“A garden inclosed is My
sister, My spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Your plants are an
orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire with spikenard,
spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense,
myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:a fountain of gardens, a well of
living waters, and streams from Lebanon. Awake, O north wind; and come, you
south; blow upon My garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my
Beloved come into His garden, and eat His pleasant fruits. I am come into My
garden, My sister, My spouse:I have gathered My myrrh with my spice; I have
eaten My honeycomb with My honey; I have drunk My wine with My milk:eat, O
friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved” (Cant. 4:12-5:1).

    With these choice words
from the Song of Solomon, the Bridegroom likens His bride to a garden of
delights. Probably, all believers, with hearts opened to understand the
Scriptures, would agree that in the Bridegroom, or the “Beloved,” of the Song
of Solomon we have a beautiful figure of Christ. Most would also concede that
in the interpretation of the Song, the bride sets forth Christ’s earthly
people.

    However, while the strict
interpretation of the bride has Christ’s earthly people in view, we are surely
warranted in making an application to the Church, the heavenly bride of Christ.
Furthermore, if we may discover in this garden the excellencies that Christ
would find in His heavenly bride, do we not at the same time learn what the
love of Christ is looking for in the hearts of those who compose the bride? May
we then, for a little, meditate upon this garden, with its spring, its fruit,
its spices, and its living waters, as describing what the Lord would have our
hearts to be for Himself.

    First, we notice that the
Bridegroom always speaks of the garden as “My garden,” while the bride delights
to own it as “His garden.” “Awake O north wind … blow upon My garden,”
says the Bridegroom. The bride replies, “Let My beloved come into His garden.”
The application is plain:the Lord claims our hearts for Himself. “My son, give
Me your heart,” says the Preacher (Prov. 23:26). “Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts,” is the exhortation of an apostle (1 Pet. 3:15). Another apostle can
pray that “Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Eph. 3:17).

    It is not simply our time,
our means, our brains, and our busy service that the Lord desires, but first,
and above all, He claims our affections. We may give all our goods to the poor,
and our bodies to be burned, but without love it will profit nothing. The Lord
is still saying to us, “Give Me your heart.”

    “You have left your first
love” was a solemn word indicating that whatever excellencies belonged to the
believers thus addressed, their hearts had ceased to be a garden for the Lord.
As one has said, “A wife may take care of the house and fulfill all her duties
so as to leave nothing undone for which her husband could find fault; but if
her love for him has diminished, will all her service satisfy him if his love
to her remains the same as at first?” (J.N. Darby).

    Above all, then, the Lord
claims the undivided affection of our hearts. The garden must be His garden.
Moreover, if the Lord claims our hearts to be a garden for His delight, they
must have the marks of the garden that is according to His mind.

    As we read this beautiful
description of the garden of the Lord, we note five outstanding features that
set forth in figure what the Lord would have our hearts to be for Himself.
First, the garden of the Lord is an enclosed garden. Secondly, it is a watered
garden, with its spring shut up and its fountain sealed. Thirdly, it is a fruitful
garden—a paradise of pomegranates with precious fruits. Fourthly, it is a fragrant
garden, with trees of frankincense and all the chief spices. Lastly, it is a refreshing
garden from whence “the living waters” flow, and the fragrance of its spices is
carried to the world around.

     A Garden Enclosed.
If the heart is to be kept as a garden for the pleasure of the Lord, it must be
as “a garden enclosed.” This speaks of a heart separate from the world,
preserved from evil and set apart for the Lord.

    May we not say that in
the Lord’s last prayer we learn the desire of His heart that His people should
be as “a garden enclosed”? We hear Him tell the Father that His own are a separate
people, for He can say, “They are not of this world, even as I am not of the
world.” Again, He desires that they may be a preserved people, for He prays,
“Keep them from the evil.” Above all, He prays that they may be a sanctified
people, for He says, “Sanctify them through thy truth” (John 17:14-17).

