Questions from the Scripture text: How does the wine go down, for whom (Song of Songs 7:9b)? Whose lips does it move (verse 9c)? In what manner? To Whom does she belong (Song of Songs 7:10a)? What is the object of His desire (verse 10b)? What does she invite Him to do (Song of Songs 7:11a)? To go where (verse 11b)? And lodge where (verse 11c)? Getting up when (Song of Songs 7:12a)? To go where? And see what (Song of Songs 7:12b–d, cf. Song of Songs 6:11)? What will she do, there, when these things have happened (Song of Songs 7:12e)? What give off what (Song of Songs 7:13a)? What are at their gates (verse 13b)? Of what kinds (verse 13c)? For Whom has she laid them up (verse 13d)?
What does the bride delight to do? Song of Songs 7:9b–13 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these five verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the bride delights to produce fruit that delights her Beloved.
Desiring the Bridegroom’s Delight, Song of Songs 7:9-10. The bride delights in His delighting in her—not in the pride of her delightfulness, but in the love of giving Him delight. It is for Him. It is “for her Beloved” (Song of Songs 7:9b) that the wine goes with uprightness. “Smoothly” is a fine contextual translation, but the more literal meaning is even better, when we remember that the wine refers to the reviving, strengthening, gladdening ministry of the church.
The verb in the last part of the verse appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. Most scholarly guesses about what sort of movement it is describing come from its connection to the wine, but in the context of what has happened in the song, and the nature and purpose of wine, we get a better sense from the fact that it is doing this to “the lips of sleepers.” We have seen, in Song of Songs 3:1, Song of Songs 5:2–3, what these sleepers are. When the bride has slept, it has been an indication that she needs reviving. Now, we see that a revived church loves to delight the Bridegroom by herself being the means by which sleepers are revived.
Here is one thing that especially delights the Lord Jesus in a church: when her ministry is such as He uses to give life to those who are spiritually dead, and to recover saints who have backslidden into a spiritual slumber.
Just as her spiritual labor is entirely unto her Beloved (Song of Songs 7:9), His desire is entirely unto her (Song of Songs 7:10). She is His delight.
Sharing the Bridegroom’s Delight, Song of Songs 7:11-12. With His eagerness to see revival in mind, she invites Him to come and watch for it with her. The exercise in Song of Songs 7:12 is one that she learned from Him, in Song of Songs 6:13, where He had described His eager watchfulness to see any signs of new growth in her, during her time of backsliding: watching for new buds (Song of Songs 7:12b), new blossoms (verse 12c), or new blooms (verse 12d). Wherever these sleepers are found—whether field (Song of Songs 7:11b), village (verse 11c), or vineyard (verse 11d)—she invites Him to look for signs of life. He delights to see the new life that He gives, and she delights to be the means of producing that new life as an expression of her love to the Bridegroom (Song of Songs 7:12e).
She expresses action in looking for these signs of life by “going forth” (Song of Songs 7:11b). She expresses persistence in looking for these signs of life by “lodging” (verse 11c). She expresses earnest eagerness in looking for these signs of life by “getting up early” (Song of Songs 7:12a). In all of these, she is happy to share with Him in looking for signs of new life.
Multiplying the Bridegroom’s Delight, Song of Songs 7:13. From Genesis 30:14–16, we know that mandrakes (Song of Songs 7:13a) were thought to improve fertility. The idea here is that the bride is bearing fruit in the sense of child-bearing. New birth. Her spiritual fertility produces fruit (verse 13b) of all kinds. She is happy to see new life in new saints, and continued life in old saints (verse 13c). All of her ministry, to all of them, is especially for the Beloved. The church loves to multiply fruit, new and old, for Christ.
How do you enjoy, and express, delight at being Christ’s own delight? What action are you taking to see new fruit in yourselves and others? How are you persisting in that action? How are you demonstrating eagerness and diligence to see that fruit? What fruit are you laying up for Christ in your own life? And to whom are you fulfilling your duties, as a church member and a neighbor, out of a desire that fruit would be laid up for Christ?
Sample prayer: Lord, we are amazed that Your church is Yours, and that Your desire is toward her. Come, our Beloved, and let us go now together to see new buds and blossoms of life in Your church. We are here to give You our love. By Your Spirit, produce pleasant fruits in those whom You newly convert, and in those Who older believers, of long standing. Come, and make us fruitful, so that we might lay up for You all the fruit that we can, through Christ, in Whose Name we ask it, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP45B “Daughter, Incline Your Ear” or TPH403 “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken”
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