SoS 4:12-15: Why We Lock Our Gardens

[12] A garden locked is my sister, my bride,
a spring locked, a fountain sealed.
[13] Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates
with all choicest fruits,
henna with nard,
[14] nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon,
with all trees of frankincense,
myrrh and aloes,
with all choice spices—
[15] a garden fountain, a well of living water,
and flowing streams from Lebanon.
(Song of Solomon 4:12-15 ESV)



Greetings again! I'm still not back in Minneapolis, but I have some free time, so I'd like to share another blog post with you all.

This passage comes from near the end of Solomon's praise for his bride on their wedding night. He praises her for one of the dearest gifts she has given to him: she is "a garden locked... a spring locked, a fountain sealed." He goes on to praise the fruits of her vineyard, celebrating the fact that he and he alone gets to enjoy all of these delights.

The message here is obvious, so I won't beat around the bush. Solomon is delighted that she has saved herself for him, sexually. He praises her for guarding herself, because now all of these delights are an exclusive gift between just the two of them.

There are many reasons I could give as to why sex should be saved for marriage, but I'll focus only on what the text itself says: It is an absolute delight to the soul to know that your spouse has kept themselves safe from all others, that you two are free to enjoy every sexual delight in truest intimacy, without the weight of past baggage tarnishing your joy.

If you are sexually pure and single, I urge you to do everything possible to keep yourself that way. Save yourself for marriage, because the absolute joy and delight you will have exploring sex on a pure wedding night will be unimaginably greater than any experience you could have exploring sex earlier. This is the only way to use sex as it was meant to be used, the climax of the pursuit of intimacy, the binding of two people together physically after they've been growing closer mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and covenanted themselves to each other in the presence of friends and family.

Solomon is so absolutely delighted by his bride's purity that this is the climax of his praise of her. He sees her full body for the first time and praises her beauty, but his joy in that can't even compare to his joy that she has saved the gift of that beauty for him alone.

Please take notice of this: Scripture is not trying to scare you into avoiding premarital sex. Instead, it is enticing you to save sex for marriage, because the joy of doing so is matchless!

Single people and dating couples, I know it can be extremely tempting to dip into sex before you exchange rings. But in doing so, you are robbing yourselves of an immense amount of joy. The most joy you can possibly have in sex is to keep yourselves pure and save it for the wedding night, and then to grow in it as your marriage matures. Any other use of sex, no matter how tempting, will always give you less overall pleasure, and it will most often fill you will emotional baggage.

But I must also remind you that we serve a God who is not harsh and cruel, but rather, who is gracious, forgiving, and best of all, redeeming.

If you have not kept yourselves pure, there is always hope for a new beginning! The blood of Jesus cleanses us completely from all sin, including all shame and guilt. If you trust in Jesus, you are completely clean at this exact moment. You might not feel clean, but your feelings don't change the fact that 2,000 years ago, Jesus proclaimed "It is finished." Your guilt is taken away, your sin is completely atoned for, your shame has been completely scorned.

This means that it's never to late to get on the path of purity and pursue a wedding night like Solomon and his bride experienced. Purity is not something that you lose once and can never get back. Purity is given to you by the blood of Jesus, and built in you by the Holy Spirit of God. Purity is a gift. It is offered to you anew, even if someone stole it from you before.

God redeems. God does not leave us to wallow in the depths of our sins; as Ephesians 2 says, God saw us in that helpless state and rescued us, raising us up into the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. God can redeem and renew you, even to the point where memories of the past no longer have the power to steal away your joy. This may take time, but Jesus is immensely capable of healing and renewing you, if you only let Him.

Regardless of your past, God offers you an amazing future.

So whether you have kept your garden locked or you need to buy a new lock, the joy of wedding night similar to Solomon's lies before you, if you will only stay on the path of purity.

In this culture, we can't do this alone. We need to ask God for the grace and the strength to keep ourselves pure, and we need to walk with those who are heading in the same direction. It will be hard work. But look at the words of Solomon: the joy in having that purity on your wedding night will be well, well worth it!