Draw Me After You

“Draw me after You, and we will run together.” - Song of Songs 1:4

Reading time: 2 mins 21 secs

Yeshua, I have known the kiss of Your tender words spoken to my heart, and I have delighted in the fragrance of Your Anointing that binds up the brokenhearted and delivers the oppressed and needy. You have captured my affection.

Draw me away with You into Your chambers, my King of Glory, into the tabernacle of the Most High God where streams of Your Anointed Presence make my heart glad. (Psalm 46:4) Your nearness is my good. (Psalm 73:28)

The high vision of my life is to love You with all I am and to pour forth love into others as I deepen in my union with You. (Matthew 22:37-40, John 15:4) In light of this, make me Your extravagant worshipper who is drawn by Your cords of affectionate lovingkindness. And make me Your anointed partner who can run with You in intercession and shepherding Your people with Your heart. (John 4:23, Hosea 11:4, Hebrews 7:25, Jeremiah 3:15)

Give me the grace to fulfill the vision of the Two Great Commandments, to love You and others, and the Great Commission, to disciple the nations. (Matthew 22:37-39, Matthew 28:19-20) Grant me comprehension of how You love me with all Your heart, soul, mind, and strength so that I may love and worship You with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. (I John 4:19, Matthew 22:37)

Draw me away into Your secret place, oh Lover of my soul, that I may abide under the shadow of Your wing. My God in Whom I trust, cover me with Your feathers that I may take shelter in Your presence. (Psalm 91)

Yeshua, I cannot come unless You draw me. (John 6:44) So I set my face like flint and cry for You to pull me towards You with Your kindness and the fear of the Lord. (Isaiah 50:7) I seek Your face and will not let go until You bless me. (Psalm 24:6, Genesis 32:26) As a deer pants for water, my soul pants for You! Draw me away!

My soul thirsts for You, for You, the only Living God. (Psalm 42:1) The nations' idols made by human hands have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see, and ears, but cannot hear. They cannot breathe. (Psalm 135:15-17) Yeshua, breathe on me and allow Your Good Spirit to enter the recesses of my being. (John 20:22)

You Who has the voice of many waters, deep calls unto deep at the thundering sound of Your songs within me and Your words of life like the torrents of Niagara waterfalls crashing over my soul. (Ezekiel 43:2, Psalm 42:7) All Your words like roaring waves and white-tipped billows are utterly consuming me. (Psalm 42:7) Yah the Lord, You command Your lovingkindness in the daytime, and Your songs of deliverance will be with me in the night. (Psalm 118:14; 42:8 & 32:7)

When shall I come and appear before You, my Beautiful God? My tears have been my food day and night. Be that as it may, I look up to You, Yeshua, and am not cast down within. (Psalm 42:2-6) Lover of my soul, I silence my disquieted soul and allow hope to arise, a hope that You will answer my cry and lift the light of Your countenance upon me. (Numbers 6:26, Psalm 42:5)

An Overflowing Heart

Introduction to Psalm 45

“Yeshua answered, ‘…But the time will come when the Bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.’”  Mark 2:20

There is a great deal to understand about fasting in this scripture, but in relation to Psalm 45 I want to highlight that in this passage the Messiah Yeshua refers to Himself as a “Bridegroom“.

It can be stretching for some of us. To approach Yeshua as a Bride seems to be feminine. But as women are called “sons of God,” so men are called “the Bride of Messiah.”

Women and men are “sons,” speaking of our access to the Father, inheritance in Yeshua and being seated with the Messiah in Heavenly places. Why are men and women considered the Bride? “The lovesick Bride” is a mere reflection of Yeshua’s lovesick heart.

When Yeshua returns, Revelation 19 and 21, believers will identify themselves primarily as Yeshua’s cherished Bride. The Spirit and the Bride will cry, “Come! Yeshua, come!”

John the Baptist, a real man of the earth who lived in the desert, wore camel skin and ate locust, said that in hearing the voice of the Bridegroom his own joy was made complete. (John 3:29) 

In every book of the Bible, God’s lovesick heart is the same. God cries, “…that you would be My people and I would be your God. …that I would be yours and you would be Mine. ..that you would love Me with all your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength.

I am yours and you are Mine.” He repeats Himself with every forefather, prophet, judge, apostle, etc. Over and over God says how He is the Lover of our souls and He is longing for people to love Him fully in return.

Now with an understanding as to why we embrace Yeshua as a Bridegroom, now let us ponder Psalm 45:1.

Psalm 45:1-2

“…Set to “The Shoshanim.” [“Shoshanim” is Hebrew for “Roses” or “Lilies”] A Contemplation… A Song of Affectionate Love. 

My heart is overflowing with a good theme. I recite my composition concerning the King. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.”  

As we fast, our yearning hearts long to know God and comprehend His love.

