[PE69]
THE SONG OF SOLOMON

In Isa. 58:11 the Lord's people are compared to a flower-garden. We are enabled by our Heavenly Father to take the weeds of error from our flower-garden. Our Lord had a perfect garden, but Satan tried to sow weeds in it. The church is compared to a garden, and each of us to a flower in it, which the Lord is trying to raise. For 1900 years He has been looking for plants to transplant into His flower garden, and He finds these amongst all classes.

1:1-The Song of Songs. This is the Hebrew way of using the superlative degree. This is the grandest of all songs, the song of Christ and his love for the church, and of the church's love for him. There is a song mentioned in Rev. 14:3. Nothing can be so grand and wonderful as that new song, which none can sing but the 144,000. Many can sing the words, but only these can sing it from the heart. Verse 4"Draw me and we will run after thee." The Lord is drawing not merely a class but individuals, those who are willing to run after him. Some ran before him, but not in the same way. Only those can follow in his footsteps who love him more than anything of earth. The church of Christ is not to remember the reward above all else, nor the glory, but His love and approval. We are not the think of the reward as the principal thing, but the attitude of our hearts should be: "I love God and Christ so much that if there was no reward at all I would rejoice just the same in my privilege of laying down my life for Him." As we can be selfish in other things, we can also be selfish in walking the narrow way, thinking that we are going to have a reward higher than most people will have. We want the divine nature, not because of it's glory and honor, and the power we shall have, but because it is the reward which the Lord wants us to have, and because we can praise him then as we cannot now, and we could love and serve Him there as we could on no other plane. Verse 5: "Black, but comely." As far as the old nature is concerned we are black; the comeliness is in the new nature, but it is hidden so only the Lord can see it. The Lord may see that some who make the most show are [PE70] beautiful within. "Tents of Kedar:" Kedar was the name of a large tribe of Arabs, descendants of Ishmael (Gen. 25:13; 16:12; 21:20). Their tents were made of goats' hair or skins (see Smith's Bible Dictionary "Kedar" and "tents"), these were of goatskins, while the curtains of Solomon were of fine white linen. The old nature is like goat skin, and the new nature like the curtains of Solomon. Verse 6: "Look not upon me, but upon the Lord, for I am black." We have been exposed to the sun and have lost the delicate condition of our skin. The church has to acknowledge that she has been in the world and become tainted with sin, and has nothing to boast of. Verse 7 : Their cry has been: "I do not want to go into any other field, nor follow any other shepherd." Others may follow false shepherds, who will lead them on to sciences and philosophy, but the Lord is the Shepherd we want. Verse 8: Various organizations are compared to women. (Isa. 4:1) The Lord realizes that those who follow in his footsteps are the fairest. He will not say: If you want to be with me you must do something great, or give up all forms of business, and spend all your time preaching. No. He will say: Just do your duty, great works will not count with me, but the way you think of me and love me, this will please me. (1 Cor. 7:24; 1 Pet. 3:4)

2:1-The church is represented as speaking here. The rose is not Christ Jesus, but his followers. He is referred to as something grander by far. This rose is not the kind we have now, but some red flower. The red rose represents the old nature; guilty, condemned, convicted of sin, red. (Isa. 1:18). The lily of Verse 1 represents the new nature; clean, pure, perfect, with nothing to mar it's beauty. There never was a man in this life, except our Savior, who could avoid sin absolutely, and make no mistakes. If there ever had been, what a mistake our Lord made in providing a robe to cover our imperfections! The new nature is begotten of God, our new mind, our new will. It commits no sin, it is the flesh which commits all the sin (1 John 3:9; 1 Cor. 6:18). The new creature can stand in judgement before God, but the flesh cannot, it is reckoned as already dead. (Gal. 5:24; Rom. 8:8-10)

2:1-From this time forward the rose drops out of sight but the lily is often mentioned. We are reckoned dead unto sin, and to all that pertains to the flesh: we must attend to its necessities, supply food for it, but that is not to take the first place, but the Lords will. (Matt. 6:31-34; Rom. 6:11; 8:1,2,8-10) 'Ye,' the identity, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. It is the spirit which the Lord called 'Ye,' and we should recognize it in one another. The new creature is referred to, and beautifully too, as the lily of the valley. A valley is a low place, and not until we get into the low valley of humiliation are we willing to make a consecration, and be recognized by Him as a lily. Very few are willing to go [PE71] into the valley, and so few are able to share in its blessings. (Isa. 66:2)

2:2-In verse 1 the church was speaking, and now Christ answers, as in a dialogue. For 1900 years the church has found herself among thorns. Our human weaknesses are thorns to our new natures, and again, when we see so many who are not willing, nor inclined to think about God and love Him, it is like a thorn to us. Our Savior wants us to know that He understands us. We are glad that we have a place in his garden among His flowers. He knows what the thorns are like, and so He sympathizes with us.

