Sweet Notes from

The Song of Songs         (Part 3)

Chapter 1 verse 17. As the young Bride of the Song of Solomon had sought her Beloved by "the footsteps of the flock" how exposed she must have felt to the dangers of those mountains and valleys that separated her from her "Solomon." Having now found him, however, she is enabled to be at peace in his presence, and even the forest clearing in which they are now seated together speaks a word of warm comfort and protection to her soul. "The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir," she says as she looks around at the strong cedars that surround her, and the overhanging firs that protect her from the scorching sun.

How alike this is to the believer in Christ when he feels the warm assurance of dwelling in his Beloved's house of salvation. The beams of that house are like cedars, and the rafters like firs. They are STRONG BEAMS. As the Lord called the children of Israel "out of the house of bondage" by "a mighty hand," so He led forth those "who were all their lifetime subject to (spiritual) bondage." He rode "forth conquering in the chariot of His Gospel," as old Thomas Watson puts it, "and He made the will, which stood out as a fort-royal, to yield and stoop to His grace." "Oh, it was a MIGHTY call," he says. And the beams are SUPPORTING BEAMS. For, having called us to Himself through the sovereign operations of His gracious Spirit, the Lord will keep us near Himself through the equally-sovereign workings of His blessed Son. "I give unto my sheep eternal life," says the Great Shepherd of the flock, "and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." And they are MATURED BEAMS, for they have sheltered the Lord's people from the first generation and will do so from generation to generation. Abraham sat under them and so did David, and Daniel, and a host that no man can number. They are DURABLE BEAMS. They have never crumbled yet over one believer's head, and they never will.

What a blessing to dwell in such a such a house; and the entrance stands open yet: "I am the door; by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved."