Song of Solomon 1:7

"Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon?" The Word, who is the Bridegroom, often makes himself known under more than one form to those who are fervent. Why so? Doubtless because he …

HOW CHRIST IS RECEIVED BY THE HOLY SOUL AS A BRIDEGROOM, AND BY THE WEAK SOUL AS A PHYSICIAN. LIKEWISE ON THE DIFFERENCE OF THOUGHTS, WHENCE THEY ARISE. 1. "Show me where you pasture, where you lie down at midday" (Song 1:7). Here we are, …

SERMON 3 ON THE KISS OF THE LORD'S FOOT, HAND, AND MOUTH 6. To you, Lord Jesus, to you rightly has my heart said: "My face has sought you; your face, O Lord, I will seek." For you made me hear your mercy in the …

"Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it to lie down at noon." But another voice, that of Job, says: "Tell me why you judge me like this?" This man does not complain of the judgment, he …

It is fitting meanwhile to consider this contemplation of such great mercy. The deeds of a sinful woman, but one repenting—with what esteem does Truth preserve them in His presence, which He enumerates to her adversary with such detailed distribution. The Lord was reclining at the Pharisee's dinner, but He was delighting in the feasts of the mind at the penitent woman's. At the Pharisee's house, Truth was fed outwardly; at the sinful woman's, yet one who had converted, He was fed inwardly. Hence the holy Church says to Him in the Song of Songs, whom she seeks under the likeness of a young deer: "Show me, O you whom my soul loves, where you feed, where you rest at midday." For the Lord is called a young deer, according to His assumed flesh the son of the ancient fathers. Indeed, a more fervent heat burns at midday, and the young deer seeks a shady place where the fire of heat does not affect it. Therefore, the Lord rests in those hearts which the love of the present age does not inflame, which the desires of the flesh do not burn up, which, set ablaze by their anxieties, do not wither in the lusts of this world.

At midday the sun is more fervent. Everyone who burns in faith burns in the love of desire. This bridegroom who is called below a young stag feeds the greenness of virtues in their heart; in their heart he reclines at midday, in the fervor of charity. Show me, O you whom my soul loves, where you feed, where you lie down at midday. Why she thus seeks where he feeds, where he lies down, she gives the reason for her inquiry. Lest I begin to wander after the flocks of your companions. The companions of God are His close friends, just as all who live well are; but many appear to be companions and are not companions. For many teachers, while they were promoting perverse doctrine, seemed indeed to be companions, but turned out to be enemies. While Arius, Sabellius, and Montanus were still teachers, they appeared as if companions; but when they were strictly examined and exposed, they appeared as enemies. And very often faithful souls, while they cling to the word of God, while they love in their teachers that from which they may profit, do not know how to guard against the words of perverse teachers, and fall away through their very mouths. For how many congregations there are that trusted in these companions, and while those men pursued them, they wandered astray through the flocks of companions! Let her therefore say: "Show me where you pasture, where you rest at midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of your companions." Show me in whose hearts you truly rest, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of those who seem to be your companions, that is, who are believed to be your close friends and are not. All priests, all teachers are companions of God, as far as appearance goes; but as far as their life is concerned, many are not companions but adversaries. […]

Tell me, O you whom my soul loves, where you pasture, etc. Well indeed does she call him whom she seeks for protection, the beloved of her soul, because the more serious the danger from which she wishes to be rescued, the more she loves …

"That I may not begin to wander among the flocks of your companions, etc. As if he says openly, Because the multifarious persecution by my adversaries affects me like the heat of the midday; I beseech you to declare to me, O my Redeemer and …

Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth,....

The title she gives to Christ: O thou whom my soul loveth. Note, It is the undoubted character of all true believers that their souls love Jesus Christ, which intimates both the sincerity and the strength of their love; they love him with all their hearts; and those that do so may come to him boldly and may humbly plead it with him.

Tell me - where thou feedest - This is spoken as if the parties were shepherds, or employed in the pastoral life. But how this would apply either to Solomon, or the princes of Egypt, is not easy to ascertain. Probably in the marriage festival there was something like our masks, in which persons of quality assumed rural characters and their employments. See that fine one composed by Milton, called Comus. To rest at noon - In hot countries the shepherds and their flocks are obliged to retire to shelter during the burning heats of the noon-day sun.

Re 14:4). feedest--tendest thy flock (Isa 40:11; No single type expresses all the office of Jesus Christ; hence arises the variety of diverse images used to portray the manifold aspects of Him: these would be quite incongruous, if the Song referred to the earthly Solomon. Her intercourse with Him is peculiar.

