Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Song of Solomon 2:1
I [am] the rose of Sharon, [and] the lily of the valleys.
Ch. Son 2:1-2. In Son 2:1 the bride speaks, describing herself as a humble meadow flower unfit to be in such a luxurious place as that in which she now finds herself, and in Son 2:2 Solomon replies.
1. Render, I am a crocus of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.
the rose of Sharon ] The Heb. word chabhatstseleth, which occurs besides only in Isa 35:1, can hardly mean a rose. The LXX, Vulg., and Targ. to Isa 35:1 translate it ‘lily,’ but as we have shshannh for lily in the next clause, it is probably some other flower. The Targum here gives narqs rattb, ‘the green narcissus,’ but Gesen. Thes. prefers the Syriac translation, Colchicum autumnale or meadow saffron, a meadow flower like the crocus, white and violet in colour, and having poisonous bulbs. This is the most probable of the proposed identifications, though Tristram, Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 476, decides for the sweet-scented narcissus, Narcissus tazetta, a native of Palestine, and a flower of which the natives are passionately fond. While it is in flower it is to be seen in all the bazaars, and the men as well as the women at that season always carry two or three blossoms which they are constantly smelling.
Sharon ] is generally supposed to be the great plain of Sharon to the S. of Carmel on the Mediterranean coast, stretching from Caesarea to Joppa. But the word probably means ‘a plain,’ and might, consequently, be applied by the inhabitants of any district to the plain in their neighbourhood. This is supported by the fact that Eusebius states that the district from Tabor to the Lake of Gennesaret was called Sharon, so here we may render either a crocus of Sharon, or of the plain, as in the LXX.
the lily ] Rather, a lily. Shshannh must be a red flower; cp. Son 5:13, “His lips are like lilies.” Tristram, Nat. Hist. p. 464, identifies it with the scarlet Anemone coronaria. It is found everywhere, on all soils and in all situations. It meets every requirement of the allusions in Canticles and is one of the flowers called susan by the Arabs.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Chap. Son 1:9 Chap. Son 2:7. A King’s Love despised
In this scene Solomon presses his love upon the Shulammite for the first time; but in reply to his endeavours to win her she always utters praises of her absent lover. She contrasts their humble woodland resting-place with the royal palace, and declares herself to be a modest country flower which cannot bloom elsewhere than in the country. Finally, grown love-sick at the thought of her lover, she turns to the ladies of the court, beseeching them to restore her strength, and adjures them not to seek to kindle love, which should always be spontaneous, by any unworthy or extraneous means.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The division of the chapters is unfortunate; Cant. 2 ought to have begun at Son 1:15, or Cant. 1 to have been continued to Son 2:7. The bride replies, And I am like a lovely wild flower springing at the root of the stately forest-trees. The majority of Christian fathers assigned this verse to the King (Christ). Hebrew commentators generally assign it to the bride. It is quite uncertain what flower is meant by the word rendered (here and Isa 35:1) rose. The etymology is in favor of its being a bulbous plant (the white narcissus, Conder). Sharon is usually the proper name of the celebrated plain from Joppa to Caesarea, between the hill-country and the sea, and travelers have remarked the abundance of flowers with which this plain is still carpeted in spring. But in the time of Eusebius and Jerome there was a smaller plain of Sharon (Saron) situated between Mount Tabor and the sea of Tiberias, which would be very near the brides native home if that were Shunem.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Son 2:1
I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
The best of the best
It is a marvellous stoop for Christ, who is God over all, blessed for ever, and the Light of the universe, to say, I am a rose; I am a lily. O my blessed Lord, this is a sort of incarnation, as when the Eternal God did, take upon Himself an infants form! So here, the Everlasting God says, I am–and what comes next?–a rose and a lily. It is an amazing stoop, I know not how to set it forth to you by human language; it is a sort of verbal rehearsal of what He did afterwards when, though He counted it not robbery to be equal with God, He took upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. I am God, yet, saith He, I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
I. The exceeding delightfulness of our Lord. He compares Himself here, not as in other places to needful bread and refreshing water, but to lovely flowers, to roses and lilies. What is the use of roses and lilies? They are of no use at all except for joy and delight. With their sweet form, their charming colour, and their delicious fragrance, we are comforted and pleased and delighted; but they are not necessaries of life. You are to find in Christ roses and lilies, as well as bread and water; you have not yet seen all His beauties, and you do not yet know all His excellence.
1. And first, He is in Himself the delight of men. He speaks not of offices, gifts, works, possessions; but of Himself: I am. Our Lord Jesus is the best of allbeings; the dearest, sweetest, fairest and most charming of all beings that we can think of is the Son of God, our Saviour. Eyes need to be trained to see beauty. No man seeth half or a thousandth part of the beauty even of this poor, natural world; but the painter s eye–the eye of Turner, for instance–can see much more than you or I ever saw. Oh! said one, when he looked on one of Turners landscapes, I have seen that view every day, but I never saw as much as that in it. No, replied Turner, dont you wish you could? And, when the Spirit of God trains and tutors the eye, it sees in Christ what it never saw before. But, even then, as Turners eye was not able to see all the mystery of Gods beauty in nature, so neither is the most trained and educated Christian able to perceive all the matchless beauty that there is in Christ.
2. But next, our Lord is exceedingly delightful to the eye of faith. He not only tells us of what delight is in Himself–I am the rose, and I am the lily–but He thereby tells us that there is something to see in Him, for the rose is very pleasing to look upon. Is there a more beautiful sight than a rose that is in bud, or even one that is full-blown? And the lily–what a charming thing it is! It seems to be more a flower of heaven than of earth. Well now, Christ is delightful to the eye of faith. To you who look at Christ by faith, a sight of Him brings such peace, such rest, such hope, as no other sight can ever afford; it so sweetens everything, so entirely takes away the bitterness of life, and brings us to anticipate the glory of the life that is to come, that I am sure you say, Yes, yes; the figure in the text is quite correct; there is a beauty in Jesus to the eye of faith, He is indeed red as the rose and white as the lily.
3. And next, the Lord Jesus Christ is delightful in the savour which comes from Him to us. There is a spiritual way of perceiving the savour of Christ; I cannot explain it to you, but there is an ineffable mysterious sweetness that proceeds from Him which touches the spiritual senses, and affords supreme delight; and as the body has its nose, and its tender nerves that can appreciate sweet odours, so the soul has its spiritual nostril by which, though Christ be at a distance, it yet can perceive the flagrant emanations that come from Him, and is delighted therewith.
4. Once more, in all that He is, Christ is the choicest of the choice. You notice the Bridegroom says, I am the rose. Yes, but there were some particularly beautiful roses that grew in the valley of Sharon; I am that rose, said tie. And there were some delightful lilies in Palestine; it is a land of lilies, there, are so many of them that nobody knows which lily Christ meant, and it does not at all signify, for almost all lilies are wondrously beautiful. But, said He, I am the lily of the valleys, the choicest kind of lily that grew where the soil was fat and damp with the overflow of mountain streams. I am the lily of the valleys: that is to say, Christ is not only good, but He is the best; and He is not only the best, but He is the best of the best.
II. The sweet variety of Christs delightfulness. He is not only full of joy, and pleasure, and delight to our hearts, but He is full of all sorts of joy, and all sorts of pleasure, and all sorts of delights to us. The rose is not enough, you must have the lily also, and the two together fall far short of the glories of Christ, the true Plant of renown. I am the rose. That is the emblem of majesty. The rose is the very queen of flowers; in the judgment of all who know what to admire it is enthroned above all the rest of the beauties of the garden. But the lily–what is that? That is the emblem of love. The psalmist hints at this in the title of the forty-fifth psalm. Upon Shoshannim, a Song of love. Shoshannim signifies lilies, so the lily-psalm is the love-song, for the lilies, with their beauty, their purity, their delicacy, are a very choice emblem of love. Are you not delighted when you put these two things together, majesty and love? A King upon a throne of love, a Prince, whose very eyes beam with love to those who put their trust in Him, a real Head, united by living bonds of love to all His members–such is our dear Lord and Saviour. The combination of these sweet flowers also suggests our Lords suffering and purity. Jesus when on earth, could say, The prince of this world cometh, and Lath nothing in Me. The devil himself could not see a spot or speck in that lovely lily. Jesus Christ is perfection itself, He is all purity; so you must put the two together, the rose and the lily, to show Christs suffering and perfection, the infinitely pure and infinitely suffering. In which of the two do you take the greater delight? Surely, in neither, but in the combination of both; what would be the value of Christs sufferings if He were not perfect? And of what avail would His perfections be if He had not died, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God? But the two together, the rose and the lily, suffering and purity, fill us with delight. Of both of these there is a great variety. Jesus possesses every kind of beauty and fragrance. He is all my salvation, and all my desire. All good things meet in Christ; in Him all the lines of beauty are focussed. Blessed are they who truly know Him. Further, Christ is the very essence of the sweetness both of the rose and of the lily. When He says, I am the rose, He means, not only that He is like the rose, but that He made all the sweetness there is in the rose, and it is still in Him; and all the sweetness there is in any creature comes to us from Christ, or else it is not sweetness such as we ought to love. All good for our soul comes from Him, whether it be pardon of sin, or justification, or the sanctification that makes us fit for glory hereafter, Christ is the source of it all; and in the infinite variety of delights that we get from Him, He is Himself the essence of it all.
III. The exceeding freeness of our Lords delightfulness. I have been talking about my Master, and I want to show you that He is accessible, He is meant to be plucked and enjoyed as roses and lilies are. He says in the text, I am the rose of Sharon. What was Sharon? It was an open plain where anybody might wander, and where even cattle roamed at their own sweet will. Jesus is not like a rose in Solomons garden, shut up within high walls, with broken glass all along the top. Oh, no! He says, I am the rose of Sharon, everybodys rose, the flower for the common people to come and gather. I am the lily. What lily? The lily of the palace of Shushan, enclosed and guarded from all approach? No; but, I am the lily of the valleys, found in this glen, or the other ravine, growing here, there and everywhere: I am the lily of the valleys. Then Christ is as abundant as a common flower. Whatever kind of rose it was, it was a common rose; whatever kind of lily it was, it was a well-known lily that grew freely in the valleys of that land. Oh, blessed be my Masters name, He has brought us a common salvation, and He is the common peoples Christ I And now, poor soul, if you would like an apronful of roses, come and have them. If you would like to carry away a big handful of the lilies of the valleys, come and take them, as many as you will. May the Lord give you the will! Even to those who do not pluck any, there is one strange thing that must not be forgotten. A man passes by a rose-bush, and says, I cannot stop to think about roses, but as he goes along he exclaims, Dear, dear, what a delicious perfume! A man journeying in the East goes through a field that is full of lilies; he is in a great hurry, but, for all that, he cannot help seeing and smelling the lilies as he rushes through the field. And, do you know, the perfume of Christ has life in it I He is a savour of life unto life. What does that mean but that the smell of Him will save? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The best flower
We find flowers of some kind or other growing everywhere. They spring up in the sandy desert. On the tops of bleak and snow-capped mountains, where even trees will not grow, the little flowers may be seen. Travellers who have gone near the North Pole, where ice and snow last all the year, have been surprised to find in some places red snow. And when they came to examine it with a microscope, they were still more surprised to find that the colour of it was owing to an exceedingly small kind of plant, bearing a flower too little for the naked eye to see. But among all the multitude of flowers which grow on the earth, there is none like this which Solomon speaks of in the verse before us. I am the Rose of Sharon. This, we suppose, refers to Jesus. He is the Rose of Sharon. Sharon was the name of a large plain, or level tract of country in Palestine, famous for the number of flowers which grew there. And if we consider this Rose of Sharon as referring to our blessed Saviour, then we may well say that this Rose is the best flower.
I. Because it will grow everywhere. This flower does not grow in the ground like other flowers. You must not look for it in the beds of the garden; nor in the fields, the valleys or the mountains. The soil in which it grows is the human heart. And when any person learns to love and serve Jesus, and is made happy by Him, then we may say that the Rose of Sharon is growing in that persons heart. This flower is sometimes found growing in the hearts of very young people. And the old as well as the young–the poor as well as the rich, may have it if they will. It is growing now in the hearts of people in all the different nations of the earth. John Williams, the martyr-missionary of Erromanga, planted it in the sunny islands of the South Seas. Robert Moffat planted it far up into the southern part of Africa; and other missionaries are planting it all along the western coast. Dr. Livingstone carried it into the very centre of Africa, from the East. The great wall of separation, which kept the missionaries so long out of China, has been thrown down, and now all that vast country is waiting to receive the Gospel. The servants of Jesus are going about over the burning plains of India, and planting this best flower there. The heat is dreadful there sometimes, but still it is not too hot a climate for the Rose of Sharon to grow and flourish in. The Moravian missionaries have carried it to Greenlands ice-bound shores; and that climate, even, is not too cold for it. For above a hundred years it has been blooming sweetly there. And now, this very day, it is growing and flourishing equally well in all these different countries. Oh, what a wonderful flower this is! There is no other like it in all the earth.
II. Because of its many uses.
1. It is beautiful to look at. When Jesus was on earth, most people saw no beauty in Him, that they should desire Him. But those who learn to know and love Him, find Him to be the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely. The greatest happiness of heaven will be to see His face. There is nothing in all the world half so beautiful as the sight of Jesus will be in heaven.
2. It is useful for its fragrance, as well as for its beauty. Every one knows how sweet it is to smell a beautiful rose. And we read in the Bible, that the name of Jesus is as ointment poured forth. This means, that it is just as pleasant to the souls of those who love Jesus to think about Him, as it is to their bodily senses to smell the sweetest flower, or the most fragrant ointment.
3. The Rose of Sharon bears fruit as well as flowers, and its fruit is wholesome and pleasant. It is made to be eaten, as well as looked at, and its fruit is sweet to the taste of those who partake of it.
4. The Rose of Sharon yields pure water to drink, as well as food to eat. There is a singular plant in the East Indies called the pitcher-plant. It has leaves, or flowers, in the form of small pitchers. Each pitcher has a lid to it, and at certain seasons these pitchers are filled with a sweet, pleasant liquid, which is very good to drink. The Rose of Sharon is a pitcher-plant. It is full of pitchers. These are not only always full, but they never can be emptied. The water of salvation flows into them as fast as it is taken out. And oh, it is delightful water! It is cool, clear and refreshing.
5. The Rose of Sharon is good for medicine, as well as for food and drink. When Jesus, who is this Rose of Sharon, was on earth, He opened the eyes of the blind; He unstopped the ears of the deaf; He made the lame to walk, and went about healing all manner of sickness and disease among the people. Then, He cured all kinds of bodily diseases. Now, He cures all kinds of spiritual diseases.
6. The Rose of Sharon is good for clothing. This is a very singular use to make of a flower. We often hear of people making wreaths of flowers to ornament or dress the head with. But no one ever heard of an earthly flower that was good to make clothing off The Rose of Sharon, however, is good for clothing. We read in the Bible about garments of salvation–about robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb–about clothing of wrought gold–all-glorious within. These all refer to that righteousness of Jesus, which He puts upon all His people as the dress they are to wear in heaven. Oh, the clothing which is made out of the Rose of Sharon is very beautiful! It is so in Gods sight. There never was any like it.
7. And then the Rose of Sharon is good to make people rich. Nobody ever thinks of feeling rich because he has a rose. Why, you may have a bunch of roses; yes, a whole garden of roses, and yet not be very rich. Sometimes we hear of a king making a present of a golden rose to one of his friends. Yet that would not make him rich. But every one who has the Rose of Sharon is rich. Nobody can tell how rich Christ makes His people. They shall inherit all things. What more could they have?
III. Because it makes people happy when nothing else can. What a dreadful thing it must be on board a burning ship, far off on the ocean! We all heard about that dreadful calamity–the burning of the steamer Austria. She was full of passengers. The fire spread almost like lightning. Could anything make persons calm and happy on board that burning vessel? Yes, there were some there who loved Jesus, who had the Rose of Sharon with them and that made them happy.
IV. Because it never fades. Its beauty never decays. Its leaves never fall off. Winter never comes in heaven. The flowers are blooming all the time there. And chief among them is this beautiful Rose of Sharon. Ah! my dear children, if you want to love one who never dies and never changes, then love Jesus. He is the Rose of Sharon, and this is the best flower, because it never fades.
V. Because its beauty is always increasing. There never was another flower known of which this could be said. You take a small rose-bud and look at it. How beautiful it is! As it grows larger its beauty increases. Every day it swells to a greater size. You see more and more of its lovely crimson colour- Presently the bud begins to open. You can almost see its leaves expanding as you stand and gaze upon it. How interesting it is to watch it! Gradually it unfolds itself, till all its many leaves have opened themselves, and now it stands before you a fragrant, blushing, beautiful, full-blown rose. How sweetly it looks! Can anything in the world be more delightful? But now its all over! You have seen all there is about the rose worth seeing. Very soon it will wither away, and you wont care to look at it any more. But it is very different with the Rose of Sharon. This will be always growing and always blooming. And its flowers will be always increasing in beauty. I do not mean that some of its flowers will die, and others, more beautiful, come out upon it. Not one of its flowers will ever die. But they will all go on increasing in beauty continually. Oh, wonderful plant! How glorious it will be, if we get to heaven to look on and to watch its increasing beauty to all eternity! (R. Newton, D. D.)
The rose and the lily
It is our Lord who speaks: I am the Rose of Sharon. How is it that He utters His own commendation, for it is an old and true adage, that self-praise is no recommendation? None but vain creatures ever praise themselves, and yet Jesus often praises Himself. How, then, shall we solve the riddle? Is not this the answer, that He is no creature at all, and therefore comes not beneath the rule? For the creature to praise itself is vanity, but for the Creator to praise Himself, for the Lord God to manifest and show forth His own glory is becoming and proper. Our Lord, when He thus praises Himself doubtless does so for an excellent reason, namely, that no one can possibly reveal Him to the sons of men but Himself. No lips can tell the love of Christ to the heart till Jesus Himself shall speak within. Christ must be His own mirror; as the diamond alone can cut the diamond, so He alone can display Himself.
I. First, I shall speak upon the motives of our Lord in thus commending himself. I take it that He has designs of love in this speech. He would have all His people rich in high and happy thoughts concerning His blessed person.
1. Doubtless, He commends Himself because high thoughts of Christ will enable us to act consistently with our relations towards Him. The saved soul is espoused to Christ. Now, in the marriage estate, it is a great assistance to happiness if the wife has high ideas of her husband. In the marriage union between the soul and Christ, this is exceedingly necessary.
