Christ the Friend of His People
A. Beith. Songs 5:16 His mouth is most sweet: yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. I. BECAUSE OF WHAT HE UNDERTOOK AND WHAT HE HAS ACCOMPLISHED FOR THEM. 1. When their cause was desperate with God, He engaged to remedy it — to answer every charge to which they were liable, and He did it. 2. He purchased their persons, that He might be free to bless them as He saw meet. (1) Having them as His own, it is His delight to enrich and honour them to the utmost. (2) Having them as His own, He strips them of their filthy garments — He washes them from their sins. (3) Having them as His own, He reveals Himself to them. He cures the blindness with which the God of this world had afflicted them. (4) Having them as His own, He puts His law in their hearts and writes it in their minds. With their whole soul they consent unto it as "holy, just, good." 3. He has gone before to the place of final rest, there to appear for them, thence to hold communication with them, and thither to take them at last. II. THE CHARACTER OF HIS FRIENDSHIP. 1. It is an indissoluble friendship. It is not a friendship which, having viewed its object at first, through the false and delusive medium of an absorbing passion, has been deceived in it, and, on discovery of the deception, cools, fades, falls away, until it ceases altogether, or sinks into indifference, bearing proportion in its extent to the blind ardour that once raged. But it is a friendship based on intelligent, holy, as well as affectionate choice; He that led to it, that formed it, being the Father who so loved us that "He gave His only begotten Son, that we might live by Him." It never wearies of its object, for it is never disappointed, never deceived. It grows, it increases continually. On Christ's side it is perfect from the beginning, as existing in His heart; but the manifestations of it to us multiply every day. 2. It is marked by uniform constancy. Christ is a Friend that "loves at all times." 3. It is distinguished by unswerving faithfulness. (A. Beith.) Parallel Verses KJV: His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. WEB: His mouth is sweetness; yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, daughters of Jerusalem. Friends