Dark, yet Lovely

In my last post I had written about how understanding the grace of God in my life also requires me to truly see myself without His grace. At the end I had included a verse from Song of Solomon.

Dark am I, yet lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem,
dark like the tents of
Kedar,
like the tents curtains of Solomon
~Song of Solomon 1:5

I wanted to give some background regarding this verse.

The woman describes herself as dark, yet lovely and the compares herself to the tents of Kedar and the tent curtains of Solomon’s temple. These describe our outward life (our flesh) and our inner life (God’s Glory in our life).

Tents of Kedar – this describes our flesh, our outward life of darkness. This is our natural tendency as humans to sin. The tents of Kedar to which she is referring, were made from the hides of wild goats and provided shelter for shepards. They were often discolored and black because they were exposed to the weather/climate of the area for extended periods of time. These tents represent the darkness she sees in herself – the outward condition of her life, which is filled with sin and failure.

Tent Curtains of Solomon – In the holy place of the temple there were bright white curtains that were known as the Curtains of Solomon. They could not been seen from the outer court and therefore were hidden from the common people. Only the priests saw them. These curtains represent the beauty that is within her (within us) that only God can see. This beauty is the Glory of God in our lives.

This is why she (and we) are dark, yet lovely.

In the study I am doing right now, it lists four reasons why we are beautiful and lovely to God in the midst of being spiritually immature.

1. We possess the gift of righteousness (2 Corinthian 5:21). He sees us as lovely because of the work of righteousness that He has done in us, not because of anything we have or have not done. We are clothed in his garment of salvation and His robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10)

2. When we were reborn in Him, He gave us a willing spirit. God knows that we are fallable, He is drawn not towards what we do for Him, so much as He is drawn to our hearts that say “Yes” to Him. This “Yes” in our hearts will come before any true outward changes are apparent. This willing heart is the work of the Holy Spirit within us (Psalm 51:12)

3. God’s nature/personality. God’s passion for us, how He sees us is totally determined by His nature, His personality. As parents we understand what unconditional love is towards our children. The difference with God though is that even when He is disciplining us, He is loving us fully. He is able to show us all His emotions towards us equally, not withholding one over another. God is love and therefore His view of us in based on this love.

4. We are beautiful to God because of our identity. Who are we? We are the Bride of Christ! It is absolutely certain that our destiny is to be adorned, embraced and enthroned as the Bride of Christ. This alone makes us absolutely beautiful! We need to learn to realize our identity is not in what we do for a living or even what our ministry is. Our identity is in Christ and who we are in Him, the Bride!