Steve Webb: Both interpretations are beautiful, and both have
merit.
It's the Lifespring! One Year Bible coming to you from
Riverside, California and podcasting since 2004. My name
is Steve Webb. I'm your OG Godcaster is poetry Thursday,
our reading will be Song of Solomon, chapters five and six.
The website is Lifespringmedia.com. Then I'll
have contact information in case you want to get in touch with me
at the end of the show. Before we read, let's pray. Our
Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time together. We thank
You for Your Word. and we pray that as we read today, you would
teach us touch our hearts in our minds. We pray this in Jesus
name, Amen. All right, let's begin.
Song of Solomon chapter five. I have come to my garden, my
sister, my bride. I gather my myrrh with my spices. I eat my
honeycomb with my honey. I drink my wine with my milk, eat
friends, drink, be intoxicated with love. I sleep but my heart
is awake. A sound My love is knocking. Open to me my sister
My darling My Dove my perfect one. For my head is drenched
with do my hair with droplets of the night. I have taken off my
clothing. How can I put it back on? I have washed my feet. How
can I get them dirty? My love thrusts his hand through the
opening, and my feelings were stirred for him. I rose to open
from my love. My hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with
flowing myrrh on the handles of the bolt. I opened to my love,
but my love had turned and gone away. I was crushed that he had
left. I sought him but did not find him. I called him but he
did not answer. The guards who go about the city found me. They
beat and wounded me. They took my cloak from me. The Guardians
of the walls. Young Women of Jerusalem I charge you. If you
find my love, tell him that I love sick. What makes the one
you love better than another most beautiful of women? What
makes him better than another that you would give us this
charge? My love is fit and strong. Notable among 10,000 His
head is purest gold. His hair is wavy and black is a raven. His
eyes are like doves besides streams of water, washed in milk
and set like jewels. His cheeks are like beds of spice towers of
perfume. His lips are lilies dripping with flowing myrrh. His
arms are rods of gold set with Topaz. His body is an ivory
panel covered with sapphires. His legs are alabaster pillars
set on pedestals of pure gold. His presence is like Lebanon as
majestic as the cedars. His mouth is sweetness. He is
absolutely desirable. This is my love. and this is my friend
Young Women of Jerusalem.
Song of Solomon chapter six. Where has your love gone most
beautiful of women. Which way has he turned we will seek Him
with you. My love has gone down to his garden to beds of spice
to feed in the gardens and gather lilies. I and my loves
and my love is mine. He feeds among the lilies. You are as
beautiful as Tirza my darling lovely as Jerusalem. All
inspiring is an army with banners turn your eyes away from
me for they captivate me. Your hair is like a flock of goats
streaming down from Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of us
coming up from washing, each one having a twin and not one
missing. Behind your veil your brows like a slice of
pomegranate. There are 60 Queens and 80 concubines and young
women without number. But my dove my virtuous one is unique.
She is the favorite of her mother, perfect to the one who
gave her birth. Women see her and declare her fortunate queens
and concubines also and they sing her praises. Who is this
who shines like a dawn as beautiful as the moon bride is
the sun. All inspiring is an army with banners. I came down
to the Walnut Grove to see the blossoms of the valley to see if
the vines were budding and the pomegranates blooming. Before I
knew it, my desire put me among the chariots of my noble people.
Come back, come back Shulamite come back come back that we may
look at you. Why are you looking at the Shulamite as you look at
the dance of the two camps.
Beloved, as you probably know this book The Song of Solomon
can be read from at least two levels. It can be read as an
account of a bride and groom from a purely human level or as
an ally. Glory of the love of Christ for the church. Both
interpretations are beautiful, and both have merit. Now, as I
was studying this book again in preparation for how to present
it to you, I came upon an interesting fact. In times past,
Jewish teachers often advised their young people not to read
it until they were 30 years old, because they were afraid that
the book would stir up feelings of lust in them. While reading
the language with a very different vocabulary today, it's
a bit difficult to imagine it having that effect on us, I
suppose. But their fears are understandable, don't you think?
But if we look at the book from the allegorical perspective, we
see how much Christ loves His church, and how much we should
love him. I ran across the following excerpt from the great
19th century preacher, Charles Spurgeon, he said in reference
to a portion of chapter 15, which reads in the King James,
yay, he is altogether lovely. These following words, looking
at my text, I felt much humbling of spirit, and I hesitated to
preach upon it for I said, in my heart, it is high I cannot
attain to it. These deep texts show us the shortness of our
plumb line. These ocean verses are so exceeding broad, that our
skills are apt to be driven far out of sight of land where our
timid spirits trembled to spread the sail. Then I comforted
myself by the thought that though I could not comprehend
this text in a measure, Norway, its mountains in scales, or its
hills in a balance, yet it was all mine own by the gift of
divine grace, and therefore, I need not fear to enter upon the
meditation of it. If I cannot grasp the ocean in my span, yet
me I bathe there in with sweet content, if I cannot describe
the king and his beauty, yet May I gaze upon him, since the old
proverb says, a beggar may look at a prince, though I pretend
not to preach from such a heavenly word is that before us
as to spread before you all its marrow and fatness. Yet May I
gather up a few crumbs which fall from its table, for men are
glad of crumbs and crumbs from such a feast are better than
loaves from the tables of the world, better to have a glimpse
of Jesus, than to see all the glory of the earth all the days
of our life. If we fail on this subject, we may do better than
if we succeeded upon another. So we will pluck up courage, seek
divine help, and draw near to this wondrous text with our
shoes from off our feet like Moses when he saw the bush or
glow with God. This verse has been translated in another way,
he is all desires. and so indeed Jesus is, he was the desire of
the ancients. He is the desire of all nations, still, to his
own people. He is there all in all, they are complete in Him,
they are filled out of his fullness. He is the delight of
his servants, and fills their expectations to the full, but we
will not dispute about translations. For after all, was
such a text so full of unutterable spiritual sweetness.
Every man must be his own translator, and into his own
soul must the power of the message come by the enforcement
of the Holy Spirit. Such a text as this is very like manna which
fell in the wilderness which the rabbi's say it tasted after each
man's liking. If the flavor in a man's mouth was very sweetness,
the angels food which fell around the camp was luscious as
any dainty he had conceived, whatever he might be, the manner
was to him as he was, so shall this text be to you with low
ideas of Christ, the Word shall but glide over your ears and be
meaningless. But if your spirit be ravished with a precious love
of Jesus, there shall be songs of angels and more than that,
the voice of God's own spirit to your soul. That was from
Spurgeon, the treasury of the Old Testament, and I can't
improve on what he wrote. So I'm gonna leave it at that. If you
have thoughts or questions I'd like to hear from you. Send to
Boostagram or call the Lifespring family hotline or go
to the comments page or write an email. I'll tell you how to do
that in just a few moments. Tomorrow will be prophecy Friday
and our reading will be Revelation chapters 10 through
17.
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vote. It would mean a lot to me. Thank you so much.
Unknown: short show today. You've probably noticed over the
last few days that I've got a cold going and I didn't even go
to my laser surgery this morning because I woke up in the cold
was just pounding head. and so I called and I cancelled it
because I didn't want to make anybody else sick. So anyway,
it's a short show today. But as always, I do invite your
comments and your questions. There are several ways to get in
touch with me send to Boostagram using a modern podcast app from
podcastapps.com, or call the Lifespring family Hotline at
plus 1951732 at 511. and if you have a praise report or a prayer
request, please go to prayer to Lifespringmedia.com and fill out
that form you'll find there. I'll pray for you and my quiet
time and we'll pray together on the show. If you have a comment
or a question, go to comment.lifespringmedia.com or
send an email to me at Steve at Lifespring media.com.
Steve Webb: Thanks to the team, Sister Denise Michael Haner
Scott Snider, Jason Paschall and SR Brittaney for their generous
donations of time and talent. Jason Paschall did today's show
our beloved thank you for inviting me to be part of your
day. I enjoy our time together and I can't wait to see you
tomorrow. Until then, may God bless you richly. My name is
Steve. Bye.
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