SOS 2:3 UNDER HIS SHADE

Chapter 2:3-4

“Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. In his shade I took great delight and sat down, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.” "He has brought me to his banquet hall, and his banner over me is love."

The bride says here that Christ is more of a secure source of protection (shade from the sun) and more delightful than all of the other choices available in the world which she could rely on. She is able to rest in him and enjoy him. (his nature, the fruit of the Holy Spirit) 

A great picture of this place of sitting down under the Bridegroom’s shade is given to us in psalm 91:

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
My God, in whom I trust!”
³ For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper
And from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with His pinions,
And under His wings you may seek refuge;
His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.

⁵ You will not be afraid of the terror by night,
Or of the arrow that flies by day;
⁶ Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon.
⁷ A thousand may fall at your side
And ten thousand at your right hand,
But it shall not approach you.
⁸ You will only look on with your eyes
And see the recompense of the wicked.
⁹ For you have made the Lord, my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place.
¹⁰ No evil will befall you,
Nor will any plague come near your tent.

¹¹ For He will give His angels charge concerning you,
To guard you in all your ways.
¹² They will bear you up in their hands,
That you do not strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread upon the lion and cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you will trample down.

¹⁴ “Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.
¹⁵ “He will call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
¹⁶ “With a long life I will satisfy him
And let him see My salvation.”

 It is he who has brought her to his banquet hall, (house of wine as it is said to be in the Hebrew) and she is able to sit down under his shade and simply enjoy him. This is a relationship of enjoyment, not of performance. His banner (a banner signified the identity and purpose of a military division) is love. Her job is merely to be loved and to love. Her job is to rest in him.

We are already complete in Christ. (Colossians 2:10) We can "sit down" and rest in what he has already done, the reality he has already brought us into based on what he did for us on the cross, not based on our outward performance or our present outward condition. We are to simply enjoy him in his resting place, under his shade. This is abiding in him. There is a world of difference between "pressing in" and "abiding in." Some of us have been taught that we need to "press ourselves in" to the things of God. We could never press into the kingdom of God, only he can qualify us, only he can make us righteous and able to enter the kingdom to experience all the wonderful things he has for us, and he HAS pressed us in when he went to the cross. He pressed himself into us, and the job is already done. If we feel that we need to earn our own way in, or to qualify to get in somehow, this is going to lead to a life of frustration. We are going to feel unfulfilled in our relationship with God and always on the outside because we don't believe in what Jesus did for us on the cross and are still trying to do it ourselves. We are going to struggle as a result. Our job instead, is to "abide in" this rest of faith, believing in what he has already done and allowing that inward reality to soak into our outward lives. We can enjoy our completion in him right now, and outward transformation will be the result of this confident rest. We are complete in Him.

SOS 2:1-2 THE BRIDE, HIS INHERITANCE

Chapter 2:1-2

“I am the rose of sharon, the lily of the valleys.”

“Like a lily among thorns, so is my darling among the maidens.”

The bride is starting to see her significance to her bridegroom. Not only does he love her, not only did he call her the most beautiful of all when she came to him with her shame and brokenness, not only does he enjoy being with her, but she is THE rose. She is THE prized gift of the Father, cultivated and given to the Son to captivate his senses and fulfill his heart. The Father cultivated a bride for his Son, a rose like no other, and she is this rose. She is beginning to see herself this way as she spends time with him. She knows that she is his inheritance.

She is the lily of the valleys. Lilies tend to speak of purity due to their white color. She is the only pure flower in a fallen world. (the valley) The bridegroom even goes as far as to call her the lily among thorns compared to all the other “maidens.”

We get confused about this because it sounds like a contradiction to the truth that “God is no respecter of persons,” meaning that he doesn’t play favorites between one person and another. Really, this is speaking of who we are in Christ being valued above mankind’s old identity in Adam. It isn’t that God chooses some people to be his bride and others to be his enemies forever. (I’d hate to be one of those who randomly got a short straw on that draw, what a sick joke that would be) In Adam all die, but in Christ all are made alive according to Romans 5. All of mankind descended from Adam and we’ve gotten our genetics and our nature passed down from him, we’ve had a corporate identity in him as fallen ones. The “Adam’s family” is corrupted in the sense of missing an essential connection with God as a result of the fall, therefore bent on relying on other sources in God’s place to fill that void, and walking out a vicious cycle of dysfunction, self-damage, and further depravity as a compounding result. We all come from that, but Christ came to redeem humanity, and he finished his work. We have another identity. We are new creations in him, totally pure and totally redeemed. We still see remnants of the Adams family traits in our lives, but our Bridegroom sees past that and sees who we are in him. His work in us is more powerful than the effects of the fall and is transforming our old nature from the inside out as we believe and allow him to do it. His reality is making that lesser reality obsolete and irrelevant and he knows it. To him, we are truly the lilies among the thorns of unredeemed humanity.

