Faint with Love

DEVOTION

SONG OF SONGS

FAINT WITH LOVE

Song 5:1-8

5:1

I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk.

Eat, O friends, and drink; drink your fill, O lovers.

2 I slept but my heart was awake. Listen! My lover is knocking:

"Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night." 3 I have taken off my robe — must I put it on again? I have washed my feet — must I soil them again? 4 My lover thrust his hand through the latch-opening; my heart began to pound for him. 5 I arose to open for my lover, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh, on the handles of the lock. 6 I opened for my lover, but my lover had left; he was gone. My heart sank at his departure. I looked for him but did not find him. I called him but he did not answer. 7 The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. They beat me, they bruised me; they took away my cloak, those watchmen of the walls! 8 O daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you — if you find my lover, what will you tell him? Tell him I am faint with love.

NIV

Again we could read this in the realm of the physical and it would become an extremely sensual piece of literature. But this is not about the physical realm of men and women, it is about God and his people. God is always revealing himself to us and seeking for us to reveal ourselves, to open ourselves up to him. The previous section ended with this prayer of asking the Lord to come to the garden and taste the fruit. Here we see the Lord’s answer to prayer. As the church prays for the affection and attention of the Lord, he answers, but does he find what he was invited to enjoy? The Lord beseeches us to open our hearts to him. He has made us flawless, he has made us holy and blameless in the sight of the Father. He has washed us in his blood and purified us, made us a new person. He has given us eternal life and we now live in this new creation of his. The question which is asked or implied is if we the church have fallen asleep. Are we at slumber while the Lord is knocking? We gather alright on Sundays we sort of sing, and sort of praise, and sort of look like the church, but are we just really asleep at the switch, so to speak, just going through the motions of church, of worship? Listen, the Lord is knocking at the door of our heart. He calls us to open up to him, to allow him to embrace us, to feel his presence, his hand upon us, how sweet it is to have him so close to our heart, if we do not allow him full access to our very being, our soul, our spirit, our mind, our  body, will be withdraw from us? If we want to long in our hearing his voice, his touch upon us, he may well seem far off from us. The song speaks of him leaving, and she could not find him. She called but he did not answer. See how we can sleep in our spiritual journey too long and we are not really in the place with the Lord we should be. It feels like we are alone, we do church, but we are dry, barren of his love for us, but it has not change, but we do not feel it. If we ask where he is, if we search for him, but if we are looking for Jesus in the world, if we are trying to live in the world and trying to be his church we will be beaten, we will lose our cloak. Have we allowed the world, Satan to distract us from our wedding bed? Has sin gripped us in some way that we cannot hear his knocking?  No, we must stay close to him, stay open to his arms. Hear his voice, not falling into slumber, but being alive, awake, spontaneous in praise and worship. Being loved and loving as we are his betrothed, his bride, his spouse, his church, so as he loves us, we love him. We embrace him for we are faint with love.