    Does not the Preacher
exhort us to keep our hearts as “a garden enclosed” when he says, “Keep your
heart more than anything that is guarded” (Prov. 4:23 JND)? Again we do well to
heed the Lord’s own words, “Let your loins be girded about” (Luke 12:35).
Unless the girdle of truth holds in our affections and thoughts, how quickly
our minds will be drawn away by the things of this world, and the heart cease
to be “a garden enclosed.”

    Again, the apostle James
desires that our hearts may be preserved from evil when he warns us, “If you
have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not
against the truth … for where envying and strife is, there is confusion and
every evil work” (Jas. 3:14-16). Never has there been a scene of confusion and
strife among the people of God that has not had its hidden root—of envy and
strife—in the heart. We may be sure that the heart that entertains bitterness,
envying, and strife will be no garden for the Lord.

    How necessary, then, to
have our hearts kept in separation from the world and preserved from evil.
Nevertheless, the refusal of the world and the flesh will not be enough to
constitute our hearts “a garden enclosed.” The Lord desires that our hearts may
be sanctified, or set apart for His pleasure, by being occupied with the truth
and all that is according to Christ. Does not the apostle Paul set before the
Philippians “a garden enclosed”—a heart sanctified for the Lord—when he says,
“Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest [or noble],
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report:if there be any virtue and if
there be any praise, think on these things” (Phil. 4:8)?

    If the heart is full of
cares, fretting over wrongs, and full of bitterness towards those who may have
acted badly towards us, if we are entertaining evil imaginations, malicious
thoughts, and vengeful feelings towards a brother, it is very certain our
hearts will be no garden for the Lord.

    If then we would have our
hearts freed from things that defile and turn the heart into a barren waste,
choking the garden with weeds, let us follow the instruction of the apostle
Paul when he tells us, “Be careful [or anxious] for nothing; but in everything
by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known
unto God” (Phil. 4:6). Having, like Hannah of old, poured out our hearts before
the Lord and unburdened our minds of all the cares, sorrows, and trials that were
pressing upon our spirits, we shall find that “the peace of God, that passes
all understanding, shall keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (verse
7). Thus set free from all that might come in between the soul and God, our
hearts will be at liberty to enjoy the things of Christ, and our minds free to
“think on these things”—these holy and pure things that should mark one whose
heart is “a garden enclosed.”

    A Watered Garden.
The heart that is set apart for the Lord will have its hidden source of
refreshment and joy. It will be a garden with “a spring shut up [and] a
fountain sealed” (Cant. 4:12). A spring is an unfailing supply; a fountain
rises up to its source. The prophet could say of one who walks according to the
mind of the LORD that his soul shall be “like a watered garden, and like a
spring of water, whose waters fail not” (Isa. 58:11). To the woman of Sychar
the Lord spoke of giving “a fountain of water springing up into everlasting
life,” to be “in” the believer. The world is entirely dependent upon surrounding
circumstances for its passing joy; the believer has a spring of joy within—the
hidden life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit.

    As the spring of life,
the Holy Spirit meets all our spiritual needs by guiding us into “all truth”;
as the fountain of life, He engages our hearts with Christ above. The Lord can
say, “The Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He shall testify of Me”
(John 15:26)—Christ in His new place in the glory. Thus as the Spring, He
refreshes our souls with the truth; as the Fountain springing up to its source,
He engages our hearts with Christ.

    Let us, however, remember
that the spring, which is the source of blessing, is “a spring shut up”
and the fountain is “a fountain sealed.” Does this not remind us that
the source of blessing in the believer is sealed to this world, and wholly
apart from the flesh? The Lord speaks of the Comforter as One whom “the world
cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him; but you know Him
for He dwells with you and shall be in you” (John 14:17). Again we read, “The
flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are
contrary the one to the other” (Gal. 5:17).

    Alas! we may mind the
things of the flesh and turn aside to the world, only to find we grieve the
Spirit so that our hearts, instead of being as a watered garden, become but a
dry and barren waste.