2. Moreover, our in aster knows that high thoughts of Him increase our love. If we are to love Him at all, it must be with the love of admiration; and the higher that admiration shall rise, the more vehemently will our love flame forth.
3. A high esteem of Christ, moreover, as He well knoweth, is very necessary to our comfort. Beloved, when you esteem Christ very highly, the things of this world become of small account with you, and their loss is not so heavily felt Get but delightful thoughts of Him, and you will feel like a man who has lost a pebble but has preserved his diamond; like the man who has seen a few cast clouts and rotten rags consumed in the flames, but has saved his children from the conflagration. You will rejoice in your deepest distress because Christ is yours if you have a high sense of the preciousness of your Master.
4. Our Lord would have us entertain great thoughts of Himself, because this will quicken all the powers of our soul. I spoke to you just now of love receiving force from an esteem of Jesus, I might say the like of faith, or patience, or humility.
5. High thoughts of Jesus will set us upon high attempts for His honour. When the grand thought of love to God has gained full possession of the soul, men have been able to actually accomplish what other men have not even thought of doing. Love has laughed at impossibilities, and proved that she is not to be quenched by many waters, nor drowned by floods.
II. Whatever may be the commendable motive for any statement, yet it must not be made if it be not accurate, and therefore, in the second place, I come to observe our Lords justification for this commendation, which is abundantly satisfactory to all who know Him. What our Lord says of Himself is strictly true. It falls short of the mark, it is no exaggeration. Observe each one of the words. He begins, I am. Those two little words I would not insist upon, but it is no straining of language to say that even here we have a great deep, I am hath revealed Himself unto thee in a more glorious manner than He did unto Moses at the burning bush, the great I AM in human flesh has become thy Saviour and thy Lord. I am the rose. We understand from this, that Christ is lovely. He selects one of the most charming of flowers to set forth Himself. All the beauties of all the creatures are to be found in Christ in greater perfection than in the creatures themselves. He is infinitely more beautiful in the garden of the soul and in the paradise of God than the rose can be in the gardens of earth, though it be the universally acknowledged queen of flowers. But the spouse adds, I am the rose of Sharon. This was the best and rarest of roses. Jesus is not the rose alone, but the rose of Sharon, just as He calls His righteousness gold, and then adds, the gold of Ophir–the best of the best. Our Lord adds. I am the lily, thus giving Himself a double commendation. Indeed, Jesus Christ deserves not to be praised doubly, but sevenfold, aye, and unto seven times seven. Earths choicest charms commingled, feebly picture His abounding preciousness. He is the lily of the valleys. Does He intend by that to hint to us that He is a lily in His lowliest estate, a lily of the valley? The carpenters son, living in poverty, wearing the common garb of the poor, is He the lily of the valleys? Yes; He is a lily to you and to me, poor dwellers in the lowlands. Up yonder He is a lily on the hilltops, where all celestial eyes admire Him; down here, in these valleys of fears and cares, He is a lily still as fair as in heaven. The words, having been opened up one by one, teach us that Christ is lovely to all our spiritual senses. The rose is delightful to the eye, hut it is also refreshing to the nostril, and the lily the same. So is Jesus. Go anywhere where Jesus is, and though you do not actually hear His name, yet the sweet influence which flows from His love will be plainly enough discernible. Our Lord is so lovely, that even the recollection of His love is sweet. Take the rose of Sharon, and pull it leaf from leaf, and lay by the leaves in the jar of memory, and you shall find each leaf most flagrant long afterwards, filling the house with perfume; and this very day we remember times of refreshing enjoyed at the Lords table still delightful as we reflect upon them. Jesus is lovely in the bud as well as when full blown. You admire the rose quite as much when it is but a bud as when it bursts forth into perfect development: and methinks, Christ to you, my beloved, in the first blush of your piety, was not one whir less sweet than He is now. Jesus full blown, in our riper experience, has lost none of His excellence. When we shall see Him fully blown in the garden of paradise, shall we not count it to be our highest heaven to gaze upon Him for ever? Christ is so lovely that He needs no beautifying. Let the roughest tongue speak sincerely of Him in the most broken but honest accents, and Jesus Himself is such a radiant jewel that the setting will be of small consequence, He is so glorious that He is Most adorned when unadorned the most. He is so lovely, again, that He satisfies the highest taste of the most educated spirit to the very full. The greatest amateur in perfumes is quite satisfied with the rose, and I should think that no man of taste will ever be able to criticize the lily, and cavil at its form. Now, when the soul has arrived at her highest pitch of true taste, she shall still be content with Christ, nay, she shall be the better able to appreciate Him. Dwelling for another minute on thin subject, let me remark that our Lord Jesus Christ deserves all that He has said of Himself. First, in His Divine glory. The glory of Christ as God, who shall write upon it? Nothing is great, nothing is excellent but God, and Christ is God. O roses and lilies, where are ye now? Our Lord deserves these praises, again, in His perfection of manhood. He is like ourselves, but in Him was no sin. The prince of this world cometh, but hath nothing in Me. Throughout the whole of His biography, there is not a faulty line. He deserves this commendation, too, in His mediatorial qualifications. Since His blood has washed us from all our sins, we talk no more of the red roses, for what can they do to purify the soul? Since His righteousness has made us accepted in the Beloved, we will speak no more of spotless lilies, for what are these? He deserves all this praise, too, in His reigning glory. He has a glory which His Father has given Him as a reward, in the power of which He sits down at the right hand of God for ever and ever, and shall soon come to judge the world in righteousness, and the people with equity. View the Lord Jesus in any way you please, all that He Himself can say concerning Himself He richly deserves, and therefore glory be unto His name for ever and ever, and let the whole earth say, Amen.
III. I shall now conduct you to a third consideration, namely, the influence of this commendation upon us. Think of the ruin of this world till Christ came into it! Methinks I see in vision a howling wilderness, a great and terrible desert, like to the Sahara. Christ is the rose which has changed the scene. If you would have great thoughts of Christ think of your own ruin. Yonder I behold you cast out an infant, unswathed, unwashed, defiled with your own blood, too foul to be looked upon except by beasts of prey. And what is this that has been cast into your bosom, and which lying there has suddenly made you fair and lovely? A rose has been thrown into your bosom by a Divine hand, and for its sake you have been pitied and cared for by Divine Providence, you are washed and cleaned from your defilement, you are adopted into Heavens family, the fair seal of love is upon your forehead, and the ring of faithfulness is on your hand–a prince unto God–though just now you were an orphan, cast away. O prize the rose, the putting of which into your bosom has made you what you are! Consider your daily need of this rose. You live in the pestilential air of this earth: take Christ away, you die. Christ is the daily food of your spirit. Think of the estimation that Christ is had in beyond the skies, in the land where things are measured by the right standard, where men are no longer deceived by the delusions of earth. Think how God esteems the Only Begotten, His unspeakable gift to us. Consider what the angels think of Him, as they count it their highest honour to veil their faces at His feet. Consider what the blood-washed think of Him, as day without night they sing His well-deserved praises with gladdest voices. Remember how you yourself have sometimes esteemed Him. Have there not been moments when the chariots of Amminadib seemed but poor dragging things, compared with the wheels of your soul when Jesus ravished your heart with His celestial embrace? Estimate Him to-day as you did then, for He is the same, though you are not.
IV. I shall close by asking you to make confessions suggested by my text. I am sure you have all had falls, and slips, and shortcomings, with regard to Him. Well, then, come humbly to Jesus at once. He will forgive yon readily, for He does not soon take offence at His spouse. He may sometimes speak sharp words to her, because He loves her; but His heart is always true, and faithful, and tender. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the Valleys
Jesus calls Himself first, the Rose of Sharon, and then, the Lily of the Valleys. Let us consider what He means.
I. The Rose of Sharon. Of all the flowers that God has made, the rose, take it all in all, is the loveliest and the sweetest. It has three things in perfection–shape, colour, and fragrance. Indeed, we may call it the queen of flowers. Now, it is in its sweetness especially that the rose reminds me of the Lord Jesus Christ. His character was marked not only by manliness, but also with what we may call sweetness, for he had all the firmness of a man and all the tenderness of a woman. I will give you another reason for the comparison of Christ to a rose. The rose is the most common as well as the most beautiful of all the flowers. You find it wherever you go,–in all countries and in all places. In fact, it is the universal flower: it belongs to everybody. And in this respect it resembles Christ, for Christ is the common property of all–of the peasant as well as of the prince; of poor as well as of rich; of the child as well as of the full-grown man. He belongs to all nations, too–to the dwellers in north and south and east and west; arid there is no one, whatever he may be, or wherever he lives, who cannot say, The Lord Jesus Christ is my Saviour, and I claim Him as my own.
II. But the Saviour calls Himself in the text The Lily of the Valleys, and we have now to consider what this second title is intended to teach us. Supposing that the Lily of the Valleys is the flower which we know by that name–you all remember how graceful it is, with pretty little white bells ranged in a row on a tapering stalk, and how it appears to hide itself modestly under the shade of its broad green leaves. Now, why is it thus chosen? Partly because the lily is of a beautiful white colour, and represents purity. And you know how pure the Lord Jesus Christ was. Never at any time did He think, or say, or do anything that was wrong. As a child, as a boy, as a man, He was absolutely free from fault. But the lily of the valley–because it has a drooping head, and retires behind the shade of its broad green leaves, instead of thrusting itself forward–may be taken as an emblem of lowliness or humility, and so will serve to remind us of the Lord Jesus Christ.
III. We will try, in conclusion, to apply the subject to ourselves, So that we may be the better, by Gods blessing, for having talked about it and thought about it. We have the example of the Lord Jesus Christ proposed to us. He is perfect, and we can never hope to be perfect. But we may become, by the kind help of His Holy Spirit, more and more like Him every day. (G. Calthrop, M. A.)
.
The rose and the lily
I have taken a text, chiefly because it is generally supposed that a sermon cannot be preached without a Bible text. But I only want those two words–Rose, Lily; and I take those two because they may be regarded as the chief and the representative of the midsummer flowers. But how can we learn from the rose and the lily concerning God? In this way. Everything a man does or makes embodies and expresses himself. The Bible tells us that is true even of children. Even a child is known by his doings. Somehow children and men always stamp themselves on everything they make and everything they do. And this is one of the chief ways by which we come to know God. We look at the things He makes, and when we find out what character they bear we may say, God is like this, only infinitely better. If He made this, the possibility of making more and better than this must be in Him. If God made the rose and the lily, what must He be?
1. Now the first thing that comes to our thought, when we notice the exquisite form of the rose and the stately grace of the lily, is–How beautiful God must be. What beautiful thought He must have to have designed such forms, and what a beautiful touch to mould such forms, and so how beautiful He Himself must be.
2. Looking again at the rose and the lily we are reminded of their fragrance, we feel their fragrance–that sweet scent of the rose, that rich and almost overpowering odour of the lily. Then it strikes us that they are not merely beautiful to look at, they are scattering blessings continually–pouring forth their treasures to enrich the air, and to give us pleasure and health, filling the summer sky with balmy breath, spending themselves to do others good, to make others glad. And so they tell us what God is. For in Gods thought they were filled with that fragrance, and in breathing it out they fain would tell us of Him of whose eternal sweetness they partake. What must the fragrance of God be who put such fragrance into His flowers? And this we can feel to be true of God manifested in Christ. The fragrance of Christs life on earth is its greatest charm. It was a life of self-denials, generosities and charities; crowded with thoughtfulnesses and helpfulnesses, exemplifying His own words, It is more blessed to give than receive.
3. Then, again, we are struck with the colour of the rose and the lily–that creamy whiteness of the lily, that tinted whiteness of the rose. We feel purity in colour, more especially in white flowers, but it is the characteristic of them all. God made these pure white flowers, then what must His purity be? We are often touched with Gods wonderful and exhaustless power of making pure things–clear waters, white snows, woolly clouds, new leaves, blue sky, and the exquisite pale tinting all about the summer sunset. Moses had a vision of the surroundings of God, and under His feet was a paved work of a sapphire stone, and, as it were, the body of heaven in His clearness. This purity is characteristic of God manifest in the flesh. Jesus was clothed in white all through His life, and on His beautiful garments one stain never came.
4. So the leaves and petals of rose and lily become leaves of a Bible to us, from which we may learn of God. The flowers say, We come to tell you that God lives, that God loves, and that God wants your love. The roses say, Love and serve the good and beautiful God, who may be served by everything that is kind and lovely. The lilies say, Love and serve the pure and righteous God, who may be served by everything that is holy and true. And all the other midsummer hewers, gathering round their king and queen, seem to join in one great chorus, and to say, We love and serve the One, the living God–the Wonderful, the Beautiful, the Pure, the Good–and you should love Him too. (R. Tuck.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER II
A description of the bridegroom, and his love to the bride, 1-9.
A fine description of spring, 10-13.
The mutual love of both, 14-17.
NOTES ON CHAP. II
Verse 1. I am the rose of Sharon] Sharon was a very fruitful place, where David’s cattle were fed, 1Ch 27:29. It is mentioned as a place of excellence, Isa 35:2, and as a place of flocks, Isa 65:10, Perhaps it would be better, with almost all the versions, to translate, “I am the rose of the field.” The bridegroom had just before called her fair; she with a becoming modesty, represents her beauty as nothing extraordinary, and compares herself to a common flower of the field. This, in the warmth of his affection, he denies, insisting that she as much surpasses all other maidens as the flower of the lily does the bramble, So 2:2.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
These are the words either,
1. Of the spouse, continuing her discourse. Or rather,
2. Of the bridegroom, drawing forth the churchs affections to him. He compares himself to the rose and lily, for fragrancy and beauty. Nor is it in the least degree indecent that Christ should thus commend himself, partly because his excellency is so transcendently great, that he is free from all suspicion of vanity and self-flattery; and partly because it is suitable to the style of such writings, and to the present design of recommending himself to the affection of his spouse. He mentions the rose of Sharon, which was a very fruitful place, as is evident from 1Ch 27:29; Isa 33:9; 65:10, and famous for roses, as may seem probable from Isa 35:1,2. Or, as others translate it, the rose of the field, which may note that Christ is not only pleasant and beautiful, but free and communicative, offering himself to all that come to him. The
lily is a beautiful and glorious creature, Mat 6:29, especially to one who beholds it through a magnifying glass. He saith,
the lily of the valleys, because they grew and flourished best in such low and waterish grounds.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. roseif applied to JesusChrist, it, with the white lily (lowly, 2Co8:9), answers to “white and ruddy” (So5:10). But it is rather the meadow-saffron: the Hebrewmeans radically a plant with a pungent bulb, inapplicable tothe rose. So Syriac. It is of a white and violet color[MAURER, GESENIUS,and WEISS]. The bride thusspeaks of herself as lowly though lovely, in contrast with the lordly”apple” or citron tree, the bridegroom (So2:3); so the “lily” is applied to her (So2:2),
Sharon (Isa 35:1;Isa 35:2). In North Palestine,between Mount Tabor and Lake Tiberias (1Ch5:16). Septuagint and Vulgate translate it, “aplain”; though they err in this, the Hebrew Bible notelsewhere favoring it, yet the parallelism to valleys showsthat, in the proper name Sharon, there is here a tacit reference toits meaning of lowliness. Beauty, delicacy, and lowliness, are to bein her, as they were in Him (Mt11:29).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I [am] the rose of Sharon, [and] the lily of the valleys. Whether Christ, or the church, is here speaking, is not certain: most of the Jewish writers t, and some Christian interpreters u, take them to be the words of the church, expressing the excellency of her grace, loveliness, and beauty, she had from Christ; and intimating also her being in the open fields, exposed to many dangers and enemies, and so needed his protection. The church may be compared to a “rose”, for its beautiful colour and sweet odour w, and for its delight in sunny places, where it thrives best, and is most fragrant. This figure is exceeding just; not only the beauty of women is expressed by the colour of the rose x, as is common in poems of this kind; to give instances of it would be endless y; some have had the name of Rhoda from hence; see Ac 12:13. No rose can be more beautiful in colour, and delightful to the eye, than the church is in the eyes of Christ, as clothed with his righteousness, and adorned with the graces of his Spirit: nor is any rose of a more sweet and fragrant smell than the persons of believers are to God and Christ, being considered in him; and even their graces, when in exercise, yea, their duties and services, when performed in faith; and, as the rose, they grow and thrive under the warming, comforting, and refreshing beams of the sun of righteousness, where they delight to be. The church may also be compared to a “lily of the valleys”, as she is, in the next verse, to one among thorns. This is a very beautiful flower; Pliny z says it is next in nobleness to the rose; its whiteness is singularly excellent; no plant more fruitful, and no flower exceeds it in height; in some countries, it rises up three cubits high; has a weak neck or body, insufficient to bear the weight of its head. The church may be compared to a lily, for her beauty and fragrance, as to a rose; and the redness of the rose, and the whiteness of the lily, meeting in her, make her somewhat like her beloved, white and ruddy; like the lily, being arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, the righteousness of the saints; and like it for fruitfulness, as it is in good works, under the influence of divine grace, and grows up on high into her head, Christ Jesus; and though weak in herself, yet strong in him, who supports her, and not she him: and the church may be compared to a “lily of the valleys”; which may not describe any particular lily, and what we now call so; but only expresses the place where it grows, in low places, where plants are in danger of being plucked and trodden upon; though they may have more moisture and verdure than those in higher places; so the church of Christ is sometimes in a low estate, exposed to enemies, and liable to be trampled and trodden under foot by them, and to be carried away with the flood of persecution, were it not guarded by divine power; and, being watered with the dews of grace, it becomes flourishing and fruitful. But the more commonly received opinion is, that these are the words of Christ concerning himself; and which indeed best become him, and are more agreeable to his style and language, Joh 14:6; and suit best with the words in the So 2:2, as one observes a; nor is it unfitly taken by the bridegroom to himself, since it is sometimes given by lovers to men b. Christ may be compared to a rose for its colour and smell; to the rose for its red colour: and which may be expressive of the truth of his humanity, and of his bloody sufferings in it; and this, with the whiteness of the lily, finishes the description of him for his beauty, So 5:10; and for its sweet smell; which denotes the same things for which he is before compared to spikenard, myrrh, and camphire. The rose, as Pliny says c, delights not in fat soils and rich clays, but in rubbish, and roses that grow there are of the sweetest smell; and such was the earth about Sharon d; and to a rose there Christ is compared, to show the excellency and preferableness of him to all others. The word is only used here and in Isa 35:1. Where it is in many versions rendered a “lily”: it seems to be compounded of two words; one which signifies to “cover” and hide, and another which signifies a “shadow”; and so may be rendered, “the covering shadow”: but for what reason a rose should be so called is not easy to say; unless it can be thought to have the figure of an umbrella; or that the rose tree in those parts was so large, as to be remarkable for its shadow; like that Montfaucon e saw, in a garden at Ravenna, under the shadow of the branches of which more than forty men could stand: Christ is sometimes compared to trees for their shadow, which is pleasant and reviving, as in So 2:3. Some render it, “the flower of the field” f; which may be expressive of the meanness of Christ in the eyes of men; of his not being of human production; of his being accessible; and of his being liable to be trampled upon, as he has been. And as he is compared to a rose, so to a “lily”, for its colour, height, and fruitfulness; expressive of his purity in himself, of his superiority to angels and men, and of his being filled with the fruits and blessings of grace; and to a lily of the valleys, denoting his wonderful condescension in his low estate of humiliation, and his delight in dwelling with the humble and lowly: some render the words, “I am the rose of Sharon, with the lily of the valleys” g; by the former epithet meaning himself; and by the latter his church, his companion, in strict union and communion with him; of whom the following words are spoken.
t Zohar in Gen. fol. 46. 2. Targum, Aben Ezra, Yalkut in loc. u Ainsworth, Brightman, Vatablus Cocceius; Michaelis. w The rose, by the Arcadians, was called , that is, “sweet-smelling”, Timachidas apud Athenaei Deipnosophist. l. 15. c. 8. p. 682. and “rosy” is used for “beautiful”; “rosea cervice refulsit”, Virgil. Aeneid. l. 1. Vid. Servium in ibid. x So Helena, for her beauty, is called , in Theocrit. Idyll. 19. The rose was sacred to Venus, Pausaniae Eliac. 2. sive l. 6, p. 391. y Vid. Barthii Animadv. ad Claudian. de Nupt. Honor. v. 247. z Nat. Hist. l. 21. c. 5. a Durham in Ioc. b “Mea rosa”, Plauti Bacchides, Sc. 1. v. 50. Asinaria, Act. 3, Sc. 3. v. 74. Curculio, Act. 1. Sc. 2. v. 6. c Nat. Hist. l. 21. c. 4. d Misnah Sotah, c. 8. s. 3. e Diar. Italic, c. 7. p. 100. f , Sept. “flos campi”, V. L. Pagninus, Mercerus. g “Ego rosa Sharon lilio vallium”, Marckius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
What Shulamith now further says confirms what had just been said. City and palace with their splendour please her not; forest and field she delights in; she is a tender flower that has grown up in the quietness of rural life.
