SOS 2:4,5- He brought me to the banqueting house,
And his banner over me was love.
Sustain me with cakes of raisins,
Refresh me with apples,
For I am lovesick.
“I am lovesick.” Does anyone have any idea what Solomon is talking about? Have you ever been lovesick? Apparently, Solomon had experienced being lovesick for his human lover but that is not exactly what he is talking about in these riveting words from the Song of all Songs. Solomon is using what he would describe as the greatest human emotion, being so deeply in love with someone that it is causing physical effects on your body, to describe his longing to be with the Lord. There is a place in our spiritual experience that we are so smitten with God’s love for us and our love for Him that it causes physical effects on our body that Solomon called being lovesick.
Thinking back to my conversion I was experiencing what had to be termed as being lovesick after my first encounter with Jesus. His love for me was so overwhelming that I literally dropped everything to go across the country to be around a community of Christians in California. Jesus had overcome me with His love and I would have done anything to be near Him. Here is how this passage is described in the Jonathan Edwards Study Bible.
“I am lovesick. In Distinguishing Marks, JE used this text in a somewhat unusual way. He here compared the Beloved’s swooning for her lover with those who are experiencing the overwhelming effects of the revival. Specifically, he uses the idea of being “lovesick” with parishioners’ falling down, crying out, fainting, and other bodily fits. In this way, JE sought to rationalize what the community was experiencing; sudden loss of bodily composure, weakness, fainting, writhing, and other loss of control of the physical apparatus.”
So this all became even more real to me when our church began to experience outpourings of His love in our services a number of years ago. His love became so real in our gatherings that you would have to say that our whole church began to experience this phenomenon that Solomon termed as being lovesick. Today after over three decades later our church still experiences these unexplainable outpourings that effect us in a very powerful way. We have spent hours on the floor in His presence simply basking in His great love. Yes, He has brought us into His banqueting house and His banner over us is love.
