Song of Solomon 5:13a The Smile of Grace and Comfort

This is the Truth Network. Hidden Treasures of the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. Oh, the depths of the Memverse in the fifth chapter. That's so deep. I appreciate your patience with me because I've been diving, diving, diving into the depths of the Memverse.

Um, for a few days to try to get an idea of what all this is and oh my goodness, what it means. You know, I, I, I just want to say that, you know, how beautiful is it that here we have a description of Christ unlike any place else in the Bible. I mean, it goes into great details on all sorts of attributes and if we want to get a good look at God, man, oh man, is there a good look right here and all these different attributes and all these things, they go very, very, very deep. And so, um, I'm going to translate this in English a little bit. I'm, I'm not going to use the King James Version as I normally do because to me, they just took too much poetic license from the Hebrew, um, translate it more like the Hebrews would translate it. So, I'm just doing the first part of verse 13 because again, verse 13 is so deep. Being the Mem, which was Messiah and not normally water and a lot of association with water, we're going to split it into two parts. So, the first part that we're going to just translate here for you, his cheeks are as towers of comforters.

Like what? Or towers of perfumers. That might be another way that you could put it. That's the way the Hebrews translate it as towers of perfumers. So, as we get into these cheeks, I think it's extremely helpful myself. It really helped me interpret the verse was to look at these utterances. And as we talked about that, we were going through these utterances that are in the book of Genesis to get an idea of creation, to see what they may be speaking of here. And when you look at the third utterance in Genesis, in Genesis 1, verse 9, it says, And God said, Let the waters under heaven be gathered together under one place, and let the dry land appear.

And it was so. Well, to understand that is to get so many different things that are so, so, so helpful a verse is how important this is. Because that word gathered together, there is kava in Hebrew. And it is the same word that Isaiah used in that famous passage where, you know, we'll rise up like wings on eagles if we wait on the Lord, right?

And that waiting on the Lord is the word kava. Because as we are gathered into God, you know, we, we can wait because what's happening is as we get gathered, as the waters get gathered together, dry land appears, and we now have a place to rest. And we see this picture throughout the book of Genesis. And then, you know, on into Exodus in several places, this idea of, you know, Jesus calm in the storm, essentially. But when the waters were together, gathered together by Noah, and Noah plays a big part in this particular verse, because Noah was the one who took him through that land. But you might remember that the dove couldn't find a place to rest until the dry land had appeared. And once it had a place to rest, it could walk on a dry ground. Similarly, when the Jews were, you know, under pursuit from the, from the Egyptians, what did God do? He, he gave them dry ground to walk on through the midst of the sea. And that sets a picture of the peace that happens here in this particular verse, because that kava has got so much to do with the Holy Spirit. And I'll explain how. So you might have heard me say before that, that the word grace is Noah spelled backwards.

Okay. And so it's, it's wonderful to think that it's a het and a nun, that, that is the word grace. But if you spell it backwards, you can actually even hear it say Noah, because you got that, that nun, that n sound, and then you have the H. And so the comforter is who? The Holy Spirit, right? And, but who is the first person to found grace in God's eyes? It was Noah because he, he found grace in God's eyes.

Why? Because he was looking for it. But the two words are very much connected and very much connected to this verse because when we look into Jesus's face, there's comfort there that's unbelievable, but the Holy Spirit is the one that shows us the picture. And so I heard a podcast this weekend that really helped me with a lot of this, where they described the Holy Spirit as the holding spirit.

I love that. And the idea is, you know, he holds you, he comforts you, you know, and that's what he does. Well, when he puts you on dry ground, when you're in the midst of the storm, you know, here's the point where he really is the comforter, right? And the idea of grace spelled backwards is Noah is a beautiful thing because here's a hat. In other words, through this, this faith, right? Is, is Jesus loves for us as expressed in his faith in us, right? Because it's a hat and a nun. But if you turn it backwards, then you get our faith leads us back into that marriage.

But our faith is that, is that Holy Spirit that is comforting us and it's leading our faith back into our marriage. Okay. And so when we look at Jesus' cheeks, right? And if we get a good look, and I hope you've been with me through this, I know it seems complicated, but I think it'll come together for you here in a minute. Cause I'm gonna make it real simple. It's Jesus smile.

Okay. His cheeks, when he smiles, he is, he is showing you grace. You are his favorite. He has complete faith in you. He's taken you out of the storm. The Holy Spirit has delivered you there so that you can look full in Jesus' face to see his smile, which is unbelievably comforting.

We are expecting to see a judgmental look, but that isn't what's there at all. And it even takes you back to, you might remember in the very first chapter where it says at the, and again, the King James doesn't, doesn't do a good job of translating this one either, but it says at the company of Pharaoh's horses and chariots, I silenced thee. Well, how did he silence thee in the company of Pharaoh's horses and chariots?

He gave him dry ground to walk on. And then he says, and your cheeks are comely. Right. And why are they comely? Because of the Rose, the, the, the idea of these, of the dimples because of the smile. Well, you know, we reflect Jesus when we smile, when we show somebody else that grace through our smile, that we love them, we have faith in them, that same idea, it comforts them. It's grace spelled backwards is Noah. And I think that's an incredible thing to understand and to see that, Oh my goodness, here, when we're describing Jesus' cheeks, they describe them as towers. Why?

Because they're rising out of the storm, a place, a tower, a rock for us to hang onto of comfort. And then they say perfumer. Well, that word perfumer is beautifully, beautifully, beautifully. Right.

