Losing Touch with Jesus and how to Find Him Again (Song 5:2–6:3)

In the previous poem, the King and his beloved were together in one of his gardens. Now they are separated and she is in her own house again. The differences in the poems depict for us the various experiences of the Christian life.

In this new poem, the woman is in bed when the king comes calling and asks to see her. The initial response of the woman is reluctance to get up because she will have to get dressed. Yet she has strong affections for him and even when she heard him touch the handle she was thrilled. Therefore, she arose, put fragrances on her hands, and opened the door. To her great surprise and sorrow, he was gone. This caused her to engage in a process of finding him.

It is not too difficult for us to apply this to the Christian life. Jesus can come to visit us at any time. Like the King in the poem, he says many loving things to us and he can mention the effects of the journey he has made in order to get to us. All of his comments are encouraging. Yet we are in a state of spiritual lethargy and his words to us do not move us. We can even come up with a list of reasonable excuses for not reacting properly. Still we love the signs of his presence and eventually we do something about it, such as taking up the Bible or going to a church service, perhaps even making some preparation (pictured by the woman putting fragrance on her fingers). Yet when we get there, we do not sense him.

Why does this happen? It happens because knowing Jesus is not the priority. We can replace that priority with various things such as hobbies, religious activities and even our own spiritual comfort.

When that happens, we can do one of two things. One option is to assume that we had done nothing wrong in not responding immediately and perhaps someone or something else is to blame for the sense of the absence of Jesus. The other option is to start seeking for him. This is what the women did in the poem – she started to look for her beloved. What did she do?

The first thing that she did was to search for him and call for him. No doubt, we can see in this a picture of earnest prayer in which we cry to Jesus to come and have fellowship with him again. This calling the woman did by herself, a reminder of the importance of personal prayer in recovering fellowship.

The second thing that she did was to seek help from the watchmen, those who looked after the city. She had known help from them before when she had lost the sense of her beloved’s presence. On this occasion, she received a different kind of help when they beat her and bruised her and made her shame known. In passing, we can see that this incident is not literal because which watchmen would dare attack the beloved of the king. The watchmen of the city are the pastors of the church and they beat her in the sense that they point out her sins to her.

The third thing that she does is engage the help of her friends, the daughters of Jerusalem (v. 8). This is a picture of a Christian asking fellow-believers to bring her case to Jesus when they pray to him. She asks them to tell him that she loves him deeply. This is an interesting way to pray for one another. Instead of mentioning faults, we mention their graces.

The friends respond to her concerns by asking her two simple questions. The first concerns what she thinks of her beloved (v. 9) and the second concerns whether or not she actually knows where he is (v. 6). What the friends are doing is trying to get the woman to think properly alongside her strong affections.

Her description of the King (5:10-16)

In answer to their first question, the woman gives an all-round description of her King. We miss the point, I think, if we try and find a corresponding detail in Jesus for each detail that she mentions, although there is no harm in doing so. Her description points to his youth, strength and tenderness. Her example should lead us to consider as much truth about Jesus as we can. We should range all over his abilities, activities and aims. After all, we want everyone to know that we have a perfect Saviour. He possesses the abilities of God – all divine attributes are his. He is involved in all the activities of God, as well as the ones that are unique to him as the Son of God. He helps bring about the plans of God for the future.

What could a believer in such a state say about Jesus? Here are some suggestions. (1) Although I have sinned in being lazy, he is the same yesterday, today and forever. I have changed, but he does not. (2) He is very gracious and he will not deal with me in the way my sins deserve. (3) Although I have sinned, I still find myself being drawn after him, which indicates that he is working secretly in my soul and causing me to love him still. (4) He is strong and kind, and is able to rebuke me without being cruel.

Perhaps the most important words in her description is the personal pronoun, ‘my,’ which she uses at the beginning and the end of her summary. That personal pronoun points to possession, to having what she regards as precious. And she uses it even although she knows he has gone. His absence does not lead her to conclude that the loss is permanent.

It is interesting to observe that she has no complaints to make about the manner in which he had left. Perhaps someone might suggest that the way he left was rather abrupt. Yet he had made efforts to rouse her. Even when he put his hand in the door, he could have opened it and come in. But he wanted her to move. After all, the woman depicts someone who has been given life.

The challenge that comes to us from her response to the question of the daughters is to be ready to speak to other believers about what the King means to us. It is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. If there is little in the heart, there will not be much to say.

The friends were trying to get the woman to stop thinking about her mistake and instead to think about her beloved. We too should divert sorrowful believers to think about our King, and the best way to do so is by saying wonderful things about the Saviour.

The second question and the answer (6:1-3)

Having listened to her beautiful description of the king, the daughters of Jerusalem then ask if she knows where he has gone to, and they promise to go with her and find him. She knows where he has gone, to his garden.

It is worth noting the name that they give to her in verse 1. They regard her as the most beautiful among women. There is no one so beautiful to a Christian than another believer seeking the Saviour out of love for his presence. In addition to valuing her beauty, they also know that she will be a help to them in locating the King, even although they have not lost the sense of his presence in the particular way that she had done.

What does the garden here depict? It was a large location where Solomon and the woman with her friends could meet together (it was really a collection of gardens, as we can see from the use of the plural in 6:2). It was also a pleasant location where they could meet together because of its beauty. Part of its beauty was the various beds in which there was a variety of spices and flowers. In the garden, the king is likened to a deer who grazes and a gardener who gathers lilies. He is also said to graze among the lilies. So it is a place where the king in particular finds rest and satisfaction.

In the Old Testament, God found rest among his people, as David points out in Psalm 132. There is a sense in which the land of Canaan was intended to be a place where God would rest with his people. As far as we are concerned, the place of rest is where the King gives blessings to his people.

Obviously, this includes the activities of the church in its means of grace, but I think it goes beyond that. It is where they can have fellowship together and where they receive from him the blessings of joy and peace.

The outcome of her being in the garden of the King is that she finds great assurance. Yet she expresses her assurance in a distinct way because she realises what she means to him as well as what he means to her. The poem will continue with expressions of love and joy, and we will consider them next time. But we should notice that the woman who failed received great assurance when she went to where the King could be found. This raises the question as to the strength of our assurance. We never get much assurance by looking at ourselves. Which believer is content with his prayers or his devotions? The more he examines them the more flaws he will find. Yet we could also say that we may not get much assurance by considering God in the majesty of his perfection. We should focus on God and be amazed at his greatness. Yet amazement is not the same as assurance.

Assurance comes by considering what the God of infinite grace did for sinners, and it is usually connected to Jesus. We should consider him as he goes to the cross for sinners and as he goes to the crown for sinners. We should look back to where he has been and why, and we should look up to where he is and why he is there, and we should look ahead to what he will yet do and why he will do them. And as we look in all these directions, we should fill our minds with the divine promises connected to them. When we do that, we will be able to look within and say that in spite of ourselves Jesus is for us, and that is assurance.