“And pasture your young goats
By the tents of the shepherds.”
– Song of Songs 1:8
I worship the Lord very much when I come to this section. Before we touch the Lord, we can say “Amen” to almost anything in the church life. As we touch the Lord and begin to pursue Him, however, we also begin to feel burdened about some particular matter, and at that point we wander astray. At such a time, we may treat the more experienced brothers condescendingly as being merely our “mother’s sons.” We thank the Lord that, rather than rebuking us for being proud and selfish, He gently adjusts us, saying,
“If you yourself do not know,
Most beautiful among women,
Go forth on the trail of the flock
And pasture your young goats
By the tents of the shepherds.”
Therefore, if we truly love the Lord, we will treasure the experiences of those who have loved Christ before us. We may love the Lord and yet say, “What relevance do Madame Guyon and John Wesley have for us today? They are out of date as far as the Lord’s move is concerned.” If this is our feeling, we may end up missing the footsteps of the flock.
Adapted from The Song of Songs: A Divine Romance, page 48.
Tomorrow: “The Shepherds’ Tents” (5)