Those Who Serve the Lord Alone

8Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards. 9You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride. You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck. 10How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine! The fragrance of your perfumes than all kinds of spices! 11Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb. Honey and milk are under your tongue. The smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon. 12A locked up garden is my sister, my bride; a locked up spring, a sealed fountain. 13Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits: henna with spikenard plants, 14spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree; myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices, 15a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, flowing streams from Lebanon. 16Awake, north wind; and come, you south! Blow on my garden, that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and taste his precious fruits.

Think of our mothers’ generation. As girls they lived under their parents’ love and protection, and once married they bore children and lived at their husbands’ side. When the husband died or grew old, they lived under the protection of a son. That was a mother’s life. However gifted a woman might be, she never stepped outside the fence formed by her parents, her husband, and her son. Of course, sons and daughters today are raised alike, without favor to either, and husbands and wives treat each other as equals, which is why a mother no longer tells her son that he must take responsibility for her.

Women in the past married men whose faces they had never seen and lived in an age when they could not even go out as they pleased. Because of that, their lot could differ as heaven differs from earth, depending on the character of the husband and his family. However gifted and wise a woman was, once she was shut inside the fence of marriage she gave up her own name and every dream she had. If she married into a family that had no regard for her as a person, and a husband whose own character was unformed, she had no choice but to walk a hard road through life.

Many women had no strength to throw off the yoke laid on them, and they gave up on themselves and on their future. The customs of the husband’s family utterly disregarded their wishes, and still they could not claim their rights. That was the reality. And when a mother-in-law, herself a woman, cares only for her son and cannot embrace her daughter-in-law, you begin to see why women have not moved forward. These days we hear that conflict between mothers and their sons-in-law runs deep, and that too seems to come from women who are not generous.

But if we realize that our life is a means of going to God, we will see that the daughters-in-law and sons-in-law joined to our families are dear souls who need to be saved, and we will cherish them. Our own life matters, but so does the life of a daughter-in-law or a son-in-law. If we treat them with respect, so that their lives shine with happiness, our own sons and daughters will be happier in turn, and the whole household will be at peace.

A marriage brings together two family lines and two families. More important than that, though, is the fact that one man and one woman come together to make a home. If the two forget that, before any meeting of families, they came together because they loved each other, unhappiness is bound to follow. The best the parents on both sides can do is to stand as signposts that help the couple find the right road.

What I most want to ask of the parents, siblings, and friends of those who marry is this: you must give the couple time, and wait, until the two become one in body and in spirit. If parents draw on their own experience to show what is right and wrong, and point out in detail where the world has dug its pits, where the hills rise, and where the rivers run fast, their beloved children will be able to carry the load of marriage with ease.

Husband and wife, too, must wait for each other — the husband until his wife grows used to her place as a wife, and the wife until her husband grows used to his place as a husband. A couple cannot live on love alone. Only by going through a long process of patience, adjustment, and tenderness toward each other can they build a whole home. If husband and wife set aside their pride and respect and cherish each other, each will find happiness in the joy the other feels. Now that the two have stepped outside their parents’ fence, they must treasure the home they are to build together and labor to keep it from crumbling because of the little foxes. One thing is certain: the couple comes before parents and before siblings. Parents who raised their children rightly need not worry that those children will fail them; and only when a couple is happy will they serve their parents and siblings with a greater love.

Solomon called the Shulammite “my sister.” A husband and wife are happiest when they serve God as their Father and live together like brother and sister. After their wedding night, Solomon and the Shulammite had now become one. The evil one and evil spirits cannot work where the fence of love that husband and wife have built is strong, and so the two must build its wall high with deep trust.

God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, like a husband and wife who have become wholly one flesh, are three persons and yet entirely one. God in three distinct persons works together from beginning to end toward one goal and one purpose. Each works with a clear purpose, yet with no higher or lower among them they respect one another’s freedom and will, and each upholds the work the others have been given.

God governs all of history, and as the covenant promised, he helped Jesus atone for sin and rise from death. Christ offered himself to God as the atoning sacrifice and saved all sinners, and he worked so that his people would give glory to God by faith.

John 14:26

26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you.

God the Holy Spirit is the Spirit who brings understanding. After the Holy Spirit came, the disciples’ bearing and their faith were completely changed. The old doubting, the old cowering under the power of the world, disappeared. When the Holy Spirit made them understand the word of truth they had learned from Jesus for three years, the disciples began to live by it. Once they came to believe that God lives, that he saves, and that heaven awaits on the last day, they preached the gospel at the risk of their lives.

The way the triune God works together in harmony is a vital example for married couples. A husband and wife have a sound marriage only when they safeguard each other’s individuality and freedom and, in love, work together and build each other up for the peace of the home. Children born to two people who comfort each other and know how to sacrifice themselves will also follow their parents’ love and grow up with good character.

Now the time had come for the Shulammite to follow her husband and leave her family home. Standing with Solomon on the summit of Hermon, she looked down on the place where she had grown up. A woman thinks of many things when she leaves her parents’ house. As she follows her husband out the door, leaving behind all the cherished years, the memories, and the people she loved, her heart would hold an emptiness like a hole torn through it, side by side with fear and hope for the new life ahead. Some women, like the Shulammite, marry because they long to get out of the house; others weep because they cannot bear to leave. If her husband does not embrace with love these tangled feelings she can tell no one, the pain will turn into sickness.

She was leaving behind the brothers who had mistreated her and the hard labor of the vineyards to follow Solomon to Jerusalem, and however hard her life at home had been, her heart must have ached. From Shunem, her hometown in the land of the tribe of Issachar, the Shulammite crossed one rugged mountain after another where lions and leopards lived, bound for Jerusalem in the land of the tribe of Judah. Now a life had begun for her in which she would know Solomon alone and lean on him alone.

