I am reading a commentary on ‘The Song Of Songs’ by Charlie Cleverly, the long-awaited sequel to his ‘Epiphanies of the Ordinary’, which had a chapter on this book. I believe Song of Songs speaks to us on many levels: the personal level, as a picture of marital love and as a picture of God’s love for the church and our relationship with the God of love. On all these different levels, God’s Word speaks into our hearts, challenging us to keep the fire of our first love alive.
In the book, commenting on Song of Songs 2:14-15, Charlie Cleverly writes ‘a mark of renewal is that the language of prayer begins to flow.’ I am well aware that loquacity in prayer is not an essential sign of spirituality (see Matt 6:7); I am well aware that God speaks to us in the silence of the heart and that our prayers do not necessarily have to be articulated outloud to be heard by God. Nonetheless, the words of the Bridegroom in this passage are ‘let me hear your voice’, and anyone who has ever been in love knows the beauty of hearing the beloved articulate thoughts and feelings in a manner which can be understood by the other.
It seems to be something that British Christians find difficult to do, this praying outloud, especially in public. Perhaps we are embarrassed when others are present, not wanting to seem too fervent or outlandish. Perhaps we are afraid that others will laugh at us if they hear the achings and longings we feel expressed in words. Perhaps we are afraid to ask God verbally for things in case His answer is ‘no’: how foolish we would seem then to others! More frighteningly, perhaps we are silent in prayer because we don’t know what to say, or worse still, we have nothing to say. The fire of love which causes lovers to whisper ‘sweet nothings’ to each other may well have died down to the point where we are indifferent to the God we serve and indifferent to the plight of people around us. John Piper, writing of Paul’s passion for evangelism which was fuelled by his awareness of the wrath of God, says ‘If this is a minor part of your thought world, if you don’t think about this very much, then it will be hard for you to feel the sense of sorrow and urgency that Paul felt for the lost people around him. What we need to do is ponder the wrath of God that is coming—to meditate, think about, reflect on, mull over, turn over in our minds, and dwell on—the reality of the wrath of God. Until this figures as largely in our worldview as it did for Paul, we will not have the passion for evangelism that he had.’
Prayer involves fervency, and when renewal comes – when we catch a glimpse of God’s love for us and are wooed by that divine love – the language of prayer begins to flow with new urgency and fluency. Let’s allow the wonder of God to fill our minds and hearts and be moved to pray with passion, fervency, fluency and fire.