Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript
## Reformation Covenant Church
## Pastor Dennis Tuuri

Text. Please stand and we will read it again. Song of Songs chapter 1 verses 1–4.

The Song of Songs which is Solomon’s. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for your love is better than wine because of the fragrance of your good ointments. Your name is ointment poured forth. Therefore, the virgins love you. Draw me away. We will run after you. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will remember your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you.

Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your scriptures and we pray now that you would minister them to us by your Holy Spirit, strengthen and transform us, Lord God, by the power of your word. In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated.

Today’s sermon is “How to Make Your Husband Love You.” This is the complement sermon, the counterpart to one that I preached a couple of months ago called “How to Make Your Wife Submit.”

When I decided to do topical sermons for much of this year, I solicited sermon topics from people. And one young man asked me if I could preach on how to make his wife submit or how to make women submit. So I did that. And as you recall, and if you don’t recall, it’s on the outlines today—really, the outline from that sermon as well is in italics under the first set of points for this sermon. And basically, what I stressed in trying to make your wife submit is the importance of being a husband that is easy to submit to.

So today I want to do the other side of that and address women who might want to have me help them get their husbands to love them more. And so today’s sermon is “How to Make Your Husband Love You.” And it is the counterpart of this other sermon.

First, I thought the first thing I would do is I want to primarily look at the Song of Solomon. But very quickly we can review the husband’s sermon if we look at the same set of points on the outline and kind of modify them just a bit so that they can apply to the wives as well.

So for instance, the first point I made in “How to Make Your Wife Submit” was: first, you assist your wife’s submission by being thankful for her, and specifically, husbands are warned not to be embittered toward their wives. So if we want to take that and think of the wife’s responsibility, you can encourage your husband’s love by being thankful for him. That’s the beginning of things—is thankfulness for the sovereignty of God bringing you your particular husband.

You know, if a woman asked me, “How can I make my husband love me better?” the first thing I probably want to remind her of is that she should be thankful for him and have her mind set right about who her husband is. And as a sub point here, I’ve got: believe the sovereignty of God and think covenantally. We don’t know what’s going to happen to couples over the long run of their marriage. But we do know right now how God wants you to think about your husband and wants you to think about your wife.

God is most powerful. He is most wise. He is omnipotent. And he is most loving and gracious toward us. And I think if we remember those core doctrines of the faith—the sovereignty of God and his great love and his wisdom as well—then I think we can say that your husband, women who want your husband to love you more, you begin by thanking God for him. Because in the providence of God, he is the best husband for you. God is most loving toward you. He’s wise and knows what you need and what’s best for you. And he’s sovereign. He has brought this to pass in your life. And if you put all those things together, it seems like you have the best of all worlds with a particular spouse that you have now. And so you must start with this thankfulness to God for your particular husband.

B. You can encourage your husband’s love by knowing what love is and isn’t. You know, husbands need to remind themselves what submission is and isn’t. And a lot of times we tend to think of submission in terms that aren’t biblical. Well, the same thing can be true of wives with their husbands. What is biblical love? And we’re going to talk about that today from a particular perspective. It’s not the only perspective in the scriptures, of course.

But remember, if we look at these New Testament texts about love—1 Corinthians 13, etc.—love of these actions. It assumes that we’ve understood what love is from the Old Testament. Now, we’ve got a book: The Song of Songs, right? You know, hopefully you know that if we want to figure out how to worship and how to apply what the New Testament teaches about worship, we would be absolutely foolish not to look at the last half of Exodus and all the book of Leviticus because there God gives a book and a half worth of detailed instructions on how to worship.

Now, we can’t just apply it cut and paste. It all leads, talks about the significance of Christ. But if we’re thinking about worship, we have to know what that book in the Old Testament says. Yeah. If we’re thinking about governance and how to make mature men rulers in the context of our church and our culture and community, we have to know Proverbs. And specifically, at least my belief is we got to know chapters 25 through 30, the kingly section of the book of Proverbs, including Agur and the humility of the king.

I mean, yeah, we got to know the New Testament texts about ruling and governance, but if you ignore—if you’re trying to get wisdom about governing and you ignore the five chapters that are specifically given to kings and how to govern—obviously we’re foolish. If we want to know how to structure law in the New Testament and in our day and age, we have to know the law code of the Old Testament. We got to know the law of the covenant, you know, in Exodus 20 and following. Just got to know that stuff. If we want to know the flow of history, we should know the book of Genesis.

So, in like manner, if we want to understand what marital love is about, we have an entire book written on this topic. It is frustrating to me trying to pick songs for this sort of sermon because first of all we have a general practice, we do not have many songs based on the Song of Solomon, and secondly what songs we do have allegorize the entire book and make it about our relationship to Christ. Now that’s okay—I believe that’s a proper perspective on the book, that’s an implication of the book—but in the first instance, the book is written as a love song.

You know, at the end of chapter 6 beginning of chapter 7 in the Song of Solomon, the woman in the song is addressed as a Shulamite. Well, that word really just means Mrs. Solomon. Same word as Solomon. Shlomo. Shulamite. Same sound. It really—that’s what it means. It’s the wife of Solomon. So this is a book that is a love song and the best of all love songs about Solomon and his wife. And so this is a book that informs us about what marital love is all about.

If a wife wants to know how to make her husband love her more, and doesn’t turn to the Song of Solomon, well, you know, then she’s got an idea of love that probably is not fully informed by the scriptures. Now, the Song of Solomon isn’t the end of the story, but it certainly is part of it.

You know, musicians—I’ve made this point. You know, if we want to know what music is, this is the best song ever written. That’s what it says in the very title: The Song of Songs—the song of all songs, the song to beat all other songs—Solomon’s song. Okay, this is the best of love songs. And so I want to take some time going through this love song today to talk about love.

But you know, the wife has to be encouraged to remember to define what love is and what it isn’t. What does she want her husband to do? And is that necessarily biblical love?

C. You encourage your husband’s love by submitting to your husband and thus to God. And you know, in Peter, it talks about submission to your husband, ultimately submitting to God. And you’ve heard this one, ladies, over and over again, and I don’t want to stress it today. Okay. But it is true. The husband encourages his wife’s submission by loving her. And the wife encourages her husband’s love by submitting to him.

You know, in Ephesians, those are the two big themes throughout the New Testament. Husbands are always exhorted to love their wives. Wives are always exhorted to submit and respect their husbands. And so I don’t want to skip this point, you know, and just say, well, it’s not all that important. It is very important to believe, again, the sovereignty of God in this—that God has placed his husband in a position of authority over you. And you need to think about this.

