I was asleep, but my heart was awake. It is the voice of my beloved who knocks: “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, and my hair with the dampness of the night.”
Parallel Translations
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I was asleep, but my heart was awake. It is the voice of my beloved who knocks: “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, and my hair with the dampness of the night.”
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I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.
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I sleep, but my heart waketh; Hark! my beloved knocketh: 'Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.'
Cross-references (36)
Passages linked to Song of Solomon 5:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me.
- Song of Solomon 2:14 My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places of the mountainside, let me see your face. let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.
- Song of Solomon 6:9 My dove, my perfect one, is unique. She is her mother’s only daughter. She is the favorite one of her who bore her. The daughters saw her, and called her blessed. The queens and the concubines saw her, and they praised her.
- Zechariah 4:1 The angel who talked with me came again, and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep.
- Psalms 119:1 Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to Yahweh’s law.
- Genesis 29:20 Jacob served seven years for Rachel. They seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her.
- Genesis 31:40-41 This was my situation: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes. These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.
- Psalms 24:7-10 Lift up your heads, you gates! Be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory will come in. Who is the King of glory? Yahweh strong and mighty, Yahweh mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, you gates; yes, lift them up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory will come in. Who is this King of glory? Yahweh of Armies is the King of glory!
- Psalms 81:10 I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
- Proverbs 23:26 My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways.
- Song of Solomon 2:8 The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping on the mountains, skipping on the hills.
- Song of Solomon 2:10 My beloved spoke, and said to me, “Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.
- Song of Solomon 3:1 By night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him.
- Song of Solomon 4:7 You are all beautiful, my love. There is no spot in you.
- Song of Solomon 4:9 You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride. You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.
- Song of Solomon 5:11 His head is like the purest gold. His hair is bushy, black as a raven.
- Song of Solomon 7:9 Your mouth is like the best wine, that goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding through the lips of those who are asleep.
- Song of Solomon 8:7 Many waters can’t quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man would give all the wealth of his house for love, he would be utterly scorned.
- Isaiah 50:6 I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair. I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting.
- Isaiah 52:14 Just as many were astonished at you— his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men—
- Isaiah 53:3-5 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him. Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.
- Matthew 8:17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, “He took our infirmities, and bore our diseases.”
- Daniel 8:18 Now as he was speaking with me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face toward the ground; but he touched me, and set me upright.
- Matthew 25:4-5 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom delayed, they all slumbered and slept.
- Matthew 25:35-45 for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you; or thirsty, and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger, and take you in; or naked, and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?’ “The King will answer them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you didn’t give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’ “Then they will also answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?’ “Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me.’
- Matthew 26:40-41 He came to the disciples, and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What, couldn’t you watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray, that you don’t enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
- Mark 1:35 Early in the morning, while it was still dark, he rose up and went out, and departed into a deserted place, and prayed there.
- Luke 6:12 In these days, he went out to the mountain to pray, and he continued all night in prayer to God.
- Luke 9:32 Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they were fully awake, they saw his glory, and the two men who stood with him.
- Luke 22:44 Being in agony he prayed more earnestly. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.
- John 10:4 Whenever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
- 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died. He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again.
- Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.
- Ephesians 5:14 Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
- Revelation 3:4 Nevertheless you have a few names in Sardis that didn’t defile their garments. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
- Revelation 14:4 These are those who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed by Jesus from among men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (18 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The spouse saith that she is troubled with the…
The spouse saith that she is troubled with the cares of worldly things, which is meant by sleeping.
Declaring the long patience of the Lord toward sinners.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Son 5:2 I sleep, but my heart waketh: [it…
Son 5:2 I sleep, but my heart waketh: [it is] the voice of my beloved that knocketh, [saying], Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, [and] my locks with the drops of the night.
Ver. 2. I sleep, but my heart waketh.] It was no sound sleep that she took. She did not snort aloud in the cradle of security, as those do whom the devil hath cast into a deep lethargy, but napped and nodded a little, and that by candlelight too, as those wise virgins did; {Mat 25:5} she slept with open eyes as the lion doth, she slept but half-sleep; the spirit was willing to wake, but the flesh was weak and overweighed it, as it fared with those sleepy disciples. {Mat 26:41} Fain would this flesh make strange that which the Spirit doth embrace. O Lord, how loath is this loitering sluggard to pass forth into God’s path! said Mr Sanders {a} in a letter to his wife, a little before his death, with much more to like purpose. As in the state of nature, men cared not for grace, but thought themselves well enough and wise enough without; so, in the state of grace, they are not so careful as they should. Heaven must be brought to them, they will scarce go seek it. {1Pe 1:13} And as the seven tribes are justly taxed by Joshua for their negligence and sloth in not seeking speedily to possess the land God had offered them, {Jos 18:2} so may the most of God’s people be justly rebuked for grievous security about the heavenly Canaan. They content themselves with a bare title, or hang in suspense, and strive not to full assurance; they follow Christ, but it is, as the people followed Saul, trembling; they are still troubled with this doubt, or that fear, and all because they are loath to be at the pains of "working out their salvation." {Php 2:12} Something is left undone, and their conscience tells them so. Either they are lazy and let fall the watch of the Lord, neglecting duty, or else they lose themselves in a wilderness of duties, by resting in them, and by making the means their mediators, or by pleasing themselves (with the Church here) in unlawful liberties, after that they have pleased the Lord in lawful duties. The flesh must be gratified and such a lust fulfilled. A little more sleep, a little more slumber in Jezebel’s bed, as Mr Bradford was wont to phrase it. {b} Solomon must have his wine, and yet think to retain his wisdom. {Ecc 2:3} Samson must fetch a nap on Delilah’s knees, till God, by his Philistines, send out summons for sleepers, wake them in a fright, cure security by sorrow, as physicians use to cure a lethargy by casting the patient into a burning fever. Cold diseases must have hot and sharp remedies. The Church here found it so. And did not David, when he had sinned away his inward peace and wiped off, as it were, all his comfortables? {Psa 51:1-19}
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It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh.] She was not so fast asleep, but that the "hidden man of the heart," as St Peter calls him, {1Pe 3:4} was awake, and his ears erect and attentive, so that she soon heard the first call or knock of Christ; whose care was to arouse her, that though she slept awhile through infirmity of the flesh, yet she might not "sleep the sleep of death," {Psa 13:3} die in her sins, as those Jews did. {Joh 8:21} In the sweating sickness (that reigned for many years together in this kingdom), those that were suffered to sleep (as all in that case were apt to do), died within a few hours. The best office therefore that any one could do them, was to keep them waking, though against their wills. Similiarily our Saviour, solicitous of his Church’s welfare, and knowing her present danger, comes calling and clapping at the door of her heart, and sweetly woos admission and entertainment, but misseth it. He knocketh and bounceth by the hammer of his Word and by the hand of his Spirit, {Rev 3:20 2Pe 1:13} and if the Word work not on his people, they shall "hear the rod, and who hath appointed it," {Mic 6:9} that they may by some means be brought to summon the sobriety of their senses before their own judgments, and seeing their danger, to go forth and shake themselves, as Samson did. {Jdg 16:9; Jdg 16:12; Jdg 16:14}
Open to me, my sister, my love, &c.] What irresistible rhetoric is here! what passionate and most pithy persuasions! Ipsa suada, credo, si loqui posset, non potuisset εμφατικοτερως, ubi quot verba tot tela, quae sponsae animum percellant, fodicent, lancinent. She was not so dead asleep, but that she could hear at first and tell every tittle that he said. And this she doth here very finely and to the full, that she may aggravate against herself the foulness of her fact in refusing so sweet an offer, in turning her back upon so blessed and so bleeding an embracement. The terms and titles he here giveth her are expounded before. Undefiled or perfect, he calleth her for her dove-like simplicity, purity, and integrity.
For mine head is filled with dew:] i.e., I have suffered much for thy sake, and waited thy leisure a long while; and must I now go look my lodging? Dost thou thus requite (repulse) thy Lord, O thou foolish woman and unwise? Is this thy kindness to thy friend? Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be. {Jer 13:27} It is the ingratitude that makes the saint’s sins so heinous, which otherwise would be far less than other men’s, since his temptations are stronger and his resistance is greater. Oh, when God’s grace shall come sueing to us, nay, kneeling to us; when Christ shall come with hat in hand and stand bareheaded, as here, and that in foul weather too, begging acceptance and beseeching us to be reconciled, and we will not, what an inexcusable fault is this!
{a} Acts and Mon., fol. 1359.
{b} Acts and Mon.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain I sleep, Heb. I was asleep, i.e. I was…
I sleep, Heb. I was asleep, i.e. I was dull, and sluggish, and insensible of his kind expressions and offers of grace.
But my heart waketh; yet in my very sleep my thoughts were running upon my Beloved, as is not unusual in such cases, which at last awakened me. Thus she implies the conflict which was between the flesh and the Spirit, and the Spirit’s victory in the combat.
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It is the voice of my Beloved; between sleeping and waking I fancied that I heard his voice.
That knocketh, by his word, and providence, and Spirit, at the door of mine heart, desirous that I would receive him by faith and love. Compare Rev 3:20. Saying,
Open to me; inviting me to accept of his gracious offers, and to let him in to my soul.
My sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: this heap of kind compellations signifies Christ’s sincere and fervent affection to his people, notwithstanding her manifold imperfections and infirmities. The title of
dove signifies her chastity and constant faithfulness to her Husband, for which doves are famous. How she is undefiled, See Poole "Son 4:7".
My head is filled with dew, whilst I wait without thy door. He alludes to the custom of lovers, which oft and willingly suffer such inconveniences for their hopes and desires of enjoying their beloved, and signifies his sufferings for the church’s good.
The drops of the night; the dew which falls in the end of the night, or towards the morning, whence it is called morning dew, Hos 6:4.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Asleep - I was dull, and sluggish. But -…
Asleep - I was dull, and sluggish. But - Yet in my very sleep my thoughts were running upon my beloved. It is - Between sleeping and waking, I heard his voice. Knocketh - By his word, and providence, and spirit, at the door of my heart. Open - Inviting me to let him into my soul. My love - This heap of kind compellations signifies Christ's fervent affection to his people. With dew - While I wait without thy door, which signifies his sufferings for the church's good. The drops - The dew which falls in the night.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 2. I sleep, but my heart waketh] This…
Verse 2. I sleep, but my heart waketh] This is a new part; and some suppose that the fifth day's solemnity begins here. Though I sleep, yet so impressed is my heart with the excellences of my beloved, that my imagination presents him to me in the most pleasing dreams throughout the night. I doubt whether the whole, from this verse to the end of the seventh, be not a dream: several parts of it bear this resemblance; and I confess there are some parts of it, such as her hesitating to rise, his sudden disappearance, &c., which would be of easier solution on this supposition. Or part of the transactions mentioned might be the effects of the dream she had, as rising up suddenly, and going out into the street, meeting with the watchmen, &c., before she was well awake. And her being in so much disorder and dishabille might have induced them to treat her as a suspicious person, or one of questionable character. But it is most likely the whole was a dream.
