Well, let's continue to worship our God this morning, their congregation, by opening His Word. Let's open our Bibles to Song of Solomon, Chapter 1, this morning. Song of Solomon, Chapter 1. I'm going to read in your hearing the entire chapter. Song of Solomon, Chapter 1. Song of Solomon, chapter one. The song of songs, which is Solomon's. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine. Your anointing oils are fragrant. Your name is oil poured out, therefore virgins love you. Draw me after you, let us run. The King has brought me into his chambers. We will exult and rejoice in you. We will extol your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you. I am very dark but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the kints of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me. My mother's sons were angry with me. They made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept. Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon, for why should I be like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions? If you do not know, O most beautiful among women, follow in the tracks of the flock, and pasture your young goats beside the shepherd's tents. I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh's chariots. Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels. We will make for you ornaments of gold studded with silver. While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance. My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh that lies between my breasts. My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of En Gedi. Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves. Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green. The beams of our house are cedar. Our rafters are pine." That's for the reading of God's Word. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's bow our heads this morning and ask the Lord to bless the ministry of the Word. Father God, as we return to this most sublime of songs, we pray, Father, that you would help us switch gears to hear things that we do not normally hear from the pulpit and to find that category that perhaps was almost lost or even non-existent. to think of our relationship with Christ in terms of a marriage, to think of our relationship with You, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in terms of love, fire that is set to truth which results in warm hearts and souls that find affection in the gospel. I pray, Father, that you would also give us instruction through your word for our earthly marriages, these temporal marriages, Father, between a man and a woman where we often experience vicissitudes, the ups and downs, the push, the pull, the tension, the splendor. and that Father you would help us to strike a balance in all things, that we would see the forest from the trees, that we would see that some things are certainly more important than others, and that we would see the face of our Beloved before us, that we would hear the voice of our Beloved before us, and that we would be able to bequeath, among other things, onto our children, that next generation, not only the gospel, but a picture of the gospel in our marriages. Father, would you help your servant this morning to impact this word with clarity, with conviction, and that you might be glorified in it. We ask all these things in Christ's name. Amen. Well, it's been a number of weeks since we were in the Song of Solomon. We took a bit of a detour, but we are coming back, and I just want to remind you that the intention is to work through the whole book, and there are very good reasons for that. This is a marvelous book. But, to just get everyone up to speed, not only members, but certainly those of you who have been attending and you come in to a service like this and you hear certain words in the reading of the Scripture that you did not expect to hear in the Word of God, let me give all of us a reminder of how we are reading this book, how we are understanding this book. The name of the series is A Portrait of Love on Two Horizons, and by horizons we mean that we're reading the book of the Song of Songs on two different levels, if you will, or if I could put it this way, with two different lenses. On the first horizon, or with the first lens, we see this as a compendium, if you will, of love songs, love poems. between a man and a woman, a husband and a wife within the covenant context of marriage. And there's much there for us to glean. There is certainly much practical advice, if I could put it that way, for how we are to love our wives and how we are to love our husbands, But then on the second level, much of church history, much of the church, if I could put it that way, has also, not in opposition to this first horizon, but in a complementing way, has also understood this as an allegory. Now, we oftentimes hear the word allegory, and we hiss. We don't know why we're hissing, and we don't know why we're pushing back against it, at least most of us don't, but we just know it's bad. But we forget that Paul in the book of Galatians uses an allegory to convey spiritual truths. Now, you can go off the rail in allegories, and certainly somebody of the stature of Augustine gives us good test cases in how to do that and how not to do that, as the case may be. But allegory is really a literary tool. Think of it as a vehicle through which a message is communicated in a particular image, okay? So if you want to stand back and look at the whole thing, this is what we would say. We come at the song of songs through the lens of marriage. That institution, both in its earthly manifestation between a husband and a wife, but then