Lives of Praise

DEVOTION

SONG OF SONGS

LIVES OF PRAISE

Song 4:8-16

8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. Descend from the crest of Amana, from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon, from the lions' dens and the mountain haunts of the leopards. 9 You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace. 10 How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than any spice! 11 Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride; milk and honey are under your tongue. The fragrance of your garments is like that of Lebanon. 12 You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain. 13 Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard,   14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices. 15 You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon.

16 Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread abroad. Let my lover come into his garden and taste its choice fruits.

NIV

More of the description of the love of Jesus Christ for his church, and not just the church collective, but for each individual member of the church. This is how much Jesus loves us, how he sees us, how he calls to us to come to him from the high and lofty places of the world. The worldly lift themselves up on those places, they see themselves as mountain top living, as lions and leopards conquering the world, the geographic, the economic, the world of knowledge and wisdom, the world of pleasure and pain. But Jesus calls his sister, which indicates spouse, not just bride, but his sister, his spouse, his church to come to him from all those places. He sees our love as delightful, the praise on our lips which is spawned from the praise in our hearts has stolen his heart. The love we express to him is better than everything else that would be considered as lovely, wine, perfume or spices. These were elements of great value in the time of Solomon and thus Christ expresses how he values our love for him. See how he describes our praise for him. Our lips, our mouth, our voicing of praise and love for him drop sweetness as the honeycomb, milk and honey are under our tongue. Jesus is absolutely delighted with our earnest praise, that which comes from within our heart, our soul, our spirit. In respect to that kind of praise, can we give a non-earnest or false praise? Is it possible we can just mouth the praise to appear Christian? Does Jesus delight in that kind of praise? We just need to see how much he loves us and is delighted in our praise. We, his church are clothed in garments of praise.

Put on the garments of praise, for the spirit of heaviness; let the oil of gladness flow down from your throne! Put on the garments of praise, for the spirit of heaviness; your joy is my strength alone, my strength alone.  Make these broken weary bones rise to dance again, wet this dry and thirsty land with a river! Lord our eyes are fixed on you and we are waiting, for your garland of grace as we praise you name! Hallelujah, sing Hallelujah! We trade our sorrows for garments of praise!

We are as a garden to the Lord, full of the fruit of praise that is so sweet to him. He beckons us to come to him, to be his spouse, his love, his church in which he delights. The last stanza of this section of song is the response of the bride of Christ, the church. We beseech the Lord to blow on us, this is the Spirit, who comes as a mighty wind. As the Spirit blows on us, we are sent out abroad, into the world spreading his word, his love and the praise we have for him. But we also call on the Lord to come into our lives, come to us and taste the fruit of our lives, the love we have for him. To enjoy, to be delighted by our lives of praise.