What a seven-hued rainbow of glories this is around Solomon’s throne! Mark well how the brilliance of each ray lies in the word “his.” Take that away and all you have left is meat, servants, ministers, houses and apparel. What are they to move a queen to admiration if you leave out Solomon? If he be absent, the sun of the landscape is gone. The charm of each of them to the queen of Sheba undoubtedly was their inseparable connection with his glorious person. And as this sevenfold glory of Solomon filled her soul, might she not have wondered that she had not come before?
And now mark well the result of the full knowledge of Solomon, and all his glory. Our chapter opens with the words, “and when the queen of Sheba heard” then she came; and now, “when the queen of Sheba had seen,” then “there was no more spirit in her.”
Without an effort, without a thought, without a struggle, herself was all gone, and Solomon filled her heart.
How great the change! Before this we have a rich and noble queen, full of hard questions, on which doubtless she prided herself not a little. But what now? Her spirit and her questions are gone; nothing is left but Solomon and his glory filling to overflowing a heart emptied of itself.
Have not we already seized the application of this lovely picture? Do we not see here the difference between a “man of spirit,” and a “spiritual man?” Before Jesus revealed Himself to our hearts, how full of ourselves were we! What self-satisfaction, what pride, what self-seeking, what ardent pursuit of one thing after another, Christians even outstripping the world in its race for riches, honor, and position! But when He is known to our hearts as the all-absorbing object; when we have sat in His presence, and gazed by faith on His beauty, though before, we were men of spirit, full of self in a thousand ways, we shall be changed into “emptied vessels full of Christ,” into truly “spiritual men.”
There is no effort, no struggle to subdue her spirit, nothing but a steady gaze at Solomon as he is, and all spirit goes. She had ceased to be satisfied with herself, and surely with her surroundings also. We have no reason to doubt that before she came she was perfectly satisfied with her own kingdom, her house, her throne, and her servants; but as she thought of them now, would they not have lost their. glory; would not her palace, her throne, her appointments, her servants, appear poor in comparison? Would she return with the same eyes as she left? I think not. Surely nothing could henceforth fully satisfy or please her, if the glory of her kingdom had departed. And why, when all was the same as before? It was not her kingdom that had altered, but herself. She had beheld the most glorious object beneath the sun, that made all other glories fade. Her eyes had seen the king in his beauty, and she desired nothing else.
Is this exaggerated? Is this overdrawn?
Ah! only get where she was, see what she saw, and you will find the same effect produced; all the interest of everything beneath the sun for its own sake gone; all the brightness and glory of the world dimmed.
Snares are no longer snares to the one in whose heart Christ dwells. Indeed, the soul now wonders that the vain bubbles, which it had made the end and object for so long, could ever have been worth a moment’s thought. The man that has seen and known Christ, does indeed bear a royal stamp. Can you dazzle him, or draw him aside with any earthly object? Surely not. For if the sight of the most glorious one beneath the heavens took all the spirit out of a queen, the sight of Him who is the most glorious One above the heavens will fill the soul to the exclusion of all else. O! that we might know more of this in power in our own souls, and be more truly “spiritual men.” Would that we were to say, with the Psalmist, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord” (Psa. 27:44One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. (Psalm 27:4)).
And now notice the result of being emptied of self, and not merely this, but filled with the king. Her mouth opens in praise.
Until now the Holy Spirit has not recorded a word uttered by the queen. We are not told a single one of her hard questions. But now that she is emptied of herself, hard questions find no place, proving Solomon is not now her object; worship, unhindered and spontaneous, flows forth.
What a song of praise it is for a spiritless one! yet not spiritless; she is full of spirit for Solomon, though she has lost all for herself.
And here let me remark that though a man of spirit can frame hard questions, no one but a spiritual man can truly worship.
Does not this song, as it pours forth from her ready lips, remind us of the beautiful opening of Psalm 45?
“My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the King; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into Thy lips: therefore God hath blessed Thee forever.”
Surely this stranger queen, emptied as she was of herself, sang as sweet a song as the sweet psalmist of Israel, for
“The songs the Spirit sings,
Can ne’er want melody.”
How this reveals what is really the spring of worship! Solomon was the spring of her worship. His glory put the song of praise into her mouth, whence it could now freely flow, as herself was all gone.
So with us: when Christ has been fairly seen and gazed upon; when we have been extinguished and all our spirit and will gone; then God by His Spirit can use us to pour forth the praises of His beloved Son; can give us to show Him forth by our words, and by our walk. Let us never forget, it was out of empty pitchers, and not empty only but broken, that the light shone forth in Gideon’s days (Judges 7:16-2016And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers. 17And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall ye do. 18When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon. 19So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands. 20And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon. (Judges 7:16‑20)).
“Of His own give we unto Him.” Just what Christ has given to us, we render to Him. There is no effort about true worship, it is spontaneous. How like Him too do we ourselves become in the presence of such a One. Even amongst men it is often observed that anyone who is much in the company of another he loves, grows like him in manner and ways. How much more is this true of those whose companionship is with One of whom a poet has said,
“Not living only; He infused new life:
Not beautiful alone, He beautifies:
Not only glorious, for He glorifies.”
(Continued from page 136)
(To be Continued)