The Pouch of Contentment

1I 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. Friends Eat, friends! Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved. 2I was asleep, but my heart was awake. It is the voice of my beloved who knocks: “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, and my hair with the dampness of the night.” 3I have taken off my robe. Indeed, must I put it on? I have washed my feet. Indeed, must I soil them? 4My beloved thrust his hand in through the latch opening. My heart pounded for him. 5I rose up to open for my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the lock. 6I opened to my beloved; but my beloved left; and had gone away. My heart went out when he spoke. I looked for him, but I didn’t find him. I called him, but he didn’t answer. 7The watchmen who go about the city found me. They beat me. They bruised me. The keepers of the walls took my cloak away from me. 8I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, If you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am faint with love. 9How is your beloved better than another beloved, you fairest among women? How is your beloved better than another beloved, that you do so adjure us?

The economy is in a slump these days, and many people are struggling. The harder life grows, the more people lose their confidence; fear piles ever higher, and I imagine the pain it brings is just as great. To keep from suffering, many have set themselves a single goal: money. Anxious, feeling that money alone would make them happy and blow every worry away in an instant, they see only what is right in front of them.

Even believers are abandoning the God who has kept and led them until now, and flinging themselves into the middle of the world as into the pool of Bethesda, only to make money. When they fail in the world, they take their own lives without hesitation; when they succeed, they grow proud, leave God, and bury themselves in the world. The conclusion is this: a life that chases money, whichever way it turns, never comes back to God in the end.

When they lived in a small house, the family was happy even in hard times, because they all held together and sheltered one another, and they spurred each other on to work hard. But once they moved into a big house, each one stayed in their own room, and they lost interest in one another. The heart that was thankful for little things disappeared, and the greed to have more began to take its place. How did that person make their money? Where should I go to make more? Desires like these kept them busy. When the small happiness of being thankful that the children are healthy and that the whole family can sleep under one roof is gone, they will begin to resent God for not giving them what they want. A heart like this is in hell already, without ever going there, because a life without contentment is torment in itself.

The Israelites were set free from slavery because of God, lived on manna because of God, and were kept safe because of God even when the nations attacked them. Yet when this people, who had leaned on God alone, entered Canaan, they saw the nations prospering as they served Baal. Then God looked powerless to them, like a dead god, and they served Baal. They had forgotten who truly loved them. This is what people look like when they have forgotten to give thanks. The happiness they once knew in giving thanks in all things they may never taste again.

Matthew 5:3

3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

To live as one who knows contentment is a blessing, and those who have learned to be content are God’s people who taste heaven even on this earth.

How content are you with the life you have been given? Why do the very rich, who own the money they wanted more desperately than God, still find no satisfaction in it and take their own lives? Because nothing in this world can ever fill anyone’s pouch of contentment. To the one who knows how to be content, that pouch is lovely just as it is; but the greedy can never fill it, and it wears them out. In the end, the only thing left to those who have forgotten thanksgiving is death.

When life was hard, the Shulammite was thankful just to see Solomon and overwhelmed that she could love him. When he came looking for her, she was ready to leap for joy, and she vowed that if only she could always be with him, she would live with all her heart. Now, just as she had wished, she had married Solomon, and she could love him freely without worrying what people thought.

The day after the wedding night, she called her friends together and threw a great feast. Day after day there was food in abundance, and she even had people at her command. As life grew easy, pride took root in her heart and thanksgiving began to fade. She forgot it all — the days she had worked until the sun darkened her like the tents of Kedar, and the pain of laboring in the vineyards under her brothers’ abuse. Each comfortable day seemed only natural, and even Solomon’s love seemed something she was owed.

Song of Solomon 5:2

2I was asleep, but my heart was awake. It is the voice of my beloved who knocks: “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, and my hair with the dampness of the night.”

Solomon’s love for the Shulammite had not changed in the least. It was he, after all, who had made her his undefiled one and caused others to love her. But the Shulammite had grown proud, and though her husband stood outside in the night dew calling for her, she did not get out of bed quickly. Putting her robe back on, washing her feet once more — it all seemed too much trouble.

Yet since the Shulammite says she was asleep but her heart was awake, she seems to have known well what was required of her. She should have sprung up to welcome her husband standing in the dew, but she simply lay there, thinking that Solomon loved her and would come back any time, even if not now. This laziness and pride are what drove the two apart.

