Category: “Listening to God” Devotional

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=SongofSolomon+003

 

Song of Solomon 3 (ESV)

The Bride’s Dream

¹ On my bed by night
I sought him whom my soul loves;
I sought him, but found him not.
² I will rise now and go about the city,
in the streets and in the squares;
I will seek him whom my soul loves.
I sought him, but found him not.
³ The watchmen found me
as they went about in the city.
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
⁴ Scarcely had I passed them
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him, and would not let him go
until I had brought him into my mother’s house,
and into the chamber of her who conceived me.
⁵ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or the does of the field,
that you not stir up or awaken love
until it pleases.

Solomon Arrives for the Wedding

⁶ What is that coming up from the wilderness
like columns of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
with all the fragrant powders of a merchant?
⁷ Behold, it is the litter of Solomon!
Around it are sixty mighty men,
some of the mighty men of Israel,
⁸ all of them wearing swords
and expert in war,
each with his sword at his thigh,
against terror by night.
⁹ King Solomon made himself a carriage
from the wood of Lebanon.
¹⁰ He made its posts of silver,
its back of gold, its seat of purple;
its interior was inlaid with love
by the daughters of Jerusalem.
¹¹ Go out, O daughters of Zion,
and look upon King Solomon,
with the crown with which his mother crowned him
on the day of his wedding,
on the day of the gladness of his heart.

 
REFLECTION:

• True love requires time—and hard work. It may even include times of searching and insecurity. Verses 1-3 describe some of the insecurities that love can bring. Why would love make us feel this way?
• Do not “stir up or awaken love until it pleases” (v5) is repeated from 2:7. What wisdom do you see in this saying? When are you likely to feel insecure about those you love?
• The wedding procession (vv6-11) in this passage is a time of publicly declaring love before others. What experience in your life confirmed the love someone (that is, the romantic love of a spouse or the love of a friend or family member) has for you? How should you better show your love to those you care about?
• What factors enter into an engaged couple’s decision about how BIG to make their wedding? What was (or would be) the determinative factor in your case?
• On your Big Day, what made your heart skip? Do you still feel that way? Why?

 
PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:
Beloved – youtu.be/6CUGTIWCFyo

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=SongofSolomon+002

 

Song of Solomon 2 (ESV)

She

¹ I am a rose of Sharon,
a lily of the valleys.

He

² As a lily among brambles,
so is my love among the young women.

She

³ As an apple tree among the trees of the forest,
so is my beloved among the young men.
With great delight I sat in his shadow,
and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
⁴ He brought me to the banqueting house,
and his banner over me was love.
⁵ Sustain me with raisins;
refresh me with apples,
for I am sick with love.
⁶ His left hand is under my head,
and his right hand embraces me!
⁷ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or the does of the field,
that you not stir up or awaken love
until it pleases.

The Bride Adores Her Beloved

⁸ The voice of my beloved!
Behold, he comes,
leaping over the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
⁹ My beloved is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Behold, there he stands
behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
looking through the lattice.
¹⁰ My beloved speaks and says to me:
“Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away,
¹¹ for behold, the winter is past;
the rain is over and gone.
¹² The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
¹³ The fig tree ripens its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away.
¹⁴ O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
in the crannies of the cliff,
let me see your face,
let me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.
¹⁵ Catch the foxes for us,
the little foxes
that spoil the vineyards,
for our vineyards are in blossom.”

¹⁶ My beloved is mine, and I am his;
he grazes among the lilies.
¹⁷ Until the day breathes
and the shadows flee,
turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle
or a young stag on cleft mountains.

 
REFLECTION:

• “His left hand is under my head” (v6). Throughout the Song, the woman does not hesitate to express her hope for physical intimacy with the man, and vice versa. The whole book of Song of Solomon acknowledges human yearning for intimacy—in community with others. After all, God created Eve to dispel Adam’s loneliness. And this Song illustrates this yearning at its deepest and most intimate level.
• Verses 10-13 talk about the coming of spring: “the winter is past; the rain is over and gone”. Springtime is the time for love. It’s a time to be outdoors in a private garden. It is a time of new growth and fertility, as well as fragrant smells. Again, the desire to be with the beloved is expressed.
• How does knowing that the Song of Songs is included in Scripture affect your view of married relationships?
• If this lover’s song were an allegory, what image of God and Israel, or Christ and the Church, do you see here? Are you camped under his banner of love (v4)?

