You kiss me he of the kisses of his mouth, for your caresses are better than wine.

Your perfumes have a sweet smell; Your name is a spreading fragrance; Therefore maidens love you! Lure me to you! We will run after you!

The king has led me to his apartments;we will rejoice, we will rejoice because of you; we will celebrate your caresses more than wine! Rightly you are loved!

Song of Songs 1:2-4

This passage from Song of Songs 1:2-4 is a poetic and very evocative passage in the Bible, textually, symbolically and spiritually. The verse says, “The King has led me into his apartments, he kisses me of the kisses of his mouth, for his caresses are better than wine.”

In other versions this passage is translated : the king led me into his chambers. Certainly we recognize that this is the voice of the bride ; who in this passage symbolizes the Church , the Church of Jesus Christ, the Bride of Jesus Christ. This Beloved Bride , so beloved whom the Lord Jesus snatched from the world, freed from the present century, saved from sin to know the bridegroom more and more. And just to enter into this intimacy, the king introduced the bride into his chambers. Remember that Jesus also said there are many rooms, this phrase is full of Spiritual meaning: the many rooms signify a succession of wonderful spiritual experiences and the bride ( the Church) , is called to make this succession of wonderful experiences. From experience to experience the bride will be led higher and higher, until the day when she will be ushered into those rooms that Jesus Himself went to prepare for His own. Jesus’ words , “In my Father’s house are many rooms” are taken from the Gospel according to John 14:2. In my Father’s house there are many rooms. Otherwise I would not have deceived you, I would have told you. But I go and go and prepare a place for you. And when I have prepared a place I will return again. I will welcome you near me so that where I am, you may be also. Let us consider these words of Jesus in reference to the very last act of the plan of redemption, the plan of salvation. The plan of salvation, is fulfilled in various acts and in the life of the believer, in the experience of the Christian. In fact, the plan of salvation begins with forgiveness, goes on and gives justification, produces regeneration and enables sanctification. And finally it ends with glorification. If we have believed in the Lord Jesus, we must also remember that after all, in God’s grace, we have already experienced all these acts because we have received forgiveness, we have been justified in Christ, regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are from day to day sanctified through the word, and we are also glorified because we belong to His people. We have been elected by the Lord to one day receive that crown that is reserved for the saints, that prize that the Lord has set aside for His people. There will be no greater prize than this: to be the bride of the Lamb, the bride of our Savior. Certainly those rooms are the end point , the final dwelling place of the Lord’s Church. But before reaching those rooms, through the path of the Christian walk, of spiritual experience, the Church can repeat what we read in these verses from the Song of Songs: The King has led me into his rooms, glory to the name of the Lord. He has already led me into his chambers. We do not live outside the house of God, we are not far from our Lord. We were far away, but we have been brought near. And the Apostle Peter expresses himself exactly in these words: We were not his people, but we were made his people. We had not been made mercy, but now we have been made mercy. 1 Peter 2:10 And we who proclaim ourselves the Lord’s people speak of an intimacy we have realized with God. Paul’s words we can repeat every day: justified therefore, by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior. It is important therefore to stay inside God’s purpose , to stay inside His will, to be part of His people . Do not stay outside with those who are content with liturgies or remain sympathetic with Christian denominations. One must receive the Word within the heart, it is not enough to have received it , to have been touched by the message and stay out of fellowship with God. We can further clarify what it means to be inside or outside by referring to an image presented to us by the Word of the Lord: the ‘image of the temple. The temple in Jerusalem was a majestic building built by Solomon’s will and desire. We know that the first thought arose in David’s heart, but God did not allow David to build a temple to His name, because David had been a man who had shed much blood during his life, and God wanted His temple to be built instead by a man of peace, and Solomon was a man of peace throughout the period of his reign; his very name means peace. Solomon picked up his father’s legacy in terms of building the Temple and brought it to completion. Well, the Temple had an outer courtyard, and already in this courtyard a worship to the LORD was celebrated, because right in the courtyard was the