"I am the rose of sharon (the unique companion created and cultivated for oneness with Christ, to captivate his senses and fulfill his heart)" "Like a lily among thorns, so is my darling among the maidens."

SOS 1:16-17 A LUXURIOUS AND ENDURING DWELLING PLACE

Chapter 1:16-17

“How handsome you are my beloved, and so pleasant! Indeed, our couch is luxuriant! The beams of our houses are cedars, our rafters, cypresses!”

The bride is enjoying the bridegroom in the resting place he has prepared for her. Some translations say couch, some say bed, but it is the idea of a secure resting place which is “luxuriant.” This is our seat in heavenly places in Christ, as Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:4-6, “…God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” We are seated in glory at the right hand of the Father on Christ’s throne, resting in him until all things are put under our feet. Paul speaks of the “luxuriant” aspect of this in Philippians 4:19 “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

We are joint heirs with Christ, possessors of all things through him. Though he was rich, he became poor so that we could become rich. Oftentimes he wants to give us things that are a lot more important than money, inner riches, and to develop those before giving us material riches, but surely his plans are to get even the outward riches to us as well in the proper times and ways. We are truly the heirs of all heirs, the royalty of all royalty. Our bridegroom owns all things, and our dwelling place is luxuriant in the heavenly places. Even when we don’t have money, we have the true riches. We’ve been given “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,” according to Ephesians 1. Who could possibly put a price tag on “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places?” This will even translate into material things, as the physical is birthed from the spiritual.

The beams of our houses being “cedars, our rafters cypresses,” speaks of a durable and enduring spiritual dwelling place, since cedars and cypresses are extremely durable wood to build a long-standing house with.

Jesus confirms this in John 14:2-3: “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

He has said of his sheep in John 10, “My Father is greater than all, and no man is able to take them out of his hand.”

The truth is that we don't need to wait until after we die to live in our heavenly mansions spiritually and emotionally. We are already seated in heavenly places in Christ. We have a secure and everlasting dwelling place in Christ.

SOS 1:15 DOVES EYES

Chapter 1:15

“How beautiful you are my darling, how beautiful you are! You have dove’s eyes!”

The King is speaking to the beauty of loyalty and dedication which he has created within us. (even his own loyalty and dedication placed within us) Doves speak of this in several ways. They stick to one mating partner for life, speaking of the bride’s faithfulness to the Bridegroom. They also have no peripheral vision but only focus on one spot at a time, which speaks of a “single eye,” which is focused on him, flooding the entire body with light. To say that she has dove’s eyes is to say that her focus remains on him, she is not drawn away by other spiritual lovers. (idols of the heart)

This does not only apply to those who have a perfect history, or even a perfect present, but this is the very nature of God which he has put within us and is drawing to the surface. Part of drawing that faithfulness and focus to the surface is letting us know that we already have it. We already have his very nature inside of us waiting to come out and take over our lives more and more. Believing it is a big step.

The first of the ten commandments was “you shall have no other gods before me,” basically, “no idolatry.”  Idolatry is spoken of in the old testament and in the new testament as marital unfaithfulness to the Lord. Paul shows us in Colossians 3:5 that the issue is even more common, he writes, “…and covetousness which is idolatry.” Covetousness is basically desire (for anything) which has become a higher practical priority than your relationship with God.

We truly have eyes that desire him above all things, which give place to no idols, even idols of the heart. He calls that beautiful.

Jesus speaks of the “single” eye, or healthy/clear eye in some translations, in Matthew 6:22-23 “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear/single, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

Notice that Jesus is not talking about your eyes, (physical eyes) but your eye. People with eye diseases aren’t spiritually bad, cyclopses aren’t more spiritual. (single eye) No this is speaking of the vision of your heart. It is about where you put your focus.

It is like Hebrews 13; “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” The “doves’ eyes” of singleness of focus, when put into practice, cause our entire being to be flooded with light. It is about keeping Jesus, the Bridegroom, central in our focus in all things. When our heart is focused on him, his light floods us as a grace, the rest of our being lines up with the focused purpose of our heart, empowered by this grace, and faithfulness to him is the result in our lives. Basically, this is the same thing spoken of earlier under “Spiritual Union, Spiritual Walk,” only a little different of an angle. It is the “101” of walking in the Spirit. This is already inside us, but there is a walk of learning to let it out into our practice, and there is a discipline to keep it there.

