Song of Songs 2:16-17 (NIV)
16 My beloved is mine and I am his; he browses
among the lilies.
17 Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved,
and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the rugged hills.
17 Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved,
and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the rugged hills.
Surely if there is a happy verse in the Bible it is
this—"My beloved is mine, and I am his." It is so peaceful, so full
of assurance, so overflowing with happiness and contentment, that it might well
have been written by the same hand that penned the Twenty-third Psalm. Yet
though the prospect is very bright and lovely—as fair a scene as earth can
display—it is not an entirely sunlit landscape. There is a cloud in the sky,
which casts a shadow over the scene. Listen: "Until the day breathes and
the shadows flee."
There is a word, too, about the "cleft mountains,"
or "the mountains of division," and to our love, anything like
division is bitterness. Beloved, this may be your present state of mind. You do
not doubt your salvation, you know that Christ is yours, but you are not
feasting with Him. You understand your vital interest in Him, so that you do
not have a shadow of a doubt about being His and of His being yours, but still
His left hand is not under your head, nor does His right hand embrace you. A
shade of sadness is cast over your heart, perhaps by affliction, certainly by
the temporary absence of your Lord, so that even while exclaiming, "I am
his," you are forced to take to your knees and to pray, "Until the
day breathes, and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved."
"Where is He?" asks the soul. And the answer
comes, "He grazes among the lilies." If we would find Christ, we must
get into communion with His people, we must come to the ordinances with His
saints. Oh, for an evening glimpse of Him! Oh, to eat with Him tonight!
Thought for today:
Do I seek communion with God?
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