Song 3:1-5 – Draw near to God

In Song 2:10-13, the Shulamite was beckoned to arise and follow her beloved to a place of serenity to commune. In fact, the beloved pled with her to come along. Winter, he said, is over. The time of spiritual hibernation has passed. No more sleeping and relaxing. The new season of spring of potential spiritual growth has arrived. At least this is what is being portrayed here poetically. The beloved admonished the Shulamite to draw near and follow him. Just as Jesus, our beloved, calls us to follow Him. Spring is a picture of renewal, revival, and restoration. We need to discern the time of the season and seize the springtime of spiritual opportunity and arise and follow the Lord. Verses 12-13 say: 

The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
The fig tree ripens its figs, and the vines are in blossom;
They give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.

Unfortunately, resting content in the cleft of the rock, the Shulamite did not budge. In Song 2:14. We saw how her beloved pleaded with her to come with him. His desire was to meet her, see her face and hear her voice. This is how much Jesus our Shepherd desires our fellowship. We have to make time for Him. If we don’t make the time for Him as He beckons us to move along with Him, we will wake up one day feeling lost. When we don’t make time for Him over a prolonged period of time, we will eventually lose the sense of His presence in our life. Spiritual opportunity must be seized. We must learn to make the best of the moment. If we don’t take advantage of the opportunity and move in tandem with the Lord, we find that we may be lagging behind. This was precisely what the Shulamite maiden felt with her beloved in Song 3:1-5

Because of her passivity, there came a time the Shulamite felt a sense of loss. Her beloved had gone on ahead and didn’t appear. She went to bed night after night longing for him. Suffering from insomnia, sleep eluded her. She thought about him much but could not sense his nearness. Feeling a sense of loss she got up often to peer through her window looking out for her beloved, but he was nowhere near. So, she laments and reproaches herself.  

Unable to stand the feeling of her beloved’s absence, she soon got up and went about desperately searching for him. She went about the city and the streets looking for her beloved, the one whom her soul loves. Sadly, her search was fruitless and she could not find him. Fortunately, she stumbled across some kind souls, the watchmen. In our vernacular, they would be the leaders of the church, the pastors. Wanting to know where she could find her beloved, she asked: “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?” Verse 4 suggests that the watchmen must have wisely counselled her to follow the trail of the shepherd. For shortly after she left the watchmen, she found the one whom her soul loves.  

So precious is the beloved to her that when she found him, she would not let him go. She took him into her mother’s house. This could be a suggestion that she had the approval of her mother. It’s a poetic way of saying that her expression of love for her beloved shepherd is set on the ground of chastity and purity. Contrast this to the opening scene in the palace where the maiden of the harem sought the opportunity to fulfil their unremitting lust for Solomon. It is no wonder that Solomon tried so frenziedly to win her affection.  

As she reminisces those precious moments in the blissful company of her beloved, her inner being once again felt the ecstasy and exhilaration of those times. Her plea in Song 3:5 is the same as in Song 2:17, “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the does of the field, that you not stir up, nor awaken (my) love, until it pleases.” As she recounts her experience to the maiden of the harem, she was, in fact, celebrating the preciousness of pure, spontaneous affection.  

We must celebrate the pure love and affection that we have with Jesus, the lover of our soul. Making time for Him is priceless. Relationship with Him needs time to cultivate. If we fail to do so, there may come a time when we feel a distance from Him. The Lord has a plan for our spiritual progress. If we do not seek time to be with Him we won’t know how to advance with Him. His promise to us in James 4:8 is that if we “…draw near to Him and He will draw near to us.” So, we must draw near to Him, every moment of life!