Chapter Twenty One: It is Finished
I used to think the idea of following some resurrected Jewish man (who oversees a rather lame group of religious people called Christians) was laughable. I told people it would take an absolute miracle for someone like me to believe. Thank God, that miracle came, and my heart opened to the truth. Faith cracked a shell around my mind and brought a tide of healing with it.
To this day, I believe it takes a work of complete grace to open the heart to the mysteries of God. In fact, more grace is needed as we go further into who he is and what he says about us.
And with that said, grace like you can’t imagine is needed to take in what we’re about to discover…
A Sevenfold Declaration
We have joined the “daughters of Zion” in looking upon the Man crowned with thorns, the One rising from the desert of death and carrying his bride with him. Now we need to tune our ears to listen, for unimaginable words will begin to pour out of his mouth. Words that should make us pause and ask for that divine help to take in even a portion of their truth.
In the first seven verses of Song of Songs 4 we find the King praising seven aspects of the Shulamite. The first verse begins by calling her beautiful. He does this twice, establishing a double confirmation of who she is as one who bears the image of the perfect One.
How beautiful you are, my darling,
How beautiful you are! …
He then follows up with this familiar imagery:
…Your eyes are like doves behind your veil.
An important note here in case there’s any doubt as to the biblical connection between the prostitute and the bride. Outside of Solomon’s Song, the Hebrew word for “veil” shows up in a passage about judgment coming to the city of Babylon where God says to the wicked nation, “Remove your veil” (Isaiah 47:2). This is the only other time this specific word for “veil” appears in the Bible. Amazingly, this same chapter from Isaiah gets quoted by the apostle John when he describes the judgment coming to the harlot city (Revelation 18:7).
The Shulamite is truly wearing the veil of Babylon—yet we’re discovering that Jesus looks right through it and declares that she is a perfect reflection of his life and Spirit!
Now let’s recall the larger context of what’s been occurring thus far. We’ve seen the Son of God crowned with thorns on the day of his wedding, the day of the new covenant. Now he is speaking from that place. This is a poetic image of him rising from the wilderness of death and giving a victorious proclamation of our redemption. He goes on to speak of other aspects of the Shulamite, each of which is beyond the scope of this book to dissect. We’ll just jump right to the summative statement in the seventh verse:
You are altogether beautiful, my darling,
And there is no blemish in you.
Song 4:7
The truth of her beauty is sealed with a third witness. This time, the meaning of his words are inescapable. He says she is altogether beautiful and without any imperfection!
In this unfolding scene of Christ’s death and resurrection, the Shulamite is being called perfect. This is a peak into the heart of God when, on the cross, the Son took away our veiling shame and made this timeless statement:
Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
John 19:30
As noted before, the King describes seven features of the Shulamite before making the summarizing statement of her perfection. This is fitting since seven is the biblical number of perfection. It was on the seventh day that God finished the work of creation and rested as he celebrated its completed beauty. This seventh day of creation heralded the day when Christ would finish the new creation and rest from his work because he too was celebrating our completed beauty.
The Mystery of Kalah
When Jesus spoke out the words “it is finished,” it’s very likely he spoke the language of his people, which was Aramaic. The gospel accounts even give a direct quote from the Aramaic tongue in one of his other statements (see Matthew 27:46). Aramaic was a sister language to Hebrew and the phrase “it is finished” holds a powerful mystery to it. It is translated from the word kalah, and it has to do with something being completed. However, it also has another meaning…
Kalah is also the word for “bride.” Such is the reason Jesus’s final words are translated like this in the Passion:
When he had sipped the sour wine, he said, “It is finished, my bride!”
John 19:30 TPT
It’s remarkable how this word expresses both concepts at the same time. Jesus is celebrating the beauty of his redeemed bride as he completes the work of canceling her sin.
What’s even more amazing is how this connects to the Song of Songs. For right after the King says the Shulamite is altogether beautiful and without blemish, he then says:
Come with me from Lebanon, my bride…
Or, in the original language: Come with me from Lebanon, my kalah.