also in its spiritual manifestation between Christ, the head of the church, and His bride, the church, okay, marriage becomes a lens by which we can look at both of these relationships and mine out greater clarity, understanding, and hopefully be spurned on to greater faithfulness. Now, it's especially important to remember these two horizons when we think about church history, and particularly when we think of the author that is usually attributed to this. And, of course, as the title suggests, the author is Solomon. You could read this in the Hebrew as the songs that were the possession of Solomon, the songs that were dedicated to Solomon, but more than likely it is referring to songs or poems that Solomon, King Solomon, the son of David, wrote himself. We are told in the book of Proverbs that he penned thousands of proverbs and songs, which if you think about it is an amazing accomplishment. I mean, men, how many poems have you written? I rest my case." And yet this man, I don't know, he must have written five or six every single day in his adult life. I mean, it is a huge undertaking, but he has given to the church a sublime compendium of love poetry for us. But can we address the elephant in the room? I have often heard this book depicted as this is the glorious, faithful love between Solomon and his wife. And I say, huh? Okay. Because 1 Kings 11.3 says that Solomon, well, he wasn't quite the monogamous type. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. And boys and girls, what that means is that he was a polygamist. And boys and girls, I want to make it abundantly clear, just because Solomon did it doesn't mean that it was right. Just because anybody did it in redemptive history does not make it right. In fact, even Jesus our Lord said that since the beginning marriage has been between a man and a woman, and that's how it should be, that's how it ought to be, and any deviation from that is disobedience. And in fact, You can look at the whole course of all the kings that stood as leaders in the united monarchy and then the divided monarchy, and almost to the man, every single one of them, in some way, shape, or form, with a few exceptions, was taken away by the idolatry of their wives. And Solomon was no exception. In fact, sadly, 1 Kings 11 goes on to say, in verses three and four, that in Solomon's old age, The gods of his wives took him away from the God of his father. It's a sad scene. I mean, if I could paint a picture for you, and this is substantiated in the Word of God, Solomon so wanted to please his wives that he built altars for them, for their gods, built altars for his wives' gods, and then even went off with his wives to worship at those altars. And no doubt he probably thought to himself, well, what's the big deal? I'm still praying to the God of Israel every day. Well, it's a big deal because God, listen, is a jealous God. He is a jealous God that wants the exclusive attention and affection and worship and adoration of his religious subjects. And so I say all of that because I don't want us to get so literal in understanding these poems, you shouldn't do that anyway, that you're always trying to find some historical referent to Solomon and one of his wives. The fact of the matter is we don't know which wife he's talking about, and I would submit to you this morning very confidently Though Solomon is the author and though, yes, he's depicting love between a man and a woman and on a higher level between God and His people. Solomon is not trying to give a historical account of his own rendezvous and his own interactions with a particular wife. What he's trying to do is to give an ideal, idyllic, stylistic, poetic picture of love. And really, if you think about it, I think he's shooting for what maybe in his heart of hearts he wanted his love to look like. what he wanted his marriage to look like. In fact, I would say this, two things. On the one hand, there's no doubt in my mind that when Solomon is painting these pictures and giving these verses of the beloved to his love and vice versa, that he's probably thinking of the idyllic marriage in the garden between Adam and Eve. the way it was supposed to be, but even then there's just a little fly in the ointment there, as it were, because even then he knows, he's a good student of the Word of God, he knows that Adam and Eve's marriage was afflicted by sin, by their own sinful decisions and sin entered the world and death after it. And so, he knows, he doesn't totally understand everything Peter tells us this in 1 Peter chapter 1. He doesn't totally understand what it is he's depicting, but as the Holy Spirit of God is inspiring him to write these verses, he is on the other hand giving a picture, not of the first Adam, but of the second Adam. He's giving a picture of the greater Solomon, the greater David, the prototypical and final, antitypical, that is to say, fulfilling husband to his bride. He's speaking of Jesus Christ. And so I don't want us to get so bogged down in the details of this that we miss the forest from the trees. You don't need to think of one particular wife, you just need to look at this idyllic picture of love between a husband and a wife. Solomon fell very short of this ideal. Now, why is this song so important in cultivating love, not only for our spouses, but also for our Savior? Because as I said in one of the prayers this morning, the first thing I would say is that because Christianity is more than just propositional truth religion. You see, beloved, love, the concept of love can be affirmed or denied. The concept of love can be repeated. We can give a definition to it. We can give an illustration