Vineyard Days – Glance of a Single Eye

Vineyard Days – Glance of a Single Eye comes after a six-month season I think could best be described as needing to be reconstituted. Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”

I took a peek into the original Hebrew, which always turns on more fully the light bulb of understanding. Paraphrased accordingly, it describes the dry, powdered-milk malaise of heart witnessed in and felt by many beloveds of the Lord these days. As days stretch into weeks into months into years, Shulamite hearts have taken a hit:

“(Hope) Expectation
(deferred) to sow, to sound, to prolong, to develop, to march, to remove, to delay, to stand tall,
to draw out, to extend, to forbear, to give…
(makes*) to be rubbed, worn, grieved, stroked (in flattery), put to pain, make prayer, sick, sore, sorry, be and become weak and wounded…
(the heart) a form of the center of everything, widely used for the feelings, the will, and the intellect (sick*),
but (desire) longing, delight, satisfaction (fulfilled) coming is a (tree of life) to revive, live, save life.”

If you related to any of the italicized descriptors, you’re certainly not alone in feeling a need to be reconstituted.

So what is the antidote to this heartsickness of holding expectation during the delayed coming of desire fulfilled?

Add Water to Reconstitute

The previous post Come with Me from…”, Part Five (which I recommend you read for refreshing and context) concluded with this:

A new year is upon us; a new season of spiritual growth if we desire such.
For the Shulamite of scripture, Shepherd Lover stands poised to declare
even more of His love for her.
May it not remain or ever be that we choose to resist such Love. The best is yet to grow.

Half a year later, do you recall if you asked for, desired, or chose to step into a new season of spiritual growth?

If you did, then you will find it imperative to add water to reconstitute in order to flow with milk and honey. Powdered milk mixed with honey results in sticky-tongue, dry-mouth attempts to release needed words of life.

Fortunately for beloveds identifying with Vineyard Days – glance of a single eye toward Him reaches into Shepherd Lover’s heart in a way no words can justly worship. He watches for doves’ eyes, single in vision for Him and with Him. Gaze on Him and His living, reconstituting water flows into dusty, dry and dreary crevices – where new life awaits.

Herein is ⁵Songs 4:9-12 – a waterfall of Shepherd Lover’s expression of love for His Shulamite –

⁹ For you reach into my heart.
With one flash of your eyes I am undone by your love,
my beloved, my equal, my bride.
You leave me breathless—
I am overcome
by merely a glance from your worshiping eyes,
for you have stolen my heart.[a]
I am held hostage by your love
and by the graces of righteousness shining upon you.[b]
¹⁰ How satisfying to me, my equal, my bride.
Your love is my finest wine—intoxicating and thrilling.
And your sweet, perfumed praises—so exotic, so pleasing.
¹¹ Your loving words are like the honeycomb to me;
your tongue releases milk and honey,
for I find the Promised Land flowing within you.[c]
The fragrance of your worshiping love
surrounds you with scented robes of white.[d]
¹² My darling bride, my private paradise,
fastened to my heart.
A secret spring are you that no one else can have—
my bubbling fountain hidden from public view.
What a perfect partner to me now that I have you.

His Principles of Pursuit

While we are blessed to read in the Song of Songs how Shepherd Lover wooed his prospective Bride, the same principles of pursuit become active and real to us as we choose to believe and take His pursuit to our own heart.

Vineyard Days began with this message; it will one day close with this message: that His desire is toward us – the beat of His heart and the body of His life, both in this life and in the one to come. The Eternal is forever fulfilling…

…until and long after our heart becomes His bubbling fountain.

Hearts captured by Him capture His heart, leaving Him undone by our love.

Personally and corporately, the Bride will have the joy of Eternity to revel in so great a love. Meanwhile, we each begin here.

Gracefully Free

Footnotes:

1. Song of Songs 4:9 Or “You have ravished my heart.” This is the Hebrew word libabthini, which is taken from a Semitic root word that means “to tear bark off of a tree.” He is saying that your loving eyes of worship have uncovered his heart and laid it bare, making him vulnerable to you. What a description of what happens to Jesus when he looks into your eyes. Your worship brings to him such an ecstasy and delight that it becomes hard to even imagine. Yet God has placed inside of you the ability to ravish the heart of your King—not someday in heaven, but now, even when you feel incomplete and weak.
2. Song of Songs 4:9 Or “the jewels of your neck [necklace].” These divine jewels are the beautifying graces that the Holy Spirit gives to us. They are the graces of righteousness given to the redeemed bride of Christ.
3. Song of Songs 4:11 Both the Promised Land and your heart flow with milk and honey. You have become the Promised Land of Jesus Christ.
4. Song of Songs 4:11 Or “like the scent of Lebanon.”

BibleHub.com – ⁵The Passion Translation (TPT) The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017 by BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC. Used by permission. All rights reserved. thePassionTranslation.com

Personal photo: white tulips – Butchart Gardens, Victoria BC, Canada