The Song of Solomon - The Greatest Love Story

Book of Jeremiah

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This is Hudson Taylor's revelation of The Song of Solomon. You can hear it on this video and the other video book series as they are public domain. Hudson Taylor has been in heaven many years now and the little book he wrote is what I would call - a prophecy - of the Greatest Love Story of all time. As every day belongs to the LORD (I do not recognize pagan holidays such as Valentines day) I find today to be as good a day as any to share Hudson Taylor's revelation of the Song of Solomon. I will post it in small clips and write it out as he gave it - One verse at a time. Here is the video version and there are more on youtube if you prefer to listen rather than to read. I find reading to be better because you can read it again and again.

 
First, there is this poem:

In the secret of His presence
How my soul delights to hide!
Oh, how precious are the lessons
Which I learn by Jesus side!

Earthly cares can never vex me,
Neither trials lay me low,
For when Satan comes to try and vex me,
To the secret place I go!
 
The Unsatisfied Life and Its Remedy

Song of Solomon 1: 2 - 2:7

There should be no difficult in recognizing the bride as the speaker in verses 2-7 of Chapter 1. The words are not those of one dead in trespasses and sins, to whom the Lord is as a root out of a dry ground-without form or majesty. The speaker has had her eyes opened to behold His beauty and longs for a fuller enjoyment of His love.


Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love [endearments, caresses] is better than wine. - Solomon 1:2

And this is as it should be for the bride of Christ; it marks a distinct stage in the development of the life of grace in the soul. This recorded experience gives, as it were, a divine warrant for the desire for the perceptible manifestations of his presence-heartfelt communications of His love. It was not always so with her. Once she was content in His absence - other friendships and other occupations sufficed her- but now it can never be so again.

The world can never be to her what it once was. The betrothed bride has learned to love her Lord, and no companionship can satisfy her like companionship with Him.

His visits may be occasional and brief, but they are precious times of pure enjoyment. Their memory is cherished in intervals and their repetition longed for. There is no real satisfaction in His absence, and yet He is not always with her: He comes and goes. When He comes her joy in Him is like heaven, and when he goes she is longing in vain for His presence. Like the ever changing tide, her experience is a constant ebb and flow. It may even be that unrest is the rule, satisfaction the exception.

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From Hudson Taylor's book - Union and Communion - a devotional study on How the Song of Solomon Reveals a Believers Union with Jesus Christ.

 
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Is there no help for this? Must it always continue this way? Is it possible that He has created these unquenchable longings only to taunt her? It is strange indeed if this is the case. Yet are there not many of the Lord's people whose daily experience corresponds with hers?

They don't know the rest or the joy of abiding in Christ, and they don't know how to attain it or why it isn't theirs. There are many who look back to the delightful hours of their conversion who are far from finding the rich inheritance in Christ they once enjoyed, and they are conscious that they have lost their first love. They might express their experience in the sad lament, "Where is the blessedness I knew when I first saw the Lord?"

Others, who may not have lost their first love, may be feeling that the occasional interruptions to communion are becoming more and more unbearable. His absence is an ever - increasing distress: "Oh, that I knew where I might find Him! Would that His love were strong and constant like mine and that He never withdrew the light of His countenance!"

Poor mistaken one! There is a love far stronger than yours waiting for you all the time, and the conditions that
debar His approach are all of your own making. Take the right place before Him, and He will be most ready, most glad, to satisfy your deepest longings, and to meet and supply your every need.
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From Hudson Taylor's book - Union and Communion - a devotional study on How the Song of Solomon Reveals a Believers Union with Jesus Christ.
 
My favorite line is from SoS 5:4

"My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him."

Just a Biblical reminder that fist is also a verb.
 
What would we think of a bride whose conceit and self-will prevented not only the consummation of her own joy but also his who has given her his heart?

Though never at rest in his absence, she cannot trust him fully when he is with her, and she does not care to give up her own name, her own rights, her possessions, or her will to him who has become necessary for her happiness.

She would claim him fully without giving herself fully to him.

But this can never be, for while she retains her own name she can never claim his.

She may not promise to love and honor if she will not also promise to obey, and until her love reaches that point of surrender, she must remain an unsatisfied lover - until then she cannot be a satisfied bride who finds rest in the home of her husband. While she retains her own will and the control of her own possessions, she must be content to live on her own resources, for she cannot claim his.

