By Travis Biller
Pastor, Immanuel Baptist Church, Elizabethton
Focal Passage: Song of Solomon 5:6-16
In the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon writes that God “… has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
I believe the eternity he speaks of refers to the place that God is meant to fill in our lives. Notice, eternity is placed in the heart. Just like each cell has a nucleus with a DNA molecule, so each heart has eternity placed within it. It is a place only God can fill. And it is a place He longs to fill.
As we come to our text, we see a distraught, lovesick woman seeking her lover. She is desperate to find him. We read, “I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer” (Song of Solomon 5:6). This is the language of longing. She is desperate. She does not rest until her love is found (Song of Solomon 6:4).
While our lesson focuses on how married couples can invest in their relationship, consider the idea that Christ followers should have the same desire to be with Christ. As followers of Christ, do we long to be in His presence? That is the same as asking, do we really long for God as the lover in our text longs for her beloved?
Lest you think this idea is foreign to Scripture, consider Psalm 42, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for you O God. My Soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, ‘Where is your God?’” (Psalm 42:1-3).
The psalmist was in distress because he could not worship in the temple. The lover in our text is in distress and desperately seeks her beloved — and she does not rest until he is found. While our text speaks to the issues of marriage, it also speaks to the issue of worship.
Worship is a matter of the heart. Jesus said, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him” (John 4:23).
True worship is done in the Spirit, and it opens the heart to be filled with the presence of God. Absence the presence of God, the true worshiper is distraught and longs to be with God.
Consider David when he sinned with Bathsheba. David’s sin separated him from God, and in his distress he penned Psalm 51. Listen to the desire in his words, “Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me by Your generous Spirit” (Psalm 51:11-12).
The words of desire in the Song of Solomon ultimately reflect a heart that desperately seeks after God.
How often does our worship reflect this desire to be with God? Do our hearts cry out for God as the lover does for her beloved? How about this: If God’s Spirit were taken from us, would we notice His absence? Like David, would we plead with God to be in His presence?
Indeed, God has placed eternity in our hearts, and only He can fill that special place; and He will fill it, but only when we desire for Him to do so.