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

King of My Heart – www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jkMnq2Hfzo

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=SongofSolomon+001

 

Song of Solomon (or Song of Songs)

Traditional wedding celebrations in the Middle East cast the bride and groom in the roles of a king and his queen. The festivities include love songs and also special songs that praise the physical beauty of the bride or the handsomeness of the groom. The custom has a long history and is reflected in the anthology of wedding songs we know as the Song of Songs. The individual songs may have been used repeatedly in marriage celebrations and eventually gathered together, just as the psalms were collected after years of use in worship. The title Solomon’s Song of Songs can be taken to mean that King Solomon, a renowned composer (see 1 Kings 4:29-34), was the author of its songs. However, it could also be a reference to Solomon as the kind of glorious king the groom represents.

The songs are arranged to tell the courtship story of a man and woman, of their marriage (described as a royal wedding) and its consummation, and of the beginning of their new life together. After a short introduction the book presents six episodes, each typically ending with a reference to the friends of the man and woman. This may refer to others attending the wedding to join in the celebration. Together the songs celebrate the delights of married love and the beauty of the human body, using vivid imagery from the natural world to show that these things are part of the creation that God declared very good.

 

www.bible.com/zh-TW/bible/111/SNG.INTRO1.NIV

 

Song of Solomon 1 (ESV)

¹ The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.

The Bride Confesses Her Love

She

² Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love is better than wine;
³  your anointing oils are fragrant;
your name is oil poured out;
therefore virgins love you.
⁴ Draw me after you; let us run.
The king has brought me into his chambers.

Others

We will exult and rejoice in you;
we will extol your love more than wine;
rightly do they love you.

She

⁵ I am very dark, but lovely,
O daughters of Jerusalem,
like the tents of Kedar,
like the curtains of Solomon.
⁶ Do not gaze at me because I am dark,
because the sun has looked upon me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me;
they made me keeper of the vineyards,
but my own vineyard I have not kept!
⁷ Tell me, you whom my soul loves,
where you pasture your flock,
where you make it lie down at noon;
for why should I be like one who veils herself
beside the flocks of your companions?

Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other

He

⁸ If you do not know,
O most beautiful among women,
follow in the tracks of the flock,
and pasture your young goats
beside the shepherds’ tents.

⁹ I compare you, my love,
to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.
¹⁰ Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments,
your neck with strings of jewels.

Others

¹¹ We will make for you ornaments of gold,
studded with silver.

She

¹² While the king was on his couch,
my nard gave forth its fragrance.
¹³ My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh
that lies between my breasts.
¹⁴ My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
in the vineyards of Engedi.

He

¹⁵ Behold, you are beautiful, my love;
behold, you are beautiful;
your eyes are doves.

She

¹⁶ Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful.
Our couch is green;
¹⁷     the beams of our house are cedar;
our rafters are pine.

 
REFLECTION:

• This chapter begins with the love song between two lovers. What sense do you get from this passage about how the “Beloved” and the “Lover” regard one another? From the images they used to describe each other, what do they reveal about their relationship?
• What fears and insecurities does the Beloved feel (vv3-4, 5-7)? How does the Lover reassure her (vv9-11)?
• This demonstrates a wonderful way to celebrate God’s good gift of sexuality to us. The entire book of Song of Solomon is a beautiful description of young lovers taking great joy in each other. Take some time writing down or telling your spouse how you delight in and appreciate him or her.
• Reflect on your own sexuality and how you respond to this picture of passionate physical love. Talk to God about how you are feeling.

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

You’re Beautiful – youtu.be/aky-FkqH6Ng

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ecclesiastes+012

 

Ecclesiastes 12 (ESV)

¹ Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; ² before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, …

⁷ and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. ⁸ Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity…

¹³ The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. ¹⁴ For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

 

REFLECTION:

1. Ecclesiastes tells us: Without the spirit given by God, our body is nothing but dust; without God’s will, our work will be useless; without God’s love, our ministry will be in vain. We must put God first in everything we do and keep God as the center, because without God there is nothing. A God-centered life is bound to be fulfilling. Even when the “evil days” come, that is, when one cannot enjoy life due to disability or illness in old age, there is still satisfaction because of the hope of eternal life. Young age is beautiful, but if young people just enjoy the pleasure of a moment and abandon things of eternal value, the vitality of youth can also become an obstacle to getting close to God. Consecrate yourself to God while you are still young and strong. Don’t waste your youth on evil and vain activities, and fall into bad habits that make you insensitive. Start trying to seek God now!
2. In the conclusion of the book, Solomon once again warned those who have lost their purpose and direction in life to fear God and obey God’s commandments; to exhort those who believe that life is full of injustices, and remember that God will examine our life. We admit that the world is full of evil, ignorance, and unfairness, but we still have to live our lives with a positive attitude and have strong faith in God. Everyone will stand before God’s judgment seat and be judged for what we have done in our life. We cannot use the ups and downs of life as an excuse for living a frivolous or passive life. To live an upright life, we must (1) admit that all human efforts are futile if we leave God; (2) put God in the first place now; (3) receive the good and perfect gifts from God; (4) know that God will judge all good and evil.