And I’ve got John Piper’s definition once more, as I did on the husband’s talk. Here it’s his definition of mature femininity: “A freeing disposition to affirm, receive, and nurture, strengthen leadership from worthy men in ways appropriate to a woman’s differing relationships.”

And now, if we want to talk—I want to talk about love from the Song of Solomon. But I cannot glance over this point. You know, there’s always two ditches. And I think probably the way I’ve preached the last two years will tend to create a ditch where wives think of submission just in terms of sort of an attitude and don’t really buckle down to do the hard work of submitting to husbands. What am I trying to say?

If the husband considers a matter and makes a decision on the matter that the wife disagrees with, as long as it is consistent with the scriptures, not in violation to the scriptures, the wife should want to believe that is the best direction for the family. May not be—she may have better ideas—but her attitude should be such to not just grudgingly do what he says, but her attitude should be a joyful delight in following God’s lead for the home as mediated through the husband.

And if wives don’t have that down, we’re never going to get to a proper love of the husband toward you. Now, he’s called to do his thing. You’re called to do your thing. But covenantally, those things are going on together. And from a covenantal perspective, not from an absolutist perspective, but from a covenantal perspective, the degree to which you submit to your husband will bring forth love from him. And husbands, the degree to which you love your wife will bring forth a joyful submission to your leadership.

But you must submit. Families have one head. And taking in all the counsel from wives and older children that husbands must take into account, they still must rule and lead. And to encourage correct relationships in the family, wives must be willing to give a salute to the husband. Say yes sir with a smile on their face when they disagree with the direction.

When they disagree with the direction. I cannot stress that enough. I don’t want this sermon to somehow get just about, you know, the love side of it without stressing in passing that wives, as you do that, as you build up your husband’s esteem, as you respect him for his position, as you submit to him by saluting to the command—after all deliberations have taken place, the husband makes a decision—you submit with a smile on your face and say, “Yes, honey, I want to do just what you want me to do.” That’s biblical submission.

And if you do that, you will encourage your husband’s love.

Fourth, you encourage your husband’s love. This is D under point 1, by recognizing that your husband’s love is not primarily your responsibility with his. And this is a flip side to what we said about, you know, you want to make your wife submit. Well, ultimately, you can’t make your wife submit, and you can’t make your husband love you. Ultimately, those are responsibilities that the husband and wife have before God, and it’s ultimately God’s responsibility. You’re part of the mix. But understand that you’re just part of the mix. So you encourage your husband’s love by recognizing that this love is not primarily your responsibility.

If you think it’s primarily your responsibility, you may nag. You may do all kinds of things that wouldn’t particularly help.

E. You encourage your husband’s love by loving him and serving him. We’ll see this in the Song of Solomon. A lot of people say, “Well, in the New Testament, you know, the wife is never commanded to love the husband and so she doesn’t have to love the husband.” That is just ridiculous. I mean, the Song of Solomon, for instance, all the way through it, Mrs. Solomon is loving her husband. It’s a good thing to do. And so you should love him.

Remember that submission of the wife to the husband is set in the context in Ephesians of mutual submission, right? First, you know, you submit to one another the Lord. Then wives submit to your husbands. And the counterbalance to that at the end of that text is respecting them as well. Well, I believe a whole Bible approach means that if you want your husband to love you, love him. You’re going to get what you give. So just as husbands should submit to their wives’ good counsel and advice, to their sister in the Lord, so wives should also love their husbands. And if you do this, this will be an encouragement in his love for you.

After you encourage your husband’s love, by ministering God’s word to him and praying for him. Now this is the flip side of husbands ministering God’s word, and we see that you know we see that in the New Testament. But do we also understand that if we take the example of Aquila and Priscilla, for instance, you know, there’s a situation where the woman clearly is helping instruct the husband in knowledge of the word? Not a thing wrong with that. It is passing strange that we think there’s something funny about that, isn’t it?

Where does it say in the Bible that the husband is supposed to know more about the scriptures than the wife? Where does it say that he’s supposed to be smarter than her or more wise than her? It doesn’t say that anywhere. That’s some kind of cultural thing that somehow, I think at least, has sprung up in the context of American Christianity, probably having roots in a male chauvinism, which is not good. I believe women’s liberation is a judgment upon men, and for among other things, a judgment for men who think they’re better in terms of their essence than their wives. You are not. The son is not inferior to the father in terms of his essence. And somehow we get this all messed up.

There is absolutely no reason why a wife shouldn’t be teaching her husband. I can’t see any in the scriptures. Primarily the teaching of God’s word is the function of the church. It doesn’t happen primarily in the home—really, I don’t think I can find a lot of verses that support that. I think it’s a good thing to have Bible instruction in the home. But you know, part of the problem with putting the whole thing in the context of the home is then the husbands assume that they have a lot more knowledge of the scriptures than the wife does. I don’t know why we necessarily think that, particularly in terms of intellectual capacity. Clearly, it just isn’t the case.

So I think that wives should feel completely free and encouraged to minister God’s word to their husbands and to pray for them. You know, in the Song of Solomon, she says, “Blow upon the garden, north wind, that my spices may go out.” And the idea is she’s attracting her husband and enjoying relationships with him. But she calls on the wind to enable this. And so if wives are looking to enhance their relationship with their husband, his love for her—to pray for him regularly in terms of that is summoning the wind. It’s summoning the Holy Spirit, so to speak, to do a work in the man’s life to have him grow in his love for you. Do you see that?

Now, this gets back to it’s not being primarily your responsibility. It’s God working with your husband. You’re a part of that. But you should be relying on the Holy Spirit and praying that the wind would indeed blow up in your husband love and an adoring attitude toward who you are.

So you can encourage your husband’s love by ministering God’s word to him and praying for him.

And then finally, you encourage your husband’s love by being lovable. This connects to what we said when we preached about the husbands: seventh, you assist your wife’s submission by being respectable. You want your wife to have reverence for you and respect. Now in Ephesians, that’s the bookends of that chiastic structure dealing with male female relationships. It starts by saying wives to their own husbands, picking up submission from the mutual submission of the verse just before—significant because it sets the wife’s submission in the context of mutual submission—and then it talks mostly about the husband. And then it returns at the end to let the wives respect their husbands.

