields; / Let us lodge in the villages.

S.S. 8:13 O you who dwell in the gardens, / My companions listen for your voice; / Let me hear it.

S.S. 8:14 Make haste, my beloved, / And be like a gazelle or a young hart / Upon the mountains of spices.

I. The subject of Song of Songs, a poem, is the history of love in an excellent marriage, revealing the progressive experience of an individual believer's loving fellowship with Christ for the preparation of His bride in six major stages:

A. In the first stage of Song of Songs, the lover of Christ is drawn to pursue Him for satisfaction (1:2—2:7); the Lord wants His seeker to have a personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual relationship with Him:

S.S. 1:2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! / For your love is better than wine.

S.S. 1:3 Your anointing oils have a pleasant fragrance; / Your name is like ointment poured forth; / Therefore the virgins love you.

S.S. 1:4 Draw me; we will run after you—The king has brought me into his chambers—/ We will be glad and rejoice in you; / We will extol your love more than wine. / Rightly do they love you.

S.S. 1:5 I am black but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, / Like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

S.S. 1:6 Do not look at me, because I am black, / Because the sun has scorched me. / My mother's sons were angry with me; / They made me keeper of the vineyards, / But my own vineyard I have not kept.

S.S. 1:7 Tell me, you whom my soul loves, Where do you pasture your flock? / Where do you make it lie down at noon? / For why should I be like one who is veiled / Beside the flocks of your companions?

S.S. 1:8 If you yourself do not know, / You fairest among women, / Go forth on the footsteps of the flock, / And pasture your young goats / By the shepherds' tents.

S.S. 1:9 I compare you, my love, / To a mare among Pharaoh's chariots.

S.S. 1:10 Your cheeks are lovely with plaits of ornaments, / Your neck with strings of jewels.

S.S. 1:11 We will make you plaits of gold / With studs of silver.

S.S. 1:12 While the king was at his table, / My spikenard gave forth its fragrance.

S.S. 1:13 My beloved is to me a bundle of myrrh / That lies at night between my breasts.

S.S. 1:14 My beloved is to me a cluster of henna flowers / In the vineyards of En-gedi.

S.S. 1:15 Oh, you are beautiful, my love! / Oh, you are beautiful! Your eyes are like doves.

S.S. 1:16 Oh, you are beautiful, my beloved; indeed, pleasant! Indeed, our couch is green.

S.S. 1:17 The beams of our house are cedars; / Our rafters are cypresses.

S.S. 2:1 I am a rose of Sharon, / A lily of the valleys.

S.S. 2:2 As a lily among thorns, / So is my love among the daughters.

S.S. 2:3 As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, / So is my beloved among the sons: In his shade I delighted and sat down, / And his fruit was sweet to my taste.

S.S. 2:4 He brought me into the banqueting house, / And his banner over me was love.

S.S. 2:5 Sustain me with raisin cakes, / Refresh me with apples, / For I am sick with love.

S.S. 2:6 His left hand is under my head, / And his right hand embraces me.

S.S. 2:7 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, / By the gazelles or by the hinds of the fields, / Not to rouse up or awaken my love / Until she pleases.

1. Draw me is personal (1:4); the Lord said, “I drew them with cords of a man, / With bands of love” (Hosea 11:4a); this indicates that God loves us with His divine love not on the level of divinity but on the level of humanity; the cords of a man through which God draws us include Christ's incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension; it is by all these steps of Christ in His humanity that God's love in His salvation reaches us in a personal way (Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:9-10).

S.S. 1:4 Draw me; we will run after you—The king has brought me into his chambers—/ We will be glad and rejoice in you; / We will extol your love more than wine. / Rightly do they love you.

Hosea 11:4 I drew them with cords of a man, / With bands of love; And I was to them like those / Who lift off the yoke on their jaws; / And I gently caused them to eat.

Rom. 5:8 But God commends His own love to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 4:9 In this the love of God was manifested among us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might have life and live through Him.

1 John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.

2. Kiss me (S. S. 1:2) is affectionate; after believing in Christ to receive Him as the divine life (John 1:4,12), we need to love Christ in a personal and affectionate way that we may pursue Him and enjoy Him as our satisfaction; Psalm 2:12 commands us to “kiss the Son”; kissing Christ is the enjoyment of Christ.

S.S. 1:2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! / For your love is better than wine.

John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name,

Psa. 2:12 Kiss the Son / Lest He be angry and you perish from the way; / For His anger may suddenly be kindled. / Blessed are all those who take refuge in Him.

3. In her pursuing of Christ the seeker is brought by Him into her regenerated spirit as the Holiest of all (his chambers—S. S. 1:4) to have fellowship with Him; His chambers indicate a private relationship with the Lord.

S.S. 1:4 Draw me; we will run after you—The king has brought me into his chambers—/ We will be glad and rejoice in you; / We will extol your love more than wine. / Rightly do they love you.

4. Furthermore, because Christ visits us in our regenerated spirit as His inner chambers, our relationship with Him must be spiritual; He visits us in our spirit privately, coming to us in a spiritual way, not in a physical way.

5. All the spiritual principles are contained in this first stage of the seeker's overcoming life in Song of Songs; the lessons that follow are not new, but they are old lessons repeated in a deeper way; regeneration brings the gene of God into us, and all the experiences of our whole Christian life are in this gene—1 John 3:9.

