Sunday, April 21, 2019

The Sweet Fragrance of Praise


DEVOTION
SONG OF SONGS
THE FRAGRANCE OF PRAISE
Song 7:9-13
May the wine go straight to my lover, flowing gently over lips and teeth.  10 I belong to my lover, and his desire is for me. 11 Come, my lover, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the villages.   12 Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, if their blossoms have opened, and if the pomegranates are in bloom — there I will give you my love. 13 The mandrakes send out their fragrance, and at our door is every delicacy, both new and old, that I have stored up for you, my lover.
NIV

After seeing how Jesus looks at us the church and how he describes how beautiful we are to him, the church responds. We respond explaining, proclaiming that our praise, the wine, go straight to our Lord. May our praise flow over him, may he delight in the taste of our praise. We proclaim that we belong to him, that we do not belong to any other, not even ourselves. We belong to him and his desire is for us. The Lord desires us, we are his people, his church, and his love is poured out upon us. We tell him, we beseech him to go with us in our life, whether that be in the countryside, during the day or the villages at night, or the vineyards where we labor. Whatever we do, wherever we go, we want the Lord to be with us, and we want to show him all our being, giving him access to our inner self. Show him we have budded, that our blooms are open, our heart, our mind, our spirit and our strength are open to his love and that we will love him with all our heart, mind, spirit and strength. Our praises, our worship send out a sweet fragrance to the nostrils of our Lord and God. Our door, our life is every delicacy to the Lord. Which can be seen either both our old life of sin, and our new life in him or the brand new believer, and the old believers, those who just found salvation or those who have walked in the way for years upon years. We both are a delicacy to the Lord. This could also be everything in our life, all that we are, all that we do is open to him and all we have stored up is for him, our lord. We do not store up for ourselves, like that rich farmer fool, but all we store up, all our labor, all our love, all our life, is for him. No matter what time in life we are, or where we are, the countryside, the village or the vineyard, all we have belongs to him. As we make those promises in our wedding vows to each other, that we are now as one, all we have belongs to the other, so it is with Jesus. We, being his brides, his spouse, enjoy all he has, and he, being our bridegroom, enjoys all we have, especially our sweet fragrance of praise.

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