It is, you're going to love this or I love it. I don't know. It is a cuff and a hat. Right. And so this is actually our statutes spelled backwards, spells these spices that come out of this comfort.

Well, of course they do. Right. Because when we are totally comforted, we can give forth this, this wonderful spice.

And when you see Jesus' cheeks like that, you can see that, Oh my goodness, the smell is terrific. It is that idea of statutes because again, if you take hat and cuff in the way it is in statutes, it's there's dear and near. Okay. What's dear to him and what's near to him. Okay. But if you do it the other way, like perfume, it is what's near and dear. Right. And it's, and that, and what's near and dear is also very much connected to this idea of comfort. So as we think about this practically, you know, how does this work out in your life?

Well, I have a perfect example, actually. I can't even believe how cool this is for me. I hope you see it as cool. When I was in Atlanta this weekend, actually Douglasville, Georgia, I had to spend the night and the next day I was to give a gospel presentation to a very large group of probably about 350 people that had come to this car show. And I had prayed all week.

I, you know, it was interesting. I'd spoke at the bull riders event of the cowboy church the week before, and it was cool. Jesus gave me a well in advance, exactly, you know, sort of the plan of what I was to speak on. And, and I'd spent a lot of time with him on that message and was very excited to deliver what I had for the bull riders, but I had been praying and I love, love, love the car show in Douglasville. And I'd been praying all week as I knew I was going to give, you have to give like a five to seven minute presentation.

And those who speak know it's a lot more difficult to prepare a five or seven minute presentation than it is to prepare a half an hour one. So I, you know, I'd been asking, God, where do we go and where are we going? And I'm getting crickets all week. I can't seem to get a sense of where that's going. And interestingly, I was trying to get this podcast together and it was so deep that I couldn't really even get it together. And so I was struggling.

I drove all the way, actually went out on the Appalachian trail and I had a really good night, Friday night. And I was, was in the word and I was studying some things right before I went off to sleep. And I thought I was in a really good place, but then I had a really, a really horrible dream where some things happened that, that I wanted some things I knew I shouldn't want. And as I went into that dream, I literally, uh, fell victim to wanting those things. And when I woke up briefly, oh, I was broken hearted. Like I thought I'd come along. How could I be like, I mean, I just, my heart was broken because here I knew I've got to speak tomorrow on the gospel and here I am, you know, wanting things that I absolutely don't know. You know, I thought I'd gotten past this. And so naturally I began to pray immediately. And as I prayed, Jesus said to me clearly, he says, it's our, it's our union, right? We need to be, you need to be in apart from me.

You can do nothing, Robbie. You've got to get here. And if you can get here with me, right, all your accusers will go away.

Right. That idea I've talked about before, when the Eagle heads towards the sun. And as soon as I knew that that Eagle heading towards the sun, I knew like, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, this is what I'm supposed to speak on is this very idea of you. I'm like apart from you, I can do nothing, but the only way I can get with you is because I can look into the sun because you know, that's the beauty of being covered in your blood is that that blood covers your eyes.

So you can look into the S O N so to speak. And so I got really, really close to Jesus as, as a result of, of our discussion after what, you know, I considered my sin and that dream of, of falling victim for wanting things I shouldn't want. Well, when I woke up early, like, you know, normally do, um, at that, that morning, like at four o'clock before I was to speak, I praise, I always do. And I've always, I love, I love the Lord's prayer.

And so usually when I begin my prayer time, first thing in the morning, I go right to the Lord's prayer. But because Jesus and I had gotten so close through the night based on the events of the dream, et cetera, et cetera. When I said our father, all of a sudden something hit me that I'd never, ever seen before in the Lord's prayers. Many times I prayed it.

I hope you've seen it, but if you haven't, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Like our father is saying, because I was so connected to Jesus. I'm like, Jesus, our father, right. You know, our father, I, you know, like, since we're right here together, praying this, you know, it's our, like Jesus and mine's father. And I'd never, you know, I always thought we prayed in the plural so that, you know, we didn't get all hooked up on the, you know, on ourselves that we want everybody to be with Jesus.

And I do want everybody to be with Jesus, but I never had ever seen it as our father. I never, until Saturday morning. And I got to tell you, it's been such a delight for me since I did it to say our father, right. And the comforter has come. It has brought me to those cheeks, right.

Those towers of comfort. When I was in a really bad place over the weekend and he gave me all this comfort of this grace. You see it, you see it. And then the connection, the hook'em, right.

The idea of statutes, that word hook'em is statutes in Hebrew of that hat of our union and closeness. Well, as I got into this union with Jesus, then all of a sudden our father means something just spectacular. And so, I hope you enjoy that as much as I do. And maybe next time you look, you pray the Lord's prayer and you say our father, man, I hope, I hope you feel that connection to the father. Like you never have before, like I did. So, as I promised, I wanted to come back to the letter Mem.

I know this is long already, but I just wanted to finish it with this particular bow that I think is beautiful, right. This is the Mem verse of the fifth chapter, which the letter Mem has to do with Messiah. We've talked about that very much. It has to do with Mer and Mary and Moses. And that's all because it has to do with water.

Okay. And I just wanted to put the bow on this verse. Do you see how the gathering of these waters brings dry land? Do you see that? And like, do you see why this would be the Mem verse and how important these towers are that are Jesus's cheeks, that are towers of his smile that we can never forget that parts the waters for us? It's just, how beautiful is that? Even as I was thinking about the 23rd Psalm this morning, he leads us beside still waters. In other words, Jesus always, for those he loves, he calms the storm.