Love tested and proved
3
📚At night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loves.
I sought him, but I did not find him.
2 📚I will arise now, and go about the city
in the streets, and in the squares I
will seek him whom my soul loves.
I sought him but I did not find him.
3 📚The watchmen who go around the city
found me. I said to them:
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
3:1-3 When God seems to be at a distance, when Christ’s fellowship is withdrawn, the believer is tested. What will he do? He should seek Christ again (Job 23:3; Ps 6:1-4; 13:1-3; 28:1-2; 38:21-22; 42:1-3; 63:1; 77:1-9; 105:4; 143:6-7; Hos 5:6, 15; Amos 5:4, 8). Sometimes Christian experience is similar to wandering in dark and lonely streets. But God has placed watchmen – faithful ministers to point the way to Christ.⚜
4 📚Scarcely had I passed on from them
when I found 📖 him whom my soul loves.
I held him and would not let him go 📖,
until I had brought him into my
mother’s house,
and into the chamber of her who
conceived me.
5 📚I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles and by the deer of
the field,
not to arouse or awake my love,
till he pleases.
Love conveyed in splendor
6 📚Who is this coming from the desert like
pillars of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
with all the powdered spices of the
merchant?
7 📚See, it is Solomon’s palanquin!
Sixty valiant men, of the valiant of
Israel, surround it.
8 📚They all hold swords, being expert in war.
Every man has his sword at his side,
because of fear in the night.
9 📚King Solomon made the carriage for
himself from the wood of Lebanon.
10 📚He made its posts of silver,
its bottom of gold, its covering of purple,
its interior being lovingly fitted by
the daughters of Jerusalem.
11 📚Go out, O daughters of Zion, and see
King Solomon with the crown with
which his mother crowned him on
the day of his wedding,
and on the day of the gladness of
his heart.
3:6-11 The speaker here is either the “bride” or the “friends”. The words bring us back to the literal Solomon and his bride who signify the heavenly truths of this book. It seems in these verses that Solomon has come in royal magnificence to bear his bride away (compare Song 8:5) and this is surely not without spiritual significance to believers.
We should notice that a striking feature of this book is the sudden shift of scenes. The bride is looking for the bridegroom in the shepherds’ fields (Song 1:7-8); the bridegroom is near (Song 1:9-11); afterwards they are together in the house of the king (Song 1:12-17); suddenly the bridegroom is away in the hills but comes quickly to the house and calls his bride away (Song 2:8-15); again he is on the hills and she is left alone (Song 2:16—3:3); they are together in her mother’s house (Song 3:4-5); now he comes from the desert in beauty and splendor. The book continues in similar fashion.
In other words, the book does not give a regular story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Instead we have various and brief pictures that set forth the relationship of bride and bridegroom. The spiritual purpose is to show various experiences through which believers may go in their life in Christ, and to reveal something of His beauty, magnificence, and tender love for His Church.
In these verses we see something of His glory and might (compare Ps 45:3-5). Believers (whether or not they are aware of it) are riding through the world in a heavenly carriage with the King of glory at their side. Though there is still danger at night (v 8), there is full protection for the bride in this journey with the King (John 10:28).⚜