Let's turn in our Bibles to the
Song of Solomon, Chapter 5. One of the things that I've been
contemplating a lot in these last few hours, I suppose, is
the fact that this, as much as it's a description by this Bride
of the Church, a wonderful description of Her Beloved, In verse 10 she
answers that question, what is he? What does he mean to you?
Who is he? Who is he to you? And then she goes into that beautiful
description. He's white and ruddy. He's both divine and human. He's
the cheapest among 10,000. He is the standard bearer. There
is no one greater. He's above all. And then in verse
11 she talks about his head, his sovereignty. His mouth has
most fine gold, his locks are bushy and black as a raven. He
has both his church and himself in an eternal, youthful, loving
relationship. His eyes look upon us as the
eyes of doves. He looks upon his people with
peacefulness by the rivers of water, washed with milk, fitly
set. His cheeks are a bed of spices, sweet as flowers, his
lips like lilies dropping sweet-smelling spurs. He speaks of his countenance,
that place where we kiss each other on the cheeks. And she
talks about His words, the words that come from His mouth are
like lilies. And then in verse 14 she says,
His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl. His belly is
bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. His hearth, that means He's in
most parts. His legs are as pillars of marble. He is stable and steadfast. set upon sockets of fine gold.
His countenance, his beauty, is as of the most beautiful mountains
of Lebanon, excellent as cedars. His mouth is most sweet, the
words he brings, the kisses of his mouth. He is altogether Lovely. This is my beloved. This is who
he is. This is my friend. This is who
he is to me." So she begins, she finishes this beautiful description
of him with a description of that great assurance that God's
people have. That God Almighty in the form
of his son loves us. loves his people with an everlasting
love, and he's happy to own us as his friends. But not only
is this a description, of the bride, describing her beloved,
using all these pictures and figures of speech. It's actually
also something that was written not just by the bride. She may
have had the pen in her hand, as it were, but it's a description
of God. the Holy Spirit describing God
the Son. The essence of Christian worship
is really the amazing thing, isn't it, that in the Lord Jesus
and by Him indwelling us by His Spirit, He actually takes us,
takes His people into the very throne room of God. And we hear
God talking about God. We actually enter into that love
that began and was before all other loves. That love between
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. What amazing
love, devoid of all sin. perfectly in control of all the
circumstances of this world, perfectly delighting with each
other. And brothers and sisters, the
remarkable story of the Gospel, the remarkable good news of the
Gospel, that in that relationship the Lord Jesus and us were at
one. Your lives are hidden in Christ,
in God. What an amazing thing to contemplate. In fact, 2 Corinthians 3 says
that God actually makes His ministers ministers of that covenant. He makes them to be ministers
of the Eternal Covenant. I take that to mean that if we
don't hear about the Eternal Covenant again and again and
again, or if we ever tire of hearing about the Eternal, we
haven't heard the Gospel. We may not have heard it from
the pulpit in some cases, But if we tire of that eternal everlasting
union of the Lord Jesus with His people, that brings us into
that place where God is revealed as He really is and worshipped.
as he really does deserve to be worshipped. That's why that
psalm was so good, wasn't it? In the morning, you think about
his loving kindness. We often quote Jeremiah 31, verse
3, isn't it? I have loved you, he says of
his people, with an everlasting love, an everlasting love that's
an effectual love, an everlasting love that draws his people to
himself. And in the morning we think about
those things. We begin our time, we begin our
days thinking about His loving kindness. And at the end of the
day, at the end of the day and every night, we will see, if
God gives us the grace to see, that throughout that day He has
been perfectly faithful, perfectly, wonderfully faithful. In this
verse 14 we have a picture of something of what I've been saying.
His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl. And of course, she's using figures
of speech. It's extraordinary, isn't it?
And I have mentioned it. I mention it with horror and
I mention it for your protection in a sense, is that modern theology
not only sees Solomon as not saved, even though the scriptures
describe him again and again. You can read about it in Nehemiah
13. You can read about it in the
name that God gave him. Jedidiah, beloved of the Lord,
but they doubt his salvation, and then they take this this
most beautiful poetry that this sinner like us was caused by
Almighty God to write. And they say that we cannot use
figures of speech to understand this book. It has to be read
literally. Well here's a verse that cannot
be read literally and give honour to our Saviour. His hands are
as gold rings. These hands, it's just a great
description, isn't it? He says in Revelation that he'll
actually take his people and he will wipe every tear from
their eyes. Again and again we have pictures
throughout the scriptures of the hands being that instrument
with which the Lord Jesus comes into intimate relationship with
his people. And as I've told you before,
and it's good to keep remembering isn't it, that hand of His is
a holy hand, a perfectly undefiled hand. And yet when that hand
which is perfectly holy touches us, touches His people, instantly
their defilement is gone. When He touches them, they become
as holy as He is holy. They were as holy as He is holy
in eternity. But it's just good for us to
go back through some of the scriptures and contemplate those hands,
the intimacy of that hand, the compassion that led him to touch
people. He was touched with the feelings
of our infirmity. He actually touched people. We
can go to Matthew's Gospel and just follow some of them through.
