A garden
enclosed is my sister, [my spouse];
A spring
shut up, a fountain sealed.
Thy shoots
are a paradise of pomegranates,
With
precious fruits;
Henna with
spikenard plants;
Spikenard
and saffron;
Calamus and
cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense;
Myrrh and
aloes, with all the chief spices:
A fountain
in the gardens,
A well of
living waters,
Which
stream from Lebanon.
Awake,
north wind, and come, [thou] south;
Blow upon
my garden, [that] the spices thereof may flow forth.
Let my
beloved come into his garden,
And eat
its precious fruits.
I am come
into my garden, my sister [my] spouse;
I have
gathered my myrrh with my spice;
I have
eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
I have
drunk my wine with my milk.
Eat, O
friends; drink, yea drink abundantly, beloved ones!
(Song of
Songs 4:12; 5:1.)
With
these choice words from the Song of Songs, the Bridegroom likens his bride to a
garden of delights. Probably, all believers, with hearts opened to understand
the Scriptures, would agree that in the Bridegroom, or the “Beloved,” of the
Song of Songs, we have a beautiful figure of Christ. Most would also concede
that, in the interpretation of the Song, the Bride sets forth Christ’s earthly
people.
While,
however, the strict interpretation of the bride had Christ’s earthly people in
view, we are surely warranted in making an application to the Church, the
heavenly bride of Christ.
Furthermore,
if we may discover in this garden the excellencies that Christ would find in
His heavenly bride, do we not, at the same time learn what the love of Christ
is looking for in the hearts of those who compose the bride? May we then, for a
little, meditate upon this garden, with its spring, its fruit, its spices, and
its living waters, as describing what the Lord would have our hearts to be for
Himself.
First,
we notice that the Bridegroom always speaks of the garden as “My garden;” while
the Bride delights to own it as “His garden.” “Awake O north wind … blow upon
My garden,” says the bridegroom. The bride replies, “Let my beloved come into
His garden.” In response, the Bridegroom says, “I am come into My garden.” The
application is plain – the Lord claims our hearts for Himself. “My son, give Me
thine heart,” says the Preacher (Proverbs 23:26.) “Sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts,” is the exhortation of an Apostle (1 Peter 3:15) and again,
another Apostle can pray that “Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Eph.
3:17.)
It
is not simply our time, our means, our brains, and our busy service, that the
Lord desires, but first, and above all, He claims our affections. We may give
all our goods to the poor, and our bodies to be burned, but without love it
will profit nothing. The Lord is still saying to us, “Give Me thine heart.”
“Thou
hast left thy first love,” was a solemn word indicating that whatever
excellencies belonged to the believers thus addressed, their hearts had ceased
to be a garden for the Lord. As one has said, “A wife may take care of the
house, and fulfill all her duties so as to leave nothing undone for which her
husband could find fault; but if her love for him has diminished, will all her
service satisfy him if his love to her be the same as at first?” (J.N.D.)
Above
all, then, the Lord claims the undivided affection of our hearts. The garden
must be His garden. Moreover, if the Lord claims our hearts to be a garden for
His delight, they must have the marks of the garden that is according to His
mind.
As
we read this beautiful description of the garden of the Lord, we note five
outstanding features, which set forth in figure what the Lord would have our
hearts to be for Himself. First, the garden of the Lord is an enclosed garden.
Secondly, it is a watered garden, with its spring shut up and its fountain sealed.
Thirdly, it is a fruitful garden – a paradise of pomegranates with precious
fruits. Fourthly, it is a fragrant garden, with trees of frankincense, and all
the chief spices. Lastly, it is a refreshing garden from whence “the living
waters” flow, and the fragrance of its spices is carried to the world around.
The
Garden enclosed. If the heart is to be kept as a garden for the pleasure of
the Lord, it must be as “a garden enclosed.” This speaks of a heart separate
from the world, preserved from evil, and set apart for the Lord.
May
we not say that, in the Lord’s last prayer, we learn the desire of His heart
that His people should be as “a garden enclosed?” We hear Him tell the Father,
that His own are a separate people, for He can say, “They are not of this
world, even as I am not of the world.” Again, He desires that they may be a
preserved people, for He prays, “Keep them from the evil.” Above all, He prays
that they may be a sanctified people, for He says, “Sanctify them through thy
truth” (John 17:14-17.)