1 I am a meadow-flower of Sharon,
A lily of the valleys.
We do not render: “the wild-flower,” “the lily,” … for she seeks to represent herself not as the one, but only as one of this class; the definiteness by means of the article sometimes belongs exclusively to the second number of the genit. word-chain. may equally ( vid., at Son 1:11, Hitz. on Psa 113:9, and my Comm. on Gen 9:20) mean “an angel” or “the angel of Jahve;” and “a virgin,” or “the virgin of Israel” (the personification of the people). For hhavatstseleth (perhaps from hhivtsel , a denom. quadril. from betsel , to form bulbs or bulbous knolls) the Syr. Pesh. (Isa 35:1) uses chamsaljotho , the meadow-saffron, colchicum autumnale; it is the flesh-coloured flower with leafless stem, which, when the grass is mown, decks in thousands the fields of warmer regions. They call it filius ante patrem, because the blossoms appear before the leaves and the seed-capsules, which develope themselves at the close of winter under the ground. Shulamith compares herself to such a simple and common flower, and that to one in Sharon, i.e., in the region known by that name. Sharon is per aphaer. derived from . The most celebrated plain of this name is that situated on the Mediterranean coast between Joppa and Caesarea; but there is also a trans-Jordanic Sharon, 1Ch 5:16; and according to Eusebius and Jerome, there is also another district of this name between Tabor and the Lake of Tiberias,
(Note: Vid., Lagarde, Onomastica, p. 296; cf. Neubauer, Gographic du Talm. p. 47.)
which is the one here intended, because Shulamith is a Galilean: she calls herself a flower from the neighbourhood of Nazareth. Aquila translates: “A rosebud of Sharon;” but (designedly here the fem. form of the name, which is also the name of a woman) does not mean the Rose which was brought at a later period from Armenia and Persia, as it appears,
(Note: Vid., Ewald, Jahrbuch, IV p. 71; cf. Wstemann, Die Rose, etc., 1854.)
and cultivated in the East (India) and West (Palestine, Egypt, Europe). It is nowhere mentioned in the canonical Scriptures, but is first found in Sir. 24:14; 39:13; 50:8; Wisd. 2:8; and Est 1:6, lxx. Since all the rosaceae are five-leaved, and all the liliaceae are six-leaved, one might suppose, with Aben Ezra, that the name sosan ( susan) is connected with the numeral , and points to the number of leaves, especially since one is wont to represent to himself the Eastern lilies as red. But they are not only red, or rather violet, but also white: the Moorish-Spanish azucena denotes the white lily.
(Note: Vid., Fleischer, Sitzungs-Berichten d. Schs. Gesell. d. Wissensch. 1868, p. 305. Among the rich flora on the descent of the Hauran range, Wetstein saw ( Reisebericht, p. 148) a dark-violet magnificent lily ( susan) as large as his fist. We note here Rckert’s “Bright lily! The flowers worship God in the garden: thou art the priest of the house.”)
The root-word will thus, however, be the same as that of , byssus, and , white marble. The comparison reminds us of Hos 14:5, “I shall be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily.” are deep valleys lying between mountains. She thinks humbly of herself; for before the greatness of the king she appears diminutive, and before the comeliness of the king her own beauty disappears – but he takes up her comparison of herself, and gives it a notable turn.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Christ the Rose of Sharon. | |
1 I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. 2 As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
See here, I. What Christ is pleased to compare himself to; and he condescends very much in the comparison. He that is the Son of the Highest, the bright and morning star, calls and owns himself the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys, to express his presence with his people in this world, the easiness of their access to him, and the beauty and sweetness which they find in him, and to teach them to adorn themselves with him, as shepherds and shepherdesses, when they appeared gay, were decked with roses and lilies, garlands and chaplets of flowers. The rose, for beauty and fragrance, is the chief of flowers, and our Saviour prefers the clothing of the lily before that of Solomon in all his glory. Christ is the rose of Sharon, where probably the best roses grew and in most plenty, the rose of the field (so some), denoting that the gospel salvation is a common salvation; it lies open to all; whoever will may come and gather the rose-buds of privileges and comforts that grow in the covenant of grace. He is not a rose locked up in a garden, but all may come and receive benefit by him and comfort in him. He is a lily for whiteness, a lily of the valleys for sweetness, for those which we call so yield a strong perfume. He is a lily of the valleys, or low places, in his humiliation, exposed to injury. Humble souls see most beauty in him. Whatever he is to others, to those that are in the valleys he is a lily. He is the rose, the lily; there is none besides. Whatever excellence is in Christ, it is in him singularly and in the highest degree.
II. What he is pleased to compare his church to, v. 2. 1. She is as a lily; he himself is the lily (v. 1), she is as the lily. The beauty of believers consists in their conformity and resemblance to Jesus Christ. They are his love, and so they are as lilies, for those are made like Christ in whose hearts his love is shed abroad. 2. As a lily among thorns, as a lily compared with thorns. The church of Christ as far excels all other societies as a bed of roses excels a bush of thorns. As a lily compassed with thorns. The wicked, the daughters of this world, such as have no love to Christ, are as thorns, worthless and useless, good for nothing but to stop a gap; nay, they are noxious and hurtful; they came in with sin and are a fruit of the curse; they choke good seed, and hinder good fruit, and their end is to be burned. God’s people are as lilies among them, scratched and torn, shaded and obscured, by them; they are dear to Christ, and yet exposed to hardships and troubles in the world; they must expect it, for they are planted among thorns (Ezek. ii. 6), but they are nevertheless dear to him; he does not overlook nor undervalue any of his lilies for their being among thorns, When they are among thorns they must still be as lilies, must maintain their innocency and purity, and, though they are among thorns, must not be turned into thorns, must not render railing for railing, and, if they thus preserve their character, they shall be still owned as conformable to Christ. Grace in the soul is a lily among thorns; corruptions are thorns in the flesh (2 Cor. xii. 7), are as Canaanites to God’s Israel (Josh. xxiii. 13); but the lily that is now among thorns shall shortly be transplanted out of this wilderness into that paradise where there is no pricking brier nor grieving thorn, Ezek. xxviii. 24.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
SONG OF SOLOMON CHAPTER 2
Verse 1 of Chapter 2 continues the anticipated exchange with the Shulamite referring to her origin in Sharon, a region in northern Galilee, and modestly comparing herself to common wild flowers that grew in abundance in the fertile valleys of her homeland.
Verse 2 expresses the shepherd’s view that the Shulamite may be likened to a lily, but if so, her beauty is as striking as a lily among thorns.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THE INCOMPARABLE GROOM
Son 2:1-17.
IN our last discourse from this Book, we dealt particularly with the speech of the black beauty in Solomons harem. We saw in her a type of Christs Redeemed, the Church, black by nature, deeply stained by sin, but washed and made white in the Blood, and beautiful as His Bride.
We turn now to the Groom. The second chapter, while containing something of the dialogue, is, in its major portion, a response to the first; for in the first, the Bride is heard and in the second, the Husband responds, only to excite additional sentences of admiration on the lips of His love.
In glancing over this chapter, we find it can best be treated under four heads: His Beauty, His Blessing, His Back-Coming and His Brightness.
HIS BEAUTY
Natures best but hints the same.
I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the valleys (Son 2:1).
The average student wonders what is meant by the Rose of Sharon. We fear this phrase conveys little meaning to the casual reader.
Sharon is that strip of fairly level land which stretches between the mountains and the shore of the Mediterranean, or from the sea to Carmel. It is said to be a place of deep, rich soil, extremely favorable to the growth of cereals. The orange, the vine and the olive attain great perfection there, and, in the season, it breaks into wondrous beauty on account of the many colored flowers native to this soil. Among them, the white narcissus most abounds, and it is believed by good Bible students that the reference here is to the narcissus rather than what is known to us as the rose.
There are people who might think it an extravagant thing to liken the beauty of a flower to the graces of the Son of God; and, in fact, so it is. But what better can man do than draw figures from nature at her best? In spite of sins defacing effect upon the earth, nature retains such charms and graces as to suggest Gods handiwork.
Two years ago this autumn in the late September, Mrs. Riley and myself drove from Minneapolis to California via Denver and Salt Lake City. We spent some days in crossing the desert and it happened that it was both the particular year and the exact season of the deserts bloom. In my somewhat extensive travels on this side of the ocean and somewhat limited survey of the other side, I say, without hesitation, that I never saw beauty in such abundance. The desert was a riot of colors; the combinations, the rarest, ranging as they did from the brilliant yellows that copiously abounded to the most delicate shades of pastel, as mountain lights and shadows vied with desert bloom, to create a combination of earthly carpet and heavenly canopy that Heaven itself could only exceed by the introduction of beauties yet unseen and even undreamed by man. In addition to the elevation that brought us the rare air of that upper world, we had this wealth of beauty to suggest God and Heaven.
So the oriental mind would quickly respond to this figurethe narcissus of Sharon and the lily of the valley.
In Todd Hunters, Theory of the Beautiful, beauty is defined as infinite loveliness which we apprehend both by reason and by the enthusiasm of affection.
It is doubtful if this definition ever found so full a meaning as when applied to Christ, the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the valleys.
His life fully justified the figure. He was the Altogether Lovely; the Chiefest among ten thousand, He; is the Chiefest among ten thousand (Son 5:10), the One Altogether Lovely (Son 5:16).
Such a description doubtless had a dual application. We believe that Jesus Christ, before the hand of man marred His face and form, was the perfect One; that He exceeded all the Absaloms for beauty, all the Apollos for strength; but His rarest beauty was in character, and there He exceeded all saints and angels.
Paul, writing to the Hebrews, tells us that
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the Prophets,
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds;
Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than they.
For unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to Me a Son?
And again, when He bringeth in the First begotten into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him.
And of the angels He saith, Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire.
But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy Kingdom.
Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows (Heb 1:1-9).
He alone is the sinless One. Only He could challenge men saying, Which of you convicteth Me of sin? All others have fallen short; all others have stained their garments and scarred their souls. He stands alone without spot, or blemish, or any such thing, as beautiful as the rose of Sharon, as spotless as the lily of the valleys.
His work lends value to His life.
As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons. I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste (Son 2:3).
There are people who are handsome, but unholy. There are those who are handsome, but useless.
Arthur T. Pierson in his volume on Character Culture, speaking of Cleopatra, one of the most beautiful women of all history, characterizes her worthless life by quoting approvingly the statement that when she applied the asp to her bosom, it was the only thing she had ever, done that brought a blessing to the race.
It is not an altogether unusual thing to meet beautiful, but useless people. One might imagine that they were really worth something to the world; at least that they were ornaments, and that is true. But it is also true that it is with men as with trees, if they are nothing other than ornaments, they cumber the ground on which they stand and sap the strength from the same.
When I was a lad, the most beautiful apple tree on the farm stood just outside our spring house. Doubtless the overflow of the well watered its roots. Every spring it bloomed in beautiful profusion, and for a time it scented the entire orchard with its sweetness. But never a particle of fruit was found on the same in fruit season, and nothing, not even grass itself, grew in its shade.
Life, to be beautiful, requires more than a combination of color and figure. As Knight contended, It must work for mutual helpfulness toward a reasonable aim. Beauty itself needs to be beautified by some worthwhile service. The woman to whom God has given the most marvelous physical graces is only a travesty of her sex, unless she adds mental and spiritual graces to the same.
Someone speaking of such an one said, We should prefer to look on an enameled tea cup, since from it we would expect nothing.
Moving on toward Toronto, the railway train carried in one of its coaches a. tall young man, conspicuously well dressed, with finely chiseled features. The passengers noted his striking appearance, as one by one they walked by him in search of a seat. On the same train was a woman, evidently a foreigner, cumbered by one baby in her arms and two other small children tugging at her skirts, and a whole collection of nondescript bundles. The brakeman stuck his head into the car door and shouted the station. In spite of her ignorance of English, it sounded like the place for which she was bound, and she sprang up, only to stand bewildered, wondering how she could get her brood and bundles down the aisle and out to the platform.
The handsome young man, looking up from his book, instantly took in the situation. Flinging aside his book, he stepped to the end of the ear seat, and taking up the bundles with one arm, and one of the babies with another, he motioned her to follow. He led her safely out to the platform, put the bundles down carefully, and deposited the child beside them. Then lifting his hat as if to a queen, he walked silently back to resume his seat and the study of his book, apparently unconscious of any observation and oblivious to the eyes of approval that had followed him. Passengers were heard to whisper under their breath, Beautiful!
In the last analysis, service lends value to sweetness. That is what makes Christ Chiefest among ten thousand, He is the servant of all, the One Altogether Lovely. His infinite strength is ever at the call of man.
HIS BLESSING
He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me was love.
Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.
His left hand is under my head, and His right hand doth embrace me.
I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till He please (Son 2:4-7).
Certainly these verses are full of suggestion.
He makes abundant provision.
He brought me to the banqueting house.
Everywhere in Scripture the provisions of grace are presented as a feast, a veritable banquet indeed. The Old Testament annuals were feasts before the Lord; and in the New Testament we have Gods provisions of grace set forth by a figure with which all are familiar.
A certain man made a great supper, and bade many;
And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.
And they all with one consent began to make excuse.
If any faint and starve it will be through their failure of response, not from lack of adequate provision. I noticed a day or two ago that a certain cafeteria in the town had both improved the meal above the usual and reduced the price below the custom. It was crowded with customers. Such is the greed of men for physical satisfaction, but, alas, for our failure in appetite for the spiritual!
The Outlook of Missions recently published the following: Five per cent of all church members do not exist; ten per cent of them cannot be found; twenty-five per cent never go to church; fifty per cent of them never contribute a cent to the same; seventy-five per cent of them never go to the mid-week prayer meeting; ninety per cent of them have no devotional hour in their homes; while ninety-five per cent never attempt to win a new convert for Christ. Oh, the shame of such a response to such provisions of grace as Christ has made!
But even this failure in no wise affects His provision; it is both abundant and adequate.
The story is told of a little girl who took her first long journey by train. Like all children she kept her face against the window pane, watching to see what was coming. Again and again she saw the train approach a great river, and her heart was filled with fear lest it should plunge in and all be drowned. But each time, just as they reached the river, she noticed that there was a bridge and the train crossed in safety. When this had happened a half dozen times, she settled back into her seat with a sigh, saying, Somebody has put bridges for us all the way. Even so! Such is our Saviours provision, abundant and adequate. He brings us to the banquet house.
His banner over us is love. Charity (love) never faileth. This sentence from the Apostles pen must refer to the Divine love, for the love of man does fail. Those who were here when I spoke to you last week will not forget Mathesons experience; and his sore disappointment, and the song that followed: O Love that will not let me go.
In that song he contrasted the unfailing strength of Divine love as compared with the fickleness of human affection. However, we find, at times, in the actions of men, a faint hint of Divine affection.
Mr. Moody used to tell the story of a young man who was engaged to be married to the young woman of his choice in New England. Then the Civil War carried him off to the battle front. He went through battle after battle unscathed, but in the battle of the Wilderness he was not only shot down but both arms, being riddled with bullets, had to be removed. Some weeks went by and no letter reached the waiting girl whose anxious face appeared daily at the Post Office to inquire for mail. Finally, when he was sufficiently recovered to dictate, a comrade wrote for him. In the letter he related what had happened to him.
He told how both arms were now gone. And then he added, You are as dear to me as ever, but I shall now be dependent upon other people for the rest of my life and I do not want to impose myself upon you; hence my friend, writing for me, permits me to say that I release you now and forever from your engagement.
There was never a written reply, but on the next train she came to the scene of the conflict, sent word to the hospital of her presence, and asked the privilege of visiting the soldier lad. They brought her into the extemporized sanitarium and when her eyes fell upon the one for whom she was looking, her feet seemed winged, and reaching the side of the cot, she dropped on her knees, put her arms about his neck, and between kisses, declared, I will never give you up! With these hands it will be my joy to support you while life lasts. My love will be your sufficiency.
That is the true interpretation of this Song, His banner over me was love!
His embrace is the believers bliss.
