Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.
The Church is still going on in her discourse in this verse: and her address is still to him, whose name is as ointment poured forth. The verse opens with a petition to the Lord, draw me. As if conscious, that without this precious act of sovereign grace, and which is literally the case, the church could not come to Jesus. It is a promise of Jehovah, arising from his everlasting love, to draw his people. I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Jeremiah 31:3. And our Lord Jesus hath laid so much stress upon those drawings of the Father, that he expressly saith: no man can came unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him. John 6:44. and again repeated to show its importance, verse John 6:65. But, as if to show at once that one-ness in the Godhead, which Jesus hath with the Father, and to encourage the poor sinner which like the Church here desires to be drawn to Christ, Jesus himself sweetly promised in his gospel, that when he was lifted up upon his cross all his redeemed ones he would draw to himself. John 12:32. Reader! do you know what those gracious drawings mean in your own experience? Have you felt your heart constrained to come to Jesus Christ for life and for salvation, convinced by the Holy Ghost that you need his salvation, and that without it you are lost forever. If so, you will be able to describe, better than any form of words I can make use of, what that sovereign and effectual grace is, which totally differs from all moral persuasion, and which sweetly constrains the soul to fly out of itself into the arms of Jesus, for pardon, mercy, and peace, in the blood of his cross. You will then be able to tell me, how the Lord wrought upon your heart, how divinely he taught you the evil of sin, and loveliness of Jesus: and led out your whole soul upon his person and righteousness. And since the first drawings of his love, how he now at times inclines your whole soul to desire nearer communion with him, and more frequent manifestations of himself; and to keep you from ever more being drawn away by the world, by the suggestions of Satan, or the remains of indwelling corruption in your own heart, from Jesus, the sole object of your love. See David's desire to this effect, Psalms 27:4
But we should observe on this verse, that while the church prays to be drawn to Jesus, she promiseth for herself and companions (perhaps the virgins before spoken of) that they will run after him. Draw me, we will run after thee. When she says draw me, we will run after thee; the Church did not mean to say that the drawing of her would incline all to run, unless indeed we consider the Church in this place, as the collected body of believers, and then the doctrine is sweet and consolatory. For the Church as one made up of the whole body, of which Jesus is the head, is his fulness. Ephesians 1:23, But without reading the passage in this sense, it will follow that the drawings of the Lord are necessary for every individual member of his mystical body. There is a great beauty in the expression running after Christ. Not simply running to him once for protection, but always pursuing him: following the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. Revelation 14:4. Cleaving to him, as Moses expresseth it. Deuteronomy 10:20; or as Isaiah hath it, hanging upon him all the glory of his Father's house. Isaiah 22:24. It is in this sense David meant it no doubt, when he said; / will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart. Psalms 119:32
The next clause in the verse seems to carry with it an idea, that her request hath been heard and answered: for the Church saith, the king hath brought me into his chambers. And this proves the truth of that most blessed promise: And it shall come to pass that before they call I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. Isaiah 65:24
By the King, as hath before been observed, can be meant no other than the Lord Jesus. And by the Church distinguishing him, peculiarly by this title in the very opening of her song is meant, no doubt, to show the sovereignty of Jehovah in redemption. It is beautiful if we consider the title given, in the very commencement of the communion and fellowship between Christ and his Church, on this account, as referring the whole into the Lord's supremacy. When a poor sinner in the after stages of his warfare is enabled to look back and trace sovereign power in the founding of salvation; whatever difficulties then occur, he feels a proportioned confidence in the issue of every event. Is it not Jehovah that hath founded Zion, and shall not the poor of his people trust in it? Isaiah 14:32. Can anything undo his purposes, or make him alter the plan of his counsel Hath he said, and shall he not do it: or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Numbers 23:19. Oh! Reader it is very sweet in times of trial to rest upon the sovereignty of God, and his faithfulness in the promise: for then, like the prophet, the soul can sing; The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. Zephaniah 3:17. Reader! what are your views of this glorious, this sovereign, this almighty king Jesus? Do you know him in his Godhead, as one with the Father over all, God blessed forever? Do you know him as the God-man Mediator, to whom as the constituted head of his Church an universal empire is his, in heaven and in earth; the sovereign of angels, of all worlds, of heaven, hell, death, and the grave? He saith himself, all power is mine in heaven and in earth. And he hath not only received a kingdom which cannot be moved, from the gift of his Father; but by his blood and the conquests of his grace he hath purchased to himself universal and everlasting dominion. Doth my Reader's heart, with holy joy, bend to the sceptre of his kingly throne? And doth his tongue as gladly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father? This is made one striking mark of his people, and confirmed by the solemnity of Jehovah's own asseveration. Isaiah 45:23
