by Rev. Donald Campbell, M.A., Edinburgh
(Preached at Inverness on Saturday, 25th January 1975)
“Oh my dove that art in the clefts of the rock . . .” Song 2 : 14
There have been several opinions expressed as to the reason why Solomon wrote this Song. The most common view among the erroneous ones, is that it was a song written by Solomon to commemorate his own marriage with the daughter of Pharaoh. It is true that that was a great occasion in his life; not that it was a beneficial one for the nation or for himself, for it was an affinity which set a dangerous precedent and example to the people as one can clearly see centuries after this, in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. When these great men were actively engaged amidst much opposition, in restoring the city and the Temple and the wall, this kind of affinity was discovered in the congregation and it was one which caused great grief, first to Ezra and then to the whole nation.
But the accepted view and the one which no doubt is the correct one, is the one which maintains that we have here a greater than Solomon and indeed greater than the daughter of Pharaoh; that we have none less than the Solomon of the New Testament, the Prince of Peace, the Saviour, the Son of God in our nature coming in God’s great name to save His people with an everlasting salvation. Solomon saw the glory of Christ just as Abraham did, and as the disciples, by the grace and light bestowed upon them, saw the glory of the Anointed. So it was then that the Holy Spirit in this song, using the most sublime form of figurative language, described the relations between Christ and His Church. It is in this light that we would endeavour just now to consider the portion before us, as we should see Christ in it, evidently set forth in His relationship with His own spouse, His own Church, His own body whom He describes here, whose safety and security, whose comeliness in Him He describes with great expression.
(1) The Church as described in the text in the words, “Oh my dove that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs.”
(2) The Church invited in the words, “Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice.” The Lord has pleasure both in the countenance and voice of His people. He loves to hear their cry. He loves to see their tears and He knows that their countenance reflects His own image.
(3) The Church commended by none other than, and no less than, the Beloved Himself in the words, “For sweet is the voice and thy countenance is comely.”
That is His estimate of her, whatever you may think of her. It is true that the world’s estimate of the Church of God in the world, that is, of the members of that mystical body the Church, is one of contempt. The people of God are despised, they are persecuted, they are considered the lowest in the world. If possible they would be destroyed. So those who are the followers of the Lamb, those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, who are united to Him in the bond of the everlasting covenant, should not think it strange when they are tried and persecuted and called upon to suffer much in this world. They have on the other hand to consider the fact that their safety and security are absolute, that no plague can come near their dwelling, no ill will befall them. They are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. It is impossible that any of them should perish. It was with that assurance that the Lord Jesus Christ left His people in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.
(1) The Church, described by her Husband, Saviour and Lord, is described first in the words “my dove.”
We know that the dove is a very timid creature; we also know that it was one of those birds which was considered ceremonially clean for the sacrifice — and there are other things which one could say about the dove. But I think that the particular matter to which the text directs attention with reference to the dove is the oneness of the Church. It does not say “my doves,” neither does it say “the wings of my dove.” It just says “my dove” — one church, one body. The Apostle confirms that, and emphasises the fact when he says that in Christ Jesus there “is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” He has much to say on that aspect of the Christian Church, the Church of the living God in this world. But in doing so the Apostle is careful to show that “my dove” is a body of members; not a oneness which consists of one thing but a oneness which has within it many members, each member having its own essential place and part to play in the lawful functioning of the body.
No member of the body of Christ can afford to despise another. The one is very much dependent on the other for its normal functioning. You can despise the failings and shortcomings of your brother but if you do, you are only causing schism in the body, you are only causing unnecessary trouble. It certainly would behove us, and it would prove most beneficial for us all if we could live our lives in terms of the apostolic injunction “Let every one esteem the other better than himself. Seek not every one his own things but the things which belong to others.”
We may ask the question “where do we find or trace the unity of this dove?” The oneness of this body the Church is traced of course first to the Head — the Head, who is Head over all things; not over some things, a few things, many things, but over all things, having constant and absolute control of the body and expecting the body to respond to every exhortation. It is derived then first from the Head. Its very life, its motions, its activities, its witness, its ability to walk or speak or think — all these depend on the one source, on Him who is the fountain of living waters, out of whose fulness the Church has received and grace for grace.
Of course there is also the Holy Spirit. The Spirit who works in the souls of sinners. Here is the same Spirit who works in the souls of sinners in the Southern hemisphere, in Australia, New Zealand, Africa, or on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. The same Spirit which the Lord promised, “I will pour on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,” is poured upon all nations. One Lord, one Spirit, the one and only One who can glorify Christ by receiving of His and showing it unto us.
