The One Whom my Soul Loves (Song of Solomon 3:3)

 The One Whom my Soul Loves (Song of Solomon 3:3)

I’ve never preached a sermon series on Song of Solomon. I actually get a little nervous just reading it. The Puritans saw it as a poetic tale that led to adoration of Jesus. Modern commentators have been almost unanimous in saying that it was written to improve your love life. I’m firmly on the side of the Puritans. Seems as if I was born about four centuries too late.

Nonetheless, I chose one question from this little book as a “Critical Question of the Bible:” “Have you seen Him whom my soul loves?” (Song of Solomon 3:3). By capitalizing “Him,” I’m emphasizing the One whom I believe is the focus of the book, and the question.

In context, the young woman is looking desperately for the man she loves. Where did he go? In a human story, one would wonder if the young man, in fact, wants to be found. But in a spiritual account, any person seeking the Lord is involved in a process that God designs to test and develop our hunger for Him. He does not always make Himself apparent to us, even though He is most assuredly always present with us. He is in charge of refining our spiritual senses, and growing our spiritual dependency, which will then guide all of our senses and dependencies. And so it is a good question with which we could begin each day, or ask in the midst of the day when we are a bit confused and don’t know how to respond to a situation: “Where is the One whom my soul loves?"

But I think the question as it appears in the text can also be an evangelistic question; a question that would guide us in sharing Christ with others, and do it well. Have you seen Him whom my soul loves? It guides us in our evangelism in that we are not selling an idea, but sharing a Person with others. So much of our efforts are rationalistic, as though we can “convince” people into being Christians. And there are indeed points to make and objections to overcome. But being a Christian is a relationship with a Person with whom we have come to love for all of His perfections, and most dearly for His love for us that led Him to give Himself as a sacrifice for our sins. Who would do that for us? Scarcely anyone. And if anyone did, who could deliver the benefits to us that we have found in Him, including the forgiveness of sins and bringing into right relationship with God. In that case, the answer is not “scarcely no one.” It is “no one.” Jesus is the One whom our soul loves. May we love Him more each day. 

A Working Vacation

 A Working Vacation

Here is yet another vacation post (but also a critical question): Eccl. 1:3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? 4 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

The Bible says a great many positive things about the value of work. The Bible also says some very negative things about laziness. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes is not arguing against the Bible. I’m quite sure he agrees. He has another point to make.

I think the turning point in The Preacher’s question is in the word “gain,” as in “win” or “get.” He is not questioning the value of work. I believe that God put us on this earth, in part, to be re-creators. Certainly a huge step below Creator, and humans sometimes speak of their creativity as if they are doing something brand new. Nope, just rearranging what God created. But this is an aspect of work. The farmer in the field is re-creating/working. The welder. The financier. Some have doubts about the pastor.

When a person works long, and hard, and well - what does he get for it? A wage? Satisfaction? Yes, those things. But what is he (or she) afterwards that they were not before? Richer? Happier? Maybe, or maybe not. But think about the term “afterwards.” We are not just evaluating short-term gain. We are talking about big-picture gain. What has a person gained by their work, with God? What have they gained by working as they one day stand before God? I think that is much closer to The Preacher’s question. We say that we work “to get ahead.” But he gives us the perspective to know that this is true in only the skinniest of senses. On a broader scale, your work makes no difference in your standing with God, which lasts for eternity.

My Dad worked hard, and I (we) benefited. He built by hand both houses we lived in growing up. He started as sweeper and ended up as vice-president at the local hospital, meaning that, though times were pretty tight earlier on, our parents were able to take good care of us. There is real benefit in that.

But now that Dad is gone and will stand before God, his acceptance will not be based on his good work, or, his good works. He will be accepted because of Christ’s good work. Eternal salvation and blessing are through Christ alone. Oh, and the benefits of Dad’s good works will not benefit me either at that time. Only Christ’s.