His left hand is under my head, and His right hand doth embrace me (Son 2:6).
This figure of marital affection is an eminently fit one to express the affection Divine. Of all the hymns that have ever been written, I love best the one that brought me to decide for Christ. It holds the exact sentiment of this text and runs after this manner:
I will arise and go to Jesus
He will embrace me in His arms,
In the arms of my dear Saviour,
Oh, there are ten thousand charms!
In the hour, when one realizes what a wreck sin has wrought, to have one appear as Saviour, how precious! After all, nothing known to the human life has the same uplifting, inspiring and sanctifying influence that love exerts. Bishop William Quayle, in the opening address at the General Conference in Des Moines, a few years since, asked, What is celestial service? and answered, Loving! and then added, A woman was seated beside her sick husband. She looked at him as he lay upon the bed, and in a feeble voice he asked, Dear, what are you doing? She answered, Just loving you; that is all! What else could she do that was comparable to that? What service could she render that would have the same inspiration, the same impelling power? His banner over me was love. His embrace is bliss!
Have you learned when cares oppress the heart,
With Christ to come apart.
And find in Him sweet comfort blest
And rest?
Do you close the sanctum door on mart
And throng and each distracting guest?
Do you seek Him early, ask His plan
For you, in the day that just began,
What word
He wishes you to speak, or thought unheard
On which your soul should meditate, or deed to man
Of kindness, long by you deferred
Because of vision blurred?
As you then on His bosom lean
In the innermost circle of love, serene
And calm and still,
Do you list to His whispered confidence, until
No clamoring voice can come between
Your best desires and His most holy will?
If thus you gaze unhurried on that face,
So tender with condoning grace,
Till love
Links your affection firm with things above,
Be sure the impress of that holy place
No beauteous charm can from your soul remove.
Then let earths pleasures pale, so Christ shall be
A living bright reality,
A Heavenly Bridegroom, with His Bride
By faith to abide.
In sweetest fellowship, till He
Shall call the purified, made white, and tried
To be forever at His side.
HIS BACK COMING
The voice of My Beloved! behold, He cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
My Beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, He standeth behind our wall, He looketh forth at the windows, shewing Himself through the lattice.
My Beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, My love, My fair one, and come away.
For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away .
What a suggestive series of sentences.
First of all, they teach that He will come surely and soon!
He cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
The figure is that of a rushing return. And so the New Testament teaches. He will come again. In such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh. Suddenly the cry will be heard, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh. As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the Coming of the Son of Man be. Lightning speedswifter than the leaping of the hart!
The King is Coming Soon
Theres a whisper from the Glory of the Coming of the Lord,
Oh, the joy my heart is tasting as I rest upon His Word;
And what peace amid earths tumult doth this precious truth afford
Hold fast! Im coming soon!
In the glory of His promise I am living day by day,
And the light of Heaven is dawning on earths dreary, desert way,
While I wait that sweetest whisper, Up, My child, and come away
The King is coming soon!
Theres a glory on the mountains and a glory on the sea,
And the valleys are now glowing, and the desert way can be
Just a pilgrimage to Glory since He whispered it to me
Hold fast! Im coming soon!
He does not forget while absent.
He standeth behind our wall, He looketh forth at the windows, shewing Himself through the lattice.
This is rather a startling fact, that while Christ is absent, so far as visible form is concerned, He is present both in person and in interest. He watches us indeed, and with all the interest that the tenderest mother feels for her own child, as from her sitting room and workshop, she keeps an eye toward the window that opens to the lawn where the child plays.
Phillip Brooks, that marvelous Boston preacher, commenting on the passage, Lo, I am with you alway, said, Sometimes it comes to us with a strange surprise. When we are living on as if we lived alone; when we are sitting working silently in some still room which we think is empty but for our own presence, when we are busy in some work which seems as if it were our work, to be done as we should please; slowly, sweetly, surely we become aware of a richer presence which is truly with us, of a love which enfolds us, and an authority which controls us. We are not alone. The work is not our work but His. The strength to do it with is not to be called up out of the depths of ourselves, but taken down from the heights of Him. The room is full, the world is full of Jesus. He is doing what He said He would do. He is with us as He said He would be; and as we answer love with love and authority with obedience, we find that we are indeed lifted into a sober and serious happiness which nothing can evade, a joy which no man can take from us.
His return will end the winter. For when He comes to catch away his Church to that trysting place in the Heavenlies where He shall meet His own, we shall be able to say,
The winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away.
No wonder that Charles Wesley wrote:
What a blessed hope is ours!
While here on earth we stay,
We more than taste the Heavenly powers
And antedate that day;
We feel the resurrection near,
Our life in Christ concealed,
And with His glorious presence here
Our earthen vessels fined.
Finally,
THE BRIGHTNESS
O My dove, thou art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let Me see thy countenance, let Me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.
Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.
My Beloved is mine, and I am His: He feedeth among the lilies.
Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be Thou like a toe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.
How is it that men and women scarred by sin can be so described? Is it not because they reflect His image? And their prospect is His protection? Beloved, it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall Appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. God only sees us in Christ, but as Christ shall finally perfect us. In fact, in our faces God beholds the face of His Son, for He waits, as we wait, for that day when translation will be the experience of redeemed men and all the beauty lost by sin will be recovered in a full salvation.
His Coming will end the night. It will bring the day as before His face the shadows flee away. What consolation the Christian believer has and holds! With Paul he can say: Whether I live or die, I am the Lords. If I live till He comes, I shall see Him and in a moment, in the wink of an eye, I shall be changed from mortal to immortal! If I die I shall go to be with Him and in all blissfulness abide until the body be risen, and redemption be complete!
Children often have a clearer conception of simple Christian truths than do their seniors. With an illustration of this fact we conclude this sermon.
The Union Gospel News is our authority for the story. A writer to the same said, I knew a family in Detroit who were heartbroken and bereft on a certain Saturday night. The Saturday night before there were three; but on this Saturday night, but two. The tie that, bound them was drawn more closely than when the clergyman originally voiced the same, for the light of their lives seemed gone out with the Home-going of their little son. The father was a railroad man. His duties called him from home three-fourths of the time. It was his habit whenever he was about to start for home to telegraph his wife, and in the telegram to mention the little four-year lad. Tell Arthur I shall sleep with him tonight. The baby boy was very proud of these teledrafs as he called them. One night he was smitten with a fever. Slowly it pulled him down till even he, in his infancy, understood that death was near. The mother bending over the bed bedewed it with her tears. But he looked up and said, Dont ky, mamma; I shall seep wif Dod tonight. Send Dod a teledraf and tell Him I shall seep wif Him tonight!
The message required no wires; it went straight and was understood in Heaven.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
Notes
Son. 2:1 : I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. I am, &c. Opinions divided as to who is the speaker. The Bridegroom. ORIGEN, THEODORET, and the great majority of Latin and Greek Fathers. The Bride. TARGUM, PHILO, PSELLUS, GREGORY OF NYSSA, and the great body of modern commentators. Either the Church, expressing the excellence of her grace and beauty received from Christ; or rather, Christ Himself, setting forth his own excellence. GILL. The Bridegroom, acknowledging the praises given to him by the Bride. PATRICK. More probably the Church, showing her graces received from Christ. AINSWORTH. Spoken by either; but rather by Christ, commending Himself to the notice, love, and acceptance of His people, like Isa. 65:1. HAWKER. By the Bridegroom; the comparison made out of condescension. DURHAM, M. STUART. By Bride; no instance in the Song of either Bride or Bridegroom praising themselves. WEISS. Spoken by Bride with a becoming modesty. PERCY. In self-depreciation. BUSH. Representing her beauty as nothing extraordinary. NOYES. Speaks of herself as an object mean and contemptible amidst the beauties of the surrounding scene. FRY. Asserting she had no claim to such beauty as was ascribed to her. BOOTHROYD. Considering herself almost too mean for the Bridegroom. BARTH (Bible Manual). Speaking as well with self-respect as humility. DELITZSCH. AS lowly, yet lovely. FAUSSET.
The rose of Sharon ( Khabhattseleth hashsharon). here rendered rose, according to ancient interpreters, either the lily, as the SEPTUAGINT, VULGATE, and TARGUM of Isa. 35:1; or the narcissus, as the TARGUM here; or the rose, as the VENETIAN GREEK, KIMCHI, and ABEN EZRA. According to most modern Hebraists, the rose to be rejected, as the flower must be one with a bulbous root, from (betsel), a bulb. According to BOCHART, HAHN, and DE WETTE, the narcissus. EWALD and GSSENIUS: the Meadow Saffron (Colchicum Autumnale), a meadow and autumnal flower like the crocus, with a bulbous root. So MICHAELIS, NOYES, WORDSWORTH, &C. EWALD derives the name from and sour. Means, radically, a plant with a pungent bulb,inapplicable to the rose. FAUSSET. HITZIG, however, connects the word with red. PARKHURST, followed by WILLIAMS, derives the word from , to hide, and a, shadow; as if a rosebud, or rose shaded with the calyx. The SEPTUAGINT, VULGATE, and THEODOTION have here simply, a flower. AQUILA: a flower-cup. The SYRIAC: a lily, as in second clause. WICKLIFF and DOUAI VERSION: a flower. GENEVA BIBLE: a rose. BISHOPS BIBLE: a lily. So MUNSTER, MERCER, COCCEIUS, RASHI. A flower,left indefinite. CASTALIO. Flower or rose. J. H. MICHAELIS. The flower, par excellence,the flower of the whole earth. WITHINGTON. The flower; only, however, in a generic sense. GREEN. A wild-flower. GINSBURG. WITHINGTON. The tulip. MAGNUS, VAIHINGER. The daisy. THRUPP. properly, the Plain; from to be straight. GESENIUS. Or from , to look forth or around. BOCHART, EWALD. The word used as a proper name, and applied to the plain between Csarea and Joppa, fertile and abounding in lilies, roses, and narcissuses. GES., SANCTIUS. That between Mount Tabor and the Lake of Galilee. EWALD. Bride refers to her native place. GOOD. Sharon, the name of a district, then of a city in it (1Ch. 5:16; Act. 9:35). MERCER, PISCATOR. , a plain; any considerable portion of level ground, whether fertile or otherwise: more than one in the land of Israel: the great Sharon, that beyond Jordan, in the land of Gilead and Bashan (1Ch. 5:16): here, that between Tabor and the lake of Tiberias, rich in pastures, but not therefore suitable for roses and lilies. WEISS. SEPTUAGINT: a flower of the plain. VULGATE and WICELIFF: a flower of the field. BISHOPS BIBLE: the lily of the field. DIODATI and MARTIN: The rose of Sharon. SANCTIUS: A flower of the field; fenced around with no hedges; set forth to the eyes and for the use of all. FROMONDI: I am a flower of the open field, where you will rather find me than on the green bed. HARMER, PERCY, &C.: A mere rose of the field, where thousands and thousands grow of equal value: the thought suggested by the assemblage of beauty collected at the royal nuptials. WILLIAMS. The spouse compares herself with the more humble natives of the fields and valleys. WITHINGTON. Is disposed to humility by reflecting on her present good fortune as the Kings Bride. ZCKLER. A flower of the field; alluding to Christs humiliation and incarnation. THEODORET. A humble scarlet flower; Christ lowly and red in His own blood. HONORIUS. Christ the flower of the heavenly plain, who far excels all cherubim and seraphim, and gives them all their beauty and excellence. FOLIOT. The flower of this whole world, of which Christ was the glory, inviting all to enjoy His sweetness. ORIGEN, AMBROSE, BEDE, DEL RIO. The Church of Israel with the Shekinah in her midst. TARGUM. The Church lowly, and delightful for odour and beauty (Hos. 14:7). AINSWORTH. Gratefully acknowledges the beauty given her by her Lord. DAVIDSON. The humility and faith expressed in Isa. 45:24; Psa. 34:2. WEISS. Self-humiliation, the effect of a real manifestation of God to the soul. FRY.
The lily of the valleys. ( shoshannath ha-amaqim), shoshannah (from shush, an unused root, to be white or splendid), a noun of unity, from shoshan, a lily; a flower growing wild in the fields of Palestine and adjacent countries; of various colours, but especially white and light blue; also apparently red (chap. Son. 5:13). GESENIUS. Pliny speaks of red and purple lilies. Modern Jews, followed by LUTHER, MUNSTER, and CASTALIO, make a rose, instead of a lily. KIMCHI, a violet. Signifies a lily in Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Persic; a six-petalled flower, from (shesh), six: hence, not the rose, which has only five petals: only it is the red lily, familiar in the East. DELITZSCH. Not our Lily of the Valley (lilium convallium); but the noblest flower that adorns our gardens, and which in Palestine grows wild in the fields. WILLIAMS. One of the plants in which the number six predominates in the distribution of their parts, as the Crocus, Asphodel, Daffodil, Lily, &c. KITTO. Takes its name from its six leaves or petals, and from its vivid silver whiteness: a perfect specimen has seven flowers on the spikeone at the head and six on the sides of the stem. Threefold Mystery. MERCER and AINSWORTH think it may be the woodbine, which grows and flourishes in hedges, and is sometimes called the lily among thorns. A common flower that throws itself out on every spot of ground. HARMER. The Huleh lily is very large, and the three inner petals meet above and form a gorgeous canopy, such as art has never approached: this incomparable flower delights most in the valleys, but is found also on the mountains. THOMSONS Land and the Book. from (emeq), a valley. The name not applied to ravines, but to the long broad sweeps sometimes found between parallel ranges of hills. STANLEY. Low places also fruitful places (1Ch. 27:29). AINSWORTH. Lily of the valleys more beautiful than those of the mountains, because always watered and less exposed to the heat. RASHI. Indicates a district not far from Sharon, as mentioned with it (1Ch. 27:29). M. STUART. The expression denotes an isolated and wild lily in the valleys. WFISS. The point of comparison in both cases is both the diminutive size of these plants, compared with cedars, cypresses, &c., and also their beauty and elegance; the Bride, though referring to her lowliness and rural simplicity, yet saying nothing derogatory to herself. ZCKLER.
Further Intercourse between the Betrothed.
Chapter 2. Son. 2:1-3
SHULAMITES SELF-DEPRECIATION
(Son. 2:1)
I am the rose of Sharon,
And the lily of the valleys.
The King and Shulamite still seated on their grassy couch. She, happy in his fellowship and love, and remembering her humble origin, appears to feel herself all unworthy of such a position, and with her eye on the wild flowers around her, to sigh out: I am but a wild flower of the plain, a humble lily in the valleys. This view of the words probably more correct than that to which we have long with pleasure been accustomed, and which is rather the one suggested by our English version, viz., that which ascribes these words to the King instead of the Bride. Scarcely likely that here, and here alone, the speaker commends himself. Self-commendation, however just and becoming in the true Bridegroom, not the language of love, nor in consonance with the context and the rest of the poem. The rose probably not the flower here intended; but one of the bulbous kind; perhaps the meadow-saffron, crocus, or narcissus. The flower both common and abundant, and with little or nothing striking in it. Natural, in the circumstances of the case, for Shulamite thus to depreciate herself in the presence of the King, of whose love she sees herself so unworthy. Commentators and versions divided on the passage; the older ones applying these words rather to the King, the moderns more generally to the Bride. The spiritual instruction precious in either case.
1. The believers feelings, in the enjoyment of the Saviours manifested presence and love, naturally those of deep humiliation and self-depreciation. Such the feelings of Mephibosheth at the Kings table, and of Peter on the revealed divinity of his Master in the fishing-boat. On the perception of Christs glory, and the sense of His love to ourselves, our thoughts naturally thrown on our own unworthiness. I am not worthy of the least of (Heb., I am less than) all the mercies and of all the truth which Thou hast showed unto Thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands (Gen. 32:10). So David: What am I, O Lord God? and what is my house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto? (2Sa. 7:18) and Elizabeth: Whence is this unto me, that the mother of my Lord should come unto me? (Luk. 1:42) Lowly views of ones self, and lofty views of Christ, the legitimate fruit of Divine communion. The lasting wonder of heaven and earth, that the King of Kings, possessed of infinite dignity and matchless excellence, should ally Himself in bridal union with a poor vile sinner.
How should it be, Thou heavenly King,
That Thou shouldst us to glory bring?
Make slaves the partners of Thy throne,
Deckd with a never fading crown.
Hence our hearts melt; our eyes oerflow;
Our words are lost; nor will we know,
Nor will we think of aught beside
My Lord, my love, is crucified.
2. The description in the text true of the believer.
(1) Nothing more in him than in the millions of his race. A fallen child of Adam, shapen in iniquity, and a child of wrath even as others (Eph. 2:2-3).
(2) Exposed to danger and destruction; like the flower of the field, ready to be trodden on, and crushed by every foot. Often accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Like his Master in the eyes of the worlda root out of a dry ground; despised and rejected of men.
(3) Often chosen from among the poor and illiterate. Ye see your calling, brethren; how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom? He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill; that He may set him with princes, even with the princes of His people (Psa. 113:7-8; 1Co. 1:26; Jas. 2:5).
THE KINGS COMMENDATION OF SHULAMITE
(Son. 2:2)
As the lily among thorns,
So is my love among the daughters.
To Shulamites self-depreciating remarkI am but a lily in the valleys,the King immediately replies: But as a lily among thorns, so is my love among and in comparison with all other women. The more a believer sees and acknowledges his own unworthiness, the more lovely he appears in the eyes of the Saviour, and the more does the Saviour assure him of His esteem and love. The language of the text true as addressed by Christ to His people. His eyes, which are as a flame of fire, view both believers and unbelievers in their real character. His testimony that of the Faithful and True Witness. His Church collectively and His people individually, while in this world and in comparison with others, a
Lily among Thorns.
In this Divine assertion, notice
I. The LILY. Uncertain what species of lily is meant. According to some, the Scarlet Martagon, which grows in profusion in the Levant. Possibly the White Amaryllis intended. A species mentioned by Salt, in his Voyage to Abyssinia, whose white petals are marked with a single streak of bright purple down the middle. Believers compared to lilies, from
1. Their beauty. Jesus speaks of the lilies of the field as adorned with a beauty to which that of Solomon, in all his glory, could not be compared. The Scarlet Martagon an exceedingly gorgeous flower. The wild flowers of Palestine in general very beautiful. Believers possessed of a moral and spiritual beautythe beauty of holiness. Made partakers of the Divine nature, which is love. Renewed after the image of God and conformed to the likeness of Christ, who is fairer than the children of men, and the embodiment of all beauty. Believers, as members of Christ, adorned with the graces of His Spiritlove, joy, peace, long-suffering, &c. Enabled by grace to cultivate, and increasingly to exhibit, whatsoever things are pure, just, lovely, and of good report (Php. 4:8; Gal. 5:22).
2. Their purity. The White Amaryllis, or our common white lily, an emblem of purity. Believers made, by Divine grace, pure both in heart and life. Enabled by the hope of seeing Christ as He is, to purify themselves even as He is pure. Have purified their hearts through obeying the truth. Are sanctified through the truth. Sanctified in Christ Jesus. Made clean through the Word He has spoken to them. As pure in heart, are admitted at death to the beatific vision of God.
3. Their humility. The White Amaryllis rises only two or three inches from the ground. The common white lily, with its drooping head, an emblem of humility and modesty. Believers called to be clothed with humility, and to learn of Him who was meek and lowly in heart. Made by Divine grace to be meek and poor in spirit. Represented by the Publican in the temple. Enabled to grow in humility as in other graces. Exemplified in Paul. His first acknowledgment: not worthy to be called an apostle; later on: less than the least of all saints; last of all: the chief of sinners. The heavier the ear of corn, the more it bends. A proud Christian a paradox. Faith essentially humble, as being simply emptiness receiving out of anothers fulness, and weakness leaning on a Saviours strength.
4. Their fragrance. According to Salt, the flower of the White Amaryllis is sweet scented, its smell resembling that of the Lily of the Valley, but much more powerful. Believers, according as they walk with Christ and possess His spirit, enabled to exercise a beneficial influence on others, and to diffuse a moral fragrance which makes their very presence a blessing. Gods promise even to penitent backsliders: I will be as the dew unto Israel; and as the consequence of ithe shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon: his branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon (Hos. 14:5-6). The believers privilege so to carry Christ with him as to be a perfume and a benefaction wherever he goes.
II. The THORNS. The ungodly so called (2Sa. 23:6). Compared to a thorn hedge (Mic. 7:4). Thorns as being
1. Unsightly. Little beauty in a thorn. As little in the unregenerate in the sight of God and angels. Men in their fallen state and still unrenewed by Divine grace, corrupt, filthy, and abominable; hateful and hating one another; under the power of a carnal mind, which is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. No truly good thing in them, or in the fallen nature which governs them. No longer bearing the moral image of God, but of His great adversary. Alienated from the life of God who is love, and dead in trespasses and in sins. Every imagination of the thoughts of their heart only evil continually (Gen. 6:5; Gen. 8:21; Psa. 14:1-3; Rom. 3:10, &c.; Son. 8:7-8; Tit. 3:3; Eph. 4:18; Eph. 2:1):
2. Hurtful. Thorns pierce the hand that takes hold of them, and tear those that come in contact with them. So the ungodly (2Sa. 23:6). The unregenerate hurtful to their neighbours. Their influence, both conscious and unconscious, for evil rather than good. Their example injurious, as turning others away from God rather than turning them to Him. The Divine testimony: One sinner destroyeth much good. Paul, in his unconverted state, a persecutor, and injurious. The poison of asps under the lips of the ungodly. Their feet swift to shed blood. The impenitent and unbelieving often grieving thorns in the sides of believers, and even of their nearest relatives and best friends. Their words often such as to leave a stain on the mind and a wound in the heart of others.
3. Unprofitable. Thorns and thistles part of the curse of barrenness inflicted on the earth for mans sin. Do men gather grapes of thorns? Thorns only useful in making a hedge for the protection of what may do good to others. The Divine testimony regarding men in their natural state: They are altogether become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good; no, not one (Rom. 3:12). The unregenerate unable to benefit men as immortal souls. Aim neither at bringing glory to God nor salvation to men. Are only employed by God for subordinate purposes, and as His unintentional instruments for the protection of His people and the interests of His kingdom. The final sentence pronounced on the ungodly: Take ye the unprofitable servant, &c.
4. Destined to destruction. Thorns, especially in the East, cut up to be burned, or set on fire as they grow (2Sa. 23:6; Isa. 9:18; Isa. 10:17; Isa. 27:4; Heb. 6:8). The end of the ungodly (Mat. 25:41).
III. The SITUATION OF THE LILY. Among thorns. Beautiful wild flowers in Palestine often seen growing in the midst of a thorn bush or a thorn hedge. Believers, while in this world, necessarily among unbelievers. In an ungodly world, though not of it. Saints in Csars household. The tares still suffered to grow among the wheat. The chaff and the wheat together till death separate them. Heaven or the new earth the only place where the thorns are not. The situation of believers among the ungodly over-ruled for their own improvement, for the benefit of others, and for the glory of Him whose grace makes them to differ, and whose power preserves them safe to His heavenly kingdom. The calling of believers, while in this world, to magnify the grace of God towards them, and to shew the excellency of His grace in them. Their aim to be among the unregenerate as the pure, modest, and harmless lily among thorns. Their loveliness, like that of the lily, to be all the more manifest and striking from their situation. Believers not to be surprised if called to suffer tribulation and persecution from the world. A lily among thorns likely enough to be torn by them. Their comfort that it is only here, and for a short time, that their situation is that of a lily among thorns.
IV. The SUPERIORITY OF THE LILY TO THE THORN. The language expressive of comparison as well as situation. The lily superior to the thorns among which it grows. So believers in relation to the world (1Jn. 5:19). The righteous more excellent than his neighbour. Believers superior to others
1. In Character. Believers renewed in the spirit of their mind after the image of God. Have Christ dwelling in them as their inward life, so that they become like Him who was holy, harmless, and undefiled. Created anew in Christ unto good works; and engrafted into Him, so as to bring forth the fruits of the Spiritlove, joy, peace, long-suffering, &c.
2. In Usefulness to others. Believers, from the new Divine nature implanted in them, able to benefit others for eternity as well as for time. Enabled by the Spirit of Christ in them to act upon the words of Christ: It is more blessed to give than to receive. Freely ye have received, freely give. Are qualified for being made, like Christ, a blessing to the world, by their example, their prayers, and their personal efforts. The salt of the earth, and the lights of the world. Unbelievers rather a hindrance than a furtherance to the real interests of others.
3. In their Final Destiny. Believers at death are transplanted in their spirits, and at the Lords appearing also in their bodies, to a happier clime, to bloom as immortal lilies in the Paradise of God. Destruction and eternal death the end of the impenitent and unbelieving (Rom. 6:21; Rom. 6:23; Php. 3:19). As thorns, destined to everlasting burnings (Isa. 33:12; Isa. 33:14; Rev. 21:8).
Application. The world divided into two parts, lilies and thornsregenerate and unregenerate, believers and unbelievers. To which do I belong? Am I lily or a thorn? All are thorns by nature. Lilies only made such by regenerating grace. Have I undergone this change? Out of a thorn has almighty grace made me a lily? If not, am I willing that it should be so now? Thorns spared for this purpose. The grace that has transformed others able to transform you also. That grace offered. Jesus, working in the Gospel by His Spirit, still transforms lilies into thorns, and is ready even now to transform you. He says: Look unto me, and be ye saved; Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; He that believeth on me though he were dead, yet shall he live. Wilt thou be made whole?
SHULAMITES COMMENDATION OF HER BELOVED
Son. 2:3
As the apple-tree
Among the trees of the wood;
So is my beloved
Among the sons.
I sat down under His shadow
With great delight,
And His fruit
Was sweet to my taste.
Shulamite compares her beloved to an apple or citron tree growing among, or compared with, the common trees of the wood. The comparison natural. The lovers surrounded with trees as well as flowers. ObserveThe more Christ shews His love to His people, the more they are drawn to commend Him as their Beloved. If Christ can commend the imperfect, and in Himself worthless, believer; how much more should the believer commend Him who is perfection and loveliness itself! Christ compared to
The Apple-Tree.
The word applicable to any tree of the class to which the apple-tree belongs. The Hebrew term expressive of the fragrance of the fruit. Probably the citron intended. The orange still common in Palestine, especially on the sea-coast. Perhaps more so than formerly. The citron-tree distinguished for its fruit, its foliage, and its shade. Hence its superiority to the common trees of the wood. Other trees might perhaps equal it in shade, but without the fruit or its beautiful appearance. All excellence and beauty comprehended in Christ. Compared with Him, mankind in general, and even believers themselves, only as the common trees of the wood, compared with the beautiful and shady citron or orange-tree with its golden, fragrant, and delicious fruit. The world itself little worth to him who knows Christ. What things were gain to me these I counted loss for Christ; yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord (Php. 3:7-8). Observe
I. The COMPARISON made. As the apple-tree, &c. The comparison of the Beloved to the apple or citron-tree made
1. From its appearance. The citron-tree, larger, nobler, and more beautiful in appearance than the trees of the wood; for example, the dwarf oak, so common in Palestine. The citron or orange-tree, with its dark green glossy foliage, its white blossoms, and its golden fruit, a picture of beauty. So Christ; the chief among ten thousand, fairer than the children of men. Has in all things the pre-eminence over both angels and men. The first-born among many brethren. They priests; He the High Priest. They kings; He the King of kings. They pearls; He the One pearl of great price. The highest, greatest, and best among men but as the low stunted shrub, or common wild-tree, in presence of the noble and beautiful citron.
2. From its shade. The foliage of the citron or orange-tree not only beautiful, but thick, and affording an agreeable shade. So Christ affords shelter and shade
(1) To awakened sinners, from the scorching sentence of Gods righteous and broken law. The sinner, while out of Christ, pursued by the fiery law with its terrible curse: The soul that sinneth it shall die; Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. In Christ alone, as enduring the curse for him, can he find shelter. But there he can and does. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for us. In Him we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7; Gal. 3:10). There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).
(2) To tried and tempted believers. Tribulation the appointed lot of believers in this world. Persecution unavoidable to those who will live godly in Christ Jesus. For a season, at times in heaviness through manifold temptations. Sometimes tried with fiery trials. Christ then their shade and shelter. In me ye shall have peace. When thou walkest in the fire, I will be with thee. Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God. His presence with them as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. His grace promised to be sufficient for their both doing and suffering all His will. Hence enabled to rejoice even in tribulation and made more than conquerors through Him that loved them. Christ crucified, the shadow between sinners and the heat of Gods wrath; Christ crowned, the shadow between believers and the wrath of men and devils. The shadow of Christ, the true apple-tree, gives life as well as peace and comfort to those who sit under it. Every other shadow only that of the deadly upas. A religion of the flesh to be avoided, which is only a sitting under the shadow of the letter which killeth. Divine wisdom, to sit only under the shadow of Him who is the Truth and the Life.
3. From its Fruit. The fruit of the apple, citron, or orange tree, fragrant, delicious, and refreshing. Such the fruit of Christ. That fruit
(1) The redemption accomplished on the cross, with all the varied blessings of the everlasting covenant for time and eternity, flowing out of it.
(2) The doctrines of grace in which that redemption is unfolded, and which are revealed in the Scriptures.
(3) The promises of the Word, exceeding great and precious, adapted to every case and condition, and all Yea and Amen to them that believe.
(4) The ordinances of the Gospel; as prayer, the preaching of the Word, and pre-eminently the Lords Supper. The fruit Christs, as
(1) Procured through Him in His obedience unto death.
(2) Found in Him.
(3) Communicated by Him. On this apple-tree hangs fruit for immortal souls and dying sinners, and that in richest abundance. Fruit sweeter than that of Eden, with neither sin nor danger in the eating of it. Instead of a prohibition and threatened death, here is a free invitation and promised life. Instead of a flaming sword turning every way to guard its access, a silver trumpet sounds, proclaiming liberty of approach to all comers: Come, buy and eat, without money and without price; eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. The fruit offered by the god of this world, however fair and inviting in appearance, found at last to be only wormwood: the grapes of Sodom and the clusters of Gomorrha.
II. The EXPERIENCE related. I sat, &c. The very remembrance of an enjoyed Saviour sweet.
What peaceful hours I then enjoyd!
How sweet their memory still!
The text expressive of repose and enjoyment. A beautiful illustration of faith in exercise. Exhibits
(1) Sense of exposure and weariness.
(2) Discovery in Christ of what meets our case.
(3) Trust in and appreciation of Him for the wants of our soul.
(4) Feeling of security, peace, and satisfaction.
(5) Continuance in such a state. Observe
(1) Whatever Christ is, He is to be to us personally and experimentally. In whatever aspect He is exhibited in the world, in that He is to be appropriated, embraced, and made use of. Entire confidence to be placed, and full complacency taken, in Him and in His finished work. As the apple tree, we are to sit down under His cooling shade, and partake of His refreshing fruit. Not enough to be near the shade, or to gaze upon the fruit. Without appropriation and personal use, men die even in sight of the Apple-tree. The awakened sinner to believe the testimony concerning Christ as a Saviour, and cordially to appropriate it for his own present and eternal benefit.
(2) The preciousness of Divine grace that has not only made such provision for our souls necessities, but inclines and enables us to make use of it. By grace ye are saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8).
Why was I made to hear Thy voice,
And enter while theres room?
While thousands make a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come.
Twas the same love which spread the feast,
That sweetly drew me in;
Else I had still refused to taste,
And perished in my sin.
(3) Coming under the shadow of Christ for defence from the laws curse, we are invited to to sit down and partake of His fruit. The fruit of the apple-tree for those who come under its shadow. Joy and comfort in Christ the immediate result of faith in His blood. So the awakened jailor rejoiced, believing in the Saviour preached to him by Paul and Silas. The believing Eunuch went on his way rejoicing (Act. 8:39; Act. 16:34).
(4) Christs fruit sweet to the taste of those who come under His shadow. To you that believe He is precious. A spiritual taste and a carnal one. As a man is, so is his taste. Truth in the proverbeach man to his taste. The taste of the carnal and unrenewed only carnal, and for the things that are seen and temporalthe pleasures of sin, which are but for a season. The taste of a man different from that of the swine at the swine-trough. A refined and cultivated taste the result of civilization, training, and education. The taste of a believer the result of regeneration and the impartation of a new spiritual and divine nature. Hence his taste for what is spiritual, divine, and heavenly, instead of what is only carnal and earthly. Unspeakable mercy to be blessed with a renewed nature and a spiritual taste. A mans misery to be left under the dominion of an earthly, carnal, and depraved taste. To such a taste Christ and heaven itself entirely without attraction. The place of torment the only future abode for a carnal taste. The object of the Holy Spirits work to change a mans taste. Hence the first step in his conversionconviction of his sin and misery, and the worthlessness of the world to a dying sinner and an immortal soul (Joh. 4:13-14; Luk. 15:14-19). To a renewed soul and a spiritual taste, Christ and His salvation infinitely sweeter than the choicest pleasures of a perishing world.
Application. Has this been my experience? Is it so now? Have I seen my exposure, as a sinner, to Divine wrath, and fled to Christ for shelter? Have I appropriated Him as just the shelter I need; and am I now using and enjoying Him as such? Have I found delight in Him and in His salvation? Has His work of redemption and the word of His grace been sweet to my taste? Is it so now? All have their different tastes: what is mine? Is it spiritual or carnal? Christ or the world? Lord, give me a spiritual taste. Make Christ precious to me as a sinner, as He is to all that believe. Give me, as a believing sinner, to sit down under His shadow with great delight, and to find His fruit sweet to my taste.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
TEXT 1:152:6
c.
Description of a conversation between the Shepherd and the Shepherdess, Son. 1:15 to Son. 2:6.
Dialogue: Shepherd, Son. 1:15
15. Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold thou art fair; thine eyes are as doves.
Shulammite, Son. 1:16 to Son. 2:1
16. Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea pleasant: also, our couch is green. 17. The beams of our house are cedars, and our rafters are firs. Son. 2:1. I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS 1:152:6
43.
Are we to conclude that the shepherd has made an actual appearance? Discuss.
44.
The words of the shepherd are so important to the shepherdess that she has remembered them verbatimis this the thought?
45.
In what particular manner were the eyes of the Shulammite like doves?
46.
How is the term pleasant used in Son. 1:16?
47.
Where was the green couch?
48.
The description of beams and rafters is poeticwhat is actually involved?
49.
In the context the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley is in reference to the maiden. Why is it so often applied to our Lord? Discuss.
PARAPHRASE 1:152:1
Dialogue: Shepherd, Son. 1:15
15.
Lo, thou art fair, O my companion!
Lo, thou art fair, thine eyes are dove-like!
Shulammite, Son. 1:16Son. 2:1
16.
No, thou art the fair and pleasing one, my beloved, See, our couch is green;
17.
The beams of our apartments are of cedar, and our rafters of cypress.
Son. 2:1
I am but a wild flower of the Sharon plain, a common anemone of the valleys.
COMMENT 1:152:1
Exegesis Son. 1:15 to Son. 2:1
The shepherd speaks again of his rapture in the presence of his bride. Actually all of this dialogue is but a soliloquy on the part of the bride. She in imagination hears him say these words to her. Perhaps she had heard them often before so it was easy to repeat them. Constant companionship is a large part of courting. As he once again looked into the eyes of his beloved he sees in their open, transparent, soft expression something similar to what he often observed in the eyes of a dove. The total impression of the dove is included in the comparison. The altertness, the quick perception, the softness are all involved in what he sees. Doves are thought of as emblematic of gentleness and guilelessness (Mat. 10:16). They are noted also for constancy, having but one mate for life, and are said to mourn when the mate is absent. (Clarke)
The bride reciprocates, she says in effect, you are the fair one. The term fair refers to physical appearance, she adds a wordnot only are you acceptable to the eyesyour personality is most pleasing. Both the outward and the inward view are a source of happiness. In her heart, the green couch of the woodland is much to be desired over the luxuriant divans in Solomons palace. In but recent days they had sat together and shared the communion of lovers.
To the Shulammites poetic fancy the interlacing boughs of cedar and cypress trees formed overhead the ceiling of their house. It is no uncommon thing for lovers to dream of their future house. She may be intentionally suggesting a contrast with the splendors of Solomons grand house (1Ki. 7:1 ff). House (houses the Hebrew plural of excellence). The thrice repeated ours shows a sweet consciousness of a shared possession. (Clarke)
We should ignore the chapter divisions. The bride is still speakingshe considers herself as but a wild flower. She identifies herself with one of the two most common flower varieties. The rose of the plain of Sharon was most probably a narcissus or meadow saffron.
The term lily is used six times in this bookSon. 2:1-2; Son. 2:16; Son. 4:5; Son. 5:13; Son. 6:2-3; Son. 7:2. It most likely refers to the scarlet anemone which grows in such profusion in several places in Samaria and Galilee. Mat. 6:28 seems to be a reference to such a lily.