The entirety of Psalm 45 is a love song to God which gives us revelation of Yeshua’s awe-inspiring and affectionate love. The first verse reveals that the “Shoshanim” [the Roses] are singing a love song to God. 

In Song of Songs 1:2 the Bride declares, “I am the Rose of Sharon and the ‘Shoshana’ [Lily or Rose] of the Valley.” In poetic form the Bride compares herself to the beauty and fragrance of the shoshana, or rose, in the lush, life-giving fields of the valley.

Rose means “love in a vision of beauty.” A rose’s fragrance fills the air and changes the atmosphere just as did the fragrance of Mary Bethany’s worship when she poured forth the oil on Yeshua’s feet.

The fragrance of the Bride’s love and worshipful adoration changes the atmosphere.

The Shoshanim are the lovesick hearts that are pouring forth words of affection and adoration from the fiery streams that burn within them. Their tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

They are the worshippers, the intercessors, the psalmists, the songwriters, the authors, the preachers, etc. They are the ones whose hearts are on fire, the true worshippers that the Father seeks.

These Shoshanim reveal to us how we can possess an overflowing heart and how to understand what Yeshua’s love looks like. 

The Shoshanim flow in a revelation of the divine romance, the lyrical dance of the Bridegroom King and the soul who is falling in love. The Bride sees Him rightly, as He is, not according to her own imagination. 

She has beheld His holiness, goodness, purity, and nobility. He has no shadow of turning nor darkness in Him at all. He is the King that executes perfect justice, exercising great patience before He takes vengeance as a mighty,

Man of war. He burns with a zealous and jealous love for her. She is utterly addicted to the way He speaks with her. He is gracious, kind, slow to anger, and rich in love. He is so nice and so pleasant, like streams found in the heat of the desert.

He confesses His love for her and makes an everlasting covenant that will not be broken, declaring Himself as hers. He seals His covenant with His Bride with His body and blood. This is her Beloved; this is her Friend. She knows Him. Her heart overflows.

Yeshua, the Living Flame of Yah, loves her with all His heart, soul, mind and strength. She steps into His everlasting burnings, a love as strong as death, unyielding as the grave.

She steps into the vehement flames of Yah, that many waters cannot quench and floods cannot drown.

Who can dwell with these everlasting burnings? Who can stand in the devouring flame? Only the righteous, the heart that chooses the purity of being holy and blameless before God in love.

This song awakens love. This song clarifies what, or rather Who love is, and as she sings this Song of Love, she prepares her heart for the Day of her wedding. 

Prayerful Contemplation

Yeshua, as I am giving my time and sacrificing of my life to contemplate You, my heart is being flooded with a love song and my soul is being enraptured. 

Whispering to You as You whisper to me, singing to You as You sing to me, gazing at You as You gaze at me, fills my heart with a love song.

Considering the glories of the Messiah, contemplating and receiving the goodness of Your love causes my cup to overflow with a love song back to You. 

You make us ready in this hour and age before Your return. You extend the capacity of our ability to love You. You cause more and more love to abound and flow forth from this soul who sits down in Your shade with great delight. Fill me again LORD. 

Yeshua, to contemplate You fills me with the words of Who You are. My heart overflows as I steal away with thoughts of You, my Bridegroom King. 

I consider the dark day when, on pains of death, Pilate asked if You were the King of the Jews; You were not ashamed of us. You loved us to the end and answered boldly, “It is as you say.”

When the high priest raged against You, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”

Without intimidation, You declared before the Sanhedrin, “You have said so, but I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” 

Yeshua, You are an endless contemplation, my greatest pleasure, pleasures forevermore.

I meditate on Your words day and night. My soul breaks with longing for Your words oh God. I pant and thirst for another drink of the Revelation of You.

You are Other than what we see in this world.

Who can comprehend the spendor of Your transcendent beauty, the glory of Your humility, the height of Your throne, length of Your unfailing love and the width of Your ever-open arms? 

You are held on high and, yet, You are in us, loving on us. Yeshua, You are remarkably preeminent and You call me beloved. You are my Beloved. My heart overflows with the wonderful theme of You my King.

You taught my tongue how to recite of Your goodness.

The words that pour forth from me are words that You have given. You give me revelatory words and then I give the words back to You. You have given me all that I am.

The very words that exalt You on high, You reach out with Your holy hand and burn these words inside of my chest.

The circle, the orbit, flows and continues from You to me and me to You.

As the earth circles the sun and never ceases to orbit, so Your love orbits from You to me and me to You. Your love and Your words never cease to flow.

You and I have become one. I in You, Your words in me.

It is here in Your words that I find unity with my brothers and sisters. As we are in You, together catching mere glimpses of You as we peer deeply into Your Word, here we find unity among the Bride, Your beloved body.

You are making me a message so others can read the scroll of my life. You are making me a messenger that I may speak the words You long to say, sharing Your heart and declaring the truth of Who You are.

From my heart flow words for You my Love, for out of the heart the mouth speaks.