_______________

From Hudson Taylor's book - Union and Communion - a devotional study on How the Song of Solomon Reveals a Believers Union with Jesus Christ.
 
Could there be any sadder proof of the reality and the extent of the fall of man than the deep-seated distrust of our loving Lord and Master that makes us hesitate to give ourselves entirely to Him for fear He might require something beyond our powers or call for something that we might find hard to give up or to do?

The real secret of an unsatisfied life often lies in an unsurrendered will.

____________
From Hudson Taylor's book - Union and Communion - a devotional study on How the Song of Solomon Reveals a Believers Union with Jesus Christ.
 
And yet how foolish and wrong this is! Do we imagine that we are wiser than He or that our love for ourselves is more tender and strong than His or that we know ourselves better than He does?

How our distrust must grieve and wound afresh the tender heart of the Man of Sorrows!

How would an earthly bridegroom feel if he discovered that his bride-elect was dreading marrying him, fearing that when he had the power he would render her life insupportable?

Yet many of the Lord's redeemed ones treat Him this way!

No wonder they are neither happy nor satisfied!

True love cannot be stationary. It must either decline or grow. Despite all the unworthy fears of our poor hearts, divine love is destined to conquer. The bride continues to exclaim,

Your anointing oils are fragrant,
your name is perfume poured out;
therefore the maidens love you.
Song of Solomon 1: 3

There is no oil like the oil with which the high priest was anointed. Our Bridegroom is a priest as well as a king. The trembling bride cannot wholly dismiss her fears, but the unrest and the longing become unbearable and she determines to surrender all and, come what may, to follow him fully. She will yield her very self to Him, heart and hand, influence and possessions. Nothing can be so unbearable as His absence! If he leads to another Moriah, or even to a Calvary, she will follow.

_______________
From Hudson Taylor's book - Union and Communion - a devotional study on How the Song of Solomon Reveals a Believers Union with Jesus Christ.
 
Draw me after you, let us make haste.
Song of Solomon 1:4

And what follows this commitment? A wonderfully glad surprise. No Moriah. No Calvary. On the contrary, fellowship with a king!

When the heart submits, Jesus reigns. And when Jesus reigns, there is pure rest.

_____________________
From Hudson Taylor's book - Union and Communion - a devotional study on How the Song of Solomon Reveals a Believers Union with Jesus Christ.
 
And where does He lead His bride?

The king has brought me into his chambers.
Song of Solomon 1:4

Not first the banqueting house - that will come in due season - but first to be alone with Him.

How perfect! Could we be satisfied to meet a beloved one only in public? No, we want to take him aside - to have him all to ourselves. So with our Master: He takes His now fully consecrated bride aside to taste and enjoy the sacred intimacies of his wonderful love. The bridegroom of his church longs for communion with his people more than His people long for fellowship with Him, and often cries,

Let me see your face,
let me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.
Song of Solomon 2:14

Are we not all too apt to seek Him because of our need rather than for His joy and pleasure? This should not be the case. We do not admire selfish children who, thinking only of what they can get from their parents, are not mindful of the pleasure they may give or the help they may offer. But are we not in danger of forgetting that pleasing God means giving Him pleasure?

Some of us look back to the time when the words "to please God" meant no more than not to sin against Him or grieve Him. But would earthly parents be satisfied with the mere absence of disobedience in their children? Would a bridegroom be satisfied if his bride only sought Him to supply her needs?

A word about a morning quiet time may not be out of place here. There is no time so profitably spent as the early hour given to Jesus alone. Do we give sufficient attention to this hour? If at all possible, it should be redeemed. Nothing can make up for it.

_________________
From Hudson Taylor's book - Union and Communion - a devotional study on How the Song of Solomon Reveals a Believers Union with Jesus Christ.


 
Another thought: When we bring our questions to God, do we sometimes either go on to offer some other petition or leave the place of prayer without waiting for a reply?

Doesn't this show little expectation of an answer much less desire for one?

Would we like to be treated this way? Quiet waiting before God saves us from many mistakes and many sorrows.

We find the bride making the glad discovery of a king - her King - not a cross, as she expected. This is the firstfruit of her consecration.