The Song truly gives us a vision of Christ’s kiss coming to our veiled and sleeping hearts. Jesus came into our self-induced wilderness in order to destroy it from the inside out. He took our shame and replaced it with his righteousness. As we’ve seen, this was him redeeming—buying back—the original blessing that was always there but remained locked away under a spell of deception.
Now let’s look at the verse right before those poetic words of the Shulamite’s perfection. Before he makes this proclamation, King Solomon first says this:
Until the day breaks
And the shadows flee away,
I will go my way to the mountain of myrrh
And to the hill of frankincense.
Song 4:6 NKJV
Perhaps you remember the words of the Shulamite when she told the King to turn away. She said she would not come away with him until the day breaks and the shadows flee away. Along with this, she described him as being on the mountain of Bether—separation.
So, the Lord is finally responding to her. He agrees that the new day hasn’t fully come. Shadows still fill the earth and even surround her own life. Yet this is where the agreement ends. He goes on to say that he is standing on a different mountain. Not the mountain of division, but the mountain of myrrh and frankincense, two symbols we learned about earlier. Do you remember their meaning?
They are the images of death and resurrection.
In other words, the Lord is declaring that even though his Kingdom has not fully manifested on earth, he is still standing victorious on a very specific mountain. It is the mountain of Calvary, the place where his work of a new creation was finished. From that place, he declares with all joy and conviction, “You are altogether perfect!” From heaven’s vantage point, this is now the truth of over our lives.
And this is the kiss of eternity, the sword of God’s word that splits the sky and breaks the Babylonian veil wreaking havoc across the world.
This is what we need grace to receive … which is why it’s a perfect time for another selah.
Selah
At the beginning of our journey, we looked into space through the eyes of a giant telescope and beheld an array of galaxies. We learned that this unimaginable army of galactic structures was found in just one small speck of the night sky.
Such a thought has the power to humble us, a reminder that our minds are frail and cannot begin to comprehend the depths and wonders of creation.
The same goes for images found in the written word, especially in this little poem taking up a small speck of the Bible. It helps us realize we cannot begin to understand the depths of the new creation.
This is why the apostle Paul wrote of our need for divine strength and power. Let’s pause and pray with him for a moment.
So I kneel humbly in awe before the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the perfect Father of every father and child in heaven and on the earth. And I pray that he would unveil within you the unlimited riches of his glory and favor until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with his divine might and explosive power…
Then you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is his love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!
Ephesian 3:16, 18-19 TPT
Movement Four: Harmony
Chapter Twenty Two: The Vulnerability of God
When the true gospel goes into the human ear and settles down into the heart, a bomb goes off. As the message of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection reaches a place of true understanding, wonder and joy are released like a mushroom cloud saturating our inner atmosphere and forever changing the landscape of the soul.
Sadly, the explosive ingredients of this message are often diluted or sometimes completely removed before they arrive at the target. When delivered, they end up as a dud or, at best, a small explosion that leaves a temporary crater but doesn’t shift our inner world.
The Song of Solomon, with its symbolic foreshadowing, has given us a precious gift in recovering the potency of the gospel. This includes a fuller understanding of the sin covering humanity, likening it to a prostitute’s veil hiding our true face. God has come to cut down this veil with the sword of light, the truth released in Christ’s work on the cross. The Shulamite was given a vision of this as she witnessed a swift judgment upon our darkness that came with a simultaneous affirmation of our divine beauty and worth.
In the aftermath of this vision, the King’s words bring us to the “why” behind the gospel. There are countless theological propositions as to the “why” of Jesus’s death, but nothing can explain it as simply as we find here, which gets echoed in the New Testament by the apostle John:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…
John 3:16 NIV
According to John, love was the reason for his death. Yet these the famous words are often watered down as well and lose their combustible power. Thus, Solomon comes to our aid by helping us see more clearly what drove the Son of God to descend from heaven down the ladder of DNA so that he could one day ascend the hill of Calvary.
