God is In Love with you, with me
The book of Song of Songs in the Bible is the record of a love story of two worlds, human love illustrating heavenly love—the marital love between King Solomon and his Shulamite bride is a picture of the love relationship between God and His children. Although the message of Song of Songs is a love story, it is not enough to say, “The Groom loves me.” It does not go far enough. He not only loves you; He is in love with you. That is what the book is about. The Groom is in love with His bride. This is the point that the Song of Songs makes clear.
The theme of Song of Songs is not only that God loves you but that God is in love with you. I can understand the human love story with not much difficulty but I find it not so easy to see the heavenly love story. I can identify with the human groom loving his earthly bride and at the same time being in love with his bride. But, as we come to the Bible, the love described is both human and divine, so this Song of Songs in the Bible has a human and a divine aspect. We should not ignore the divine side that God longs to reveal Himself to those who are called His children. He hides His truth from the sophisticated, from the worldly wise and prudent. He reveals it to little children.
Only God can reveal God.
Only God can draw me to Him.
Only God can communicate that He is in love with you, with me. No one else can!
How do I know that God is in love with me?
See how God shows us that He is in love with you, with me. Remember, throughout the book of Song of Songs, the Groom is our Lord Jesus and in chapter 4 verse 9, here is what the Groom said to the bride:
“You have made my heart beat faster my sister, my bride, you have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eye.” (NASB)
“The look in your eyes, my sweetheart and bride, and the necklace you are wearing have stolen my heart.” (TEV)
“You ravish my heart, my sister, my promised bride, you ravish my heart
with a single one of your glances, with a single link of your necklace.” (NJB)
“You have ravished my heart, My sister, my spouse; You have ravished my
heart with one look of your eyes,” (NKJV)
“You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart
with one glance of your eyes,” (NIV)
“You have captured my heart, my treasure, my bride. You hold it hostage
with one glance of your eyes.” (NLT)
This clearly shows that the Groom is in love with the bride and only God can help you to answer; “Do you believe that you make God’s heart skip a beat when He looks at you? Have you ever wondered that you hold God’s heart hostage with one glance of your eyes?” See, this is what He is saying: “I love you so much that every time I look at you my heart skips a beat; my heart beats faster. You ravish and you stole my heart.”
The Result
The result of the groom being in love with the bride is that she has great assurance and security as we can see below:
“Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved?” (Songs 8:5 NASB)
What a picture that is, leaning on her Beloved. She is just leaning on her beloved. She is at ease. She trusts him fully and is relaxed. Leaning is far better than clinging because she is not the least bit afraid anymore that He is going to slip away and be gone. She is at rest!
“Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved.”
The passage does not say, “Who is this coming out of the palace?” or “Who is this coming out of the banquet hall?” or “Who is this coming out of the garden leaning on her beloved?” The passage says:
“Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved.”
This is one of the most beautiful sights in the world to see in a believer who has been in the wilderness of pain, suffering, adversity and trouble and to watch that believer come out of that wilderness leaning on her Beloved. What a testimony that is!
What is my understanding of God being in love with me?
I can believe that God loves me with an infinite love that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for me in order to put me right with Himself. Christ died for my sins and I can now approach God without fear. But I have great difficulty identifying with God being in love with an unworthy person like me. How can God be in love with me? I can’t relate to God being in love with me. It makes little sense to me.
When a person is in love with another, what it practically means is that the beloved can lean on and rely on the lover. The beloved has the assurance, the security and the confidence that the lover is there to support, comfort or strengthen him or her in any situation.
