Song of Solomon 5:8 A Lover's Prayer Request

This is the Truth Network. Hidden Treasures of the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. Oh, I do love Het verses or Miracle verses, the eighth verse, which is the letter Het. And that is the letter through we've been studying, studying on the idea of who come when you hear that eight sound that has the beginning of the word hukam, which is the word statutes in the 119 Psalm. And in the 119 Psalm, you may recall that all the letters are listed, the 22 letters, and they each have eight verses, which again speaks back to that Het and the idea that on the eighth day, you know, a Jewish boy is circumcised.

And so many times it's connected with the cleansing of the temple and the idea of a miracle day, because in seven days, you know, the earth does its thing, but in the eighth day, God does his thing. And so when we look at the Het verse in the fifth chapter, as the fifth chapter is such a remarkable thing to me in my life, I can't help but say that, oh my goodness, this too is a miracle verse in so many different ways. It's got a lot of, it's perplexing verse, but nonetheless, I do love it. So to read it is verse eight in the fifth chapter. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved that ye tell him that I am sick with love. And so, you know, as you begin that, it's fascinating that she charges them. It's just like, swear to me, swear to me that if you see Jesus, you tell him I am sick with love.

And I can't help but just remark at how, what a picture of humility, right? She has just had her cloak stolen. She has just been beaten.

She doesn't mention a thing about the guards. What she does is she, her heart is completely intent on, I need Jesus. I need him to know, you know, and she charges them with this prayer request. And don't miss that this is a prayer request. Matthew Henry pointed it out, and I couldn't agree more, that she's telling them to talk to Jesus.

If you can find him, tell him, right? And what an amazing thing of corporate witnessing here, that here you can't help but think that, man, if you walked up to somebody, which by the way, we just did devotions here at The Truth Network, and I did the very thing. I said, here's my prayer request. If you see Jesus, tell him I am sick with love. I mean, when you think about it, that I really, when I was processing that, what a beautiful, amazing thing that she did to become so humble, because it's hard to ask for help. You know, I do the Jesus labor love, which is car repair for single moms and widows. And I often marvel at the humility of people that ask for help.

I don't know about you, but for me, it's kind of hard to say, you know, men don't like to ask for directions, because it takes humility, right, to say I need help. I can't do this faith thing with Jesus all on my own. I need you guys' help.

I need my friends' help. And what a cool thing to enlist our friends in helping our relationship with Jesus, right? And so when she says, oh, daughters of Jerusalem, I should point out, just in the script that they use in the Blue Letter Bible of the Hebrew there, the word Jerusalem in Hebrew, not to confuse, but I just think it's helpful to know, to its own extent, the word Jerusalem. When you hear that yireh sound at the beginning of the word Jerusalem, yireh is generally connoted to like, or noted to be, the idea of the fear of the Lord is yireh.

But yireh, the way it's written there, is more like when you shoot or, you know, an arrow, that kind of thing. So, and you can hear the salaam at the end, meaning you're hearing the word shalom or peace, which is Solomon's name here. So you've got a yud, which has that idea of wonder, and then a reish, which is the beginning. And so, you know, wonder beginning, that makes perfect sense for the word Jerusalem.

And so when you look at this, the way that it's constructed, it has to do with like shooters of peace. And the word ends with a lamed and a mem. And I think that's critical to the whole verse, because the letter lamed, when you hear the word you look at it, it looks like somebody who is worshiping. In other words, there's a kind of a flame that is your heart that is longing for God, okay? And so the word sick, which is an operating word in this, is a het, which is the eighth letter, which begins the word hukam that we've talked about. The word sick is a het and a lamed, okay? So the idea is that our union is making us long for God.

Like our hearts are burning for him, so to speak. And that idea of the lamed is a burning heart that is looking to learn about God, looking to know more about God. So the word sick is very much connected to the word Jerusalem in the idea that there's a lamed before the mem. And that mem, again, is in the script that they use in the Blue Letter Bible. It's interesting, there's no other place you see it, but in the Song of Solomon, anytime they mention the daughters of Jerusalem, they combine the lamed with the mem into one letter. And almost like that marriage of the heart with the Messiah, right?

That mem meaning Messiah, it also means Torah, it means water, it means a lot of things, it means more. But there's no doubt that that word Jerusalem and sick have a connection here in this verse. Again, with the lamed.

And I would even suggest you go look at a lamed, you know? The word is spelled L-A-M-E-D. And when you go look at it and you think about it, that the word teach begins at, the word heart begins with a lamed, the idea of all the verses of the lamed in the 119th Psalm to give you an idea of this heart that is longing for God. And so when you look at this union sickness, this is the idea of being lovesick. And what a cool thing that we are, because until Jesus comes, we don't get a chance to be fulfilled all the ways that we wanna be. And so when you get back to the idea of this witnessing that's going on here, she is charging her friends now that, man, you need to please, please, please tell Jesus that I am sick with love.

And the idea of that is outstanding. When you think about it, what an honor would it be, right? For someone to come to you and say, look, if you see Jesus, would you tell him I'm lovesick over here?

I really need him. What a neat thing. And so this morning, actually, when I was reading this, I began to think about all my friends, which I bet some of you that are listening are among those that I know, and I certainly always do pray for my listeners. But I also was thinking about people specifically that I know are lovesick for Jesus, right? That I know in my heart, I've seen him in their actions so many times through their prayers and the way that they share Jesus and that kind of thing, that they are with that. And so I told him this morning about all my friends, I thought, wow, I need to tell you, Jesus, about some of these people that are in my life.

And I don't want to mention any names because then I don't want anybody to be left out. Because I had a list, it had to be 70 names on it that I just sat there and told Jesus, these people, I know they're sick with love, and what a cool exercise. And so, you know, it's an exercise both ways to tell people, will you tell Jesus that, and exercise to tell Jesus about the people in your life.

And what it did for me as a result of that little exercise this morning was I just rested in a place like, man, you know, I am not alone in this. I'm not the only one that longs for Jesus. You know, those of you who are listening to this podcast, I know I'm singing to the choir, that you're listening because your heart longs for Jesus. And that is my prayer for you, actually, right now. Lord, help them. They are sick with love. They are looking for you, and that's why they listen. And so, Lord, I pray that you would get up with them and give them what their hearts need. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.