Those the Lord Loves

5I am dark, but lovely, you daughters of Jerusalem, like Kedar’s tents, like Solomon’s curtains. 6Don’t stare at me because I am dark, because the sun has scorched me. My mother’s sons were angry with me. They made me keeper of the vineyards. I haven’t kept my own vineyard. 7Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you graze your flock, where you rest them at noon; For why should I be as one who is veiled beside the flocks of your companions? 8If you don’t know, most beautiful among women, follow the tracks of the sheep. Graze your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.

Many of you will have read the book Whale Done!

The story goes roughly like this.

One day Wes Kingsley, an executive at a large company, watched a killer whale, a predator of the sea, performing tricks at the command of a trainer tiny beside it. He was seized with curiosity: how could a whale be brought to perform like that? The trainer he asked told him that when the whale did well, they praised it lavishly and made it repeat the behavior so that it would not forget, while they turned away from its negative behavior. The reason, the trainer said, was that if attention is paid to a wrong behavior, the whale remembers it, so it must be steered quickly toward something else. Kingsley put the trainer’s method to work at the office and at home, and in both places the results were satisfying. He learned that praise, just as it had set the whale dancing, is a driving force that moves people.

Seeing how praise changed both the workplace and the home, I think “praise” must have given people confidence, and that the “right judgment” of being recognized would have given them the strength to do anything. To be recognized and praised by others matters a great deal. A child who is recognized and praised by their parents can live with confidence whoever they meet and whatever situation they are placed in, because it shows that a strong bond has formed between them and their parents.

Between a man and a woman, too, love grows deeper when they recognize and praise each other. When the woman he loves recognizes a man and believes in him, he grows bolder and does his part with confidence, for it is in a man’s heart to give his all to repay the woman who trusts and praises him.

Praise comes easily when we love someone, since everything the beloved does matches our own thinking. But what mature people need to know is that praise alone cannot sustain a relationship. Once praise has given someone confidence, we must go on to counsel them, drawing out their hidden abilities and helping them live rightly in the world; that is the way to love them more. For this reason both the one who praises and the one who is praised must put in effort if a good relationship is to last.

Because woman was made from the rib of man, the man she loves can become her whole life, and a single word from him can make her weep or laugh. This is a woman’s heart: if the one she loves understands how she is struggling, afraid, and hurting now, she will lay down even her own life. Once she believes that he will protect and love her in any circumstance, however poor or frail in body she may be, she finds the strength to overcome whatever her situation, smiling brightly with a happy heart.

When a woman and a man who are loved become one in faith, no hard situation can frighten them, and they can overcome any obstacle. Love is that great; it can change a person’s thoughts and transform the heart. All this is much easier to understand if we see Christ as the husband and ourselves as the wife, for those who enjoy peace in Christ, who protects them, have a faith that can overcome every attack of the world.

Song of Solomon 1:5

5I am dark, but lovely, you daughters of Jerusalem, like Kedar’s tents, like Solomon’s curtains.

The Shulammite loved Solomon without fretting over her circumstances or her looks. Once she loved him, we find her saying with confidence that though she is dark she is lovely, that though she is like Kedar’s tents she is like Solomon’s curtains. By saying this she means that although her appearance is plain, she is fully worthy to be loved by Solomon. Her confidence came from knowing that he loved her.

Kedar’s tents were the tents of nomads. They were covered with black hair, which made them dark and unsightly. Burned dark from working in the vineyards, the Shulammite compares her outward appearance to Kedar’s tents, yet she confidently likens herself to Solomon’s curtains. How can someone so poor and lowly be so bold? This is the power of love. Her appearance was plain, but because of Solomon, who saw the beauty shining from within her, she could become someone treasured.

We, likewise, are like Kedar’s tents—unsightly in the eyes of the world. But once God loves us, those who overflow with the fullness of the Holy Spirit are treasured in God’s sight, if nowhere else, however lowly they may look.

Song of Solomon 1:6

6Don’t stare at me because I am dark, because the sun has scorched me. My mother’s sons were angry with me. They made me keeper of the vineyards. I haven’t kept my own vineyard.

The Shulammite had lived a hard life, mistreated by her brothers and working in the vineyards all day long. Keeping her own vineyard would have been hard enough for a woman, yet she had to tend her brothers’ vineyards as well; her suffering and loneliness must have been great. Their mistreatment was more than she could ever withstand by her own strength. She needed to tend her own vineyard, but she was so afraid of her brothers that she could not even lay a hand on it. Had she worked hard on their vineyards and brought in a heavy crop, they would not have thanked her; they would only have worked her harder because she was good at it. And without sharing even a little of the harvest, they would have mocked her instead, asking why her own vineyard lay barren and fruitless.

The world we live in is like those brothers’ vineyards: however hard we work, it belongs to the world, not to us. The harder we labor, the more the world will prosper, but the reward for our efforts will be meager. And by comparison, the spiritual vineyard given to us as our own share will grow ever more desolate.