By the king's having brought the Church into his chambers, we may understand that the marriage between Christ and his Church is consummated. The union is formed. The poor sinner is one in Christ Jesus. The Son of God hath accomplished the long planned object of redemption. From the gift of his Father, the purchase of his blood, and the conquests of his Spirit, he hath now brought home his bride the Church, hath led her into his chambers, made her savingly acquainted with the treasures of his grace, and put her in possession of all his promises, which neither death, nor hell, no, nor the unbelief of her own heart shall finally deprive her of. Well might the prophet in the contemplation cry out; Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath done it; shout ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel. Isaiah 44:23. I beg the Reader particularly to remark with me the delightful expression in this part of the verse, the king hath brought the Church into his chambers. Not that the Church found her way there, neither of herself came there; but the king brought her there. Yes! thou dearest Jesus! thou must bring thy people in, or they will never come. It is thou that hast opened a new and living way for us through thy blood. And the way thou hast once opened by thy blood, thou ever livest to keep open by thy power, and the all prevailing efficacy of thy merits, death, and intercession; but unless thou bring us in, and by the sovereignty of thy Holy Spirit lead our souls by the hand into thy presence, and the presence of God our Father; never would any of thy people draw nigh in their own strength and merit. Reader! I trust the Lord hath taught you this precious truth; that having the sentence if death in ourselves we may not trust in ourselves, but in him that raiseth the dead. 2 Corinthians 1:9
But what are those chambers into which the king brings his Church and people? Not those mansions above, I apprehend, which Jesus is gone before to take possession of in his Church's name, and whence he will come again by and by to take his people to himself. Though believers now, may truly be said by faith to rest in Jesus; for he is the rest wherewith he causeth the weary to rest, and he is their refreshing. Isaiah 28:12. But concerning our everlasting home it may be said of this, as Moses told Israel in the wilderness: ye are not as yet come to the rest, and to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you. Deuteronomy 12:9. Those chambers of the king therefore seem to mean, acquaintance, and knowledge, and communion, into which the Lord brings poor sinners when he shows them his covenant: when he reveals to them his love, and brings them more intimately acquainted with their own corruptions, and their need of him: when he opens to them the scriptures of truth: pours out upon them the gracious manifestations of himself: gives them ravishing views of his glory, and in short, reveals himself to them otherwise than he doeth to the world. John 14:22. Reader! hath our king Jesus in any of those ways brought you into his chambers?
The joy of those spoken of in this verse, is the next point to be regarded. We will be glad and rejoice in thee: that is, in Christ. But who the persons are that are said here to be glad and rejoice in Christ, is not said; though it should seem from what was related before, that it means the virgins, or believers in Jesus. And there is indeed enough cause to be glad, and to rejoice in him. His person, his salvation, his love to his people; his great undertaking for them, and his accomplishment of it: everything indeed relating to Jesus furnisheth subject for joy. When we consider what he is in himself, what he is to his Church, what he hath wrought, what he will perform, and what will be the everlasting source of happiness in him; these thoughts furnish endless matter of rejoicing, so that well might the virgins be said to express themselves in the words of this verse: we will be glad and rejoice in thee. Reader! what saith your heart to the same? Have you ever contemplated the Lamb of God in his own spotless purity? Have you ever beheld him taking away sin, by the sacrifice of himself? Have you looked at our Jesus and contemplated him under all his endearing characters, bringing in his Church as the king into his chambers: acting as the High Priest in making atonement for his people by his blood, and pleading their cause by his complete righteousness and intercession? And as the great prophet of his Church teaching by his Holy Spirit all things, and guiding and leading into all truth? Do you behold him who is thus set forth in his blessed word, and do you not find your heart going forth in the same earnestness as the virgins: We will be glad and rejoice in thee.
But this is not all. It is added: we will remember thy love more than wine. Hath not this an allusion to the ordinance of the supper? The Lord hath made in this mountain a feast to all people, of wine on the lees well refined. Isaiah 25:6. But saith the believing soul, the remembrance of Jesus love shall more exhilarate my soul; than the strongest, richest, wine. Reader! it is one thing to have communion with the cup at the table, and another to have fellowship with Jesus in his blood. In that sacred service are your eyes singly to him, and his person, whom God hath set forth a propitiation through faith, in his blood? Romans 3:25
The last clause of this verse is, The upright love thee. By the upright we may suppose are meant, sincere followers of Jesus. David calls them the undefiled in the way, and that walk in the law of the Lord. Psalms 119:1. Precious souls who have given in their names to. Jesus, and will not go back. The book of Ruth furnisheth a beautiful example of the kind in the person of that converted Moabite. The language of every true believer in Christ corresponds to what she said to Naomi. Intreat me not (she said) to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me. Ruth 1:16-17.