A Love That Holds Firm

9I have compared you, my love, to a steed in Pharaoh’s chariots. 10Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels. 11We will make you earrings of gold, with studs of silver. 12While the king sat at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance. 13My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh, that lies between my breasts. 14My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi. 15Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves. 16Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yes, pleasant; and our couch is verdant. 17The beams of our house are cedars. Our rafters are firs.

Here in Korea the number of accidents in which a child under eight is lost is said to be rising by twenty percent a year. You can see parents who have lost a child doing no work at all and searching the whole country until they find that child. Not being able to see a child you love must be a pain more agonizing than any punishment.

To be able to see the people you love whenever you want to, to meet them and live with them, is a great blessing. It means you can tell them you love them, right there beside them, care for them tenderly, share what is best, and be happy.

If the husband or wife you love, your children, the people you are fond of, are beside you now, love them with all you have. There is nothing so foolish as regretting it after they have gone from your side. Love comes back to you only after you have given it first. Throw it into another person’s heart like a ball and it bounces back — and what returns is happiness only if you threw it thoughtfully.

The Shulammite saw Solomon when he came to her vineyard, and she fell in love. Once she loved him she could not forget him, and out of longing to meet him again she set out to find him. She had no idea where Solomon was, so she searched blindly. The women told the Shulammite as she wandered about looking for him that the Solomon she loved was a shepherd, so he would most likely be with the sheep he was keeping.

Just as they said, she followed the tracks of the sheep and there indeed she found Solomon with them. Her heart raced when she caught sight of the one she loved. Before she left home the Shulammite had thought she might meet Solomon, and she had made herself up prettily. To look beautiful to him she had braided her hair carefully and hung a lovely ornament of beads at her neck. Her face was burned dark as the tents of Kedar, but she wanted to be beautiful at least to the man she loved.

Solomon looked at the Shulammite, full of love toward him, and saw at a glance that she was no longer the woman who had been cowed by her brothers’ mistreatment. She had run panting all that way for the single purpose of meeting him, and in his eyes she was beautiful — a lovely woman who shone, the only one of her kind in the world.

Solomon thought that the Shulammite, who had come so far to find him, was like a fine horse pulling Pharaoh’s chariots. The horse that carries King Pharaoh was a special animal, clever and quick, running with its mane flying and nothing in its way. Pharaoh’s horse would have been the most beautiful and the healthiest in the world. There were many exquisite women around Solomon, but the Shulammite, rough and poor as she was, had a particular charm the other women did not have. And because Solomon truly loved her, she looked beautiful and lovely to him just as she was, without any costly perfume to dress her up.

Being loved by someone makes a person confident like this. It changes the heart rather than the outward appearance, so the other person can see it easily without a word being said. The fragrance love gives off is a noble thing that can never be hidden.

1 Peter 3:3-4

3Let your beauty be not just the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on fine clothing; 4but in the hidden person of the heart, in the incorruptible adornment of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God very precious.

It is only natural that the Shulammite should dress and adorn herself with care in order to look beautiful to the one she loves. Every woman in the world dresses with care to hear the man she loves call her pretty and lovely. After all that work she waits for him the whole day with her heart racing, for one word telling her she is pretty and lovely. A word from the man she loves can make a woman cry or laugh. If he notices the change in her at once, she is happy all day and spares neither time nor effort for him; she prepares to give her life to him.

But however prettily a woman dresses, a man who is stingy with praise does not deserve his woman’s love. A man has to have the wisdom to understand a woman’s heart like that. Only when he understands what the woman he loves wants, and feels the beauty that comes out of a small change, can the two of them carry on a happy life together.

The Shulammite was not decked out in new clothes and expensive jewelry, but Solomon saw her carefully braided hair and her necklace and understood her heart at once. That is why he paid her the highest compliment, saying she was like Pharaoh’s horse. What we need to know, though, is that a relationship between a man and a woman cannot live on physical love alone. The inner self has to be more beautiful than the face. At first a physical love takes the heart; but as time goes on, people look less at the outward appearance and more at the words and actions that come out of the heart. If two people’s love is to stay unchanged, they must dress and change the heart rather than the face; only then can they love for a long time.