In our search for revelation underneath the dirt of earthly images such as mountains, deserts, and tables, our shovels have struck gold. This next passage will now lead us to the jackpot. We’ll take our time and read it from a few translations…
You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride;
you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes…
Song 4:9 NIV
You have ravished my heart,
My sister, my spouse;
You have ravished my heart
With one look of your eyes…
NKJV
For you reach into my heart.
With one flash of your eyes I am undone by your love,
my beloved, my equal, my bride.
You leave me breathless—I am overcome
by merely a glance from your worshiping eyes,
for you have stolen my heart.
I am held hostage by your love
and by the graces of righteousness shining upon you.
TPT
Each translation attempts to describe what this Shulamite woman does to the heart of King Solomon. They depict her as “ravishing” his heart … “stealing” it … “undoing” it … holding it “hostage” …
These dramatic words are not over-exaggerations of the Hebrew. The poem is speaking of his heart being undeniably impacted by another person. His heartrate is increasing just by thinking about her! His focus and attention—the eyes of his heart—are held captive by her beauty and persona. He holds this passionate focus toward her and longs for her friendship and well-being.
The Vulnerability of God
There’s even more to discover when we take a closer look at the term being translated in these dramatic ways. What gets rendered as “ravished” comes from a root word that was used to describe the tearing of bark off a tree. When you remove the protective covering of bark, a tree becomes vulnerable to outside elements. Without its bark, a tree is in danger of death.
If God so loved the world like this … the gospel suddenly makes a lot of sense.
With an intense passion to rescue us from captivity, God arrived in the world in the most vulnerable state imaginable—a helpless infant. God gave himself completely into our hands; literally, into the hands of Eve’s descendant Mary. Then, at the end of his life, we find God naked once again in front of his mother as he hung from a Roman execution stake, all protective covering gone.
The glory of God is often depicted with the imagery of cloud, fire, and lightning, but at the cross we learn that all of that was like hardened bark on a tree. Behind these glorious displays of power is a tenderness we cannot fathom. As Jesus was killed, the true glory of God—the Holy of Holies of his being—was unveiled before our eyes. With arms spread wide, and a heart fully exposed, God cried out words of unquenchable lovingkindness.
These depths in the heart of God are described by one of the Greek terms for love—agapè. God is agapè, the apostle John wrote elsewhere. And it’s fitting he wrote this because he’s the one who rested his head on Jesus’s chest, tuning his ear to the place where he could hear the rhythm of that ravished heart (John 13:23). John was then the only disciple to witness what happened at the tree the next day.
God’s Own Promised Land
Do you remember at the very beginning of our journey we said revelation is the currency of heaven? This whole Song is a revelation of what we do to God’s heart. We’re tapping into heavenly treasure when we discover that God looks at the human soul and is overcome by a glorious desire for our restoration and safety.
Many of us do not even need this map of Solomon’s Song to locate such a treasure. Some of us can look right on the map of our own lives and discover the same truth in our passion for our children.
But here is an important question. What is it about the Shulamite—the human soul—that drives the Lord into such a display of vulnerable love?
We are given more clues as we read on. Besides calling her his kalah, the King addresses the Shulamite as his “sister.” This opens up a world of truth concerning our familial bond to Jesus. A brother and sister share the same origin and likeness. They come from the same home and have the same nature.
Yes, God’s own beauty is reflected in us and this causes an otherworldly love to erupt in his soul as he watches our unique lives play out. A piece of him is within us. This is what we feel when we look into the eyes of our own children, seeing one who is precious and unique and carries a piece of us within.
We find this confirmed when the King goes on to talk about the “garden” of the Shulamite. Solomon describes nine spices, or “fruits,” which interestingly lines up with the number of fruits of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the New Testament (compare Song 4:12-15 & Galatians 5:22-23). He also makes the following statement, opening the floodwaters of revelation even further:
Your lips, my bride, drip honey;
Honey and milk are under your tongue…
Song 4:11
Honey and milk are always connected to the Promised Land in scripture (Exodus 3:8). By describing her inner life as honey and milk we learn that we are indeed God’s own Promised Land! This entire universe was fine-tuned for a garden to emerge and that promised garden is not a place, but a people! This is the center of creation and it’s what drove the heart of the Creator to suffer on earth in a specific period of time in order to redeem this delightful garden.