So respect and submission are the bookends of that text in Ephesians, and the center is the love of the husband. So you know, the husband, if he wants the wife to submit, he’s really wanting her to respect him. And while she respects him because he’s her savior, so to speak, the way Christ saved the body, you know, she respects him just because he is a husband. You want to make yourself respectable to increase the reverence and honor that your wife has for you, right?

I mean, one way to get your wife to salute and say, “Yes, sir,” is for her to know you’ve taken seriously her counsel and you’ve given her respect and all that stuff. That encourages submission. Well, in the same way, wives, if you want your husband to love you, love him. And more importantly, be something that’s worthy of being loved.

You know, there’s—I’ll mention this now, but in Dr. Laura’s book, *The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands* or whatever it is. She makes an interesting comment building off of things that we know in this church. She talks about the entitlement mentality in America, right? Benevolence has become entitlement. People are entitled to food and clothing and medicine and all this stuff now, they think. And when you get to a society of entitlement, love doesn’t flow because everybody demands what is rightfully theirs.

So the entitlement mentality says I have a right to food, clothing, shelter. And we don’t. God says if you won’t work, you shouldn’t eat. It’s not an entitlement. Food is a result of labor. And this plays right through the culture. We think all kinds of things are an entitlement. We’re entitled to vote. I’d like to go back to the days of some sort of literacy test for voting. Abused racially by the South, and as a result God judged us and took it away. But there comes a time at which people should not vote. If they don’t understand the process or how to read and write, they really have no business, I don’t think, voting.

But we have a mentality now of an entitlement to these things. And wives, I’m going to say this carefully. I don’t want to say it. You think you’re entitled to your husband’s love. And from one sense, you are. Your husband is commanded to love you. But when you get thinking in terms of an entitlement mentality and come to pastor and say, “Make my husband love me,” well, you’ve missed the first step, which is being lovable.

Love will increase for you usually to the degree that you are lovable to him. Okay. So I’ve said he still needs to love you. He’s commanded by God. Not taking that away. But I’m saying that with the entitlement mentality, we think we’re due all this stuff from our husband, or we think we’re due all this submission from our wives, ignoring the full covenantal message of the scriptures, which is that husbands should act respectably and wives should focus themselves on being lovable.

And that’s really what I want to talk about the rest of the time today is how wives can do that. How can they go about being more lovable? How can they go about being lovable? And I want to do this by turning to several references in the Song of Solomon.

So now we’re going to transition to point two of the outline. I missed something. Oh yeah, I did want to mention—and this was the place to mention it—so I guess I did it in the right spot, but I wanted to mention this book by Dr. Laura Schlesinger called *The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands*. And I’m getting a lot of trouble for this. Probably will. I don’t care. Well, I care. But you know, her book is a good book. It’s not scripture. She’s not a Christian. She’s a rejector of Jesus Christ. She goes by the Old Testament. I suppose she’s okay with Christianity, but understand that this is not a book about the Bible and about ultimate truth.

What it is, though, is a series of observations on the present culture in America. Now she absolutizes it and says men are always like this and women are always like that. We can’t say that. What we can say on the basis of cultural observations is that it seems like this is the way man-woman relationships work right now in our context. When we get to the scriptures now, we can apply those truths and observations the scriptures give us in ultimate categories, and Dr. Laura would not be correct in what she says in relationship to scripture in all points.

Having said that, I think that her book is a pretty accurate set of observations on the culture and relationship of men and women in America. And so I have no problem recommending this book to wives, and I would—I do recommend it to every wife here. It’s a very quick read. I haven’t actually read it, but John S. and I sat down for an hour in the airport in Sacramento on the way back, and he kind of went through page by page with me, gave me the major points of it, and it seems to be very good. And then I read certain sections of it after that. Easy read. You’re not going to agree with all of it, but it may help you in kind of some obvious ways, restating some things, many of those things which are true in terms of the scriptures.

Now, she’s got a companion volume coming out called *Woman Power*. I have no idea what that’s about, but I do recommend this book. And as I thought about this book, I thought about one aspect of the Song of Songs that I’ve got in your outline here. She talks in the book the importance of recognizing that men have feelings. You see, this is—uh, we sort of—we, at least from my perspective, we’re sort of raised in America to think, well, women are the feeling ones in the relationship and men are, you know, the logical ones. And again, there’s nothing in the scriptures that say that. So it may be a correct cultural observation that this is the way people tend to be right now, but I think Dr. Laura is more correct that men do have feelings, too. And to know that and to respond to that is important.

Here’s the deal. She says that women in our culture have all kinds of relationships—other women, you know, friends, hairdressers, whatever it is. They tend to talk a lot with other people. Now, not all women. Some women don’t have a number of relationships, but a lot of women do. Men tend not to do that. They tend to essentially be self-contained as they go through the world and not go about with these sharing sort of things as much as women do.

The end result of that is that if a wife doesn’t attend to her husband’s need for communication about things that he’s feeling, probably nobody else will. So men have more of a tendency for neediness in terms of communication, intimate communication in the relationship than a lot of women do. And her cultural observation is that women just tend not to need that as much. And you know, I don’t know if that’s necessarily true biblically or not, but it does seem to be somewhat accurate. Women seem to be more self-contained, less needy than men.

I think I can make a case from the fact that the first man is needy. The first man we encounter in scripture, Adam, has need of a woman. And so woman comes along for that purpose. Now, you could say that we could infer from her being created for man that she’s needy as well. And that, you know, isn’t proper inference. But we know directly that men have a great need for women. And it’s easy for men in our present culture of macho attitudes to not let their wives see that part of them. And so it’s easy for wives to think their husbands are self-contained when they’re really not. They should be attending to them.

Husbands don’t tend to talk a lot about their needs. They tend more often than not, Dr. Laura observes, and I think it’s correct culturally, to go quiet. They tend to wall it off because they know they’re supposed to be a man. They know that this cultural image is that women have needs and women share that, you know, “I need relationship,” and men don’t do that. That’s kind of, not being masculine or something. So they tend to wall it off. I think that’s accurate.

And as I was thinking about her cultural observations in relationship to the Song of Solomon, it’s interesting that if you are familiar with the book of the Song of Solomon, Song of Songs, that the Shulamite, Mrs. Solomon, is talking at points in the narrative to the virgins from Jerusalem—the daughters of Jerusalem, girlfriends. And even as we read the first few verses, the introduction to the book, there’s a little bit of dialogue between her and the virgins who follow after Mr. and Mrs. Solomon. And this is portrayed several times in the book.

