Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words:

forget your own people and your father's house.

So will the king desire your beauty,

he is your lord, pay homage to him.

Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words:
    Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you and you with me. (Revelation 3.20)  Give ear to my words not those of another, especially not those of the world, for my words are truth and life.

Forget your own people and your father's house.
    Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. (Colossians 3.2)  To listen to the Word necessitates more than simply setting some time aside occasionally for sacred reading.  It means a true break from the ways of the world; the discipline of refusing to allow one's heart to become entangled in worldly amusements which distract, dissipate, stir up interior noise and discord and leave one feeling more empty than before.  The discipline of turning away from that to listen, hear and obey the Word is always uniting, satisfying, refreshing and leaves one with profound peace and deep joy.

So will the keen desire your beauty,
    You did not choose me but I chose you. (John 15.16)  The Word desires all of us together and each of us individually.  It is his Spirit within us that makes us beautiful and highly desirable to him.  We desire his beauty because he first desires ours.

He is your Lord, pay homage to him.
    Lest we forget in the rapturous attention of the gaze, he will always remain our God and Creator whom we adore, who is worthy of all homage.  Homage and warship will always remain part of the essential relationship of love between Christ and the soul.