HIM WHOM MY SOUL LOVETH

This chapter opens with a deep sense of loss. The ‘beloved’ of whom the bride has spoken so touchingly in the closing verses of chapter 2 has gone. The one whom she described in all his youthful vigour and claimed as her own, is parted from her.

The depth of her sense of loss is seen in the frequent mention of this title in these verses. He is constantly before her mind and heart, not only in terms of the name that he bears, but because of the place that he occupies in her heart. He is the one ‘whom my soul loveth’. This is complete devotion; her whole being is utterly in love. Yet the one who holds such a place in her heart and life has gone. To express the depth of her sense of loss she uses a title that expresses the unique place of affection in which he is held.

Apart from that sense of loss there is also the encircling gloom of the night which makes that separation seem all the more tangible. Sleep seems to have deserted her for it was ‘in the nights, I sought him’, v. 1 JND. Night after night she felt his absence until she decided that she would find him. Although her initial attempts were unsuccessful, v. 3, she persisted. Seeking the help of the watchmen, she passes from them and finds him.

Prophetically, these verses unfold the nation of Israel in its spiritual darkness yet with the few who feel the distance and separation between themselves and God. There were those who were looking for the Messiah, who were ‘waiting for the consolation of Israel’, Luke 2. 25, who ‘spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem’, Luke 2. 38.

Practically, we might ask, what place does Christ occupy in our hearts? Can we describe Him in the words of our title?

‘Saviour! Thou art enough The mind and heart to fill;
Thy life - to calm the anxious soul;
Thy love - its fears dispel.
O fix our earnest gaze,
So wholly, Lord on Thee,
That with Thy beauty occupied,
We elsewhere none may see’. [C. A. Bernstein]