“My dove,” my one; my church everywhere; my people, “from the rising of the sun to where it goeth down.” Everyone of them are included here; those who are today suffering for righteousness sake in Siberia, in the cold, in these terrible conditions, deprived of human consideration and sympathy — to them the Lord is saying, as he says to His people here today, “my dove.” He is addressing His people and He is addressing them as a whole; every one of them, the unknown ones and the known ones. The most vital organs of the body are the hidden ones. It may well be that that has a special application in our day and generation. Public witness is weak. Nevertheless the life of the Church continues. Despite all the weaknesses of the Church, the discouragements and so on, He is saying to her “my dove.” Wherever you are, you are my dove. You are afraid, you are timid but you are clean and you are worthy of being offered on my altar. You give yourself in service day and night to me, and I will bless thee and keep thee and help thee to continue “faithful to the end.”
We must move on to the words “that art in the clefts of the rock.” First, “the rock.”
When we come across that word in the Scriptures we are reminded of Christ Himself who said: “On this rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” We find the same in the promises: “I will lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a sure foundation.” It is a Rock which is the hope of the people of God, and on which they rest their hope for time and eternity. “To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. We believe and are sure that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Of course He is a sure foundation, a tried stone. He is Himself worthy of being the foundation on which His people in all generations could afford and can afford to build their hope for eternity. None perish that Him trust. He will present them, and present them in all the will of God, before His glory with exceeding joy.
“And the rock that followed them was Christ.” Notice the rock there following them was the water from the rock. Every day they saw that water they were reminded of the rock. They were also reminded of the clefts. If the rock had not been smitten there would have been no water, but because the rock was smitten there was abundance of water. If the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had not taken His place at the time appointed where He is now on the throne of God and of the Lamb, there would be no river of water of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. No, there would be no river, there would be no tree, there would be no leaves to heal or fruit to feed. But because the rock was rent there is abundance of water and it is flowing freely. “The Spirit and the bride say ‘Come”‘; say to yourself today, ‘Come.’ Come and drink out of the river of the water of life freely.
It is the foundation of our salvation that the Rock has clefts. It is in these clefts that birds obtain sanctuary and protection from their enemies. The figure here directs our attention to something which belongs to Jesus Christ our Lord, our Rock, our foundation stone. Can we think of Christ as our foundation without thinking of His wounds? Is it possible? Whether it is possible or not, it is certainly not lawful to think of Him as the foundation of our hope, the basis on which our sins are forgiven, if we think of that Rock without thinking of His wounds. Here is the Rock; the clefts of the Rock. Here is Christ presented to us with His wounds.
Where do we find Him first presented to us with His wounds? Of course we find this first in the Covenant. We are told over and over again in the word of God that this was so. When he entered into covenant with His Father, when the Covenant was made, it concerned the salvation of sinners, transgressors of the divine law. That being so, it was necessary that their salvation should be founded upon this eternal truth. “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed.”
This is also the subject matter of the Psalms. It is clear from the 40th Psalm, for example, that God was not and would not be satisfied with the sacrifices which men and women could offer in this world, as a basis on which He could and would forgive the sins of a number which no man can number. “Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not.” No, that is not enough, but “a body hast Thou prepared Me.” “I was set up before the world was, from everlasting.” And then before the world was, before there was a man created, He says “my delights were with the sons of men.” Where could He have delights with the sons of men when there were none but in the covenant and in the foreknowledge of God Who sees the end from the beginning? He undertook their salvation and in doing so He said, “I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O my God.”
Then again we find the clefts of the rock, the wounds of the Redeemer, in the promises of the Old Testament, which is just a revelation of, or a discovering of the Covenant, unfolding it to the Church of God; and from the first page of that volume we read of the wounds of the Saviour of men. In the first promise itself we read of the bruising of his heel.
Then He goes on to say, “in the secret places of the stairs” (or the ledges).
A stair is for climbing. These ledges were on the stair which the climber could use to climb to the top of the rock. The everlasting covenant, the Covenant of Grace, the covenant between the Father and the Eternal Son on behalf of that multitude whom God destined to eternal life, includes not only the wounds of a Saviour but it also assures the ascent of those people whose names are in the covenant; they will one day reach the gates of Heaven. However hard the going may be, you may rest assured that this is a stair which leads to the safe place in which their lives are hid; where He is Himself, even Christ.
