Making Up Is Hard To Do

Songs of Songs 6: 1 – 13

Making Up Is Hard To Do

1 Where has your beloved gone, O fairest among women? Where has your beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with you? 2 My beloved has gone to his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed his flock in the gardens, and to gather lilies. 3 I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine. He feeds his flock among the lilies. 4 O my love, you are as beautiful as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners! 5 Turn your eyes away from me, for they have overcome me. Your hair is like a flock of goats going down from Gilead. 6 Your teeth are like a flock of sheep which have come up from the washing; Every one bears twins, and none is barren among them. 7 Like a piece of pomegranate are your temples behind your veil. 8 There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and virgins without number. 9 My dove, my perfect one, is the only one, the only one of her mother, the favorite of the one who bore her. The daughters saw her and called her blessed, the queens and the concubines, and they praised her. 10 Who is she who looks forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, awesome as an army with banners? 11 I went down to the garden of nuts to see the verdure of the valley, to see whether the vine had budded and the pomegranates had bloomed. 12 Before I was even aware, my soul had made me as the chariots of my noble people. 13 Return, return, O Shulamite; Return, return, that we may look upon you!

If you have been following along with us in the study of this book you will remember that the ending of chapter 5 involved a confrontation of the Shulamite and the Daughters of Jerusalem. Through jealousy the women had taken advantage of the royal couple’s marriage problem and really laid into the wife, basically ganging up on her in their hurtful comments.

The Shulamite’s response to them had a positive reaction on these women for now they want to seriously help her. They say to her,

1 Where has your beloved gone, O fairest among women? Where has your beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with you?

Probably knowing the ultimate consequence that might befall them if king Solomon found out how they treated his wife might have been the motivating factor that prompted them to be so helpful in desiring to help located him.

Her response back to the women caused her also to reflect on everything that had transpired between her and her husband. The reason she got upset with him is the same thing he is presently doing and that is being about the affairs of state. Remember, in the past chapters where we read that she got upset because he was out and about doing his job as king and shepherd. Her thoughts about him not being there for her caused her to refuse his advance to her for intimacy. This had turned into a nightmare for them both. Now, the question of peaceful assistance from the women stopped her in her tracks and made her realize that he was out working. The same conditions existed, yet her attitude had changed.

2 My beloved has gone to his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed his flock in the gardens, and to gather lilies.

She knows that he is hers and so she asserts her knowledge of his love for her,

3 I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine. He feeds his flock among the lilies.

This situation has stopped me in my thought process also. It causes me to think about my relationship and our relationship with our love – our Lord Jesus Christ. You have heard the old statement, ‘He hasn’t moved, we have’. We do not want to be like the church of Ephesus like we read in chapter 2 of the book of Revelation, 1 “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: 2 “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; 3 and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. 4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. 6 But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”’