THE CHARGE
I charge you,
O ye daughters of Jerusalem;
If ye find my beloved,
That ye tell him that I am sick of love.
Shulamite probably still relates her dream. Receiving stripes instead of sympathy from the watchmen, she addressed herself to the women of the city. Such incongruities natural in a dream. The language that of—
1. Intense concern: ‘I charge you,’ &c. A kind of adjuration, as in chap. Song of Solomon 2:7; Song of Solomon 3:5; Song of Solomon 8:4; indicative of the unity of the poem. Observe—
(1) The soul seeking a missing Saviour, glad to find sympathy and obtain help wherever it can. Necessity neglects no means.
(2) Sad to find private Christians more sympathizing and helpful to exercised souls than the ministers of the Word.
(3) Backsliding makes a believer an inquirer when he ought to have been a teacher. Guilt seals a believer’s lips, which only a renewed sense of pardon can open (Psalms 51:12-15).
(4) In darkness and desertion, others supposed to know better how and where to find Christ, and to have more access to Him, than the soul who is seeking Him.
(5) Young believers sometimes found to have nearer access to Christ, and more sensible communion with Him, than those of greater experience. The strongest believers sometimes in a condition to be assisted by the weakest (Romans 1:12). Times when the believer feels unable directly to address himself as usual to the Saviour. Power to pray not always present with the desire to pray.
(6) The duty and privilege of earnest seekers of Jesus to request the prayers and assistance of others. Pride often the hindrance to the anxious soul obtaining peace.
(7) Communion with Christians often the best way of finding a missing Christ. Believers to be able and ready to help others to find the Saviour.
2. Shulamite’s language indicative of confusion and distraction. ‘If ye find my beloved, that ye tell him,’ &c.; literally: ‘What shall ye tell him? that I am sick of love.’ Hardly knows what she wants, and what message to send, or how to express her feelings. A state of great perturbation and perplexity natural to a soul seeking a loved but offended and missing Saviour. Shulamite’s present case realized in Mary weeping beside the empty tomb, and addressing Jesus Himself as if He were the gardener: ‘Sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away’ (John 20:14-15). Neither knowing to whom she spoke, nor what she said. Her soul absorbed with one thought, and not even naming the object of her search.
3. Her language that of ardent affection. ‘Tell him that I am sick of love.’ Formerly said in the enjoyment of Christ’s presence; now in distress for His absence (chap. Song of Solomon 2:5). Love to Christ not dependent on present enjoyment, or confined to happy frames. Pursues Him when absent, as well as rejoices in Him when present. Observe, in reference to
Love-sickness for Christ,
That it is—
1. Natural and reasonable. This true, whether the sickness arise from the overpowering enjoyment of Christ’s presence, as in chap. Song of Solomon 2:5; or, as here, from the painful sense of His absence. No reason in nature why love-sickness should exist in reference to an imperfect creature, and not to the all-perfect Creator, who has, at the same time in His love to me, become my Brother. Natural that the more excellent, lovely, and loving the object of our love, the more intense and ardent that love should be. Love due from an intelligent creature to the infinitely excellent Creator. That love not to be a cold and languid, lukewarm and formal love; but one ardent and intense—with all the heart, and soul, and strength, and mind—with all the affection which He has Himself implanted in our nature, and of which He is infinitely worthy (Revelation 3:15-16). The claims of a Creator upon our most ardent love unspeakably enhanced by those of a Redeemer. An evidence how far sin has blinded the mind, depraved the heart, and deadened the soul, that love-sickness for Christ is not as extensively experienced as the Bible is read and the Gospel preached. If the Creator, who is love and excellence itself, humbling Himself, in love, for the deliverance and happiness of His creatures, so as to assume those creatures’ nature, and in that nature to be bound and spit upon, scourged and crucified—is not ardently loved by those who profess to believe they have been the objects of suck love, the only reason must be that what the Bible declares about man’s heart is true, that it is ‘deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.’ The day will declare what every truly awakened and enlightened soul even now sees to be true, that it is man’s sin and shame that a creature should be loved with greater warmth, and longed for with greater intensity, than the Creator who died for them; and that the sentence pronounced by the inspired Apostle, and recorded in the Bible, is just: ‘If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed’ (1 Corinthians 16:22).
2. Blessed and desirable. A love sickness according to truth and righteousness, and sure to obtain its end. A pain which those who feel it would not exchange, even for a moment, for all the pleasures of the world and sin during a lifetime. Ask Mary weeping at the empty grave, and the woman of the city washing the Saviour’s feet with her tears. Love-sickness for Christ one of the evidences of spiritual health. Good to carry such sickness with us to the grave. Death only welcome and agreeable to those who love and long for Christ. Paul’s experience: ‘I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.’ Death necessarily gain to the lovers of Christ, as it brings them to the sight and presence of Him ‘whom having not seen they loved’ (1 Peter 1:8; 1 John 3:2). One of the strongest proofs of Christ’s love to a soul is to make that soul sick of love for Himself. The prayer of Dr. Chalmers that of true enlightenment: ‘O God, spiritualize my affections: Give me an ardent love to Christ.’