Morning, March 20
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
Song of Solomon 2:8
"My beloved."
Song of Solomon 2:8
This was a golden name which the ancient Church in her most joyous
moments was wont to give to the Anointed of the Lord. When the time of
the singing of birds was come, and the voice of the turtle was heard in
her land, her love-note was sweeter than either, as she sang, "My
beloved is mine and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies." Ever in her
song of songs doth she call him by that delightful name, "My beloved!"
Even in the long winter, when idolatry had withered the garden of the
Lord, her prophets found space to lay aside the burden of the Lord for
a little season, and to say, as Esaias did, "Now will I sing to my
well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard." Though the
saints had never seen his face, though as yet he was not made flesh,
nor had dwelt among us, nor had man beheld his glory, yet he was the
consolation of Israel, the hope and joy of all the chosen, the
"beloved" of all those who were upright before the Most High. We, in
the summer days of the Church, are also wont to speak of Christ as the
best beloved of our soul, and to feel that he is very precious, the
"chiefest among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely." So true is it
that the Church loves Jesus, and claims him as her beloved, that the
apostle dares to defy the whole universe to separate her from the love
of Christ, and declares that neither persecutions, distress,
affliction, peril, or the sword have been able to do it; nay, he
joyously boasts, "In all these things we are more than conquerors
through him that loved us."
O that we knew more of thee, thou ever precious one!
"My sole possession is thy love;
In earth beneath, or heaven above,
I have no other store;
And though with fervent suit I pray,
And importune thee day by day,
I ask thee nothing more."