Song of Solomon 8:12

My vineyard, which is Mine, is before Me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.

Christ’s love for His vineyard

You are aware that these Canticles are responsive songs,--that one sentence is uttered by Solomon, and the next by Solyma, his spouse. We believe that, in this “Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s,” we also hear Christ speaking to His Church, His bride, and the Church responding to His words of love in tones which His love has suggested to her. The fact that it is a responsive song sometimes renders it the more difficult to understand, because it is not easy, in every case, to discover whether it is Solomon or Solyma--Christ or His Church--that is speaking. The first sentence in our text is just of that character; it may be Christ who says, “My vineyard, which is Mine, is before Me;” or it may be His Church which is saying, “My vineyard, which is mine, is before me.” With regard to the latter part of the verse, we have no difficulty, for we can see, upon the very face of it, that it is addressed by the spouse, the bride, to her Divine Bridegroom, to whom she says, “Thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand.”

I. Let us look at the first sentence: “My vineyard, which is Mine, is before Me.” We have no difficulty in understanding that this vineyard is Christ’s Church. The Master here, then, claims a special property in His Church. Twice does He mention that claim: “My vineyard, which is Mine,” as if He meant to assert His rights, and to maintain them against all comers; being ready to defend them in Heaven’s High Court of Chancery, or before all the hosts of His enemies who might seek to snatch His inheritance from Him. “Whatever is not Mine,” saith the Divine Lover, “My Church is. She is so mine that, if I gave up Lebanon, if I should renounce Bashan, and give up all the rest of My possessions, I must retain Zion, My vineyard, My best-beloved.” First, He claims the Church as His own by His Father’s gift. You know that the Church is the property of all the three Persons of the holy and blessed Trinity. She is the Father’s property by election; she is the Son’s property by donation, passing from the hand of the Father to that of the Mediator; and, then, the Church is the Spirit’s by His indwelling and inhabitation; so that all three of the Divine Persons have a right to the Church for some special office which they exercise towards her. So Christ claims His Church as His Father’s gift, a love-token, a reward, a sign of the Father’s favour and regard towards Him. Next, Christ’s Church is His by purchase. More than this, the Church is Christ’s by one other He, which, perhaps, makes it dearer still to Him. She is His bride, His spouse. But we must pass on to notice that, in the first sentence of our text, we are not only told about Christ’s special right to His Church, but also about His special care and observation of her: “My vineyard, which is Mine, is before Me.” The Church is “before” Christ in the sense that He so loves her that He never has her out of His presence. The vineyard is so dear to the Husbandman that He never leaves it. His Church may be willing to endure His absence for a while, but He loves her so much that He cannot bear to be away from her. He will always pour upon her the beams of His love, and ever fix upon her the affection of His whole heart. The expression, “My vineyard, which is Mine, is before Me,” may also mean that Jesus is always caring for it, as well as always loving it. There is also, in this expression, not only the sense of love and care, but also of knowledge: “My vineyard, which is Mine, is before Me. Christ knows every vine in the vineyard, and He knows all the fruit that is on each vine, and how much there was last year, and how much there will be in years to come.

II. Now, regard this first sentence of our text as the language of the Church itself. According to the eleventh verse, “Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.” So, dear brethren, every one of us whom the Lord has brought to Himself has a part of His vineyard to keep for Him. We leave the work of saving our souls in higher Hands than our own; but after our souls are saved, then we have a charge to keep, and that charge is, to publish the name and fame of Jesus to the utmost of our power, to seek to bring others under the sound of the Gospel, and to tell them what they must do to be saved.

III. I will now turn to the second part of our text, which is the language of the Church to Her Great Proprietor and Lord: “Thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand”--“must have a thousand.” Whatever others have, our Lord must have Solomon’s portion; “and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.” So, then, in the first place, the fruit of the vineyard belongs to Christ; but, in the second place, both Christ and His Church agree to reward the keepers of the vineyard, and to let them have their two hundred. First, then, all the fruit of the vineyard belongs to Christ, and He must have it. Dwell on that word must, and let each one of you feel the blessed necessity. The ministry must still be powerful, the prayer-meetings must continue to be full of faith and fervour, the members must keep on striving together in love for the extension of Christ’s kingdom, His kingdom must come, and His will must be done on earth as it is heaven. We will not put in an “if” or a “perhaps”; it must be so and we will not be satisfied unless it Is. “Thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand.” Now I will conclude with a few remarks upon the last words of the text: “and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred,” which means that the keepers of the vineyard are to receive a reward. Christ’s ministers are to receive the love, and regard, and esteem of His people for His sake. Our Master is a blessed Paymaster, for He pays us while we are doing His work, in the work itself; He pays us when the work is done, and then lie says that He has only begun to pay us; for, when the whole of our work here is over, we shall enter into His joy, and receive the fulness of our reward. (C. H. Spurgeon.)