It is my pleasant task this morning to stir up your pure minds, that you, as part of Christ's Church, may feel somewhat in your hearts today of love to Him, and may be able to address Him not only under the title, "You in whom my soul trusts," but, "You whom my soul loves." Last Sabbath, if you remember, we devoted to simple faith and tried to preach the Gospel to the ungodly. [Sermon #336, Volume —STRUGGLES OF CONSCIENCE—] The present hour we devote to the pure, Spirit-born, godlike, flame of love. On looking at my text, I shall come to regard it thus. First, we shall listen to the rhetoric of thelipsas we here read it in these words, "O You whom my soul loves." We shall then observe the logic of the heart, which would justify us in giving such a title as this to Christ. I will then come, in the third place, to something which even surpasses rhetoric or logic—the absolute demonstration of the daily life;And I pray that we may be able to constantly prove by our acts that Jesus Christ is He whom our soul loves. I. First, then, the loving title of our text is to be considered as expressing RHETORIC OF THE LIPS. The text calls Christ, "You whom my soul loves." Let us take this title and dissect it a little. One of the first things which will strike us when we come to look upon it is the reality of the love which is here expressed. Reality, I say—understanding the term, "real," not in contradistinction to that which is lying and fictitious—but in contrast to that which is shadowy and indistinct. Do you not notice that the spouse here speaks of Christ as One whom she knew actually to exist? Not as an abstraction, but as a Person.

We shall need to lift up our hearts to God and ask to be quickened in Divine Grace or the precious truths in our text will not prove to us "as honey out of the rock," nor the "least of fat things, of wine and marrow, of wine on the lees well refined." We cannot appreciate the spirituality of this book unless God's Spirit shall help us. Many read these words and only see a proof of the imaginative power of an eastern mind. Some read to scoff and blaspheme and others, even good people, neglect to read this book altogether, being unable to drink in its spirit because of their need of that higher life of communion with the Beloved which is here so beautifully laid open to our view. Now I am persuaded of better things of you, Beloved. I am sure that you believe that every Word of God is precious and most certainly we say of this Book, "it is more to be desired than gold, yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, or the droppings of the honeycomb." This book of the Canticles is most precious to us. It is the inner court of the temple of Truth. It seems to us to belong to the secret place of the tabernacle of the Most High. We see our Savior's face in almost every page of the Bible, but here we see His heart and feel His love to us. We shall hope this morning to speak of our own experience, as well as of the Church who is here speaking. You will perceive that she begins with a title, she expresses a desire, she enforces it with an argument—"Tell me, O You whom my soul loves, where You feed, where You make Your flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turns aside by the flocks of Your companions?" I. We commence with the title—"O You whom my soul loves." It is well to be able to call the Lord Jesus Christ by this name without an "if," or a "but." A very large proportion of Christian people can only say of Christ that they hope they love Him.

THE bride was most unhappy and ashamed because her personal beauty had been sorely marred by the heat of the sun. The fairest among women had become swarthy as a sunburn slave. Spiritually it is so full often with a chosen soul. The Lord's Grace has made her fair to look upon, even as the lily, but she has been so busy about earthly things that the sun of worldliness has injured her beauty. The bride, with holy shamefacedness, exclaims, "Look not upon me, for I am black, because the sun has looked upon me." She dreads alike the curiosity, the admiration, the pity and the scorn of men. She then turns herself, alone, to her Beloved, whose gaze she knows to be so full of love that her swarthiness will not cause her pain when most beneath His eyes. This is one index of a gracious soul—that whereas the ungodly rush to and fro and know not where to look for consolation, the believing heart naturally flies to its beloved Savior, knowing that in Him is its only rest. It would appear from the preceding verse that the bride was also in trouble about a certain charge which had been given to her, which burdened her, and in the discharge of which she had become negligent of herself. She says, "They made me the keeper of the vineyards," and she would wish to have kept them well, but she felt she had not done so, and that, moreover, she had failed in a more immediate duty—"My own vineyard have I not kept." Under this sense of double unworthiness and failure, feeling her omissions and her commissions to be weighing her down, she turned round to her Beloved and asked instruction at His hands. This was well. Had she not loved her Lord she would have shunned Him when her comeliness was faded, but the instincts of her affectionate heart suggested to her that He would not discard her because of her imperfections. She was, moreover, wise to appeal to her Lord against herself.

We shall need to lift up our hearts to God and ask to be quickened in Divine Grace or the precious truths in our text will not prove to us "as honey out of the rock," nor the "least of fat things, of wine and marrow, of wine on the lees well refined." We cannot appreciate the spirituality of this book unless God's Spirit shall help us. Many read these words and only see a proof of the imaginative power of an eastern mind.

It is my pleasant task this morning to stir up your pure minds, that you, as part of Christ's Church, may feel somewhat in your hearts today of love to Him, and may be able to address Him not only under the title, "You in whom my soul trusts," but, "You whom my soul loves." Last Sabbath, if you remember, we devoted to simple faith and tried to preach the Gospel to the ungodly. [Sermon #336, Volume —STRUGGLES OF CONSCIENCE—] The present hour we devote to the pure, Spirit-born, godlike, flame of love.

THE bride was most unhappy and ashamed because her personal beauty had been sorely marred by the heat of the sun. The fairest among women had become swarthy as a sunburn slave. Spiritually it is so full often with a chosen soul. The Lord's Grace has made her fair to look upon, even as the lily, but she has been so busy about earthly things that the sun of worldliness has injured her beauty. The bride, with holy shamefacedness, exclaims, "Look not upon me, for I am black, because the sun has looked upon me."