My Best Thought of 2023

The great Christian hymn Be Thou My Vision has this fantastic little line in it that I'm sure you're all familiar with: 'thou my best thought'. It sounds a bit awkward on it's own actually, but it's a wonderful aspiration for Christians - that the Lord, the one true living God himself would be the best thought that have.

Being a preacher, I suppose I'm in the privileged position of having more dedicated opportunities that many to cultivate those 'best thoughts'.

And, having been appointed the pastor of a local church this year, the preaching and the thoughts have ramped right up.

So, as the year 2023 magnanimously bows out, what has been my best thought about God this year?

Well, I think it has to be from Song of Songs chapter 4.

Verse 9 says this (NASB): You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride;
You have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes...

And the thought that this verse led me too, was the delectable notion that Jesus the bridegroom enjoys his bride.

As Christians, we know that we ought to enjoy God. It's the chief end of man, after all. But for God to enjoy us?

At times - yes, even for Chrisitans - the sense of guilt and shame of sin and of our inherent unworthiness of Jesus can at times leave us feeling insecure about our faith and our status before God. The more we understand about our sin and how grievous it is to our God we can sometimes wonder (and rightly so in a sense) 'how he could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean'.

In our most frail moments we can think to ourselves that Jesus' commitment to us is purely legal. Sure he's committed to us but does he like us? Or is he simply fulfilling an obligation?

Well, Song of Solomon chapter 4 - the whole book really - assures us in no uncertain terms that yes, Jesus does like us. His love for us includes affection and we do in fact bring him joy.

John Piper in his podcast has counselled Christians well by saying that staying married does not require us to stay in love. This certainly is of highly pragmatic value to struggling human unions. 

Yet this doesn't quite stretch to our relationship with Jesus. Song of Songs is unequivocal that Jesus does love his bride, the Church. In that union, there will be no loss of love. It will never be purely pragmatic. 

How could we possibly respond with anything but reciprocity?

Happy 2023. You can listen to the sermon here: https://www.lefc.co.uk/sermons (it's near the bottom of the page). and you can read the words of the accompanying song I wrote below.

My Sister, My Bride

Verse 1

O daughters of Jerusalem,
Do not awaken love (Song 2:7).

O daughters of Jerusalem,
Do not stir till it please (Song 2:7).

The voice of my beloved! behold now here he comes (Song 2:8).

So, look upon King Solomon, O daughters of Zion (Song 3:11).

Chorus

Eat friends,
Drink and,
Be drunk with
Love (Song 5:1)…

Verse 2

Behold you’re beautiful my love,
Behold your eyes are doves (Song 1:18).

Behold you’re beautiful my love,
You’re eyes behind your veil (Song 4:1).

You’re altogether beautiful, there is no flaw in you (Song 4:7).

How pleasant and how beautiful, with all of your delights (Song 7:6).

Chorus

Verse 3

I am my beloved’s,
My beloved he is mine (Song 6:3).

I am my beloved’s,
And for me is his desire (Song 7:10).

Standing out among ten thousand in his radiance (Song 5:10).

This is my beloved, my beloved and my friend (Song 5:16).

Chorus

Verse 4

You’ve made my heart beat faster,
my sister, my bride (Song 4:9).

You’ve made my heart beat faster with,
one glance of your eyes (Song 4:9).

How beautiful you are my darling, oh how beautiful (Song 4:1)!

How beautiful your love to me, my sister and my bride (Song 4:10).

Chorus

Verse 5

Therefore a man shall leave his home,
And hold fast to his wife (Eph 5:31).

Therefore a man shall leave his home,
The two become one flesh (Eph 5:31).

This mystery; profound, it speaks of Jesus and his Church (Eph 5:32).

Of Christ our older brother, we his sister and his bride.

Chorus