Big Gulp

“Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well…Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.” (Pr 5:15, 18 AV)

What is ironic here is the words are written by a man who amassed one thousand wives and two thousand concubines.  The passage is Solomon's advice to his son regarding the joys of marriage with the wife of his youth.  Perhaps he means his first wife.  The wife he married early on in life.  The wife he fell in love with when the influences of youth drove those emotions.  The wife he chased and wooed during their courtship.  The wife whom he had to impress to gain her affections.  The wife who love him for what he was and wasn’t, and not the man whom he would turn out to be.  This is the wife of his youth.  What we want to contemplate today is one little word that is used twice.  OWN!  This same writer, in Ecclesiastes chapter nine and verse nine refers to a wife as a portion.  That which is sufficient, fulfilling, and belongs to the person to whom it is doled. 

We live in a world that tempts us with other portions.  Whether we want to see them or not.  They are in front of us no matter where we go.  These are not our portions.  These are someone else’s portions.  Not to speak of a wife as an impersonal thing, which she is not.  She is the wife of my youth.  She is the one I have enjoyed life with for the last thirty-three years.  She is my companion.  She is my lover.  She is my best friend.  She is mine and no one else’s.  So too, married saint, in the spouse of your youth.  She is yours and not another’s.  This gate swings both ways.  We cannot allow our spouses to peak the interest in another.  She or he is ours.  She or he is not another’s.  We should be by our spouse’s side to guard against any and all illegitimate interests.  He or she is our portion.  Like safeguarding all other blessings which the LORD has bestowed, it would be foolish to allow our spouses to be tempted or influences by wicked attention.  In the same vein, our interests and attention cannot be drawn to someone that is not ours.  These opportunities are around us every day.  All-day.  Most are inanimate, yet still nefarious.  The T.V., internet, phones, billboards, and checkout lines all throw at us temptations to desire a portion that is not ours.  Although they are subtle, they are still wrong.  What is interesting about the COVID-19 impact is the positive social changes it is making.  Bars are closed. Drinking is down.  This social distancing is causing men and women not designed for one another to limit how intimate we were becoming.  We are becoming more appropriate with one another.

Solomon is speaking with great wisdom here.  One wonders if the experiences of amassing a trove of female companionship taught him a great bit of wisdom. Years of pursuing a fulfilling relationship by collecting female companionship like baseball cards perhaps taught him the one and only one for him was more than sufficient.  Perhaps he learned that chasing after something he thought he didn’t have made him realize he had it all along.  Solomon is loudly speaking that we ought to keep our affections and desire to our own spouses.  The one who belongs to us.  Drink as much as one desires.  But only of thine own cistern.  She is yours and no one else’s.  She is not merely sufficient.  She is more than you could ever imagine.  She is a deep well of delight that fulfills your every need and desire.  The longer you are married, the deeper that well becomes.  She is yours.  He is yours.  Seek no other satisfaction because there is none greater!