We will exult and rejoice in you:
We will extol your love more than wine;
rightly do they love you.
Song of Solomon 1:4 (b)
____________________
From Hudson Taylor's book - Union and Communion - a devotional study on How the Song of Solomon Reveals a Believers Union with Jesus Christ.

 
Another discovery no less important awaits her. She has seen the face of the King, and as the rising sun reveals what was hidden in the darkness, so His light has revealed her own blackness to her: "Ah," she cries, "I am black......." ".....and beautiful," interjects the Bridegroom with inimitable grace and tenderness.

"No, like the tents of Kedar," she continues. "Yet to Me," He responds, "you are lovely like the curtains of Solomon! (See Song of Solomon 1:5)

Nothing humbles the soul like sacred and intimate communion with the Lord, yet there is a sweet joy in feeling that He knows all and loves us still.

Things once called small oversights are now seen with new eyes in the secret of His presence. And here we see the mistake, the sin of not keeping our own vineyard.

This the bride confesses:

Do not gaze upon me because I am dark,
because the sun has gazed on me,
My mother's sons were angry with me,
they made me keeper of the vineyards,
but my own vineyard I have not kept!
Song of Solomon 1:6

Our attention is here drawn to a danger that is real in our day: The intense activity of our own lives may lead to zeal in service to the neglect of personal communion.

Such neglect will not only lessen the value of the service but will also tend to incapacitate us for the highest service.

If we are watchful over the souls of others and neglectful of our own - if we are seeking to remove motes from our brother's eye, unmindful of the beam in our own, we shall often be disappointed with our powerlessness to help our brethren, while our Master will not be less disappointed in us.

Let us never forget that what we are is more important than what we do and that all fruit borne while not abiding in Christ will be fruit of the flesh and not of the Spirit.

As wounds when healed often leave a scar, so the sin of neglected communion may be forgiven and yet the effect remain permanently.

____________________
From Hudson Taylor's book - Union and Communion - a devotional study on How the Song of Solomon Reveals a Believers Union with Jesus Christ.


 
We now come to a very sweet evidence of the reality of the heart - union of the bride with her Lord. She is one with the Good Shepherd: Her heart goes intuitively forth to the feeding of the flock, but she would tread in the footsteps of Him whom her soul loves and would neither labor alone nor seek other companionship:

Tell me, you whom my soul loves,
where you pasture your flock,
where you make it lie down at noon,
for why should I be like the one who is veiled
besides the flocks of your companions?
Song of Solomon 1:7

She will not mistake the fellowship of His servants for that of their Master.
______________
From Hudson Taylor's book - Union and Communion - a devotional study on How the Song of Solomon Reveals a Believers Union with Jesus Christ.


 
Christians change things up to for their own purposes The original is called the "Song of Songs" written by Solomon. It doesn't have anything to do with "Jesus" it uses the analogy of the love between husband and wife to describe the love between G-d and Israel.... The Jewish people

http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt3001.htm
 
If you do not know,
O fairest among women,
follow the tracks of the flock,
and pasture your kids,
beside the shepherd's tents.
Song of Solomon 1:8

These are the words of the daughters of Jerusalem, and they give a correct reply to her questions. Let her show her love to her Lord by feeding His sheep, by caring for His Lambs (John 21:15-17) and she need not fear missing His presence.

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It is written:

So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
He saith unto him again the second time, Simon, son of Johas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him a third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him "the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
John 21:15-17
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While sharing with undersheperds in caring for His flock, she will find the Chief Shepherd at her side and enjoy the tokens of His approval. It will be service with Jesus as well as for Him.
___________________
From Hudson Taylor's book - Union and Communion - a devotional study on How the Song of Solomon Reveals a Believers Union with Jesus Christ.
 
Christians change things up to for their own purposes The original is called the "Song of Songs" written by Solomon. It doesn't have anything to do with "Jesus" it uses the analogy of the love between husband and wife to describe the love between G-d and Israel.... The Jewish people

http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt3001.htm

Jesus is God. And you are right. It is the analogy of the love relationship between a husband and a wife. The Bride of Christ has received Jesus as their Messiah - their Bridegroom - because it has been revealed to them that Jesus Christ is God. Many Jews have received Jesus Christ as their Messiah and many more will in the future. This is depicted in the prophecy of Zechariah when they ask the Messiah who appears to them - what are those wounds in your hands?

