“I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine…” (6:3).

In this book replete with poetic allusions so very unfamiliar to our modern western culture, one thing is crystal clear, this is a romance that has both husband and wife completely enraptured with one another.

When I was a new believer in the early 80’s, one of my favorite worship songs was taken from Song of Songs, “He Brought Me to His Banqueting Table.” While I wasn’t yet familiar with the verses that inspired this song, I did know that I was now feasting on a Love I had never before experienced. And when I would sing, “I am my beloved’s and He is mine,” a realization of being forever His would wash over me. And oh, there was such safety and security in those words. And intimacy; like the intimacy meant to be shared between husband and wife.

Today, let’s turn our attention to our Lord’s invitation to intimacy, to remain exclusively His in the divine romance He has fashioned for our life. He is Our Beloved, and we are His. And that should absolutely knock us of our feet!

Consider Him, Our Beloved

• He Is Our Beloved Who has called us His own.
  • “But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob,
    And He who formed you, O Israel,
    “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name; you are Mine!” (Isaiah 43:1).

• He Is Our Beloved Who has drawn us to Himself by His eternal lovingkindness.
  • The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying,
    “I have loved you with an everlasting love;
    Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness,” (Jeremiah 31:3).

• He Is Our Beloved Who was sent by the Father.
  • Jesus answered and said to them…  ⁴⁴ “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me,” (John 6:43-45).

• He Is Our Beloved Who has given us eternal life.
  •  ^“and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand,” (John 10:28).

• He Is Our Beloved Who has made the way for us to come to the Father.
  • Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me,” (John 14:6).

• He Is Our Beloved Who has created us new in Him.
  • Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come, (2 Corinthians 5:17).

• He Is Our Beloved Who has sealed us with the Holy Spirit of promise, guaranteeing we are forever His.
  • In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴ who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory, (Ephesians 1:13-14).

How do we respond to Him, Our Beloved?

Solomon’s invitation presents a picture of the groom calling his bride to himself.

“You are altogether beautiful, my darling,
And there is no blemish in you.
⁸ “Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,
May you come with me from Lebanon.
Journey down from the summit of Amana,
From the summit of Senir and Hermon,
From the dens of lions,
From the mountains of leopards,” (Song of Solomon 4:7-8).

The invitation is a call “to come off from the world. These hills seem pleasant, but there are in them lions’ dens; they are mountains of the leopards.” Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

Intimacy with Our Beloved requires the willful abandonment of the passions that tempt us away from devotion and fidelity, being ever mindful that the fleeting pleasures the world offers are dangerous distractions that threaten our intimate union with Him, Our Beloved.

And I think I am beginning to understand the need for such poetic eloquence in this love story conveyed in Song of Songs; for this kind of intimacy can never be adequately expressed in human language. And while we can never truly share the intimacy we enjoy with Him, our life should be an invitation that creates a desire in others to seek Him, Our Beloved.

“Where has your beloved gone,
O most beautiful among women?
Where has your beloved turned,
That we may seek him with you?” (6:1).

God has invited us to come away to Him, to remain exclusively His and to intimately partake in His divine romance. And when we accept His invitation by faith, we receive His lavish gifts of adoption, redemption, and forgiveness according to the riches of His grace that He freely bestows on us in Him, Our Beloved.

He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. ⁷ In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace ⁸ which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight, (Ephesians 1:5-8).

Oh, that we would live every day in gratitude for His lavish grace gifts, that we would be so enraptured with our intimate union with Him, Our Beloved, that it would only and always be all about Him.

For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; ⁸ for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s, (Romans 14:8).

May we live in the reality of our divine romance; the old has passed away and we have now been created to live in the new things in Christ, Our Beloved.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come, (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Oh, that we would commit to see ourselves as we are in Him that we would not allow room for anything that could defile our intimacy with Him, Our Beloved.

“You are altogether beautiful, my darling,
And there is no blemish in you,” (Song of Solomon 4:7).

Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, (2 Corinthians 7:1).

Oh, that each day we would live mindful of Who we belong to, and of the most valuable possession we have now and forever, the intimacy we have with Him, Our Beloved.

“I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine…” (6:3).

Let’s Grow Together!