 

PRAYER:

Pray to God for your relatives and friends who have lost their direction in life. Ask God to work through you so that they can know God and reorganize their life direction, seek the value of God’s kingdom, and receive the blessing of eternal life. Ask God to give you the heart to love your neighbour as yourself, willing to sacrifice yourself and be a precious vessel of God in preaching the gospel of repentance.

 

HYMN:

My Worth Is Not In What I Own – https://youtu.be/05jKxv8ApuI

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ecclesiastes+011

 

Ecclesiastes 11 (ESV)

⁹ Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

¹⁰ Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

 

REFLECTION:

These two short verses teach us a very important truth: what we do when we are young has a profound impact on our lives. If you are young, you must be especially cautious not to make mistakes that endanger your life. This is as Solomon taught in Proverbs 4:23: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” What you do when you are young will definitely affect your future. You can enjoy your life, but don’t do things that will harm your body, morals, and spirituality and prevent you from enjoying your old age. For brothers and sisters who are no longer young, we do not need to be annoyed though past mistakes cannot be reversed. At any time, we can seek forgiveness from God through repentance, because God is a God of mercy and He will not despise a broken and contrite heart. We should forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead, press on toward the goal, and thence live a holy life that walks with God.

 

PRAYER:

Pray to God for the young people in your home and church, and for yourself, to protect the hearts of young people from being tempted by the vanity, pleasure, and prosperity of the world. Pray that God will remove our desires of the flesh and our desires of the eyes and pride of life, that we may share His holiness, and will confidently give an account of ourselves to God on the judgement day.

 

HYMN:

Lord Prepare Me To Be A Sanctuary – https://youtu.be/LVKHqq6uoMM

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ecclesiastes+010

 

Ecclesiastes 10 (ESV)

1 Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench;
so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.
² A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right,
but a fool’s heart to the left.
³ Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense,
and he says to everyone that he is a fool.
⁴ If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place,
for calmness will lay great offenses to rest.

 

REFLECTION:

Here the dead flies represent ignorance, and the ointment symbolizes wisdom and honor. The literal translation from biblical manuscripts is: “A little folly outweighs wisdom and honour.” This is not to belittle wisdom and honour, but to emphasize that the destructive power of a little folly could outweigh the positive effects of wisdom and honor. When a fool appears among a group of wise people, this little folly can be enough to corrupt the entire group. In Verse 2 Solomon is still talking about the comparison of wisdom and ignorance, which has nothing to do with the position of the human heart. In Israeli tradition, the right side is regarded as the place of honor and the most protected place, and the left side is relatively secondary compared to the right side. Solomon means to say that wise people put their thoughts and minds on the most important things in life, while fools put the cart before the horse and only value the things of secondary importance. Do you understand what the most important thing in your life is? May you put your mind and thought on God’s way of life, meditate on God’s words all day long, follow God’s way, and become a wise and blessed person.

 

PRAYER:

Ask God to enlighten you so that you can discern what is important, what is secondary, and what is even harmful and useless in the things you are doing now. Ask God to give you the courage to repent and completely abandon the worldly values, and live a life of heavenly wisdom based on God’s words.

 

HYMN:

Better Is One Day – youtu.be/ndVRcqziKWA

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ecclesiastes+009

 

Ecclesiastes 9 (ESV)

⁷ Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

⁸ Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.

⁹ Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. ¹⁰ Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

 

REFLECTION:

Is Solomon in these verses encouraging carpe diem? No, Solomon realized that everyone would die, and that everything in the future would be in the hands of God, so he advised us not to worry about tomorrow, and to enjoy the life and rich provision of God. He may be criticizing those who are deliberately accumulating money and are not willing to enjoy the joy of life. Just like people nowadays who are caught in fierce competition, and live in anxiety and worries. Solomon told us that God created us to experience the joy of life in God’s presence. Because our future is completely in God’s hands, we should enjoy all the gifts given by God and seek the God of giving. When Solomon said that there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol (v.10), he is not preaching a kind of atheism in which people die the way a lamp goes out. He is comparing the situation in this life and the situation after death but before resurrection. He advises us to take a good grasp of this life and experience the joy of being with God through hard work. When we pass away, we will not have the opportunity to change anything we did when we were alive. Old Testament believers had a very vague concept about resurrection. This concept was fully revealed only after Jesus was resurrected from the dead.

