Morning By Morning #235

O daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you—if you find my lover, what will you tell him? Tell him I am faint with love.

Song of Songs 5:8

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

This verse is the sentiment of every believer who thirsts for close fellowship with Jesus; he is “faint with love,” longing for his Lord. Believers’ souls are never perfectly at peace unless they are in a condition of closeness to Christ, for when they are away from Him, they lose their peace. The closer to Him, the closer they are to the perfect calm of heaven. The closer to Him, the more their heart is filled not only with peace but also with life, strength, and joy, for each of these depends on continual fellowship with Jesus. What the sun is to the day, the moon is to the night, and what the dew is to the flower, Jesus Christ is to us. What bread is to the hungry, clothing is to the naked, and what the shadow of a large rock is to a traveler in the desert, Jesus Christ is to us.

Therefore, if we are not consciously one with Him, it is little wonder our spirit cries out in the words of the Song of Songs, “O daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you—if you find my lover…tell him I am faint with love.” This intense longing for Jesus has a blessing attached to it: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matt. 5:6), and, therefore, supremely blessed are they who thirst after the Righteous One Himself. And blessed is that “hunger and thirst” because it comes from God, and if I am not experiencing the blessing of being completely filled, I will eagerly continue to seek that blessing in my emptiness until I am filled with Christ. And if I could not feed on Jesus, the next best thing to that heavenly condition would be to “hunger and thirst” after Him.

There is a holiness about that hunger because it truly shines among the beatitudes of our Lord. But the blessing also includes a promise, for “those who hunger and thirst…will be filled” (Matt. 5:6) with what they are desiring. Thus, if Christ causes us to long for Him, He will certainly satisfy those longings. And when He does come to us—and come He will—oh, how sweet it will be!

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

King David, “a man after [God’s] own heart,” wrote the following psalm when he was in the desert during the time his son Absalom was conspiring against him. What a great example of thirsting for God! May these words of David and the following prayer of Isaiah be our prayer this morning:

“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me” (Ps. 63:1 – 8).

“You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you…Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts. My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you” (Isa. 26:3, 8 – 9).