Songs 7:10 I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me. The assurance of mutual possession and affection occurs in an earlier part of the poem; but its repetition here is not without significance. Love has not lessened as time has passed; it has rather deepened, as experience has revealed, to each of the married lovers, the faithfulness and kindness, the purity and, devotion, of the other. Hence the bride adds to this later exclamation, "I am my beloved's," the statement which is the expression of experience, "His desire is toward. me." Transferring the language to the relations and sentiments distinctive of the mutual attachment of Christ and his people, we observe here a declaration - I. OF THE GOOD WILL AND COMPASSIONATE AFFECTION OF CHRIST FOR HIS CHURCH. 1. The Lord takes a deep satisfaction in his people, and regards them with a holy complacency. 2. He desires that they should participate in his character and reflect hid image. Spiritual fellowship with him tends to bring about this result, than which nothing can be more to the mind of the Head of the Church. 3. He desires that they may be qualified witnesses to himself, and agents in promoting his cause and glory upon earth. And this, for his own sake indeed, yet also for the Church's sake, and for the sake of the world for whose salvation he lived and died on earth. II. OF THE RESPONSE OF THE CHURCH, HER SURRENDER OF HERSELF COMPLETELY TO HER SPOUSE AND LORD. This attitude of heart has been beautifully expressed in these words: "I attach myself to God, I give myself to him; and. he turns to me immediately; his eyes look upon me with favour; his Spirit is attentive to my good; his great heart bows itself and stoops to my nothingness; he unites his heart to mine; he heaps upon it new graces, to attach it more strongly to him. Devote thyself, O my soul, wholly to thy God." 1. Spiritual receptiveness is the just response to Divine desire. If it is the will and pleasure of the Saviour to take possession of the whole nature and life of his people, it is equally their will and pleasure to abandon all other aims in life, and to devote themselves to this, with the view of becoming his only, his altogether, and his forever. 2. Spiritual consecration completes this just response. Human nature is not merely passive; it is energetic. Human life is an opportunity, not only for getting, but for giving. The Church must indeed receive from the Divine Head every qualification which can fit for the discharge of duty, for the rendering of service. But it is hers to prove her gratitude and her fidelity to the trust reposed in her, by devoting herself to those high ends with a view to which she has been chosen, loved, and redeemed. - T. Parallel Verses KJV: I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me. |
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