Month: December 2021

Song of Songs 4:7 Thou art all fair, my beloved; there is no spot in thee.

The promise that the Lord will make a beautiful and spotless and without blemish Bride for Himself runs through Scripture, Ephesians 5:25-27: “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

By these promises we can be sure of the spiritual truth of The Song. Our Lover and Groom saw us in the death and ugliness of our sin, picked us up, washed us off, cleaned us up, removed the spots and blemishes, and made us exceeding beautiful. We are all fair and without spot. In truth, after justification and sanctification, what’s not to love?

The only remaining issue we have to deal with is really believing and accepting how stunning and absolutely beautiful (fair) we are, especially inside where it really matters. God promises so; Jesus made it so; the Spirit convinces so. Bask in the glorious, reflected beauty of God. God sees; God knows; God loves!

Song of Songs 2:16; 6:3 ; 7:10 My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies….I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine; he feedeth among the lilies….I am my beloved’s, and desire is toward me.

Three times the Beautiful Bride of Christ believes, affirms, confesses, and rejoices over the same intimate loving relationship. Each is United in a love bond so tightly woven with each other it is as if they possess each other. And we do, Jesus and me, without forced control or involuntary enslavement. “For the love of Christ controls us.” We belong to each other, and He holds me as His Own Special Person. This intimate, inseparable, relationship is meant to be experienced in life in an even stronger bond than mother and child.

As Christ’s beloved prize and precious possession He makes me more valuable and beloved than all the gold and riches of the world. And according to His very great and precious promises Jesus does the same thing for each of us individually and as a collective group. Therefore, we can treat others as though each was a Christ to us. We are treasures in jars of clay held together by the strongest bond of all.

Song of Songs 2:4 He brought me to his banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.

My Lover, my Friend, my Bridegroom, my Husband.promises to bring me into His banqueting house for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in His Kingdom. There we shall celebrate and feast forever without end. Right now we are living in engagement promise waiting for the Day. “In him when you also heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, we’re sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it [Ephesians 1:13-14].”

Meanwhile, we enjoy a “foretaste of the feast” every time we receive the Gospel in Word and Sacrament. All of life is lived under the banner if His Love. He wraps me in His Flag for protection, service, tender loving care, provision, nourishment, and all the rich blessings of mighty power and intimate love. With the strong name of the Lord of Armies with us, who can be against us? With His banner over us, the Lord earnestly desires us to REST IN HIS LOVE!

Song of Songs 1:1,4 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for thy love is better than wine. Draw me, we will run after thee; the king has brought me into his chambers, we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine; the upright love thee.

The Song of Songs may be one the most beautiful, intimate, sacred love poems ever written. It does describe in beautiful terms and figures of speech the romantic love between the king and his lovely maiden and bride. It is not a far leap to transfer the metaphor to the deeper, abiding love between Christ and His Bride, the Church. History is leading us up to that climax: “The Marriage Supper of the Lamb in His Kingdom.” This will be a romantic Love-Feast that goes on forever without end in His great banqueting-hall.

We are the beautiful Bride, made beautiful by the awesome love of God, without spot or blemish. We are United with Christ both individually, personally, intimately and also collectively, as a whole group of believers. It also appears that we are at the same time guests and participants at the Feast.

In God’s economy it all works out wonderfully. The mind and imagination must be stretched beyond limits for us to even catch a glimpse in a mirror darkly. One way of describing the amazing love of God is saying His love is sweeter than wine. There is nothing with more sweetness or power than the Gospel of the love of God in Jesus Christ. Count on it. That’s a promise.

Ecclesiastes 9:1 For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, the wise, and all their works, are in the hand of God; no man knows love or hatred by all that is before them.

The Lord promises His God-fearing believers they, their life, and times, and their works are in the hand of God. The righteous and the wise are the believers in Christ, and the fruit that grows out of such faith will one day be evident for all to see. “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, and their works do follow them.”

In God’s hand, He takes our faith, grows fruit out of it, molds it into a good work that is an eternal reward of grace. What a wonderful blessing to know that our life and times are in God’s loving hand! We enjoy the promise on faith since we don’t see what’s actually happening in God’s hand. We cannot even see clearly the difference between love and hatred, as obvious as it might seem, with our limited vision. But the Lord sees, knows shapes molds and fashions. Therefore, we take hold of this promise and leave it in God’s hands.

Ecclesiastes 8:12 Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him.

The conditional promise is this: if you fear God (believe Him), then it will be well with you. The hymn writer could sing, “It is well with my soul,” even after the worst tragedy. No matter what, it will always be well with the one who has faith.