Similarly, when I can believe and trust that God is in love with me, I can be transformed. This means that when trouble, adversity, suffering, or illness comes my way, I can lean on God, not on any one else. For me, to be able to lean on my beloved Christ is to believe that God is in love with me. I go first to Him for support, comfort and strength to lift up my spirit. I have the security and assurance that He will see me through my wilderness. When I have this blessed assurance in my heart, I will be less anxious, less troubled, and less fearful when I am in the wilderness of pain. I will have the security that God will never turn me away; as Jesus says, “I will never turn away anyone who comes to Me” (John 6:37 TEV). It doesn’t matter whether the person is a Pharisee, a Greek, a Roman Centurion, a friend, a rich man, a poor woman, a sinful woman, a criminal, a man with little faith, a crowd, the leper, the lame, the sick, the blind, the demon possessed or a little child. He walks His talk and keeps His promises as can be seen in the following instances: He
Raised the daughter of Jairus, a Pharisee, from the dead. (Luke 8:41-42, 49-56)
Healed a Greek woman’s daughter with unclean spirit. (Mark 7:24-30)
Healed the sick servant of a Roman Centurion at Capernaum. (Matthew 8:5-13)
Raised a friend, Lazarus, from the dead. (John 11:1-46)
Healed Peter’s mother-in-law at Peter’s home. (Luke 4:38-39)
Healed the sick son of a Nobleman in Cana. (John 4:46-54)
Healed a poor woman with an issue of blood for twelve years on the way to Jairus’ home. (Mark 5:21-34)
Forgave a woman who lived a sinful life (Luke 7:36-50)
Forgave a criminal at the Cross (Luke 23:39-43)
Healed the demonic son of a man with little faith a day after the Transfiguration (Mark 9:14-30)
Fed the four thousand (Matthew 15:29-32).
Fed the Five thousand (John 6:1-13).
Healed a leper in the town next to Peter’s home. (Mark 1:40-45)
Healed two blind men after He departed from Jairus’ home. (Matthew 9:27-31)
Healed a paralyzed man let down through the roof at Capernaum. (Luke 5:17-26)
Cast the devil out of a dumb man (Matthew 9:32-34)
Healed a blind and dumb man possessed by devil. (Matthew 12:22-23)
Healed blind man at Bethsaida. (Mark 8:22-26)
Cleansed ten lepers in a village along the border between Samaria and Galilee. (Luke 17:12-19)
Healed blind Bartimaeus and another outside Jericho. (Luke 18:35-43)
Welcomed the little children (Matthew 19:13-15)
Looking back, where I faced my own death 3 times, I found that my faith had at times wavered but when I kept on re-focusing on the faithfulness of God, the result was that I was more relaxed, calm and at rest. My faith was not in my faith nor was it in my ability to maintain my faith. My faith was in the person of Jesus Christ and when I concentrated and meditated on Him, the consequence was that I was more at ease. In reality, since Christ has always been in love with me, He has permitted the tribulations for my “good” to further the growth of my union with Him. I now realize that I am able to come up from of my wilderness leaning on my beloved Jesus because He is in love with me. (See “My Testimonies” in my website www.jameslau88.com)
Where does the story of Song of Songs Begin?
The story in the Song of Songs begins on high ground. It is not about getting people to seek the Lord. It is about the progress of those who are already seeking Him. It is about the progressive stages of our love for God and our realization of His love for us.
The book centers on the progressive love of the groom and bride and is summarized in three passages. They are:
Stage One—-Her interest in Him; His interest in Her (Song 2:16-17)
My beloved is mine, and I am his. He feeds his flock among the lilies. (TO HER BELOVED) Until the day breaks And the shadows flee away, Turn, my beloved, And be like a gazelle Or a young stag Upon the mountains of Bether.
What we notice, especially in verse 16, is the emphasis. The emphasis is on her interest in him and, oh yes, his interest in her is also mentioned. But the interest is this, “He is mine! He is mine! Oh yes, I am his too, but he is mine!” That is the beginning of their relationship: “He is mine.” It is my interest in Him.
At this stage, from chapter 1:1 to chapter 3:5, it is not a healthy clinging. It is the insecure kind of clinging that says “If I let go he is gone. Our union, our relationship depends on my holding him.” The first section ends with her clinging desperately to him.
Stage Two—-His interest in Her; Her interest in Him (Song 6:3)
“I am my beloved’s and he is mine.”
Do you notice she flips it over? Do you notice she turns it around? Now it is his interest in her. She does not say, “He is mine, and by the way, I am his too.” Now she says, “I am his, and he is still mine”, but the emphasis is now on his interest in her.