By peering into the wonders of this chapter, we’re beginning to fulfill our royal calling as treasure hunters. Ever since the first few lines, we’ve gone deeper and deeper into this gold mine as we’ve sat at the King’s table, dined in the house of wine, traveled on a carriage through the wilderness, and now listened to the stunning words of passion pouring from the mouth of our crowned King.
Such words depict the greatest theology ever discovered. It’s so good it needed to be buried like treasure in an ancient love poem (though, again, it is buried in the dust of our human relationships as well).
Of course, this is more than theology—as in a study of God. This is verifiable history in the life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. This love appeared in tangible form. It went to a real cross and emerged out of a real grave in Israel.
This is a treasure we can take to the bank of our hearts—and then watch as it detonates with transformative force.
Chapter Twenty Three: Communion and the Door
The 5th chapter of the eternal Song of Solomon begins like this:
I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride;
I have gathered my myrrh along with my balsam.
I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey;
I have drunk my wine and my milk.
Eat, friends; Drink and imbibe deeply, O lovers.
Song 5:1
We’ve gone searching for treasure but ended up stumbling upon a rich banquet. Everything that has been revealed in the Shulamite’s journey has become a meal that satisfies every craving of the heart. The truth of our origin as well as the reality of what lays in the depths of God’s heart—these mysteries are a feast for the soul, both intoxicating and nourishing at the same time.
In this passage, the King tells the Shulamite that he is within her garden. His life abides inside of her. There is no greater message than this. Like food to the body, she is called to take in the truth of his loving presence, letting nothing hold her back from allow his words define her very existence.
Nevertheless, the Shulamite has not yet taken in the full meal set before her. Instead, according to the next verse, we find her still asleep. She is on her bed, presumably hiding behind that same veiling wall from before. “I was asleep but my heart was awake,” she says. Still, she is in a dream state.
And so the King continues to call to her…
A voice! My beloved was knocking:
“Open to me, my sister, my darling,
My dove, my perfect one!
For my head is drenched with dew,
My locks with the damp of the night.”
Song 5:2
With each knock on her sleeping heart, the Lord seeks to awaken his bride to all that has been shown to her. His knock is the same as his call from earlier. It is the invitation to “come away” and “arise” from the slumber of separation and fear. He is continuing to release the kisses of his word, the very thing she asked for in the beginning of her journey.
This kiss now comes to her in the form of four simple titles: “Sister,” “darling,” “dove,” “perfect one.”
He tells her—actually, let’s personalize it—he tells you, beloved reader:
You are my holy sibling. You belong in my home, for it is your home as well. You are part of the Divine Family.
You are my darling treasure. You drive my heart into a place of passion and desire.
You are my dove. Precious and innocent, I compare you to my own Spirit.
You are my perfect one. You are complete in my sight, whole and true. You lack nothing.
As he speaks these tremendous words, summarizing all that has been released to this point, we see his head drenched with “the damp of the night.” Christ is speaking here from the aftermath of his suffering when he was crowned with thorns and tore down the veil of our false identity. Ever since the Shulamite came to the table and experienced the vision of the cross, this same melody continues to play itself out. Now Jesus stands before her and call her to wake up from the discord and enter the victorious sound of his grace.
And thank God, she responds. In the next verse she confesses that she has taken off her old garments and washed her dirty feet. She agrees with the truth that she is made as clean as a sacrificial dove. This is why we see her getting out of bed in verse 5, and these words coming out of her mouth next:
…my hands dripped with myrrh
And my fingers with liquid myrrh,
On the handles of the bolt.
Song 5:5
The Shulamite is taking hold of the cross for herself. Hands dripping with myrrh shows her engaging with the realities of Jesus’s suffering. Everything he’s told her is within her hands, a picture of her taking ownership of it.