copper altar and there was the basin; that great basin that was to be used for purification. We know that most of the liturgical activities were carried out in the courtyard, because the worshippers could enter the courtyard, present themselves with their offerings, with their holocausts that were immolated on that large copper altar that was called the red altar, and because the copper itself appeared this color. It was also called red because it was continuously covered with the blood of the victims of those holocausts. Inside and precisely after the courtyard was the very entrance to the temple that led into what according to biblical terminology, was called the Holy Place where only the priests entered and celebrated. In the Holy Place was: the candlestick. In the Holy Place was the table of loaves. In the Holy Place was the altar of fragrances that had to be constantly burned, those loaves that had to be changed every day, the candlestick that had to be fed with pure virgin oil. So all these things required the commitment of the priestly caste that acted in the Holy Place. But beyond the Holy Place, separated by a great curtain, was the Most Holy Place where there was the Ark of the LORD, the Ark of His glory, which kept the tables of the law, which had within it a vessel of manna, and which had the flowering Rod of Aaron. Above the Ark were the Cherubim with open wings, and into that Most Holy place one could not enter. It was entered only once a year and only the high priest could enter, only to make purgation of his sins and the sins of all the people. This is a figure, but already we can make an application to our spiritual experience. And we can examine ourselves to know where we are because we understand that it is futile to be outside in the courtyard with the religious , just as it is futile to be inside where there is a light, there where there are loaves of bread, there where there are fragrances, there where there is a knowledge of scripture, there where there is also a commitment and engagement that we can call welfare and social , but where there is no true a deep communion with God. It is only in the Most Holy place that there is the Ark of His glory. where God’s presence resided. So we must enter, but once we have entered, we must, in light of this word, have progressive experiences. Scripture does not tell us about a chamber in the singular, but it tells us about chambers, and we must remember that the Holy Spirit wants to lead us through these chambers, and that God’s love wants to introduce us into the beauty of these chambers. And in these chambers an extraordinary preparation takes place. There is one particular chamber where we must dwell and have fellowship with the sufferings of Christ. As the apostle Paul in his day said, he studied to have fellowship with the sufferings of Christ and to be made a partaker even of his death, because he wanted to ascertain himself and to have the certainty in his heart that one day he would come to the resurrection of the dead. But in this particular chamber there are also perfumed oils and then there are all those ornaments that must make the bride gorgeous, that must beautify her in the eyes of the bridegroom, she is now in the Royal Palace. Christ is pleased in a bride who looks like him. He who has her own adornments, her own beauty, her own fragrances. And the name of Jesus is a fragrant oil, we read in this passage from the Song of Songs, and the bride must indeed resemble the bridegroom. In this room the bride is crowned directly by the Lord, and that should be enough for us and make us satisfied. Let us then get out of the way and enter the banquet room to rejoice in the presence of our Lord, to rejoice with. Him and to enjoy those foods, those foods, those wines that He has prepared. In conclusion we are having our experiences and must continue to have them by living our Christian life, but the deep aspiration of our heart must be toward the goal, that of entering the rooms of glory, into heaven. We desire to be clothed like the bride in a precious garment, which speaks of a washing, the blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore the bride is clothed in white but is also perfumed, with fragrant oil. Ec. 9:8 “Let your garments be white at all times, and let the oil never be lacking on your head.” and here we come to the featured illustration of our article, to another figure, that of the ten virgins. They were all there, ready for the bridegroom with their lamps. The difference between five wise and five foolish, lay in just that: the foolish ones had not taken care of a fuel supply. They had not bothered to have oil at the time of the meeting. Perhaps they had thought that the groom would arrive during the day. But it was only on the midnight that the bridegroom came. And there were five virgins who had not only their white robes, not only their lamps ready, but also spare oil. Let the oil never fail, smelling on your head to enter those rooms. Now it is up to us to be wise and persevere in His will to the end.

To God be the glory !