It is written:
And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer,Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.
Zechariah 13:6
 
If you do not know,
O fairest among women,
follow the tracks of the flock,
and pasture your kids,
beside the shepherd's tents.
Song of Solomon 1:8

These are the words of the daughters of Jerusalem, and they give a correct reply to her questions. Let her show her love to her Lord by feeding His sheep, by caring for His Lambs (John 21:15-17) and she need not fear missing His presence.

______________________
It is written:

So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
He saith unto him again the second time, Simon, son of Johas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him a third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him "the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
John 21:15-17
________________________
While sharing with undersheperds in caring for His flock, she will find the Chief Shepherd at her side and enjoy the tokens of His approval. It will be service with Jesus as well as for Him.
___________________
From Hudson Taylor's book - Union and Communion - a devotional study on How the Song of Solomon Reveals a Believers Union with Jesus Christ.

But far sweeter than the reply of the daughters of Jerusalem is the voice of the Bridegroom, who now speaks himself.

It is the living fruit of her heart - oneness with Him that makes His love break forth in the joyful refrain of verses 9-11. For it is not only true that our love for our Lord will show itself in feeding His sheep but also that He who said, "Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me," has His own heart-love stirred, and not infrequently reveals himself in a special way to those who are ministering for Him.


___________________
From Hudson Taylor's book - Union and Communion - a devotional study on How the Song of Solomon Reveals a Believers Union with Jesus Christ.

 
Christians change things up to for their own purposes The original is called the "Song of Songs" written by Solomon. It doesn't have anything to do with "Jesus" it uses the analogy of the love between husband and wife to describe the love between G-d and Israel.... The Jewish people

http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt3001.htm

Jesus is God. And you are right. It is the analogy of the love relationship between a husband and a wife. The Bride of Christ has received Jesus as their Messiah - their Bridegroom - because it has been revealed to them that Jesus Christ is God. Many Jews have received Jesus Christ as their Messiah and many more will in the future. This is depicted in the prophecy of Zechariah when they ask the Messiah who appears to them - what are those wounds in your hands?


Like i said Christians change things for their own purposes. muslims do as well, that's just the way it is. Your faith is your faith. You can believe what you want. but the song of songs was written before there were any Christians. You just inserted words that are not there in the original
 
The commendation of the bride in verse 9 is one of striking appropriateness and beauty:

I compare you, my love,
to a mare among Pharoah's chariots.

--------
Horses originally came out of Egypt, and the pure breed still found in Arabia was brought during Solomon's reign by his merchants for all the kings of the East.

Those elected for Pharoah's own chariot would not only be the purest blood and perfect in proportion and symmetry but also perfect in training, docile, and obedient; they would know no will but that of the charioteer, and the only object of their existence would be to carry the king wherever he wanted to go.

So should it be with the church of Christ: one body with many members, indwelt and guided by one Spirit; holding the Head, and knowing no will but His. Her quick and harmonious movement should cause His kingdom to expand throughout the world.

Many years ago a beloved friend, returning home from the East by the overland route, made the journey from the Suez to Cairo in the combersome stagecoach of the day. After the passengers took their places, a dozen wild young horses were harnessed to the vehicle with ropes. The driver took his seat, cracked his whip, and the horses dashed off, some to the right, some to the left, and others forward, causing the coach to start with a jerk and as suddenly to stop, the effect being first to throw those sitting in the front seat into the laps of those sitting behind, and then the reverse.

With the aid of several Arabs running on each side to keep these wild animals moving in the right direction, the passengers were tossed and jolted, bruised and shaken, until, upon reaching their destination, they were too weary and sore to get the rest they so much needed.

Is not the church of God today more like these untrained steeds than a company of horses attached to Pharoah's chariot? And while self-will and disunion are apparent in the church, can we wonder that the world still lies in the lap of the Wicked One and that the great heathen nations are barely touched?

_____________________
From Hudson Taylor's book - Union and Communion - a devotional study on How the Song of Solomon Reveals a Believers Union with Jesus Christ.
 
Please hold your comments until the thread is completed, JROC. Anyone who wishes to read along with their Bible is welcome to do so. This is the Song of Solomon as written in the Holy Bible and the revelation of Jesus Christ and His Believers was given to Hudson Taylor by the Spirit of God. Thank you for respecting my thread.
 

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