Bible Snack #121

Song of Solomon 2:1, 2
 
     1 I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys.
 
   THE BELOVED
     2 Like a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
 
In verse one of chapter two, the Shulamite woman is speaking. Because she is loved by her beloved, she speaks well of herself. So often we speak negatively about ourselves, but if we’ll take the time to see ourselves through our Beloved’s eyes, we will see our good points instead of our bad. We are taught not to do this. The thinking behind such teaching is that it is arrogant to speak well of oneself, making positive words a sin. But our Beloved never speaks negatively about us. He does not think it a sin to encourage ourselves in Him like David did. A positive assessment about ourselves makes the difference between victory and defeat.
 
How can she speak so well of herself? Look at what her beloved says about her: she is a lily among thorns. In other words, she exceeds all those around her. How can anyone think badly about themselves when the opinion of our Beloved holds us higher than all others? Of course, we can’t get into a competition here. He thinks that about everyone He loves. We will never lose (in our own inner competition with ourselves) if we will simply look at ourselves through the eyes of Jesus. He loves us so much he went through torture and died for us. Did anyone else ever love us like that? He paid for our sins, for our sicknesses, for our poverty. We are the lilies of the valley in His eyes. See it for yourself. Being loved like that causes us to love others as well. That raises us even further in His eyes!