For my head is filled with dew] She supposed he had come in the night, and was standing without, wet, and exposed to the inclemency of the weather.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Son 5:2. I sleep — I was dull and…
Son 5:2. I sleep — I was dull and sluggish; but my heart waketh — Yet in my very sleep my thoughts run upon my beloved. It is the voice of my beloved — Between sleeping and waking, I heard his voice; that knocketh — By his word, and providence, and Spirit, at the door of my heart; saying, Open to me — Inviting me to let him into my soul; my sister, my love, &c. — This heap of kind compellations signifies Christ’s fervent affection to his people. My head is filled with dew — While I wait without the door, which signifies his sufferings for the church’s good. My locks with the drops of the night — The dew which falls in the night.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Some time may be supposed to have elapsed since…
Some time may be supposed to have elapsed since the bride’s solemn espousals with the king Cant. 4:7–5:1. A transient cloud of doubt or estrangement is now passing over her soul, as by the relation of this dream she intimates to her friends. Ancient allegorical interpreters find here a symbol of the condition and feelings of Israel during the Babylonian captivity, when the glories and privileges of Solomon’s Temple were no more, and the manifested presence of the Holy One had been withdrawn. Israel in exile seeks the Lord Son 5:8, and will find Him again in the second temple Son 6:3-9.
I sleep, but my heart waketh - A poetical periphrasis for “I dream.” Compare the ancient saying: “Dreams are the vigils of those who slumber, hopes are waking dreams.”
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The voice - Or, “sound.” Compare Son 2:8, note. She hears him knocking before he speaks.
My undefiled - literally, “my perfect one.” Vulgate “immaculata mea.” Compare Son 4:7.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Knocking. The spouse had retired to rest, as her…
Knocking. The spouse had retired to rest, as her beloved delayed longer than usual. But love is ever on the watch. (Calmet) --- She wished to meditate, but is called upon to assist others, and excited by Christ’s own example. (Worthington) --- Dew. Having been out in the evening, preceding this fourth night. This denotes imperfect Christians, who remain, indeed, attached to the head, but are a disgrace to it, by their scandalous lives. (St. Augustine, tr. 37 in John) (St. Gregory) (Calmet) --- Such was the state of many in the days of Luther, who accordingly joined the first reformers. See Philips’s Life of Card. Pole. p. 364. (Haydock) --- Nights. Anacreon (ode 1.) has something similar. Christ knocks by his inspirations and chastisements, and he is better heard in the night of tribulation, Apocalypse iii. 20. (Calmet) --- Heretics began to blaspheme Christ, after the Church had only enjoyed a short peace, (Menochius) after the ten persecutions.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 2. The Beloved now disappears. A great German poet…
2. The Beloved now disappears. A great German poet has said, that next to love’s joys are love’s anxieties. The play of poetry — which must always keep time with nature — demands the relief which the darker emotions of regret convey. The Enamoured tells of a dream, made of such “stuff” as the course of love develops, a bit of peevishness and remorse. In the mystery of sleep and dreams, the partition between the affairs of actual life and the wild, free movement of uncurbed fancy, is thin, and the scenes and doings of dreams are a broken and grotesquely-set reproduction of the elements gathered from waking experiences. I sleep, but, etc. — Hebrew, I was asleep, but my heart was awake. This verse is, in Hebrew, very animated and abrupt. It is the voice, etc. — Better, Hark! my Beloved! He is knocking! Omit saying. For my head, etc. — The dews in Palestine are, for a part of the year, very heavy, like those of Greece, “all cold and wet.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 2. I sleep, but my heart waketh] This clause…
2. I sleep, but my heart waketh] This clause states the circumstances under which the succeeding action takes place. As the dream is narrated at a later time, the participles should be rendered by the past tense, I was sleeping, but my heart was awake.
it is the voice of, &c.] Rather, Hark! my love is knocking.
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my sister] Oettli says Solomon never calls the Shulammite by this intimate name. Budde thinks it significant that he does not here call her kallâh = ‘bride.’ Evidently he thinks that a post-nuptial word, but it is not necessarily so.
my undefiled] Rather, ‘my perfect’ or ‘immaculate one.’
filled with dew] The dew in Palestine is often very heavy. Cp. Jdg_6:38. From the fact that he about whom she dreamed is imagined to be in such a case, it is probable that the shepherd lover rather than Solomon is the object of her thoughts, and that she dreams of him as coming to her mother’s house.
Chap. Son_5:2 to Son_6:3. A Dream
On the hypothesis we have adopted, a night must be supposed to intervene between Son_5:1-2. After the interview with the king and that with her lover night came; and as she slept she dreamed one of those troubled dreams consisting of a series of efforts frustrated, which so often follow on an agitated day. On the following morning she narrates the dream to the ladies of the court. Son_5:2-7 relate the dream. In Son_5:8 the Shulammite, having just awaked and being still under the influence of her dream, asks the ladies, if they should find her lost lover, to tell him she is sick from love. In Son_5:9 they reply, asking with surprise what there is in her lover that moves her in such a fashion. In Son_5:10-16 she gives a description of her lover as he dwells in her brooding imagination, and concludes in triumph, “This is my beloved and this is my friend.” In ch. Son_6:1, the court ladies ask eagerly whither this model of manly beauty is gone, and to this, in Son_5:2-3, the Shulammite replies vaguely and evasively, and claims her lover for herself alone. Now all this is quite in place if a love-tale is being presented in a series of songs, but in a collection of verses to be sung at weddings in general it is impossible that the bride could be made to speak thus. Such references to pre-nuptial love would be not only unbecoming, but impossible. But in still another way this song is fatal to Budde’s popular-song theory. In such a collection of wedding songs there is, of course, no connexion between the various lyrics. Each of them stands by itself, and there is no possibility of action of a dramatic kind on the part of the bride and bridegroom such as we undeniably have here. But Budde meets that by pointing out that Wetzstein reports a case in which a poet of the region where he discovered the wasf wrote a poem for a particular wedding. In that, before a description of the bride’s ornaments and person, an account is given of the agricultural processes by which the wealth expended on her trousseau had been obtained. But, besides the fact that in the case cited as parallel to this, the poem was not a popular song, but a poem prepared for the special occasion, the addition to the wasf there is a very legitimate extension of the description, and has none of the dramatic element in it. The dramatic element here is very pronounced, and is evidently intended to give unity and movement to the whole poem.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (2) I sleep.—This begins the old story under an…
(2) I sleep.—This begins the old story under an image already employed (Son_3:1). Here it is greatly amplified and elaborated. The poet pictures his lady dreaming of him, and when he seems to visit her, anxious to admit him. But, as is so common in dreams, at first she cannot. The realities which had hindered their union reappear in the fancies of sleep. Then, when the seeming hindrance is withdrawn, she finds him gone, and, as before, searches for him in vain. This gives opportunity to introduce the description of the charms of the lost lover, and so the end of the piece, the union of the pair, is delayed to Son_6:3.
My head is filled with dew.—Anacreon, iii. 10 is often compared to this.
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“‘ Fear not,’ said he, with piteous din,
‘Pray ope the door and let me in.
A poor unshelter’d boy am I,
For help who knows not where to fly:
Lost in the dark, and with the dews,
All cold and wet, that midnight brews.’”
(Comp. also Propert. i. 16-23; Ovid, Amor. Ii. 19-21.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Ver. 2-ch. Son_3:1-4; but the difference is very clear.…
Ver. 2-ch. Son_3:1-4; but the difference is very clear. In the former case the lover is represented as dismissed for a season, and then the relenting heart of the maiden sought after him and found him. In this case he "stands at the door and knocks," coming in the night; and the maiden rises to open, but finds him gone, and so is drawn after him. The second dream is much more vivid and elaborate, and seems to be an imitation and enlargement of the other, being introduced apparently more for the sake of dwelling on the attractions of the beloved one and his preciousness in the eyes of the maiden than in self-reproach. Is it not possible that the poem originally concluded at Son_5:1 with the marriage, and that the whole of the latter half was an amplification, either by Solomon himself, the author of the first half, or by some one who has entered into the spirit of the song? This would explain the apparent repetition, with the variations. But, at all events, the second part certainly is more from the standpoint of married life than the first. Hence the bride speaks at great length, which she does not in the earlier portion. Delitzsch thinks that this second love dream is intended to represent what occurred in early married life; but there are two objections to thatfirst, that the place is evidently a country residence; and secondly, that such an occurrence is unsuitable to the conditions of a royal bride. It is much more natural to suppose that the bride is recalling what occurred in her dream when the lover, having been sent away until the evening, as on the former occasion, returned, and in the night knocked at the door. "My heart waked" is the same as "My mind was active." The "heart" in Hebrew is the inner man, both intellect and feeling. "I was asleep, but I was thinking" (cf. Cicero, "De Divinatione," 1:30). The lover has come off a long journey over the mountains, and arrives in the night time. The terms with which he appeals to his beloved are significant, denoting
(1) equal rankmy sister;
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(2) free choicemy love;
(3) purity, simplicity, and lovelinessmy dove;
(4) entire devotion, undoubting trustmy undefiled. Tammanthi, "my perfection," as Arabic tam, teim, "one devoted to another." as a servant.
Similar passages are quoted from heathen love poetry, as Anacreon, 3:10; Propertius, 1:16-23; Ovid, "Amor.," 3:19, 21. The simple meaning of the dream is that she is full of love by night and by day. She dreamed that she was back in her old country home, and that her lover visited her like a shepherd; and she tells how she sought him, to show how she loved him. When we are united to the Saviour with the bonds of a pledged affection, we lose the sense of self-reproach in the delight of fellowship, and can even speak of our own slowness and backwardness only to magnify his grace. We delight to acknowledge that it was his knocking that led us to seek after him, although we had to struggle with the dull heart; and it was not until it was moved by his approach, by his moving towards us, that we hastened to find him, and were full of the thought of his desirableness. There are abundant examples of this same interchange of affection in the history of the Church"s revivals and restorations.
Vers. 2-8. The second dream of the bride.
I THE BRIDEGROOM AT THE DOOR.
