Song 1:7 | KingComments | STEP | Now the bride addresses the groom. She turns to him after her own failure in her work. This is what the Lord wants us to do when we have failed. Then we shouldn’t give up in self-pity, but go to Him. She turns to the groom as someone whom she knows and deeply loves. The appeal of love is greater than the dejection caused by failure. Our failure can never be greater than the love of Christ. We should always bear this in mind. Peter also experienced this. The Lord Jesus speaks of his failure in advance, but He says that He prayed for him that his faith might not fail ( ). Whoever loves the Lord wholeheartedly is saddened by his own failures, but is also convinced of the love of the Lord Who never writes off a failing disciple, but always gives him a fresh chance. The bride’s failure brings her back to the one she loves so much to be in his company again. She realizes that she needs food and rest. It is exhausting to do work in which the Lord Jesus is not involved. When we experience that, we feel hunger and long for rest. This is the order: first food and then rest (cf. ). A hungry sheep will not rest until it has found something to satisfy its hunger. Only the Lord Jesus can give us food that satisfies our spiritual hunger and gives us the strength to live in fellowship with Him and for Him. That food is in fact He Himself. We feed on Him when we read God’s Word, because that speaks all about Him ( ). Then we also get rest for our souls. It is important to start the day with food from the Word of God. When it is noon then, when the sun is at its hottest, i.e. when the circumstances of life become difficult ( ), we will be able to continue our way in the power of this food ( ). Just a practical application. If we have lunch break at work around noon, what do we do? Are there possibilities to read something from the Word of God? Or are we constantly busy? I know of a representative who was always busy. He had to meet his target number of sales. He was busy with that. When he had visited some customers and it was time to have something to eat, he drove to a quiet place to eat his bread. As he ate his bread, he thought about how the conversations with the customers had gone that morning and how he would handle the following conversations instead of unwinding by reading something from the Word of God. It will not apply to everyone, not even to every break, but are we at the very least trying, if the possibilities are there, to use a break in this way? To the bride the important point is to be at the place where He pastures the flock and where He makes it lie down at noon. She seeks the personal relationship with him. This is an important example for us. Nothing is more important than a personal and living relationship with the Lord Jesus. We belong to His flock, we are together with other believers who also follow Him, but we do not go up into the mass. If we are looking for the flock, it is to be with Him . We do not follow a group and do not derive our identity from it, but we follow Him with Whom each of us has an own relationship. The good Shepherd knows every sheep of His flock “by name” ( ). The bride doesn’t want to get lost in the mass and walk around there like one who veils herself. She should take that place if she were to join ‘the flocks of your companions’, which are flocks other than his. With this she says that her personal relationship with him cannot run through others. We see an illustration of this in professing Christianity. Therein are companies of people who follow human leaders. These are leaders who are working for the Lord, but the sheep still gather around themselves . They take the place of ‘mediator’ between the people of God and God Himself. Such leaders speak of ‘my church’, whereas only the Lord Jesus can say so. We can only grow spiritually if we have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. If we listen to God’s Word, what is it saying to us? Is it important to us who says it and how it is said? Or are we really open to what God has to say to us? The norm of our judgment must be whether the things that are said strengthen our relationship with the Lord Jesus. The preacher disappears, but Christ remains. We see this with the eunuch in Acts 8. The evangelist Philip taught him the Word of God and baptized him. Then Philip disappears. We do not read that the eunuch was sadly left behind because his teacher was gone now, but the contrary: he went on his way rejoicing ( ). Every preacher who has been called by the Lord to serve with God’s Word, does not want anything else than that the one he has served with God’s Word, goes his way with joy in fellowship with the Lord. We should not be content with men, whoever he is, but only with the Lord. That is what we can learn from the bride here.

‏ Song of Solomon 1:7

Where Do You Pasture the Flock?

Now the bride addresses the groom. She turns to him after her own failure in her work. This is what the Lord wants us to do when we have failed. Then we shouldn’t give up in self-pity, but go to Him. She turns to the groom as someone whom she knows and deeply loves. The appeal of love is greater than the dejection caused by failure. Our failure can never be greater than the love of Christ. We should always bear this in mind.

Peter also experienced this. The Lord Jesus speaks of his failure in advance, but He says that He prayed for him that his faith might not fail (Lk 22:31-32). Whoever loves the Lord wholeheartedly is saddened by his own failures, but is also convinced of the love of the Lord Who never writes off a failing disciple, but always gives him a fresh chance.

The bride’s failure brings her back to the one she loves so much to be in his company again. She realizes that she needs food and rest. It is exhausting to do work in which the Lord Jesus is not involved. When we experience that, we feel hunger and long for rest. This is the order: first food and then rest (cf. Eze 34:15). A hungry sheep will not rest until it has found something to satisfy its hunger.

Only the Lord Jesus can give us food that satisfies our spiritual hunger and gives us the strength to live in fellowship with Him and for Him. That food is in fact He Himself. We feed on Him when we read God’s Word, because that speaks all about Him (Jn 5:39). Then we also get rest for our souls. It is important to start the day with food from the Word of God. When it is noon then, when the sun is at its hottest, i.e. when the circumstances of life become difficult (Mt 13:6 ; 21), we will be able to continue our way in the power of this food (1Kgs 19:5-8).

Just a practical application. If we have lunch break at work around noon, what do we do? Are there possibilities to read something from the Word of God? Or are we constantly busy? I know of a representative who was always busy. He had to meet his target number of sales. He was busy with that. When he had visited some customers and it was time to have something to eat, he drove to a quiet place to eat his bread. As he ate his bread, he thought about how the conversations with the customers had gone that morning and how he would handle the following conversations instead of unwinding by reading something from the Word of God. It will not apply to everyone, not even to every break, but are we at the very least trying, if the possibilities are there, to use a break in this way?

To the bride the important point is to be at the place where He pastures the flock and where He makes it lie down at noon. She seeks the personal relationship with him. This is an important example for us. Nothing is more important than a personal and living relationship with the Lord Jesus. We belong to His flock, we are together with other believers who also follow Him, but we do not go up into the mass. If we are looking for the flock, it is to be with Him. We do not follow a group and do not derive our identity from it, but we follow Him with Whom each of us has an own relationship. The good Shepherd knows every sheep of His flock “by name” (Jn 10:3).

The bride doesn’t want to get lost in the mass and walk around there like one who veils herself. She should take that place if she were to join ‘the flocks of your companions’, which are flocks other than his. With this she says that her personal relationship with him cannot run through others. We see an illustration of this in professing Christianity. Therein are companies of people who follow human leaders. These are leaders who are working for the Lord, but the sheep still gather around themselves. They take the place of ‘mediator’ between the people of God and God Himself. Such leaders speak of ‘my church’, whereas only the Lord Jesus can say so.

We can only grow spiritually if we have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. If we listen to God’s Word, what is it saying to us? Is it important to us who says it and how it is said? Or are we really open to what God has to say to us? The norm of our judgment must be whether the things that are said strengthen our relationship with the Lord Jesus. The preacher disappears, but Christ remains.

We see this with the eunuch in Acts 8. The evangelist Philip taught him the Word of God and baptized him. Then Philip disappears. We do not read that the eunuch was sadly left behind because his teacher was gone now, but the contrary: he went on his way rejoicing (Acts 8:26-39). Every preacher who has been called by the Lord to serve with God’s Word, does not want anything else than that the one he has served with God’s Word, goes his way with joy in fellowship with the Lord. We should not be content with men, whoever he is, but only with the Lord. That is what we can learn from the bride here.