Embraced by God, Embracing God

DEVOTION

SONGS OF SONGS

EMBRACED BY GOD

EMBRACING GOD

Song 1:12-17

12 While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance. 13 My lover is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts. 14 My lover is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi. 15 How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves.

16 How handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how charming! And our bed is verdant.

17 The beams of our house are cedars; our rafters are firs.

NIV

These verses are supposed to be part of this conversation between the Shulamite and the beloved, if taken that literal view. But if taken as an allegory then it becomes a conversation between God and his church. Being at the king"s table may well speak of the communion meal, the bread and wine, the body and blood of Jesus who bought us, redeemed us from the pit of hell itself. Our praise is this perfume, a fragrance of praise. As a lover of God we are a fragrance like myrrh in his heart. How pleasing our praise is to God. We wonder just what kind of praise he likes the best. We are such a diverse people with a wide variety of personalities. Some of us are so sedate while others are extremely animated. Our styles of worship range from the almost minimal to the extremely zealous. But if we are praising him, singing praises to his name, experiencing worship in our hearts, loving God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, then as he hears our praise we are like this myrrh, this fine fragrance to his heart. We are like the blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi. This is an actual place in Israel near the Jordon River southward from Jerusalem in a dessert like location. En Gedi is an oasis, a respite, a place of rest in a dry and thirsty land. We can see this picture in our minds eye. We the church are this oasis for God in a world embraced by sin, a land dry and thirsty for sin. God finds joy in our praise, he rests in the fragrance of praise, as we sing in our hearts of his beauty, his light, his eyes in which he looks upon us in peace, like a dove. His eyes see us as holy and blameless, as we sing of him. He says to us that we are so handsome  because we love him, how charming is our praise to him and we find rest in his bed, which is verdant. This word means green with grass or other rich vegetation. He is the lily of the valley in which we join with in worship and praise. AH yes, we are pillars in the temple of our God. Beams in his temple, beams of cedar and rafters of firs.