of it. In fact, imagine, if you will, a master teacher, a master pedagogue, and he just is waxing eloquently about all the intricacies and the contours and the shape of love between a husband and a wife, and yet that man can go home and be a bum to his wife. Because it's more than simple knowledge. It's more than simple propositional truth. The emphasis is not so much on what you know love to be, but when that knowledge is set aflame in your heart and it catches fire and you actually do what this love depicts. Sometimes love is better felt than explained and poetry greatly aids us in that. Now, I obviously want to be careful with that statement, okay, but I do want to remind us we're not dealing with Paul here. We're not dealing with a didactic passage that is very linear, very Western. We're dealing with poetry, and poetry sometimes is all over the place. Poetry oftentimes is being pooled by emotion, sometimes raw emotion, sometimes conflicted emotion, sometimes a basket case of emotion. And that's what we're going to see here, and what I hope that the Spirit of God will do for all of us as we think not only of love in the context of our marriage relationships in this earthly relationship, but also with our Lord, is that we would feel the love of Jesus Christ. that we would feel it. Now, I'm a rock rib, Reformed Christian, I believe in objective truth, I believe in propositional truth, but beloved, we also need, we also need to have our affections stoked by the word of God. And poetry can do that, as we've said in the past. Poetry has a tendency to keep things, not only in our marriage relationship, but in our relationship with Jesus Christ, fresh and alive. Fresh and alive. You know what's fascinating to me? It's fascinating in a sad way. How does the Scriptures speak about David? Boys and girls, doesn't it say that David was a man after God's own heart? And we're often reminded of that. We say, we want to be a man after God's own heart. We want to be a woman after God's own heart. We want to be a boy or a girl after God's own heart. And so we should. But sometimes we have a tendency of lifting up our models of righteousness on too high of a pedestal, and we need to be reminded it was that very same David that broke the seventh commandment, boys and girls. He had a relationship with a woman who was not his wife as if she were his wife, and also murdered in order to cover it up. That was the man who was described as whose heart was after God's own? Well, then also there's Solomon. What does it say of Solomon? He was the wisest man. He was wiser than any man that came before and any man that would come after, with the exception of Jesus Christ. And yet, at the end of his life, it's really hard to tell whether or not he had apostatized. I mean, let's be honest. So what is the point of that? Beloved, listen, you and I are no greater than David. You and I are no greater than Solomon, no stronger than Solomon, no stronger than David, but this I can say. If we would constantly be pursuing the face of Christ every single day, it is less likely that something like that would happen. Because as our affections are stoked, not toward a religion, although religion is good, not toward a system of thought, although a system of thought is good, but toward a person that a person, Jesus Christ, the very God-man, King of kings and Lord of lords, creator of the cosmos, that he might ignite within us a passion and a desire for greater faithfulness to him, and why not? For he gave everything, he did everything, he has given us everything. Beloved, we don't meditate as much as we should upon Jesus. Can I just exhort you this week? Just undertake this homework assignment. In your time that you get alone with the Lord, whenever that is, not with your family, just alone, just you, just set a timer. And for 10 minutes, without a phone, without any social media, without any screens, as quiet as possible, close your eyes, get on your knees before God, and just meditate on Jesus for 10 minutes. Just meditate on Him. Just think about Him. Just think about how He suffered. and died for you. Just think about the deep, deep love that would drive him to do such a thing. Just think about the cheerful attitude that he had throughout his life as he was thinking, I just want the will of the Father. I just want the will of the Father. I will go without bread for 40 days. I will go without water for 40 days. I will be tempted by the tempter, but I am in the will of my Father, and that's all I care about. Wow. That has a way of just making all these insignificant things in our life, they seem significant in the time, don't they? But all these, really, when it's all said and done, the grand scheme of things, insignificant things in life just kind of taper off. And what we have before us is the King of kings. Just do it for ten minutes. And just observe after you do that how it puts into perspective everything else in your life. We need to meditate more on Jesus Christ. What else can it do? Well, look at verse 4. Hear this for yourself, how this song is so important for cultivating love for a spouse and a Savior. Verse four in chapter one, it says, draw me after you, draw me after you. Love here, listen, love here is pictured as something that draws us. It's like a gravitational pull. Boys and girls, if I jumped up, what's gonna happen to my body in just a millisecond? it's gonna come back down, right? And what is that called? That's called gravity, okay? There's a gravitational pull that brings objects back down to the ground. And in the same way, love has a gravitational pull, listen, that pulls us toward the object of our affection. It