A Choice Prayer for Saints and Sinners

Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. cruel...: Heb. hard Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. - Song of Solomon 8:6-7

    “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.”

    What a description this is of the love of Christ, the "love that passeth knowledge." It is Christ who speaks in verse 5, "I raised thee up under the apple tree." It is Christ who says, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and with loving-kindness have I drawn thee." It is God our Savior who declares, "I drew them with cords of love, and with the bands of a man." He found us in a desert land, and in a waste howling wilderness. "Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it."

    The Lord Jesus here declares his love to his church, and she replies, "Set me as a seal," not only on thy heart, but also on your arm—the place of your love and the place of your strength—the place of the most tender emotion and deepest passion, and the place of power, safety, and work.

    Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? His love is invincible and irresistible as death. It is a jealous love, as unyielding and unalterable as the grave. Its comparable to fire,—coals of fire,—the very flame of Jehovah. Here, then, is the love of Christ! Its breadth, length, height, and depth, are absolutely immeasurable.

    Our fear

    This is not the prayer of a soul that is longing for fellowship. That prayer is – “Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest.” This is not even the prayer of the soul that has some fellowship, but longs for more. Then the prayer would be – “O that thou wert as my brother!” And this is not the prayer of one that once enjoyed the fellowship of Christ, but has now lost it. That cry would be – “Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?” Then the sorrowful soul goes about the streets of the city, saying, “I will seek him, for I am sick of love.”

    This is the prayer of the believing soul who has the present enjoyment of Christ’s fellowship, but is fearful that the sweet communion might be interrupted. Therefore, the spouse here pleads for something that would be to her a token of the covenant between her and her Beloved when his manifest presence might be withdrawn. This is the prayer of the spouse when she has been coming up out of the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved. The thought seems to strike her that he who has sustained her is about to be taken from her for a season because it is expedient and more useful for her. Therefore, she prays that, before he leaves the earth and enters again into his heavenly kingdom, he might be pleased to enter into a covenant with her, never to forget her, and that he might give her some sign and pledge of his love to her. She wanted to know that she would always be near to his heart while she waited for his return.

    I take this to be the prayer of the church in this present gospel age. Today Christ is before his Father’s throne. The Bridegroom is no longer with us physically. His bodily presence has been taken from us. He has, in that sense, left us. He has gone to heaven to prepare a place for us. He told us that he must go away, and that his going away was expedient for us (John 16:7). But he promised that he would come again, and that when he returns we will be together with him forever (John 14:1-3). Today we long for his coming.

    In the language of the last verse of this Holy Song of Love, we say, “Make haste, my Beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.” Or, in the language of the Revelation, we hear him say, “Surely I come quickly.” And our hearts respond, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” Yet, before he went away, as we read the gospel narratives, it seems as though his church was saying, “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm.” This is the prayer of God’s church today. Though our Lord’s bodily presence is absent from us, we want to be near him, near his heart, and we want to have the blessed consciousness of the fact that we are upon his heart.

    “I ask my dying Savior dear

    To set me on His heart;

    And if my Jesus fix me there,

    Nor life, nor death shall part.

    As Aaron bore upon his breast

    The names of Jacob’s sons,

    So bear my name among the rest

    Of Thy dear chosen ones.

    But seal me also with Thine arm,

    Or yet I am not right.

    I need Thy love to ward off harm,

    And need Thy shoulder’s might.

    This double seal makes all things sure,

    And keeps me safe and well;

    Thy heart and shoulder will secure

    From all the host of hell.”

    Our prayer

    This is a prayer which arises from the earnest hearts of God’s believing children. Yet, it is a prayer any sinner desiring mercy, grace, and salvation might make at the throne of grace. — “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm.” The allusion here is, as I have shown you, to the high priest in Israel. The prayer is really twofold. She longs to know that she has an interest in the love of Christ’s heart, and she longs to experience the power of his arm (Ex. 28:12, 29-30, 36-38).

    Believers know the meaning of this prayer by personal experience. It is the longing, the desire of a sinner seeking grace to know that his name is engraved upon the Savior’s heart. In the language of the psalmist, we say to the Lord Jesus, “Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.” I desire an interest in your love; but I want more. I want to know that I have an interest in your love. Write my name in your heart, and engrave it as a signet upon your heart, so that I may see it and know it.

    Without question, there are many whose names are written on our Lord’s heart who do not yet know it. Christ has loved them from all eternity. His heart has been set upon them from everlasting. But they have not yet seen the signet with their names written upon it.

    In all of his work our great High Priest bears the names that are upon his heart. For them he makes intercession (John 17:9, 20; 1 John 2:1-2). He bore their sins in his body upon the cursed tree (1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18), and endured all the wrath of divine judgment to the full satisfaction of justice for them (Isa. 53:9-11). He made atonement for them, putting away their sins by the sacrifice of himself (Heb. 9:26). He obtained eternal redemption for them by the merit of his blood (Heb. 9:12). Upon them he pronounces the blessing of God (Num. 6:24-27; Eph. 1:3-6).