SOS 1:13-14 HIS SUFFERING, OUR VICTORY IN THE NIGHT

Chapter 1:13-14

“My beloved is to me a pouch of myrrh which lies all night between my breasts. My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Engedi.”

Throughout the song, “my beloved” refers to the Bridegroom. It is the bride speaking.

Myrrh was a sweet smelling burial spice, and it was also used as an expensive cosmetic. It speaks of a sweet anointing unto death and burial. A pouch of myrrh would have been a very expensive gift at the time for a man to give, and this represents Jesus’ sweetly given (willingly, out of love) and expensive gift to us of his death on the cross for us. It is the heart revealed in the willing sacrifice of the cross which is able to comfort us and empower us as we face suffering as well, (“all night”) knowing that he suffered for us and is that committed to us, even when our circumstances may temporarily be giving us the idea that he isn’t. The bride says her beloved is a pouch of myrrh (a sweet burial anointing) which lies all night (through the dark times) between her breasts. (close to her heart)

His heart revealed in the cross is a great source of assurance, comfort, and faith during “the night,” empowering our heart and our faithfulness.

Henna blossoms were a very sweet, pleasant smelling flower. Engedi was a renowned pleasant smelling vineyard filled with them. She says he is a pouch of myrrh through the night and also a cluster of henna blossoms from Engedi.

She is saying that she holds the revelation of Jesus’ suffering on the cross close to her heart during dark times, and that she hasn’t lost trust in him even then. He is still sweet and pleasant to her. The appearances of circumstances don’t change his heart. He has proven his love and faithfulness already.

We all face suffering in a fallen world, and oftentimes it doesn’t make sense. We can feel like God has abandoned us. Does he hate us? Is he indifferent? Is he a liar? Why would he allow us to suffer like this? It doesn’t seem like that many people get a clear answer for why they are suffering when they are. It can be a tremendous stumbling block to our view of God’s heart toward us. We may not know why we are suffering, but what we do know is that Jesus suffered for us first and clearly proved his heart toward us. He also demonstrated that there is a resurrection for every death we walk into.

God the creator of all chose to suffer tremendously for us, and so when we are suffering, we can know that he isn’t abandoning us or abusing us, but that he is faithful to keep his word to help us through it and even bring us to greater glory by it. It is as he himself modeled; going through the cross to the resurrection and to the throne. He isn’t leaving us, but is even suffering with us as it was said about us all “when you did it to the least of these you did it unto me.” He identifies with us so much that he goes through what we go through.

He has paid the price himself to empower us to be more than conquerors in all our trials through his love for us even in the midst of them. (The end of Romans 8 tells us, speaking of believers going through famine, persecution, trial, etc “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us,” not only when we are delivered from them are we conquerors/greek meaning: superconquerors, but IN all these things)

Romans 8:17-18 “If (we are) children, (we are) heirs also, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Our suffering and temptations to think that God has abandoned us in them can be turned into an experience of “the fellowship of his sufferings,” with sure faith that he is working all things to our good and our greater glory and greater knowledge of him. He is even providing the grace to overcome what we ourselves cannot, and to remain faithful throughout.

Paul said that he had counted all things loss compared to the knowledge of Jesus Christ in the fellowship of his sufferings and in the power of his resurrection. We all want to know the power of his resurrection, but what is this “fellowship of his sufferings” spoken of by Paul? It is when we suffer with Christ out of love for God and for those he loves, as Jesus did, going the way of the cross willingly, and even for our enemies. We gain a knowledge of his heart which can only come by experiencing that walk. We become like him, and more trustworthy to him, having taken on his own ways. There are things we can only know by doing.

No, he has not abandoned us in our suffering. He is drawing us closer and is promoting us through even the very evil which by itself totally contradicts his heart towards us. He is that big to even use what is totally against himself. He proved it all on the cross. Jesus called the cross “the hour of the power of darkness.” It was the work of the Devil, and yes, the will of God is opposite of everything the Devil does, yet God was able to accomplish his greatest purposes, redemption itself, through that very thing the Devil did to Jesus. It is forever a testimony that Father is willing and able to work out his best purposes even in the midst of the worst situations. He will do no less for us in our dark times.

We may not have all the answers in our suffering, but we know that he suffered for us, he overcame for us, and that he showed us the way. We know that he is with us in everything we face, providing access to everything we need to overcome by his grace. He became a human being to face it all himself for us, for that very purpose. When we couldn't see, He revealed his heart.