doesn't always happen naturally. There's a higher intensity of it happening naturally at the beginning of our relationships, right? That gravity, boy, it's strong. We can't think of anything else or anyone else but our wife to be or our husband to be. We just want to be with them. We want to eat with them. We just want to feel their touch on our hands or on our arms. We just want to gaze into their eyes. But then after a while it starts to fade away a little bit, and what happens? We've got to fight for it. We've got to fight for more gravity and not, you know, be like we're on the moon where we're just floating away from the object of our affection. It's important to give attention to this element of this gravitational pool. So I want you to consider a few this morning on two horizons, okay? So let's consider this gravitational pool of love. First, on the first horizon, between an earthly husband and an earthly wife. I want you to notice the various things. I think that there are six here. Six things that the bride is drawn to her husband by. six things that the bride is drawn to her husband by or with, if I could misuse that preposition at the end of a sentence. First, look at verse 2a, the desire for affectionate kisses. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. I want to be tasteful here, I want to be careful here, but boys and girls, you know that when mommy and daddy give a kiss to each other on the lips, that is a very special kiss, isn't it? They don't do that with anybody else. Now, they may give you a kiss on the lips, but it's a very different kind of kiss. A kiss for my child, my sons, is a different kiss than a kiss for my wife. And the bride here wants her husband, desperately wants her husband, to kiss her on the lips. You see, this desire for affectionate kisses is a gravitational pull that brings him and her into the orbit of love. Incredibly important. Notice, secondly, secondly, A love that is better than wine to be. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for your love is better than wine." Now, I'm going to talk about this in a moment when we talk about how this applies to Jesus Christ, but let me just simply say this. Wine in the Bible is used as a figure for joy and gladness and celebration. But at least on this side of heaven, there's a price that you pay for that, right? I believe that in Capernaum when Jesus made wine for everybody at that wedding feast, I think people got a little tipsy. And I think that that was okay, not drunk, but we're talking about joy and celebration and that's the idea. In fact, some of you know this, I'm not saying that this is right, but even the Jews to this day, even the Jews to this day during Purim, it would be something close to our Easter, they read the book of Esther. And the whole point of the exercise, as they read this in community, is that every time they hear the name of Esther, they cheer. And every time they hear the name of Haman, they boo. But they're supposed to drink wine while they're doing this. In fact, the rabbis tell them to drink wine when they're doing this, and the rabbis tell them Drink so much wine, because this is a celebration of our liberation in the Hasmonean period from our oppressors. Drink so much wine that when you hear Esther, you boo, and when you hear Haman, you celebrate. The rabbis said that. Once again, not commending this. Bad, boys and girls. Don't do that, okay? But where are they getting this idea that there is a connection between wine, celebration, joy and gladness? It's right there in the Bible. I could quote you proverb after proverb. The book of Ecclesiastes chapter 7, give wine to him who is suffering for gladness and joy. And the bride here likens her love to her husband as wine, but there's a really important word there, and the word is better. It's better than wine, because why? Listen, wine has a consequence the next morning, doesn't it, for most people? You had fun the night before, but you got a little tipsy, did some dance moves that were questionable. Okay, but the next morning, boy, you kind of paid for that, okay? But love in the context of covenant marriage has no regrets. No regrets. You think about that. No regrets in your conscience. You could drink deep of the love of your husband and wife and have no regrets because that's what it's there for. Your husband, your wife is meant to give you pleasure. And this is what she says. This is a gravitational pull. Thirdly, notice his unique aroma. Verse 3a. Your anointing oils are fragrant, and jump down to verse 13. My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh that lies between my breasts. Myrrh is an expensive spice used for making perfume and incense, and then look at verse 14. My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Ein Gedi. Aroma is important. aroma is important. You know, your love has a unique combination of deodorant, aftershave, cologne, and their skin. And that combination of all those things gives a unique aroma and smell that when the woman smells it, she immediately is taken into rapture as she thinks about her beloved, and vice versa. In fact, as I'm told, military wives who have lost their husbands in the theater of war, you'll often see them at the funeral clinging to the shirt. of their spouse, and they're never going to wash that shirt. They're going to smell that shirt as long as they can to remind them of their husband. This is a gravitational pull of love through the aroma of our beloved. So just as a very practical application, men and women, it's important to keep yourself up. It's important to be pleasant in the aroma category because we know that there's all