Once the Shulammite fell in love with Solomon she came to have eyes as pure as a dove’s. The inner self of a woman who thought of nothing but the man she loved had begun to change and grow beautiful. How can I make Solomon glad? How can I be with him? How can I become someone useful to him? The Shulammite began to wrestle with a great many such questions, and she would have carried the answers into action. It matters that a woman should dress her appearance, but it matters more that she dress the person hidden in the heart — that is, the inner self — for the one she loves. The inner self must be gentle and the heart must be imperishable, because then, as with the Shulammite, however poor the outer self may look, the heart within can be made new and filled full through Solomon.

Once the Shulammite put down roots of love in Solomon, she shone all the more. So it is when Christians put down roots in Jesus Christ and are joined to the Lord: they become believers who are faithful and true and full of light. The light of glory shining out of a born-again inner self is not something anyone can display by dressing the outside with the things of this world. It is a light that can be seen only when a person has received the grace of God and had their soul made new. That is why, for believers, the first thing is the new birth of the heart.

Christ is always with the sheep who give him obedience and faithfulness. If you want to meet Christ, go where the sheep who are full of faith are gathered. There you can meet the Christ who is with them. And you will be able to hear the voice of the Christ who loves his sheep.

A believer is a mirror of Christ. Like Moses, whose face shone with the glory of God, a believer who loves Christ comes to carry a light of Christ that cannot be hidden. If you live under the leading of the Holy Spirit, you will come to have a spiritual authority that no one can treat lightly. The Shulammite was clothed with Solomon’s authority; believers will be clothed with the authority of Christ, and the world will see a spiritual beauty that cannot be manufactured.

Only a faith born again like this is of value before God. God does not love you because you have attended many services and given many offerings and prayers and songs. He loves a born-again inner self that holds a real love. The acts of faith that a born-again inner self offers to God appear as offerings and prayer and praise, and as a life of faith lived according to the word. God will count precious a believer who lets go of the world and of self completely from the heart, takes up their own cross and follows him.

Song of Solomon 1:12-13

12While the king sat at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance. 13My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh, that lies between my breasts.

In verse 12 her spikenard gives out its fragrance while the king sits at his table, and in verse 13 the sachet of myrrh at her breast gives out its fragrance; both come from a heart that loves Solomon.

A believer who is loved by God gives off the fragrance of faith naturally, without any special effort to display the fragrance of Christ. Simply by being loved by Solomon the Shulammite was able to give off the scent of costly spikenard, and through the fragrance of myrrh she could clear away all the odors of the world that rise from a human body. This is a confidence only a woman who is loved by a man can feel, a boldness she would not trade for anything.

The moment a woman shines most is the moment she believes that the one she loves treasures her and is a strong fence around her, protecting her. Given only that certainty about love, a woman does not begrudge laying down her life. Anyone who looks at the face of a woman who is loved can see that she is receiving a great deal of love from someone right now. Believers who are loved by God look like this too. Once you believe that God, the King of kings, loves you entirely, then even if you are at present a little poor and sick in the world, as the Shulammite was, you can give off a precious fragrance of Christ that the world cannot match.

The reason women carry a sachet of myrrh at the breast is that its scent removes every bad odor the body gives off. A costly perfume that covers the smell of a person worn out by the affairs of the world, and covers a poor and shabby life as well, becomes that woman’s fragrance. We must give off the fragrance of Christ because it can remove every odor of the world — greed, lust, anxiety and immorality. Human beings are sinners at the root, living in the world with bodies, so the smell of sin and death cannot help rising from us. Only when that smell of sin is removed by the fragrance of Christ can we come to God and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

As the Shulammite confessed that the fragrance rising from her came from Solomon, we too must confess that the smell of sin is gone from us because of Christ. What Christ suffered to forgive human sin is beyond telling. If anyone takes the fragrance of Christ, received through that sacrifice and that love, and behaves proudly, as though he had produced it by his own effort, God will not forgive that person. A believer who has grown up receiving the love of God is not shrunken in the least by outward circumstances. Poor as their place in the world may be, they know how precious the cross Jesus carried is, and how precious the gospel is, and that is why they breathe out the strong scent of Christ’s spikenard.

