THE FIRST PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
The Books of Poetry
Message Ten—Song of Songs (2)
Scripture Reading: S. S. 4:6—8:14; Eph. 4:15-16; Phil. 3:21; Rom. 8:23; 2 Cor. 5:1-8; Rev. 11:15; Dan. 2:35
Ⅹ. Her Beloved calls her to live in His ascension, as He had called her to remain in His cross—S. S. 4:6-9: (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, ch. 8)
A. After the lover of Christ has experienced Christ in His sweet death and His fragrant resurrection, she determines to stay in the sweet death of Christ (the mountain of myrrh) and His fragrant resurrection (the hill of frankincense) until her Beloved comes back when the day dawns and the shadows flee away—4:6. (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, ch. 8)
B. We cannot separate Christ from His ascension or from the life-giving Spirit; Christ is the life-giving Spirit; we can live in ascension by living in the pneumatic Christ, the Christ who is the Spirit in our spirit. (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, ch. 8)
Ⅺ. Through her living in Christ’s ascension as the new creation in resurrection, the lover of Christ becomes mature in the riches of the life of Christ so that she becomes a garden to Christ—4:12—5:3: (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, ch. 9)
A. This garden is enclosed with a spring shut up and a fountain sealed for Christ’s private enjoyment—v. 12. (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, ch. 9)
B. Her desire is for her Beloved to come into His garden and eat His choicest fruit (v. 16b); the goal is that she would become a garden to meet her Beloved’s need. (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, ch. 9)
Ⅻ. Through her living in Christ’s ascension, the lover of Christ also becomes the sanctuary of God, signified by Tirzah, and its safeguard, signified by Jerusalem—6:4a: (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, ch. 10)
A. To become a garden to Christ is to be flourishing in the element of Christ’s life with its unsearchable riches; to become the sanctuary of God is to be built up in the growth with the life of Christ with its unsearchable riches—Eph. 4:15-16. (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, ch. 10)
B. In the New Testament this building is the organic Body of Christ; the organic Body of Christ is also Christ’s wife (Eph. 5:25-32); furthermore, the organic Body of Christ consummates, completes, the building of the New Jerusalem. (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, ch. 10)
ⅩIII. Through her living in the ascension of Christ and further living within the veil, experiencing the cross of Christ more strongly, the lover of Christ is transformed into the heavenly bodies—S. S. 6:10: (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, ch. 11)
A. The lover of Christ becoming the moon and the sun indicates that she has become not only wholly spiritual but also absolutely heavenly and signifies that she has become an overcomer. (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, ch. 11)
B. The overcoming believers can be luminaries as the moon reflecting the light of the sun in the church age (Phil. 2:15); the overcoming believers will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom age (Matt. 13:43; Dan. 12:3); the people of God who produce the overcomers (the man-child) are clothed with the sun and have the moon underneath their feet—Rev. 12:1, 5. (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, ch. 11)
ⅩIV. The lover becomes a terrible army with banners and the Shulammite—S. S. 6:4b, 10b, 13: (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, ch. 12)
A. A terrible army signifies that these overcomers of the Lord terrify God’s enemy, Satan, and become terrible in the eyes of God’s people; an army fights the battle for God’s kingdom in the degradation of God’s people to be the overcomers answering the Lord’s call—S. S. 6:4; Rev. 2:7, 11. (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, ch. 12)
B. Shulammite is the feminine form of Solomon, indicating that now the overcomers have become the same as Christ; the overcomers were sinners; now, in the maturity of Christ’s life, they have become the same as Christ in life, in nature, in expression, and in function for the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy. (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, ch. 12)
ⅩV. Solomon is the lord of many vineyards, and these vineyards require much labor; now the country girl, who has become his Shulammite, must become his co-worker—S. S. 7:1-9a: (Life-Study of Song of Songs, msg. 8)
A. To share in the Lord’s work, we need to be qualified, and our qualification depends on our being equipped with the attributes of the divine life expressed in human virtues—7:1-9a. (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, ch. 11)
B. Song of Songs 7:9b-13 reveals that the lover works with her Beloved for His Body economy: (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, ch. 11)
1. Wishing that others would enjoy smoothly what she could be—v. 9b. (Life-Study of Song of Songs, msg. 8)
2. God’s confessing that she belongs to her Beloved for His desire—v. 10. (Life-Study of Song of Songs, msg. 8)
3. Wanting to carry out with her Beloved the work that is for the entire world—v. 11. (Life-Study of Song of Songs, msg. 8)
4. She and her Beloved working diligently not for herself but in the churches, in which she renders her love to her Beloved—v. 12. (Life-Study of Song of Songs, msg. 8)
5. In her working together with her Beloved there being a mutual love giving forth its fragrance between them—v. 13. (Life-Study of Song of Songs, msg. 8)
ⅩVI. Song of Songs 8 reveals the lover’s hope to be raptured; the Shulammite was matured in life to the extent that she became Solomon in every aspect and from every view, except for the fact that she still had the flesh—8:1-4: (Life-Study of Song of Songs, msg. 9)
A. The Spirit, speaking through a third person, asks who this lover of Christ is who came up once from the spiritual wilderness by herself (3:6) and now comes up from the fleshly wilderness by her Beloved—v. 5a. (Life-Study of Song of Songs, msg. 9)
B. The lover admits that by herself she is not able to stand and live in her Beloved until her rapture—v. 6: (Life-Study of Song of Songs, msg. 9)
1. She asks her Beloved to keep her by His love and His strength—v. 6. (Life-Study of Song of Songs, msg. 9)
2. His love cannot be quenched by trials nor drowned by persecutions nor replaced by any wealth; if one would replace it, he would be utterly despised—v. 7. (Life-Study of Song of Songs, msg. 9)
C. Before her rapture she with Christ is concerned for the younger lovers of Christ; she is concerned about how to perfect them to mature in life for the building up of the Body of Christ and to love Christ until they are betrothed to Him in love for the constituting of the bride of Christ. (Life-Study of Song of Songs, msg. 9)
D. She with her Beloved perfect one who is a wall and one who is a door and test that she is a separating wall with two towers of faith and love—v. 9. (Life-Study of Song of Songs, msg. 9)
E. The lover of her Beloved asks Him who dwells in the believers as His gardens to let her hear His voice as her companions listen for His voice—v. 13; cf. 4:13—5:1; 6:2. (Life-Study of Song of Songs, msg. 9)
ⅩVII. As the concluding prayer of this poetic book, the lover of Christ prays that her Beloved would make haste to come back in the power of His resurrection (gazelle and young hart) to set up His sweet and beautiful kingdom (mountains of spices), which will fill the whole earth—S. S. 8:14; Rev. 11:15; Dan. 2:35. (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, ch. 12)