1 John 3:9 Everyone who has been begotten of God does not practice sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been begotten of God.

B. In the second stage of Song of Songs, the lover of Christ is called to be delivered from the self through her oneness with the cross of Christ—2:8--3:5:

S.S. 2:8 The voice of my beloved! Now he comes, / Leaping upon the mountains, / Skipping upon the hills.

S.S. 2:9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart. / Now he stands behind our wall; / He is looking through the windows, / He is glancing through the lattice.

S.S. 2:10 My beloved responds and says to me, / Rise up, my love, / My beauty, and come away;

S.S. 2:11 For now the winter is past; / The rain is over and gone.

S.S. 2:12 Flowers appear on the earth; / The time of singing has come, / And the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

S.S. 2:13 The fig tree has ripened its figs, / And the vines are in blossom—they give forth their fragrance. / Rise up, my love, / My beauty, and come away.

S.S. 2:14 My dove, in the clefts of the rock, / In the covert of the precipice, Let me see your countenance, / Let me hear your voice; / For your voice is sweet, / And your countenance is lovely.

S.S. 2:15 Catch the foxes for us, / The little foxes, / That ruin the vineyards / While our vineyards are in blossom.

S.S. 2:16 My beloved is mine, and I am his; / He pastures his flock among the lilies.

S.S. 2:17 Until the day dawns and the shadows flee away, / Turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young hart / On the mountains of Bether.

S.S. 3:1 On my bed night after night / I sought him whom my soul loves; / I sought him, but found him not.

S.S. 3:2 I will rise now and go about in the city; / In the streets and in the squares / I will seek him whom my soul loves. / I sought him, but found him not.

S.S. 3:3 The watchmen who go about in the city found me—/ Have you seen him whom my soul loves?

S.S. 3:4 Scarcely had I passed them / When I found him whom my soul loves; / I held him and would not let go / Until I had brought him into my mother's house / And into the chamber of her who conceived me.

S.S. 3:5 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, / By the gazelles or by the hinds of the fields, / Not to rouse up or awaken my love / Until she pleases.

1. Song of Songs 2:8-9 speaks of the vitality of resurrection; in these verses Christ is likened to a gazelle or a young hart “leaping upon the mountains, / Skipping upon the hills”; mountains and hills refer to difficulties and barriers, but nothing is too high or too great to stop the resurrected Christ; we need to seek for and know Christ's mountain-leaping and hill-skipping presence.

S.S. 2:8 The voice of my beloved! Now he comes, / Leaping upon the mountains, / Skipping upon the hills.

S.S. 2:9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart. / Now he stands behind our wall; / He is looking through the windows, / He is glancing through the lattice.

2. The lover of Christ falls into introspection, which becomes a seclusion as a wall that keeps her away from the presence of Christ (v. 9b); hence, Christ encourages her to rise up and come out of her low situation to be with Him (v. 10).

S.S. 2:9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart. / Now he stands behind our wall; / He is looking through the windows, / He is glancing through the lattice.

S.S. 2:10 My beloved responds and says to me, / Rise up, my love, / My beauty, and come away;

3. The lover of Christ also hears the Lord telling her that the time of dormancy (winter) is past and that the trials (rain) are over and gone (v. 11); He also tells her that the springtime has come; thus, she is entreated and encouraged by the Lord with the flourishing riches of resurrection (vv. 12-13).

S.S. 2:11 For now the winter is past; / The rain is over and gone.

S.S. 2:12 Flowers appear on the earth; / The time of singing has come, / And the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

S.S. 2:13 The fig tree has ripened its figs, / And the vines are in blossom—they give forth their fragrance. / Rise up, my love, / My beauty, and come away.

4. It is by the power of resurrection, not by our natural life, that we, the lovers of Christ, are enabled to be conformed to His death by being one with His cross (vv. 14-15); the reality of resurrection is the pneumatic Christ as the consummated Spirit, who indwells and is mingled with our regenerated spirit; it is in such a mingled spirit that we participate in and experience the resurrection of Christ, which enables us to be one with the cross to be delivered from the self and to be transformed into a new man in God's new creation for the fulfillment of God's economy in the building up of the organic Body of Christ (Rom. 8:2, 4, 29; Gal. 6:15; 2 Cor. 5:17).

S.S. 2:14 My dove, in the clefts of the rock, / In the covert of the precipice, Let me see your countenance, / Let me hear your voice; / For your voice is sweet, / And your countenance is lovely.

S.S. 2:15 Catch the foxes for us, / The little foxes, / That ruin the vineyards / While our vineyards are in blossom.

Rom. 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.

Rom. 8:4 That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

Rom. 8:29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers;

Gal. 6:15 For neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation is what matters.

2 Cor. 5:17 So then if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, they have become new.

C. In the third stage of Song of Songs, the lover of Christ is called to live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection—3:6--5:1:

S.S. 3:6 Who is she who comes up from the wilderness / Like pillars of smoke, / Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, / With all the fragrant powders of the merchant?

S.S. 3:7 There is Solomon's bed; / Sixty mighty men surround it, / Of the mighty men of Israel.

S.S. 3:8 All of them wield the sword and are expert in war; / Each man has his sword at his thigh / Because of the night alarms.

