MY DOVE!

MY DOVE!

“O My dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely”, tells the bridegroom in verse 14 of Chapter 2 in the Song of Songs, unto his bride as he yearns to see her countenance and to hear her voice. “O my dove”, He calls you. You are like a dove, which is known for innocence and harmlessness. You are a dove of Jesus in His cage of love, gravitating His care and attention for you. You are His, and not of any man. You, the dove of Jesus, dwell in hidden places like the clefts of the rock and the secret places of the stairs. Spiritually speaking, your dwelling places are hardly accessible to worldly fame and praises of men. You are indeed in cleft-like narrow places in your life where you face, in an endless stream, tribulations and temptations. Dear dove of Jesus, you ought not to show thyself openly but to serve your Master secretly without coveting fame or praises. You are a dove of Jesus dwelling in the clefts of the rock, which alone give you all protection. Dear minister of God, as a dove of Jesus you may fly out publicly and thus do the ministry by the gifts of the Spirit. But, you must retreat to your permanent dwelling place in the clefts of the rock, because you need rest as well as refuge. Remember that you are in the clefts of the Rock of Ages. Let people see only the Rock, and not you. Don’t stand on the top of the holy Rock but take refuge in the clefts. Jesus, the Rock of Ages, was crucified and His Body broken for our sake so that His cleft-like wounds give us eternal refuge. We would be spiritually safe so long as we identify ourselves with the crucified Christ.

Secondly, you, the dove of Jesus, live in the secret places of the stairs. People who go up a building by the stairs hardly notice the doves in the secret places of the stairs, as they have to look up and down, and not sideward. You must consider yourself insignificant, and must not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think but to think soberly (Rom.12: 3). The great apostle Paul said that no man “should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me” (II Cor.12: 6).

The secret places of the stairs also spiritually mean those places where you are unknown, and where people see you “no more” once your presence is not required. For example, once the ministry was accomplished, the eunuch of the Ethiopian queen saw the evangelist Philip no more. When the eunuch and Philip came up out of the water after baptism, “the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more and he went in his way rejoicing. But, Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea (Acts 8:39-40). It is thus seen that Philip immediately retreated to the secret places of the stairs, by visiting other places where he had not been to, and where he had been unknown.

If you have hidden your countenance from your Beloved in utter contempt with a conscience smeared by guilt, and have not thus been communing with Him, He now whispers, with a great longing, “Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice….” Though you may say, “Look not upon me, because I am black….” (1:6), yet He says, “…thy countenance is comely”. Though you may not be willing to commune with Him, yet he calls you back into His sweet fellowship, saying “…. for sweet is thy voice”. This is the testimony of Jesus concerning you.

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