We too, when we go on enjoying the grace God gives, stop giving thanks, even when we hear the word of truth that is as sweet as the honeycomb. The word we once treasured so highly no longer seems dear, and though we know we should rise now and give ourselves to the work, we think it a nuisance and of little worth, and we are not faithful.

But we must not forget that there is a set time for reading and hearing the word, for faithfulness and devotion, and for working hard. Once that opportunity has passed, God’s work is something we cannot do even if we want to. Those who have forgotten their first love have no standing, because they have taken off the garment of devotion. When darkness takes over the heart, people hear God’s voice and ignore it. They hold an office no one dares to treat lightly, they know the word well enough, and they serve about as much as seems reasonable, and so they shut their eyes and ears. Such wickedness is in the end a dangerous sin that draws us away from Christ. Once the old fervor has been thrown away, fear and the sense of sin vanish with it. However much Christ knocks on the door of the heart, the feeling that it is all a bother has grown larger. In the end they do not open the door of their hearts, and they say, “A little sleep, a little slumber.” It all comes from thinking as the Shulammite did — that Jesus is there whenever I want him and will answer whenever I call.

To fulfill the calling God has given, we must put on the robe of spiritual faith even when it is hard, and we must make the effort every day to wash feet stained with sin. Because Jesus loves his own without condition, he grants every desire when they pray earnestly. He solves their problems, heals their sicknesses, and rescues them from poverty. But those whose prayers were answered and who got what they wanted no longer needed Jesus, and they would not welcome in the Jesus who stood knocking in the night dew. The world was far more fun and enjoyable than the work of the church or a life lived by God’s word, and because of that they did not want to put on the robe of faith or wash the feet of sin.

Song of Solomon 5:4

4My beloved thrust his hand in through the latch opening. My heart pounded for him.

When the woman he loved did not answer however much he called, Solomon thrust his hand through the latch opening and struggled to open the door. Only then did the Shulammite feel sorry and get up, but by then Solomon was already gone.

Solomon is the one who transformed the Shulammite’s whole life. Having neglected such a husband, she might lose him. If we have received even a little grace from God or from another person, we must never treat them as a bother or do anything to harm them. When Jesus knocks and asks us to open, we too will hesitate, because we must give up a heart set on the world. Like a hand thrust through the latch opening, he shakes our hearts hard by hardship and by putting us through the fire, urging us to repent, yet we do not easily turn back. The things of the world can be done as our own thoughts and hearts lead, but God’s work can be a struggle, because it means laying our own thoughts aside and moving by his word.

But Christ is not someone who comes at our call. If we do not turn when he urges us to repent, nothing remains but regret, because by the time a person makes up their mind to turn back, Christ is already at work through someone else, doing what needed to be done.

The Shulammite ought to live humbly, always mindful that Solomon has a great many wives. Had she been a little wiser, grateful for Solomon’s unchanging love and serving him well, this couple would have been very happy.

You must know how many people love Christ. If you seek the Lord only when you need him, as though Christ could not do without you, you will be cast aside, because the Lord is already with many who belong to him and are faithful with all their lives. There are those who stand ready in faith to fulfill their calling, and others who seek out God’s work and labor at it with all their hearts. So you must cast off human righteousness, fleshly desire, and pride, and prepare new wineskins.

Song of Solomon 5:7

7The watchmen who go about the city found me. They beat me. They bruised me. The keepers of the walls took my cloak away from me.

When she rose from her bed, the Shulammite repented of her wrong and went searching for Solomon, but all she received was scorn and pain from the watchmen who go about the city. Had she risen a little more promptly and welcomed Solomon with a smile, she would not have had to suffer like this in the night.

It is something I say all the time: cherish people while you have them, and treat them well while they treat you well. I hope you will do right by Jesus, who gave his life for your soul, and by those who love you sincerely and without calculation, while they are still at your side. When others are kind to us, we imagine it is because we are something special, and we speak and act carelessly; then, once the chance has passed, we never fail to regret it.

But if we speak and act carelessly until the other person is hurt, damage the relationship, and only then try to restore it, we need to know that it will cost many times the time and effort. Laziness, idleness, pride, indifference, vanity, and discontent will always stand in the way of responding to God’s voice; we must recognize this and cast them off resolutely. Fail to do so, and we will live a life of constant regret and lose heart because of an emptiness that is never filled.