Does
not the Preacher exhort us to keep our hearts as “a garden enclosed,” when he
says, “Keep thy heart more than anything that is guarded?” (Proverbs 4:23
N.TR.) Again we do well to heed the Lord’s own words, “Let your loins be girded
about.” Unless the girdle of truth holds in our affections and thoughts, how
quickly our minds will be drawn away by the things of this world, and the heart
cease to be “a garden enclosed.”
Again,
the Apostle James desires that our hearts may be preserved from evil, when he
warns us, “If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and
lie not against the truth … for where envying and strife is, there is confusion
and every evil work” (James 3:14-16.) Never has there been a scene of confusion
and strife amongst the people of God that has not had its hidden root, of envy
and strife, in the heart. We may be sure that the heart that entertains
bitterness, envying, and strife, will be no garden for the Lord.
How
necessary, then, to have our hearts kept in separation from the world, and
preserved from evil. Nevertheless, the refusal of the world, and the flesh,
will not be enough to constitute our hearts “a garden enclosed.” The Lord
desires that our hearts may be sanctified, or set apart for His pleasure, by
being occupied with the truth and all that is according to Christ. Does not the
Apostle Paul set before the Philippians “a garden enclosed” – a heart
sanctified for the Lord, when he says, “Whatsoever things are true, whatever
things are noble, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be
any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things?”
If
the heart is full of cares, fretting over wrongs, and full of bitterness
towards those who may have acted badly towards us: if we are entertaining evil
imaginations, malicious thoughts, and revengeful feelings towards a brother, it
is very certain our hearts will be no garden for the Lord.
If
then we would have our hearts freed from things that defile and turn the heart
into a barren waste, choking the garden with weeds, let us follow the
instruction of the Apostle when he tells us, “Be careful for nothing; but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be
made known unto God.” Having, like Hannah of old, poured out our hearts before
the Lord, and unburdened our minds of all the cares, the sorrows, and the
trials that pressed upon our spirits, we shall find that “the peace of God,
which passeth all understanding, shall keep our hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus.” Thus set free from all that might come in between the soul and God, our
hearts will be at liberty to enjoy the things of Christ, and our minds free to
“think on these things” – these holy and pure things which should mark one
whose heart is “a garden enclosed.”
A
Watered Garden. The heart that is set apart for the Lord will have its
hidden source of refreshment and joy. It will be a garden with “a spring shut
up” and “a fountain sealed.” A spring is an unfailing supply; a fountain rises
up to its source. The Prophet can say, of one who walks according to the mind
of the Lord, that his soul shall be “like a well watered garden, and like a
spring of water, whose waters fail not” (Isaiah 58:11.) To the woman of Sychar
the Lord spoke of giving “a fountain of water springing up into everlasting
life,” to be “in” the believer. The world is entirely dependent upon
surrounding circumstances for its passing joy; the believer has a spring of joy
within – the hidden life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit.
As
the spring of life the Holy Spirit meets all our spiritual needs by guiding us
into “all truth:” as the fountain of life, He engages our hearts with Christ
above. The Lord can say, “the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father,
He shall testify of Me” – Christ in His new place in the glory. This as the
Spring, He refreshes our souls with the truth; as the Fountain springing up to
its source, He engages our hearts with Christ.
Let
us, however, remember that the spring, which is the source of blessing, is “a
spring shut up,” and the fountain is “a fountain sealed.” Does this not remind
us that the source of blessing in the believer is sealed to this world, and
wholly apart from the flesh? The Lord speaks of the Comforter as One that “the
world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye
know Him for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:17.) Again we
read, “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh:
and these are contrary the one to the other” (Gal. 5:17.)
Alas!
We may mind the things of the flesh, and turn aside to the world, only to find
we grieve the Spirit so that our hearts, instead of being as a watered garden,
become but a dry and barren waste.
A
fruitful garden. The “spring” and the “fountain” will turn the garden of
the Lord into a fruitful garden – “a paradise of pomegranates with precious
fruits.” The un-grieved Spirit will produce in our hearts “the fruit of the
Spirit,” which, the Apostle tells us, “is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
kindness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, and self-control” (Gal. 5:22.) What,
indeed, are these precious fruits of the Spirit but the reproduction of the
character of Christ in the believer? The fountain, rising up to its source,
occupies with Christ and His excellencies; and, beholding the glory of the Lord
we are changed into the same image from glory to glory. Thus the heart becomes
a garden of the Lord bearing precious fruit fro the delight of His heart.
