“Listen! My beloved!
Behold, he is coming,
Climbing on the mountains,
Leaping on the hills.
My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
Behold, he is standing behind our wall,
He is looking through the windows,
He is peering through the lattice.
My beloved responded and said to me,
‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come away.’”
— Song of Songs 2:8-10
The Lord was leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills as the One who has overcome everything. When He arrives, however, He stands behind “our wall” (v. 9). Our wall is our past experience. Yesterday’s experience and enjoyment become today’s wall. All the good, proper, and healthy things of the past become today’s wall, hindering our going on. Because of this, we continually need the Lord’s mercy.
Why is it so hard for the Lord to lead us to go on further with Him after we have had some experience of Him? It is because we have laid hold on those experiences. We treasure, enjoy, and respect our past experience of the Lord. We consider that those experiences are from the Lord, and therefore they have special value before Him. However, these experiences become a wall between us and the Lord. They frustrate the Lord from leading us on any further.
Brothers and sisters, every experience the Lord measures to you is either like spring or like winter. It is to prepare the way for further experience. Therefore you cannot stay where you are, and you cannot cling to or treasure your past experiences. If you do, spontaneously they will become a wall standing between you and the Lord.
Adapted from The Journey of Life, pages 182-183.
Monday: “He is Standing Behind Our Wall (1)”