A not too covert comparison is being made in such a reference. She is sayingHow could you find me among the many maidens of the village?I am so small and ordinary.
Marriage Son. 1:15 to Son. 2:1
Our wife will never know how she appears in our eyes unless we tell her! Our compliments must not only be sincere but distinctively individual. If your wifes eyes do not look like those of a dove do not use this as a compliment. There is indeed a metaphor or simile especially applicable to her. You can be sure your wife will respond very much like the Shulammiteshe hardly knows how to handle it, except that she is pleased and returns the compliment. Once again, we must be reminded that environment is so important to our wife. She does not remember your kisses only, but also the green couch and the beautiful ceiling where they were given. As much as at all possible we should prepare the place for her. Comfort, and natural beauty are a much more meaningful gift than a multitude of things which many times have no personal meaning.
So many wives have a very low self-imagethey want to believe they are indeed the fair one in the eyes of their husbands, but many times they feel much more like a very ordinary rose among ten thousand more on the wide plain of Sharon; or like a humble lily hidden away in a valley. How fondly do they hope someone will notice them and lift them out of obscurity and anonymity. Each person has an important identity of themselves but your wife to a large extent has her identity with you and of you. The person who cannot appreciate another will themselves fail to be appreciated.
Communion Son. 1:15 to Son. 2:1
We believe the words of these verses can have a wonderful meaning for the believer and his Lord. Can we imagine our Lord speaking of us in the words of Son. 1:15?Lo, thou art fair, O my companion! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, when our Lord considers us as justified, sanctified, redeemed, adopted, saved, are indeed fair. It is an imputed beautybut a beauty none-the-less.
That He would condescend to be our companion is a wonder of all wonders. As we abide in Him and with Him does He see in our eyes the dove-like quality of trust and purity and fidelity? The eyes are the windows of the soulwhat would it be to have Him look fully into our eyes? He does, He is! Companionship with Him can allow the dove within us i.e., the Other Comforter to develop His life within ussome-day it will be no longer self who looks out of this house but heavens dove.
It is easy for us to lavish praise upon Himwe are quick to return the compliment and at the same time we are humbled by His attention to us. Our beloved is indeed fair and pleasant. We read of His beauty in the gospel accounts and find it true in our experience. He is not only fair to observe but pleasant to live with. We offer no sensual association in our communion with our Lord, for He is Spirit and not flesh and bones. We feel none-the-less a strong attachment to Him and count the times and places of deep communion and meditation as a trysting place of love. As the maiden remembers her house which became our house, we can remember many occasions and places we could call Bethel i.e., the house of God and the gate of heaven.
All of this for one who is but a poor rose and unnoticed lily!
FACT QUESTIONS 1:152:1
69.
Did the shepherd ever actually say what is attributed to him in Son. 1:15?
70.
In what way were the eyes of the maid dove-like?
71.
Doves are emblematic of what?
72.
What is meant by the term fair as used here?
73.
Why add the term pleasant to the description of the shepherd?
74.
Where and what was the green couch?
75.
To what does she refer in reference to the cedar and cypress?
76.
How is the terms rose of Sharon and lily of the valley used?
77.
Should we make up compliments for our wives? Discuss.
78.
In our attendance to our wife what is she the most likely to remember?
79.
Do some wives have the wrong self-image? What should we do to help? Discuss.
80.
Can we really imagine our Lord describing us as in Son. 1:15? Discuss.
81.
What happens when we are willing to have our Lord as our constant companion?
82.
How is our beloved both fair and pleasant? Discuss.
83.
Have we exaggerated the comparison in our discussion of Son. 1:16-17 as related to the communion of the Holy Spirit? Discuss.
TEXT 2:22:7
Dialogue: Shepherd Son. 2:2
Son. 2:2. Like a lily among the thorns, so is my darling among the maidens.
Shulammite, Son. 2:3 a
Son. 2:3 a. Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men.
Aside to Court Ladies, Son. 2:3 b Son. 2:4
Son. 2:3 b. In his shade I took great delight and sat down, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. 4. He has brought me to his banquet hall, and his banner over me is love.
Appeal to Court Ladies, Son. 2:5-6
5. Sustain me with raisin cakes, refresh me with apples, because I am lovesick. 6. Let his left hand be under my head and his right hand embrace me.
Adjuration to Court Ladies, Son. 2:7 (first)
7. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field, that you will not arouse or awaken my love, until she pleases.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS 2:27
50.
The shepherd accepts his brides estimate of herself but turns it to her advantage. Why? Was it true?
51.
The shepherd is compared to an apple treedo apples grow in the Holy Land? What is meant by the comparison to the other trees?
52.
Two thoughts seem prominent in 3b. What are they?
53.
What type of banquet house could a humble shepherd afford? What kind of meal would be served?
54.
How is the term banner used? (What was the purpose of the banner? This is the crucial question).
55.
The maiden is in distress as stated in verse five. What is her problem and what assistance does she suggest?
56.
How does verse six relate to verse five?i.e., does verse six offer a solution to the maids problem as stated in verse five?
57.
Verse seven is repeated twice more in the text (cf. Son. 3:5 and Son. 8:4). Please attempt an interpretation of your own. Is there any application in this for us? Discuss.
PARAPHRASE 2:27
Dialogue: Shepherd Son. 2:2
2.
As an anemone growing among brambles
so is my companions among the maidens.
Shulammite Son. 2:3 a
3(a)
As a citron tree among the trees of the forest,
So is my beloved among the young men.
Shulammite to Court Ladies Son. 2:3 b Son. 2:4
3(b)
In his shade I delight to sit down,
And his fruit is sweet to my taste.
4.
He has brought me into his banqueting house,
And his banner waving over me is inscribed, love.
5.
Sustain me with raisin-cakes,
Refresh me with citrons,
For I am lovesick.
6.
Oh, that his left hand were under my head,
And his right hand supporting me!
Adjuration to Court Ladies Son. 2:7 (first)
7.
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
By the gazelles and the hinds of the field
That ye arouse not nor stir up love
Until itself is pleased to awaken.
COMMENT 2:27
Exegesis Son. 2:2-7
The shepherd picks up the figure used by the Shulammite and once again turns it to her advantage. He says in essence: You are indeed a lily or flower but compared to those among whom you live you are like a lovely bloom among brambles. He could be emphasizing the jealousy engendered by her beauty in his reference to thorns or brambles.
The word translated apple in the American Standard version is much better thought of as a citron tree. Apples do not grow well in the Holy Land. An orange tree seems to fit the description perfectly. Such a tree with its evergreen heavy foliage and golden fruit would indeed stand out amid the cypress, fir or cedar trees. Among the other young men so did her beloved stand out. It might be of import to notice the contrast: she is a flower, he is a tree. This is a subtle compliment on her part.
It is so refreshing to contemplate the transparent sincerity of this country lass in the affluence of Solomons palace. She turns to the women of the harem, and with the direct simplicity of youth she describes her relationship to the shepherd. In contrast to the trees with no fruit is my beloved who offers fruit and shade. The orange tree blossoms and bears fruit at the same time. Refreshment and rest amid lovely fragrance are both offered by my beloved. She takes great delight in his presence and is satisfied with what he offers her of himself.
The maiden is in the banquet room of Solomonbut she much prefers the banquet hall of her beloved. And just what would that be? A humble, but beautiful vine arbor in the midst of the vineyards. Read 1Ki. 4:7; 1Ki. 4:22-23; 1Ki. 10:21, for a description of the gold vessels Solomon used in his feasts. A canopy was often spread above the host and principle guests at a feast and richly decorated according to the means of the former. (Clarke) Perhaps this is the banner referred to by the maid. It could be that banner is to be thought of as a standard of protection such as those used in battle. Cf. Num. 1:52; Num. 5:10; Num. 6:4; Num. 6:10; Num. 10:14; Num. 10:18; Num. 10:23; Num. 10:25. It was a rallying-point and guide to give encouragement and confidence to those on a weary march or those amid extreme conflict. So the bride, transplanted from her lowly station to new scenes of unwanted splendor, finds support and safety in the known attachment she has with her beloved. (Cook)
Are we to imagine that this bride-to-be is actually physically ill from her loss of her loved one? It is possibleshe has lost her appetite and has not eatenshe is weak and in need of refreshment. Sustain me with raisin-cakes, refresh me with citrons, for I am lovesick. There was someone else who was sustained by raisin-cakesread 1Sa. 30:12 to find out who it was. Orange blossoms were once used in the East to revive the bridemuch like we would use smelling salts. It is from this custom that orange blossoms have been associated with marriage. It would seem that Solomon and his court and courting made her weak and sick but not of love.
As we attempt an understanding of verse six it would seem difficult to imagine a posture for the maiden and her lover in which his left hand could be under her head and his right hand supporting her unless they were lying down. This is an obvious reference to the intimate embrace of the marriage bed, it is repeated in Son. 8:3. With this kind of total involvement in the mind of the maid, Solomon has but a superficial interest for her.
The seventh verse is most interesting inasmuch as it is repeated in Son. 3:5 and Son. 8:4. It seems to be a faithful axiom to which we should give heed. What does it say? It is an adjuration that no attempt to kindle love by unworthy means should be made, for true love awakens spontaneously. It should owe nothing to improper stimulation by others, but be as free and unfettered as the life of the gentle creatures here mentioned. (Clarke) It would seem the ladies of the court were attempting to get her to accept the affections of the King much as they had. No doubt those members of the harem were quite proficient in the art of sex stimulation. Where such desires are aroused apart from the person for whom they are reserved disappointment and frustration is the inevitable result. Genuine love is a shy and gentle affection which dreads intrusion and scrutiny (here the reference to the gazelles and hinds, shy and timid creatures) but dangerous in its strength and vehemence, if heedlessly awakenedas strong as death and as cruel as the grave (Son. 8:4-5). Be shy of love, lest, like the silly fawn that runs to look the lion in the face, one heedless gaze betray thee to thy death. (Cook)
Marriage Son. 2:2-7
How could we possibly find a more practical passage for present day marriage relationship? Believe it or not you could never, never tell your wife often enough that she is the fairest of women to you. (Of course, she must have been or you would not have made her your choice.) If we look closely she will become more fair each passing day. But she will never know it until we express itand with evident feeling! Once we convince our wife that she is indeed in our eyes all we say she is we shall not wait long for a reciprocal response from her. We can easily be a stand out winner with our wifewho else has access to her heart like her husband? Do we offer protection and refreshment? We are thinking of much more than physical protection and refreshment. A constant consistent solicitous attitude about every relationship along with planned times of mental and physical refreshment will create a genuine appetite for a repeated visit to the shade of your tree and refreshment from your hand. How easy it would be to expand on this section until we had a sizeable marriage manual. We cannot do this but we do want to say every husband (beginning with the writer) must have a banquet room for his wifehe must often lead her to itover it all is the lovely canopy inscribed Love. We are thinking of all that nourishesyour wordswhich is food for the mind and heartfood also for the body, a sense of abundance in more than sharinga total giving of self for the needs and enjoyment of your beloved.
Of all persons our wives know the meaning of verse seven. When artificial or crude means are used in a vain attempt to awaken love the results might be disastrous! If we are not willing to accept the nature of love as possessed by our wives we had best leave the lovely creature in the seclusion of her own forest. She is willing to come out, nay she wants to be foundbut not with a bull horn! If courtship is not continued beyond marriage we are due to find out just how strong and cruel love can beand we deserve it! I shall not leave here instructions on how to attract your gazelle or lure your deer. After all she belongs to you.
Communion Son. 2:2-7
As much as we see in this text for help in a happy marriage we see even more in a happy relationship with our Lord. Project yourself into this dialogue: My Love to You:
As a lovely flower amid the brambles of the earth so art thou my companion to me. In the midst of the many, yea multitudes who are lost I see each and every one who is saved. I would love to transform every thorn into a flowerbut I want you to know that I am looking intently, with great fond interest on youI can also identify every bramble and its relation to you. How beautiful you appear to me. How deeply I want your constant companionship. We can hardly believe this. It is only true because in love He looks at us through grace. We Respond to His Love:
As an evergreen tree who constantly bears delicious fruit and delightful blossoms in the midst of a forest of trees with no foliage or fruit art thou to me. I have found much more than a refuge in your presence. In the contemplation of your beauty is the fullness of joy. We Advertise to Others:
Relish these wordsrethink each one lest they become commonplace. In the calmness that is mine through my awareness of your love and omnipotence I delight to sit down. When I eat the words you leave me in your book they are so nourishing and sweet to my taste. The more I am willing to sit in your heavenly places the more overwhelmed I am with your abundant provisions. I find in my contemplation of just the four accounts of your love through your Life a whole expansive banquet room. The table is laiden with all my favorite food. Upon entering the room I saw emblazoned over the whole wall a banner and on it were these wordsI love you.
A Warning to Those Who Might Think to Presume Upon His Love:
I adjure you by all the meekness and tenderness of the lovely One: do not push into His presence and demand He express His love for you. Foolish One! How could He more fully show you His heart?it was pierced for you! Stay with Him until in your meditation and exchange of conversation, emotions are awakened. Praise Him and sing of HimHe is love and you shall know it.
FACT QUESTIONS 2:27
82.
What was intended as deprecation was turned to a compliment? How?
83.
Show how the orange tree with its golden fruit perfectly fulfills the figure of speech here used.
84.
There is a sharp contrast between the shepherd and other menmuch like the contrast of treeswhat is it?
85.
What was the banquet room of her beloved?
86.
What was the banner of the banquet room?
87.
Are we to imagine the bride is actually physically ill with love? How was she to be helped?
88.
To what act does verse six refer?
89.
Give your own interpretation of verse seven.
90.
Is it really necessary to tell our wives how attractive they are to us? Discuss.
91.
We can easily be a stand out winner with our wife.
Explain. How? Why?
92.
Every husband must have a banquet room for his wife. Explain and discuss.
93.
Discuss the positive and negative qualities involved in discussing husbands among women.
94.
Of all persons wives know the meaning of verse seven. Explain and discuss.
95.
Love can be strong and cruel as well as soft and gentle. Explain.
96.
Do you really believe our Lord looks upon us as we have described Him under My Love To You?
97.
How can we compare our Lord to other persons?
98.
Discuss the meaning and application of the thoughts expressed under We Advertise to Others.
99.
Isnt the thought exaggerated beyond meaning under the heading A Warning to Those Who Might Think to Presume Upon His Love? Discuss.
100.
What is the warning of verse seveni.e., as it relates to our Lord?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
II.
(1) The rose.Heb., chabatseleth. The identification of this flower is a much vexed question. From its derivation, it should be a bulbous plant (batsala bulb), and it happens that the flower which for other reasons best satisfies the requirements is of this kind, viz., the Sweet-scented Narcissus (Narcissus tazetta). Others have suggested the crocus, of which there are many species very common, but they are deficient in perfume, and there is no bulb more fragrant than the narcissus; it is, besides, one of which the Orientals arc passionately fond. While it is in flower it is to be seen in all the bazaars, and the men as well as the women always carry two or three blossoms, at which they are continually smelling (Tristram, Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 477). Dr. Thomson prefers the mallow, from the fact that the Arabs call it khubbazey. In Isa. 35:1, the only other place where chabatseleth occurs, the LXX., Vulg., and Chaldee render lily, and many eminent moderns autumn crocus. Here the LXX. and the Vulg. have flower.
Of Sharon.Better, of the plain, as in the LXX. Here (as invariably except 1Ch. 5:16) the Hebrew has the article before sharon, but without definite local allusion to the district north of Philistia. The verse is by many taken as a snatch of a song into which the heroine breaks in answer to the eulogies on her beauty. It is certainly spoken with modest and lowly intention: I am a mere flower of the plain, a lily of the valley; by no means like Tennysons Queen lily and rose in one.
Lily.So the LXX. and Vulg.; Heb., shshanath (fem. of shshan, or shshan; comp. name Susan), a word occurring seven times in the poem, three times in 1 Kings 7, and in the headings to Psalms 45, 60, 69, 80. The Arabs have the word, and apply it to any brilliantly coloured flower, as the tulip, anemone, ranunculus. Although many plants of the lily tribe flourish in Palestine, none of them give a predominant character to the flora. There are, however, many other plants which would in popular language be called lilies. Of these, the Irises may claim the first mention; and Dr. Thomson (Land and Book, p. 256) unhesitatingly fixes on one, which he calls Huleh Lily, or the Lily of the Gospel and of the Song of Songs. Our flower, he says, delights most in the valleys, but it is also found in the mountains. It grows among thorns, and I have sadly lacerated my hands while extricating it from them. . . . Gazelles still delight to feed among them, and you can scarcely ride through the woods north of Tabor, where these lilies abound, without frightening them from their flowery pasture. Tristram, however, prefers the Anemone (A. coronaria), the most gorgeously painted, the most conspicuous in spring, and the most universally spread of all the treasures of the Holy Land (Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 464).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. I am the rose, etc. Better, I am but a flower of the field; that is, a common, unpretentious flower. This is the modest language of the Enamoured, in self-depreciation, in response to the compliments just conveyed. That love exaggerates is a maxim in literature.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
SECTION 1.
The First Assignation of The Lovers ( Son 1:2
In this first section a young Northern maiden is thinking about the handsome young shepherd king, Solomon, who has won her heart, and has clearly shown her some depth of affection. She is filled with expectancy because he has invited her to a feast in his palatial tent, and it soon becomes apparent that, initially at least, she has no real idea of the splendor of his position, but rather sees him as a glorified shepherd (possibly like her own tribal chieftains to whom she may well have been related – compare Exo 3:1).
THE YOUNG MAIDEN (visualizing her beloved in the light of the fact that she will shortly be seeing him).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
“Behold, you are fair, my beloved, yes, handsome (‘pleasant), Also our couch is green. The beams of our house are cedars, And our rafters are firs. I am a crocus of Sharon, A lily of the valleys.”
The young country maiden replies with similar compliments, and then speaks of her hopes to lie with her beloved on the green grass and herbs beneath the boughs of the great cedars and firs. That will be their house. This is her view of courting, for she is not yet acclimatized to her new role. After all she is but a crocus of Sharon, on the coastal plain in the north, and a lily of the valleys, enjoying a Northern beauty. She was not to know, when she described herself in this way, that one day a greater than Solomon would declare, ‘Consider the lilies of the field, they toil not neither do they spin, and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these’ (Mat 6:28-29). Yet she is certainly aware of their beauty. She is not denigrating herself, but pointing out that she is of the valleys and the hills. So she is content with simple things, and with country life. She is not concerned with grandeur and fine palaces, only with being with her beloved and enjoying him in beautiful country surroundings. She does not yet quite appreciate whom her beloved is.
