“When I should find Thee without, I would kiss Thee; yea, I should not be despised. I would lead Thee, and bring Thee into my mother’s house” (ch. 8:12).
Now she feels free to express her feelings publicly, without restraint or fear of rebuke. This is the richest feast of the heart, for it acts without restraint. The bride has come this far in her experience and intelligence. Heaven will be like this. The love between the bride and the Bridegroom will flow freely without hindrance or restraint. She rests in the embrace of His love, and, in response, she expresses her love without restraint before all who are assembled there.
“Set Me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.” Death is final; it cannot be changed. So the bride has come this far; the lessons are complete. Even death could not change her; her heart is fixed. “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.”
“I am a wall, and my breasts like towers.” Her affections are great like towers, produced by the Spirit working in her.
The song closes with the appeal, “Make haste, my Beloved, and be Thou like a roe [gazelle] or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices” (vs. 14). The Revelation closes with the Bridegroom saying, “I am . . . the bright and morning star.” The Spirit and the bride join in spirit with Him, for they say, “Come.” And all who hear are invited to say, “Come.” The Bridegroom concludes, “Surely I come quickly,” and the bride responds, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
Heaven is our home. Soon we will be there with our Bridegroom in the Father’s house. Have we, like the bride in the song of songs, been growing with our hearts set to follow our Bridegroom in everything? Is there anything in our lives that hinders our spiritual growth? Are we getting ready for heaven? May the Lord exercise our hearts to be ready in every sense of the word to say with a full heart — “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
Oh bright and blessed scenes!
Where sin can never come,
Whose sight our longing spirit weans
From earth where yet we roam.
And can we call our home
Our Father’s house on high,
The rest of God our rest to come,
Our place of liberty?
Yes! in that light unstained,
Our stainless souls shall live,
Our heart’s deep longings more than gained,
When God His rest shall give.
His presence there, my soul,
Its rest, its joy untold,
Shall find when endless ages roll,
And time shall ne’er grow old.
Our God the center is,
His presence fills that land,
And countless myriads owned as His,
Round Him adoring stand.
Our God whom we have known,
Well known in Jesus’ love,
Rests in the blessing of His own,
Before Himself above.
Glory supreme is there,
Glory that shines through all,
More precious still that love to share
As those that love did call.
Like Jesus in that place
Of light and love supreme;
Once Man of Sorrows, full of grace,
Heaven’s blest and endless theme.
Like Him! O grace supreme!
Like Him before Thy face,
Like Him to know that glory beam
Unhindered face to face.
O love supreme and bright!
Good to the feeblest heart,
That gives us now, as heavenly light,
What soon shall be our part.
J. N. Darby