The Pulpit Commentary — Song of Songs — Section 92

M?t~nt Zio~, to the city of God, wh?re is t~e true temple, where God is worshipped in spmt and m truth, where he manifests himself to them that seek him. And the prayer of the faithful, as they draw ever nearer, is set forth in God's sight as the ~nce_ns~, an_d the lifting lW of their hands as the evening saerifi~e. The Lord is pleased, 111 lns mfimte condescension, to regard our poor prayers when· lifted up in faith as holy iuccnse (Rev. viii. 3, 4), because the great High Priest is praying for us. Our poor prayer joins itself through the power of faith with his prevailing prayer, and therefore rises up before the throne as a pillar of sweetest incense-smoke, acceptable to God through Christ. The thought that God is pleased so to honour the prayers of tho faithful, that he condescends to se,ek such worship, worship offered up in spirit and in truth, makes prayer a very sacred thing. The approach of the Christian soul to God is very solemn. 'l'he soul cometh out of the wilderness, away from its old haunts; it is 1J.Scending up to Mount Zion, to the presence-chamber of the King of heaven; it must come with reverence and godly fear, remembering that God's presence is very awful as well as very blessed; it must come with the perfume of holy thoughts and heavenly aspirations, with the offeriog of prayer and praise rising up like the smoke of holy incense before the mercy-seat. 2. The bed of Solomon. The chorus calls attention to the litter (for such seems here to be the meaning of the word) io which the bride is borne in her progress to the royal city. "It is his litter," they say. They add the royal name itself, "Behold his litter, which is Solomon's," to give emphasis to the honour bestowed upon the bride. The king has sent his own litter to convey his bride to the palace, the palanquin in which he himself was carried. It was King Solomon's; it is the bride's, for the king has given it to her, God has given us all things, St. Paul says (Rom. viiL 32). If only we are Christ's, then all things are ours-the world, life, death, things present, things to come (1 Cor. iii. 21, 22), .And the Lord himself says, '' The glory which thou gavest me, I have given them" (John xvii. 22). It is his will that his chosen should be with him where he is. He gives them now all that is necessary to convey them thither. "God rode upon a cherub" (Ps. xviii. 10). The Lord will "send his angels . . . and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matt. x.x.iv. 31). The angels carried the soul o[ Lazarus into Abraham's bosom. But we may learn here another very solemn lesson. The litter of Solomon bore the bride up to Mount Zion; the cross of the Lord Jesus Uhrist brings the Christian soul to heaven. The Lord was lifted up upon the cross. Several aocient writers tell us that in 1-'s. xcvi. 10 the earliest reading was, "The Lord hath niigned from the wood." The cross is his throne; it drew, and still draws, all faithfol souls to him; it has lifted him up to reign over the hearts of all the best and truest. It behoved him first to suffer, and then to enter into his glory. "He humbled himself even unto the death of the cross; wherefore God also hath highly exalted him" (Phil. ii. 9). And be briogs his elect to God by the same way which he trod himself, T11 ~ cross lifts the Christian soul to God. "Nearer my God, to thee, Nearer to thee; E'en though it be a cross That raiseth me." The Christian is "crucified with Christ" (Gal. ii. 20). He is lifted up by the cross of atonement, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then by the cross of spiritual self- sacrifice, the cross borne with Christ, into the very presence of the King. Nothing else can bear him thither. He must pray," Thy will be done," before he asks, "Give us this day our daily bread." He must learn from the suffering Lord the inner meaning of his own holy prayer. "Not my will, but thine be done." He must remember that the cross is the cross of Christ; that the Lord, who was himself lifted up upon the cross sends the cross to his followers to lift them also upwards ; that, purified and refin.;a by holy self-denials, and by suffering meekly borne, they may at length be with him where he is, and behold his glory, and sit with him in his throne (Rev. iii. 21). i\. The guard. 'L'he king had sent his own guard to escort the bride to her new home. King David had a guard of thirty mighty men; Solomon, it seems, had double the number. .All were expert in war; all bore the sword because of fear in the night. Frum Ps. L, e~pecially vers. 7-10, we learn that parts of Palestine were in David's OH, Ill, 1-11,] THE SONG OF SOLOMON. 81