1. The voice of the beloved. The bridegroom is absent; the bride is alone. There is a temporary separation, something approaching to an estrangement; yet the old love is not lost. The bride is sleeping when she should be awake and watching for the bridegroom"s approach. Yet her heart waketh. She has a dreamy consciousness of what is going on around her; she seems to hear in her dream the voice of her beloved. So the Church sometimes sleeps leaves her first love lapses into something like spiritual apathy; yet her heart waketh. The Lord never leaves himself without a witness. At the worst times of indifference there has always been some dim consciousness of his presence, some faint love for him who loved the Church and gave himself for her. So the soul sometimes sleeps when it is high time to awake, when the night is far spent and the day is at hand. The heavenly Bridegroom will not let us slumber on without a warning. He knocks at the door of our heart. "Behold," he saith, "I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me". (Rev_3:20) The Church of Laodicea was lying wrapped in a deep sleep: the Lord sought to arouse her. So he knocks at the door of our hearts now by his Word, by his ministers, by his chastisements, by the warnings of his Spirit. If we can in truth call him "my Beloved;" if we have really set our love upon him, and given him our heart in answer to his seeking love, we shall hear him. We shall know his voice, recognizing it in judgments and in mercies, in warnings and in consolations. When duty calls us, even if it be, as it will sometimes be, hard and displeasing to flesh and blood, we shall say, "It is the voice of my Beloved." It is the Master"s call; he speaks. The heart waketh to listen. Does he come with stern reproof for indifference and coldness of heart? No; his words are full of tenderness. "Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled." It is the Lord"s great love for the souls of men that produces those utterances of yearning affection. He still calls the bride "my sister," as he had done before the cloud had come upon her love. He still says "my love, my dove," as he said before; and he has a fresh term of endearment, "my undefiled, my perfect one." We know, alas I that we are not undefiled, we are not perfect. ("Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect," says even the great apostle, St. Paul.) But what the Lord would have us to be, what he will make us at the last if we abide in him, that he is graciously pleased to call us now. How those holy words of deep tenderness should excite in us repentance for the past, and earnest effort to become by his grace less unworthy of those most gracious and loving titles! He asks us to open, that he may enter in. He has been wandering in the darkness, and as when he came unto his own there was no room for him in the inn, and as during the days of his earthly ministry he had not where to lay his head, so now he knocks at one heart after another, and heart after heart is closely barred against him. They will not open, that he may enter in and make his abode with them. He comes now to the sister bride of old times, asking her as if for his own sake (such is the unutterable depth of his infinite, self-abasing love), "Open unto me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled." Ah, how can any of those souls of men whom he loved even unto death shut up their hearts against that call of unspeakable affection! He pleads as for himself, as if needing shelter: "My head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night." Alas! the bride, still half asleep, scarcely heeds the bridegroom"s call, does not realize its meaning"For none of the ransom"d ever knew How deep were the waters cross"d; Or how dark was the night that the Lord pass"d through Ere he found his sheep that was lost.
It cost more to redeem our souls than our poor thoughts can comprehend. When we try to realize the Lord"s sufferings, we seem to stand afar off beholding, like the people who came together to that sight of awe, who smote their breasts. (Luk_23:48) The Church pleads those bitter sufferings in her solemn Litany: "By thine agony and bloody sweat, by thy cross and passion, good Lord, deliver us." "Remember, good Lord Jesus," we say in the ancient hymn, "that it was for me thou didst undertake that long, weary journey; in that long search for me thou didst sit faint and exhausted; it was to redeem me that thou didst endure the cross. Let not that toil and labour be in vain, O Lord." But here it is the Lord himself who pleads with us in our hardness; he so longs for our salvation. He bids us remember what he endured for us. It is the expression of his intense yearning love. He would have us comprehend with all saints something of the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of that great love; to return it in our poor way, to open our heart to him, that he may enter in and take that heart to be his own which he bought with the price of his most precious blood.
2. The answer. The bride does not realize the deep, solemn meaning of the bridegroom"s call. She is half asleep still. She lies dreaming in her bed. She makes excuses to herself. And we, alas! far too often do the like when the Lord calls us to work, to deny ourselves for his sake. We slumber on in careless sleep; we forget what he did for us. We do not hear his voice; or, if we hear, we listen dreamily, lying still in spiritual sloth, not thinking that when the Lord calls it is time to bestir ourselves, to be up and doing, to "pass the time of our sojourning here in fear forasmuch as we know that we were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold... but with the precious blood of Christ". (1Pe_1:18) We must not make vain excuses, like those that were bidden in the parable, (Luk_14:18) for the time is short. It is our eternal salvation that is at stake. It is Christ the Son of God who is calling us; and he loved us, and gave himself for us. (Gal_2:20) Alas! the bride, whom the bridegroom loved with so great a love, makes poor excuses in her dream. She will not rise and open till it is too late; she will not take a little trouble for his sake.
3. The repentance. The beloved put his hand through the hole of the door; he sought to open it. The bride"s heart was moved at last by his earnest appeals. "My bowels were moved for him," she says, as she repeats her dream. She thought of her past love for him, of his great love for her, of the hardships he had gone through in seeking her. She wonders how she could have forgotten all this even in a dream; she rose up to open to her beloved. So the soul that has made many excuses, that has slumbered long, that has spent its time as in a dream, forgetting the solemn realities of life, hears at last through the long suffering grace of God listens to the patient call of the heavenly Bridegroom. Then our heart burns within us when we think that he has indeed been talking with us, opening the Scriptures; (Luk_24:32) our bowels are moved for him. We think that it is the Saviour of the world, our Saviour, who is standing without, waiting for us to answer; that the hand with which he seeks to open the door was once pierced through for us, nailed upon the cross for our souls" sake. We listen to his voice"O Jesu, thou art pleading In accents meek and low: "I died for you, my children, And will ye treat me so?" O Lord, with shame and sorrow We open now the door; Dear Saviour, enter, enter, And leave us never more.
The bride opens to her beloved. The bridegroom"s hand had been dipped in oil of myrrh. Some of the unguent remained upon the bolt; it dropped upon the fingers of the bride. It was a token of the bridegroom"s presence. He had gathered his myrrh (ver. 1) from the "garden enclosed" before this passing shadow had fallen upon their love. It may be, too, that we may see in the myrrh a parable of self-denial. It may be regarded as a loving warning left by the bridegroom to teach the bride a necessary lesson. She must not slumber on; it is time to wake and to work. Working for Christ is sometimes like the wine mingled with myrrh; (Mar_15:23) it has a bitter taste to our pampered palate. But if we take the cup which the Lord gives us to drink, we shall find at last that the smell of it is sweet; even as his yoke, hard at first, becomes easy in the discipline of obedience, and his burden, heavy at first, becomes light when he bears it with us. For self-denials meekly borne for him bring us nearer and nearer to him who bore the supreme self-sacrifice of the cross for us; and in his presence there is a depth of sweetness which takes away the bitterness.
4. It is too late. The beloved had withdrawn himself. "My beloved withdrew himself, was gone," she says, in the plaintive wailing of disappointment (there is no conjunction in the original). "My soul went forth," she continues, "as he spake." My soul, my heart, my affections, went forth to him at the sound of his voice. The well known tones aroused the old love. She had once given her heart to him; and now, though in her dream her love seemed to have been chilled, and she seemed to lie heedless, unwilling to rouse herself to exertion, yet now his words at last reached her heart. Her soul went forth to him in response to his calling. Or the Hebrew words may rather mean, as in the Revised Version, "My soul had failed me when he spake." The same words are used in describing the death of Rachel: "It came to pass, as her soul was in departing". (Gen_35:18) His words awoke in her soul the fear lest she should lose him by her coldness and selfish neglect. The thought was like death to her. "Love is strong as death". (Son_8:6) Her soul went forth; it failed her. For the moment she was helpless prostrate as in a death-like swoon. Then she aroused herself. It was time to act, to bestir herself. He was gone; she might lose him forever; and her heart was bound up in him. To lose him was death worse than death. She sought him, but she could not find him; she called him in her dream, but he gave her no answer. The dream of the bride is a parable of the Christian life. The soul sometimes sinks into a state of listlessness and apathy. There is no actual transgression, perhaps no open sin. The evil spirit is not there; the house is empty. (Mat_12:43, Mat_12:44) But the Bridegroom is absent, and love has grown cold. There is no recollection of the absent Lord no regret, no longing for his return. The soul lives on, as it were, in a dream, not realizing the solemn meaning of life, not thinking of the awful future. But God in his gracious mercy will not let us dream away our lives without a warning. He calls us by his blessed Son: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." Sometimes, alas! we will not hear; sometimes we listen dreamily, half-conscious, recognizing in a sense the Bridegroom"s voice, but not realizing the solemn, holy meaning of the call; not thinking of his love and of our ingratitude, his promises and our broken vows, what he did for us and what return we have made to him; not thinking of his grace and our responsibility, his longing for our salvation and our fearful danger. That lethargy, that slumber of indifference, creeps over us all from time to time when we have not been watchful when we have neglected our prayers and other blessed means of grace. But the dear Lord seeketh that which is lost until he find it. He "is long suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance". (2Pe_3:9) He comes again and again, calling us, sometimes in the gentle tones of entreating love, sometimes in the sterner language of reproof and chastisement. Sometimes he makes as though he would force his way. He puts his hand in at the hole of the door; he lays the cross upon us; he reminds us of the burden which he bore for us; he teaches us that the cross is the very badge and mark of his chosen that whosoever doth not take up his cross cannot be his disciple. At last we are stiffed in our slumbers. We rise from our sleep. But perhaps we are only half awake, half-hearted. Our will goes back to our old slothful rest. We say, like the sluggard in the Proverbs, "Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep". (Pro_6:10) Then the Lord deals with us as a wise physician of the soul. He would have us feel our weakness, our danger. "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick". (Mat_9:12) He would have us feel our need of him. He withdraws himself; and when we open to him he is gone. He makes as though he would go further, as he dealt with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. (Luk_24:28) Then our soul goes forth to him. It faints within us; we feel how helpless we are without him; we feel that without him life is not worth living; and we try to constrain him, like those two disciples, saying, in their words, "Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is far slant." We seek him in earnest prayer, sometimes with strong crying and tears. But for a time we cannot find him. We call him, but he gives us no answer. It is in love that he thus deals with us, to arouse us, to make us feel the need of exertion, of active effort. He cannot be found without diligent search. The bride said, in relating her first dream, "By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth". (Son_3:1) It is not thus that the soul should seek for Christ, still lying, as it were, upon the bed of spiritual sloth, thinking dreamily of Christ, pleasing itself, perhaps, with the poetry of religion, with the beauty of the Saviour"s life, with the comfort which the Scriptures offer. Religion is not a dream; it is not mere poetry, mere love of beauty; it is a life a life of action and energy a prolonged effort to imitate Christ, to please Christ, to follow Christ"s holy example. The first cry of the really awakened soul is, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?". (Act_9:6) The soul that answers in earnest to the Saviour"s call knows and feels instinctively that God has work for us; that that work must be done even in fear and trembling by his help, who worketh in us both to will and to do. The Lord would have us realize this truth; therefore sometimes he withdraws himself, to make us feel that life is blank without him to make us cry like Job, "Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me; when his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness; as I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle!". (Job_29:2-4) The contrast makes us feel that God was certainly with us then, even if we cannot feel his presence now. Therefore we seek him, even though for a time we cannot find him. It was so with Job for a season. "He hideth himself," he said; "I cannot see him." He trusted God even in the midst of darkness. "But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold". (Job_23:9, Job_23:10) So we must believe in his love even when he seems to hide his face from us and not to listen to our prayers. He seemed long to disregard the supplications of the Syro-Phoenician woman, but at last there came the gracious answer, "O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.