‘Also our couch is green.’ Greenness was seen as resulting from the activity of the sun and as indicating fullness of blessing (Job 8:16). It was an indication of restoration after the barren summer, resulting from the effects of rain and sun, when God had blessed the earth. Note also the reference to cedars as a roof over their head. In Son 8:9 it will be boards of cedar wood that possibly enclose her little sister in order to prevent her from straying, but here the protection for her is from the heat of the sun.
The prophets regularly looked back to the time in the wilderness as being a time when Israel were purer and sought their God more truly (Jer 2:2-3; Jer 2:13). Thus the song reminds God’s people that He can be found in the simple things of the countryside, as Jesus would later. The great cities were regularly looked on as the sources of evil and idolatry. And it is noteworthy that when Jesus came He avoided the great cities, and tended more to minister in the country towns and the open spaces. He too felt that men and women were nearer to God there than in the cities. It is a reminder to us that we need regularly to get away from the demands of life into a quiet place where we can meet with Him. And it is interesting that when He sat down the people to eat the bread of His new covenant that too was on ‘the green grass’ (Mar 6:39). Perhaps Mark had in mind these words from the Song of Solomon.
Like the young maiden we too find it difficult to become acclimatized to the fact that our Beloved is a King, and more. That is why we worry so much. And we seek to bring Him down to our level. And very graciously, as Solomon did with this maiden, He comes to us where we are and meets us on our own ground, spending time with us in our own surroundings, and assuring us of His love, waiting for a full recognition of all that He is to dawn on us.
The BELOVED again speaks.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Courtship (Scene 1: The Shepherd’s Flock and the King’s Banquet House) (Justification) Literal Interpretation – Son 1:5 to Son 2:7 describes love’s first passions within the courtship of King Solomon and the Shulamite maiden. There are two scenes in this first song. The setting for the first scene (Son 1:5-11) places the Shulamite in the fields of the shepherds. The second scene (Son 1:12 to Son 2:7) finds her in the evening banquet hall and in nighttime rest. The king’s palace is where King Solomon has taken a young Shulamite lady from a northern province of Israel, whom he intends on making his bride in much the same way that Esther was first brought to the royal palace by the king and prepared for one year before entering into his bed chamber. We know this because the passage refers to the king’s table (Son 1:12) and banquet hall (Son 2:4).
Son 1:5-7 – In Son 1:5-6 the Shulamite begins by expressing her initial insecurities and embarrassment over her dark complexion. Her dark skin reveals that she has worked in the field, unlike the other fair maidens that the king could have chosen. These comments by the beloved express her feelings of inadequacies, symbolic of being tainted with sin. It shows that she has not entered into rest in her soul, and is not fully content and assured in her relationship with her beloved, and thus, she longs to find rest with her beloved (Son 1:7), which will not be found until Son 8:10. She does not know that her destiny and service for the king will bring her back to the vineyards, but not her own vineyard, nor that of her brothers, where she was forced to labour under the sun; now she will work in the vineyards of the king (Son 8:12).
Son 8:10, “I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.”
Son 8:12, “My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.”
Son 1:8-11 – In Son 1:8-11 we have the first response of the Lover. She has asked for a special place with him in the shepherd’s field (Son 1:7); for she did not want to be like the other veiled women who were unspoken for. He replies by telling her to go and feed by the tents of the shepherds (Son 1:8) while assuring her of his devoted love for her alone (Son 1:9-11). Note that this description of his beloved is relatively short compared to his later descriptions.
Son 1:12 to Son 2:7 – In Son 1:12 to Son 2:2 we see a series of communications exchanged between the two lovers as they speak words of love. As a result, the beloved falls more deeply in love and becomes “lovesick” (Son 2:3-5). She longs for his close embrace (Son 2:6) and warns other young virgins not to fall into this passion before its proper time (Son 2:7), because such passion is difficult to manage. At this point in love’s journey she has not entered into rest.
Figurative Interpretation Figuratively speaking, Son 1:5 to Son 2:7 can be interpreted allegorically as man first coming to Christ and accepting God’s love for him. Its figurative interpretation may be understood to symbolize a person who becomes saved; however, within this love song, a person becomes aware of and accepts God’s love for him.
The first scene (Son 1:5-11) reflects our labours of love for the Lord when we first come to Christ. The two statements, “feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents,” and “I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh’s chariots,” (Son 1:8-9) both reflect service. Even new believers have ways to serve the Lord. I had a job when I rededicated my life to the Lord, so I immediately began to tithe. I was soon teaching Sunday school as an additional way of serving. The second scene (Son 1:12 to Son 2:6) reflects our time of rest and communion with the Lord. We rest in an abundance of newly discovered blessings as babes in Christ.
Even while we are newly saved, and still behave somewhat like the world, our heart bears witness to God’s redemptive love for us (Son 1:5-6). In these two verses of Scripture the Shulamite maiden expresses her awareness of his love for her in spite of her shortcomings. A new believer begins to seek direction in this spiritual journey, one that can be found by following the same journey the saints of old have walked (Son 1:7-8). He sees us in our greatest potential as a child who will endure discipline so that we can serve Him, as Pharaoh’s decorated horses pulled the king’s chariot (Son 1:9-11). He has set a table before us of wonderful blessings (Son 1:12). He has ordained for us to experience perfect rest (Son 1:13) and joy (Son 1:14) because of His great love for us (Son 1:15). He has set forth rest (Son 1:16) and protection (Son 1:17) for His children. We are seen by Him as the most lovely among the children of men (Son 2:1-2). His love overshadows us and overflows into our daily lives (Son 2:3-6). This is the way God expresses His love towards men during this season of their lives.
Although young believers have strong expressions of love and passion for God, they are untested by the fires and trials of life. Thus, they are still undependable for service in the Church. They even express the gifts of the Spirit. Yet, the seasoned pastor understands that they need time for passion to mature into wisdom through the discipline of trials before being given great responsibilities. Any parent knows how his children are full of passion. They are either laughing or crying. They pursue activities and fun and play with all of their energies. Yet, in all of their passion a child lacks wisdom to know how to manage their emotions. Their responds to their environment is often impulsive rather than thoughtful. So it is in the growth of believers in the Christian life.
Peace and contentment in the midst of trials are the signs of true Christian maturity. Paul the apostle expresses this contentment in his epistle to the Philippians (Php 4:11). But first, we must go through a season of passion, as described in the first section of Songs.
Php 4:11, “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”
How does such passion arise in the heart of young, immature believers? I have seen it in both new converts as well as older Christians. Such passion is aroused by the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. For the new believer, it is the fresh, new experiences of God at work in their lives. They have tasted for the first time the joys of serving the Lord and they want more. For the older Christians who have never grown in the Lord, the Holy Spirit will often touch them by being slain in the Spirit, or healing their bodies to let them know that there is more to the Christian life than what they have experienced thus far. This touch from God stirs them up to pursue Him on a deeper level than they have done so before. Therefore, this position will not last long, for in the next song (Son 2:8 to Son 3:5), the Shulamite is called out from her bed of rest into a place of separation and communion.
Outline – Note the proposed outline of this section:
1. Scene 1 The Shepherds & their flocks Son 1:5-11
a) The Shulamite’s Insecurity Son 1:5-7
b) Solomon’s Praise & Reassurance Son 1:8-11
2. Scene 2 The King’s Banquet Table Son 1:12 to Son 2:7
a) The King’s Provision Son 1:12-17
b) The King’s Love for His Beloved Son 2:1-2
c) The Woman Falls Love-Sickness Son 2:3-7
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Scene 2: The King’s Banquet Table: The Lovers Exchange Words of Love In Son 1:12 to Son 2:7 we see a series of communications exchanged between the two loves as they speak words of love. As a result, the beloved falls more deeply in love and becomes “lovesick” (Son 2:3-5).
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. The Shulamite’s Response to the King Son 1:12 to Son 2:1
a) The Beloved Meditates upon Her Lover Son 1:12-14
b) The Shulamite’s Response Son 1:16 to Son 2:1
2. The King’s Love for His Beloved Son 2:2
3. The King’s Provision and Her Response Son 2:3-7
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Shulamite’s Response – Her lover has told the Shulamite woman how beautiful she is in Son 1:15. She responses to her lover’s comments with the same words by telling him how beautiful he is to her. While he has focused upon her eyes, she focuses upon the possibility of marriage and a home. The reference to the bed and the house in Son 1:16-17 may suggest her desire to become his future wife. She then compares herself to the common flowers of her region, while some interpret this comparison to refer to her beauty rather than her simplicity among women (Son 2:1).
Son 1:16 Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.
Son 1:16
Psa 23:2, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.”
Son 1:17 The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.
Son 1:17
Literal Interpretation – The house is a place of shelter and protection. The reference to the cedar beams and fir rafters in Son 1:17 suggests that the covering of this shelter is a provision of the wealth of the king. When we read about Solomon’s house in 1Ki 7:1-12, we find that his own house was magnificent, made of cedar and costly stones. Thus, the house referred to in Son 1:17 would have been beautiful, large, and magnificent.
Figurative Interpretation – In a figurative interpretation, this covering of the roof of the house represents the covering that a person sits under when joined to a local church.
Son 2:1 I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
Son 2:1
Comments – The rose is one of the most noble, beautiful and fragrant of all flowers, much as it is today. The plains of Sharon, with its rich soil, would have grown the finest horticulture of the land.
Son 2:1 “and the lily of the valleys” Word Study on “lily” Strong says the Hebrew word “lily” “ shuwshan ” ( ) (H7799) means, “a lily (from its whiteness), as a flower or [archaic] an ornament.” The Enhanced Strong says this word is used 15 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as “lily 13, Shoshannim 2.” However, its compound uses in Psalms 60 (Shushan-eduth) and Psalms 80 (Shoshannim-Eduth) can be included. It is found 8 times in Songs (Son 2:1-2; Son 2:16; Son 4:5; Son 5:13; Son 6:2-3; Son 7:2). Lilies were used to adorn Solomon’s Temple ( 1Ki 7:19 ; 1Ki 7:22; 1Ki 7:26, 2Ch 4:5). This word or its derivatives are used in the title of four psalms as “Shoshannim” (Psalms 45, 60, 69, 80). Psalms 45 is a song of love, where a wedding processional is described. In Songs the Beloved is describes as “a lily of the valley,” and “a lily among thorns” (Son 2:1-2). The Lover feeds among the lilies in the garden (Son 2:16; Son 4:5; Son 6:3), and gathers lilies (Son 5:13). Hosea describes the children of Israel as a lily, saying, “I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.” (Hos 14:5) Watchman Nee suggests that the lilies mentioned in Songs is symbolic of those who are upright before God. [109]
[109] Watchman Nee, Song of Songs (Fort Washington, Pennsylvania: CLC Publications, c1965, 2001), 53.
Comments – It is in the valleys where the soils were most fertile, as in the plains of Sharon. There the horticulture would have grown at its best. John Gill refers to Pliny, who tells us that the lily of the valley was next to the rose in “nobleness.” [110]
[110] Pliny the Elder says, “The lily holds the next highest rank after the rose, and has a certain affinity with it in respect of its unguent and the oil extracted from it, which is known to us as ‘lirinon.’ Blended, too, with roses, the lily produces a remarkably fine effect; for it begins to make its appearance, in fact, just as the rose is in the very middle of its season.” Natural History 21.11. See Pliny, The Natural History of Pliny, vol. 4, trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley, in Bohn’s Classical Library (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1856), 314-415; John Gill, Song of Solomon, in John Gill’s Expositor, in e-Sword, v. 7.7.7 [CD-ROM] (Franklin, Tennessee: e-Sword, 2000-2005), comments on Song of Solomon 2:1.
Son 2:1 Comments – The “plains of Sharon” mentioned in Son 2:1 a would be parallel to “the valleys” mentioned in Son 2:1 b. This means that the first and second parts of Son 2:1 are intended to state a similar metaphor.
Literal Interpretation Scholars approach Son 2:1 with two interpretations. If the Shulamite is speaking, then Son 2:11 is:
1. A Comment on Her Beauty – If Son 2:1 is referring to two of the most beautiful flowers of the field then we could interpret this verse to be a statement from the Shulamite about her beauty.
2. A Comment on Her Simplicity – However, many scholars interpret the “rose of Sharon” to refer to a common wild flower, such as the crocus, which grows abundantly on the plains of Sharon, and they understand the lily of the valleys to refer to a common lily that is sprinkled among the upland valleys of this region. Thus, the Shulamite would be commenting on her simple appearance and state, rather than her beauty, followed by the king taking this analogy of the lily and elevating her appearance by saying she was like a “lily among thorns” (Son 2:2).
Figurative Interpretation – Francis J. Roberts understands the statement in Son 2:1 to be a reference to Christ as the “Rose of Sharon.”
“Thou mayest by praise open to Me the gates of the temple by thy soul. The King shall enter and bring His glory. The Rose of Sharon shall bloom in thy heart and His fragrance shall be shed abroad.” [111]
[111] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 42.
Kenneth Copeland shared the testimony of how he has smelled the anointing on several occasions. He described it as the smell of roses. One day when this smell filled the pulpit area, the Lord spoke to him and said that the “Rose of Sharon” had just passed by. [112]
[112] Kenneth Copeland, “Sermon,” Southwest Believers Convention, Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Fort Worth, Texas, 8 August 2008.
Jesus referred to the glory of the lilies of the field, and compares them to Solomon’s glory.
Mat 6:28-29, “And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”
However, if the Shulamite is speaking in Son 2:1, then figuratively speaking, Mike Bickle understands this as a description of a believer’s new identity in Christ, as a resurrected saint. [113]
[113] Mike Bickle, Session 7 – The Bride’s Identity in the Beauty of God (Song of Solomon 1:12-2:7 ), in Song of Songs (Kansas City, Missouri: International House of Prayer, 1998), 13.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Mutual Love of Christ and the Church.
The Bride Protests the Fervor of her Love
v. 1. I am the rose of Sharon, v. 2. As the lily among thorns, so is My love among the daughters, v. 3. As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, v. 4. He brought me to the banqueting-house, v. 5. Stay me with flagons, v. 6. His left hand is under my head, v. 7. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem,
The meaning is again clear. The Church praises the beauty which she has received from the Lord, and He not only agrees to her description, but even places her in contrast to the base growths of false churches, which try to sap the life of the Church with their doctrines of works. In an ecstatic monolog the bride now sets forth the excellencies of Christ, the safety of His protection, the richness of His blessings, the thought of which so fills her heart with bliss that it cannot contain it all. It is the great mystery of the relation between Christ and His Church, Eph 5:32. At such times, which are occasionally granted to the Church, the Lord does not wish her to be disturbed. The Church is in His keeping, even as she jealously watches over every indication of a false expression of affection toward Him.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Son 2:2
As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. The king responds, taking up the lovely simile and giving it a very apt and charming turn, “My love is beyond comparison the chief and all around her are not worthy of notice beside her.” The meaning is not thorns on the tree itself. The word would be different in that case. Rather it is thorn plants or bushes (choach); see 2Ki 14:9. The daughters; i.e. the young damsels. The word “son” or “daughter” was commonly so used in Hebrew, the idea being that of simplicity, innocence, and gentleness.
Son 2:3
As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. That these are the words of the bride there can be no doubt. The apple tree is noted for the fragrance of its blossom and the sweetness of its fruit; hence the name tappuach, from the root naphach, “to breathe sweetly.” The trees of the wood or forest are specially referred to, because they are generally wild, and their fruit sour and rough, and many have no fruit or flower. The Chaldee renders, “citron;” Rosenmuller and others, “quince.” The word is rare (see Pro 25:11; Joe 1:12). It is sometimes the tree itself, at other times the fruit. It occurs in proper names, as (Jos 12:17), “The King of Tappuah,” etc; and that shows that it was very early known in Palestine. It occurs frequently in the Talmud. The word is masculine, while “lily” is feminine. “I sat with delight” is expressed in true Hebrew phrase, “I delighted and sat,” the intensity of feeling being expressed by the piel of the verb. By the shadow is intended both protection and refreshment; by the fruit, enjoyment. Perhaps we may go further, and say there is here a symbolical representation of the spiritual life, as both that of trust and participation. The greatness and goodness of the tree of life protects and covers the sinner, while the inner nature and Divine virtue of the Saviour comes forth in delicious fruits, in his character, words, ministry, and spiritual gifts. If there is any truth in the typical view, it must be found in such passages as this, where the metaphor is so simple and apt, and has been incorporated with all religious language as the vehicle of faith and love. Hymnology abounds in such ideas and analogies.
Son 2:4
He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love; literally, to the house of the wine. Not, as some, “the house of the vines”that is, the vineyard. The Hebrew word yayin corresponds with the AEthiopic wain, and has run through the Indo-European languages. The meaning isTo the place where he royally entertains his friends. Hence the reference which immediately follows to the protection with which the king overshadows his beloved. He covers me there with his fear-inspiring, awful banner, love, which, because of its being love, is terrible to all enemies. The word which is used for “banner” () is from a root “to cover,” that which covers the shaft or standard; the pannus, “the cloth,” which is fastened to a shaft (cf. pennon). Her natural fear and bashfulness is overcome by the loving presence of the king, which covers her weakness like a banner. Some versions render it as an imperative. There can be no doubt of the meaning that the banner is the military banner, as the word is always so used (see Psa 20:6; Num 1:52; Num 2:2). Perhaps there is a reference to the grandeur and military strength in which the young bride felt delight as she looked up at her young husband in his youthful beauty and manly vigour. The typical significance is very easily discovered. It would be straining it too much to see any allusion to the ritual of the Christian sacraments; but whether we think of the individual soul or of the people of God regarded collectively, such delight in the rich provisions of Divine love, and in the tender guardianship of the Saviour over those whom he has called to himself, belong to the simplest facts of believing experience.