Right here, we are witnessing the act of communion. This is what opens the hard “bolt” over the door of our hearts and takes us into heaven’s riches. It is what the Lord desired from the beginning for her, and we see the same thing happening in the book of Revelation when Jesus speaks to his bride there:
Behold, I’m standing at the door, knocking. If your heart is open to hear my voice and you open the door within, I will come in to you and feast with you, and you will feast with me.
Revelation 3:20 TPT
Jesus longs us for us to welcome the kiss of his redeeming truth. This word—revealed and established at the cross—is the only thing that can awaken the human soul and cause the garden inside to blossom.
The Shulamite is answering this call. She is rising from her bed and opening the door. With this, she moves into a completely new season of life.
Chapter Twenty Four: The Mystery and Tension
As I write this book, I keep getting drawn back to my time in Asia. Part of the reason for this, I believe, is that my spirit is celebrating the banner of Christ’s love that is destined to unfold over that spiritually war-torn continent.
What comes to mind now is a moment where I was able to worship with other brothers and sisters of Jesus who were singing in a language I didn’t understand. We were in a secretive location in the capital city of the nation, celebrating the glory of Christ together. Despite the verbal barrier, my heart melted with each word as I joined with silent praise exuding from the center of my being. I remember the tears streaming down our faces as we worshipped together in that place.
The Song of the Lamb, written into the cosmos from all eternity and now coursing its way through human history, can never be repressed. It transcends every religious boundary and breaks down every cultural wall. Just one encounter with Jesus will ignite this Song on the inside. No matter where you are or what human language is being uttered, nothing can stop it from spilling out—even under intense resistance.
A Cold, Dark Night
After hearing and learning many lyrics from this Song of all songs, the Shulamite is finally starting to believe it. She opens the door of her heart and steps out in trust. Unfortunately, soon after she does this, something happens that causes her to slip back into a place of discord.
The Shulamite opens her heart to the loving truth of Jesus, but finds a cold, dark night in front of her.
I opened to my beloved,
But my beloved had turned away and had gone!
My heart went out to him as he spoke.
I searched for him but I did not find him;
I called him but he did not answer me.
Song 5:6
The Shulamite embraced Jesus’s words, but she went on to experience contradiction. She looked out and saw a world still caught in unbelief. Pain and suffering are still in her purview. Hatred and division lurk in nearby alleyways. Conspiracy and fear hang from twisted branches off cursed family trees. Persecution is at the doorstep as well.
In other words, that wondrous springtime the Shepherd promised earlier seems a million miles away. In fact, the resurrected King appears to be missing as well! But it is here we come to the great mystery and tension of faith. It’s now imperative we stop and gain some understanding from this part of the journey, especially if we want to take hold of the riches we’ve uncovered so far.
Hope Against Hope
In this scene, the Shulamite is being tempted to filter her treasured revelation through what she sees and feels. The problem is that she is not yet accustomed to this new realm called “trust.” She must learn to walk in what the scriptures call “hope against hope” (Romans 4:18).
This phrase is made in connection to Abraham, the one who is known as the forefather of faith. Abram was kissed by God with a wild promise and then given the new identity of Abraham—meaning “the father of many nations.” Abraham opened the door of his heart to trust in this incredible word, yet immediately found himself in a contradictory waiting period. He was the furthest thing from a father of nations, and because of this he went into a lingering battle with trust. Along the way, he experienced many setbacks and a few personal failures as well.
Despite this, a gracious account of his life is written into the New Testament. Paul declares that he walked “in hope against hope” and eventually experienced what was promised. Though Abraham stumbled, he did not fall into a complete agreement with unbelief. He lived out the tension of faith and went on to encounter wonderful things.
So it is with the Shulamite. She is now in her own battle of trust, and because of this we find her stumbling back into old lies. She declares, “My beloved had turned away and had gone!” The One who promised to never leave her and never forsake her is now being accused of abandonment.
