Song of a Longing Heart

This past week marked my fourth anniversary as an editor at Discovery House Publishers, and I must say that they are the happiest career-related years I have ever had. What a blessing God gave me when my friend and fellow blogger, Jewels, called me up one day to tell me about the editor position she had seen at RBC in the paper (we both thought it was at Reformed Bible College). In these troubled times when so many are losing their jobs, I am extra thankful not just to have a job, but to have a job I love, working with people I have come to love.

The first task I was given in those early days was to proofread a book that was just about ready to be published. It was a book by one of our excellent DHP authors, David Roper. What a writer! I couldn't believe I was actually being paid to work on stuff like his Song of a Longing Heart, a popular commentary on the Song of Solomon. I revisited it briefly this week and had a hard time narrowing an excerpt down to a few paragraphs because it is such a great book, as I've learned that all of Roper's books are. Anyway, here are a few paragraphs from the first proofreading assigment I had as an editor at DHP.

Here [Ephesians 5:31–32] Paul clearly links marital sexual intimacy with spiritual intimacy with God. One is a representation and reflection of the other. Thus, I say, sex is holy, an eloquent expression of our profound, inexpressible hunger for God, a passionate urge to merge with the object of our love and ultimately with the God who loves us as no human lover can.

That longing—to know God and experience His love—originates with God. It is His calling, His wooing that awakens us to desire. Indeed, we would not seek Him if He did not first seek us. Our longing for intimacy and union is the answering cry of our hearts to His call. ‘Even when men knock on the door of a brothel,’ said G. K. Chesterton, ‘they are looking for God.’ That hunger may be masked and distorted and misunderstood, but it is undeniably there.

Thus marital love and sex is good, but not as good as it gets, which is why God has placed limits on the depth of all human relationships. Our need for intimacy always outstrips the capacity of another human being to satisfy it. We will always betray another’s love in one way or another. This is what Original Sin means: no one is completely trustworthy; no one will always ‘keep covenant.’ We will always let one another down . . .

That hunger—for something beyond human love—is the way God leads us to His love. In each of us there is a deep and holy place reserved for Him alone, a place that no one else, not even the greatest human lover, can ever fill. We draw near to God to find final affection.

David Roper, Song of a Longing Heart: Fresh Insights on Song of Solomon