Like the Shulammite’s brothers, the world torments by force, threatening believers so that they cannot tend their own vineyards. Then, when those who have yielded to the world bear no fruit for their souls, it will mock them. If, to survive, they toil under the world’s weight and then return to the vineyard God gave them only to find it fruitless, they will feel empty and anguished. As the Shulammite laments that she has not kept her own vineyard, they will lament that they have not kept the vineyard of faith, and they will feel spiritually hollow.

To escape this situation, the Shulammite absolutely needed Solomon. The world does everything it can to keep us from bearing fruit, yet only if the Shulammite carves out time to work for her own vineyard can she harvest even a little. We have no choice but to spend all our time on the world. But only if we carve out time from it to work for our own souls can we reap spiritual fruit. When those who make that effort meet a problem in the world that they cannot possibly solve, they can receive God’s help.

Once God turns his attention to us, the world can no longer persecute us. After the Shulammite had met King Solomon, her brothers could no longer be anything to fear; so too, the power of the world is no longer something to fear if we are with Christ. The world’s power is visible, and that makes it all the more frightening; but you possess, feel, and believe in the unseen power of God, and so, like the Shulammite, you will be able to say boldly, “I am like Solomon’s curtains.”

1 John 4:18

18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love.

The verse says there is no fear in love; that is, the fear a slave feels cannot live alongside true love. If you are in the love of God, you need not fear the judgment awaiting this world that enslaves God’s people.

Once she was sure of Solomon’s love, the Shulammite became strong and courageous. True Christians, who live lives of faith, love, and obedience in the love of God, know the authority of Christ their King. Knowing it, they too can be strong and courageous the moment they are sure of his love.

1 Corinthians 1:26-29

26For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble; 27but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong; 28and God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are: 29that no flesh should boast before God.

So it was that this lowly, powerless woman fell in love with King Solomon. God is the one who chooses the foolish things of the world to put to shame those who are wise, and chooses the weak things to put to shame the things that are strong. Those whom Christ loves are no longer lowly.

The world despises as base those who lack wealth, power, honor, and authority. Since they are not among the capable and privileged, it treats them with contempt. But God chose the powerless whom the world had cast aside and built them up with heaven’s wisdom; he chose the despised and made them rich in spirit. This is because God does not raise people up by the world’s standard. The Shulammite could never have hoped to win Solomon’s love, yet he loved her. In the same way God chose us, stained by sin like Kedar’s tents, and put to shame those who boast that they are wise and strong, as if the world were everything.

Without Solomon, the Shulammite is only a vineyard keeper trembling with fear. Without God beside them, believers are only slaves of power, crushed under the world’s might and living in fear.

Song of Solomon 1:7

7Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you graze your flock, where you rest them at noon; For why should I be as one who is veiled beside the flocks of your companions?

The more frightening her circumstances grew, the more the Shulammite longed, not to submit to her brothers, but for Solomon, who would be her refuge. However lowly and plain she was, she missed the one who saw her worth, and she set out to find him. When she sought him so earnestly, the women told her that if she wanted to find him she should follow the tracks of the sheep, and there he would be.

It is said that in those days even princes spent a period training as shepherds, for only by tending sheep could they understand the hardships of the people. Jesus too, we may suppose, set aside his throne and came into the world because he knew how weak human beings are and how easily they fall into sin. This is how Solomon, having become a shepherd, could meet the Shulammite, and the two came to love each other more deeply.

To say that the shepherd is with the flock is full of meaning. If she follows the tracks of the flock, Solomon the shepherd will be there, and the Shulammite will find him without wandering in search of him. If you long to meet Christ but are wandering, not knowing which way to go, go where the flock is, and you will find him easily, because the flock that feeds on the pasture of truth does not travel the broad highways of the world; it follows the shepherd along the narrow way where the grass grows thick. On the wide and glittering roads of the world there is no pasture for the sheep. A sheep that has lost its shepherd and, unable to find the way, has strayed onto the highway would most likely be caught by someone lying in wait for it and could not escape death.

Psalms 23:1-2

1Yahweh is my shepherd: I shall lack nothing. 2He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.

As the psalm sings, if she follows the tracks of the sheep she will find Solomon there with them, though the way is narrow and hard. Like the Shulammite searching earnestly for where Solomon is, we must seek Christ through lives of worship. And as she asked the daughters of Jerusalem where Solomon was, we must ask those who are spiritually wise, never halting the steps of faith that carry us toward him until we meet Christ.

What effort are you making to meet the Christ you love? When you look for him and cannot see him, do you simply give up? If you do not know where he is, go where the flock is, the flock that hears Christ’s voice and follows him, and you will meet him there. Because Christ leads his flock and dwells beside still waters and in green pastures, if you go there you will find him, teaching the word of truth.

Just as Solomon praised the Shulammite as beautiful when she came looking for him, Christ will commend you as a faithful servant for coming in search of the truth. His commendation will restore your confidence, and he will help you not to fear the world when it comes at you with power and authority. Someone who is sure of being loved is never afraid, since the one they love is keeping them safe.

Are you sure of Christ’s love? Then I hope you will not be afraid, because the Lord does not look at the splendor of the garments you wear in the world; he looks at the love toward God flowing in your heart.

May you love God ever more deeply and share in his glory. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.