S.S. 3:9 King Solomon made himself a palanquin / Of the wood of Lebanon.

S.S. 3:10 Its posts he made of silver; / Its bottom, of gold; / Its seat, of purple; / Its midst was inlaid with love / From the daughters of Jerusalem.

S.S. 3:11 Go forth, O daughters of Zion, / And look at King Solomon with the crown / With which his mother crowned him / On the day of his espousals, / Yes, on the day of the gladness of his heart.

S.S. 4:1 Oh, you are beautiful, my love! / Oh, you are beautiful! Your eyes are like doves behind your veil; / Your hair is like a flock of goats / That repose on Mount Gilead.

S.S. 4:2 Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes / That have come up from the washing, / All of which have borne twins, / And none of them is bereaved of her young.

S.S. 4:3 Your lips are like a scarlet thread, / And your mouth is lovely; / Your cheeks are like a piece of pomegranate / Behind your veil.

S.S. 4:4 Your neck is like the tower of David, / Built for an armory: / A thousand bucklers hang on it, / All the shields of the mighty men.

S.S. 4:5 Your two breasts are like two fawns, / Twins of a gazelle, / That feed among the lilies.

S.S. 4:6 Until the day dawns and the shadows flee away, / I, for my part, will go to the mountain of myrrh / And to the hill of frankincense.

S.S. 4:7 You are altogether beautiful, my love, / And there is no blemish in you.

S.S. 4:8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride; / With me from Lebanon come. / Look from the top of Amana, / From the top of Senir and Hermon, / From the lions' dens, / From the leopards' mountains.

S.S. 4:9 You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride; / You have ravished my heart with one glance of your eyes, / With one strand of your necklace.

S.S. 4:10 How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! / How much better is your love than wine, / And the fragrance of your ointments / Than all spices!

S.S. 4:11 Your lips drip fresh honey, my bride; / Honey and milk are under your tongue; / And the fragrance of your garments / Is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

S.S. 4:12 A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride, / A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

S.S. 4:13 Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates / With choicest fruit; / Henna with spikenard,

S.S. 4:14 Spikenard and saffron; / Calamus and cinnamon, / With all the trees of frankincense; / Myrrh and aloes, / With all the chief spices.

S.S. 4:15 A fountain in gardens, / A well of living water, / And streams from Lebanon.

S.S. 4:16 Awake, O north wind; / And come, O south wind! / Blow upon my garden: / Let its spices flow forth; / Let my beloved come into his garden / And eat his choicest fruit.

S.S. 5:1 I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; / I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; / I have drunk my wine with my milk. / Eat, O friends; / Drink, and drink deeply, O beloved ones!

1. To live in ascension is to live continually in our spirit; when we live in our spirit, we are joined to the ascended Christ in the heavens—Eph. 2:22; Gen. 28:12-17; John 1:51; Rev. 4:1-2; Heb. 4:12, 16 and footnote 1.

Eph. 2:22 In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.

Gen. 28:12 And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

Gen. 28:13 And there was Jehovah, standing above it; and He said, I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your seed.

Gen. 28:14 And your seed will be as the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and in your seed will all the families of the earth be blessed.

Gen. 28:15 And, behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will cause you to return to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.

Gen. 28:16 And Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Surely Jehovah is in this place, and I did not know it.

Gen. 28:17 And he was afraid and said, How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

John 1:51 And He said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, You shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

Rev. 4:1 After these things I saw, and behold, a door opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will show you the things that must take place after these things.

Rev. 4:2 Immediately I was in spirit; and behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and upon the throne there was One sitting;

Heb. 4:12 For the word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Heb. 4:16 Let us therefore come forward with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help.

Heb. 4:16 footnote 1: Undoubtedly, the throne mentioned here is the throne of God, which is in heaven (Rev. 4:2). The throne of God is the throne of authority toward all the universe (Dan. 7:9; Rev. 5:1). But toward us, the believers, it becomes the throne of grace, signified by the expiation cover (the mercy seat) within the Holy of Holies (Exo. 25:17, 21). This throne is the throne of both God and the Lamb (Rev. 22:1). How can we come to the throne of God and the Lamb, Christ, in heaven while we still live on earth? The secret is our spirit, referred to in v. 12. The very Christ who is sitting on the throne in heaven (Rom. 8:34) is also now in us (Rom. 8:10), that is, in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), where the habitation of God is (Eph. 2:22). At Bethel, the house of God, the habitation of God, which is the gate of heaven, Christ is the ladder that joins earth to heaven and brings heaven to earth (Gen. 28:12-17; John 1:51). Since today our spirit is the place of God's habitation, it is now the gate of heaven, where Christ is the ladder that joins us, the people on earth, to heaven, and brings heaven to us. Hence, whenever we turn to our spirit, we enter through the gate of heaven and touch the throne of grace in heaven through Christ as the heavenly ladder.

2. “King Solomon made himself a palanquin/Of the wood of Lebanon./Its posts he made of silver,/Its bottom, of gold;/Its seat, of purple;/Its midst was inlaid with love / From the daughters of Jerusalem”—S. S. 3:9-10:

S.S. 3:9 King Solomon made himself a palanquin / Of the wood of Lebanon.