But also, on these stairs there are secret places. In all probability, it is true literally; certainly it is true spiritually that there is a connection between the ledges or stairs and the clefts. No member of Christ’s dove can ascend without having his or her eye always on Him who was wounded for our transgressions. “They shall look on Him whom they have pierced.” Also, “running the race set before us, looking unto Jesus.” In looking to Him we look to His wounds in which safety lies. “In all their afflictions He was afflicted and the angel of His presence saved them.” Here we have the Church and this is her position; this is how she appears; this is how He sees her, chosen in Himself, safe in His wounds, assured of her redemption; by the grace of God, going from strength to strength, ascending, ascending; having her conversation in heaven; though in the world, not of it, and so she is on her way to a better country, to a wealthy place, to a city of habitation.
The dove in the clefts of the rock is always safe. No danger can reach her there. No man can erase from the Book of Life any of the names written in it. Whatever you may think of this one or that one, if such an one has his or her name written in the Book of Life, he is like a dove in the clefts of the rock. No weapon formed against them shall prosper. Their enemies shall be found liars. They shall tread upon their high places. All the efforts man puts forward in the hope that he can destroy the people of God will prove altogether futile. “My God shall supply all your needs.” The Covenant is ordered in all things and sure.
But the ledges, or the stairs are exposed. You do not have a stair inside a rock. The stair is on the face of the rock, exposed to the view of friend and foe. And it has pleased the Lord — although He is sure of her final deliverance, although He knows He can save her out of all her trouble — it has pleased Him, in His own divine sovereignty, to place her in this world in a situation in which she becomes the target of the archers. They are there. The Psalmist knew it. They are there with their bows and their arrows, also with their quivers full. Their target was David himself, if they could destroy him. He considered the history of the elect down through the ages: what they had been subject to; the dangers to which they had been exposed; how they had been from generation to generation the objects of the world’s enmity and hatred; persecuted men and women of whom the world was not worthy, they went about in sheepskins and goatskins, they were treated as the offscouring of all things. The men who preached the everlasting Gospel to both Jews and Gentiles were treated and charged as the enemies of mankind. These men and women were on the stairs with their names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, on their way to Heaven. The enemy pursued their souls — enemies seen and unseen.
It may well be that that is how you feel yourself today. You would not deny for anything in the world that you have a hope in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you have by the grace of God committed to Him the salvation of your soul. At the same time you are persecuted, you feel exposed, you are afraid that the archers with their arrows may aim at you and wound you — and many have been wounded on the stairs. The Psalmist compared himself to the hart which thirsts after the water brooks; the wounded hart, the poor creature bleeding to death, running for the water brooks. Poor David with the arrow in his soul which the enemy had lodged there — lust. If you are not afraid of lust, temptations, even when you feel confident that your feet are on the rock, remember that they are on the stairs. Remember that you and I have need of wisdom and grace, that after we have done the will of God we may obtain the promises. We must not relax the vigil. We must not think that because we have a moment now and again in which we have occasion and reason to rejoice in God and Saviour, that we are immune from danger.
Then the secret places are on the stair. Would you not say that this is one secret place on the stair on the way to heaven? Would you not say that of the great High Priest of your profession? It is one of the secret places. Well, I am sure that if the Apostle Peter were here today he would say, “Yes.” When he was in the hall of the high priest, he was wounded by the archers. They had aimed at him accurately and their arrow pierced his very soul. It poisoned him. It turned his language into that of Satan and not the language of Canaan or the language of the spiritual mind. There he was cursing; there he was swearing; there he was asserting on oath that he did not know the Saviour. You may say, “That could never happen to me.” And that is why the Lord is saying to you, “My dove you are in the clefts of the rock. You are in the wounds of the Saviour in the Covenant of Grace and there you are safe always.” But also He is saying, “You are on the stair. You are in the clefts, on the same road. You must not think that you are a better or a more experienced climber than Peter or David or any of those great men who were renowned more for their piety than for their impiety.”