From here, the Shulamite is thrust into a series of difficult circumstances. Sadly, she goes back to the city of religion in search of God’s presence. In this case, however, she encounters even greater resistance as her interactions with the watchmen around leave her badly wounded this time around.
In all of this, she finds herself wrestling with a demonic kiss, a word from hell that speaks the exact opposite of the word of original blessing… It is the word rejection.
The Moment of Turning
Yet, she refuses to give up. This young maiden from Shulam has experienced too much to dismiss the promises of Jesus. She might question God’s intentions—and his location—but the longing for his presence has not left her. Because of this, the Shulamite asks for help from those around her, even from those who are spiritually less experienced than her. These are the daughters of Jerusalem, the onlookers of the story who now enter back into the poetry. She turns to them and basically asks for their guidance on how to find God (verse 8). There is a sense of humility here, yet it is mixed with her spiritual forgetfulness and doubt.
The daughters do not know where this Shepherd King is, but their interest is piqued when they see the passion within her. They want to know why he is so special to her, and to this the Shulamite responds with a poetic stream of words; words that contain some of the most beautiful truths about Jesus ever penned; truths that continue to hide behind ancient allegory.
She begins with the following:
My beloved is both dazzling and ruddy,
Outstanding among ten thousand.
Song 5:10
As we dig further into these words, we first find a hidden message about the nature of Christ. The word for dazzling is used for a brilliant, shining light—light that is biblically associated with heavenly realities. “Ruddy,” on the other hand, comes from the root word for Adam. It can be translated as red or earthy. These two terms—dazzling and ruddy—speak to the divinity and humanity of Jesus.
What’s happening is that the Shulamite is returning to the basics of her faith. She is reminded of the cornerstone of everything, the truth that Jesus is completely human and yet shines out with divine glory. He is outstanding among all others, including every prophet and teacher who has come before or after him. Truly, he is the Creator of time and space and dwells in human flesh. She declares that this is the Beloved of her story, the One who adores and pursues her soul.
From here, we see Song of the Lamb rising from the ashes of her trials. Words of praise continue to pour from her mouth as she issues mystery upon mystery about Christ’s nature. Before long, the Shulamite moves from descriptions about his head to exclamations on other features of his body. Part by part, she releases her celebration and awe over Christ’s personhood until she finally arrives at the feet. Then something happens.
A shift occurs in her heart.
With this shift comes the greatest surprise of the Song, something that will crystallize all that came before it into one piercing note.
Chapter Twenty Five: Crescendo of the Song
In the midst of sorrow and doubt, a simple question led the Shulamite to a golden opportunity—the opportunity to turn her eyes away from herself.
By asking for the identity of her Beloved, something began to change in her perceptions as she answered the question. Turning her focus back to the goodness of God, a realization emerged. She came to a stunning conclusion, one that will become clear as she starts to wrap up her triumphant poetry about the King.
His mouth is sweetness itself;
He is altogether lovely.
This is my beloved, this is my friend,
Daughters of Jerusalem.
Song 5:16 NIV
After describing his entire being, the Shulamite ends by returning to a very particular area of his body. She speaks of the King’s “mouth.” The mention of the mouth is significant in that it brings us back to the beginning of her story. When we first met the Shulamite, she was striving under the heat of religion and made a bold request to God. She asked for the kisses of his mouth.
The kisses of revelation began to flow, reminding her of the original blessing that still lay inside of her. This blessing of complete acceptance and a perfect identity was always there yet it remained hidden behind a veil of fear and unbelief.
Somehow, the Shulamite has come back to this truth as she concludes her celebration of the King by recalling the vehicle whereby his word flows. She calls this vehicle of the mouth sweetness itself. Indeed, the gospel, the kiss of eternal grace, is the essence of all goodness. There is no better message, no sweeter truth, no greater philosophy or spiritual path. Even though she’s been through many conflicting storms, the Shulamite knows that nothing compares to the words of his mouth.