S.S. 3:10 Its posts he made of silver; / Its bottom, of gold; / Its seat, of purple; / Its midst was inlaid with love / From the daughters of Jerusalem.

a. By the Spirit's transforming work in us, we become the moving vessel of Christ, the carriage of Christ, the “car” of Christ, for the move of Christ in and for the Body of Christ—cf. 2 Cor. 2:12-17.

2 Cor. 2:12 Furthermore, when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and a door was open to me in the Lord,

2 Cor. 2:13 I had no rest in my spirit, for I did not find Titus my brother; but taking leave of them, I went forth into Macedonia.

2 Cor. 2:14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in the Christ and manifests the savor of the knowledge of Him through us in every place.

2 Cor. 2:15 For we are a fragrance of Christ to God in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing:

2 Cor. 2:16 To some a savor out of death unto death, and to the others a savor out of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?

2 Cor. 2:17 For we are not like the many, adulterating the word of God for profit; but as out of sincerity, but as out of God, before God we speak in Christ.

b. We are rebuilt with the Divine Trinity so that our external structure is the resurrected and ascended humanity of Jesus, and our interior decoration is our love for the Lord—S. S. 3:9-10.

S.S. 3:9 King Solomon made himself a palanquin / Of the wood of Lebanon.

S.S. 3:10 Its posts he made of silver; / Its bottom, of gold; / Its seat, of purple; / Its midst was inlaid with love / From the daughters of Jerusalem.

c. Our inner being should be “inlaid with love” (v. 10); loving the Lord will keep us in the realm of having Christ as our humanity, safeguarding our humanity in the constraint of His affection (2 Cor. 5:14).

S.S. 3:10 Its posts he made of silver; / Its bottom, of gold; / Its seat, of purple; / Its midst was inlaid with love / From the daughters of Jerusalem.

2 Cor. 5:14 For the love of Christ constrains us because we have judged this, that One died for all, therefore all died;

d. Through our loving the Lord in a personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual way, our natural being is torn down, and we are remodeled with Christ's redeeming death (posts made of silver), God's divine nature (base), and Christ's kingship as the life-giving Spirit ruling within us (seat of purple)—S. S. 3:10; cf. Rom. 8:28-29; 2 Cor. 4:16-18.

S.S. 3:10 Its posts he made of silver; / Its bottom, of gold; / Its seat, of purple; / Its midst was inlaid with love / From the daughters of Jerusalem.

Rom. 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Rom. 8:29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers;

2 Cor. 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

2 Cor. 4:17 For our momentary lightness of affliction works out for us, more and more surpassingly, an eternal weight of glory,

2 Cor. 4:18 Because we do not regard the things which are seen but the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

3. Through her living in Christ's ascension as the new creation in resurrection, the lover of Christ becomes mature in the riches of the life of Christ so that she can become a garden to Christ for His private enjoyment (S. S. 4:12-15); she is prepared to give forth Christ's fragrance in any circumstance or environment; she wants the difficult environment (north wind) and the pleasant environment (south wind) to work on her as a garden that its fragrance may be spread (v. 16).

S.S. 4:12 A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride, / A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

S.S. 4:13 Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates / With choicest fruit; / Henna with spikenard,

S.S. 4:14 Spikenard and saffron; / Calamus and cinnamon, / With all the trees of frankincense; / Myrrh and aloes, / With all the chief spices.

S.S. 4:15 A fountain in gardens, / A well of living water, / And streams from Lebanon.

S.S. 4:16 Awake, O north wind; / And come, O south wind! / Blow upon my garden: / Let its spices flow forth; / Let my beloved come into his garden / And eat his choicest fruit.

D. In the fourth stage of Song of Songs, the lover of Christ is called more strongly to live within the veil through the cross after resurrection—5:2--6:13:

S.S. 5:2 I sleep, but my heart is awake. / A sound! My beloved is knocking. / Open to me, my sister, my love, / My dove, my perfect one; / For my head is drenched with dew, / My locks with the drops of night.

S.S. 5:3 I have put off my garment; / How can I put it on again? / I have washed my feet; / How can I dirty them again?

S.S. 5:4 My beloved put his hand into the opening of the door, / And my inner parts yearned for him.

S.S. 5:5 I rose up to open to my beloved; / And my hands dripped with myrrh, / My fingers with liquid myrrh, / Upon the handles of the bolt.

S.S. 5:6 I opened to my beloved, / But my beloved had withdrawn; he was gone. / My soul failed when he spoke; / I sought him, but found him not; / I called him—he answered me not.

S.S. 5:7 The watchmen who go about the city found me. / They struck me; they wounded me; / The keepers of the walls took my veil from me.

S.S. 5:8 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, / If you find my beloved, / What shall you tell him? / That I am sick with love.

S.S. 5:9 What is your beloved more than some other's beloved, / O you most beautiful among women? / What is your beloved more than some other's beloved, / That you adjure us so?

S.S. 5:10 My beloved is dazzling white yet ruddy, / Distinguished among ten thousand.

S.S. 5:11 His head is the finest gold; / His locks are wavy, / As black as a raven.

S.S. 5:12 His eyes are like doves / Beside the streams of water, / Bathed in milk, / Fitly set.

S.S. 5:13 His cheeks are like a bed of spices, / Mounds of sweetly fragrant herbs; / His lips are lilies, / Dripping with liquid myrrh.

S.S. 5:14 His hands are tubes of gold, / Set with beryl; / His belly is an ivory work, / Overlaid with sapphires.

