Song of Solomon 3:3

Her position and her action have changed, but she finds no rest. She has shaken off the spirit of laziness. Her cry is the language of a soul in earnest. But the streets and open squares of the city, where watchmen keep moral order, are not the places to find her Beloved. "He feeds among the lilies." She knew this well. She is simply confused and troubled, as many have been in similar situations... But if her inactivity was failure, her activity was a mistake.

The city here, well guarded by its watchmen, stands for an organized society. It is a world that man has built up and ordered for his own satisfaction and pleasure, without Christ. There is no place for Him there. She seeks in vain to find Him in its streets. When He came in grace they rejected Him. They led Him outside of their city and crucified Him. Therefore we read in Hebrews 13:12-14, "Jesus also suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come."

For the third time the bride fails in her quest. She has sought the Bridegroom in the wrong way, she has sought Him in the wrong place, now she appeals to the wrong people. The business of the watchmen is to govern and keep order. They may administer righteousness, but they cannot help in the quest of love... So it is useless to appeal to human power. Christians from early times have fallen into this trap, and learned only that the rulers of this world crucified the Lord of glory.

"The watchmen found me as they went about in the city" — the guardians of order, but what could they say? What could they do? "To whom I said, Have you seen him whom my soul loves"; for she does confess now. It is not only that she has the affection, but she owns it even to them, although it might seem the wrong place for it. But she does it anyway.

If she had been in heaven instead of the city, and had not found Him there, it would have been just the same. She must have continued her search... It was Himself she was seeking, the Person of her blessed Lord — and nothing else, nothing besides, could take His place. Only the love of the Saviour can satisfy the love of the saved. Only the love of the Bridegroom can satisfy the love of the bride.

In the first part of the third chapter of the Song of Solomon we have a prophecy. A small faithful group in Israel is awakened, while the nation as a whole is still in the darkness of the night before the Lord comes... She has no rest in the world order where she is — the city with its watchmen (vv. 2, 3). So she starts to seek her Messiah in earnest, and at last finds Him outside of that order of things.

We know the Lord in another way altogether: we know Him in heaven. That is our proper way of knowing Him. She has these views of Him in advance, and at the same time she is being trained to know His love more deeply before He comes.