UBF Daily Bread

HE IS MINE AND I AM HIS

Passage: SongofSongs 2:8~3:5

Key verse: 2:16

⁸Listen! My beloved!
    Look! Here he comes,
leaping across the mountains,
    bounding over the hills.^(A)
⁹My beloved is like a gazelle^(B) or a young stag.^(C)
    Look! There he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
    peering through the lattice.
¹⁰My beloved spoke and said to me,
    “Arise, my darling,
    my beautiful one, come with me.
¹¹See! The winter is past;
    the rains are over and gone.
¹²Flowers appear on the earth;
    the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
    is heard in our land.
¹³The fig tree forms its early fruit;^(D)
    the blossoming^(E) vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
    my beautiful one, come with me.”

He

¹⁴My dove^(F) in the clefts of the rock,
    in the hiding places on the mountainside,
show me your face,
    let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet,
    and your face is lovely.^(G)
¹⁵Catch for us the foxes,^(H)
    the little foxes
that ruin the vineyards,^(I)
    our vineyards that are in bloom.^(J)

She

¹⁶My beloved is mine and I am his;^(K)
    he browses among the lilies.^(L)
¹⁷Until the day breaks
    and the shadows flee,^(M)
turn, my beloved,^(N)
    and be like a gazelle
or like a young stag^(O)
    on the rugged hills.^[a]^(P)

3 All night long on my bed
    I looked^(Q) for the one my heart loves;
    I looked for him but did not find him.
²I will get up now and go about the city,
    through its streets and squares;
I will search for the one my heart loves.
    So I looked for him but did not find him.
³The watchmen found me
    as they made their rounds in the city.^(R)
    “Have you seen the one my heart loves?”
⁴Scarcely had I passed them
    when I found the one my heart loves.
I held him and would not let him go
    till I had brought him to my mother’s house,^(S)
    to the room of the one who conceived me.^(T)
⁵Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you^(U)
    by the gazelles and by the does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
    until it so desires.^(V)

Footnotes

Song of Songs 2:17 Or the hills of Bether

The Shulamite woman tells about her time of short separation from the king. After their first meeting in the country vineyard, the king left for the winter, and the woman was waiting in great anxiety. Can you imagine her joy as she sees the king approaching from the other side of the mountain after the long winter? (8).

The king calls out to her and shows unchanging affection, reminding her that he has come as he had promised (11). The couple rejoices in their reunion and looks into securing their vineyard from ‘little foxes’ to keep it in bloom (15). The woman also tells about her dream of desperately looking for the king at night in the city (3:1-3). She looked like a madwoman (3), and when she found him, she held onto him and would not let him go (4). The woman says they are one in each other (2:16).

This woman’s desperation to be with her beloved one reminds us of what a believer would feel apart from Christ. We have been joined with Christ in one spirit (1Co 6:17). Does your heart desire to seek the Lord and be with him as a young lover’s desperate heart?

Prayer: Father, thank you for the love relationship I share with you through Jesus. Thank you for your unchanging love. Please help me always to be secure, knowing that you are with me.

One Word: I desperately seek you.