There came a leper. and worshipped
him, chapter 8, verse 2, saying, Lord, if you will, if you are
willing, you can make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand
and touched him. And immediately, his leprosy
was clean. Because he said, see he spoke
a word. He spoke a word and he touched
him at the same time. His words have that power. He
said, I will, I am willing. Be thou clean. Leprosy, that
great sign of sin, the sin that defiles us all. And in Mark's
verse of this it says that the Lord Jesus, when this leper came
to him and asked that question, he was moved with compassion. It's compassion that moves the
Lord to touch his people. And in verse 15 of the same chapter,
the Lord Jesus came to Peter's house and saw his wife's mother,
laid and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and
the fever left her, and she arose and ministered unto them. Chapter 9, verse 29. The blind men came to him. Go
back to verse 27. And when Jesus departed, two
blind men followed him, crying and saying, Thou son of David,
have mercy on us. And when he was coming to the
house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said unto them,
Do you believe that I am able to do this? And they said unto
him, Yea, Lord, he honours faith, he grows faith, he gives faith. Then he touched their eyes, saying,
According to your faith, be it unto you. can be multiplied. You probably
know of many more. I just want to highlight the
fact that the Lord Jesus, His hands reveal the intimacy of
His relationship and His love. Go to chapter 17. And after the
Transfiguration, at that moment when His Deity
shone through His humanity and they for that brief time saw
Him as He really is. That bright cloud overshadowed
them and they saw Moses and Elijah talking there. And when the disciples
heard it, they fell on their face, verse 6, and were sore
afraid. And Jesus came and touched them
and said, Arise and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their
eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only." Like all of the prophets,
like all of the Old Testament, it points to Him and when He
arises they go to their place, leaving Him exalted. So these hands are hands of compassion. These hands that touched these
people are hands that he willingly laid down on that cross and he
placed them on that timber and those soldiers took those big
spikes and they drove the spikes through his hands and nailed
him to that cross. These hands of compassion were
hands that loved. They were the hands that washed
the disciples' feet, and having loved his owner in the world,
he loved them to the very end. These hands are as gold rings,
rings that we know, symbolise what is precious in gold. They symbolise what is perfect. They symbolise something that
has no beginning, that has no end. There's nothing fleeting,
there's nothing perishing about the activities of our God. as
we read earlier, these hands symbolise throughout the scriptures
the absolute sovereignty of God. They symbolise His accomplishments. We read in Psalm 92 earlier,
didn't we? For Thou, Lord, hast made me
glad through Thy work, I triumph, I triumph, says David, in the
work of your hands. My triumph, your triumph, brothers
and sisters, is the work of the Lord Jesus. If we step back and
look in faith, we will see that He works, He accomplishes what
He has purposed. when they came to exhort the
Lord Jesus on that day of Pentecost. What do they do? They proclaim
that all of these events, these events have occurred according
to the purposes of God's hand, haven't they? Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and full knowledge of God, all of
this that has just happened, the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus. the resurrection, and now the
pouring out of the Holy Spirit. All of this didn't happen by
accident. Not one tiny little bit of it
was an accident. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and full knowledge of God, have you taken and by wicked
hands have crucified. And over in chapter 4, He says
that all of this says in verse 27, For a truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, all of humanity, were
gathered together for to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined
before to be done." So the hands speak of God's eternal hands,
eternal purposes. It talks of His power. These
purposes are carried out by our God who is powerful in Psalm
20, verse 6. says, now I know that the Lord
saveth his anointed. He will hear from his holy heaven
with the saving strength of his right hand. Wherever we hear
of that in the scriptures, we are hearing about the power of
our God, that hand which is powerful in mercy, that hand which is
powerful in judgment. nurses, talk to the people in
Exodus 15 when he spoke about the right hand of God. Turn in
your Bibles to Exodus, we'll be there. Keep your finger in
Exodus, we'll be back there in a little while. But in Exodus
15 it says, 15 verse 6, Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious
in power. Thy right hand, O Lord, has dashed
in pieces the enemy. This right hand is a right hand
of purpose, it's a right hand of accomplishment, it's a right
hand of power, it's a right hand of providence. As the Sama says,
my times are in your hands, Psalm 31.15. My times are in your hand. It's a hand of provision. It's
a hand of protection. It's a hand of preservation. And she has spoken about it in
Song of Solomon many times. She says in verse 6 of chapter
2, his left hand is under my head and his right hand doth
embrace me. What a great picture of intimacy. And she goes on to say, she wants
him to set her as a seal upon his heart, as a seal upon his
arm. And in verse 3 of chapter 8,
she says, his left hand should be under my head and his right
hand should embrace me. It is right and proper. for him to embrace his bride,
to embrace her and to hold her close to himself. Also, as the gold rings symbolise
that wedding covenant, that eternal covenant, uses this right hand. This right hand is being used
by God in terms of presenting His Bride. They say that David
wrote Psalm 45 and Solomon finished it all by
writing the Song of Solomon. But Psalm 45 verse 9 says, The
king's daughters were among thy honourable women. Upon thy right
hand did stand the queen in the gold of Ophir. Did stand the
queen, his bride, in the gold, the best gold that this world
has See, she has an appointed place, hasn't she, as the bride.
