Before the day breaks and shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of Bether.Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young deer on the mountains of Bether.Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.Until the day be cool, and the shadows flee away, Turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart Upon the mountains of Bether.
4 sermons cite this verse
… catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes. My beloved is mine and I am his. He feeds his flock among the lilies. Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountains of Beth-er. The third thing that I see, the third and final thing I see is security. In this time of engagement, security, protection is important. great buds on a vine, which first of all, I love the imagery of Song of Solomon. There's so much imagery of vineyards, of vines, of growth, of beauty. And I don't know if you've ever spent time at a vineyard, but even just sitting down at one and looking out, you just feel your heart rate going down and just like the calmness, the peace, the beauty of just looking out, there's nothing except vines growing. And maybe here and there, there's someone like trimming or watering or whatever, but it's just so calming. And I love that imagery with relationships, like this is the heart, this is the goal. But grape buds are tiny, like a mustard seed, tiny, seemingly insignificant, nothing to look at. I brought a picture of some, and you can barely even see them. They're green, they're tiny, nothing to look at, but they're vulnerable, especially if they're not protected. In that day, it was the foxes. The little foxes would come into the vineyard and eat these little grapes, and if the little tiny buds, and if the vines weren't …
"My Beloved is mine, and I am His: He feeds among the lilies. Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be You like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether." Song of Solomon 2:16,17. [Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon, upon parts of the same passage, are #1190, Volume 20—A SONG AMONG THE LILIES; #2442, Volume 41—"MY BELOVED IS MINE" and #2477, Volume 42—DARKNESS BEFORE THE DAWN.] IT has been well said that if there is a happy verse in the Bible, it is this one—"My Beloved is mine, and I am His: He feeds among the lilies." So peaceful, so full of assurance, so bursting with happiness and contentment is it, that it might well have been written by the same hand which penned the 23rd Psalm—"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures: He leads me beside the still waters." The verse savors of Him who, just before He went to Gethsemane, said to His disciples, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you...In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." Let us ring the silver bell of this verse again, for its notes are exquisitely sweet! "My Beloved is mine, and I am His: He feeds among the lilies." Yet there is a shadow in the latter part of the text. The prospect is exceedingly fair and lovely—earth cannot show its superior—but it is not entirely a sunlit landscape! There is a cloud in the sky which casts a shadow over the scene. It does not dim it—everything is clear and stands out sharply and brightly—"My Beloved is mine, and I am His." That is clear enough, yet I say again that it is not altogether sunlight—there are shadows—"Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away." There is also a mention of the "mountains of Bether"—the mountains of division—and to have anything like division is bitterness. I see here a paschal lamb, but I see bitter herbs with it. I see the lily, but I think I see it still among the thorns. I see the fair and lovely landscape of assured confidence, but a shadow, just a slight shadow, takes away some of its glory. And he who sees it has to still look for something yet beyond—"till the day breaks and the shadows flee away." …
"My beloved is mine, and I am His: He feeds among the lilies. Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be You like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether." Solomon's Song 2:16,17. [Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same verses are #1190, Volume 20—A SONG AMONG THE LILIES; #2442, Volume 41—"MY BELOVED IS MINE" and #2477, Volume 42—DARKNESS BEFORE THE DAWN.] IT may be that there are saints who are always at their best and are happy enough never to lose the light of their Father's Countenance. I am not sure that there are such persons, for those Believers with whom I have been most intimate have had varied experiences and those whom I have known who have boasted of their constant perfectness, have not been the most reliable of individuals. I hope there is a spiritual region attainable where there are no clouds to hide the Sun of our soul, but I cannot speak positively, for I have not traversed that happy land. Every year of my life has had a winter as well as a summer, and every day its night. I have hitherto seen bright days and heavy rains, and felt warm breezes and fierce winds. Speaking for the many of my Brothers and Sisters, I confess that though the substance is in us, as in the olive tree and the oak, yet we do lose our leaves and the sap within us does not flow with equal vigor at all seasons. We have our downs as well as our ups, our valleys as well as our hills! We are not always rejoicing—we are sometimes in heaviness through manifold trials. Alas, we are grieved to confess that our fellowship with the Well-Beloved is not always that of rapturous delight, but we have at times to seek Him and cry, "Oh, that I knew where I might find Him!" This appears to me to have been in a measure the condition of the spouse when she cried, "Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved." …
"Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be You like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of BBether." Solomon's Song 2:17. WITHOUT a sentence of introduction, I invite you, Beloved, to see herein, I. A BLESSED SEASON HERE ANTICIPATED!—A time when the day shall break and the shadows shall flee away. It is not every man who can count upon such a time as that, for to some there is no prospect of the day breaking. They are now in the shade and that shade will grow darker and darker with them till, in the hour of death, their sun will go down forever in a tenfold night—a night not gladdened by a solitary star—a night that shall never have an ending—a night of glooms more terrible than imagination itself could picture! I fear there are some in this place for whom we might utter such forebodings! The world is dark enough to them, now, but they have no hope of the Lord as though it would be brightness to them. Conscience tells them—and if conscience is not enlightened enough to do so—the Word of God tells them that the day of the Lord shall be darkness and not light to them. But, to every soul in this house that believes in Jesus, there is the delightful anticipation of the hour spoken of in the text—when the day shall break and the shadows shall flee away! …