As believers, we may express our deep love for God through praise and worship, through prayer and spending time meditating on His marvelous character. As we love on Him, we should also be experiencing His love back to us in all sorts of tangible ways. This week during worship time at our weekly service, the words of a song inspired me to look up a verse in the scriptures which took me to the Song of Solomon chapter 4. 

The Song of Solomon was written by a man who was credited with having 700 wives and concubines. The book is a book of romance and desire between a King and the Shulamite woman, but it’s not just that. I believe it is also a picture of our Bridegroom-King’s love back to us! There’s just not enough romance in life, is there? We need more of it! I need more of it!

The headline in The Passion Translation (TPT) version caught my attention, The Bridegroom-King….as I read it, I began to sense the words were from Jesus speaking to HIS bride…to me, to you, to all those who love and follow Him. We are His Bride, you know! It was a revelation to my heart. My interest was also piqued by the use of many expressions we find in the New Testament. (Some readers may prefer other versions and I will confess, the TPT does use more “flowery” language which perhaps may convey more intensity in its wording. Bear with me and read it in any version you like. I like to read all versions.)

SS 4:7-15 The Bridegroom-King

Vs. 7 “Every part of you is so beautiful, my darling. Perfect is your beauty, without flaw within.

This is how God sees His people…perfect and without flaw due to the righteousness that Jesus purchased for them. Jude 1:24 “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy...” Ephesians 5:27 says that God’s plan is to “…present her (His bride) to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” (The Ephesians scripture is in the context of an admonition to husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the church which is the model for men to follow.)

Vs. 8 “Now you are ready, my bride, to come with me as we climb the highest peaks together. Come with me through the archway of trust. (Trusting Him is the essence of life, causing us to abandon ourselves to Him.)

If you are unfamiliar with the fact that God calls His people a bride, it is not mentioned often but is found in the scriptures. Rev. 21:9 “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.’ “We will look down from the crest of the glistening mounts and from the summit of our sublime sanctuary.

The King and His Bride will war together

Ephesians 2:6 says Jesus has…“raised us up together, (with Him) and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” Spiritually, we are given a seat of authority with Him in the heavenly places according to this verse..

“Together we will wage war in the lion’s den and the leopard’s lair as they watch nightly for their prey.

I believe this speaks of executing justice on evil. One of the functions of the Bride in the coming Kingdom is defined in 1 Corinthians 6:2. “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?” This authority is not only for heaven, but is also given to us in the here and now on earth.

Jesus is held hostage by our love!

Vs. 9 For you reach into my heart. With one flash of your eyes I am undone by your love, my beloved, my equal, my bride. (Jesus is undone by OUR love?…Wow.) You leave me breathless—I am overcome by merely a glance from your worshiping eyes, for you have stolen my heart. (We have stolen His heart? Wow!) I am held hostage by your love and by the graces of righteousness shining upon you. (Held hostage? Oh how He must love us. How great must be His longing, His desire for us.) The righteousness He speaks of is that which Jesus Christ Himself purchased on our behalf through His cruel death on the cross. Let this profoundly touch your heart.

Romans 5:19 “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.“

Vs. 10 “How satisfying to me, my equal, my bride. Your love is my finest wine—intoxicating and thrilling. And your sweet, perfumed praises—so exotic, so pleasing.

Romans 8:17 says we are children of God “and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

In Malachi 3:16-18, we see that God writes a book…“Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, And the LORD listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the LORD And who meditate on His name. ‘They shall be Mine,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.’” It is my intention to be in that book.

Vs. 11 “Your loving words are like the honeycomb to me; your tongue releases milk and honey, for I find the Promised Land flowing within you.

In the Old Testament, the Promised Land was described as a land “flowing with milk and honey.” That is what this verse speaks to. “The Promised Land flowing within you” is most likely a reference to the believer who appropriates the nature of Jesus and His promises in their own life, causing their life and their words to be beneficial and sweet to those around them. Psalm 19:9 speaks of the judgments of the Lord being true and righteous, “more to be desired than gold and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.” Proverbs 16:24 says pleasant words are like a “honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.”

“The fragrance of your worshiping love surrounds you with scented robes of white. (The fragrance would be the “aroma” of loving worship and the life of Christ in a believer. The robes are robes of righteousness that are bestowed upon everyone who comes to Jesus, signifying purity and cleansing. Unbelievers can “smell” or sense the difference between themselves and believers. (In scripture, white robes or the term”dressed in white” appears many times in descriptions of angels and of the departed saints.)

The apostle John saw a multitude in Revelation 7:9 “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands,” These have been cleansed of sin and are declared righteous before God by their faith.

God loves the good works He has done in us

Vs.12 “My darling bride, my private paradise, fastened to my heart, A secret spring are you that no one else can have—my bubbling fountain hidden from public view. What a perfect partner to me now that I have you.

In Deuteronomy 20:30, we are instructed to cling to Him for He is our life which would mean we are “fastened to His heart.” Our life, our new nature, is hidden in Christ in a “private paradise.”. Jesus said we would have a continuous spring to draw life from. (John 4:14) The secret spring references the love relationship between the believer and God that provides everything we need in this life. It always quenches our thirst. It is a spring of healing, knowledge, and supernatural provision and it lives in us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. John 7:38 says “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

Vs. 13-14 “Your inward life is now sprouting, bringing forth fruit. The King notices the inward beauty of His beloved. The nature of Jesus in us produces the fruit of God’s presence in our lives, love, joy, peace, patience, etc. What a beautiful paradise unfolds within you. When I’m near you, I smell aromas of the finest spice,…” The fruit of the Spirit of God in us has an aroma that Jesus our King can smell.

2 Corinthians 2:16, speaking of how the aroma of Christ works in the world, the apostle says, “To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life…” One could argue it is not a literal aroma, however that is how the scriptures describe it.

Fruit, aromas and such

“for many clusters of my exquisite fruit now grow within your inner garden. Here are the nine: pomegranates of passion, henna from heaven, spikenard so sweet, saffron shining, fragrant calamus from the cross, sacred cinnamon, branches of scented woods, myrrh, like tears from a tree, and aloe as eagles ascending. (Interesting that there are exactly nine fruits of the Holy Spirit listed in the New Testament in Galatians 5:22-23.)

Vs. 15 “Your life flows into mine, pure as a garden spring. A well of living water springs up from within you, (Again, living waters are referenced.) like a mountain brook flowing into my heart!” If I interpret this correctly, not only does He nourish us, but we nourish Him! We please His heart! I believe it has always been God’s desire to be close to us, so much so, that now He can dwell inside us.

There is more if you care to read the whole book. The Bride expresses herself back to Him in whole chapters as she and the King speak of their love back and forth to each other.