Song of Solomon 4:12-5:1 NASB
“A garden locked is my sister, my bride, A rock garden locked, a spring sealed up. [13] “Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates With choice fruits, henna with nard plants, [14] Nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, With all the trees of frankincense, Myrrh and aloes, along with all the finest spices. [15] “You are a garden spring, A well of fresh water, And streams flowing from Lebanon.” [16] “Awake, O north wind, And come, wind of the south; Make my garden breathe out fragrance, Let its spices be wafted abroad. May my beloved come into his garden And eat its choice fruits!” 5:1, “I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh along with my balsam. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk. Eat, friends; Drink and imbibe deeply, O lovers.”
Revelation 4:11 KJV
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
In Song of Solomon 4:12 the believer is described as an enclosed garden that contains a spring, and in verse 15 Jesus says that we are a garden spring; a well of living water; streams that flow from Lebanon. In verses 13 – 14 the fruit of the Spirit growing in that enclosed garden is described in poetic language. This of course, is a beautiful description of the interior life of the Christian that contains the well of water (the Holy Spirit) that springs up like a river of living water from our innermost being, manifesting the life and characteristics of Christ within, and without. The divine indwelling, and the divine outflowing is a work of the Holy Spirit alone who lives within us to glorify Jesus. Any time in the Song of Solomon when the word Lebanon, or the cedars of Lebanon are referenced, it is always speaking of the New Creation we are in Christ; and verse 15 speaks of our union with the Holy Spirit, that makes us new creations in Christ, and it speaks of the streams of living water that flows from our new identity, that quenches the thirst of a broken and fallen world. We are the body of Christ, and therefore His life on the earth, and it is through us His body, that people incarnationally encounter Him. When the Shulammite (the Christian who has made their passion in life to discover and manifest their union with Christ in fullness) invites the Lord to come into His garden and eat its choice fruits; she is simply inviting the Lord to enjoy and celebrate the fruit of His life that is being manifested in and through her.
It is important that we remember that even though experiencing the life of Christ bubbling up with in, and through us, liberates us to know the life more abundant that Jesus came to share with us in Him; first, and foremost we were created for HIS PLEASURE. 2 Corinthians 2:15 tells us that as we are led in this life in triumph in Christ, that He manifests through us the sweet aroma of our intimate experience of Christ in every place. “For we are fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved, and among those who are perishing.” Notice, that we are a fragrance of Christ first to God, and therefore our motivation to abide, moment by moment, is not first about the pleasure that we will experience (even though our experience from abiding is a joy unspeakable full of glory), but about the pleasure that He will experience. It is the love of Christ that controls us our choices to abide.