Song of Solomon 2:16 NASB95
“My beloved is mine, and I am his; He pastures his flock among the lilies.
Song of Solomon 6:3 NASB95
“I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine, He who pastures his flock among the lilies.”
Let’s do a little word study so we can have better insight into what these verses are saying to us.
The Hebrew word for “pastures” can also be translated as “delight in.” The word “Lilies” means “he, or she knows.” In the Song of Solomon, “lilies” speaks of believers who are growing in their understanding of the love of Christ and are pursuing as their life passion the full experience of their union with Christ.
In light of that, let me give you a better translation of this lovesick bride’s confession in these two verses.
“I am my beloved’s, and He is mine; He delights in those who know and enjoy Him delighting in them.”
At one of David’s lowest moments, he confessed, “Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call; this I know, that God is for me.” Psalm 56:9.
The circumstances in David’s life at that particular moment might have made someone else believe that God had turned their back on them, but David was always confident that God delighted him, even if God wasn’t always pleased with his behavior.
In Psalm 18:19, David said, “He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me because He delighted in me.”
Look at these amazing verses in 1 John 3:19 – 21; “We shall know by this that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him, and whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence face-to-face with God.”
One of the hardest things for a believer to actually believe is that God’s love for them has everything to do with who God is and not what they do. God loves it when we celebrate how much He delights in us and how much He enjoys us. He delights when we delight in Him delighting in us. Knowing God’s love like this does not cause a person to want to go out and try to get away with whatever their flesh can get away with. Instead, it causes us to want to fall before Him in absolute surrender from sheer joy and gratitude. Knowing that He delights in you, and knowing that He enjoys you enjoying Him delighting in you is the foundation of the life of true holiness.