Solomon Admires His Bride's Beauty

  

Song of Solomon

 

Chapter 4

 

December 27, 2022

 

Solomon Admires His Bride's Beauty

He

Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold, you are beautiful! Your eyes are doves behind your veil.  Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead.   Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost its young.  Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely.  Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.  Your neck is like the tower of David, built in rows of stone;  on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors. Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that graze among the lilies.  Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, I will go away to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense.   You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.  Come with me from Lebanon, my bride; come with me from Lebanon.  Depart^[ from the peak of Amana, from the peak of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards.  You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.  How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!   How much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!  Your lips drip nectar, my bride; honey and milk are under your tongue; the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.   A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a spring locked, a fountain sealed.  Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits, henna with nard,  nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, with all choice spices a garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon.   Awake, O north wind, and come O south wind!  Blow upon my garden, let its spices flow.

Together in the Garden of Love

She

Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits.

 

Have you as a follower of Christ come to grasp that the Bridegroom, Jesus, has a love for you His bride, that far exceeds any words spoken by humans?  Do you and do I understand the magnitude of Jesus' Love for you?  It is significantly greater than my understanding of grace! 

 

§  John Piper, gave these insights on Scripture on grace, all from the apostle Paul; Romans 3:24: “[We] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Grace is what inclines God to give gifts that are free and undeserved by sinners.

• Romans 5:15: “If many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.” So, grace is that quality in God that produces free gifts for guilty sinners in salvation. 
• Romans 11:5–6: “At the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.” So, you can’t work to earn grace. It is free and undeserved.  Now, that’s what most of us have in our minds when we say God is a God of grace. And that’s true. It’s wonderful. Our eternal lives depend on it. None of us would be saved if grace were not undeserved favor, and were not a quality in the mind of God, in the heart of God, in the nature of God.

 

Have you heard the term cheap grace, when we foolishly discard all that is involved in what God has done for us, for without grace, there would be no eternal life?

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice