Song 1:4 | KingComments | STEP | His love draws our hearts toward Him. The more we are engaged in His love for us, the more we will love Him. It makes no sense to be sitting in sackcloth and ashes regarding our lack of love for Him. It makes no sense in trying to stir up and intensify our love for Him. Instead, we must give up looking at ourselves and be engaged with Him. Thinking about our sluggishness and coldness does not help us to love Him more. If we notice slowness and coldness in our love for Him, we should confess it, and immediately afterward start thinking about His love for us. Then our hearts will get warm again. “We love, because He first loved us” ( ). We feel that we are susceptible to things that take the place of our love for Him. That is why we feel the need for the fervent prayer, that He will draw us along with Him. This prayer is immediately followed by the heart’s intention to run after Him. We see this for example in the life of Paul. He knows he has been laid hold of by the Lord Jesus and then he says he is pressing onward to lay hold on Him ( ). It is a personal desire to be drawn: “Draw me.” But the desire to run and follow is a common desire, as we read here: “Let us run.” The desire that one has to be open to the working of God’s Spirit is the desire of more people. Paul ‘pressed on’ and those who love the Bridegroom ‘run’. Known and experienced love encourages the greatest possible effort to know Him and to be with Him. When the eye and the heart are so focused on Him, we realize that the initiative lies with Him. He must draw. So it is already at conversion. This is what the Lord Jesus also says: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” ( ; cf. ; ). Thus we are rescued or drawn from the power of the world and of sins ( ). This does not take away the responsibility that calls on the sinner to turn back, but here we see God’s side. For the believer it is the same. He is called to follow Christ. Whoever takes that call seriously also feels the need for the Lord to work it in him. That the call is really taken seriously is evident from the conscious choice to run after Him as well. The life-giving work of the Spirit in us and our commitment as believers are in harmony (cf. ). When the bride has expressed the wish to be drawn, followed by the firm intention to run after the groom, she immediately sees the final goal of the road before her. She knows that he will bring her “into his chambers”. She already sees herself there together with him. His chambers are the inner, hidden rooms of the king ( ). It is a place of intimate proximity. Here she calls him “king” for the first time. The relationship of love in which she stands to him is also a relationship in which she acknowledges that he is her lord (cf. ). It is the same for us. The Lord Jesus really must be our Lord before we can know Him as a loving Bridegroom. We also know that He went to the Father’s house to prepare a place for us there. He comes back to take us up and bring us there ( ), but through His Spirit we are already connected with Him there. The awareness of her beloved’s love for her and the acknowledgment of his lordship elicit from her lips a call to rejoice. In a relationship of love and authority, of authority exercised in perfect love, lies the greatest possible safety and security. This can only result in joy and happiness. This is also the case with us in our relationship with the Lord Jesus. There is a deep joy because we know and love Him, and even more because He knows and loves us. He is the Object of our joy, we rejoice in Him. Happiness without Him or a happiness that has another source, is trivial happiness, that flames up like straw in the fire for a while and then extinguishes without having given any warmth. Christ is the inexhaustible Source of joy and happiness. He is a Source that cannot be affected by anything that would diminish or even eliminate joy. The joy found in Him cannot be influenced by changing circumstances. In the Father’s house we will drink continuously from that Source, rejoicing in Him eternally in a perfect, undisturbed manner. Already now, on earth, we are allowed to rejoice again and again ( ; ). In the Father’s house we will, as we already do on earth, constantly remember His excellent love. We will never forget that love, that love that is “better than wine”, that is, the joy that His love gives, goes far beyond all earthly joys. We will talk about that love with the Father and the Son and with each other. That is fellowship that gives perfect joy: “And indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete” ( ). In the last line of the verse, the bride assures the groom that the maidens “rightly” love him. If we love the Lord Jesus, it is right to do this, for His love gives every reason to do so. It is also important that our expressions of love are sincere, not hypocritical, and without ulterior motives. Our expressions of love are weak. But if they are sincere, they are appreciated by Him. The bride sees this here with the maidens and she testifies to it toward her groom. Do we also have an eye for it when something is done out of love for the Lord Jesus? Or do we rather, or perhaps even only, see the wrong thing in what another person does? We must learn to appreciate what is being done in sincerity and also express this as encouragement.