Well, the book gives us then an image that tends to support these cultural observations of Dr. Laura—that women tend to have companions, tend to talk in terms of those companions, whereas the man is presented more in somewhat of an isolated case. And I’ve got some scriptures here for you. Turn now to chapter 5 of the Song of Solomon, verses 10–16. And I want to—this is one instance where this happens, and it’s a particularly instructive instance, I think, for our purposes. Chapter 5, beginning at verse 9.

“What is your beloved more than another beloved, oh fairest among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved that you so charge us?” So she’s charged the daughters of Jerusalem, or virgins—the daughters of Jerusalem. And they now ask her, Mrs. Solomon, “What’s so good about this guy?” So this is an instance first of all of sort of seeing how in this Song of all songs, the woman is portrayed as having a group of women that she speaks with.

And I like this particular section because she goes on in verse 10 to exalt her husband to her companions. “My beloved is white and ruddy, chief among 10,000. His head is like the finest gold. His locks are wavy and black as a raven. Yada yada.” The point is that this is a picture to us of one way to encourage a husband’s love. It’s indirect, but one way to do that is to speak to your friends positively with praise about your husband. And that immediately corrects some of the tendencies amongst women, which is to get together with other women and either directly or through inference kind of put their husbands down.

Here we have a proper modeling of what it means to be friends with women and what it means to have friends with other women. First of all, you have them, and husbands—your wife should be encouraged to develop friendship with other women. And secondly, that friendship with other women is a positive to the relationship because the wife focuses on words of praise for her husband, even to those who are part of her coterie of friends and who she speaks with.

So she does that. Look at, and I’ve got also here a reference to verses 4 and 5, a little earlier in the chapter. Verses 4 and 5. “My beloved put his hand by the latch of the door and my heart yearned for him. I arose to open for my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh on the handles of the lock. I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and was gone.”

Okay, now this is a dream sequence for sure because she says in verse 1, “I slept but my heart is awake.” I sleep, my heart’s awake. Could be the whole book is a dream, that this song is set in the context of a dream. Some of the imagery might make better sense then. My point in referencing these two verses is this: and this is, you know, I don’t know that this is what the proper interpretation of this dream is, but what’s going on is the husband approaches the wife. And this, by the way, is after the center, which is the wedding scene of the book. Husband approaches the wife middle of the night. And she, by the time she gets up, he’s gone.

Now, we can look at this, you know, in terms of the psychology of women that is presented to us here—that they tend to insecurity about the love of their husband. I think that’s accurate. But we could also look at it perhaps, maybe not, but look at it in terms of the husband. When the wife doesn’t respond quickly to the husband, he leaves. He absents himself. And I think women—whether this is an accurate understanding of what the husband is doing here or not—I think culturally you have to understand that men have feelings too. And when there isn’t, you know, immediate reaction to his presence by entering into that presence, husbands can then withdraw as a way of defense.

So, you know, I just thought it’d be good to stress here at the get-go before we get into the Song of Solomon directly that to be lovable means understanding that your husband needs your love and attention even though he may not portray that need to you. Okay.

Now, let’s turn to the Song of Solomon then and very directly look at several ways that Mrs. Solomon in the Song of Songs encourages the love of her husband. Okay. So now we’ll go to point two of the outline.

**How Mrs. Solomon Encouraged Her Husband’s Love in the Song of Songs**

How was she lovable? In other words, as presented to us in this book?

**First, she sought for and initiated physical intimacy.**

Chapter 1, verse 2. So this is the text: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” That’s how it begins. Now, understand well—actually just glance down to verse 5.

I read the first four verses. Verse 5 says, “I am dark but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. Do not look upon me because I am dark.” It’s my belief that verse 5 begins the narrative of describing the relationship, how Solomon and Mrs. Solomon start to get to know each other. She sees him, she wants to know where he is. They start to develop a relationship. The first four verses then are kind of a summary to the entire book.

And so she talks in an intimate way immediately, even though she hasn’t met the guy yet, because the first four verses are an introduction to the book. And in this introduction, it’s—you know, we cannot miss that there’s an emphasis here that in the very first verse, the woman is described as seeking physical intimacy with the husband. “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.”

Now, if you turn to the very end of the book, chapter 8, verse 14. Here’s what she says. Now he has been talking up to now, but in the last verse is hers. “Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.” We know it’s her because she calls him beloved, and that’s the name of Solomon for the most part throughout the book.

So at the beginning and end of this book, okay? You want to know about what it’s, how to encourage your husband’s love for you, and you go to the love song of all songs, the inspired love song. Good to read. Dr. Laura doesn’t even try to build a biblical case. Good cultural observations. But if you really want the real deal, you go to the Song of Songs, a book that is written about marital love, and you look at the woman who received marital love and what does she do to make herself lovable? How does she encourage her husband’s love?

At the beginning and end of the book, for emphasis, she seeks after and initiates physical intimacy. She desires to be kissed on the mouth and she desires at the end for her husband to come with her and enter into intimacy. So I think that’s very significant.

Now it isn’t just the beginning and end of course. It goes on throughout the rest of this book. And I’ve got some verses listed for you.

Verse 13 of chapter 1. “A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me that lies all night between my breasts.” She desires her husband. See, she seeks after his presence with her in physical intimacy. And she declares that this is a great thing to her. This is a delight to her. And my point is that she, in doing this, in getting her head straight about what physical relationships are all about, she is encouraging love of her husband for her. And she is actually being lovable.

Now, if we look down to chapter 2, verse 17, “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 Bashan.” The imagery here again is that she wants to enter into physical intimacy with her husband, and she initiates this desire and a fulfillment of it.

Chapter 3, verses 1–4. “By night on my bed I sought the one I love. I sought him but I did not find him. I will rise now, I said, go about the city in the streets and in the square. I will seek the one I love.” Now surely this section again is telling us about the proper biblical psychology of women. But understand that in this love song of all songs, wives—this should be who you are in the text, right? You should be seeking the one I love. And she’s doing it while she’s sleeping upon her bed. So she seeks after—she seeks, she desires it, and she actually then attempts to initiate physical intimacy.

Verse 4 of chapter 3. “Scarcely had I passed by them when I found the one I love. I held him, would not let him go until I had brought him to the house of my mother and into the chamber of her who conceived me.”

