Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: September 26

“What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women?” ~ Song of Solomon 5:9a

There is no other way to the Father except through Jesus Christ, the Son. Christians believe this. Those who are “outside” do not. But the world asks, sometimes with kindly interest, sometimes sarcastically, sometimes angrily: “What is thy beloved more than another beloved?” Why Jesus Christ only? Why not another approach?

What do we answer when this question is asked of us? With all our hearts we long to be able to answer. Even though we may have been running frantically around in the spiritual doldrums ourselves, still He is our Beloved, and when someone asks this question, we long to answer adequately.

What we usually do however, is what the woman did in the Song of Solomon. She began rather feverishly and with so many adjective-laden sentences to try to describe Him: “My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and as black as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters washed with mil, and fitly set. His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies dropping sweet swelling myrrh. His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet.”

And here, I [Eugenia Price, the author] think we are not wrong to sense that like us, she has run out of words. There were none adequate to begin such an impossible task as describing this Beloved who is “more than another beloved.” I see her stop, catch her breath, and wait for Him to come to her rescue. He does. He is beside her and speaks for Himself.

“I am the beginning and the end. I am he that liveth and was dead, and … am alive for evermore …”