Quiet Vacation

 Quiet Vacation

I’ve gotten to a place with my latest post-Covid malady that I’ve now lost my voice. It reminds me of the recent Christmas story from the book of Luke, when Zecharias was met by an angel and doubted the angel’s prediction. I am not sure who or where my angel was, but we both ended up with laryngitis. The end of the story for Zecharias is that John the Baptizer was born. I don’t know how he communicated this non-verbally to Elizabeth, and Jane is having trouble understanding as well.

When I broke my knee a few years back, I called the gentleman who sold me disability insurance to replace what most everybody else already has. I told him that since, as a pastor, I couldn’t kneel to pray, that I felt I qualified for disability. He asked if I could still talk to preach. I said “yes” and he said that he didn’t think I was disabled. I thought about calling him again and telling him now I can’t talk in order to preach. He’s retired, but I’m pretty sure he would ask if I could still pray, and when I said “yes,” he would say that he didn’t think I was disabled. But since I can’t preach, I figure Jane and I will just stay in Florida until my voice comes back.

There are some shortcomings to being speechless. It doesn’t stop what goes on in my mind, but the expressing of it is much more difficult. I have learned the husbandly art of mumbling things that I don’t really want Jane to hear, but now she actually can’t hear them.

So when I want to correct her, well, she just misses out on that blessing. And when she’s telling a long story, I don’t interrupt with a different one. And sarcasm is a lot more difficult to express, and a lot less fun, when it is just left to carom around my own head.

And then there’s Calvinism. Yes, that theological belief that things don’t happen by accident, and that somehow, for some reason, me losing my voice on this vacation when it’s just Jane and me in the car or on a long walk is not accident, and that it turns out to be just Jane’s turn to talk and not mine.

You’ve got to be glad for her a little bit, being married to a guy that she has to listen to preach every week at her (and others) and at times actually being part of the sermon herself. Maybe this is part of God’s justice, her turn to talk and not me.

Prov. 17:27 Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. 28 Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.

Who Can Say, ‘I am Pure from Sin’? (Proverbs 20:9)

 Who Can Say, ‘I am Pure from Sin’? (Proverbs 20:9)

We return in this newsletter to a review of “critical questions in the Bible.” This is related to a study that I did, marking all the questions in the Bible, and then picking out those I (subjectively) regard to be worth considering and addressing. Today, I combine two of these questions from Proverbs.

The first question, from Proverbs 20:9 is simple, but profound: “Who can say, ‘I have cleansed my heart; I am pure from my sin’?” The answer is “no one.” Some might say Jesus, but since He was and is sinless, He never “cleansed His heart.” For us, cleansing our hearts is not something we can accomplish ourselves, and keeping ourselves absolutely pure is a task too great for us.

So we are all sinners. So what? Isn’t it just the goal to be a little less a sinner than the next person? No. The significance of being a sinner is that we are a sinner before God. And the next questions, from Proverbs 24:12, asks these questions in ascending order: Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does He not know it who keeps your soul? And will He not render to man according to his work? 

The first of these questions indicates that God is the One who sets the standard for righteousness and morality. It is not a matter of current social standards, whether conservative of progressive. It is this: what does God say? He weighs the heart according to His judgment; according to His standard, which establishes once and forever what is true and what is good.

The second question is close to the first, but different. Because not only does God establish the standards, but He is the One who holds our souls, and the destiny of our souls, in His hand. Our souls, created by Him, are designed to live forever with Him, or without Him, according to our standing with (or, against) God, whether our hearts have been cleansed and are being made pure through the work of Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. His strong hand will deliver us either to blessing or curse; heaven or hell.

And thus the third question in this verse asks what should now be obvious: if God is the One who sets the standard; and if He holds our eternal destiny in His hand; is He not also the One who will render judgment and consequence regarding our state and condition, whether forgiven and sanctified by faith in Christ, or stubbornly independent and beating our own drum by which we march? 

Critical questions? Yes. Sobering? Certainly. Too heavy to be carefully ponder? Not on your life.