S.S. 5:15 His legs are pillars of white marble, / Set upon bases of gold; / His appearance is like Lebanon, / As excellent as the cedars.

S.S. 5:16 His mouth is sweetness itself, / And he is altogether desirable. / This is my beloved, and this is my friend, / O daughters of Jerusalem.

S.S. 6:1 Where has your beloved gone, / O you most beautiful among women? / Where has your beloved turned, / That we may seek him with you?

S.S. 6:2 My beloved has gone down to his garden, / To the beds of spices, / To feed in the gardens / And gather lilies.

S.S. 6:3 I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine; / He pastures his flock among the lilies.

S.S. 6:4 You are as beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, / As lovely as Jerusalem, / As terrible as an army with banners.

S.S. 6:5 Turn your eyes away from me, / For they overwhelm me. / Your hair is like a flock of goats / That repose on Mount Gilead.

S.S. 6:6 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes / That have come up from the washing, / All of which have borne twins, / And none of them is bereaved of her young.

S.S. 6:7 Your cheeks are like a piece of pomegranate / Behind your veil.

S.S. 6:8 There are sixty queens and eighty concubines / And virgins without number.

S.S. 6:9 My dove, my perfect one, is but one; / She is the only one of her mother; / She is the choice one of her who bore her. / The daughters saw her, and they called her blessed; / The queens and the concubines, / They also praised her.

S.S. 6:10 Who is this woman who looks forth like the dawn, / As beautiful as the moon, / As clear as the sun, / As terrible as an army with banners?

S.S. 6:11 I went down to the orchard of nuts / To see the freshness of the valley, / To see whether the vine had budded, / Whether the pomegranates were in bloom.

S.S. 6:12 Before I was aware, / My soul set me among the chariots of my noble people.

S.S. 6:13 Return, return, O Shulammite; / Return, return, that we may gaze at you. / Why should you gaze at the Shulammite, / As upon the dance of two camps?

1. By living within the veil, the lover of Christ is transformed into the heavenly bodies; she looks forth like the dawn, she is as beautiful as the moon, and she is as clear as the sun—v. 10:

S.S. 6:10 Who is this woman who looks forth like the dawn, / As beautiful as the moon, / As clear as the sun, / As terrible as an army with banners?

a. The path of the overcomers is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until the full day—Prov. 4:18; John 1:5.

Prov. 4:18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, / Which shines brighter and brighter until the full day.

John 1:5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

b. The light of dawn, the sunrise, signifies both Christ in His coming and our being revived every morning; the Christian life is like the dawning of the sun—Luke 1:78; Prov. 4:18; Psa. 110:3; Judg. 5:31.

Luke 1:78 Because of the merciful compassions of our God, in which the rising sun will visit us from on high,

Prov. 4:18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, / Which shines brighter and brighter until the full day.

Psa. 110:3 Your people will offer themselves willingly / In the day of Your warfare, / In the splendor of their consecration. / Your young men will be to You / Like the dew from the womb of the dawn.

Judg. 5:31 May all Your enemies so perish, O Jehovah. / But may those who love Him be like the sun / When it rises in its might. And the land had rest forty years.

2. In the maturity of Christ's life, the lover of Christ becomes the Shulammite (the feminine form of “Solomon”), signifying that she has become the same as He is in life, nature, expression, and function (but not in the Godhead) as the reproduction and duplication of Christ to match Him for their marriage—S. S. 6:13; 2 Cor. 3:18.

S.S. 6:13 Return, return, O Shulammite; / Return, return, that we may gaze at you. / Why should you gaze at the Shulammite, / As upon the dance of two camps?

2 Cor. 3:18 But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.

3. The Shulammite is likened to the dance of two camps, or two armies (Heb. mahanaim), in the sight of God; after Jacob saw the angels of God, the two armies of God, he named the place where he was Mahanaim and divided his wives, children, and possessions into “two armies”—S. S. 6:13; Gen. 32:1-2:

S.S. 6:13 Return, return, O Shulammite; / Return, return, that we may gaze at you. / Why should you gaze at the Shulammite, / As upon the dance of two camps?

Gen. 32:1 And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

Gen. 32:2 And Jacob said when he saw them, This is God's camp. So he called the name of that place Mahanaim.

a. The spiritual significance of the two armies is the strong testimony that we more than conquer, we “super-overcome,” through Him who loved us, according to the principle of the Body of Christ—Rom. 8:37; 12:5.

Rom. 8:37 But in all these things we more than conquer through Him who loved us.

Rom. 12:5 So we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

b. God does not want those who are strong in themselves; He wants only the feeble ones, the weaker ones, the women and children; those who are counted worthy to be overcomers will be the weaker ones who depend on the Lord—1 Cor. 1:26-28; 2 Cor. 1:8-9; 12:9-10; 13:3-5.

1 Cor. 1:26 For consider your calling, brothers, that there are not many wise according to flesh, not many powerful, not many wellborn.

1 Cor. 1:27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world that He might shame those who are wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world that He might shame the things that are strong,

1 Cor. 1:28 And the lowborn things of the world and the despised things God has chosen, things which are not, that He might bring to nought the things which are,

2 Cor. 1:8 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of our affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were excessively burdened, beyond our power, so that we despaired even of living.

