Song of Solomon 4:12-15

The BRIDEGROOM now delights in the fact that his bride is his, and his alone.

“A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride, A spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits; Henna with spikenard plants, spikenard and saffron, Calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, Myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices. You are a fountain of gardens, A well of living waters, And flowing streams from Lebanon.”

The bridegroom now delights in the fact that his bride is pure and has been kept only for him. She is like an enclosed and locked garden into which no one has been allowed to enter, she is like a spring that has been shut off from men, she is like a fountain that has been sealed so that none can drink from it. She is a pure virgin, who has never known a man. And the contents of that enclosed and locked garden, which he is about to enter, include an orchard of pomegranates, with many precious fruits, henna with spikenard plants, and all the richest spices known to man. And they are all his for the taking. Furthermore she is like a spring that feeds many gardens, a well of living waters, and flowing streams from the mountains of Lebanon. His delight in her is total.

And this is how it should be with us. This is what our lives should be for our Lord, and it is how He wants us to be, with our lives wholly separated in spirit from all that is outside so that they may only produce for His pleasure (Ephesians 1:12; Philippians 1:10) and so that He may enjoy us to the full. He wants to come into our garden so that we may have communion together, and so that He may partake of our fruits. He wants our lives to be lives that give off the savor of life unto life (2 Corinthians 2:15), lives from which should flow rivers of living water (John 7:37). For if we are taken up with Him, we will also be taken up with the work that He wants us to do. Indeed we will be unable to help it, for it will be the inevitable consequence of our closeness to Him.