    We want to know, to experience the power of our Savior’s arm. We want always to see and know that our Redeemer’s heart and hand are eternally engaged for us, engaged to accomplish our everlasting salvation. This is our souls desire. We want to know and be assured that the Lord Jesus Christ is our High Priest, our Advocate, our sin-atoning Mediator before God. If we can know that we have a place in his heart of love and that his arm is set to do us good, we want no more. All is well with our souls. His arm preserves us, protects us, and provides for us. This is the prayer we make. What more could we desire than this? – “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm.”

    Our plea

    Anytime we go to God in prayer, it is wise to not only make our request known to him, but also to offer a plea, an argument, a reason why he should grant the thing we ask. Be sure that you understand this: The only grounds upon which we can appeal to God for mercy are to be found in God himself (See Ps. 51:1-5). Our hope, our basis of appeal with God must be found in him.

    See how the spouse here urges her request. She says, “Make me to know your love for me, because I know this concerning your love—It is as strong as death. —It is as firm as the grave. —It is as intense as fire. —And it is as unquenchable as eternity. With these four pleas, she backs up and presses her suit for mercy.

    Show me your love, for your love is strong as death. —“Love is strong as death.” The love of Christ is as irresistible as death. The love of Christ triumphed over death for us. As death refuses to give up its victims, so the love of Christ refuses to give up its captives. Nothing shall ever cause the Son of God to cease loving his people and let them go.

    Show me your love, for your love is as firm as the grave. —“Jealousy is cruel as the grave.” These words would be more accurately translated, “Jealousy is as hard as hell.” Our Lord is jealous over his people. He will not allow those whom he loves to be taken from him. You will more likely see the gates of hell opened, the fires of hell quenched, and the spirits of the damned set free, than see the Son of God lose one of those who are engraved upon his heart (Rom. 8:28-39). Those whom God has chosen, he will never refuse. Those Christ has redeemed, he will never sell. Those he has justified, he will never condemn. Those he has found, he will never lose. Those he has loved, he will never hate.

    Show me your love, for your love is as intense as fire. —“The coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.” These words seem to allude to that fire which always burned at the altar and never went out. Those coals of fire were always kept burning in the typical Levitical dispensation. The flame was originally kindled by God. It was the work of the priests to perpetually feed it with the sacred fuel. The love of Christ is like the coals of that altar which never went out, and more. The love of Christ for his own elect is vehement, blazing, intense love that never diminishes. The only cause of his love for us is in himself. There is nothing, no form of love to compare with his love. The love of Christ for his elect is free, sovereign, eternal, saving, immutable love.

    Show me your love, for your love is as unquenchable as eternity. —“Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it” (Rom. 8:37-39). No other love is really unquenchable, but our Savior’s love is. His love is eternal and everlasting, immutable and unalterable. The love of Christ is infinitely beyond that of a father or a mother, or a brother or a sister, or a husband or a wife. The love of Christ is the one and only love that passes knowledge, the one love that nothing in heaven, or earth, or hell is able to extinguish or cool, the one love whose dimensions are beyond all measure (Eph. 3:14-19).

    Our Redeemer’s love is here compared to fire that cannot be quenched. As such it is affirmed that "waters," "many waters" cannot quench it. Christ’s love for us is something the floods cannot drown (Ps. 69:15; 93:3). The waters of God’s wrath could not quench the love of Christ for his people. —“Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them to the end.” It was our Savior’s matchless love for us that made him willing to endure all the horror of God’s wrath in our stead.

    The waters of shame and suffering sought to quench and drown it. They would have hindered its outflowing, and come (like Peter) between the Savior and the cross, but his love refused to be quenched on its way to Calvary. Herein was love! It leaped over all the barriers in its way. It refused to be extinguished or drowned. Its fire would not be quenched. Its life could not be drowned (Ps. 69:1-7).

    The waters of death sought to quench it. The waves and billows of death went over the great Lover of our souls. The grave sought to cool or quench his love; but it proved itself stronger than death. Neither death nor the grave could alter or weaken his love for us. It came out of both death and the grave as strong as before. Love defied death, and overcame it.

    Even the floods of our sins could not quench the love of Christ for us. The waters of our unworthiness could not quench nor drown the love of Christ for our souls. Love is usually attracted to that which is loveable. When something ugly, unlovely, unattractive comes love (as it is called) withdraws from its object. Not so here. All our unfitness and unloveableness could not quench nor drown the love of Christ. It clings to the unlovely, and refuses to be torn away.

    The waters of our long rejection sought to quench it. Though the gospel showed us that personal unworthiness could not arrest the love of Christ, we continued to reject him and his love. We continued to hate him and despise his love. Yet, his love for us rose above our enmity to him, rose above our unbelief, and survived our hardness. In spite of everything we are and have done, his love was unquenched.

    Though he has saved us by his matchless grace, the waters of our daily inconsistency seek to quench his love, but blessed be his name, without success! Even after experiencing his adorable grace, we are constantly spurning his unspurnable love! What inconsistencies, coldness, lukewarmness, unbelief, worldliness, hardness, and utter ungodliness daily flows from us against the Savior’s love like a mighty flood to quench its fire and drown its life! Yet it survives all; it remains unquenched, unquenchable and unchanged!

    All these infinite evils in us are like "waters," "many waters," like "floods," torrents of sin, waves and billows of evil, —all constantly laboring to quench and drown the love of Christ! They would annihilate any other love, any love less than his. But our Savior’s love is unchangeable and everlasting.