The chief picture in stage two, from chapter 3:6 to chapter 6:10, is the story of the groom and his garden. Up until this time the bride has been very insecure. She has made many self-depreciating comments. She keeps cutting herself down. She thinks she has to make herself attractive in order to be accepted. She is constantly trying to beautify herself. She is always primping up; using the enticing fragrances; trying to make herself loveable.
The groom on the other hand, has been fervently trying to communicate his heart, “I love you as you are. You are already beautiful. You smell fine! You do not have to try to improve. I love you just like you are.”
What a shock for her to hear him say: “You are not my gardener. You are my garden! You are my garden locked; a private garden; a rock garden locked; sealed up; a garden spring; a well of fresh water” (paraphrasingSongs 4:12). It is as if the groom was telling her, and as if she heard it for the first time, “I am not requiring you to labor and to sweat and to work in the vineyards. You do not need to waste your energy under the hot sun. I just want to enjoy you. You are my garden! I want to enjoy you, I want to appreciate you. I love you.” See, that was brand new to her. It made sense for her to think, “He satisfies me”, but is it possible that I can satisfy Him?” That is hard to take in. Only grace, only a revelation from Heaven can cause us to realise this.
He said, “You are my garden.” And she said, “If that is so, if that is true, in the light of that discovery, then I do not care anymore what happens. Awake north wind, come wind of the south. I do not care what comes into my life as long as it blows through this garden and brings a pleasing fragrance to the nostrils of the groom. That is all that matters. I do not care about anything else.” (paraphrasing Songs 4:14) Awake north wind! That represents the chilly wind, the frosty wind, the biting wind, affliction, trials, and hard times. What she is saying is this, “Let the north winds come, I don’t care what comes into my life. The only thing that matters is this—I am his garden and he wants to smell a sweet fragrance. If it takes the north wind to do that, so be it. It is not about me anymore. It is about him now.” So she says, “Let the north wind blow.” Then she adds this, “Let the south wind blow.” The south wind is the balmy wind, the warm wind, of blessing and prosperity and health, the wind that brings the soft rain. To the bride, at this point, it makes no difference. It is absolutely incidental whether it is the harsh north wind or the pleasant south wind.
Stage Three—-His interest in Her (Song 7:10)
“I am my beloved’s and his desire is for me.”
This time she completely drops her emphasis of her interest in him. All that occupies her heart and her affections is this, “I am his! I am his!” The other is still true, but it does not matter to her life anymore. It starts off with “He is mine! I am his.” Then she goes on and she says, “I am his, and he is mine.” When the book ends, there is only, “I am his and all his desire is for me.” There is this progress to move from my interest in Him to His interest in me. She has become very confident and secure in his love.
In stage three, from chapter 6:10 to chapter 8:14, the emphasis is on mutual fellowship. In this section there is a wonderful security, the bride is at rest in the groom and it is all “we” now. It is “our”; it is “we”; it is union:
“Let us go into the country. Let us spend the night in the villages.” (Song 7:11)
“Let us rise early, let us see if the vine has budded.” (Song 7:12)
“We have a little sister, what shall we do for our sister?” (Song 8:8)
“We will build her a battlement of silver, we will barricade her.” (Song 8:9)
It culminates in Chapter 8:5, which shows the final state of her fulfillment:
“Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved?” (NASB)
What a picture that is, leaning on her Beloved. This is one of the most beautiful sights in the world to see in a believer who has been in the wilderness of pain, suffering, adversity and trouble, and to watch that believer come out of that wilderness leaning on her Beloved. What a testimony that is!
For me, to be able to lean on my beloved is to believe that God is in love with me. I go first to Him for support and strength. I have the security and assurance that He will see me through my wilderness. When I start meditating on Him, I know that I am His temple and that He is within me (1 Corinthians 6:19). He is always in His temple. That is why when Jesus, as a little boy, was missing, He was found in the Temple. Where do I find Him now? He is in His temple. He is always in His temple. I am also His garden as pictured in the book of Song of Songs in the Bible and He is always in His garden. My Lord God is not only with me but in me. He loves me and is in love with me and He has become my source of life, joy and hope.
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If you are interested to read the full exposition of the book on Song of Songs by Pastor Ed Miller you can find it in my website or
My Inward Journey 