Song of Solomon 4:10

10How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine! The fragrance of your perfumes than all kinds of spices!

Solomon must have been thrilled and overjoyed to set out with the Shulammite, for he repeats the declaration he made when he first met her. Her love, he says, is richer than wine, and the fragrance of her perfumes better than all kinds of spices.

The fragrance of the Spirit’s fullness that rises from those who set out on the road of faith with Jesus Christ is lovelier than any scent in the world. And the precious blood Jesus shed as he bore the sins of sinners in their place is a love richer than wine. God embraces those who come to him in the name of Jesus Christ alone. The aroma of the Spirit’s fullness that rises from those who belong to him is likewise a great joy to him, a pleasing offering he breathes in with delight. However much wealth, power, and time a person offers to win God’s love, devotion without Christ brings God no joy, because the one God loves is the person who offers all of it in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

1 John 2:27

27As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, you will remain in him.

Believers who have received the Holy Spirit are taught by no one else. The Holy Spirit alone teaches them, and because the Spirit is true and no lie, all they need to do is act as the Spirit has shown them.

Solomon praised the Shulammite: her lips dripped like the honeycomb, honey and milk were under her tongue, and the smell of her garments was as lovely as the smell of Lebanon. This is perhaps the highest praise a husband can give his wife. Through the Shulammite, Solomon is now tasting a happiness otherwise known only in heaven.

Song of Solomon 4:11

11Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb. Honey and milk are under your tongue. The smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

How gracious and lovely her words must have been to win such praise from Solomon! Wanting her speech to make him happier, she would have honored him with considerate, gentle words. A husband and wife can avoid wounding each other only when they speak with respect. Because a word once spoken can never be gathered up again, we must never say anything that belittles or scorns the other.

The Shulammite’s lips were said to drip like the honeycomb, and so it is with the word that comes from our lips: it is the truth that saves souls. That word is as sweet as honey from the comb, and all who hear it will receive Christ and gain eternal life. It is the Holy Spirit who causes the word to be proclaimed in this way, and the Holy Spirit who helps people hear it as sweet as the honeycomb. If we can live as holy people in a harsh world, it is because the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts has made known to us God’s will and providence; that is how we can live with strong faith. And because the Spirit has taught us the suffering, atonement, and resurrection of Christ truly and without falsehood, we can hold a right faith.

Those who walk with the Holy Spirit carry a lovely fragrance wherever they are, like the fragrance of Lebanon. Whether among brothers and sisters who have been saved or among the people of the world, a Christian by their very nature cannot help but spread that fragrance wherever they go. To those who delight in the beautiful aroma of Christ it will be the fragrance of life, and to those who dislike it, the fragrance of judgment. The salvation of the world hangs on the scent we carry, and because of that we must always give off the same fragrance. If a believer changes their scent to suit their own needs as they go through life, the Holy Spirit cannot remain with them, and they will soon lose the fragrance of Christ. God blesses a faith that gives its very best, with the whole of one’s life.

Song of Solomon 4:12

12A locked up garden is my sister, my bride; a locked up spring, a sealed fountain.

To be locked up, covered, and sealed means to be cut off, so that nothing at all can get in. Solomon is singing that the Shulammite is a pure woman who has mingled with nothing and no one but him. She looked to him alone, held his love alone in her heart, and sealed the true love that kept springing up within her so that no one could draw from it. Seeing her, Solomon was filled with joy.

The world is in turmoil today and homes are being destroyed because couples have not locked up, covered, and sealed. They ought to lock, cover, and seal their love so that no one can rush in or draw it away, yet intruders come in all too easily and tear the home apart. Whether it is the world, other people, or another belief, because the door was never sealed, truth and faith are watered down, compromise becomes unavoidable, faith is shaken, the home grows muddied, and family members come to distrust one another.

Our love for God must be like the Shulammite’s. In a garden of faith locked so that no power, authority, or evil spirit of the world can enter, we are to open the lid of the well of thanksgiving for the Lord alone and refresh him, and we must keep within us the spring of love that wells up from what the Lord gives. How could God fail to love and protect someone with so treasured a faith? The Shulammite was a beautiful woman, endowed not only with wisdom but with understanding, goodness, and virtue in full measure. We too must be people of wisdom, understanding, and virtue in balance.

Song of Solomon 4:16

16Awake, north wind; and come, you south! Blow on my garden, that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and taste his precious fruits.

The water that runs down from holy Mount Hermon flows into the Jordan, and that clean water flowed into the garden of the home Solomon and the Shulammite had made, bringing forth every kind of lovely flower and fruit. The Shulammite wanted Solomon alone to eat the fruit raised with the waters of Hermon. We, too, give ourselves to offering God the many fruits of souls we have diligently tended with the holy water of Christ’s life. When even one soul is born again as a citizen of the Kingdom of God, our joy is beyond words.

They say fruit ripened where the north wind meets the south is the sweetest. Fruit grown where cold winds meet warm ones is full and sweet. So too the faith we form amid the hardships of this world and the peace of faith will be enough to display the glory of Christ.

Like the Shulammite, who gave her best for Solomon alone, you must think hard about what you will do for Christ. He is already a strong fence around you. If you cannot pour out songs of thanksgiving to him freely, and cannot humble yourself, the evil one and evil spirits will sneer and mock.

May you be like the Shulammite, with honey dripping from your lips and honey and milk flowing under your tongue. Then, as Solomon lifted up the Shulammite’s beauty, God will lift you up and glorify you. I hope many souls will hear the honey-sweet word you share and be saved, and that you will receive a great reward from God.

Like the Shulammite, who adorned herself for Solomon alone, may you live for Christ alone. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.