SOS 1:12 COMMUNION IN THE REST OF FAITH

Chapter 1:12

“While the king was at his table, my perfume gave forth its fragrance”

Earlier in the song, the bride was ashamed, insecure, and feeling like a spiritual outsider. She was very aware of her brokenness and defects. She cried out to be shown where the shepherd (Jesus) leads his flock and makes it to lie down in rest. She was answered by the King speaking affirmation to her, addressing her as if it was a surprising thing that she wouldn’t already know the answer within herself, since she is the most beautiful of all creation and his very bride who he lives within. He addressed her rejection and self-esteem issues by affirming her great beauty and importance to him in several ways. She begins to see that she is not only already among his flock, but that she is already at his table. She finds the place of rest there, his rest, and it is from that place that her perfume (her spikenard worship sacrifice of all of her life) delights his senses as she merely rests in his presence.

She is seated at the King’s table, which he has provided for her. It is not of her own production but of his. It is also the King who is seated, so it is his rest that we enter into. This is the finished work of the cross, the freely provided banquet with the King, where we commune with him in the rest of faith. It is the faith to rest in who he is and in what he has done, providing our access to divine Life. We cease from our striving to earn it ourselves. We eat the life giving bread of his flesh (the Word made flesh, God revealed in the incarnate Son and given for us) and we drink the cleansing and life giving drink of his blood, (his covenant in his blood of forgiveness, union, and divine Life in us) and he takes great delight in us while we do so. This is what he is looking for, not that we perform to earn something from him, but that we freely sit down and eat and drink of him, experiencing oneness with him as he desires to experience it with us.

It is also important to see that he is “the King” who we have been brought into this place of union and rest with. It is he who is sovereign over all, he of whom it is said in scripture, “Of him, and through him, and to him are ALL things.” This is no small privilege to be in this place of union with such a one.

The word used for perfume means spikenard, and is translated so in some translations. It is spikenard as Mary of Bethany poured out her sacrificial worship offering of spikenard on Jesus, a year’s worth of wages from one vial, right before his crucifixion. It seemed an extravagant and impractical waste, but Jesus honored her greatly for it, because it was the heart of his bride on display. In response to the revelation of the finished work of Christ, from the place of reliance on what he has provided rather than on our own abilities, we surrender all we are and all we have to him. This is our sacrifice of worship. From a natural perspective it can seem costly and impractical to do so, but it is worship in Spirit and in Truth. It brings him great pleasure. He is not looking for a worker to save the world for him, but a worshipper and a friend who he can know and be known by. He can do much more through a lover than a worker can ever do for him. Think Mary and Martha. This sacrifice of surrender itself even comes as a result of his table, our rest in what he has provided to enable us to follow him, not our ability to perform.


More on the King’s table:

This table is that communion and rest which is being offered in Hebrews 4. (Hebrews 4:7-11: “Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts,… there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his own works as God did from His. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest…”)

How do you enter that rest and freely eat of his table? Hebrews 4:3 tells us plainly; “For we who have believed enter that rest.” So we see that we are invited into communion with God, to receive all his covenant promises in Christ, which is a place we enter into when we simply believe and cease from our own striving. It is effortless union, as some have put it well.

His rest is also shown to us in Psalm 110 where Jesus has sat down at the right hand of the Father until all his enemies will be made his footstool. Who are his feet? You and I are his body, we are the feet which all his enemies are put underneath. It is accomplished as we rest in him and in his work on the cross, after which he sat down at the right hand of the Father. We take our place in him and His results manifest. Our results are what created the need for the cross in the first place. Let’s take our place in his rest by faith and receive his results.

This “King’s table” is a picture as well of the communion table. The word for communion, “koinonia,” can be translated as “intimacy.” It isn’t necessarily speaking of a ritual eating of a cracker, but is about feeding on Christ’s finished work and truly becoming one with him as his spiritual bride. There is much to the meaning of communion which is commonly passed over:

Just before the “eat my flesh and drink my blood” passage, Jesus tells the crowd in John 6:27-29; “’Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the son of man will give to you, for on him the Father, God, has set his seal.’ Therefore they said to him, ‘What shall we do that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’” He clarifies a little in verse 35 “I am the bread of life, he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.” It is in believing and receiving through Christ that our hearts are satisfied, rather than through scheming and performing to fill the void ourselves. Jesus goes further in verses 47-52; “Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life… I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats this bread he will live forever, and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” So we eat Jesus, the bread of life, through faith. We receive, not just life after we die, but the life of eternity in us now as we “eat” him by believing in him. It is a picture of spiritual marriage as well, the taking of himself into us, even into our flesh.