Now let me point out something in passing here. There’s a reference here to conception. But you know, and we could make a couple of inferences from the Song of Solomon about children, right? The woman is described as a garden. Gardens bring forth fruit—children. And here, you know, she wants to go with her husband to the place where her mother conceived her. But those are inferences.

What’s going on in the Song of Songs is marital love, husband and wife, without direct reference to offspring or childbearing. Children are present in this thing. This is not, you know, this is not a family book. It’s a book about relationships between husbands and wives and that love between husbands and wives, and specifically the physical intimacy is not set in the context of only being for children. In fact, just the opposite. It’s set in the context of the delights of the physical relationship. We have a whole book given over to this—not just the physical relationship, the intimacy. But the point is here, she seeks after, initiates intimate physical relationships. She holds him all night. She cuddles all night with him.

You see, she desires that, she seeks that, she initiates that kind of activity.

Down in chapter 7, verses 11 and following. “Come, my beloved, let us go forth to the field. Let us lodge in the villages.”

Chapter 7, verse 12. “Let us get up early to the vineyards. Let us see if the vine is budded, whether the grape blossoms are open. Pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love. The mandrakes give off a fragrance, and at our gates are pleasant fruits, all manner, new and old, which I have laid up for you, my beloved. Oh, that you are like my brother who nursed at my mother’s breast. If I should find you outside, I would kiss you. I would not be despised. I would lead you and bring you into the house of my mother, she who used to instruct me.”

She’s initiating things. You know, somehow in American Christianity, we have this idea that physical relationships are supposed to be sought after and initiated by the husband all the time. Now, he initiates stuff in this love song, too. But over and over again, as these verses show, the wife initiates it. This is a way to be lovable. You want your husband to love you? Then seek after, desire physical relationship with your husband and actually initiate it over and over. It happens in the context of this book. And as I said, the book ends—the very bookends of the book itself—are statements of both seeking after and desire for relationship with the husband and then an initiating of those relationships.

And under this, then, I have the first sub-comment: don’t be gnostic. Nothing wrong with bodies. You know, you read the early church fathers and you think that certain portions of the body must be just filled with all kinds of bad things, germs, horrible entities. And it is not the case. The physical body is a good thing. It’s not some, you know, it’s not some sort of, you know, there are not parts of the body that are to be ashamed of. You know, that’s kind of this Greek “the body is no good” sort of attitude.

I’m probably already in enough trouble. I’ll get in a little more trouble. You get up in the morning and shower, right? I do. And you go into the day and let’s say you’re two hours into the day now, right? What’s the dirty part of your body? Well, it’s these. It’s your hands. That’s in contact with the world and everything, right? This is what you’re touching everything with. But somehow we think these are clean, you see?

Well, no. The scriptures tell us the body is a good thing. We’re not to be gnostic. Think about this. And wives who don’t understand this—this is where you’ve got to begin to be lovable toward your husband and is acknowledging the goodness of bodies and intimate physical relationships and actually to initiate them.

Somehow men’s bodies receive worse than women’s. I don’t understand that. But that’s kind of what we’ve done somehow, and we just need to put all that aside. Let the Song of Solomon direct our thoughts and our practices. Okay.

**She sought out him whom she loved.**

Chapter 1, verse 7. Okay. The first part of verse 7. “Tell me, oh you whom I love, where you feed your flock, where you make it rest at noon.” So as the relationship begins to build, she seeks out his place of employment. Okay? She initiates trying to have relationship with this young man. Again, there we sort of glance at that. But in terms of the development of this marriage, this is the couple that God is bringing together in marriage. And she takes an interest in her husband. Wives, you can be lovable by taking an interest where your husband’s flocks are and desiring to be with him at the end of the day or whatever it is. She desires relationship. She seeks out the one whom she loves.

**She also makes herself attractive to his eyes, his nose, and his ears.**

So here we go through the same—we’ll have a set of verses now.

Chapter 1. Turn back to chapter 1 and look at verse 10. Verse 10 says, he’s talking to her now. “I have compared you, my love, to my filly among Pharaoh’s chariots. Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with chains of gold.” It’s talking about her as a horse. Hard for us to understand that. I was in Poland a couple months ago, and Pedro is the Dutch pastor in Poland there that is helping build a little church connected with what we were doing. And Pedro married a Polish woman and one of the first things he told her were that her eyes were like cow’s eyes, and she took great umbrage at this, being Polish. She thought, “What is he talking about? I’m like a cow to him. He’s calling me a cow.” But the Dutch love their dairy cows. I mean, they know them all by name and they think very highly of them, and they just think cow’s eyes are so beautiful. It’s the highest compliment to pay a wife in Holland. You know, you’re like a cow to me. But to her, she didn’t understand.

So I don’t know if we understand how she’s like a filly, you know, a horse, to him. But we can understand that he’s saying that she is ornamented. “Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with chains of gold.”

Now, I know New Testament says not outward adornment only, but she has made herself attractive to her man by what she puts on herself by taking care of herself physically.

Verse 12, “While the king is at his table, my spikenard sends forth its fragrance,” she says. So now she’s appealing not just to his eyes. She knows he’s a whole person. He smells, too. He’s got a nose. And she makes herself lovable, attractive to him, to his nose as well as to his eyes.

Verse 15, “Behold, you are fair, my love. Behold, you are fair. You have dove’s eyes.” So she’s somehow, you know, attending to her eyes. She’s helping them not be all crusted over, matted, whatever it is. She’s making her eyes attractive to her husband’s eyes.

Chapter 2, verses 1–4—well, he says, is it? No, I’m sorry, not 1–4, verse 14 of chapter 2. Verse 14. “Oh, my dove, in the cliffs of the rock, and the secret places of the cliff, let me see your face. Let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, your face is lovely.”

So we got a little chiasm there. Face, voice, voice, face. And we’ll see as we go through this that in the Song of Songs, he is always extolling her face. Now, he talks about her body late in the poem, late in the song after their marriage is completed. But the emphasis in the Song of Solomon on the physical attractiveness of the wife to the husband is her face, her hair, her teeth (which come up from the washing—they’ve been brushed apparently, whatever it is), her eyes, her cheeks, her neck, the ornamentation that she wears.

So women, you make yourself lovable to your husband by primarily attending to your face. Make your face attractive to your husband. Okay? And so he acknowledges that she indeed is lovely in this way.

But the other thing in the middle of the phrase is her voice. You make yourself lovable to your husband not just by appealing to his eyes and his nose. You make yourself lovable by appealing to his ears. And here’s where your voice becomes very important. And you know, we know the Proverbs talks about how a contentious wife is a continual dripping. And the—if the idea is to have presence with one another and to move toward periods of physical intimacy, the contentious speech, a voice that is grating to the husband, does just the opposite.