2 Cor. 1:9 Indeed we ourselves had the response of death in ourselves, that we should not base our confidence on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead;

2 Cor. 12:9 And He has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ might tabernacle over me.

2 Cor. 12:10 Therefore I am well pleased in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions and distresses, on behalf of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am powerful.

2 Cor. 13:3 Since you seek a proof of the Christ who is speaking in me, who is not weak unto you but is powerful in you.

2 Cor. 13:4 For indeed He was crucified out of weakness, but He lives by the power of God. For indeed we are weak in Him, but we will live together with Him by the power of God directed toward you.

2 Cor. 13:5 Test yourselves whether you are in the faith; prove yourselves. Or do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are disapproved?

E. In the fifth stage of Song of Songs, the lover of Christ shares in the work of the Lord—7:1-13:

S.S. 7:1 How beautiful are your footsteps in sandals, / O prince's daughter! / Your rounded thighs are like jewels, / The work of the hands of a skilled artist.

S.S. 7:2 Your navel is a round goblet / That never lacks mixed wine; / Your belly is a heap of wheat, / Fenced in by lilies.

S.S. 7:3 Your two breasts are like two fawns, / Twins of a gazelle.

S.S. 7:4 Your neck is like a tower of ivory; / Your eyes, like the pools in Heshbon / By the gate of Bath-rabbim; / Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, / Which faces Damascus.

S.S. 7:5 Your head upon you is like Carmel, / And the locks of your head like purple. / The king is fettered by your tresses.

S.S. 7:6 How beautiful and how pleasant in delights / You are, O love!

S.S. 7:7 This your stature is like a palm tree, / And your breasts are like the clusters.

S.S. 7:8 I said, I will climb the palm tree; / I will take hold of its branches; / And let your breasts be like clusters of the vine, / And the fragrance of your nose like apples,

S.S. 7:9 And the roof of your mouth like the best wine—Going down smoothly for my beloved, / Gliding through the lips of those who sleep.

S.S. 7:10 I am my beloved's, / And his desire is for me.

S.S. 7:11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the fields; / Let us lodge in the villages.

S.S. 7:12 Let us rise up early for the vineyards; / Let us see if the vine has budded, / If the blossom is open, / If the pomegranates are in bloom; / There I will give you my love.

S.S. 7:13 The mandrakes give forth fragrance, / And over our doors are all choice fruits, / New as well as old. / These, my beloved, I have stored up for you.

1. In verse 4 the Spirit reviews the loving seeker's beauty in her submissive will (neck) wrought by the Spirit's transforming work through sufferings for the carrying out of God's will, in the expression of her heart, which is open to the light, clean, full of rest, and accessible (eyes like pools—cf. 1:15; 4:1; 5:12), and in her spiritual sense of high and sharp discernment (nose—cf. Phil. 1:9-10; Heb. 5:14).

S.S. 7:4 Your neck is like a tower of ivory; / Your eyes, like the pools in Heshbon / By the gate of Bath-rabbim; / Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, / Which faces Damascus.

S.S. 1:15 Oh, you are beautiful, my love! / Oh, you are beautiful! Your eyes are like doves.

S.S. 4:1 Oh, you are beautiful, my love! / Oh, you are beautiful! Your eyes are like doves behind your veil; / Your hair is like a flock of goats / That repose on Mount Gilead.

S.S. 5:12 His eyes are like doves / Beside the streams of water, / Bathed in milk, / Fitly set.

Phil. 1:9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in full knowledge and all discernment,

Phil. 1:10 So that you may approve by testing the things which differ and are more excellent, that you may be pure and without offense unto the day of Christ,

Heb. 5:14 But solid food is for the full-grown, who because of practice have their faculties exercised for discriminating between both good and evil.

2. Song of Songs 7:11 shows that Christ's lover wants to carry out with her Beloved the work that is for the entire world (fields) by sojourning from one place to another (lodging in the villages); this indicates that she is not sectarian in carrying out the Lord's work but keeps the work open, so that others can come to sojourn there and she can go to sojourn elsewhere; this is to keep one work in one Body.

S.S. 7:11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the fields; / Let us lodge in the villages.

3. To share in the work of the Lord is to work together with Him (2 Cor. 6:1a); to work with Him, we need the maturity in life, we need to be one with the Lord, and our work must be for His Body (Col. 1:28-29; 1 Cor. 12:12-27).

2 Cor. 6:1 And working together with Him, we also entreat you not to receive the grace of God in vain;

Col. 1:28 Whom we announce, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man full-grown in Christ;

Col. 1:29 For which also I labor, struggling according to His operation which operates in me in power.

1 Cor. 12:12 For even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ.

1 Cor. 12:13 For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.

1 Cor. 12:14 For the body is not one member but many.

1 Cor. 12:15 If the foot should say, Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body, it is not that because of this it is not of the body.

1 Cor. 12:16 And if the ear should say, Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body, it is not that because of this it is not of the body.