Man does not live by natural bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God, and Jesus is the word of God made flesh to dwell among us. Simply put, here is what this means: Jesus is the clearest revelation of who God is and how he relates to us. He revealed the heart of God especially clearly when he went to the cross in our place. His miraculous life and his resurrection also show the willingness of God to be involved with us the same as with him. We were resurrected with him. If we can truly believe it, this revelation of Jesus, the cross and the resurrection will feed our hearts and give us access to all that God is: Life from the realm of eternity into our lives now in every form. We don’t earn it, he did that part for us. We simply believe it to receive all. It is in this way that believing in the word made flesh opens access for us to the "proceeding word" from his mouth, which we live by.

Jesus continues in John 6:53-57 “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, he also will live because of me.”

It was common in those days for religions to sacrifice an animal to their god and eat the animal as a covenant meal representing union with that god. They would eat the animal and drink its blood as a sign of making a sacred blood covenant with their god. Jesus was a sacrifice in such a way for us, using that imagery which was understood at that time. This is what Paul referred to when he wrote “You cannot eat of the table of the Lord and the table of idols.” So the bread is his body given for us, revealing the heart of God towards us, and the drink is his blood poured out as a blood covenant of marriage and everlasting commitment to us. We eat and drink this revelation of who God is and how he relates to us by believing it, and we receive Life beyond human imagination. (beyond all we can ask, think, or imagine)

On the fragrant perfume/spikenard offering:

It is at the Kings table that we rest, we eat and drink of him, and our spikenard offering of a surrendered life comes out of that place as a delightful fragrance to the King.

Hebrews 11 tells us that it was by faith that Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain and that his offering was accepted while Cain’s was not. Faith is a response to revelation of who God is. The difference between them was that Abel made an offering in response to revelation, while Cain just made an offering as a ritual. So our worship, our offering, must be based out of communion with Him first, like Abel’s offering, rather than a worship of mere performance like Cain’s offering. Romans 12 tells us; in response to the mercies of God, to present our bodies as living sacrifices, and that this is our worship. The worship in Spirit and Truth is not what songs you sing or what location you do a church service at. Those things can all just be religious works of performance. True worship is a surrender of yourself in response to revelation. Songs are a byproduct. When we are resting at the Kings table, everything we are and do becomes worship, not just our songs, and our songs come from the heart, not just our mouths.

Let us meditate on who he is, what he revealed about his heart for us when he went to the cross in our place, and let us hold onto his promise of Life from eternity for all who will simply believe. If the Father didn't hold back the incarnate word from us, his own Son, (even when we were at our worst) how will he hold back his spoken word, or anything else from us?

The scriptures quoted above in John 6:53-57 are great to meditate on to receive this Life, as are many mentioned in this article.

SOS 1:9-11 THE KING'S ESTEEM AND CARE FOR THE BRIDE

Chapter 1:9-11
         “To me, my darling, you are like my mare among the chariots of Pharoah. Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of beads. We will make for you ornaments of gold with beads of silver.”

At the time, Pharoah was famous for gathering and training the best thoroughbred war horses in the world for his own army. The best of these would be used for Pharoah’s personal chariots. Few were able to buy these from him due to their high price as the best horses in the known world, but King Solomon had the wealth to buy a horse even from Pharoah’s personal chariot.

The King is continuing to wash the bride in the “water of his word,” his affections. He is comparing the bride to his choice horse bought from Pharoah’s personal chariot. We are God’s favorite, the best of all creation, made out of Christ’s substance, in his likeness, and bought with the highest price. We are also being trained by the best trainer, the Holy Spirit.

Cheeks are the place of revealing emotions, while the neck often speaks of the will in scripture. Ornaments of gold for her cheeks would be divine nature and character for her emotions, as gold tends to speak of divine nature and character. Beads of silver for her neck speak of a redeemed will, as silver points to redemption and the neck often speaks of the will.

Her cheeks are already lovely with ornaments, speaking of the fruit of the Holy Spirit already built into her life, and her neck (lovely) with beads means that her will is also already under the influence of redemption. After that, “we will make for you ornaments of gold and beads of silver,” speaks of the fact that there is more to come. It is God who will build his heart and character into us. He is faithful to complete the work he started in us. We are beautiful to him because we are made of his perfect substance in his likeness. His ornaments, the work of his Holy Spirit, are already on us, and he has even more for us.

He delights in the beauty which he has created us in and is still creating in us. He likens us to his most highly prized thoroughbred. We are the best of all creation, of his very nature, and we are being shaped and trained and adorned even further.