the gladness of His heart

Go out, O daughters of Zion, and look upon King Solomon, with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the gladness of his heart.

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure"-- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, "Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." And he said to me, "These are the true words of God."

I saw the most amazing truth this evening. I was sitting in a class on the Song of Solomon, and the last verse of the passage we were looking at was the one at the beginning of this post. If you have been in the kingdom any length of time, you know that the scriptures describe the relationship between Jesus and the church as a Bridegroom and a Bride. And the Song of Solomon is primarily a poem describing many aspects of that relationship. Its a short book, but absolutely loaded with truths about our life with Him.

So... the teacher was talking about a number of principles found in the passage, and they were all really good, but when he got to the end, I was stunned. In speaking of Jesus, the Bridegroom, it describes His wedding day as "the day of the gladness of His heart." Amazing. We really don't understand the depths of His love. He is really looking forward to the wedding day. He is really looking forward to that full, unbroken face to face fellowship we will enter into on that day. I have often heard people talk about how much we should look forward to that day, but never really thought about how Jesus is looking forward to it. God is anxious for the day when we will fully be one. Sin and this fallen world will be dealt with fully, and we will go forward freely in the love that He created us for. And He calls that "the day of the gladness of His heart."

Truly... "blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb."

And it makes me take more seriously a passage just before that, "his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure."

Lord, strengthen your Bride to make herself ready.