Proverbs of this same man Solomon says, now—it’s—you’re going to be way off in the top of the house when you got a contentious wife who’s drip dripping away in the context of the home. Your speech is part of the package to your husband to make you lovable in his sight. And so you want to put on positive speech, that respectful, loving speech. You want to speak about him the way that this woman speaks about the love of her life. And if you read through the Song of Solomon, you’ll see she is complimenting him at all times—you know, who he is, his name, etc.

So the speech is appealing to your husband’s ears.

So that’s 2:14.

Chapter 4, verses 1–7. “Behold, you are fair, my love. Behold, you are fair. You have dove’s eyes behind your veil. You know, there’s a degree of enticement here through a veil. I don’t—we don’t use veils today, but there’s a deliberate ornamentation of the face that heightens the appearance of the eyes is what’s going on here. She makes herself lovable in her appearance to her husband.

“Your hair is like a flock of goats going down from Mount Gilead. You know, different women have different kinds of hair and different abilities to do things with it. But, you know, my contention is that all women are beautiful to their husbands. He, you know, you can either think of your wife as, you know, it is proper to think of our wives the way that Solomon thinks of his wife and to extol her for her beauty even if she has very little hair. You see, still we can delight in the beauty of our wives.

“Your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep which have come up from the washing. Every one of them has twins. None is barren among them. Your lips are like a strand of scarlet. Your mouth is lovely.” Again, here apparently maybe some ornamentation to the lips—lipstick perhaps. Who knows what? But she, you know, she doesn’t hold back from making herself attractive to her husband. He delights in her beauty, and as a result, she’s encouraging his love by being lovable.

“Your neck is like the tower of David built for an army and which hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.” And he goes on to describe the rest of her body as well. “You are all fair, my love.”

Now, this stuff that I’m just reading now—those verses—they lead up to the very center declaration of the husband, that she is all fair without spot or wrinkle. That’s the center of the book. So right around the center of the book is a husband who is appreciative of a wife who has made herself lovable and lovely to her husband, and specifically to his eyes, although we know in other places to his nose and to his ears as well. And I won’t go on at the rest of these, but you can look at them later.

The point is she makes herself lovable to her husband and encourages his love by making herself attractive to his eyes, to his nose, and to his ears.

So she seeks for and initiates relationship. She seeks out the one whom she loves. She makes herself attractive to him. And one last little thing here is that in verse 11 of chapter 1, she has some help here. Go back to chapter 1 now. And remember I read verse 10. He says, “Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with chains of gold.” And then these daughters of Jerusalem chime in verse 11 and say, “We will make you ornaments of gold with studs of silver.”

In making herself attractive to her husband, she has the assistance of the group of women that surround her. You know, a couple of times at family camp, Rachel C., I think, has done this thing where she takes women and helps them to know what colors they should wear. There’s a—that is a good thing to do. That’s Song of Solomon sort of stuff to encourage other women in how they might look attractive to their husbands, to assist them in that.

So the wife in the Song of Solomon and the Song of All Songs gets community assistance in making herself attractive to her husband.

Now, here again, for some reason, we know there’s some truth to this, but you know, there’s a song several years ago about a girl who’s trying to make her look special, her look special, to the guy that she wants to notice her. And she talks about how she’s going to use her arms, she’s going to use her eyes. And we think, “Oh, you know, horrible woman.” You know, she’s trying to make herself physically attractive to some guy and attract him. Well, that’s not horrible. It would be horrible if that—if the woman is married, or if she is being brazen about her sexuality. But to make yourself attractive to men is not a bad thing to do.

We know that the warnings in Proverbs are against the harlot who—but the whole point of the harlot is she sort of looks like the real deal, but she isn’t. She’s already wed to somebody else. The Song of Solomon describes a woman who actually goes about making herself physically attractive to her husband. Nothing wrong with that. And if you got—is there any wives in this congregation who want to make your husbands notice that you’re special? Use your arms. Use your eyes. Use your hair. Use your voice. Think about what you’re saying. Is it making you lovable to him or not? Use incense. Use perfume. Appeal to his senses in all these same ways that this woman does.

Initiation of physical intimacy, not for the purpose of offspring, but for the purpose of causing the husband to delight in you. You know, again, I know I’m right on the raggedy edge, but again, here I think that Dr. Laura’s book has some really good observations about this. You know, women in our culture, at least, tend to want to cuddle. You know, like we can probably identify with a woman. He’s with me all night long embracing one another, cuddling. They want to cuddle. And husbands, when they start to cuddle, start to then want to move ahead to physical, more intense, physical intimacy. And wives sort of then think badly of their husbands. “Oh, you’re just, you know, controlled by your hormones.”

But the point is that’s his way of getting to cuddling, you see, because the aftermath of that is cuddling. And now he will spend a lot of time with him, you see, and you’ll have what you want. And so, you know, I just think it’s very important this particular aspect.

I think in part, the physical relationship of husband and wife is an uncontrollable thing to the husband because God wants husband and wife to develop relationship. And while that isn’t all of it, that is the initiation of it frequently. And you will find in couples I know—the couples that I talk to where there is a degree of the wife initiating at times seeking after physical intimacy—those couples don’t just have physical intimacy, they have friendship intimacy. They have spiritual intimacy. They talk more as a result of that activity, among others. And where and when that stuff breaks down, physical intimacy breaks down as well.

You know, I’m not chicken and egg kind of stuff. I’m sure. But wives, if you want your husbands to cuddle, to talk, to have relationship, do what? Mrs. Solomon did. It’s so clear what she did. She made herself lovable to her husband.

Okay.

**Secondly, she properly prioritized her husband’s love.**

Here, you know, again, oops, now I’ve got a—back to the initial verses we read. “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” She seeks for and initiates physical relationship. “For your love is better than wine.” How important is it to you that your husband loves you?

Now, I don’t think she’s relating this just to physical intimacy. She’s placing a high value on her relationship to her husband. She is properly prioritizing her husband’s love. It’s a big deal to her.

Chapter 2, verse 3. “Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down in his shade with great delight. His fruit was sweet to my taste.”

You see, you should pick great delight in establishing relationship to your husband. You should desire it more than wine, more than gold, more than just about anything else apart from your relationship to Christ. But even that is mediated to relationship to your spouse. So Mrs. Solomon places a high value. She prioritizes her husband’s love quite high.