II THE SEARCH.
1. The bride goes forth in her dream. Again, as in Son_3:2, she goes about the city seeking the beloved; again the watchmen found her. They had not been unfriendly in the first dream, though they were not able to guide her in her search. Now they seemed to treat her with cruelty. They smote her, and wounded her, and took her mantle from her. Difficulties will always arise in our search after Christ sometimes dangers and persecutions: "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." We may perhaps also see another lesson here. The bride has more trouble now in her search than she had on the former occasion. She has been more blamable. Then she had been for a time listless and slothful; now her sin had been not only sloth, but selfish disobedience. She refused at first to open to the beloved; she did not heed his call; she did not heed the hardships which he had suffered. So it is in the Christian life. To sin against light is very grievous; repeated sin makes repentance each time more difficult. We must be watchful always, as the Saviour bids us: "Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch". (Mar_13:35-37) We must learn the prayer of the child Samuel, "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth." Each time we refuse to listen the old torpor steals more and more over our souls, our slumber becomes deeper, the difficulty of awakening us becomes greater, and repentance more doubtful, more encompassed with dangers, calling for more exertion of will, more determined effort.
2. The charge. The bride cannot find her beloved. She seeks the help of the chorus of maidens, the daughters of Jerusalem. She adjures them in her eager anxiety, "If ye find my beloved, what will ye tell him? That I am sick of love." She had used the last words once before, (Son_2:5) but in a different connection. Then his banner over her was love; then the joy of his love was almost too great for her; she was sick of love. Now it is her longing for the absent bridegroom which produces the heart sickness which she describes. She fondly thinks that if he only knew her yearning for him he would return; he would forgive all that was past, and bring her again under the banner of his love. So the Christian soul, awakened out of sleep, longs for the Saviour"s presence. She feels that she is sick. She needs the great Physician. Without him all is dark; without him there is no spiritual health, no joy, no hope. She seeks him in earnest prayer. She asks for the intercession of Christian friends; she would have them bring her distress and longing before the throne. "My God, my soul is cast down within me;" "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God;" "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
The flesh and spirit.
"I sleep, but my heart waketh." The body sleeping, the heart awake.
I SOMETIMES, AS HERE, BUT ONE OF THESE IS AWAKE.
1. Here it was the spirit.
(1) This fact an argument against materialism, which insists that the spirit is altogether dependent upon the body. Hence that death ends all. But, as here, the body may be weighed down with sleep, but the mind is active; the body is dead, but the mind alive. Surely, therefore, the mind is something more than some special arrangement of the molecules of the brain.
(2) It is well that, if the spirit be willing, the flesh should be weak. As a general rule it is well, for else, unless the wholesome drag of the body were put on, brain workers would not live out half their days.
(3) But it is at times the occasion of much harm. It was so here. It was so to our Lord through his disciples yielding to the sleep that weighed on them. And the flesh is a tyrant which will, if allowed, enslave the spirit. Hence we need to "keep under the body." For:
2. Often it is only the flesh that is awake. This a fearful condition. Cf. St. Jude, "These be sensual, not having the Spirit." Men may, do, sink down into gross animalism. It is horrible as well as disgraceful. It was that which led to the destruction of Sodom, of the Canaanites, etc. It is a dread possibility threatening very many. God keep us therefrom!
II SOMETIMES NEITHER ARE AWAKE. There are many people of whom one would have much more hope if they were a little better or a little worse than they are. They are such as we have just named. They are generally decent people outwardly; they never offend against the conventionalities; they are to be found in all Churches, more"s the pity; for they are but caricatures of the Christian character. They are dull, cold, selfish, hard, and spiritually dead. What is to be done with such? They are the despair of the earnest Christian, who would almost be willing that they should fall were it possible into some miserable sin if so only their present self-content could be shattered and they made to wake up.
III SOMETIMES BOTH ARE AWAKE. This the ideal condition. It is that, and more than that, which is meant by the "Sana mens in corpore sano." For wherever this condition is, the spirit will, as is right, rule the flesh, having it well in hand, causing it like a properly trained dog to come to heel at once at the word of command (Huxley). The body will be the active, faithful servant of the master will, the spirit of the man. And when that spirit is inspired by the Spirit of God, then that is salvation, which means "health." May such health be ours! S.C.
Vers. 2-8. The dream of Gethsemane.
Under the imagery of this dream devout students have seen pictured forth the pathetic facts of the garden in which our Lord was in agony, and his disciples slept. (cf. Mat_26:40-43 and parallels) We have
I THE DISTRESSED SAVIOR. (Ver. 2) He desired his disciples to watch with him. He needed and desired their sympathy and the solace which their watchful love would have given him. His soul was troubled. He was as he who is told of here, and to whom the cold drenching dews and the damp chills of the dreary night had caused much distress, and who therefore asks the aid of her whom he loved. So did Jesus seek the aid of those he loved. He had right to expect it. He said to Peter, "Simon, sleepest thou? thou so loved, so privileged, so loud in thy profession of love to me, so faithfully warned, sleepest thou? And still the like occurs. The Lord looking for the aid of his avowed disciples, distressed by manifold causes, and that aid not forthcoming, though he has such right to expect it. But he too often finds now what he found then
II HIS DISCIPLES ASLEEP. (Ver. 3) So the spouse here, as the disciples there, and as man now, had composed herself to sleep. The repeated calls of him who by voice and knock sought to arouse her failed. And so did the repeated visits of Jesus to his disciples fail. And he finds the same still. The poor excuses of ver. 3 serve well to set forth the excuses of today when he calls on us now to aid and sympathize with him. Who really rouses himself for Christ, and puts forth earnest self-denying endeavour to help his work? No doubt the disciples had their excuses, and Christ then, as now, makes all allowances. But the fact remains the same. Christ wants us, and we are asleep. The sleeper told of in this dream evidently was filled with self-reproach. It can hardly have been otherwise with the disciples, and it is so with us now when in our holier moments the vision of our Lord in all his love for us comes before our hearts. Then we confess, "It is high time to awake out of sleep.
III THE SORROWFUL AWAKENING. The sleeper told of here awoke (ver. 5) to find her beloved gone. And in Gethsemane the disciples awoke at last. In this song (ver. 5) we are told how he had thrust in his hand by the latch hole (see Exposition). But he had withdrawn it, as she whom he had appealed to had not awaked; and, finding this, her heart was touched, and she rose to open to him. And doubtless when the disciples saw the gleam of the lanterns and heard their Lord"s word, "Arise," and the tramp of the armed multitude who had come to arrest him, then their hearts were touched, and. they arose. But it was too late. And like as the sleeper here (ver. 5) did not withhold tokens of her affection she richly perfumed herself, her hands especially, in token thereof as the Oriental manner was so, too, the disciples in their way made plain their love for their Lord. They would have fought for him Peter drew his sword at once had he let them. But the opportunity for real service was gone. The sleeper of this song tells how her heart smote her when her beloved spoke, and we may well believe that it was so when the disciples heard their Lord"s voice. But in both cases it was too late. Who does not know the sorrow that smites the soul when we realize that opportunities of succouring, serving, and making glad the heart of some beloved one have been allowed to pass by us unused, and now cannot be recalled? Oh, if we had only been awake then!
IV THE UNAVAILING SEARCH. (Ver. 6) Cf. Peter"s tears; the sorrow of the disciples. The reproaches of conscience they were the watchmen who met and sternly dealt with her who is told of here, and made her ashamed. Such failures in duty are followed by unavailing regrets and prayers. "Oh that I knew where I might find him!" Conscience, the Word of God, faithful pastors, these are as the watchmen who meet such souls, and scant comfort is or ought to be had from them, but only deserved rebuke and reproach. It is all true. What is told of in this verse must have happened then, does happen now. Our Lord has left us, our joy is gone, we cannot find him, tears and prayers and search seem all in vain.
V THE HELP OF THE HOLY WOMEN. (Ver. 8 and Son_6:1) It was wise of the sleeper, now awake, to solicit help from the friends of her beloved. And in the Gospel narrative it is plain that the holy women who loved and ministered to our Lord when on earth were a great help to his sorrowing disciples. They were last at the cross and first at the sepulchre; they first brought the glad tidings that he was risen. They represent his true Church. And the sorrowing soul cannot do better than seek the sympathy and prayers of those who love the Lord. Restoration often comes by such means. Here is one of their intercessions: "That it may please thee to strengthen such as do stand, to comfort and help the weak hearted, to raise up them that fall, and finally to beat down Satan under our feet." Blessed is he who hath intercessions such as that offered for him. But better still not to need them. S.C.
HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES Ver. 2. Languid life.
The experiences of the saints are useful guide posts on the heavenly road. They help by way of counsel, caution, inspiration, comfort, warning. Some experiences recorded serve as lighthouses, some as beacons. A wise pilgrim will not despise any one of them. If a traveller is about to cross Africa from west to east, he will not fail to ask what were the fortunes and experiences of those who have already made that perilous journey. He will learn from their mistakes and their sufferings what to avoid. He will learn from their successes how far he should tread in their footsteps. The journey is not so difficult now as it was to the first adventurer. A similitude this of the heavenly pilgrimage. Others have passed this way before us. We are indebted to them for the record of their checkered fortunes. They tell us how they climbed the hill Difficulty. They tell us how they were overtaken with the foe unwarily. They tell us how they fought, and by what methods they conquered. They tell us how at times spiritual drowsiness crept over them; how they bemoaned their folly; how they aroused themselves afresh. Then we discover that this infirmity is not peculiar to ourselves. We do not deny ourselves the consolation that we really belong to Christ, though we have been foolish enough to sleep in his service. There is blight upon the tree, and a reduction of fruitfulness; nevertheless, the tree has life in its roots. Blemishes are upon me; still I am in Christ.
I HERE IS A STATE OF INSENSIBILITY CONFESSED. "I sleep." It is a figure of speech borrowed from the sensations of the body. Our physical nature needs periodic sleep. But many indolent persons sleep when they do not need it; and it is this needless sleep this ignoble sleep that is here described. Unlike the body, the soul requires no sleep.
1. It is a state of inaction. For the time being sight and hearing are suspended. All bodily sensations are awaiting. The sleeper is unconscious of all that is occurring round about him. Sleep is the brother of death. So, if the soul sleeps, it is a transient death. Our best Friend is near, but we cannot see him. If he speaks, we do not hear his voice. We have no enjoyment of his friendship. The sun of God"s favour may shine upon our path; we do not perceive it. We have no conscious communion with Jesus. We find no nourishment in the sacred Word. The ordinances of the sanctuary have lost their charm. We do not grow in grace. We make no progress heavenward. It is inglorious inaction.