1 Cor. 12:17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were the hearing, where would the smelling be?

1 Cor. 12:18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, even as He willed.

1 Cor. 12:19 And if all were one member, where would the body be?

1 Cor. 12:20 But now the members are many, but the body one.

1 Cor. 12:21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

1 Cor. 12:22 But much rather the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

1 Cor. 12:23 And those members of the body which we consider to be less honorable, these we clothe with more abundant honor; and our uncomely members come to have more abundant comeliness,

1 Cor. 12:24 But our comely members have no need. But God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked,

1 Cor. 12:25 That there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same care for one another.

1 Cor. 12:26 And whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it.

1 Cor. 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

4. The Shulammite works as Solomon's counterpart, taking care of all the vineyards (S. S. 8:11), the churches and the believers on the whole earth; we must have a work that is for the entire world; this is what Paul did by establishing local churches and then working to bring them into the full realization of the Body of Christ—Rom. 16:1-24.

S.S. 8:11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon: / He let out the vineyard to keepers; / Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.

Rom. 16:1 I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a deaconess of the church which is in Cenchrea,

Rom. 16:2 That you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints and assist her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she herself has also been the patroness of many, of myself as well.

Rom. 16:3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,

Rom. 16:4 Who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles;

Rom. 16:5 And greet the church, which is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the firstfruits of Asia unto Christ.

Rom. 16:6 Greet Mary, one who has labored much for you.

Rom. 16:7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.

Rom. 16:8 Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord.

Rom. 16:9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved.

Rom. 16:10 Greet Apelles, approved in Christ. Greet those of the household of Aristobulus.

Rom. 16:11 Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet those of the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord.

Rom. 16:12 Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Greet Persis, the beloved sister, one who has labored much in the Lord.

Rom. 16:13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother as well as mine.

Rom. 16:14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers with them.

Rom. 16:15 Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints with them.

Rom. 16:16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.

Rom. 16:17 Now I exhort you, brothers, to mark those who make divisions and causes of stumbling contrary to the teaching which you have learned, and turn away from them.

Rom. 16:18 For such men do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own stomach, and through smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.

Rom. 16:19 For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and guileless as to what is evil.

Rom. 16:20 Now the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Rom. 16:21 Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you, as well as Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen.

Rom. 16:22 I, Tertius, who write this epistle, greet you in the Lord.

Rom. 16:23 Gaius, my host and host of the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, greets you, and Quartus the brother.

Rom. 16:24 See note 1. ( Some ancient MSS add v. 24, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. )

5. Song of Songs 7:12 says, “Let us rise up early for the vineyards; / Let us see if the vine has budded, / If the blossom is open, / If the pomegranates are in bloom; / There I will give you my love”; at this time she is able to relate the Lord's work to the Lord Himself; now she can express her love to the Lord at the place of His work.

S.S. 7:12 Let us rise up early for the vineyards; / Let us see if the vine has budded, / If the blossom is open, / If the pomegranates are in bloom; / There I will give you my love.

F. In the sixth stage of Song of Songs, the lover of Christ is hoping to be raptured (8:1-14); she is coming up from the wilderness (the earthly realm) by “leaning on her beloved” (v. 5):

S.S. 8:1 O that you were like a brother to me, / Who nursed at my mother's breasts! / If I found you outside, I would kiss you, / And none would despise me.

S.S. 8:2 I would lead you and bring you / Into my mother's house, / Who has instructed me; / I would make you drink spiced wine / From the juice of my pomegranate.

S.S. 8:3 His left hand would be under my head, / And his right hand would embrace me.

S.S. 8:4 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, / Do not rouse up or awaken my love / Until she pleases.

S.S. 8:5 Who is this who comes up from the wilderness, / Leaning on her beloved? / I awakened you under the apple tree: / There your mother was in labor with you; / There she was in labor and brought you forth.

S.S. 8:6 Set me as a seal on your heart, / As a seal on your arm; / For love is as strong as death, / Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol; / Its flashes are the flashes of fire, / A flame of Jehovah.

S.S. 8:7 Many waters cannot quench love, / Nor do floods drown it. / If a man gave all the substance of his house for love, / It would be utterly despised.

S.S. 8:8 We have a little sister, / And she has no breasts: / What shall we do for our sister / On the day when she is spoken for?

S.S. 8:9 If she is a wall, / We will build on her a battlement of silver; / And if she is a door, / We will enclose her with boards of cedar.

S.S. 8:10 I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers; / Then I was in his eyes like one who has found peace.

S.S. 8:11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon: / He let out the vineyard to keepers; / Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.

S.S. 8:12 My vineyard, which is mine, is before me. / You will have the thousand, O Solomon; / And those who keep its fruit, two hundred.

S.S. 8:13 O you who dwell in the gardens, / My companions listen for your voice; / Let me hear it.

S.S. 8:14 Make haste, my beloved, / And be like a gazelle or a young hart / Upon the mountains of spices.

1. Leaning on her beloved implies that, like Jacob, the socket of her hip has been touched, and her natural strength has been dealt with by the Lord—Gen. 32:24-25.

Gen. 32:24 And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn.

Gen. 32:25 And when the man saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's hip was dislocated as he wrestled with Him.

2. Leaning on her beloved also implies that she finds herself pressed beyond measure, and this seems to last until the wilderness journey is over—2 Cor. 1:8-9; 12:9-10; 13:3-4.

2 Cor. 1:8 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of our affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were excessively burdened, beyond our power, so that we despaired even of living.

2 Cor. 1:9 Indeed we ourselves had the response of death in ourselves, that we should not base our confidence on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead;

2 Cor. 12:10 Therefore I am well pleased in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions and distresses, on behalf of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am powerful.

