‘Make Haste My Beloved’

Make haste, my beloved, And be like a gazelle Or a young stag On the mountains of spices.

Song of Solomon 8:14

The Church of Jesus Christ, all of the redeemed of all ages, has a single, overwhelming desire, that is, to be with Christ. It is Christ Who stands head and shoulders above all others in our eyes. He has revealed Himself to us and shown us that He is all that we need for all that pertains to life and godliness. All the lines of redemption run through Him. Again and again we come to Him in all the varying circumstances of life and find that He meets us at our point of deepest need. He pours water upon us when we are driest. He feeds us in our hunger. He is a companion to us in our loneliest hours and the light in our darkness. We long, above all to dwell forever in His Presence. For the moment, we commune with Him by faith. We have the indwelling of His Spirit, Who takes the things of Christ and shows them unto us. For us, there is yet something greater. He has said that He is coming again. This is the emphasis of the final verse of the Song of Solomon, ‘Make haste, my beloved, And be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.’ Here is the heart cry of the ancient saints. The saints of the New Testament echo it as they close the Revelation of Jesus Christ with, ‘Even so come, Lord Jesus!’ It is our desire as well. Come, O Christ; surmount every obstacle; conquer every foe.; appear to our waiting eyes. ‘Make haste, my beloved.’ ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’

Our Beautiful and Loving Savior,
we rejoice that all of our hope is in You.
We praise You that You will appear in Your own time,
to receive us unto Yourself and that we shall ever be with You.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

‘My Own Vineyard’

Who is this coming up from the wilderness, Leaning upon her beloved?

My own vineyard is before me….

Song of Solomon 8: 3 & 12a

The text we have been considering for the past days has given us a good picture of the rise and progress of grace in the people of God. Out of the wilderness of the world, Christ has brought us. As He has brought us upward, He has transformed us into people who are completely different from what we were. We rejoice in all these mighty works of saving and sanctifying Grace. Having said that, the end is not yet. Our additional text for today gives indication of where we are going. The Bride says, ‘My own vineyard is before me.’ This harmonizes very sweetly with the words of Christ on the night before He went to the cross. ‘In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.’ All that goes on in our spiritual experience in this life is but a means to an end. Christ is bringing us, by degrees, to the place where we are ready to be with Him forever. This is a glorious prospect for us. Of ourselves, we cannot effect the spiritual progress necessary to conform us into the image and likeness of Christ; but, as we ‘lean upon our beloved,’ we walk, arm in arm with Him, ever upwards towards the Heavenly City. The end result of our spiritual journey is to be with Christ, and to be like Christ. He Alone can effect this change. We will dwell, for all eternity, with ‘Our Beloved’ in the ‘garden’ which He has prepared for us, and He deserves all the glory for it.

Our Gracious Master and Our God,
we rejoice that You have prepared a home for us.
We praise You that You have brought us up
from the wilderness and will uphold us every step of the way.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

‘Leaning Upon Her Beloved’

Who is this coming up from the wilderness, Leaning upon her beloved?

Song of Solomon 8:5

We arrive today at the heart of the matter which we have been discussing for the past days. We have considered the transformation of the Bride. We have surveyed the desolate wasteland from which she originates. Today, we come to dwell upon the Person, Who is responsible for her rise and progress. Christ is the Beloved upon Whom His people lean. It was Christ Who came to seek us in the wilderness where we were born. He plucked us from ‘the fearful pit, and from the miry clay.’ Our footing is utterly secure upon the Rock where God has set our feet. He has made us who we are and what we are. This is, and shall ever be, the reason we make much of Christ. All religion, every program, every organization, every device whereby humanity seeks to better itself pales in contrast to the Person and Work of Christ in the soul. We lean utterly and completely upon our Beloved. He who has demonstrated His power in redeeming us, continues to display His power in delivering us from every evil work and preserving us unto His Heavenly Kingdom. We lean upon Him daily, hourly, and moment by moment. Every means of grace enables us to see Him more clearly and to rest upon Him more thoroughly. Today, let us rejoice that we have our Beloved, upon Whom we perpetually lean.

Our Gracious and Loving Savior,
we rejoice that You are Our Beloved in every way.
We praise You that, day by day, we can lean upon You,
as we walk together with You toward our eternal home.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

‘Who Is This’

Who is this coming up from the wilderness, Leaning upon her beloved?

Song of Solomon 8:5

The Song of Solomon offers to us a poetic and picturesque portrait of the relationship between Christ and His Church. According to the story, Christ is the Bridegroom and His Church is the Bride. By the time we arrive at the closing chapter of the Book, the Bride has been transformed into someone that those around her barely recognize. From what she was at the beginning to what she has become has been an overwhelming change. Hence the ‘daughters of Jerusalem’ ask ‘Who is this?’ How did this transformation come to be? We can trace it back to one source. It is the love of the Bridegroom which has made the difference. This brings us to the Person and work of Christ. This is the story of the people of God in every age. We can trace it through every epoch of history. It has been the work of Christ throughout history to separate out of the world a people unto Himself. He has been at work since before the foundation of the world to orchestrate all things to the purpose of bringing His people unto Himself and to change them into His Own Likeness. The results of that so utterly transforms us, that those around us can barely recognize us from what we used to be. This is the work of sanctification. It is ‘a work of God’s free grace.’ Today, let us look to Christ to make it evermore evident in our life.

Our Living and Loving Savior,
we praise You that You transform us by Your Almighty Grace.
We rejoice that You will not cease Your Work in us
until You conform us utterly unto Your Glorious Image.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning