Spurgeon's Song of Song Survey
Song of Songs: Asleep, and Yet Awake – A Riddle
Asleep, and Yet Awake – A Riddle
Song of Solomon 5:2
Pastor’s Opening
WE are glad to perceive in this Song the varied experience of the bride. She was the well-beloved of the heavenly Bridegroom, but she was not without her faults. Though the “fairest among women,” she was human, and, therefore, she had not reached angelical perfection. She was not perfect, to begin with, for at the outset she confessed, “I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.” She was not perfect even in the exhibition of her love to him who had chosen her, for she has to acknowledge, as upon the occasion before us, that she treated him in an unworthy manner. She kept him waiting at her door in the chilly night, and grieved him so that he withdrew. She was not perfect even to the end of the chapter, for she could not hear her Lord’s voice so clearly as certain of her companions, and she cried in the last chapter of her song, “Cause me to hear it.”
Scripture Verse(s)
Song of Solomon 5:2
“I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh.”
Keys to the Verse
I Sleep:
Bride/Church/Believer
My Beloved:
Bridegroom/Jesus Christ
Main Theme(s)
I. First, then, here is SLUMBER CONFESSED. The spouse laments her state, and sighs out, “I sleep.”
- It strikes us at once that her sleep is a state recognized.
- Further, as this sleep is a matter recognized, so is it a matter complained of, and
- Yet again; this slumber should be not only a matter of complaint as an ill to be dreaded, but it should be regarded as a fault to be ashamed of, and
purchase
Main Theme(s) Continued
II. We reach the point of the paradox; here is WATCHFULNESS CLAIMED by one who confessed to sleep. “My heart waketh,” says the Bride, “I sleep, but my heart waketh.”
“Both sleeping flesh I have, that rest
In sloth unto my shame,
And waking grace, that still protests
Against this lazy frame.”
III. Spare me a minute or two while I dwell on the head of MYSTERY SOLVED. “I sleep, but my heart waketh.” How doth her heart wake? It is because the voice and knock of her Beloved are heard.
IV. Now for THE LESSON LEARNED. It is this, be very careful when you possess great joys, for in this instance the spouse had been with the Beloved in choice fellowship, and yet was soon drowsy.
