Faint for love.
Keeping to the spiritual, not the historical, interpretation, these verses suggest what is common to all, but confessed here only by the saintly soul.
I. CHRIST SHARES IT. He said when on the cross, "I thirst," and that told not alone of his physics thirst, but of that sacred, insatiable, and still unsatisfied thirst for the love of human hearts. He could say, "I am faint for love." And yet he yearns for that love, though much he already possesses, and will more and more. The Passion was but as a picture thrown upon a sheet to make clear and conspicuous to all what else they had not seen. So the sufferings of Christ serve to show not what was once, but what eternally is, in the heart of Christ—this yearning for man's love. The Holy Spirit, the unseen and spiritual Christ, is yet on earth amongst men; and yet, as he pleads with them, is grieved and done despite to, as he was in the days of his flesh. His thirst is not yet satisfied; all the loving invitations of the gospel prove this. It is our joy to believe that the day will dawn when, though now, as ever in the past, faint for man's love, he will "see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied." Be it ours to hasten that day!
II. THE WORLD ALSO, BUT KNOWS NOT WHAT IT NEEDS. The love of Christ is what the world wants, though it wanders wearily off, as it has done from the beginning, after what it foolishly deems will satisfy its need. All the unrest, the agitation, the seething discontent, the wild rush after this scheme and that, which promise its betterment,—all show how great its need, and how yet that need remains unmet. If the Church of Christ on earth were but what its name professes, soon would the weary world see where all its wants would find supply, and turn to him for whose love it is that it faints, and is so wretched and woebegone. It needs that love to be the animating principle of Christian people, in their conversation, conduct, habits, business, and ways; which assuredly it is far enough from being at present, else why is society as it is? why are there "submerged tenths" and "darkest Englands," as we know there are? Is this the outcome of a Christian civilization? No; only the natural product of a civilization which is everything but Christian. And yet more, the world needs Christ's love in themselves. For lack of that it is as it is.
III. BUT SPECIALLY THE CHRISTIAN SOUL. And the confession of faintness for his love may be true:
1. In a sad sense. If such soul be faint, as many are, incapable of real service, weakly, ineffectual, and impoverished, is not the true and sad cause revealed in this confession? As plants cannot grow without the light and warmth of the sun, so Christian souls cannot prosper that do not come into and "continue in" Christ's love. But the confession as made here is not in a sad sense, but:
2. In a very blessed one. It is the very presence of his love in the soul that leads to the longing for deeper enjoyment of it. "My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath after thy commandments at all times;" "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord;" and Psalms 63:1, are all similar expressions. Great saints have all of them known this holy longing, this going out of the soul after God in great vehemency of desire; and blessed, blessed indeed, are they. My soul, be thou of their number! And such revelations of the Lord's grace often affect the body as well as the soul, causing faintness and overwhelming emotion (cf. Daniel 10:8-19; 6:22; Revelation 1:12-18; 2 Corinthians 12:7, in illustration of this).
3. But in such faintness the soul craves support. This is suggested by the request made (Psalms 63:5), "Stay me with cordials, comfort me with citrons." These were the refreshments she had enjoyed when "under his shadow," and when she ate of the "fruit sweet to her taste" (Psalms 63:3). Translated into their spiritual meaning, they tell of those precious truths and teachings which come from and cluster round the cross of Christ. The soul would drink again of such "cup of salvation," and eat of the fruit of such "tree of life." It was the power of those truths, brought home by the Holy Spirit, that heretofore had quickened and sustained the soul, and hence they are desired again. And they seem to have been partaken of (cf. Psalms 138:3; Proverbs 31:6), and the soul to have been thereby brought again to the rich enjoyment of the Divine love. And:
4. It finds what it has so earnestly desired. (Psalms 63:6.)
"As in the embraces of my God,
Or on my Saviour's breast."
This sacred enfolding of the soul in the love of God is the meaning of the verse, or, at least, the designed teaching. Think what must have been the joy of the penitent prodigal when, after his weary journey, he found thrown around him, in loving welcome, the arms of his father, against whom he had so sinned; and on his brow the father's kiss. That rapture of the soul when it is filled with the sense of the Divine love,—these are the embraces of God and the fulfilment of the well known words, "He fell on his neck, and kissed him." That part of the parable which tells of the prodigal's yearning for home, the weary journey, and then the welcome, may be taken as the gospel commentary on these verses. And the soul shall be enfolded in this Divine love; it shall not be taint for it, and ever continue so. For the next verse tells:
5. How the soul is anxious not to be disturbed in its blessed condition until the Lord will. The maiden of the song is represented as addressing a passionate adjuration to her companions, "by the roes and hinds"—that is, by all beautiful, loving, timid, and easily startled things, as these were—that they should not awaken her beloved from his repose until he will. And so the soul that rests in the realization of God's love would linger therein.
"My willing soul would stay
In such a frame as this."
And this side of heaven there is no such joy to be realized as this. Alas! how rare it is, or rather, how rarely we find it, though we might if we would! Still, the soul knows that its life is not to be all enjoyment. Service has to be rendered. The disciples would have liked to stay on the Mount of Transfiguration; they said, "It is good to be here;" but the poor lunatic lad down below needed healing, and therefore neither their Lord nor they might linger where they were. Hence, though the soul would rest always in the joy of his realized love, yet it may, probably will, as with Paul, be sent forth to stern duty and patient toil. Therefore it is added, "until he please."
"O Love Divine, how sweet thou art!
When shall I find my willing heart
All taken up by thee?"
S.C.