Meditations on the Song of Songs
Meditations on the Song of Songs
Where do You pasture? Where do You make Your flock rest at noon?
I resume with you our meditations on the Song of Songs. Let our subject tonight be the words of the bride:
“Tell me, O You whom my soul loves, where You pasture Your flock, where You make it rest at noon” (Song 1:7).
Where do You pasture? Where do You make it rest at noon?
It is a cry from the human soul, which has drifted away from the Lord’s fold, yet still loves Him and seeks His way…
She calls to Him, saying: Where do You pasture? Where can I find You? Where is the way to You, “O You whom my soul loves”?
I—even if I have departed from You in deed—have not departed from You in love.
I still long for You, and yearn for the days I lived with You, and I ask: Where are You? How can I reach You? Where do You pasture? And where do You rest at noon?
“At noon,” when the heat of the battle intensifies, and nature cannot endure—where do I find You to protect me from the sun’s stroke by day?
This sun that has darkened me, so that I became black—where is Your shadow that protects me from it? For “under Your shadow I delighted to sit.” I know that You protect Your flock at that time, so that the sun does not strike it. So where do You rest at noon?
It is a soul far from God, yet longing for Him…
There are souls enjoying the Lord and the delight of His companionship, saying in the abundance of divine love: “His left hand is under my head, and His right hand embraces me,” “I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine.” And there are other souls far from the Lord, yet unconcerned; they do not long for God, and if they do long, despair overtakes them…
But this one longs for the Lord, despite sin.
This point makes us not judge others, nor look with disgust at those far from the Lord. For there are souls who love Him despite their distance.
Like Peter who denied the Lord three times, yet said to Him: “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Likewise this soul says: “O You whom my soul loves.”
How does she love Him while she is far away, when the Lord says: “If anyone loves Me, he keeps My commandments”? Her sin may be due to weakness, not lack of love. Where do You rest at noon, when I need Your shadow—I who may rejoice in the shade of a plant—how much more in Your shade?!
Your children, in the time of trial and its flame, You overshadow them with Your wings and they rest in Your bosom. How may I also rest?
This virgin has departed from the Lord in body, but not in spirit; she has departed in deed, but not in emotion.
The errors she falls into are foreign to her, not part of her nature.
Her nature is in the image and likeness of God; therefore she naturally longs for God, even if she sins out of weakness or external pressure.
It is good for a person, in periods of lukewarmness and weakness, to remember his beautiful and sweet days with God, and to say to Him: Where do You pasture?
You who pasture all, pasture me also among them.
There are people in a state of sin who cut off their connection with God, distance themselves from Him, and flee from Him—no church, no prayer, no meetings, nor any means of grace. And the excuse of one of them is: With what face can I speak to God in my sin?!
An example of this is Adam who fled from God when he sinned…
He hid behind the tree, and said to Him: “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
But this soul, in her distance, seeks the Lord: Where does He pasture?
We hear an answer to this question in many verses of the Song, saying: “…He feeds His flock among the lilies” (Song 2:16), “My Beloved has gone down to His garden, to the beds of spices, to feed His flock in the gardens, and to gather lilies” (Song 6:2).
I know, Lord, that You have gone down to the beds of spices, in the midst of Your saints.
Those whose lives have a sweet fragrance; from them we smell the fragrance of Christ. One bed among them is called “the bed of contemplation and worship”—You have gone down to it. Another is called “the bed of toil and struggle”—You have gone down to it. A third is called “the bed of service and seeking the lost souls.” And other beds belonging to beautiful virtues.
You, Lord, are among Your saints, in the beds of spices, feeding in the gardens. Each saint is like a tree bearing fruit, yielding thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.
But what about someone like me, who lives among thorns? Will You descend to his thorns, Lord, as You descended to the gardens and the beds of spices?!
Or does this person have no portion with You, since there is nothing of lilies in his life? I believe, Lord, that in Your search for the lost sheep, You walked upon the mountains and hills and thorns…
I am not at the level of the gardens and the beds of spices. Perhaps I will reach them when I am reconciled with You, and become a bed of spices, or a branch in a fruitful tree in Your gardens. But now, what is the way to You? Where do You pasture?
The Lord answers in His love: I pasture everywhere…
I was in the fiery furnace, tending the three youths, in the land of Babylon.
I cared for them, so that not a hair of their heads was burned, nor did the smell of fire cling to their garments, nor were they disturbed. Did not people see with the three youths a fourth, like the Son of God?
Do not fear then, My beloved, if you are in the fiery furnace—how much less if it is merely the sun’s stroke at noon…!
I pasture you in the midst of fire. I do not pasture only among the lilies.
It was said of Joshua in the book of Zechariah that he was “a brand plucked from the fire” (Zech. 3:2). He was about to burn in the midst of fire, but the hand of the Lord—who pastures in the midst of fire—plucked him out…
Blessed are You, Lord; even those who fall into the fire and burn, You do not abandon, but You pasture them there, in the midst of fire, and rescue them…!
And not only in the midst of fire, but also among wild beasts…
The Apostle Paul said: “I fought with beasts at Ephesus.” And in the midst of the beasts the Lord said to him: “Do not be afraid; no one will attack you to hurt you.”
If sins and lusts rage against you like beasts, you will experience with them the saying of Daniel: “My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths.”
God performs His pastoral work in the lions’ den as well, just as He did in the fiery furnace, just as He was tending Jonah the prophet even while he was in the belly of the whale!! Do you ask where You pasture?
I pasture wherever you are. Where the flock is, there is the Shepherd.
I was in the fiery furnace, in the lions’ den, in the belly of the whale. I am with you, tending you. “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
“Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
In the midst of the raging sea, the ship beaten by the waves and about to sink—the Lord also pastures in the midst of the waves; He rebukes them, rebukes the sea and the winds, and saves the disciples.
God was pasturing in the midst of the Red Sea, and in the wilderness, and in the land of captivity. Do you ask where He pastures? There—in your heart…
He seeks you more than you seek Him. And while you lift up your voice, He answers. However much you may be a stranger, He tends you in the land of your exile, as He tended Joseph in the land of Egypt, and Daniel and Ezekiel in the land of captivity. The whole earth is His…
Where do You pasture? It is a question asked by a soul that desires to reach God. Shall I reach You through knowledge, through reading, through prayer, through ritual, through hymns, through meetings?
Where do You pasture? Where do You rest at noon? I have tried all these means and did not reach You! What is the reason?
Often you have sought the way, and not God who leads to that way! You sought worship and knowledge, and did not seek God!
Many people become occupied with the means instead of the goal! They pray and fast and chant and read, but God is not in their hearts, nor in their aims. Seek God alone; then you will find Him…
The Lord says to the soul that seeks Him: “If you do not know, O fairest among women, follow in the footsteps of the flock.”
Follow the footsteps of the flock that walked before you on the way toward Me.
Saint Moses the Black, whose feast we celebrated yesterday, was one of the sheep that went astray and then knew the way; follow his footsteps. Likewise Augustine, Pelagius, and Mary the Copt.
There are little sheep that walked in the path of contemplation and arrived; others in the path of service and arrived… Every spiritual path you love, you will find the footsteps of the flock in it—so follow them. And the lives of the saints never end…
As they walked, so let us also walk…
“Go forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.” He said “your young goats” and did not say “your sheep,” because she is a sinful soul. Then He directed her to the shepherds’ tents, because He established spiritual leaders for His people.
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Seventh Year (Issue Twenty-Eight) – 9-7-1976
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