“He is Altogether Lovely”

This is the estimate and language of a heart occupied with the beauties and glories of Christ. However the mystic language of “the Song of Songs” may be understood, literally, symbolically, and dispensationally, there is unanimity of thought among all believers and schools of interpretation, that its grand and glowing expressions of love and devotion to its object, can only find their full answer in the occupation of the saint with the Saviour, in the heart’s occupation with Christ.

And this is surely the highest and holiest occupation in which a redeemed and regenerated soul can share on earth. It is good to know the Lord’s salvation; it is better surely to become personally acquainted with the Saviour Himself. It is grand indeed for the redeemed and rescued sinner, to know and enjoy the blessings of redemption, and to sing his song of triumph, and pass on from the blessing to know the Blesser. In the “Song of Songs” personal salvation is assumed throughout. Of the soul’s relationship to Christ no doubts are raised. Acceptance is never questioned. It is “in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6), and unalterable. And so it surely must, for the work and worth of the Son of God, His own Beloved, never vary, never change in the estimate of God and heaven. And so the acceptance of the believing soul in all the virtues of Christ’s person and all the values of Christ’s work; remains for ever the same.

This, faith receives, and here faith rests. The soul is at peace, the heart is at rest, and the Lord Himself becomes the supreme object of the saint’s quest. “To KNOW Him” thus, as He is revealed by the Spirit, whose office is to take of “the things of Christ,” all so well known to Him, and “show them”—making them known by bringing them home as He only can to the heart, so causing it to “burn” as on that resurrection morn, when the living Lord walked with the two disciples on the Emmaus road, and expounded to them in “all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27), is the very highest privilege of the saint. And here—as represented in the mystic Bride—there is the sweet enjoyment of this, and the glorious expression of it in her testimony to His worth. She has seen the beauties of her Lord and Lover, she has marked His moral excellencies, and here, when challenged by the question, “What is thy beloved more than another?” she pours forth in detail her estimate of His worth, and ends with the glowing words, “He is altogether lovely.”

Is it thus with thee, O my soul? Is it the chief business of thy life, to so “behold the beauty of the Lord,” that the heart, aglow with the heavenly vision, shall be ready to utter His praises, and describe His excellencies, on demand and as opportunity occurs, ever and always so, among the children of men? This is surely the highest service, the most powerful testimony that a saint can render, to be ever able and always ready to express from a personal, intelligent, and happy experience of the love and loveliness of the Son of God as Lord and Lover, that all excellency is His—that “He is altogether lovely.”

J.Ri.

Article series: Our Glorious Lord