In fact, when we don’t give up, the storms around us only solidify his truth. The Shulamite discovered this for herself as she pushed through the resistance with gratitude and returned to the place of communion. The wounds of the watchmen may still sting, and the clamor of a dark world may still bite at her, but fresh light has broken through the pain. Now, the essence of the Song fills her own mouth.
Thus, rising up with the word of grace, the Shulamite adds this to her celebration of the Beloved: “He is altogether lovely!”
Such a statement brings us back to the core revelation of the Song, a truth we unearthed earlier when we struck the motherload of gold back in chapter 4. There, this same statement about being “altogether lovely” poured out of the King’s mouth toward her.
Something has clicked inside of her, and it will be fully revealed in the next chapter when the daughters of Jerusalem ask a follow-up question:
Where has your beloved gone…?
Song 6:1
Remembering the Mystery
After listening to her speak these beautiful words of praise, something is ignited within the onlookers. The Song is contagious! These daughters of Jerusalem now have a desire awakened in them, and so they ask the Shulamite where to find this amazing Creator who is also a sweet Lover and Friend.
Because she turned her eyes away from herself and entered the place of praise and remembrance, the Shulamite was led back to a forgotten truth. The sweetness of his word—the sweetest, most precious message ever spoken—has returned to her awareness. She remembers his kiss of truth and answers their question with a fiery clarity, revealing the truth that has finally broken through her soul…
My beloved has gone down to his garden,
To the beds of balsam,
To pasture his flock in the gardens
And gather lilies;
I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine…
Song 6:2-3
This answer is more glorious and more spiritually significant than we can imagine. The Shulamite, a picture of the rising human soul, has come to accept something she has been subtly (sometimes overtly) resisting. She realizes that her Beloved never turned away and left her.
The lingering darkness she experienced (even when opening the door of heart and stepping into a world with only a handful of communion elements) did not cancel his promise.
Her own struggles and doubts did not negate his word either.
Where was he, then? Where was he during the pain? Where was he during the persecution? Where was he in the place of prayer and struggle and doubt and questioning?
My Beloved is within his garden, she says.
Do you remember what—or who—the garden is?
Yes, the Beloved has been within her the whole time. Her heart is truly a home of triune glory and friendship.
The human soul—the Shulamite—is the house of the Almighty, the place scripture calls Bethel: “House of God” in the Hebrew. Bethel is where Abraham’s grandson laid his head and experienced a vision of a heavenly ladder touching down upon the earth (Genesis 28).
We’ve alluded to this ladder before when we talked about the foundation of human blood and the shape of DNA as a kind of spiraling ladder. It is not a far stretch to describe it as the pathway God descended into the world through the physical womb of Mary.
But Christ did not come for only a singular body. This is something the Shulamite came to understand as she moved from describing his glorious headship and went down to his feet. As she spoke of other aspects of his being, she began to be reminded that his body is us. We are his temple!We are altogether lovely because we are united to the One who is altogether lovely.
This was the sweet word that returned to her heart. And this is what leads her to this great conclusion, the crystalizing note of the whole Song: I am my Beloved and my Beloved is mine!
As the Shulamite celebrates the truth of her unbreakable union with Christ, we enter the crescendo of the music. In spite of what she has seen and felt, including all the pain that struck her heart from the religious systems around her, she is now rising up and looking beyond this world’s limited horizon.
Now nothing will be able to stop the flow of this music for the awakened soul knows that its dusty frame, weak as it is, is a container of glory. A glory that is filled with perfect love; love that will never leave us or forsake us. He eternally dwells within, and this is in fact the mystery hidden in all. It hides even behind the worst kinds of prostituting veils.
Every veil, no matter how dark, is a lie. And all of it is washed under the blood of the Lamb. For Christ is the “Passover Lamb” of scripture. He is the One who passed over the sin of the world and declared the truth of our original beauty and blessing, calling each and every one to awaken and arise to this same truth.
Despite what anyone else says, the Shulamite has taken hold of this treasure and will not let go.
And because of this, everything around her will begin to change.