    A Fruitful Garden.
The “spring” and the “fountain” will turn the garden of the Lord into a
fruitful garden—“an orchard of pomegranates with precious fruits” (Cant. 4:13).
The ungrieved Spirit will produce in our hearts “the fruit of the Spirit”
which, the apostle tells us, “is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance [or self-control]” (Gal. 5:22,23). What,
indeed, are these precious fruits of the Spirit but the reproduction of the
character of Christ in the believer? The fountain, rising up to its source,
occupies with Christ and His excellencies; thus, beholding “the glory of the
Lord, [we] are changed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18).
Thus the heart becomes a garden of the Lord bearing precious fruit for the
delight of His heart.

    A Fragrant Garden.
Not only is the garden of the Lord a garden of precious fruits, but a garden of
spices from which sweet odors arise. In Scripture, fruit speaks of the excellencies
of Christ, but the spices, with their fragrance, speak of worship that has
Christ for its object. In worship there is no thought of receiving blessing
from Christ, but of bringing the homage of our hearts to Christ. When the wise
men from the East found themselves in the presence of “the young Child,” they
fell down and “worshiped Him,” and “presented unto Him gifts:gold and
frankincense and myrrh” (Matt. 2:11). When Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with
“a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly” (John 12:3), she was not, as on
other occasions, at His feet as a receiver to get instruction, or to find
sympathy in her sorrow; she was there as a giver to render the worship
of a heart filled with the sense of His blessedness. It was good to be at His
feet to hear His word, and, again, to be at His feet to receive comfort in
sorrow; but in neither case do we read of the ointment with its odor. But when
she was at His feet as a worshiper, with her precious ointment, we read, “The
whole house was filled with the odor of the ointment” (John 12:1-3).

    The Philippian saints in
their financial gift to the apostle may indeed have shown forth some of the
excellencies of Christ—His comfort of love and compassions—thus bringing forth
fruit that would abound to their account. In addition, there was in their gift
the spirit of sacrifice and worship which was as “an odor of a sweet smell, a
sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God” (Phil. 2:1; 4:17,18).

    In our day, if our hearts
are to be a garden of the Lord, let us not forget that the Lord not only looks
for the precious fruit of the Spirit, reproducing in us something of His lovely
traits, but also the spirit of worship that rises up to Him as a sweet odor.

    A Refreshing Garden.
Lastly, the Lord would have His garden to be a source of refreshment to the
world around—a garden from whence flow the “living waters.” Thus the Lord can
speak of the believer, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, as being a source of
blessing to a needy world, as He says, “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of
living water” (John 7:38,39).

    Thus we learn from the
Song of Solomon that the Lord would gladly possess our hearts as a garden of
delights for Himself. He stands at the door of our hearts and knocks, for He
desires to come in and dwell within our hearts. If we are slow to let Him in,
He may say, as the Bridegroom in the Song, “Awake, O north wind; and come you
south; blow upon My garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.” He may allow
adverse circumstances, trials and sorrows, in order to drive us to Himself, so
that we may say like the bride, “Let my Beloved come into His garden” (Cant.
4:16).

    If we open to Him we
shall experience the truth of His own words, “If any man hear My voice and open
the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Rev.
3:20). In like spirit, when the bride says, “Let my Beloved come into his
garden,” the Bridegroom at once responds, “I am come into My garden, My sister,
My spouse:I have gathered My myrrh with My spice; I have eaten My honeycomb
with My honey” (Cant. 5:1).

    Here is a summary of what
we have learned from this passage in the Song of Solomon:

    1. If the heart of the
believer is kept separate from the world, preserved from evil, and set apart
for the Lord, it will become like “a garden enclosed.”

    2. In that garden will be
found a spring of secret joy and refreshment that, like a fountain, rises to
its source.

    3. The fountain,
springing up to its source, will bring forth precious fruit, the excellencies
of Christ.

    4. The fruit that speaks
of the moral traits of Christ in the heart of the believer, will lead to
worship that rises up as a sweet odor to the heart of Christ.

    5. The heart that goes
out in worship to Christ will become a source of blessing to the world around.

    In the light of these
Scriptures we may well pray the prayer of the apostle Paul when he bows his
knees to the Father and asks “that He would grant you, according to the riches
of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man;
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Eph. 3:14-17).