“I will hasten and not delay to keep Your commandments” - Psalm 119:60
The significance of this “hastening” is evoked in Song of Solomon chapter 5, when the Shulamite hesitates to open to her beloved. It’s interesting to contrast chapter 5:2 and chapter 3:1. In 3:1, it appears the Shulamite is incapable of sleep because she thinks so much about her beloved. I would describe her truly as “lovesick” at this point (SoS 5:8), because rather than sleeping, she states “I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loves” (SoS 3:2). Her passion for her beloved is evidenced by her zeal to seek him out, regardless of time of day. Now contrast this with her attitude in chapter 5 - “I was asleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night” (SoS 5:2) The first thing we notice here is that she was indeed asleep. In the previous chapter, it appears that sleep evades her because her thoughts are preoccupied with thoughts of her beloved. There seems to be a certain complacency here, thats perhaps tied to comfort within the relationship. Isn’t that what happens to us often in our human relationships? Habituation often breeds complacency. The thrill is gone, and with it the desire and/or effort to please. But what causes the appeasement of our passions? More specifically, in the spiritual realm, what accounts for the dampened flame? Is it not the delay in our master’s arrival that contributes most to our love grown cold? I am reminded of the parable of the ten virgins found in Matthew 25:1-13. The ten virgins await the coming of the bridegroom, but only 5 of them (the wise) carry oil with their lamps - in anticipation almost of the bridegroom’s delay. Notice in Matt 25:5, “The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they ALL became drowsy and fell asleep.” Here we see clearly that the delay in the bridegroom’s arrival accounts for the slumber of the 10 women who at the start, were quite eager in anticipation. “So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober” (1 Thess 5:6). The Shulamite was asleep. Though she was asleep, notice that it is not her slumber that is the focus of the passage. The slumber alludes to a complacency that is more explicitly expressed in the subsequent verse. Let’s look at that passage now. It reads, “I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?” (SoS 5:3) Remember the context - in the preceding verse was Solomon’s loving invitation to “open to [him]”. Here, his warmth and excitement is met by frigidity and slothfulness. Ah, does this not prick your heart? How often is our Lord’s loving invitations to sup with us met by a frigid dismissal? We are preoccupied by vain worldly passions that have dampened our desire for Him. He knocks oh so gently and lovingly, but we have dulled ears and hardened hearts. And by the time we realize just what we have missed, it is too late - “my beloved had turned and gone” (SoS 5:6). Thanks be to God that He remains with us, though His manifest Presence has departed. I keep thinking about God’s manifest Presence - how different our lives would be if we had the type of encounters with God that did Moses, for example. Moses walked in God’s manifest Presence! And the Israelites knew it - it shone all over his face, literally. Do you not have the desire to walk in such intimacy with the One who redeemed you? Lord God, reawaken our passions! We want to be drunk with Your love such that our hearts seek continually Your Presence. Let us not sleep, but let us be alert and sober. Let us hasten and not delay to obey your Word or respond to your gentle promptings. Draw us after You, and let us run…for Your love is better than wine: your anointing oil more fragrant than the choicest perfume.
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Today's Verse
“Behold you are beautiful my love, behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves” Song of Solomon 1:15 ESV Quotations"A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear and your heart full of God's Spirit is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin." Archives
January 2023
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