2. It is a blamable condition. We are servants of God, and to sleep is to waste our Master"s time. It is an act of unfaithfulness. The Son of God has entrusted to us the campaign against error and sin; yet, lo! we sleep on the battlefield. Tens of thousands round about us know nothing of God"s salvation; and yet we sleep. Satan is busy ensnaring men in the pitfalls of vice; and yet we sleep. The heathen world is waiting to hear Heaven"s gospel; now and again a voice booms across the sea, "Come over and help us!" yet we sleep. Our own crown is imperilled; yet we sleep. This brief life is slipping from us; the day of service wilt soon terminate; the great assize is close at hand; yet we sleep. Is it not matter for self-condemnation?
3. It is a state of peril. A time of sleep is the time for robbers to do their evil work; and we imperil the heavenly treasures when we slothfully sleep. Our wily adversary lies in wait for our unguarded moments. If he can breathe upon the Church a spirit of slumber, he has gained a great advantage for himself. To lull Christians into sleep is his most successful stratagem. In one of his parables Jesus tells us that "while men slept, the enemy sowed his tares." Saul, the King of Israel, exposed his life to imminent danger when he slept in the cave. If a man is insensible to the deadly paralysis that is creeping over him, he is not far from death. And if we Christians become insensible to our sin, or insensible to our dependence on Christ, or insensible to God"s claims, we are in great danger. What if God should say to us, "They prefer their sleep: let them alone"! Then our sleep would deepen into the collapse of death.
4. Spiritual sleep entails loss. How much of spiritual blessing the eleven lost, when they slept in Gethsemane, no tongue can tell. We lose the approval of a good conscience, and that is a serious loss. We lose the approving smile of Christ, and that is a loss far greater. We lose the vigour of our piety. We lose the freshness of enthusiasm. We lose courage. We lose spiritual enjoyment. We lose self-respect. A sense of shame sweeps over the soul. The temperature of our love has gone down. Instead of pressing forward, we have gone backward. It is a loss immeasurable.
II HERE IS A VERY PROMISING SIGN. "My heart waketh." How true is this record to the facts in ourselves! The heart is the spiritual organ that wakes first. For the heart is the seat of feeling, desire, and affection. The heart must move before the will, and the will before the feet.
1. This language denotes disquietude. The man is neither quite asleep nor quite awake. This is an uncomfortable state. It denotes a divided heart. It is not altogether with Christ nor altogether with the world. We cannot endure the thought of leaving Christ, and so forego the hope of heaven. We like some of the experiences of religion. But then we love self in about an equal proportion. We grasp as much pleasure as we can. Hence this vacillation. This is a great loss of Christ"s friendship; a sin to treat Jesus thus. This self-indulgence now will produce a large fruitage of remorse by and by.
2. It is a good sign that this indecision is recognized. It might have been otherwise. The sin might have been unfelt. Conscience might have been drugged with the opiate of self-confidence. When a Christian perceives his own imperfections, and confesses them, there is manifestly some spiritual life within. His state is not hopeless. God"s Spirit has not withdrawn his activities from that man. If he will diligently follow the light which he has, it will lead him to his true home and rest.
3. This language indicates desire for a better state. The heart is the seat of desire, and, thank God, the heart is awake. If this desire be not overpowered by stronger desires of an evil sort, all will yet be well. This desire, unhindered, will work like leaven, till it has leavened the whole man. It will disturb the man"s peace until it is gratified. This desire is the work of God"s good Spirit; and, if we will only yield to his quickening influence, he will make desire ripen into resolve, and resolve into action. A man"s desires are a gauge of the man"s character. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
4. It is another good sign when a sleepy Christian recognizes Christ"s voice. "It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh." The bride in our text not merely heard a sound, but she was so far awake as to know that it was her lover"s voice. It is a fact that we hear the voice of one we know, and of one we love, much sooner than we bear the voice of a stranger. A mother will hear the cry of her babe sooner than she will hear the cry of another child. If we hear our Master"s voice, then faith is not asleep. "Faith cometh by hearing." Of all Christ"s sheep this is a sure mark; they hear Christ"s voice. "A stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers." We know well that if any one strives to arouse us out of sleep, it will be our best Friend. No one else will take such pains to bless us. Ah! if I hear in my soul a rousing voice, if I am moved to holier aspiration, I instinctively say, "It is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh." Then ought I most gladly to respond, "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth.
III HERE IS A GRACIOUS CALL. This is the reason why the Christian"s heart is awake: Jesus calls and knocks. A Christian cannot sleep under such an appeal.
1. Christ"s whole Person engages in this call. He not only speaks with his voice; he knocks with his hand. He knocks by the preaching of faithful ministers. He knocks by the counsels of a pious friend. He knocks by his afflictive providences. He knocks by his royal bounties. Every fresh gift is a fresh appeal. He knocks by many a startling event that happens about us. He knocks at the door of memory, at the door of feeling, at the door of conscience, at the door of affection. He tries every door, if so be his kindly errand may succeed. He has too much earnest love for us easily to desist. Such love is born, not on earth, but in heaven.
2. He not only knocks; he speaks. He appeals to our intelligent nature. He will not use force or compulsion. That were unseemly on the part of love. Jesus will use measures equally potent, but of a winsome, spiritual sort. He speaks to the heart of saints in a "still small voice." There is a latent power in his gentleness. When God spake to despondent Elijah in the desert, he did not speak in earthquake, or in thunder, or in whirlwind, but in a soft human voice. No sound breaks on the ear; the message goes straight to the conscience and to the heart. Have we not, in hours of retirement, often heard the music of his voice, gently chiding us for neglect, or sweetly moving us to closer fellowship? We may resist the appeal, but, alas! we increase our guilt; we cheat our souls of joy.
3. He addresses us by the most endearing epithets. "My sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled." Every argument that can move us to a better life he will employ. The whole vocabulary of human speech he will exhaust, to assure us of his interest. He reminds us of our many professions of attachment. He brings to our remembrance our plighted troth. Did we not at one time say that we were his? Have we not pledged ourselves to be faithful over and over again? What an array of perjured vows lie on his book? Can we think of them without self-condemnation?
4. He appeals to us on the ground of his deeds and endurances. "My head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night." It is the pathetic picture of a friend who has been refused customary hospitality, and who has spent the cold night appealing for admission. This is the picture, and the meaning thereof is plain. Jesus Christ has to endure hardship and pain through our self-indulgence and our spiritual stupor. Alas! we shut him out from his own temple. We shut out our best Friend". Alter all that he has done for us, yea, suffered for us, in proof of his strong affection, shall we treat him with cold neglect, with heartless contempt? Shall he be all ardour, and shall we be frigid as an iceberg? Shall his nature be all love, and shall ours be all selfishness? Then we are not like him. Is not this to "crucify our Lord afresh, and put him to open shame"? Surely here is a test of character. He who can hear these gracious appeals unmoved, hath never felt the stirrings of the new life; he hath no part in the covenant of grace. D.
The heart that waketh.
Thus opens the recital of a dream a dream which was the confused expression of deep feelings, of affection, of apprehension, of anxiety. The expression is poetical; the body slumbers, yet the mind and its feelings are not altogether asleep. A slumbering heart is inaccessible to the Divine approach, the Divine appeal, the Divine mercy. It is well when the heart waketh, for the wakeful heart is
I PROMPT TO HEAR THE VOICE OF HEAVEN. The mother awakes at once when the babe cries; the surgeon wakes at once when the bell rings; the nurse wakes at once when the patient asks for medicine or for food. When the heart is awake, the ear hearkens, the eye is ready to unclose, the sleeper is half alert and prepared to rise. The heart that loves the Saviour is prompt to hear any word of his, whether it be a word of encouragement, a word of admonition, a word of command. "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth," denotes the vigilant attitude, the true preparedness of the soul.
II PROMPT TO RESPOND TO THE LOVE OF CHRIST. The true heart is not wakeful to every call, to every presence, to every appeal. It is mutual love that ensures a heart that waketh. The Christian gives love for love. "We love him, because he first loved us." Hence the very sound of Jesus" name enkindles upon the devout and grateful heart the flame of pure and fervent affection. Nothing that concerns the Lord is indifferent to the Christian; for his heart is awake to every token of the Divine presence, and eager for the spiritual communion which is the privilege of the friends of Jesus.
III WATCHFUL AGAINST THOUGHTS AND PURPOSES OF EVIL. The deep slumber into which the careless may fall is likely to render them a prey to the assaults of the tempter. Christ found his three nearest friends sleeping in the garden whilst he was enduring his bitter conflict. "Watch and pray," was his admonition, "lest ye enter into temptation." As soldiers during a campaign must take rest in sleep, yet, as it were, with one eye and one ear open, so that they may spring up, and fly to arms, if the foe approach them under cover of the darkness; so must the Christian take even his refreshing rest and recreation as upon the alert, and as ready to resist an approaching enemy. Watchfulness and prayer must guard him against surprise. The heart must be ever wakeful. "Keep thy heart with all diligence.
IV READY TO ENGAGE IN ALL REQUIRED SERVICE. The service of the hands, of the lips, alone is unacceptable to our Divine Lord, who desires above all things the devotion and loyalty of the heart. This, if the heart slumbers, cannot be given. But a wakeful heart, being ready to receive impressions, is ready also to obey commands, to summon all the powers of the nature to engage in that service which combines dimity with freedom, and submission with joy. T.
Vers. 2-5. Open to the beloved who knocketh.
This dream, so significant of fervent affection, and so full of tender pathos, is emblematic of the relation between the Divine Saviour and Lord and those whom he approaches in his grace and kindness, to whom he proffers the blessing of his presence and his love.
I THE SUMMONS.
1. Its nature. There is the knock which demands attention, and there is the speech which articulately conveys the appeal. Christ comes to the world, and comes to the heart, with such tokens of Divine authority as demand that heed should be given to his embassage. The supernatural arrests the attention even of the careless and the unspiritual. That in Christianity which is of the nature of portent, the "mighty works" which have been exhibited, summon men to yield their reverent attention to a Divine communication. But the miracle is a "sign." The display of power is revelation of a wisdom, a love, which are deeper and more sacred than itself. The knock that arouses is followed by the speech that instructs, guides, comforts, inspires. Authority is not blind; it accompanies the appeal to the intelligence, to the heart.
2. The danger of neglecting it. To give no heed to the Divine appeal, to sleep on when God himself is calling, this is to despise the Highest, to wrong our own soul, to increase our insensibility and to confirm ourselves in spiritual deadness, and to tempt the departure of the heavenly Visitor.
3. The duty of welcoming and responding to it. This appears both from the dignity of him who knocks, his right to the affection, gratitude, and devotion of the soul; and from the complete dependence of the soul upon his friendship for its highest welfare.
II THE RESPONSE. When Christ "stands at the door and knocks," there is but one thing to do to open wide to him, the Beloved, the door of the heart. This is the true response, and it should be:
1. Glad. His absence is mourned, his presence is desired; his summons, therefore, should be joyfully acknowledged. The heart may well beat strong with gladness, high with hope, when the voice of Jesus is heard; for it is "the voice of the Beloved.
