Scarcely had I passed them. When I found him, whom my soul loves, I held him and would not let him go until I’d brought him into my mother’s house and into the chamber of her who conceived me.
– Song of Solomon 3:4
What I love about this picture in Song of Solomon 3:4 is the way it illustrates God’s original design for marriage in Genesis 2:24, when we read about how a man and his woman will leave their families and cling to one another and become one flesh.
Song of Solomon 3:4 reminds us to pray for struggling marriages.
And that word for clinging means to commit your life to each other, to hold on to each other, which is exactly what Song of Solomon 3:4 says. “I held him and would not let him go.”
And I just think about how there is an adversary in this world who is constantly attacking marriages and wants a husband and a wife to let go of love for one another. Even as I say that, I know there are many who may be listening to this, who either in a marriage you have been a part of, or as a child witnessing a marriage between your mom and dad, you’ve seen that marriage or experience that marriage letting go, breaking apart.
Part of what I want to do is just pray for an extra measure of grace and hope and renewed joy and strength and redemption over you and all the hurt that you’ve either experienced in marriage or hurt you’ve experienced in watching a marriage let go in this way.
At the same time, I want to lead us to pray for marriages that are barely holding on right now, that they would hold on and not let go, and that God would give grace and strength and help and all that’s needed. There are so many different circumstances, so many different situations. I want to be really careful not just to give blanket, or overly simplistic answers to questions, even about when the Bible says divorce is permissible. And at the same time, I want us to pray for holding and not letting go, in our and in others’ marriages.
Song of Solomon 3:4 encourages struggling marriages to walk forward in hope.
So, let’s just pray this right now, together, over again our marriages or others’ marriages around us, even as we also pray for those who’ve experienced the effects of a broken marriage.
God, we pray starting there for your grace, your mercy, your strength, your hope, your help, your redemption. Lord, in circumstances where it’s possible for restoration, God, we pray for your mercy in the middle of broken marriages, that different ones of us who are listening right now, praying right now, have experienced in our lives. God, we need your help to heal continually, and to walk forward with hope, in you.
Jesus, we praise you that you will never break your covenant love with us. We praise you for the constancy, we know now and will experience forever as your bride. We praise you for your faithfulness to us, that you will never let us go.
This verse encourages spouses to hold on to each other in deeper and deeper intimacy.
And so God, we pray that over marriages, for those of us who are married and for others who come to our minds, when we think of marriages. God, we pray for a clean, a holding fast in marriage. We pray that he would keep the adversary from pulling husbands and wives apart. Help us to hold onto each other closely, to hold onto each other more and more and more and deeper and deeper intimacy, as a marriage grows.
God, we pray for that over our and others’ marriages, knowing Lord Jesus, that this is how you love your church, and this is how your church loves you, in ever-deepening intimacy with you.
Oh God, I pray that over every one of our lives as your bride, Lord Jesus. I pray for each person listening right now, that you would help us to grow in ever-deepening intimacy with you, holding more and more and more closely to you and feeling you are a tight hold in our lives.
Prayer for the Bedia People
And God, we pray for people who never experienced the joy of a relationship with you, as the bride of Jesus, because they haven’t even heard about Jesus. God, we pray specifically today for the Bedia people of Nepal and India, this Hindu people group of 700,000. Lord, we pray, especially for the Bedia of Nepal, knowing there are no known believers among them. God, please change that. Please cause the good news of Jesus’ love, to spread to the Bedia people, that they might be a part of your bride among the nations.
God, we pray all this according to your Word and Song of Solomon 3:4. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