She has an appointed place on His right hand. She's to be stationed
there. She's to be presented there.
How is she to be presented? When the Lord God presents His
daughters Like our dear Isabel, how is she presented? How is
she presented? She's presented on His right
hand, His right hand of power. She's presented to God the Father. How is she presented? Colossians 1.22. She's presented
wholly. What a remarkable description
of sinners like us. Holy, unblameable, unreprovable
in His sight. Perfectly holy in His holiness. Perfectly unblameable, because
she cannot be blamed when she's on his right hand. Perfectly unreprovable. We'll have reproofs from our
flesh, we'll have reproof from this world. We'll have all sorts
of criticism. God says that none of that reaches
to heaven, brothers and sisters. Not a single word of it gets
into the courts of heaven. These hands speak of salvation,
they speak of security, they speak of righteousness, they
speak of His power, they speak of that eternal covenant, they
speak are those rings, not just one, but rings multiple. He holds his people in eternal
bounds, in eternal covenant love again and again. And he covers us. What a wonderful
thing for sinners who need covering. He says in Isaiah 51-16, I have
covered you in the shadow of my hand. And he says of them,
say to Zion, say to my people, you are my people, you belong
to me. gold rings. His hands are as
gold rings. And then it says, set with the
barrel. If you turn back to Exodus, it's
just one of those beautiful, beautiful pictures. This whole
business of God's children being set. In Exodus 28, we have the
great description of that breastplate. But there
are two ways that God's people, named people, are carried into
the very presence of God Almighty and the Holy of Holies. They're
carried on the shoulders It carried on the shoulders of Aaron. You
can read about it in verse 12. And thou shalt put two stones
upon the shoulders of the ephod for the stones of memorial unto
the children of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names
before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial. See the barrel is one of those
stones that was on the breastplate. And this breastplate is held
with these gold rings. It's attached. And there are
rows, there are four rows in verse 20. The fourth row has
a barrel, an onyx and a jasper. And they're set in gold. And
the stones, verse 21, shall be with the names of the children
of Israel, twelve, according to their names, like the engravings
of a signet. Every one with his name shall
they be according to the twelve tribes. And thou shalt make upon
the breastplate chains at the end of the wreathing work of
pure gold. And thou shalt make upon the
breastplate two rings of gold, and shalt put the two rings in
the two ends of the breastplate. And thou shalt put the two wreathing
chains of gold in the two rings which are on the ends of the
breastplate, and the other two ends of the wreathing chains
shalt thou fasten to the two ouches, and put them on the shoulder
pieces of the ethod before it. and you shall make two rings
of gold and they shall put them in the two ends of the breastplate.
So all of this is joined together with these gold rings. in the border thereof, which
is in the side of the ephod inward, and two other rings of gold thou
shalt make, and put them on the two sides of the ephod underneath,
toward the foremost forepart thereof, and against the other
coupling thereof, and the curious girdle of the ephod. And you
shall bind the breastplate by the rings thereof, unto the rings
of the ephod, with a lace of blue, that it may be above the
curious girdle of the ephod, that the breastplate be not loosed
from the ephod." And so the two are one, this breastplate. And Aaron, verse 29, Aaron, who
represents the Lord Jesus, the great high priest, going into
the Holy of Holies with that sacrifice, shall bear the names
of the children of Israel in the breastplate, and it's a breastplate
of judgment. but he bears it upon his heart
when he goes into the holy place for a memorial before the Lord
continually. What a great description of our
Lord Jesus, bearing us on his shoulders. The government shall
be upon his shoulders, bearing us on his shoulders, bearing
us next to his heart. going into the Holy of Holies,
which is but a picture of the Holy of Holies in Heaven. He
takes His people into that place. In verse 30, Thou shalt put in
the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim, and they
shall be upon Aaron's heart. When he goes in before the Lord,
and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon
his heart, before the Lord continually. What a precious thing to be born
by God. What precious, precious people.