2. Grateful. The picture is one of poetic pathos and beauty. The head of the Beloved is filled with dew, his locks with the drops of the night. How suggestive of what the Saviour has endured for our sake, of his earthly humiliation, of his compassionate sacrifice! The contemplation of Christ"s weakness and weariness, distress and anguish, all endured for us, is enough to awaken the strongest sentiments of gratitude on our part. To whom are we indebted as we are to him? Who has such claims upon our heart"s gratitude and devotion? What language can justly depict the moral debasement of those who are unaffected by a spectacle so touching as that of the Redeemer, the "Man of sorrows," appealing for admission to the nature he died to save and bless?
3. Immediate. Delay is here altogether out of place. The sensitive and responsive nature is forward to exclaim, "Apparitio tua est apertio! see thee is to open to thee!" The hesitation and apologies described in the dream are introduced to show, by suggestion of contrast, how utterly unsuited they are to the circumstances and the occasion.
4. Eager and expectant. "My heart was moved for him; I rose to open to my Beloved." The hope is fulfilled, the prayer is answered, the vision is realized, Christ has come. With him all Divine blessings approach the soul The prospect of his entrance into the spiritual nature is the prospect of a fellowship and intimacy fraught with purest joys and tenderest consolations a fellowship and intimacy which will never fail to bless, and which no power on earth can avail to darken or to close. T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the…
Son_5:2
I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh.
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Asleep and yet awake-A Riddle
We are glad to perceive in this Song the varied experience of the bride. She was the well-beloved of the heavenly Bridegroom, but she was not without her faults. Let us bless God that in the Book of revealed truth He has not merely given us the ideal standard after which we are to seek, but He has also preserved for us the humbler patterns of those who have striven to reach to the utmost height, and who have climbed a good way towards it, but who, nevertheless, have proved that, though they were the best of men, they were men at the best. Thus our Lord has saved us from despair by making us to know that we may be sincere, and true, and accepted, though we, too, fall short as yet of the holiness which we pant after with our whole hearts.
I. First, then, here is slumber confessed. The spouse laments her state, and sighs out, I sleep. It strikes us at once that her sleep is a state recognized. We are astonished that she should say, I sleep, and we conclude that it is not so profound a sleep as it might be; for when a man can say, I sleep, he is not altogether steeped in slumber. I would not give you encouragement, if you are asleep at all to continue it; but yet I would say this, that if you mourn, over your sluggishness you are not altogether a sluggard, if you feel uneasy in your dulness you are not altogether given over to spiritual stupidity, if you are anxious to be aroused out of your slumber it is certain that you are not given over to sleep yourself into the sepulchre of insensibility. Cultivate a quick perception, and when you are aware of the slightest defalcation or decline, confess at once to God that you begin to sleep. Further, as this sleep is a matter recognized, so it is a matter complained of The spouse is not pleased with her condition. It is well for saints, when they perceive that they are in the least degree backsliding, that they should mourn before God, and accuse themselves before Him. Act tenderly to others, but severely towards yourselves. So all prudent men will do if God keep them prudent. This sleepiness is not a thing to be indulged in, but to be abhorred. To say the least of it, it is a low state of enjoyment. Sleep is peaceful and quiet, but it cannot enjoy the sweets of the senses, and the delights which the mind can receive thereby. If we fail to enjoy the banquets of our Bridegrooms love it must be because a deadness is stealing over us, and we are not so thoroughly alive and awake as we were in days gone by; and this is a condition to be deplored as soon as it is perceived. We ought to complain of ourselves if we sleep, because it is a state of danger. While men slept the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat. It is bad, then, to have a drowsy minister and drowsy church officers, for these will not watch the fields for God. Sleep is a state of inaction. A man cannot do his daily business while his eyes are closed in slumber. Yet again; this slumber should be not only a matter of complaint as an ill to be dreaded, but it should be regarded as a fault to be ashamed of. Make excuses for others, and let your Lord make excuses for you, but do not frame apologies on your own account. Furthermore, it is an evil to be fought against. When a man is obliged to say, I sleep, let him not content himself with sleeping on. Now is the time for much prayer: let him wrestle with this deadly foe till he is fully aroused. Falling into indifference on the road to heaven is something like sleeping on the vast plains of snow, where, if a man give way to the natural inclination to slumber which comes on through the intense cold, he may lie down and never rise again.
II. We reach the point of the paradox; here is watchfulness claimed by one who confessed to sleep. My heart waketh, says the bride, I sleep, but my heart waketh. Somewhat of heaven is about the man of God when the earth encompasses him most: Sin shall not have dominion over you: God has the throne still, even when Satan rages most. This inward life shows itself usually in the uneasiness of the declining heart. When a believer feels that he is not what he ought to be, nor what he wants to be, he cannot be happy. He cannot rest and be content. He sleeps, but his heart beats, sighs, and palpitates with dire unrest. The inner life shows itself, too, in desire, for the heart is the seat of desire, and it leads the man to say I am not what I would be. I live at a poor dying rate: Christs love is so great to me, and mine to Him so chill. Lord, lift me out of this frozen state. I cannot bear this grave of lethargy. Lord, bring my soul out of prison! Give me more grace; give me to love Jesus better, and to be more like Him. Poor as I am, I long to be enriched by Thy love and mercy; O visit me with Thy salvation! Such a pleading heart is still awake, though the mind may be dull. The spouse gave another proof of her wakefulness by her discernment. She says, It is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh. Even when half asleep she knew her Lords voice. You may catch a true believer at his worst, but he still knows the Gospel from anything else, and can detect another gospel in a moment. This wakefulness of heart shows itself often in the soul chiding itself. I sleep, saith she. She would not have blamed herself as I have tried to describe her doing if she had not been in some measure awake. This blessed living wakefulness within the heart will by and by display itself in action. The heart will wake up all that is within us, and we shall hasten to our Beloved.
III. Mystery solved. I sleep, but my heart waketh. How doth her heart wake? It is because the voice and knock of her Beloved are heard. Every child of God has a wondrous union with Christ. Because I live, saith Christ, Ye shall live also. Ask you why you are alive in such a body of death and grave of sin as your poor nature is? You live because Christ lives; and you cannot die till He does. This is why you cannot sleep as do others, because He does not so sleep. What a blessing is this vital union with the ever-blessed Head, immortal and unslumbering!
IV. Now for the lesson learned. It is this, be very careful when you possess great joys, for in this instance the spouse had been with the Beloved in choice fellowship, and yet was soon drowsy. High joys may produce slumber; the chosen three upon the mount Tabor were soon overcome with heaviness. Mind what you do when on the mount; be careful to carry a full cup with a steady hand. Next, when you are blaming yourselves for your own work, do not forget the work of the Spirit in you. I sleep: smite your heart for that, but do not forget to add if it be true, My heart waketh. Bless God for any grace you have, even if it be but little. Lastly, make sure above all things that you have that true faith which knows the voice of Jesus. He saith, Incline your ear, and come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal life. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Nearer and dearer
Spiritual sickness is very common in the Church of God, and the root of the mischief lies in distance from Jesus, following Christ afar off, and yielding to a drowsy temperament. Away from Jesus, away from joy. Without the sun the flowers pine; without Jesus our hearts faint.
I. The spouse confesses a very common sin: she cries, I sleep. She had no right to be asleep, for her Beloved knew no rest. He was standing without in the cold street, with His head wet with dew, and His locks with the drops of the night, why should she be at ease? He was anxiously seeking her, how was it that she could be so cruel as to yield to slumber! Do you not find, that almost unconsciously to yourselves, a spirit of indifference stems over you? You do not give up private prayer, but, alas! it becomes a mere mechanical operation. Shall such a King be served by lie-a-bed soldiers? Shall His midnight pleadings be repaid by our daylight sleepiness? Shall an agony of bloody sweat be recompensed by heavy eyelids and yawning mouths?
II. The song before us reminds us of a hopeful sign. My heart waketh. What a riddle the believer is! He is asleep, and yet he is awake. His true self, the I, the veritable Ego of the man is asleep; but yet his heart, his truest self, his affections, are awake. It is a hopeful sign when a man can conscientiously say as much as the spouse in this case, but remember it is not much to say. Do not pride yourself upon it. Be ashamed that you should be asleep at all. Do not congratulate yourself that your heart is awake. Be thankful that infinite love affords you grace enough to keep your heart alive, but be ashamed that you have no more when more may be had and should be had.
III. The third thing is a loving call. Asleep as the spouse was, she knew her Husbands voice, for this is an abiding mark of Gods people. My sheep hear My voice. A half-sleeping saint still has spiritual discernment enough to know when Jesus speaks. At first the Beloved One simply knocked. His object was to enter into fellowship with His Church, to reveal Himself to her, to unveil His beauties, to solace her with His presence. Such is the object of our blessed Lord, this morning, in bringing us to this house. Then the Bridegroom tried His voice. If knocking would not do, he would speak in plain and plaintive words, Open to Me, My sister, My love, My dove, My undefiled. The Lord Jesus Christ has a sweet way of making the word come home to the conscience; I mean, not now, that effectual and irresistible power of which we shall speak by and by, but that lesser force which the heart may resist, but which renders it very guilty for so doing. Now, observe the appeals which the Beloved here makes. He says, Open to Me, and His plea is the love the spouse has to Him, or professed to have, the love He has to her, and the relationship which exists between them. Did you notice that powerful argument with which the heavenly Lover closed His cry? He said, My head is filled with dew, and My locks with the drops of the night. Ah, sorrowful remembrances, for those drops were not the ordinary dew that fall upon the houseless travellers unprotected head, His head was wet with scarlet dew, and His locks with crimson drops of a tenfold night of Gods desertion, when He sweat as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. My heart, how vile art thou, for thou shuttest out the Crucified. Behold the Man thorn-crowned and scourged, with traces of the spittle of the soldiery, canst thou close the door on Him? Wilt thou despise the despised and rejected of men? Writ thou grieve the Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief
IV. Yet the spouse hastened not to open the door, and I am afraid the like delay may be charged upon some of us. Our shame deepens as we pursue our theme, and think how well our own character is photographed here by the wise man; for notice, that after the knocking and the pleading, the spouse made a most ungenerous excuse. She sat like a queen, and knew no sorrow. She had put off her garments and washed her feet as travellers do in the East before they go to rest. Shall I English the excuse she made? It is this: O Lord, I know that if I am to enter into much fellowship with Thee, I must pray very differently from what I have done of late, but it is too much trouble; I cannot stir myself to energy so great. My time is so taken up with my business, I am so constantly engaged that I could not afford even a quarter of an hour for retirement. I have to cut my prayers so short. Is this the miserable excuse in part? Shall I tell out more of this dishonourable apology? It is this: I do not want to begin an examination of myself: it may reveal so many unpleasant truths. I sleep, and it is very comfortable to sleep; I do not want to be driven out of my comforts. Perhaps if I were to live nearer to Christ, I should have to give up some of the things which I so much enjoy. I have become conformed to the world of late; I am very fond of having Mr. So-and-so to spend aa hour with me in the evening, and his talk is anything but that which my Master would approve of, but I cannot give him up. I have taken to read religious novels. I could not expect to have the Lord Jesus Christs company when I am poring over such trash as that, but still I prefer it to my Bible; I would sooner read a fools tale than I would read of Jesus love.