 

PRAYER:

Pray for God to remove your worries about tomorrow so that you can enjoy all the abundance that God has given today, including material and spiritual abundance. Pray for God to strengthen your faith and make you understand that your future is under His protection. God has even counted your hair, and not one hair will fall to the ground without His permission.

 

HYMN:

Because He Lives (Amen) – youtu.be/PBvU7arNhQs

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ecclesiastes+008

 

Ecclesiastes 8 (ESV)

⁵ Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. ⁶ For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy on him. ⁷ For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? ⁸ No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. ⁹ All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt.

 

REFLECTION:

These verses clarify the “proper time” and “just way” of life, and they have far-reaching inspiration for us. Everyone has 24 hours a day, but Solomon tells us that life is not only faced with the “time” that goes by every day, there is also “proper time” in life. Time is different from proper time. Proper time is the opportunity we grasp in the physical time we spend. Jesus often said in the world: “My time has not yet come…” (John 7:6), indicating that everything, including the accomplishment of God’s plan of salvation, has a timing. People have expectations, but God also has His plans and actions. We should have heavenly wisdom to obey God’s plan. Only in this way can we be blessed by God. This is the “just way” of our life. This is actually a tug-of-war between our personal will and God’s sovereignty. Unless we can understand the difference between time and proper time, and aim at the time when God manifests His glory, we are probably just passively tolerating and falsely expecting God to match our pace with emotions of dissatisfaction, doubt, and puzzlement. We should understand that God’s thoughts are higher than ours, and that His will is always the best and perfect. If God wants you to wait for a long time with a pure heart on something that is very important to you, do you have the faith to obey Him?

 

PRAYER:

Pray for God to give you more spiritual wisdom and firmer faith, so that you can gradually become a person who is willing and able to wait with a pure heart; pray for God to enlighten you so that you can see that He has made everything beautiful in its time. God will surely have a beautiful arrangement for your life, far more abundantly than all that you ask or think.

 

HYMN:

With All I Am – youtu.be/iTkiCBT0yQs

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ecclesiastes+007

 

Ecclesiastes 7 (ESV)

²⁰ Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

²¹ Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. ²² Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others…

²⁷ Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things— ²⁸ which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. ²⁹ See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

 

REFLECTION:

Even Solomon, the wisest man in the world, admits that it is extremely difficult to be truly wise in action and thoughts. He emphasized that no matter how much we know, there are always many mysteries that cannot be understood. Moreover, he has already come to the same conclusion as Paul: None is righteous, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3: 10, 23). Does Solomon think in verse 27 that a woman cannot be an upright (wise and good) person? No, because he compared wisdom to a responsible woman in Proverbs. His point is to say that almost no man or woman is upright before God, not that women are more dishonest than men. During his search and investigation, he found that goodness and wisdom are difficult to find among men and women. Even in his cultural background, men have the opportunity to receive education and women do not, but the result is the same. So Solomon meant to say: I hope to find one person who is upright in the eyes of God among a thousand people. However, I can actually find even less than this! God created humans for them to live upright lives and act justly. Instead, they turned away from God and turned to their own way, and finally went to destruction.

 

PRAYER:

Pray for God to enlighten you and increase your strength, so that you can do your best to be upright and righteous in all aspects of life, and not deviate from the path God has commanded. At the same time, pray for God to give you a humble heart so that you can see your own filth and weaknesses, understand that no one in the world can be justified before God by deeds. Ask God to forgive your transgressions so that the power of Christ may rest upon you.

 

HYMN:

Purify My Heart – https://youtu.be/7qCdr5FEXic

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Ecclesiastes+006

 

Ecclesiastes 6 (ESV)

⁷ All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. ⁸ For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? ⁹ Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.

¹⁰ Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. ¹¹ The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? ¹² For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?

 

REFLECTION:

God knows and manages everything that happens in the world. Although it may not seem like this sometimes, God is indeed in full control of our lives. Since the God who created us fully understands us and has a wonderful plan to be accomplished in our lives, wouldn’t it be a lack of true wisdom if we still argue with Him about our cleverness and stupidity, strength and weakness, wealth and poverty, and superficial gains and losses? In these verses, Solomon tells us a meaningful truth: we can neither predict nor control our future, our future is completely under the control of God. Solomon said this to refute the common notion that people want to control their own destiny. Only God knows what will happen to us in the future. We should have the faith to rely on God in everything and understand that God has a good, acceptable and perfect will for our lives.

 

PRAYER:

Put down all the fear, worry and burden in your heart completely. Ask God to remove your idea of controlling your own destiny, and give you greater faith that you can completely rely on God in everything. Let God have full control of your life and lead your future path.

 

HYMN:

I Know Who Holds Tomorrow – https://youtu.be/JPSsSlmZt2w