kinds of other aromas that are competing with this gravitational pull. that are more of an oppositional than a bringing together. But don't forget that this is your beloved and you should want to smell good in their presence. You should want to look good in their presence. You want to attract them. Fourthly, his name. Look at 3B. Your name is oil poured out, therefore the virgins love you." What is beautiful in the context of covenant marriage, a man gives his wife her name and the wife takes a new name. It's those famous words of Ruth, where you will go, not to her mother-in-law, but to her husband, where you will go, I will go, and your God shall become my God, and your people shall become my people. I'm changing my name. I love you so much." And the husband is giving his name to her, and a name is a very, very important thing. I love a famous line from the Avett brothers, always remember there's nothing worth sharing like the love that let us share our name. This applies not only to husbands and wives but also to family. We share our name and it's a precious thing. A good name is greater than gold, the Proverbs say. Look at verse 5, or number 5, look at verse 4a. It says, draw me after you. What is she doing here? You know what she wants? She wants Him to constantly pursue her. She wants Him to constantly pursue her. She wants to be wanted. And here's the thing, man, this is where I love that Song of Solomon, really it's like an answer key to all the things that our wives are trying to tell us or do tell us time and time and time again. She doesn't want to have to tell you to pursue her. She doesn't want to have to tell you to schedule that date. She doesn't want to have to tell you after 15 years what her favorite flower is, okay? She wants you to know. She wants you to anticipate her. She wants you to know her favorite candy bar. She wants you to know her favorite restaurant. She wants you to know all those things and be proactive with it. So often I counsel men who are good men, they love Jesus, they even love their wives, but there's a disconnect here. And you know what it is? It's the same thing, I deal with it too. As I said in my prayer, I'm just tired at the end of the day. I'm tired when I get home, I'm tired on the weekend, I have a bear of a lawn to mow, and after I do that I'm even more tired, and where am I going to find time to schedule a date. Well, you must find time to schedule a date. You must do this. You must pursue her so that that gravitational pull of love can be vibrant and real on an ongoing basis in your marriage. Then number six, listen to this, his willingness to listen to her insecurities. Look at verses five and six. This is the beloved, the woman speaking. She says, I am very dark, but lovely. Oh, daughters of Jerusalem, like the kints of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon, do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me. My mother's sons were angry with me. They made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept. Now let me make it, just get this out of the way. This is not talking about race. Okay, this is not talking about skin pigmentation because of a nationality, okay? Really, this is talking about class and societal class more than anything. Notice that, you know, if you could picture Solomon, again, don't get too specific with the historical details, but he's got 1,000 wives or 700 wives and 300 concubines. Many of those wives were political alliances from other countries. Many of those wives were princesses from other countries. They were born in the lap of luxury. They were born with a silver spoon in their mouth. They never bathed themselves. Their servants bathed them. They never dressed themselves. Their servants dressed them. They never filed their nails, clipped their nails, cut their, they never did any of that. It was all done for them, but not her. The beloved is tantamount to a country bumpkin. What does she do? She works out in the fields. She's the proverbial redneck. Some of you don't know where that came from. You know where the term redneck came from? It came from people who worked out in the fields all day, and because they were under the sun, just like the beloved here, their neck was red. That's where it came from. She's working out in the fields, and she thinks, in comparison to all his other women, I don't even compare. I'm not worthy to be in his harem. I'm not worthy to be in his palace. Don't look at me. I'm dark. Don't gaze upon me. What is she dealing with here? She's dealing with insecurities. She's dealing with insecurities. And I want you to notice, before we get to how he answers this insecurity, that our wives, gentlemen, our wives deal with similar insecurities. They may not be social class insecurities. But I'll tell you, a few insecurities that most women in our congregation deal with, I would say women in society in general, is trying to compete with the airbrush models that we see banty to bound us day in and day out, whether it's on the computer screen as a banner, or whether it's on a billboard as we're driving to work, or wherever. Airbrush models who basically get paid to not eat. They get paid to work out. They get paid to look the way that they look. And that standard that is out there, the women know is vying for your position, for your attention. It wants you to drink it in. And let's be honest, our women, our dear sisters in this congregation, they have insecurities about that. And we need to remember that, men. We're in a culture that's saturated with sex roundabout, unrealistic expectations of women. And not only that, but then there's our mothers with little ones who don't even have time to brush their hair. let alone get the, you know, the baby food out and everything else. So, she needs reassurance, and so she comes to her husband, and her husband gives a preemptive strike by lavishing her with attention, affection, and physical touch. Look over in verse 8. Here he is responding. If you do not know, we'll come back to this a little bit later. Oh, most beautiful among women, follow in the tracks of the flock and pasture your own goats beside the shepherd's tent. I compare you, my love, to a mate among Pharaoh's chariots. Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels. Okay, and then jump to verse 15. Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves. Men, what did he do? He assures her of his love for her. He tells her how beautiful she is. Sometimes I talk to guys and they're like, well, she already knows that. That's not the point. That's not the point that she already knows that. It's that she needs to be reminded of it. She needs to be reminded that, not just that she's beautiful, but that she's beautiful to you. That you only have eyes for her. That sometimes in the middle of the day when you just crush that TPS report and you're taking a break, you're thinking of her. You're thinking of an afternoon rendezvous. You're thinking of making it happen. She wants to hear that you see. And that is healthy love. That is healthy gravitational pull in the category of love. That is love on the first horizon. I'm going to stop there this morning, and next time when we come back, we'll talk about love on the second horizon as it refers to Christ. But let me simply say this, this idyllic model of the husband reassuring his wife, is that not what Christ does with us? Can we not say, like her, we are dark, and yet it says, comely? I'm dark but comely." What is she recognizing there? Well, on the one hand, there's something that makes me unworthy. It's kind of like Peter, right, where he and the other disciples, they'd been fishing all night, all night, professional fishermen, and they caught nothing. And then they come back to shore, they're mending their nets, they're discouraged, they're probably angry, they're probably barking at each other. Who knows? Maybe a wrestling match ensues, they're just really ticked off at each other, washing their nets, mending their nets, and then here comes Jesus. And he sits on the boat, he goes, go out a little bit, I'm going to teach. And then he teaches probably 40 minutes and they're just sitting there, okay, you know, they haven't slept for 20 hours. And then Jesus gets done teaching and He says, now put your boat out a little bit further and put your nets in and catch some fish. And Peter's thinking to himself, what is he thinking? We fished all night. In fact, the spot that he's telling us to go to, that's exactly where we were. We were there for three hours. It was James' idea. It was an idiotic idea. We were there for three hours, nothing. And now Jesus wants us to go there? Okay, Lord, we'll go there. And they pulled up so many fish that their nets were breaking. What did Peter say? Depart from me, Lord. Depart from me, for I am an unworthy sinner. Isn't that how we feel sometimes when we let our Lord down? Don't look at me, Lord. I am dark but comely. Don't gaze upon me. Don't gaze upon me, because sin has made me black inside. And yet, and yet, the Lord lifts his countenance, and he gazes upon him, and he says, you are perfect in me. Is this not the Reformation battle cry? At once, sinner and saint. At once, justified and sinner. At the same time, we are sinners, and yet we are perfect in the eyes of Jesus Christ. He makes us perfect. He looks at us as perfect. And what does this do, beloved? Does this cause us to go further in this license for sin? Oh, no. To the contrary. What it does when you have a king, when you have a husband, when you have a covenant head who, despite your unworthiness and your your darkness of sin and what's in your heart that only you and God know, he still loves you and sets his affection upon you and gives you the benefits of his covenant and invites you to the table and says, if you come repentant and come and eat and sup with me. Well, what it does is it causes us to love Him more, does it not? It causes us to love Him more and to be spurred on to greater and deeper and higher obedience and faithfulness. Thank God for Jesus Christ, our faithful covenant head. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you that this song gives us immediate application for our marriages, but also, Father, immediate application for our relationship with Christ. And I pray, Father, that you would help us to consider our covenant head this morning, this week. Father, we confess to You that we do not meditate upon Him enough. We confess to You, Father, that we are so taken up and smitten by the various distractions of our world, of our age, that we miss the most beautiful thing in front of us, Jesus Christ in all His glory. Help us, Father, to meditate on Him. Help us to seek His kisses, as it were. And I know that, Father, that is an awkward category for some of us, but it is Psalm 2 that says, "'Kiss the son, lest he be angry.'" There is a metaphor, there is a purpose, there is a category for envisioning our relationship to Jesus Christ in the context of marriage. Help us to love Him, Father. Help us to be faithful to Him. Help us to mourn when we are unfaithful to Him, and help us to rejoice and celebrate when we consider His love that is better than wine. We ask all these things in the strong and mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's stand this morning and respond in song.