Song of Solomon 5 Analysis

I sleep,

but my heart wakes:

it is the voice of my beloved that knocks.
  Song of Solomon 5:2

"WE are glad to perceive in this Song the varied experience of the bride. She was the well-beloved of the heavenly Bridegroom, but she was not without her faults. ...she was human, and, therefore, she had not reached angelical perfection....she confessed, "I am black, because the sun has looked upon me: they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept." She was not perfect even in the exhibition of her love to him who had chosen her, for she has to acknowledge, as upon the occasion before us, that she treated him in an unworthy manner. She kept him waiting at her door in the chilly night, and so grieved him, that he withdrew.

We, too, have to say, "I am black, because the sun has looked upon me;" and at times we have to ask, "Why should I be as one that turns aside by the flocks of your companions?" We have had mournfully to cry, "I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer;" while the watchmen have justly smitten us and wounded us for our neglect of our Lord.

I. First, then, here is SLUMBER CONFESSED.
The spouse laments her state, and sighs out, "I sleep." It strikes us at once that 'her sleep is a state recognized'. When children of God perceive their own imperfections and mourn over them, there is evidently a root of virtue in them;...Sleep is cousin unto death, and he that slumbers lies at the door of the sepulcher.

II. We reach the point of the paradox; here is WATCHFULNESS CLAIMED by one who confessed to sleep.
"My heart wakes," says the Bride, "I sleep, but my heart wakes." It may seem an odd thing to sleep and yet to be awake, but I commenced by saying that the Christian is a great puzzle.
When a believer feels that he is not what he ought to be, nor what he needs to be, he cannot he happy.
 The spouse gave another proof of her wakefulness by her 'discernment'. She says, "It is the voice of my beloved that knocks." Even when half asleep she knew her Lord's voice.
This puzzle of "I sleep, but my heart wakes," has been

experienced by thousands.

III. Spare me a minute or two while I dwell on the head of MYSTERY SOLVED.
"I sleep, but my heart wakes." How does her heart wake? It is because the voice and knock of her Beloved are heard. That field all tangled with the brambles tore the shepherd when he sought you out, and the briars will tear you also if you wander there. The reason why you are awake at all is because Jesus calls you."
Charles Spurgeon