2:3-The church is speaking, and compares Him, not to a lily, but to a tree, a very valuable fruit tree, with citrus fruit, but not an apple, as we know apples. The Lord's people have been sitting under His shadow, and later have begun to partake of the fruit. We began to taste of His love and we assimilated it.

2:4-God's people are now in the banqueting house, eating of the things on the table. This banquet will soon be over, and we will go into the marriage. There was usually a feast before the marriage, and a greater one after.

2:5-The Lord gives us strength to bear the trials that come and to endure all things. The church has made herself sick in her love and sacrificing for him. It not only makes her sick, but causes her death, and only those who go thus far does the Lord want for his bride. Verse 6: The Lord has been upholding His people through all their trials. The old nature must not dictate, but must give place to the will of God. Verses 7, 8: The church has not actually been with the Lord, but has seen Him with the eye of faith. Verse 9: Our flesh has been like a wall, obstructing our vision of the Lord, so that we could not see clearly. The wall is made us of selfishness, impatience, and various other weaknesses of the flesh: and between these we have seen our Lord, but O how imperfectly. Verse 10: The time has come for the Lord to call His people to wake up. He is bidding us to come out of Babylon, for restitution signs are around us, and the Millennial day is soon to come. Verse 13: The fig tree represents the Jewish nation. The Lord came to that nation, and it was cursed because it bore not fruit (Matt. 21:19,43). Now the time of her curse, her "double" is over, and the Jewish nation is giving signs of returning life, and leaves are budding forth. Verse 2:14: The Lord's people are like birds in the cleft of the rock, in Christ. The secret stairs are up the narrow way, secret as far as the world is concerned.

2:16-The Lord has been feeding among the lilies, and has not been in among the world. This compares with chapter 6:2,3, which takes us down to the second advent, and shows His works on His return. It is not to gather roses, for they are dead: the flesh is not to be [PE72] redeemed, it is the redemption of the new nature that we long for.

Chapter 4:10-The church, His love, is His sister, because His father is her father. O how fair is the love of the church prospective in comparison with the love of the world. He does not say: how fair her words, her actions or her thoughts, but how fair is her love. Verse 11: He is the one who puts sweet things in our lips and enables us to say them. There is a difference between honey and the honey-comb, the latter is not the extracted form. We wish that we might say we were in the extracted form, free from wax, but there is always some of the flesh mixed with what we say. Verse 12: His sister is enclosed by God's providences. It will not always be a spring shut up, but it will be opened, and the water of life will flow to the world when he has broken the seal. At the foot of Lebanon were gardens fed with streams from the mountain. We are represented as being in the valley, and Christ in the mountain, in heaven, and we receive streams of grace from him. We now receive more than ever before, for we are under the sun and the snows are being melted and are coming down upon us. Verse 16: "Come bitter experiences and blow upon this garden, and come pleasant experiences and blow upon the garden." We need all these experiences to develop us, both north and south winds.

Chapter 5:1 He has arrived now and it will be only a few more years until the lilies will all be gathered and glorified, and then the springs of truth will be opened and all the earth will be refreshed. Verse 7: Some want to make it out that we need no robe of Christ and no sacrifice for sins. Verse 9: Some believe that He was no better than another. Verse 10: White, purity: ruddy, strong. He is purer than all others for they are imperfect, fallen, sinful. He was holy, harmless, and undefiled. (Heb. 7:26) He is strong, while all others have lost their strength. He is the chiefest among those from whom He shall take His bride. Many call themselves Christians, but there is only one class whom He will recognize as His bride, to be sharers of His throne and His glory. It is our privilege to be of that one class, the Bride of Christ, His Church, and be at last accounted worthy to lift up earth's inhabitants; and in the ages to come show the riches of his grace.