They were the only ones born into that holy of holies by that
high priest representing our Lord Jesus were these particular
people, these named people. It wasn't for the people of this
world, it's for a particular people. They are a people presented
by this high priest. They are a people carried by
this High Priest into the Holy of Holies. They are a people
represented by this High Priest. They are a people who come into
the Holy of Holies on the basis of a substitution, on the basis
of a sacrifice. They come, a carried, particular,
presented people, as a precious people. They come as a people
who have been judged. Their sins have been judged. They have been judged, they have
been punished, they have been put away. A carried people into
the Holy of Holies, a redeemed people into the Holy of Holies. What a wonderful thing it is
to think about what the Lord Jesus has done. Think about what
we are. She says she's black. One of
the names of the men carried into that holy of holies is the
name Benjamin. You know that he was that special
son of Jacob. But it says in Genesis 49, when
Jacob is talking about his sons, he says, Benjamin is a ravenous
wolf. In the morning he devours the
prey and in the evening he divides the spoil. What a great description
of us. Ravening wolves. Unclean. Ferocious. Cruel in our sins. Uncaring. This name is carried into the
Holy of Holies What's said of Benjamin in Deuteronomy 33? That first one is in Deuteronomy
49-27. What's the description of Benjamin
we have in Deuteronomy 33? May the beloved of the Lord dwell
in security by him who shields him all the day and he dwells
between his shoulders. What a great description. A ravening
wolf. A ravenous wolf. A beloved of
the Lord. a beloved of the Lord who dwells
in security by Him, not because of his own activities, he dwells
in security by Him who keeps him secure. And what does he
do? He shields him all the day and
he creates a place between his shoulders, close to his heart,
next to his head, Those stones were carried by Aaron upon his
heart before the Lord continually. What's Isabel witnessing in heaven
right now? What's happening in heaven at
this very moment? What's she witnessing? What's
the Lord Jesus doing at this very moment in heaven? Who is
he interceding for, brothers and sisters? What does he claim
for the intercession before the throne of God? On what basis
does he carry them into the throne room of God? How can he carry
a Benjamin like you and me, a ravenous wolf, into the Holy of Holies? He makes his people as holy as
he is holy. He touches them. He touched them
in that eternal covenant. He entered into that eternal
marriage union. Isn't it wonderful in Malachi
the Lord says, I have changed not therefore you sons of Jacob
but not consumed. But He also says He hates divorce. He hates putting away. When our Lord Jesus enters into
a marriage covenant, brothers and sisters, He'll take His Bride
to Heaven with His right arm of power, with His right arm
of security, with His right hand of salvation. He bears them upon
his heart. He bears them into Heaven's glory. And he says of his people in
Malachi 3.17, he makes these special treasures, they're called
his jewels. His jewels. No wonder she is
describing him as one who is set, set with the When people
I know are getting married, I often refer them to look at Jeremiah
32. And he talks about his gathering
his people. He gathers them out of the countries.
and He gathers them to Himself, and He will cause them to dwell
safely, and they shall be My people, and I will be their God,
and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear
Me forever." There is a blessing in fearing God. Fear me forever
for the good of them and of their children after them. And I will
make an everlasting covenant with them and I will not turn
away from them to do them good. But I will put my fear in their
hearts and that they shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice
over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land
assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul." What
a great covenant-keeping, promise-making God we have. And before we close,
let's just look at this last word. It's a word that we can
easily skip over, isn't it? His hands are as gold rings.
Set with the barrel. That word set is a beautiful
word. It means to be in, and it means
to be held. It means to be full. It means
to be fenced. It means to gather. It means to have completely. They are the hands of my security." He sets that covenant. It was set in eternity. It is
set in time, brothers and sisters. It is set in the circumstances
of our life." And the Lord Jesus, when He died,
He said what we need to say, don't we, so often? Into Thy
hands, God, I commit my spirit. The Father has given them into
the hands of the Lord Jesus and no one can take them out of His
hand. No one can take them out of His
Father's hand. No one can take them out of His
hand. In Isaiah 49.16, and we might finish here, He says, Behold,
I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls, Thy security,
Thy protection, Thy separation are continually before me." Our
great God, our great Saviour, bears in Heaven at this very
moment those scars upon His hands. God the Father looks upon Him
with the most extraordinary delight. And he looks upon all those who
are one with his son with exactly the same delight, with exactly
the same love, with exactly the same commitment to watch over
them, to do them good, to do them good in this world and to
do them good as they die and do them good as they pass into
eternity. We have a great and faithful
God. He makes promises. He made a
promise. He sealed it with His blood.
He wears His people on His heart. He carries them on His shoulders
and He carries them into glory. Let's pray.