Song of Solomon 4:6

Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.

The verse belongs to a poem picturing Christ and His church, a parable of that relationship told in the warm figurative language of the East. Its imagery belongs to the time when it was written and is not to be met with the objection now offered to it. In that picture it shows Christ's wonderful love for the church and the church's answering love, which can lack faithfulness and constancy.

It presents Jesus as the refuge of His children through the night before the eternal dawn, staying near and not leaving them friendless like harassed flocks without shelter. The night is the present time while watchmen wait, tears fall, hearts are sad, winter blights, thorns hurt, loved ones fade and are buried, hopes die, temptation presses the spirit, and evil cannot be stopped. Through all this the suffering and loving Saviour who reached down arms from Calvary folds weak hands in powerful palms.

The breaking of the day and fleeing of the shadows picture the coming of the eternal day and eternal life, when sin ends and death, sorrow, and fear give way. It expresses longing for the shadows to flee and the eternal day to come. Then the heavenly portal shines with the light of the eternal day, shadows are gone, and Jesus remains with His people unveiled and lovely. That daybreak also brings full knowledge, when the veil is removed.

Until then the verse expresses longing for that dawn and the need for strength, patience, watchfulness, and prayer. It pictures faithful service as lasting only until daybreak, continuing through the present time of darkness and suffering until God's promised deliverance, as seen in Miss Reed's spending herself in service to God among India's lepers. It supplies the hope that the dead in Christ sleep in waiting until daybreak and the passing of shadows at the dawn of the resurrection.

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