Lily Among Thorns
Lily Among Thorns
I [am] the rose of Sharon, [and] the lily of the valleys. As the lily among the thorns, so [is] my love among the daughters. Songs of Solomon 2:2-1
The Songs of Solomon is a poetic testimony to the beautiful love shared by a man and his bride, but it is also the marriage song between Christ and his own bride, the Church. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Ephesians 5:31-32
I have been hoping to share this sermon by Spurgeon with you for some time. You may read the whole text at American Freemen: The Lily Among Thorns. If you don’t have the time or inclination, please read the selected passages below. I really had a difficult time choosing them, though, because there is so much richness in this sermon.
[The Church, the believer] bears [Christ’s] likeness. Notice the first verse of the chapter, wherein the bridegroom speaks—“I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.” He is THE lily, but his beloved is like him, for he applies his own chosen emblem to her—“As the lily among thorns, so is my darling among the daughters.” Notice that he is the lily, she is as the lily, that is to say, he has the beauty and she reflects it; she is lovely in his loveliness which he puts upon her. If any soul has any such beauty as is described here, Christ has dowered that beloved soul with all its wealth of charms, for in ourselves we are deformed and defiled.
Love’s eyes are quick, and her ears are open. Love covers a multitude of faults, but it discovers a multitude of beauties. Can it be so, O my soul, can it be so that Christ has made you lovely in his loveliness? Has he shed a beauty upon you, and does he himself look complacently upon it? He whose taste is exquisite, and whose voice is the truth, who never calls that beautiful which is not beautiful, can he see a beauty in your sighs and tears, in your desires after holiness, in your poor attempts to aid his cause, in your prayers and in your songs, and in your heart’s love towards him. Can he see beauty in these? Yes, assuredly he can, or he would not speak as he does in this text.
Dr. Thompson writes of a certain lily, “It grows among thorns, and I have sadly lacerated my hands in extricating it from them. Nothing can be in higher contrast than the luxuriant, velvety softness of this lily, and the withered, tangled hedge of thorns about it.” Ah, beloved, you know who it was that in gathering your soul and mine, lacerated not his hand only, but his feet, and his head, and his side, and his heart, yes, and his inmost soul. He spied us out, and said, “Yonder lily is mine, and I will have it”; but the thorns were a terrible barrier; our sins had gathered round about us, and the wrath of God most sharply stopped the way. Jesus pressed through all, that we might be his; and now when he takes us to himself he does not forget the thorns which girded his brow, and tore his flesh, for our sakes.
[The Church, the believer] has incomparable beauty. As compared and contrasted with all else she is the lily to the thorn-bush. Did not our Lord say of the natural lilies - “Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these”? and when I think of Christ’s lilies, adorned with his own righteousness, and bearing his own image, I feel that I may repeat my Master’s words and say with emphasis, “Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these!”
The poet says,
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
But the poet forgot that God is in the wilderness, and the solitary pace, and the sweetness of lonely flowers is his. He who planted the lily among thorns sees its beauty. It is God’s flower. and does it waste its sweetness because no human nostril smells thereat? It were blasphemous to count that wasted which is reserved for the great King. The Lord understands the ‘incense of nature’ better than we do, and as he walks abroad he rejoices in his works. Grace struggling in loneliness is very choice in God’s esteem. If man sees you not, O lonely believer, you may nevertheless sing, “You, God, see me.” The flower which blooms for God alone has a special honor put upon it, and so has the saint whose quiet life is all for Jesus. If you are unappreciated by those around you, you do not therefore be distressed, for you are honorable in the sight of God.
They do well who give flowers to cheer the poor in their dreary habitations, but they do better still who are flowers in the places where they live.
Photograph: Unknown title and copyright.
Friday, March 21, 2008