A "Set Apart Thot"

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Do I Love My Shepherd Like This?

 

From The Amplified Bible Translation of Song of Solomon

• Does my spirit crave the Divine Shepherd, even in the presence of the best that the world can offer me?  

1:7 "[Addressing her shepherd, she said] Tell me, O you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon. For why should I as I think of you] be as a veiled one straying beside the flocks of your companions?"

•  Do I have a constant sense of my Shepherd's presence, regardless of my surroundings? 

2:6 "[I can feel] his left hand under my head"

• Do I take time to meet my Good Shepherd each day, letting Him tell me of His love, and cheering His heart with my interest in Him? 

2:13 "Arise...my fair one, and come away"

• Do I realize that my voice lifted in praise and song is sweet to Him, or do I withhold it? 

2:14 "[So I went with him, and when we were climbing the rocky steps up the hillside, my beloved shepherd said to me]...[while you are here] in the seclusion of the clefts in the solid rock, in the sheltered and secret place of the cliff,...let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet"

• What is my greatest concern, the thing about which most of all I want Christ's help? When He asks to hear my voice, what do I tell Him? 

2:15 "[My heart was touched and I...sang to him my desire] Take for us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards"

• Do I heed Christ when He bids me to come away from the lions' den of temptation and dwell with Him? 

4:8 "Come away with me from Lebanon, my [promised] bride, come with me from Lebanon. Depart from the top of Amana, from the peak of Senir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards."

• Am I willing to have the north wind of adversity blow upon me, if it will better fit me for Christ's presence and companionship? 

4:16 "[You have called me a garden, she said] Oh, I pray that the [cold] north wind and the [soft] south wind may blow upon my garden, that its spices may flow out [in abundance for you in whom my soul delights]. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat its choicest fruits."

• In my weariness from earthly cares, do I hesitate to answer when the Divine Shepherd knocks at my door, and so turn Him from me? 

5:3 "[But weary from a day in the vineyards, I had already sought my rest] I had put off my garment--how could I [again] put it on? I had washed my feet--how could I [again] soil them?"

• Is my Savior unquestionably the One altogether lovely, the One above all others most precious to me? Can I tell how and why Christ is more to me than any human being or than all earthly possessions? 

5:16 "His voice and speech are exceedingly sweet; yes, he is altogether lovely [the whole of him delights and is precious]. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem!"