A
fragrant garden. Not only is the garden of the Lord a garden of precious
fruits, but a garden of spices from which sweet odors arise. In Scripture,
fruit speaks of the excellencies of Christ, but the spices, with their
fragrance, speak of worship that has Christ for its object. In worship there is
no thought of receiving blessing from Christ, but of bringing the homage of our
hearts to Christ. When the wise men from the East found themselves in the
presence of “the young Child,” they fell down and “worshipped Him,” and
“presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh” (Matt. 2:11.) When
Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with “a pound of ointment of spikenard, very
costly,” she was not, as on other occasions, at His feet as a receiver to get
instruction, or find sympathy in her sorrow; she was there as a give to render
the worship of a heart filled with the sense of His blessedness. It was good to
be at His feet to hear His word, and, again, to be at His feet to receive
comfort in sorrow, but in neither case do we read of the ointment with its
odor. But when she is at His feet as a worshipper, with her precious ointment,
we read, “the whole house was filled with the odor of the ointment” (John
12:1-3.)
The
Philippian saints in their gift to the Apostle, may indeed have shown forth
some of the excellencies of Christ – His comfort of love and compassions – and
thus bring forth fruit that would abound to their account; but there was in their
gift the spirit of sacrifice and worship which was as “an odor of a sweet
smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God” (Phil. 2:1; 4:17-18.)
In
our day, if our hearts are to be a garden of the Lord, let us not forget that
the Lord not only looks for the precious fruits of the Spirit, reproducing in
us something of His lovely traits, but also the spirit of worship that rises up
to Him as a sweet odor.
A
Refreshing Garden. Lastly, the Lord would have His garden to be a source of
refreshment to the world around. A garden from whence there flow the “living
waters.” Thus the Lord can speak of the believer, indwelt by the Holy Spirit,
as bring a source of blessing to a needy world, as He says, “Out of his belly
shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38-39.)
Thus
we learn, from the Song of Songs, that the Lord would fain possess our hearts
as a garden of delights for Himself. He stands at the door of our hearts and
knocks, for He desires to come in and dwell within our hearts. If we are slow to
let Him in, He may say, as the Bridegroom in the Son, “Awake, O north wind; and
come thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.” He
may allow adverse circumstances, trials and sorrows, in order to drive us to
Himself, so that we may say like the bride, “Let my Beloved come into His
garden.”
If
we open to Him we shall experience the truth of His own words, “If any man hear
My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him and
he with Me” (Rev. 3:20.) In like spirit, when the bride says, “Let my Beloved
come into his garden,” the Bridegroom at once responds, “I am come into my
garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have
eaten my honeycomb with my honey.”
If
then, the heart of the believer be kept separate from the world, preserved from
evil, and set apart for the Lord it will become like “a garden enclosed.”
In
that garden there will be found a spring of secret joy and refreshment that,
like a fountain, rises to its source.
The
fountain, springing up to its source, will bring forth precious fruit, the
excellencies of Christ.
The
fruit that speaks of the moral traits of Christ in the heart of the believer,
will lead to worship that rises up as a sweet odor to the heart of Christ.
The
heart that goes out in worship to Christ will become a source of blessing to
the world around.
In
the light of these Scriptures we may well pray the prayer of the Apostle when
he bows his knees to the Father, and asks, “That He would grant you, according
to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the
inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Eph. 3:14-17.)
A wretched
thing it were, to have our heart
Like a
throng highway or a populous street
Where
every idle though has leave to meet,
Pause, or
pass on as in an open mart;
Or like
some roadside pool, which no nice art
Has
guarded that the cattle might not beat
And foul
it with a multitude of feet,
Till of
the heavens it can give back no part.
But keep
thou thine a holy solitude,
For He who
would walk there, would walk alone;
He who
would drink there, must be first endued
With
single right to call that stream His own;
Keep thou
thine heart, close-fastened, unrevealed,
A fenced
garden and a fountain sealed. (R.C.
Trench.)