You may be doing hard work, keeping someone else’s vineyard as the Shulammite did; but if your inner self stands firm in faith, the fragrance of Christ that gladdens God will shake the throne and the world. God does not look at the outward appearance but at the heart, and because of that he takes in the fragrance a believer gives off, lifts that believer up and blesses them. This dark world cannot give new life to souls. New life comes only through Christ. I hope you too will confess, as the Shulammite did, that this happiness you are enjoying is because of Christ.

Song of Solomon 1:17

17The beams of our house are cedars. Our rafters are firs.

Verse 17 records that the beams of our house are cedar and the rafters fir. This speaks of the unchanging love of Solomon and the Shulammite.

The cedar is a very precious tree that grows straight, usually to a height of twenty-four to thirty meters. The fir also grows to about seventeen to twenty meters, and the wood is firm and of good quality, so it is much used as building material. A house whose beams are made of cedar and whose rafters — the stage before the roof goes on — are made of fir is said to be so firm that no wind or rain can bring it down. Perhaps that is why the Bible records in many places that cedar was used for the pillars and beams when a palace was built. And so the bed where Solomon and the Shulammite shared their love stayed green and unchanging. As long as Solomon’s love does not change, and as long as the Shulammite’s obedience and service toward the king do not change, that love will last forever.

The bed where believers are married to Christ will be unchanging too. Christ becomes the rock; the beams and rafters are made of the cross and the resurrection; and a house completed by the faithfulness of believers is a firm house that no storm can bring down. A house of faith built together with Christ never shakes, and however hard Satan works against that beautiful love, he will not bring it down. The house where Christ and believers are married is a house established by the precious blood of Jesus, a house where he willingly laid down his own life for believers. Who could shake a firm house that Christ built, becoming its rock and its beams and its rafters, and who could obstruct the love between God and believers?

The love of God is a straight and firm love. The eyes of a believer who receives such a love shine pure as a dove’s; and like a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi, small as the flowers are, a strong fragrance will spread through the whole world and will speak of Christ.

Take a look at yourself. Are you really shining with the light of glory from the love you receive from Christ? Look back over your own faith and ask whether you carry the fragrance of Christ instead of the smell of the world and of sin.

You must have a fragrance God can take in. And you must be holding a lamp to guide people. When you are, God will give you strength to draw souls out of the world. God, who takes in the fragrance of Christ and no other, will shake your bowl of blessing together and fill it to the brim. However rough and long the world’s road is, take the road of Christ. And write Christ as the answer to every problem you meet in the world. Hold a faith like that and you will be blessed by God, like the Shulammite who is loved by the king.

Solomon never lets go of the beautiful, wise Shulammite, and God will never let go of you, whom he loves. Now you have only to enjoy peace inside God’s grace, as the Shulammite did. Solomon’s arms are heaven to the Shulammite, and believers can enjoy the life of heaven only while they are in God. It was enough for the Shulammite’s happiness that Solomon looked at her. Believers can be happy because the Holy Spirit, who actually gave his life on the cross, is always there, walking with them inside their hearts. Nowhere in the world is there anyone loved as preciously as believers are.

There were a great many women around Solomon, but only the Shulammite was in his thoughts. There are hundreds of millions of people in the world, but Almighty God is giving his attention to you alone. That is how far you are a holy child of God. You may enjoy that happiness to the full.

May the light and the fragrance the Shulammite had be yours always. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.