Peter knew the secret places. The Lord said to him “Satan desired to have thee to sift thee as wheat, to put you in the sieve. If he can, he will make his net as wide as possible so that you will fall through and the Covenant of Grace will be proved insufficient and insecure as far as the salvation of the elect is concerned.” But no, the secret place was there. The Intercessor was there. The Lord Jesus Christ, even at that dark hour, could direct the attention of the Father as He did in the seventeenth chapter of John; He could say with all confidence, “I have lost none — not even Peter — I have lost none, save the son of perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”
There is this secret place and I hope we use it. It is nearer to us than heaven. There is secret prayer, the throne of grace. You see, the angel of the Covenant has a censer and it is full of incense — the fullness and the merit of His own finished work but He likes to have incense come from below. He likes to see His people pouring out their souls. He loved to hear David before the Saviour came. Oh, how He loved to hear David uttering the fifty first psalm, making his appeal to the grace and mercy of God, appealing to the mercy seat and the Intercessor within the veil! This is what you and I should be doing today if we are on the way to the celestial city. We certainly should use the secret place in the stair, the secret place of prayer. It is here down below that we have the opportunity of praying to Him. It is here down below that we are made sensible of our own weakness, our own insufficiency, our own constant need of His grace. When we go up there we shall know ourselves as we are known, as He knows us in the Covenant, and as He knows us saved with an everlasting salvation. There will be no sin there. While we are down here it behoves us to make as much use as we possibly can of prayer, of the throne of grace, that we may increase in our knowledge and in our experience of the great efficacy of the blood which cleanseth us from all sin.
And of course, the means of grace and the Lord’s Table are secret places on the stair. Many of the Lord’s people present here today have every hope of commemorating the death of Christ till He come. But there may be some and they are on the stair. They are on the same way. They are climbing up by the same way and by the same means. What are they doing? Is the enemy tempting you, making you more aware than ever of your own weakness, your own inability, your own unworthiness, and of many other possibilities which you never realised? He is tempting you so that you will not venture further, so that you will not do your duty, you will not pay your vows. Well this is what you should do. Take this from the Lord, “My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the SECRET places of the stairs.” You go and you accept from Himself what He said to His servant, the Apostle Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Be not afraid. You are not going to do it in your own strength; no one ever did who glorified God. You are doing it in the strength of God the Lord. And then once you get into that secret place, you will hear the voice not only from behind but from within,
“And I will constantly go on in strength of God the Lord;
And thine own righteousness, ev’n thine Alone, I will record.”
“My dove in the secret places of the stairs.” See, what does He say to her? He says, “Let me see thy countenance.”
Now we know that the countenance or the face is the part of the body by which we recognise one another. People who know us intimately would know our hand apart from the body, and so on, but generally we know each other by our faces. The whole man, as it were the whole image, is expressed in the face. Now the Lord is asking His people to show Him their countenance. He has a reason for doing so. He wants to look at His church’s countenance — and He says that her countenance is comely — that He may recognise her. He looked at Peter, and one would say that Peter was everything but a true and faithful Christian that day, but when the Lord looked at him it was the old Peter, the same Peter, and the Peter who would weep tears of repentance. He looked at Peter. Not a word was said. He had said enough surely. He said, “My dove which art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stair.” Surely that is enough. “Now let Me see thy face to see if My own image is still reflected there.”
Let us look on one another. The Apostle says that this is how we are living our lives in response to His own command or invitation: that we with open faces, unveiled faces, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory. The Lord would say to them, “Let the bride take the veil off her face. Let me see her countenance, the countenance of the Church, so that the Church may look on Me.” We with open faces, with unveiled faces are looking in a glass. On what? On the glory of the Lord, the glorious Saviour, the One who in all our afflictions was afflicted, the One who took unto Himself our nature, who was born of a woman, made under the law that he might redeem us who are under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons.
“Let me see thy countenance. Let me hear thy voice.” It is on the face or the countenance that the tears are. It is also on the face that the mouth and tongue to speak are. Now the dove, the Church is asked to speak, to give expression to the inner man. He says her speech is sweet. We would give this example — Peter himself at the Sea of Tiberias. Notice the change there. The Lord asked him to show Him his countenance in the hall of the high priest and the dear man no doubt did so. The immediate result was tears of sorrow and repentance; every one of them was put in God’s bottle and preserved. He wept bitterly. But he is now at the Sea of Tiberias and he is asked to speak. “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?” The question was asked three times and Peter could answer graciously every time; and indeed every time he spoke he gave an added proof that he had the image of Him whom he loved on his soul. There was a holy and secret communion between his soul and the Beloved. “Thou knowest that I love Thee.” But He said again, “Lovest thou me?” Peter was not discouraged, he was not embarrassed, “Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love Thee. Thou art the Searcher of hearts, Thou hast full access to my heart, Thou knowest that in my heart I do not sin regard. I love thee. Thy Name to me is as ointment poured forth.”
Well friends, you have your duty, you who are members of the dove of Christ, whose dove is in the clefts of the rock and who are in the secret places of the stairs on your way to heaven. He would have you show your face to Him today and tomorrow. And not only so but He expects this of you that you would open your mouth that He may fill it with that which refreshes and strengthens the soul. May grace be given to you and to me to follow the Lamb and to follow Him fully all the days of our lives.