V. Still, as a wonder of wonders, although shamefully and cruelly treated, the beloved Husband did not go away. We are told that He put in His hand by the hole of the door, and then the bowels of His spouse were moved for Him. Does not this picture the work of effectual grace, when the truth does not appeal to the ear alone, but comes to the heart, when it is no longer a thing thought on, and discussed and forgotten, but an arrow which has penetrated into the reins, and sticks fast in the loins to our wounding, and ultimately to our spiritual healing? No hand is like Christs hand. When He puts his hand to the work it is well done. He put in His hand: not His hand on me to smite me, but His hand in me to comfort me; to sanctify me. He put in His hand, and straightway His beloved began to pity Him, and to lament her unkindness.
VI. But now, observe the deserved chastisement which the Bridegroom inflicted. When her Spouse was willing to commune, she was not; and now that she is willing, and even anxious, what happens? I opened to my Beloved, but, says the Hebrew, He had gone, He had gone. The voice of lamentation the reduplicated cry of one that is in bitter distress. There must have been a sad relief about it to her sinful heart, for she must have felt afraid to look her dear One in the face after such heartless conduct; but sad as it would have been to face Him, it was infinitely sadder to say, He is gone, He is gone. Now she begins to use the means of grace in order to find Him. I sought Him, said she, and I found Him not. I went up to the house of God; the sermon was sweet, but it was not sweet to me, for He was not there. I went to the communion table, and the ordinance was a feast of fat things to others, but not were many; she kept them up by day and by night. I called Him, but He gave me no answer. She was not a lost soul, do not mistake that. Christ loved her just as much then as before, nay, loved her a great deal more. If there can be any change in Christs love, He must have much more approved of her when she was seeking Him in sorrow, than when she was reclining upon the couch and neglecting Him. But He was gone, and all her calling could not bring Him back. What did she then? Why, she went to His ministers, she went to those who were the watch-men of the night, and what said they to her? Did they cheer her? Perhaps they had never passed through her experience; perhaps they were mere hirelings. However it might be, they smote her.
VII. As the poor spouse did not then find Christ, but was repulsed in all ways, she adopted a last expedient. She knew that there were some who had daily fellowship with the King, daughters of Jerusalem who often saw Him, and therefore she sent a message by them, If ye see my Beloved, tell Him that I am sick of love. Enlist your brother saints to pray for you. Go with them to their gatherings for prayer. Their company will not satisfy you without Jesus, but their company may help you to find Jesus. Follow the footsteps of the flock, and you may by and by discover the Shepherd. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Son_5:2 : I sleep, but my heart waketh. ‘Sleep,’…
Notes
Son_5:2 : I sleep, but my heart waketh. ‘Sleep,’ יְשֵׁנָה yeshenah, a participle or adjective, from יָשֵׁן to sleep. GESENIUS. The connection with what follows gives to יְשֵׁנָה and עֵר the sense of imperfects: ‘I was sleeping,’ &c. ZÖCKLER, HITZIG. So GOOD, PERCY, BOOTHROYD, &c. DIODATI, MARTIN, and DUTCH: I slept or was asleep. Was sleeping as if inebriated with delights. MICHAELIS, A. CLARKE. Had laid her head down on her couch, waiting for her beloved, and had fallen asleep, and now relates her dream to her companions. GREGORY. Ro-counts an adventure, or perhaps a dream. PERCY. Most likely the latter. A. CLARKE. A dream, indicating perplexity and unconnectedness, and containing reminiscences of the former one. EWALD. Another part of the poem begins here: in Solomon’s absence, the Bride relates a dream to her attendan’s or the daughters of Jerusalem. DELITZSCH. A dream, indicative of her state of mind some days after the marriage festivities, her longing having been awakened for her native home. ZÖCKLER. The scene transferred to the Bride’s lowly cottage in the city, where she refused her husband admittance at night; a scene in accordance with her original position, but most inconsistent with her present rank, and explicable only on the ground of allegory. M. STUART. Second half of the Book begins here, shewing the Bride’s original condition, and how her longing for the King was brought about. HAHN. ‘My heart waketh.’ Rather, was waking or awake. So EWALD, ZÖCKLER, &c. לִבִּי (libbi) ‘my heart;’ used in the O.T. sense, of the centre and organ of the entire life of the soul. ZÖCKLER. My soul. EWALD. My mind. DAVIDSON. The intellectual faculties or region of thought. HITZIG. Her sleep nearer waking than sleeping. SANCTIUS. Like Balaam, fallen asleep, but with the eyes open (Num_24:4). PATRICK. Spoken of one asleep, or partly so, being excited by an unexpected call. FRY. Her mind awake and filled with the object of her affection. NOYES. Thus allegorized; TARGUM: Israel, when carried to Babylon, like a man asleep and unable to awake. RABBINS: Asleep as to the commandments, but my heart awake to the duties of piety: asleep as to my redemption, but the Blessed One awake to redeem me. WEISS: Ancient Church relates her experience after the dedication of the Temple (2Ch_12:1; Isa_1:21; Isa_5:7; Jer_2:21; Sam. Son_4:1); a moral sleep intended; a state of spiritual drowsiness and inactivity. AINSWORTH: The spouse having eaten and drunk largely of the blessings of Christ, begins to remit her zeal, and neglect the works of faith and love: the heart, however, or inner man, the spirit, or the man as he is regenerate, still awake. DEL RIO: Awake in the inward soul, while the external senses were lulled. HAHN: An unnatural sleep; the original condition of the Bride or the Gentile nations living without God; a life without liveliness, as a sleep. ZÖCKLER, and HENGSTENBERG: A dark scene: Apostasy of unbelieving mankind from God; especially the rejection of the Saviour. GREGORY and early interpreters: Saved from the billows, the Church falls asleep on the shore. BROUGHTON and COTTON: State of the Church in Constantine’s time. DAVIDSON: The disciples before Christ’s resurrection.
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PART FOURTH
The Coolness and its Consequences
CHAPTER 5 Son_5:2.—CHAPTER 6 Son_5:9
SCENE FIRST. Place: The Palace at Jerusalem. Speakers: Shulamite and the Ladies of the Court, or the Daughters of Jerusalem
SHULAMITE RELATING A NIGHT’S EXPERIENCE
Son_5:2
I sleep (or, was sleeping),
But my heart waketh (or, was awake).
The second great division of the Song now reached: the period after the marriage. The exposition more difficult. In the present section the Bride relates to the ladies of the Court her experience during the night. Probably a dream. The narrative, however, possibly given by the Bride in a song sung at the marriage, with the view of exhibiting both the Bridegroom’s excellences, her entire love to him, and, at the same time, her own unworthiness of him. She has retired to rest, perhaps at the close of one of the seven days during which the nuptial feast continued (Jdg_14:15-17). Her ardent love to her husband, and the delight she enjoyed in his fellowship, give rise apparently to a dream, exhibiting, as often happens, the opposite of the reality. After she has retired to rest, her Beloved knocks at her door, desiring admittance. She strangely and unkindly hesitates, and makes silly and selfish excuses for not admitting him. After pleading in vain for admittance, he withdraws, but not until he has inserted his hand into the hole of the door as if, according to oriental custom, for the purpose of opening it. Seeing his hand, she relents, and rises to open; but too late. He has withdrawn and is gone. Full of distress, she searches for him in the city, but in vain. At last, as it recalling to mind his ordinary haunt, in the eagerness of her desire to find him, she hastens to the spot.
The narrative, whether given as that of a dream or otherwise, designed, like the rest of the Song, to exhibit the experience of believers individually, as well as that of the Church as a whole. What was, perhaps, a dream to Shulamite, too often the reality in the case of the believer and the Church. The experience, in either case, as in hers, the effect of sleep. The narrative illustrative of—
Spiritual Sleep and its Effects.
Verified—
(1) In the state of the Jewish Church at the time of the Saviour’s advent. ‘He came to His own, but His own received Him not.’ Jerusalem knew not the day of her visitation.
(2) In the case of the disciples, after the Last Supper, in the garden of Gethsemane. Heavy with sleep and unable to watch but one hour with their Master agonizing under the dews of the night; and afterwards abandoning, denying, or betraying Him.
(3) In the experience and history of the Christian Church after the Apostolic age. That state of the Church in general represented by the Church at Laodicea. So described as readily to recall this portion of the Song (Rev_3:19-20).
(4) In the occasional experience of a child of God. A believer’s enjoyment of the Saviour’s fellowship not unfrequently followed by a state of carnal security and sleep. The danger here indicated for our warning. ‘Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.’ ‘Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.’ The warning never more needed than at a time of special spiritual enjoyment. Like the Master Himself, believers often taken from the Jordan of enjoyment to the Wilderness of temptation.
The Bride asleep, though her heart was awake. In a believer’s worst state, spiritual life and love still in existence. His sleep that of carnal security, not that of spiritual death. His slumber that of the couch, not that of the grave; one from which an awakening is not difficult, and must sooner or later come. The flesh in a believer only asleep, while the spirit in him is still awake. Believers to distinguish between the two, and to understand their own spiritual experience.
THE BRIDEGROOM’S APPEAL
Son_5:2
The voice of my beloved that knocketh,
Saying, open to me, my sister, my love,
My dove, my undefiled;
For my head is filled with dew,
And my locks with the drops of the night.
Natural for a husband to repair to his home after the fatigues of the day; and as natural for him to expect a cordial welcome. Christ’s love indicated in the fact that He, too, comes from time to time, and knocks for admission into the heart (Rev_3:20). His desire to receive entertainment from His people, and to enjoy fellowship with them. ‘If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.’ The love and fellowship of His people the reward of His toil and travail for their salvation. The Son of God left His Father’s bosom to find a home in the sinner’s heart. His head, for our sakes, ‘filled with dew, and His locks with the drops of the night.’ His nights often spent under the open sky in prayer on our behalf, while others rested in their bed. His last night on earth a sleepless one in some part of the high priest’s palace, with His hands still bound with cords as a criminal. In the text we have—
Christ’s Call to His Sleeping Church.
I. The party CALLED. The Bride. Indicated in her own language: ‘The voice of my beloved.’ Also in that of the Bridegroom: ‘My sister, my love,’ &c. Strange that Christ’s Bride should ever be slow to admit Him. As true as it is strange. An effectual call addressed to those who constitute the Church whom He loved, and for whom He gave Himself. These found by Him originally in the sleep of death. Too apt to fall again into carnal slumber, though not into spiritual death. Only living souls able to distinguish Christ’s voice as the voice of their Beloved. Only a believer able to say: ‘I sleep, but my heart waketh.’