A soul that has lost God and wanders is bound to meet hardship, and may be beaten by the watchmen in the streets and stripped of its cloak. What strength could the Shulammite have, alone without Solomon in the dark of night? She must have realized only then that having Solomon beside her was itself her strength. Without Solomon she is nothing but a baby bird that has lost its mother. In Satan’s eyes, a believer who has lost Christ and stands alone in a dark world is just such a motherless bird.

I hope you will do better by Christ now, while he loves you. I hope you will lift Jesus Christ higher, love him more, and give him thanks. You must cut away everything that hinders your faith and your holy life, because every human effort, plan, and righteousness that stands in the way of exalting the Lord is a tool Satan provides.

Suppose you have a friend who holds the power of the world.

That friend simply does not know God; otherwise they are kind-hearted and capable, so many people want to be close to them and receive their help. Now and then the friend criticizes God and is thoroughly worldly, yet of all people they are especially fond of you and want you to go on trips with them even on the Lord’s Day. What would you decide? Two minds would wrestle within you: the temptation of the help you could gain in the world by staying with this friend, and the conviction that you must cut them off because they hinder your life of faith.

The struggle will torment you: “To believe in God, must I really push away even someone this good?” But the first thing you must weigh is whether this time and this person will help you receive eternal life. If you are wise, you will entrust everything to God and run swiftly on the road of truth until you stand on the rock of faith, until you have the spiritual authority to rescue that friend by the power of the word. Only then can both your friend and you live. Many in the church wrestle with problems like this, but if you rightly know what comes first, it is not a question to agonize over, because you already know the answer.

But if you are dragged along by love, friendship, and familiarity and cannot make a decision of faith, both that person and you will perish together. When you meet God one day, he will require that friend’s blood at your hand; the spiritual choice must therefore come before the fleshly one. Deal wisely, then, with every relationship that hinders your faith, and lock up, cover, and seal the holy temple so that the world cannot come in.

Song of Solomon 5:9

9How is your beloved better than another beloved, you fairest among women? How is your beloved better than another beloved, that you do so adjure us?

As the Shulammite wandered in search of Solomon, the daughters of Jerusalem asked her what made her husband better than theirs, that she should look for him so desperately. It is a strange question to hear, yet we, too, are often asked the same thing. We seek him because he is our husband, but the world asks what is so special about him that we go looking.

The world, in other words, wants to tear Christ down. That is why we must work hard so as not to fall behind the world. If we fall behind the people of the world because we have not worked hard, they will mock not so much us as God. They will mock our bridegroom, asking why we live in poverty if we believe in God. They will scoff, asking whether the almighty Creator cannot even heal that illness. Because of Christians who abandon a moral life and behave without decency, the world is now bent on dragging Christ down into the dirt.

Whose fault is it? Who has brought mockery on Christ our bridegroom, who threw down his own life to rescue us when we had fallen into a death as foul and ugly as the tents of Kedar? Is it not we ourselves? They dare to ask what Jesus has that is better than the world they love, that we should have given up the world. When the Shulammite, who had seemed so happy, roamed the streets at night, the women seem to have relished it, thinking that perhaps their own husbands were better than Solomon after all. Holy God is being mocked because of foolish believers.

Yet the Shulammite is hearing the women’s mockery now because she was proud and lazy and sent away Solomon, who had come to her through the night dew. Satan, longing to mock Jesus to his heart’s content, displayed the power, might, and people of the world so that believers would not open the doors of their hearts. As in the illustration I gave you, he sets a friend beside them, shows them power, and arranges circumstances in which they can gain great wealth, all to make them fall.

You must be able to see Satan’s purpose rather than the visible world. Once you know that his purpose is to keep you from eternal life, the world will look small. God is now showing you the Shulammite’s sin and pleading with you not to let go of his love. When you hear the Lord’s voice, I hope you will spring up and throw the door of your heart wide open.

While she was with Solomon, the women could not speak carelessly to the Shulammite, and the watchmen could not attack her. So too, no one can touch the one who is with Christ. Being with Christ is itself strength and power. That is the blessing, the spiritual authority Satan dares not approach. May you always be ready, so that Christ does not turn away.

May you always receive and enjoy wonderful blessings in Christ. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.