The bride in the Canticles of Solomon has only one deep yearning, i.e. the dear Lover of her soul.  This foreshadows of course the relationship between the redeemed soul and its Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ.  She said, “I sought Him, but found Him not!”  Why?

O, He wasn´t where she thought He was.  “On my bed by night, I sought Him whom my soul loves, I sought Him, but found Him not.”  The bed can be  a lonely place full of lonely agony where the soul feels deserted.  But she had no reason to feel that way. The desolate feeling may be there, but the Lord is there too, for He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you!”  (Hebr. 13:5).

Then she got up and went about the city and its streets.  Jerusalem was the city of religion, but religion itself had nothing that could satisfy her longing heart.   There was a lot of  noise – “joyful noise” maybe - in the streets.  But that didn´t satisfy her either. Only He could.

There´s much religion around in the thousands of happy churches.  They are packed with breathless programs, music, performances, jokes, but no real conviction of sin, they have rituals and they have good sermons.  But in all that religious restlessness “the still small voice” is not heard, the voice of the Shepherd, and so the hungry soul often says like the young girl in the Canticles, “I sought Him, but found Him not!”

I once led a young man in Denmark to Christ .  Then I left for the States, but I encouraged him to seek the fellowship of Christian friends which he also did.  They met in a private home.  I wrung my heart when he wrote to me about his frustration.  He was young and spiritually hungry, but he didn´t found the Lord in that fellowship.  They were Christians, but the Spirit was quenched which should never ever happen among us.  1 Th. 5:19.

Did the seeking soul find Him?  Oh yes, the seeking heart, no matter how lonely it feels, will find and be satisfied.  “Scarcely had I passed them when I found Him whom my soul loves” – she passed those who couldn´t help her (and so must we), until she threw herself into His loving arms. 

In his autobiography Charles Finney says that only the language of the Canticles truly reflected his intimate fellowship with the Lord during his first days as a new Christian as billows of His love flooded his soul.

Is your soul lonely?  Has your hunger not been met?   “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied!”  (Luke 6:21).  Drink in the riches of the gospel of Christ and have your thirst quenched.  Then be satisfied to be one of the intimates of Jesus.  These are the ones who spread the fragrance of Christ in this world of death, tears and sorrow.

-jn-

April 13, 2010