‏ Song of Solomon 1:4

Brought Into the Chambers

His love draws our hearts toward Him. The more we are engaged in His love for us, the more we will love Him. It makes no sense to be sitting in sackcloth and ashes regarding our lack of love for Him. It makes no sense in trying to stir up and intensify our love for Him. Instead, we must give up looking at ourselves and be engaged with Him. Thinking about our sluggishness and coldness does not help us to love Him more. If we notice slowness and coldness in our love for Him, we should confess it, and immediately afterward start thinking about His love for us. Then our hearts will get warm again. “We love, because He first loved us” (1Jn 4:19).

We feel that we are susceptible to things that take the place of our love for Him. That is why we feel the need for the fervent prayer, that He will draw us along with Him. This prayer is immediately followed by the heart’s intention to run after Him. We see this for example in the life of Paul. He knows he has been laid hold of by the Lord Jesus and then he says he is pressing onward to lay hold on Him (Phil 3:12-14).

It is a personal desire to be drawn: “Draw me.” But the desire to run and follow is a common desire, as we read here: “Let us run.” The desire that one has to be open to the working of God’s Spirit is the desire of more people. Paul ‘pressed on’ and those who love the Bridegroom ‘run’. Known and experienced love encourages the greatest possible effort to know Him and to be with Him.

When the eye and the heart are so focused on Him, we realize that the initiative lies with Him. He must draw. So it is already at conversion. This is what the Lord Jesus also says: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (Jn 6:44a; cf. Jer 31:3; Hos 11:4). Thus we are rescued or drawn from the power of the world and of sins (Gal 1:3b-4). This does not take away the responsibility that calls on the sinner to turn back, but here we see God’s side.

For the believer it is the same. He is called to follow Christ. Whoever takes that call seriously also feels the need for the Lord to work it in him. That the call is really taken seriously is evident from the conscious choice to run after Him as well. The life-giving work of the Spirit in us and our commitment as believers are in harmony (cf. Hos 6:1-3).

When the bride has expressed the wish to be drawn, followed by the firm intention to run after the groom, she immediately sees the final goal of the road before her. She knows that he will bring her “into his chambers”. She already sees herself there together with him. His chambers are the inner, hidden rooms of the king (Psa 91:1). It is a place of intimate proximity. Here she calls him “king” for the first time. The relationship of love in which she stands to him is also a relationship in which she acknowledges that he is her lord (cf. Psa 45:11).

It is the same for us. The Lord Jesus really must be our Lord before we can know Him as a loving Bridegroom. We also know that He went to the Father’s house to prepare a place for us there. He comes back to take us up and bring us there (Jn 14:1-3), but through His Spirit we are already connected with Him there.

The awareness of her beloved’s love for her and the acknowledgment of his lordship elicit from her lips a call to rejoice. In a relationship of love and authority, of authority exercised in perfect love, lies the greatest possible safety and security. This can only result in joy and happiness. This is also the case with us in our relationship with the Lord Jesus. There is a deep joy because we know and love Him, and even more because He knows and loves us.

He is the Object of our joy, we rejoice in Him. Happiness without Him or a happiness that has another source, is trivial happiness, that flames up like straw in the fire for a while and then extinguishes without having given any warmth. Christ is the inexhaustible Source of joy and happiness. He is a Source that cannot be affected by anything that would diminish or even eliminate joy. The joy found in Him cannot be influenced by changing circumstances.

In the Father’s house we will drink continuously from that Source, rejoicing in Him eternally in a perfect, undisturbed manner. Already now, on earth, we are allowed to rejoice again and again (Phil 4:4; 1Thes 5:16). In the Father’s house we will, as we already do on earth, constantly remember His excellent love. We will never forget that love, that love that is “better than wine”, that is, the joy that His love gives, goes far beyond all earthly joys. We will talk about that love with the Father and the Son and with each other. That is fellowship that gives perfect joy: “And indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete” (1Jn 1:3b-4).

In the last line of the verse, the bride assures the groom that the maidens “rightly” love him. If we love the Lord Jesus, it is right to do this, for His love gives every reason to do so. It is also important that our expressions of love are sincere, not hypocritical, and without ulterior motives.

Our expressions of love are weak. But if they are sincere, they are appreciated by Him. The bride sees this here with the maidens and she testifies to it toward her groom. Do we also have an eye for it when something is done out of love for the Lord Jesus? Or do we rather, or perhaps even only, see the wrong thing in what another person does? We must learn to appreciate what is being done in sincerity and also express this as encouragement.