Hark—My Beloved

The words, “The voice of my beloved,” in Solomon’s Song 2:8 might be rendered, “Hark!—my beloved.” The bride hears the well-known footsteps of her beloved. She has been expecting him and he has come at last, causing her heart to rejoice and her lips to tell her joy. “Behold, he cometh.” And now she proclaims his worthiness and beauty. “My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice.” Her delight is in himself and in the sense of his nearness. And then he speaks and gladdens her by his words. “My beloved spake and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” He tells of his delight in her and of his joy in her company, as he calls her to come with him.

Wonderful it is that we may apply all this to our Lord Jesus Christ and ourselves. We delight in His presence and He delights in ours. We love to hear His voice, and to listen to His words and to tell out our praises of Himself. And we rejoice that it is but a little while and He who calls us in spirit away from the world, will call us actually to come away to the Father’s house to share with Him His joys before the Father’s face in unbroken, unbreakable communion for ever.

And then we find His delight in us expressed again, “O my dove that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.” He would have us look up into His face. He would have us speak into His ear our true appreciation of Him. He values our prayers and our praises. They are as sweet incense to Him. So it is that again He says, “Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice; cause Me to hear it” (8:13). He is jealous of our attentions. If we speak to others, as we do so often, He calls us to cause Him to hear our voices also. Anna spake “of Him” of old, and the Lord was attentive to what she said. And He would have us speak of Him one to another more often than we do, but He would have us speak to Him also.

I.Fleming

Help and Food 1929