Song of Solomon 3:6

In this song we no longer see the bride resting on her bed. We no longer see her calling on the grace of the Bridegroom to stir her tired energy and wake her fading love. Instead she enjoys the communion of love. She is coming up from the wilderness on her way to share the glories of the King. The daughters of Jerusalem ask, "Who is this?" or, as it can be translated, "Who is she?"

From Song 3:6 to the end of the chapter, we have a prophetic view of the Bridegroom. He comes out of the wilderness with His bride… The Jews do not rise, as the church does, to meet the Lord in the air. He goes to where they are. The spirit of prophecy tells us that they were in the wilderness together. It was there that He revealed Himself to her, in His unchanging love as the true Messiah.

So we see chapter 3:6 as a beautiful picture of the remnant at the end of the great tribulation. The Lord Himself brings her up from the place of refuge He had provided for her. There He had fed her, spoken comfort to her, and purified her by the fiery trials she has passed through. The fire only burned up the dross and purified the silver. That is always the case when the Lord's beloved ones go through fiery trials.

Smoke is the result of fire. The myrrh, the frankincense and all the perfumed powders of the eastern merchant stand for those graces that the Spirit of God produces in the heart. They give a sweet fragrance of Christ to the Lord's own who have been passing through deep trials. She has not only been purified and made beautiful by the trials. Through His tender care, and His speaking comfort to her, she has also learned to know the Lord in a fuller, richer way.

The Church has her wilderness journey too. It is the time of her pilgrimage on earth, before the end comes in heavenly glory… The wilderness has its privileges as well as its hardships… It matters spiritually that the powders of the merchant are made from plants gathered in the wilderness. The trials, the testings and the hardships of our wilderness journey, when we take them from the hand of God, become the occasion for developing the graces of Christ. Those graces rise up as a sweet fragrance even now.

And we, like Paul, can turn our hardships into privileges. We only need to see that every trial is a God-sent opportunity to call out some Christian grace. Sadly, the trials along the way so often call out some ugly display of the flesh — its tempers and its violence, its envy and its pride, its impatience and its complaining. We open the door to the flesh by letting our wilderness circumstances come between our souls and God. Let us just keep God between ourselves and our circumstances. Then they really will call out the graces of Christ.

Note that in each case, once the bride has had the Bridegroom rest in His love, she sees Him coming, or He is seen coming… In chapter 3:6, He comes in royal splendour and power, in Israel, as king Solomon on his wedding day. In chapter 8:5, she is seen coming up out of the desolation, where she had been, leaning on her Beloved.