The Song of Songs, chapter five, verses two through 16. This is the word of the Lord. I slept, but my heart was awake. A sound, my beloved is knocking. Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one. For my head is wet with dew, my locks with the drops of the night. I had put off my garment, how could I put it on? I had bathed my feet, how could I soil them? My beloved put his hands to the latch, and my heart was thrilled within me. I arose to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh on the handles of the bolt. I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone. My soul failed me when he spoke. I sought him, but found him not. I called him, but he gave no answer. The watchman found me as they went about in the city. They beat me, they bruised me, they took away my veil, those watchmen of the walls. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, let you tell him I am sick with love. What is your beloved more than another beloved, O most beautiful among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved that you thus adjure us? My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among 10,000. His head is the finest gold. His locks are wavy black as a raven. His eyes are like doves beside streams of water, bathed in milk, sitting beside a full pool. His cheeks are like beds of spices, mounds of sweet-smelling herbs. His lips are lilies dripping liquid myrrh. His arms are rods of gold set with jewels. His body is polished ivory bedecked with sapphires. His legs are alabaster columns set on bases of gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet. And he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved. And this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. Let us pray. Our Lord and our God, bless your word as it is read and proclaimed. May we hear the voice of your son and respond to him as we ought. We ask in his name. Amen. We have said that verses two through eight of chapter five form the lowest point in the song of songs. For it is here that we find the bride beaten and bruised and stripped. And as if this were not sorrow enough, it has come at the hands of the watchmen, those watchmen of the walls who were meant to protect and not to harm. But as we have also said, here in this lowest place of the song, We see not only love's height, but also its depth. Here, the bride's love is tested. Here, it is tried. And here, it is proved. It is proved genuine. For now we see that the bride is willing to suffer. She is willing to suffer the loss of all things for the sake of her beloved. She is willing to suffer even death for the sake of his love. What is the longing of her heart in the midst of this her suffering. She does not ask for vengeance. She does not seek recompense. She asks for one thing only. She asks only for her bridegroom. She seeks nothing other than his love. For here she is sick with love. And nothing other than his love can heal her. See the bridegroom's love. His love brings healing. Those who know it, they are healed by it. And even if one should suffer loss for it, we find that with his love, nothing has truly been lost, but all has been gained. Such is the love of the bridegroom. Such is the love of Christ. And even though we now do not see him, even though we now do not hear him, even now his love beckons us and strengthens us that we may endure. For his love, it is the one thing we would not lose. We would lose all else for its sake. All the sufferings of this world, they are not worth comparing with his love. Yet to others, It may seem like madness. Who is this Beloved? What is your Beloved more than another Beloved? What is your Beloved more than another Beloved that you adjure us thus? How does the bride respond? Now the bride's suffering and sorrow, it has turned to praise as she extols her beloved and declares the whole of his worth. My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among 10,000. Her beloved is radiant, light shines from him. And as she praises him, we can see even in these depths of sorrow, even in this darkness of night, that she has become radiant and her face is made to shine. As she praises and extols her beloved, And so it is, a church's worship on earth. As the bride extols the bridegroom. As her sorrow and grief is turned to praise. We become like him. When we worship Him, when we praise Him, when we exalt Him and exult in Him, we are transformed by Him. Even in the midst of sorrow, the worship of Him brings joy. As we worship him here in the midst of trial and tribulation, we are kept from despair and we are brought closer to glory. We hear in these words of the bride, the words of the psalmist, Psalm 34, I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed. As the bride looks to her beloved, though she cannot see him, as she looks to him, as she extols him, she becomes radiant because he is radiant. You see, we become what we worship. we become what we love. As the bride sings of her beloved, as she extols the bridegroom, we find in her words the image of Christ. We see this in various ways, some that are perhaps more obvious and others more hidden. Perhaps the most obvious is in verse 10. My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among 10,000. These words They may sound familiar. They may remind us of David, the Lord's anointed, a man after God's own heart. When we first meet David in scripture, how is he described? In 1 Samuel, he is described for us as ruddy, and handsome. His skin was not pale, it was ruddy, it was reddish, as may happen to one whose skin is bathed in light. And that was certainly true of David, for he was a shepherd who watched over his father's flock. And why is it that David's son is also radiant? Why is it that David's son is also ruddy? Not because he bathes in the light of the sun, for David's son is also David's Lord. His radiance is greater than the light of the sun, because he bathes in the light of the Father. He is radiant and ruddy. He shines forth the glory of God as the shepherd of his father's flock. And he also is distinguished among 10,000. Remember what the women of Israel sang concerning David. Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his 10,000. If Saul was distinguished among a thousand, David was distinguished among 10,000. And so it is with his son. And so it is with Christ. There is no one like him. We hear in the bride's words, the echoes of David. But we hear the echoes of another as well, an echo that is perhaps less obvious. In verses 11 and 12, the bride speaks of her beloved's locks as being black as a raven and his eyes as being like doves. Now, there is only one other place in Scripture where we find the raven and the dove together in this way. In all the Scriptures, there are only two places where we find them together here in the Song of Psalms and once before in the Book of Genesis. It is after the flood when Noah sends forth from the ark first a raven and then a dove. And Noah, he was so naked in the hope that he would bring his people relief. that he would bring them to rest. And so it is with Christ. Here, his head is crowned with peace. Here, his eyes speak to us peace. His very gaze brings us relief. When we look to him, we find rest. We find rest in him. In these words of the bride, we hear the echoes of David and even of Noah, but we hear the echoes of yet another. We hear the echoes of Adam. of Adam as he was at first in the garden, of Adam as he was when all was well, when all was right. And this should come to us as no surprise, for we have said before that this song, this song of songs, it is a summer of that joy that the man and the woman knew at the beginning of the world. And they became one flesh when they were naked and not ashamed. Here, the bridegroom is described as having a body of gold and as being bedecked with sapphires. This description is very similar to what we hear concerning Adam as he is described by Ezekiel in Ezekiel chapter 28. There we read of Adam dwelling in the garden of God, dwelling on the mountain of God. And we are told that every precious stone was his covering. and that their setting was gold. This language, it should then remind us not only of Adam in the garden, it should remind us also of the priests in the temple. For in verse 13, the bridegroom's lips are said to drip with liquid myrrh. And his arms are said to be set with jewels. And with what was the high priest anointed? But this very thing with liquid myrrh. And what did he bear upon his body? But a breastplate set with jewels. The bride's description of the bridegroom. It is a description of the first man dwelling in the garden. It is a description of the high priest dwelling in the temple. As the woman extols the bridegroom, she then proclaims not only who he is, but also what he is to her. For how has the bride been described? She has been described as a temple, and she has been described as a garden. The description of the woman as a temple and a garden, it matches the description of the bridegroom. as a priest and as a husband. For who has a right to enter the temple? And who has a right to enter a garden? The priest of the temple and the husband of the garden. As the woman extols the bridegroom, she praises him and confesses what he is to her, that he is her priest, that he is her husband, that she belongs to him. and he to her. And so it is with Christ and the church. He is the priest of this temple. He is the husband of this garden. He is the anointed of the Lord He is the one who brings us to rest. But what is he like? And what is it like to be with him? For when we think of those who came before him, Those with whom he is here compared. Adam. He failed. Noah. He failed. David. He failed. And so this one, this beloved, what does he like? As he is here likened to metal and stone, we might think that he is a hard man, that he is a cold man, Cold like metal. Hard like stone. But that is not so. What is he really like? Why is he so desirable? We see it perhaps most clearly in verses 13 and 16. In verse 13, we are told that his fragrance is like beds of spices and mounds of sweet-smelling herbs. See, he is not cold, he is not hard. His presence, it is pleasant. His presence does not push us away. It does not cause us to shrink back in worry or fear. But like the fragrance of spice, it draws us near. Like the aroma of sweet-smelling herbs, it makes us to pause, to rest, to breathe deeply with delight. His lips are like lilies. They are not rough, but smooth. They are not harsh, but gentle. They drip with liquid myrrh. To hear him speak is to be anointed with precious oil. When he opens his lips, his grace is poured out upon us. And so, verse 16, his mouth, his mouth is sweet. In his mouth, there is no bitterness. All the words of his mouth are gracious and true. As he speaks, his words bear the fragrance of his mouth and lips. They are sweet-smelling, they are pleasant. When he opens his mouth, it is always for healing, it is always for love. This is what he is like. This is why he is altogether desirable. Is there anyone like him? Truly those who look to him are radiant. Truly their faces shall never be ashamed. For when we are naked before him, he washes us with his words. He anoints us with his grace. And at last, at long last, we are not ashamed. What is our beloved more than another beloved? This is our beloved. This is our friend. We said before of the watchman that they are to be friends of the bridegroom. And here we see that they are to be friends also of the bride. And in him, we see what it means to be her friend. To look upon her with the radiance of love. such that her face is made to shine, to protect her with hands that bring relief and give rest, to speak to her with words that are gentle, and gracious, and true, and without a trace of bitterness. That by those words she may know the aroma of Christ, the fragrance of his life, and the grace of his love. that she may see him in you, that she would recognize him in you, and at last be led to say, this is my beloved, and this is my friend. What shall we then say? Let us be friends of the bridegroom. And let us be friends of the bride. Amen.