2 Cor. 13:3 Since you seek a proof of the Christ who is speaking in me, who is not weak unto you but is powerful in you.

2 Cor. 13:4 For indeed He was crucified out of weakness, but He lives by the power of God. For indeed we are weak in Him, but we will live together with Him by the power of God directed toward you.

3. She asks her Beloved to set her as a seal on His heart of love and as a seal on His arm of strength; at this point she is conscious of her powerlessness and helplessness, and she realizes that everything depends on God's love and preserving power—S. S. 8:6-7.

S.S. 8:6 Set me as a seal on your heart, / As a seal on your arm; / For love is as strong as death, / Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol; / Its flashes are the flashes of fire, / A flame of Jehovah.

S.S. 8:7 Many waters cannot quench love, / Nor do floods drown it. / If a man gave all the substance of his house for love, / It would be utterly despised.

4. The lover of Christ asks Him who dwells in the believers as His gardens to let her hear His voice—v. 13; cf. 4:13--5:1; 6:2:

S.S. 8:13 O you who dwell in the gardens, / My companions listen for your voice; / Let me hear it.

S.S. 4:13 Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates / With choicest fruit; / Henna with spikenard,

S.S. 4:14 Spikenard and saffron; / Calamus and cinnamon, / With all the trees of frankincense; / Myrrh and aloes, / With all the chief spices.

S.S. 4:15 A fountain in gardens, / A well of living water, / And streams from Lebanon.

S.S. 4:16 Awake, O north wind; / And come, O south wind! / Blow upon my garden: / Let its spices flow forth; / Let my beloved come into his garden / And eat his choicest fruit.

S.S. 6:2 My beloved has gone down to his garden, / To the beds of spices, / To feed in the gardens / And gather lilies.

a. This indicates that in the work that we do for the Lord as our Beloved, we need to maintain our fellowship with Him, always listening to Him—Luke 10:38-42.

Luke 10:38 Now as they went, He entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her home.

Luke 10:39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at the Lord's feet and was listening to His word.

Luke 10:40 But Martha was being drawn about with much serving, and she came up to Him and said, Lord, does it not matter to You that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to do her part with me.

Luke 10:41 But the Lord answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things;

Luke 10:42 But there is need of one thing, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

b. Our lives depend on the Lord's words, and our work depends on the Lord's commands; the central point of our prayers should be our longing for the Lord's speaking—Rev. 2:7; 1 Sam. 3:9-10; cf. Isa. 50:4-5; Exo. 21:6.

Rev. 2:7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.

1 Sam. 3:9 And Eli said to Samuel, Go and lie down, and if He calls you, you shall say, Speak, O Jehovah; for Your servant is listening. And Samuel went and lay down in his place.

1 Sam. 3:10 Then Jehovah came and stood by and called as at the other times, Samuel! Samuel! And Samuel said, Speak, for Your servant is listening.

Isa. 50:4 The Lord Jehovah has given me / The tongue of the instructed, / That I should know how to sustain the weary with a word. / He awakens me morning by morning; / He awakens my ear / To hear as an instructed one.

Isa. 50:5 The Lord Jehovah has opened my ear; / And I was not rebellious, / Nor did I turn back.

Exo. 21:6 Then his master shall bring him to God and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.

c. Without the Lord's words, we will not have any revelation, light, or subjective knowledge of Christ as the mystery of God and of the church as the mystery of Christ (Col. 2:2; Eph. 3:4-5; 5:32); the life of the believers hinges totally upon the Lord's speaking (vv. 26-27).

Col. 2:2 That their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love and unto all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, unto the full knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ,

Eph. 3:4 By which, in reading it, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ,

Eph. 3:5 Which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in spirit,

Eph. 5:32 This mystery is great, but I speak with regard to Christ and the church.

Eph. 5:26 That He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word,

Eph. 5:27 That He might present the church to Himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that she would be holy and without blemish.

II. As the concluding word of this poetic book, the lover of Christ prays that her Beloved would make haste to come back in the power of His resurrection (gazelle and young hart) to set up His sweet and beautiful kingdom (mountains of spices), which will fill the whole earth—S. S. 8:14; Rev. 11:15; Dan. 2:35:

S.S. 8:14 Make haste, my beloved, / And be like a gazelle or a young hart / Upon the mountains of spices.

Rev. 11:15 And the seventh angel trumpeted; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.

Dan. 2:35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed all at once, and they became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

A. Such a prayer portrays the union and communion between Christ as the Bridegroom and His lovers as the bride in their bridal love, in the way that the prayer of John, a lover of Christ, as the concluding word of the Holy Scriptures, reveals God's eternal economy concerning Christ and the church in His divine love—Rev. 22:20.

Rev. 22:20 He who testifies these things says, Yes, I come quickly. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

B. “Come, Lord Jesus!” is the last prayer in the Bible (v. 20); the entire Bible concludes with the desire for the Lord's coming expressed as a prayer.

Rev. 22:20 He who testifies these things says, Yes, I come quickly. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

C. “When He comes, faith will be turned to facts, and praise will replace prayer. Love will consummate in a shadowless perfection, and we will serve Him in the sinless domain. What a day that will be! Lord Jesus, come quickly!” (Watchman Nee, The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 23, “The Song of Songs,” p. 126).