Read Song of Songs 1:8–11
Questions from the Scripture text: What may be the case with the Bride (Song of Songs 1:8a)? What does the King call her? Where does He tell her to go (verse 8b)? What does He tell her to do (verse 8c)? Where/with whom (verse 8d)? Who has done what to her (Song of Songs 1:9a)? What does He call her now? To what has He compared her (verse 9b)? What other observations does He make bout her (Song of Songs 1:10)? What will He continue to make for her (Song of Songs 1:11)?
How does the Lord respond to His Bride’s discouragement over her present failings? Song of Songs 1:8–11 looks forward to the call to worship in public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these four verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the Lord responds to His Bride’s discouragement over her failings with encouragement and instruction.
“If you do not know” (Song of Songs 1:8a). The Bride has been speaking as the invisible church (she loves Him, cf. Song of Songs 1:7a). But she is sill susceptible either to ignorance or forgetfulness. Let believers, and/or healthy churches, keep vigilance and diligence to learn from Her Chief Shepherd.
“O fairest among women” (Song of Songs 1:8a). She is painfully aware of her deficiency, and she has taken pains to warn the daughters of Jerusalem against focusing upon her deficiency (Song of Songs 1:6a). But, this is not how her Beloved sees her. To Him, He is the fairest among women. This teaches us to see the church, to see believers, through the eyes of Christ. Scripture teaches us several ways in which He values the church above all else.
He esteems her for her election by God, her union with Himself, her indwelling by the Spirit, her adoption by the Father.
His own righteousness has been counted unto her; she is righteous with the righteousness of God, and is to be esteemed accordingly.
His own personal delight in her, and love for her, assigns to her a value at which we all ought to esteem her.
He sees her with respect to how glorious she will be when He is done with her. And so ought we.
For all of these reasons, He has counted her (reckoned, “compared” in NKJ, Song of Songs 1:9) as the most excellent, in comparison to animals that are the most beautiful, strong, and noble/glorious.
And, she has a beauty that is more and different than what horses ordinarily have, represented in Song of Songs 1:10 with the ornaments and gold. Note, that this beauty is added to her from the outside, represented by ornaments and chains. Where does she get them? The Lord Himself. In fact, He is still making them for her (Song of Songs 1:11). The plural here does not indicate a change in speaker. Just as, in His making things in Genesis 1:26, the change from third person singular to first person plural is not a change in Actor. Using the same word for “make” in both places, Scripture talks about the same, glorious, Triune God.
So, the Lord answers her discouragement with encouragement—but also with instruction. He gives her two commands in Song of Songs 1:8.
First, follow in the tracks of the flock that has gone before. Take the old paths. What is needed is not some innovation. The same means that the Lord has appointed, He has used in the paths, and He continues to use today. If we wish to be sanctified until we are glorified, then we follow in the same path, the ordinary means of God’s grace—chief among which are Word, sacraments, and prayer.
Second, bring our little ones (the kids of the goats, in Song of Songs 1:8c) to the shepherds whom the Chief Shepherd, the King, the Beloved, has appointed. He employs pastor-teachers (verse 8d, cf. Ephesians 4:11). This is what the church’s children need. And, indeed, this is what we all need. We are all little ones. Lambs. Kids of the goats. And, in availing ourselves of the pastoral ministry for them, we will avail ourselves of it for ourselves as well.
Thus, the Lord answers us, when we are discouraged by our ongoing failings: with encouragement and instruction.
Over what failings in the church have you been discouraged? But how does Christ see her? And what does Christ tell her to do? Over what spiritual failings in yourself have you been discouraged? But how does Christ see you? And what does Christ tell you to do?
Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for valuing us with Your own love, delight, and esteem. Grant unto us to view Your church, and ourselves, in accordance with how You view us. And grant unto us to walk in the old paths, shepherded by the pastors whom You have given us, that we might have Christ Himself as the One Who feed us, we ask in His Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP23B “The Lord’s My Shepherd” or TPH403 “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken”
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