Notes
Song of Solomon 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 (Numbers 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 (2 Chronicles 12:1; Isaiah 1:21; Isaiah 5:7; Jeremiah 2:21; Sam. Song of Solomon 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.
PART FOURTH
The Coolness and its Consequences
CHAPTER 5 Song of Solomon 5:2.—CHAPTER 6 Song of Solomon 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
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 (Judges 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 (Revelation 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
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 (Revelation 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 (Genesis 3:14; 2 Timothy 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 (Revelation 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 (Psalms 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’ (John 7:53; John 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?