Laura Schlesinger has a book. One of the first chapters in her book rather is called “the white rabbit syndrome,” where many women are busy, busy, busy, and they don’t have time, you know, to initiate or respond to initiation of the husband into physical relationships. Particularly these days, I suppose, with both people working these days.

Does your husband—wives—know that you think just about the most important thing in the world to you is spending time with him, is trying to make yourself lovable and attractive to him, to his eyes, to his nose, and to his ears? Does he hear words from you of being willing to set aside everything else to go off for a day in the country with him? Does he know how high a priority he has in your eyes?

Because if he doesn’t, if he thinks that he’s not a very high priority to you working on this relationship, then he’s going to tail off as well. It’s his fault if he does it. I’m not excusing him, but I’m telling you that you’re a means of grace to your husband by helping him to see how important that relationship is.

Now, maybe it isn’t very important to you. Maybe you need to do repenting, that you’ve allowed that relationship to slip down in terms of prioritization, or maybe you’ve allowed your verbalization of your desire for that to slip away because you think your husband isn’t doing things right?

If you want him to do things right, treat him the way he should be treated. Help him to prioritize the relationship by you prioritizing it. The idea is you must work at it here. You know, if we had a problem in the kitchen that you needed to have done, or a problem, you know, if you had a health problem, you’d do everything possible to get yourself healthy again. You’d prioritize it. But both husbands toward wives and wives toward husbands, we tend to take each other for granted and think it’s just sort of a natural thing.

Again, it’s this entitlement idea. You’re not entitled to it. And in one sense, you are. Highly prioritize your relationship to your husband and then communicate that high prioritization to him by ways of your words and your actions.

**She valued and respected her husband.**

You know, she begins by saying, “Let him kiss me at the kisses of his mouth.” Initiating relationship. “Your love is better than wine.” High priority. “Because of the fragrance of your good ointments your name is ointment poured forth.”

She immediately then in this great summation, the beginning of the book, expresses her respect for her husband. Name in the Bible is the whole person. You. Your name is great to me. It is like ointment poured forth. You are a great guy. I highly respect you. You see, she pours compliments toward him, and in doing that she encourages his love for her.

Chapter 2, verses 8 and 9. “The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping upon the mountain, skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he stands behind our wall. He is looking through the windows, gazing through the lattice.”

See, she’s got this great anticipation of her husband coming home or going wherever they’re at. Wives, do you have that sense of anticipation when your husband’s coming home? How do you greet him at the door? One of the best things you can do is to be like the song of this woman here, Mrs. Solomon. “I hear him coming. His car is pulling into the driveway. Isn’t this great? The love of my life is coming home.” You see? And then to communicate that to him.

See, she highly values him. She wants to be in his presence. She respects him. She honors his name and says that who he is in his personhood is a great delight to her.

Chapter 8, verses 5 and 7. “Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved. Okay, now she’s coming up from the wilderness, and she accomplishes that—moving up to the mountain of God, coming out of difficulties and trials into joy and blessings, up from the wilderness. How does she do it? She does it by leaning on her beloved. Highly valuing him. Respecting him. Knowing she can’t do it by herself. She’s not coming up out of the wilderness if she’s been called to marry and she’s in marriage relationship. She’s not going to be able to come up out of that unless she’s leaning on her husband. You see?

And what happens with women is they give up and they stop leaning. Well, that doesn’t help. All kinds of then further problems happen. To lean upon your husband, to have a great desire, to highly value that relationship, to value him and respect him, to desire to want to lean upon him—this is what’s going to get you out of the wilderness of your husband not demonstrating love to you. At least this will strongly encourage him in that way.

And then right after this, verse 7. “Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly despised.”

Again, a proper valuation. There’s nothing more important for Mrs. Solomon than the love of her husband. Nothing more important. Could trade all the goods of your house. If you gave up love and got all kinds of wealth and property, you’d made a poor trade. That’s what she says. You see? Well, that’s the kind of valuation, respect for your husband that Mrs. Solomon has, and which women in the church should have as well.

Don’t demean him. Don’t nag him. Don’t tell him that his relationship is unimportant through improper casual speech, that somehow is seen in his eyes as demeaning who he is, what he does, his name, and his personhood. You see? Tell him clearly what you’d like him to do. Don’t give a lot of subtle hints over and over and kind of nag. Tell him clearly. Make requests. Don’t nag. Don’t demean him. Certainly not to other people.

Encourage his own sense of worthiness by your speech. Make yourself lovable to him the way Mrs. Solomon made herself lovable to her husband. Remember that the New Testament text in Ephesians says the other side of submission is respect for the man that God has given to you. The God who is most loving, most wise, most sovereign.

**Four, she took the initiative in getting alone with her husband.**

Okay. So “Let him kiss me with the kisses of my mouth.” Initiates physical intimacy. “Your love is better than wine.” High valuation of this relationship. “Your name is ointment poured forth.” Speech of reverence and respect for her husband. “Therefore, the virgins love you. Draw me away,” she says in verse 4.

“Draw me away. Let’s go to the beach together. Let’s go on vacation. Let’s go away for the evening. Again, here somehow wives think that if husbands don’t do it, husbands aren’t loving them. And somehow wives think that it’s up to the husband. He’s the leader in the family. He’s the one that ought to, you know, get the vacation going and all this stuff. Well, maybe that’s true. I don’t know. But I know that Mrs. Solomon doesn’t let that stop her. If her husband isn’t getting the hint, and if he hasn’t initiated getting away with her, she does. “Draw me away. Hey, I want to be with you. Take me now.” That’s what she says.

She says it again later too.

Chapter 7, verses 11 and 12. “Come, my beloved—” this is her speaking, not him—”let us go forth to the field. Let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards. Let us see if the vine is budded, whether the grape blossoms are open. There I’ll give you my love. I mentioned this verse earlier for her desiring to initiate physical intimacy. But here she says, “Let’s go to the post. Let’s go to the countryside. Let’s go to where you and I can just spend some time together, just the two of us.” She does this. She initiates time alone with her husband. She doesn’t wait for him. She doesn’t hint around at wanting to be with him. She doesn’t say, “You’re the leader. We haven’t gotten away because it’s your fault.” No, she initiates. She says, “Draw me away. Draw me away.”