Yes, we faithful God-fearers who believe are at the same time, and all the time, failing sinners who “do evil a 100 times.” The simul justus et peccator person fails, repents, believes, is forgiven and is declared righteous. Sin brings him down; faith lifts him up, and so it goes on daily with a continual rhythm of daily repentance and renewal of faith, with dying daily in remembrance of Baptism and coming forth a new man, with willingness to be humbled and trusting to be raised up.

But it is, in the last analysis, the Gospel that has the last word: it will be well with you! We can live well with that faith, love, joy, peace, and hope. Only believe! We live, breathe, and walk under The Promise.

Ecclesiastes 8:5 Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment.

This is quite an awesome and incredible conditional promise. Can it be true? If you keep the commandment, then you shall feel no evil thing. We know by experience this cannot be true, for we live in a sinful flesh in an evil world. Yet the Lord promises that you will feel no evil. So it must be true.

The first truth is: the Law is perfect, pure, holy, and 100% good for you. It will prevent you from feeling evil if you could keep it perfectly. The Law is good; I am evil, and by breaking the Law of God I experience evil in the world, in my life, in my body, in my soul, in my family, and in my relationships.

The second, and overriding, truth is: the Gospel makes perfect by the perfect life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He kept the Law for us and freely gives the righteousness of God which Christ earned and gives by grace. The Gospel “delivers us from evil.” Although we are tempted to feel the evil daily through earthly strife, the final and eternal effects are not felt. We overcome through faith in the Blood. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Faith in God’ truth and love defeats feelings, which can deceive. The wise heart of a believer discerns truth and fact (time and judgment) over against ephemeral feelings of evil.

Ecclesiastes 5:20 For he shall not remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.

“Deep calls unto deep.” The deep and eternal God calls to the deep and eternal heart within the human soul. And vice-versa, too: the depths of our spirit, wherein God dwells, cries out for the depths of the eternal God. And the amazing promise: He responds to our deep calls, for He has caused us to respond to His call upon our life.

The answer of the Lord to our deep, heartfelt calls is really too deep for explainable words. But deeper than our joy is the joy of the Lord. We make Him so well-pleased when we respond with faith and joy to His grace mercy. He rejoices over us! He is glad to make us joyful and to respond to the joy He gives.

Surprisingly, we do not remember as much about our life as we forget, but we remember God, as He remembers us. He Himself replaces our good and bad memories with His loving presence, His goodness and mercy. As they say, “Hope is stronger than memory.”

God answers us in the Joy of His heart. And that’s a lot of joy. Think of it: we bless God and we make Him happy when we respond to each other in joy.

Ecclesiastes 2:26 God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy, but to the sinner giveth travail, to gather and heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.

The promise of wisdom, knowledge, and joy is given to the person that is good in His sight. Of course, no one , not one, is good in God’s sight, for we are naturally born evil. But the Lord, in His mercy, has made us good in His sight through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In fact, He has made us righteous. We have grace and favor with God. He is pleased with us.

Therefore, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy. We do not usually utilize the wisdom and knowledge we have been promised, but it comes from the Word and the Spirit, who leads us into all truth. The Bible student possesses more wisdom than he realizes, although it is often obscured with worldly wisdom and faulty human reasoning. However, the Word is sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing asunder the soul and the spirit.

We also have more joy than we are able to fully tap into. We may need to plumb deep into the joy we have been promised, but it is there. We can and we may rejoice by faith, not feelings, by believing the promise and focusing on Him and the things above. We believe the Word and enter into the Joy. “If any of you lacks wisdom (or knowledge, or joy) let him ask God, who gives generously, and it will be given him. [James 1:5].”

Indeed, why not ask for JOY? He promises it.

Proverbs 39:5 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield to them that put their trust in him.

God is many things to us like safety, security, protection, tower, fortress, stronghold, hiding place. Here the metaphor is that the Lord will be a shield. A shield protects us against the flaming darts of the Evil One, and every thought Satan plants in our minds to make us afraid, scared, frightened, anxious, and worried. For this reason we need a shield; for this reason God is a shield

Faith is the shield. We can’t see the impending dangers coming at us; they are so deceitfully disguised; but faith sees, knows, and quenches. We may not see it happening, but it is going on all the time for those who put their trust in Him.

That is the if condition: trust. For living faith and growing confidence the Lord gives us the sure Word of God, for every word of God is pure. “Faith comes by hearing the word of Christ.” The Gospel grants faith as a shield every time we hear it. “The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” “Open my eyes that I might see wonderful things out of thy law.” Thank God for His pure word and promise that brings trust, which is a shield. Our Lord Jesus, the ultimate lawyer says, “Trust Me!”