II. The STATE implied. One of spiritual sleep. Our natural state. One into which the believer may relapse, though never so deeply as before. Such
Spiritual Sleep
a state—
(1) Of security and ease.
(2) Of indifference and unconcern.
(3) Of indolence and sloth.
(4) Of carnal indulgence.
(5) Of spiritual inactivity.
(6) Of insensibility to one’s best interests.
(7) Of self-deception—sleep usually accompanied with dreaming. Such a state the result of—
(1) The body of sin and death still adhering to us.
(2) The world’s temptations—its cares, pleasures, pursuits, society.
(3) Satan’s endeavours—his old trade (Gen_3:14; 2Ti_2:26, margin).
(4) Sense of safety experienced after believing.
(5) Neglect of watching unto prayer, and other appointed means.
(6) A state of comfort and enjoyment.
(7) An avoidance of the cross.
III. The KNOCKING. ‘The voice of my beloved that knocketh’ (or ‘knocking’). Christ’s Bride not allowed to remain in a state of spiritual sleep. Christ has to knock both before conversion and after it. Knocks both in outward warnings and inward calls. Knocks—
(1) By His Word. Every appeal in the Bible a knock at the sleeper’s heart. The language of Christ in the Scripture as well as of all His faithful servants: ‘Awake thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.’
(2) By His Providence. A thorn in the flesh sent both to awaken and to keep awake. Christ’s knocks often heard on a bed of sickness, and in the chamber of death. His language often in trouble: ‘As many as I love I rebuke and chasten: be ye zealous, therefore, and repent (Rev_3:19).
(3) By His Spirit. The Spirit Christ’s Agent in dealing with men’s souls. Knocks from without before conversion; from within, after it.
IV. The CALL to open. The voice added to the knock. Christ in earnest to be admitted. ‘Open unto me.’ Will not force an entrance, but produce a welcome one. His people willing in the day of His power (Psa_110:3). To ‘open’ implies—
(1) To invite His entrance. Like Laban to Eliezer, ‘Come in thou blessed of the Lord.’
(2) To give Him a hearty welcome as the inmate of our heart; glad to entertain Him and enjoy His fellowship.
(3) To remove the hindrances to His entrance—any sinful habit, indulgence, or disposition. ‘The dearest idol I have known.’ &c.
(4) To receive Him as an entire Savour, and to surrender ourselves to Him as our Prophet, Priest, and King.
V. The PLEA for admission. A threefold plea employed by the Bridegroom—
1. His relation to the sleeper. ‘My sister.’ Open to me. The last words emphatic. To ‘Me,’ thy husband and Saviour. To Me, whom thou hast sworn to love, honour, and obey. The person who knocks, the strongest of all arguments for admission. The greatest of all shames to keep such a friend and Saviour at the door. When Christ knocks for admission into the heart, it is either as already a husband, or seeking to become one.
2. His love to the sleeper. Indicated in the terms He employs: ‘My love, my dove, my undefiled.’ Christ’s love to sinners in general, and to His Church in particular, as seen especially in giving Himself for them, a powerful reason for admitting Him to their heart. That love further seen in passing over their defilement and unworthiness, and in regarding only the work of His Spirit in their hearts. The multiplication of the tenderest terms in addressing the sleeper, indicative—
(1) Of the Bridegroom’s great and unchanging love.
(2) Of His earnest desire for admission.
(3) Of the difficulty of awakening the sleeper.
3. What He has endured on the sleeper’s behalf. ‘My head is filled with dew,’ &c. In visiting the Bride, and in seeking admission as the Bridegroom of His Church, during His earthly ministry, this often literally true. ‘The Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.’ Often spent the whole night in prayer for His people under the open sky. ‘Every man went unto his own house; but Jesus went into the Mount of Olives’ (Joh_7:53; Joh_8:1.) In redeeming His Church and saving a lost world, ‘His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.’ His last night on earth one of accumulated sufferings. His mental agony in the Garden towards midnight indicated by ‘great sweat-like drops of blood falling down to the ground.’ His betrayal and arrest at midnight, followed by long weary hours in the high priest’s palace, while He stood bound as a criminal before the tribunal, first of Annas and then of Caiaphas, and remained the rest of the night in the hands of ruffian menials in the guard-room—spit on, buffeted, struck with rods, and made the subject of their fiendish sport—till led away at daybreak to the general council-room to undergo a third examination. His sacred head filled with the wrath-drops of that awful night, and of a still more awful day that followed it. Such a night and day of anguish, suffering, and blood it cost the Son of God to obtain admission to the sinner’s heart, in order to fill Him with the joys of salvation. What more powerful plea can be used for admission?
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain A Dream. His Beauty and hers
A Dream. His Beauty and hers
2-7. Another dream of hers, with a painful ending. The accumulation (Son_5:2) of names of endearment reminds us of the frequent repetition, by a Palestinian bridegroom during the wedding dance, of Yâ halâli, Yâ mâli, ' O my property, 'Omy possession!'
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2. Heavy dew falls, especially during spring and in the second half of the night. The Spanish poet whom Longfellow translated had in his mind our passage and Rev_3:20 :
'Lord, what am I, that, with unceasing care,
Thou didst seek after me,—that thou didst wait,
Wet with unhealthy dews before my gate,
And pass the gloomy nights of winter there?
How oft my guardian angel gently cried,
“Soul, from thy casement look, and thou shalt see
How he persists to knock and wait for thee.”'
And our Lord's parable (Luk_11:5-8) presents a parallel to Son_5:3. The tunic had been put off (Exo_22:26; Deu_24:18). The feet, shod only with sandals, needed washing each night.
4. A hole is still cut in the door of Syrian houses, through which the owner can insert his arm and the key. 5. 'Myrrha stacta,' liquid myrrh, which flowed from the bark of the plant, was the finest and most costly. In two modern Egyptian poems we find: 'My love hath perfumed herself on the nights of the festival,' and '0 thou, with sweet hands!'
7. The watchmen treat her as a mere night-wanderer: cp. the solicitude of Boaz for Ruth (Ruth 3 :M). They tore off her wrapper (Mar_14:51-52), a light garment which rested on the shoulders, or was thrown round the head as a veil.
9. The chorus prepares the way for her eulogy of her beloved.
10-16. Nuptial songs in praise of the bridegroom's beauty are at the present day comparatively rare in Palestine. His head is the most fine gold, an expression which recalls Shakespeare's 'Golden lads and girls.' His eyes are doves, building in a ravine through which a stream flows. Possibly the fact that these birds delight in clear water and frequently bathe in it may explain the 'sitting by full streams' of the RV, or, 'sitting upon fulness,' which literally represents the original.
13. The 'banks of sweet herbs' (RV) have also been rendered,' towers of perfumes.' The lips are compared to red lilies, red being the dominant colour of the flora of that land.
14. The fingers are round and shapely; the nails like topazes; the body (RV) a plate of ivory encrusted with lapis lazuli, blue veins showing through the lighter skin.
15. The pillars of marble remind us of a song still current in those regions: the singer avers that his dear one's foot is of white silver, which would be scratched if she walked even on cloth.
Son_6:1-3. The chorus enquire where he may be found, and she, in dreamy and indefinite language, informs them.
4-9. He again strikes in, celebrating her beauty. Tirzah is in a lofty and delightful situation, surrounded by olive groves: its name (= 'Delight') implies its attractiveness. Jerusalem has always been lovely to an Israelite's eye (Psa_48:2; Psa_50:2; Lam_2:15, etc.). A pure and charming woman is 'awe-inspiring as bannered hosts' (RM). Coventry Patmore speaks of 'her awful charm of grace and innocence sincere':
'And though her charms are a strong law
Compelling all men to admire,
They go so clad with lowly awe
None but the noble dare desire.'
5. Her eyes have thrown him into confusion. 8. She is far above all the queens and concubines, the ladies of the harem, who are just now at hand.
9. She is her mother's only, i.e. dearest, one (Gen_22:2), and her pure one.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain The bride is satisfied with her washed feet while…
sleep
The bride is satisfied with her washed feet while the Bridegroom, His "head filled with dew," and His "locks with the drops of night," is toiling for others. See Luk 6:12; Luk 14:21-23. The state of the bride is not one of sin, but of neglect of service. She is preoccupied with the graces and perfections which she has in Christ through the Spirit; 1Co 12:4-11; Gal 5:22; Gal 5:23. It is mysticism, unbalanced by the activities of the Christian warfare. Her feet are washed, her hands drop with sweet smelling myrrh; but He has gone on, and now she must seek Him (cf. Luk 2:44; Luk 2:45).
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Here begins Part Four of the book
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General Information:
The young woman uses euphemisms to describe her dream so that it can be interpreted in two different ways: 1) the woman describes a dream about a night when the man came to visit her at her house; and 2) the woman describes a dream about starting to sleep with the man. (See: Euphemism)
but my heart was awake
The heart is the center of thought and feeling. AT: "but I could think clearly" or "but I knew what I was feeling" (See: Idiom)
my beloved
This phrase refers to the man whom the woman loves. In some languages it may be more natural for her to refer to him as "my lover." See how you translated this in Song of Songs 1:13. AT: "my dear one" or "my lover"
Open to me
Possible meanings are 1) literal, "Open the door for me," or 2) metaphorical, "Let me make love to you." (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Metaphor)
my sister
This is an idiom of affection. They are not actually brother and sister. See how you translated this in Song of Songs 4:9. AT: "my dear" or "my darling" (See: Idiom)
my love
"you whom I love." See how you translated this in Song of Songs 1:9.
my dove
See how you translated this in Song of Songs 2:14.
undefiled one
"my perfect one" or "my faithful one" or "my innocent one"
dew
drops of water or mist that form as the night becomes cool
my hair with the night's dampness
The words "is wet" are understood from the previous phrase. They can be repeated here. AT: "my hair is wet with the night's dampness" (See: Ellipsis)
translationWords
heart
dream
beloved
sister
love
dove
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 5:2–6:3 One verse earlier, the couple are fully enjoying…
5:2–6:3 One verse earlier, the couple are fully enjoying their intimate union. Now the woman feels the torment of separation. In the dramatic interpretation, the woman has been separated from the man twice before and has searched for him (1:4-7; 3:1-4). This last time, the separation takes place in her dreams—it is only a nightmare. Her dream seems to extend to 6:3, given the natural flow of questions and answers between the woman and the young women of Jerusalem. • If the Song is an anthology, these poems explore love rather than giving accounts of actual events. This poem reminds us that an intimate relationship is not always easy or perfectly satisfying.
5:2 I slept, but my heart was awake: This is an apt definition of a dream; she was physically asleep, but emotionally and psychologically awake. • my lover knocking . . . “Open to me”: Opening doors is a metaphor for sexual activity in the ancient Near East (see also 8:9). By describing the man as knocking at the door and requesting entry, the poem suggests that the man is requesting sexual union. He awaits permission; he does not presume.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.