And finally, she’s successful in encouraging her husband’s love. “Draw me away. We will run after you. The king has brought me into his chambers.” You see the progression here? She desires and seeks after physical intimacy. She properly values and expresses to him the value of their relationship. She actually expresses her respect for him as a person. “Your name is ointment poured forth,” she says. “Let’s get alone together. Draw me away.” And then the climax of this introduction: “The king has brought me into his chambers.” She has successfully encouraged, exhorted, drawn out, increased her husband’s love for her.

Be optimistic, wives. This is what works. It’s the eternal truth of God’s word. It’s the love song of all songs. And not only is it a love song of all songs with all these great details, it tells us right in the first four verses what the whole book is about. The whole book moves toward the culmination of their physical relationship. And the whole book moves in this same way with frequently her initiating contact, highly valuing and with her speech valuing the relationship, praising her husband, making herself attractive, not just to his eyes and to his nose, but to his ears, initiating time alone together. And the end result of that is, lo and behold, the king loves her. The king takes her into his chamber.

Be optimistic, women. “How can I get my husband to love me?” Can I take him to church court? Yeah. You know, if your wife won’t submit, you can come to church court. Your husband won’t love you. He’s commanded to love you. You can come to church court. But before you get there, do this. This is a lot more effective. This works. This has a progression to it that culminates in verse 4 of this introduction of success for the godly woman who understands the importance of her role in encouraging and making, so to speak, her husband love her.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this book. We thank you for the clear teaching of your scripture. We thank you for the delightfulness of male-female relationships in marriage, and we pray that the end result of this sermon would be transformed marriages, ones in which great joy and delight are present. In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen.

—

Oh, Love, how deep, how high, passing thought and fantasy, that God the Son of God should take our mortal form for mortals’ sake. For us, baptized, for us he bore his holy fast and hungered. So for us, temptation ation shall be he; for us, the tempter over through. For us to wicked men be trade, scourge, mocked in crown of thorns of great. For us, he bore the cross’s death. For us, at length, gave up his breath. For us, he rose from death again. For us, he went on high to reign. For us, he sent his spirit here to guide, to strengthen, and to cheer.

All honor, Lord, and glory be, Oh Jesus, virgin born to thee, whom with the Father we adore and Holy Ghost forevermore.

Our prayer today is based upon Psalm 27. Let us pray.

Lord, you are our light and our salvation. Whom shall we fear? You are the strength of our lives. Of whom shall we be afraid? When the wicked come against us to eat up our flesh, our enemies and our foes, they stumble and fall. Though an army may encamp against us, our hearts shall not fear. Though war may rise against us, in this we will be confident.

The world is full of our enemies, Father, envious of our freedom, a gift from you, and envious of our prosperity, another gift from you. But you protect us and lead us into battle when the enemy encamps against us. Help us to never presume upon your good gifts, but rather to be content in you, no matter what our circumstances or how near our enemies come.

Be with our young men serving here and around the world, especially those in Iraq and Afghanistan and other countries where there is great danger. Illuminate them with your light and confirm in them their salvation. Let them not be afraid, but rather confident and without fear.

Teach us your way, O Lord, and lead us in a smooth path because of our enemies. Do not deliver us to the will of our adversaries. For false witnesses have risen against us and such as breathe out violence. We would have lost heart unless we had believed that we would see your goodness in the land of the living.

And do the same for those here in our congregation who battle with the enemy—those in need of material goods and financial blessing, those oppressed spiritually, those with health problems and needs, and those struggling with family relationships. Shine your light upon the path you set before us and cause our enemies to stumble and fall. Encourage us and dispel all our fears that we may rest in the joy of your salvation.

Hear, O Lord, when we cry with our voices. Have mercy also upon us and answer us. When you said, “Seek my face,” our hearts said to you, “Your face, Lord, we will seek.” Do not hide your face from us. Do not turn your servants away in anger. You have been our help. Do not leave us nor forsake us, oh God of our salvation.

Thank you, Lord, for your blessings to us and for the trials along the way. Thank you for the words of hope to the Myers regarding their long-awaited adoption efforts. Give them and the Cones patience and joy as the obstacles are overcome and the long awaited day of adoption draws near. Be also with Rachel, Tammy, and Melody as their divinely appointed delivery dates draw near. Especially with Rachel as she is in the delivery room this morning.

Father, draw near to each of the sheep in this flock. Convict us of our sin and turn our hearts to genuine repentance. Help us to eagerly strive for godliness in our relationships and through love to serve one another. Bestow on our married couples deep and abiding love for one another, a love born of you and glorifying to you in all ways.

Be with each family having children of school age. Help them in their planning and preparations for this coming school year. Help them to find the right curriculum, to choose outside classes where needed, and to coordinate all their activities for each of their children. Especially be with the moms, helping them to organize and plan well in the midst of their many other responsibilities.

We thank you for our fellow churches in the CRA. Grant that our church planting efforts in Sacramento will continue to advance and come to fruition. Bless also the work of Pastor Mike D. and of New Wine Covenant Church. Help them as they seek your direction regarding their relationship to the CRA and to our church planting efforts in Sacramento.

We pray this morning for Grace Covenant Church of Texarkana, Arkansas. Give Pastor Ben H. and the members there victory in their battles against the enemy and joy in their worship of you. May they grow in joy, strength, and maturity as they faithfully seek to obey you.

Bless our co-workers in St. Petersburg. Help Blake P. as he trains others to oversee seminary work there. Provide the seminary with needed finances and personnel. Help the faculty to proclaim the fullness of your gospel and help the students to zealously pursue you and their studies.

Lastly, we pray for our cities and their leaders. Reveal yourself to the mayors and other officials of Oregon City, Portland, Canby, Molalla, Woodburn, and the other nearby localities. Cause them to seek your will and to extend your dominion over their spheres of authority. Grant that our churches will grow in spirit and in truth, that they shall declare you and to every creature within their reach.

In all things we worship and praise you, our great and mighty God. And we desire one thing of you, Lord. That will we seek—that we may dwell in your house all the days of our lives, to behold your beauty, and to inquire in your temple. For in the time of trouble, you hide us in your pavilion. In the secret place of your tabernacle, you hide us. You set us high upon a rock, and our heads are lifted up above our enemies all around us.

Therefore, we will offer sacrifices of joy in your tabernacle. We will sing, yes, we will sing praises to you.

Now together with one voice, we pray as Jesus taught us, saying, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.”

Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has prepared his table for all who love and trust in him for their salvation. All those who have repented of their sins, have