Song of Songs Verse 6 - Part 2 Passionate Abiding

Well, God called an audible this morning for me, as we were thinking we might move on to verse 7, but he had me go back to verse 6 and dig around more.

Oh my goodness, what a harvest. Is in verse 6 as you know our quest here so far as we're entering into this whole idea of the song of songs is how does this how does this represent the statutes you know these things that are engraved on our hearts so to speak these things that are obviously have to do with our marriage to Christ and our proximity to him. And so there's clearly in this verse 6 much that we have not dug into specifically the two words that we didn't talk about yesterday much being vineyard and kept so you know those both being very much Bible words and very much significant when it comes to the idea of statutes, especially the way that Solomon wrote these words.

And so it's just spectacular to think from my standpoint and how many different places you can find these ideas. Number one is in Genesis right because the very first thing that got kept according to God was Adam was put in the garden to keep it, but that word keep is a different word than Solomon use here. However, there was certainly a garden and the idea of a garden and the idea of a vineyard is throughout no doubt the song of Solomon, but think how much the idea of the vineyard is and you know, so I'm just going to read this verse again in English.

We're going to dig into it some more so verse 6 in the song of Solomon chapter 1 look not upon me because I am black because the son had looked upon me my mother's children were angry with me. Made me a keeper of the vineyards, but mine own Vineyard have I not kept so interestingly the word that Solomon uses for keep here is so different than normally that the word would be used for keep. And specifically to get down into that and you know, the Hebrew of that word is spectacular. I mean, it's just it's not used as a keeper except here in this particular set of verses because usually it has to do with being angry and it fits in so well with the passion through which, you know, Solomon uses throughout this book. I mean everything is the passionate form of something and so the word that he uses for keep here I suppose would be pronounced netter.

But anyway, the way that it's spelled is what's significant to me. It starts with a nun where the word kept or I would keep statutes and that kind of thing is usually Shamar which would be a shin instead of a nun. But this word starts with a nun and if you think about it the word the nun of the letter nun and the word nun has so much to do with faith and I want to get back to since we're talking about statutes. If you remember the miracle verse in the letter nun says I've inclined my hearts to keep thy statutes always even unto the end. In other words, here is this talk about something to keep. And so, you know, when he uses this idea here of keeping has got so much more passion than it has to do with, like I said, in many cases anger.

And so here, how do we keep our gardens? And you can't help but think, right, of John 15. And John 15 is so glorious when it comes to this idea of the vineyard. And just to go back to the idea of John 15 and statutes and commandments I think has everything to do with our study here. Because as you look at what Jesus said obviously I am the vine you are the branches and the idea of vines and branches is so huge to what we've been talking about all throughout the 119 Psalm and now in this. So picking it up in verse 7 because it seems so close to what God is teaching me it says if you abide in me and my words abide in you you shall ask whatever you will and it shall be done unto you.

In other words, if his words abide in you and here we have I think so much this idea of, you know, what we believe. And also, you know, as you're memorizing scripture or as you're thinking about scripture as you're meditating on it the words abide in you and as they abide in you that becomes these statutes and the idea of this vineyard. And of course, you know, it starts off with I am a vine and you are the branches and you can't help but see again the Psalm 80 that King David wrote that obviously Solomon would be aware of when he wrote this whole idea about the vineyard and the vineyard and the sheep come together in so many different ways in Psalm 80. So we'll just pick up Psalm 80 here in verse 8 thou has brought a vine out of Egypt thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it thou preparest room before it and did cause it to take deep root and it filled the land the hills were covered with the shadow of it and its bows thereof were like the goodly cedars. And again, you read the rest of this 80th Psalm, you can see how much it has to do with this this idea and clearly, interestingly, one of the places where he mentions branches, he actually even uses sun that is, you know, that this is the vine is the sun in so many different ways and is also the word of God in so many different ways. And so as we abide, you know, the idea of the word of God is this vine, it just isn't. So, you know, if we get deeper in the word, if we abide deeper in the word, if we do all those things, you know, here we are going to bear much fruit, which is the idea of this. And very fascinatingly, if you'll note, as we study this verse six, it will very quickly turn to sheep. And so, you know, because the next thing they want to know is how to abide, right? Well, we're going to get to that verse tomorrow.

But I think it's more than fascinating. I just want to, you know, just start out by saying how cool is it that we're going to use these two metaphors that are used clearly throughout the scriptures to be? That's what the holiness of this book is all about.

To me, Solomon hones right in on the things that Jesus would teach about and give us a better understanding than ever of how these things fit together. So as we're thinking about, you know, the whole idea here of are we being forced to keep or to guard with our passion or have faith because the difference between the way we normally would say keep and the word that Solomon used here is where's your faith? Do you believe in what you're doing? In other words, and this idea of faith is this idea of is this word dying for to you? I mean, do you believe so passionately that you would guard this with your very life? And again, this guard that Solomon uses is a spectacularly passionate word. And so, you know, if we're guarding somebody else's vineyard and we really, really believe in it, then is it of God?

Is it our vineyard too? And so, you know, I feel very blessed to work for Truth Broadcasting where we guard the word of God in so many different ways. And so, you know, in a way it's to Epperson's Vineyard, but I can definitely tell you knowings too as I do that it's Jesus's vineyard that we're working on here and working on keeping his word and tending that particular vine. And so as we do that, you know, we are going to seek the shepherd, which we'll get to tomorrow. You know, but I didn't want to leave these ideas behind because they're so clearly connected to this idea of statutes that we're in search of is how can we see, you know, what it is that we are supposed to be meditating on?

What are we're supposed to be keeping when it comes to these statutes? And here we have this whole idea of Jesus, the vine and the branches where we're so well explained that how we, you know, apart from him, we can do nothing. And, you know, if his words abide in us and the word abide, abide, abide, abide, and all of this has to do with faith, but I would be remiss if I didn't share one other really, really cool thing is the word vine in Hebrew is a gimel and a pay and a nun.

Okay. So when you think about that gimel, right, deal bountifully with thy server, that's the gimel section of the 119 Psalm, which clearly a vine deals bountifully with us. And in fact, you can go through the whole gimel section and think about it. It's worth just meditating on looking at the gimel section and thinking about how Jesus is divine.

And he does that. But the last verse in the gimel section, you might remember is thy testimonies are my delight and the men of my counsel. In other words, it's his story that he is taking to us and the letter pay, which is the second letter in the word vine, has everything to do with his presence. Remember, turn thy face upon thy servant and all that stuff is all in the pay section, right?

And rivers of waters run down mine eyes for they keep not thy law. Again, very connected to the vine there. And then, of course, the nun is how that word ends, vine. Okay. And it's a final nun, which looks like a nail, by the way. And so that nun again, we talked about the miracle verse in the letter nun, which again is that word vine is I've inclined my heart to keep thy statutes always, even unto the end. Thanks for listening.