Son 2:5
Stay me with raisins, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love. Again the intensive form of the verb is chosen. She is almost sinking; she cries out for comfort. The food for which she longs is the grape cakesthe grapes sufficiently dried to be pressed together as cakes, which is very refreshing and reviving; not raisins as we know them, but with more of the juice of the grape in them. So date cakes are now offered to travellers in the East. “Refresh me; for I am in a state of deep agitation because of the intensity of my love.” Ginsburg thinks the cakes are baked by the fire, the word being derived from a root “to burn.” The translation, “flagons of wine,” in the Authorized Version, follows the rabbinical exposition, but it is quite unsupported by the critics. Love sickness is common in Eastern countries, more so than with us in the colder hemisphere. Perhaps the appeal of the bride is meant to be general, not immediately directed to the king, as if a kind of exclamation, and it may be connected with the previous idea of the banner. The country maiden is dazzled with the splendour and majesty of the king. She gives up, as it were, in willing resignation of herself, the rivalry with one so great and glorious in the expression of love and praise; she sinks back with delight and ecstasy, calling upon any around to support her, and Solomon himself answers the appeal, and puts his loving arm around her and holds up her head, and gives her the sweetest and tenderest embraces, which renew her strength. We know that in the spiritual life there are such experiences. The intensity of religious feeling is closely connected with physical exhaustion, and when the soul cries for help and longs for comfort, the presence of the Saviour is revealed; the weakness is changed into strength. The apostolic seer in the Apocalypse describes himself as overcome with the glory of the Saviour’s appearance, and being brought back to himself by his voice (Rev 1:17).
Son 2:6
His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me. We may render the verb either as indicative or imperative. The hand gently smooths with loving caresses. The historical sense is more in accordance with the context, as the next verse is an appeal to the attendant ladies. Behold my happiness, how my Beloved comforts me!
Son 2:7
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the toes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awaken love, until it please. The fact that these words occur again in So Son 3:5 and Son 8:4 shows that they are a kind of chorus or refrain. It is also evident that they are in the lips of Shulamith the bride. Some have suggested that they are uttered by some one else, e.g. the queen-mother subsequently referred to, Solomon himself, the heavenly Bridegroom, the shepherd lover from whom Shulamith had been taken. But all these suggestions are unnecessary and unsupported. The natural and simple view is that the same voice is speaking as in Son 8:6. But what is the meaning of this adjuration? Is it merely, “I throw myself on the sympathy you have already expressed”? Ewald well remarks, “In common life people swore by things which belonged to the subject of conversation or were especially dear to the speaker. As, therefore, the warrior swears by his sword; as Mohammed by th e soul, of which he is just about to speak (see Koran, ch. 91:7); so here Shulamith by the lovely gazelles, since she is speaking of love.” The Israelites were permitted to adjure by that which is not God, but they would only solemnly swear by God himself. Delitzsch thinks this is the only example of direct adjuration in Scripture without the name of God. The meaning has probably been sought too far away. The bride is perfectly happy, but she is conscious that such exquisite happiness may be disturbed, the dream of her delight broken through. She compares herself to a roe or a gazelle, the most timorous and shy of creatures (see Pro 5:19). The Septuagint has a peculiar rendering; which points to a different reading of the orignial “by the power and virtues of the field.” Perhaps the meaning is the sameBy the purity and blessedness of a simple country life, I adjure you not to interfere with the course of true love. It is much debated whether the meaning is, “Do not excite or stir up love,” or, “Do not disturb love in its peaceful de light.” It certainly must be maintained that by “love” is meant “the lover.” The refer once is to the passion of love itself. A similar expression is used of the feeling of jealousy (Isa 42:13). The verb (piel) is added to strengthen the idea, and is always used in the sense “to excite or awaken,” as Pro 10:12 of strife; Psa 80:3 of strength or power. We must not for a moment think of any artificial excitement of love as referred to. The idea isSee what a blessed thing is pure and natural affection: let not love be forced or unnatural. But there are those who dispute this interpretation. They think that the main idea of the whole poem is not the spontaneity of love, but a commendation of pure and chaste conjugal affection, as opposed to the dissoluteness and sensuality fostered by polygamy. They would therefore take the abstract “love” for the concrete “loved one,” as in So Psa 7:6 The bride would not have the beloved one aroused by the intrusion of others; or the word “love” may be taken to mean “the dream of love.” Which ever explanation is chosen, the sense is substantially the sameLet me rejoice in my blessedness. The bride is seen at the close of this first part of the poem in the arms of the bridegroom. She is lost in him, and his happiness is hers. She calls upon the daughters of Jerusalem to rejoice with her. This is, in fact, the keynote of the song. The two main thoughts in the poem are the purity of love and the power of love. The reference to the toes and gazelles of the field is not so much to their shyness and timidity as to their purity, as distinguished from the creatures more close to cities; hence the appeal to the daughters of Jerusalem, who, as being ladies of the metropolis, might not sympathize as they should with the country maiden. The rest of the poem is a remembrance of the part which illustrates and confirms the sentiment of the refrainLet the pure love seek its own perfection; let its own pleasure be realized. So, spiritually, let grace complete what grace begins. “Blessed are all those who trust in him.”
Verse 2:8-3:5
Part II. SONG OF SHULAMITH IN THE EMBRACE OF SOLOMON. Recollections of the wooing time in the north.
Son 2:8
The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. There can be little doubt as to the meaning of this song. The bride is going back in thought to the scenes of her home life, and the sweet days of first love. “The house stands alone among the rocks and deep in the mountain range; around are the vineyards which the family have planted, and the hill pastures on which they feed their flocks. She longingly looks out for her distant lover.” The expression, “The voice of my beloved!” must not be taken to mean that she hears the sound of his feet or voice, but simply as an interjection, like “hark!” (see Gen 4:10, where the voice of the blood crying merely means, “Hark how thy brother’s blood cries;” that is, “Believe that it does so cry”). So here, “I seem to hear the voice of my beloved; hark, he is coming!” It is a great delight to the soul to go back in thought over the memories of its first experience of the Saviour’s presence. The Church is edified by the records of grace in the histories of Divine dealings.
Son 2:9
My beloved is like a roe or a young hart; behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh in at the windows, he showeth himself through the lattice. The tsevi is the gazelle, Arabic ghazal. Our word is derived through the Spanish or Moorish gazela. The young hart, or chamois, is probably so called from the covering of young hair (cf. 2Sa 2:18; Pro 6:5; Heb 3:19). Shulamith represents herself as within the house, waiting for her friend. Her beloved is standing behind the wall, outside before the house; he is playfully looking through the windows, now through one and now through another, seeking her with peering eyes of love. Both the words employed, convey, the meaning of searching and moving quickly. The windows; literally, the openings; i.e. a window broken through a wall, or the meaning may be a lattice window, a pierced wooden structure. The word is not the common word for a window, which is shevaka (now shabbaka), from a root meaning “to twist,” “to make a lattice.” Spiritually, we may see an allusion to the glimpses of truth and tastes of the goodness of religion, which precede the real fellowship of the soul with God.
Son 2:10
My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. The word “spake” Conveys the meaning in answer to a person appearing, but not necessarily in answer to a voice heard. We most suppose that Shulamith recognized her beloved, and made some sign that she was near, or looked forth from the window. As the soul responds, it is more and more invited; the voice of the Bridegroom is heard calling the object of his love by name, “I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine” (Isa 43:1).
Son 2:11-13
For, lo, the winter is the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the fig tree ripeneth her green figs, and the vines are in blossom, they give forth their fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. Winter; i.e. the cloudy stormy time (sethauv). The Jews in Jerusalem to this day call rain shataa. The rain; i.e. the showers. The flowers, or the flowery time, corresponding with the singing time. Several versions, as the LXX. and other Greek, Jerome in the Latin, and the Targum and Venetian, render, “the time of pruning,” taking the zamir from a root zamar, “to prune the vine.” It is, however, regarded by most critics as an onomatopoetic word meaning “song,” “music,” like zimrah, “singing.” The reference to the voice of the turtledove, the cooing note which is so sweet and attractive among the woods, shows that the time of spring is intended. Ginsburg says wherever zamir occurs, either in the singular or plural, it means “singing” (cf. 2Sa 23:1; Isa 24:16). The form of the word conveys the idea of the time of the action, as we see in the words for “harvest” (asiph) and “ploughing time” (charish). The fig tree and the vine were both employed as symbols of prosperity and peace, as the fig and grape were so much used as food (see 1Ki 5:5; 2Ki 18:31). The little fruits of the fig tree begin, when the spring commences, to change colour from green to red. The word “to ripen” is literally, “to grow red or sweet.” The blossoming vines give forth a very delicate and attractive fragrance. The description is acknowledged by all to be very beautiful. The invitation is to fellowship in the midst of the pure loveliness of nature, when all was adapted to meet and sustain the feelings of awakened love. The emotions of the soul are blended easily with the sensations derived from the outward world. When we carefully avoid extravagance, and put the soul first and not second, then the delights of the senses may help the heart to realize the deepest experience of Divine communion. But the bridegroom first solicits the bride. We reverse the true spiritual order when we place too much dependence on the influence of external objects or sensuous pleasures. Art may assist religion to its expression, but it must never be made so prominent that the artistic pleasure swallows up the religious emotion. Love of nature is not love of Christ. Love of music is not love of Christ. Yet the soul that seeks him may rejoice in art and music, because they blend their attractions with its devotion, and help it to be a joy and a passion.
Son 2:14
O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the steep places, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. The wood pigeon builds in clefts of rocks and in steep rocky places (see Jer 48:28; and cf. Psa 74:19; Psa 56:1; Hos 7:11). The bridegroom is still addressing his beloved one, who has not yet come forth from the house in the rocks, though she has shown herself at the window. The language is highly poetical, and may be compared with similar words in Homer and Virgil (cf. ‘Iliad.’ 21.493; ‘Aeneid.’ 5.213, etc.). The Lord loveth the sight of his people. He delightcth in their songs and in their prayers. He is in the midst of their assemblies. Secret religion is not the highest religion. The highest emotions of the soul do not decrease in their power as they are expressed. They become more and more a ruling principle of life. There are many who need this encouragement to come forth out of secrecy, out of solitude, out of their own private home and individual thoughts, and realize the blessing of fellowship with the Lord and with his people.
Son 2:15
Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vineyards; for our vineyards are in blossom. There is some difficulty in deciding to which of the persons this speech is to be attributed. It is most naturally, however, assigned to the bride, and this is the view of the majority of critics. Hence she refers to the vineyards as “our vineyards,” which the bridegroom could scarcely say. On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that the words are abrupt regarded as a response to the beautiful appeal of the lover. The following are the remarks of Delitzsch on the subject: “This is a vine dresser’s ditty, in accord with Shulamith’s experience as the keeper of a vineyard, which, in a figure, aims at her love relation. The vineyards, beautiful with fragrant blossoms, point to her covenant of love, and the foxes, the little foxes, which might destroy those united vineyards, point to all the great and little enemies and adverse circumstances which threaten to gnaw and destroy love in the blossom ere it has reached the ripeness of full enjoyment.” Some think that Shulamith is giving the reason why she cannot immediately join her beloved, referring to the duties enjoined upon her by her brethren. But there is an awkwardness in this explanation. The simplest and most straightforward is that which connects the words immediately with the invitation of the lover to come forth into the lovely vineyards. Is it not an allusion to the playful pleasure which the young people would find among the vineyards in chasing the little foxes? and may not the lover take up some well known country ditty, and sing it outside the window as a playful repetition of the invitation to appear? The words do seem to be arranged in somewhat of a lyrical form
“Catch us the foxes,
Foxes the little ones,
Wasting our vineyards,
When our vineyards are blossoming.”
The foxes (shualim), or little jackals, were very numerous in Palestine (see Jdg 15:4; Lam 5:18; Psa 63:11; Neh 4:3; 1Sa 13:17). The little jackals were seldom more than fifteen inches high. There would be nothing unsuitable in the address to a maiden to help to catch such small animals. The idea of the song isLet us all join in taking them. Some think that Shulamith is inviting the king to call his attendants to the work. But when two lovers thus approach one another, it is not likely that others would be thought of. However the words be viewed, the typical meaning can scarcely be missed. The idea of clearing the vineyards of depredators well suits the general import of the poem. Let the blossoming love of the soul be without injury and restraint. Let the rising faith and affection be carefully guarded. Both individuals and communities do well to think of the little foxes that spoil the vines.
Son 2:16
My beloved is mine, and I am his; he feedeth (his flock) among the lilies. These are the words of the bride. The latter clause is repeated in So Son 6:2, with the addition, “in the gardens,” and it is evident that Solomon is lovingly regarded as a shepherd, because Shulamith delights to think of him as fully sympathizing with her simple country life. She idealizes. The words may be taken as either the response given at the time by the maiden to the invitation of her lover to come forth into the vineyards, or as the breathing of love as she lies in the arms of Solomon. Lilies are the emblem of purity, lofty elevation above that which is common. Moreover, the lily stalk is the symbol of the life of regeneration among the mystical mediaevalists. Mary the Virgin, the Rosa mystica, in ancient paintings is represented with a lily in her hand at the Annunciation. The people of God were called by the Jewish priests “a people of lilies.” So Mary was the lily of lilies in the lily community; the sanctissima in the communio sanctorum. There may be an allusion to the lily forms around Solomon in his palacethe daughters of Jerusalem; in that ease the words must be taken as spoken, not in remembrance of the first love, but in present joy in Solomon’s embrace. Some would render the words as simply praise of Solomon himself, “who, wherever he abides, spreads radiancy and loveliness about him,” or “in whose footsteps roses and lilies ever bloom.” At least, they are expressive of entire self-surrender and delight. She herself is a lily, and the beloved one feeds upon her beauty, purity, and perfection.
Son 2:17
Until the day be cool, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether. This is generally supposed to be the voice of the maiden addressing her suitor, and bidding him return in the evening, when the day cools, and when the lengthening shadows fall into night. Some have seen in such words a clear indication of a clandestine interview, and would find in them a confirmation of their hypothesis that the poem is founded on a romantic story of Solomon’s attempt to draw a shepherdess from her shepherd. But there is no necessity to disturb the flow of the bride’s loving recollections by such a fancy. She is recalling the visit of her lover. How, at first, she declined his invitation to go forth with him to the vineyards, but with professions of love appealed to him to return to the mountains, and in the evening come once more and rejoice in her love. But the words may be rendered, “during the whole day, and until the evening comes, turn thyself to me,” which is the view taken by some critics. The language may be general; that is, “Turn, and I will follow.” “The mountains of Bether” are the rugged mountains; Bether, from a root “to divide,” “to cut,” i.e. divided by ravines; or the word may be the abstract for the concrete”the mountains of separation” i.e. the mountains which separate. LXX; , “decussated mountains.” The Syriac and Theodotion take the word as for beshamim, i.e. offerings of incense (). There is no such geographical name known, though there is Bithron, east of Jordan, near Mahauaim (2Sa 2:29). The Chaldee, Ibn-Ezra, Rashi, and many others render it “separation” (cf. Luther’s scheideberge). Bochart says, “Montes scissionis ita dicti propter et .“ The meaning has been thus set forth: “The request of Shulamith that he should return to the mountains breathes self-denying humility, patient modesty, inward joy in the joy of her beloved. She will not claim him for herself till he have accomplished his work. But when he associates with her in the evening, as with the Emmaus disciples, she will rejoice if he becomes her guide through the newborn world of spring. Perhaps we may say the Parousia ot the Lord is here referred to in the evening of the world” (cf. Luk 24:1-53.). On the whole, it seems most in harmony with the context to take the words as preparing us for what followsthe account of the maiden’s distress when she woke up and found not her beloved. We must not expect to be able to explain the language as though it were a clear historical composition, relating facts and incidents. The real line of thought is the underlying connection of spiritual meaning. There is a separation of the lovers. The soul wakes up to feel that its object of delight is gone. Then it complains.
HOMILETICS
Son 2:1-7
Converse of the bridegroom and the bride continued.
I. THE VOICE OF THE BRIDE.
1. The rose of Sharon. They were sitting, it seems, in a forest glade at the foot of some lofty cedar, sheltered by its embowering branches; beneath was their grassy seat, bright with many flowers. The bride feels that she is as one of those fair flowers in the bridegroom’s eyes. “I am the rose of Sharon,” she says, in her artless acceptance of the bridegroom’s loving approval. We cannot identify the flower called here and in Isa 35:1, the rose. Our rose, we are told, was brought from Persia long after the time of Solomon; it is first mentioned in the Apocrypha (Ecclus. 24:14; 39:13; 50:8). The rose of the canonical Scriptures may be, as many have thought, the narcissus, which is very common in the Plain of Sharon, and is still the favourite flower of the inhabitants. The word “Sharon” may mean simply “a plain;” but, as it has the article, it probably stands here for the famous Plain of Sharon, so celebrated in ancient times for its fertility and beauty. The bride is like a lowly flower of the field, not majestic like those lofty cedars, but yet lovely in the bridegroom’s sight. The Christian is humble of heart; he is helpless and short-lived as a flower. “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.” But because Christ hath loved him and died for him, he knows that he is dear to his Saviour.
2. The lily of the valleys. Here, too, there is an uncertainty. The word rendered “lily” (shushan, the name of the famous Persian city, the “Shushan the palace” of the Book of Esther) is used of many bright-coloured flowers, We infer from So Isa 5:13 that this lily was red; hence some writers identify it with the scarlet anemone, which is very abundant all over Palestine. Solomon’s bride compares herself to the lily; but even Solomon himself, the Lord said, “in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these.” The Lord bids us “consider the lilies.” When we look up to the heaven, to the vast distances, the enormous magnitude of the heavenly bodies, in their ordered movements, we think, as the psalmist thought, “Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him?” But when we consider the lilies, we see that he who framed the universe in its vastness regards things small and humble. The delicate pencilling, the gorgeous colouring of the flowers of the field, the complicated structure of many of them, the arrangements, for instance, for fertilization, show a wisdom, an exact accommodation of means to ends, as astonishing as the celestial mechanism; a great and loving care, too, for us men, in providing us not only with the necessaries of life, but also with objects of rare and exquisite loveliness, to give us pure and innocent pleasures, to teach us lessons of truthfulness. He who thus clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, will surely clothe us, though, alas! we are of little faith. The bride is as one of these flowers, frail as they are; she trusts in the bridegroom’s care. The Christian must learn to cast all his anxiety upon God. He careth for us.
II. THE REPLY OF THE BRIDEGROOM. The king takes up the words of the bride. She is to him as a lily; other maidens, when compared with her, are but as thorns in the bridegroom’s eyes. Alas! there are tares in the Lord’s field, barren fig trees in his garden. They are as thorns; his chosen are as lilies. The thorns set forth by contrast the beauty of the lily; the deformity of sin brings into sharper contrast the beauty of holiness. But whatever beauty the Christian soul possesses comes only from the Bridegroom’s gift; he gives it. In his infinite love he condescends to be pleased with that which is truly his, not ours; we hope to be “found in him, not having our own righteousness, which is of the Law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Php 3:9).
III. THE GRATITUDE OF THE BRIDE.
1. The excellence of the bridegroom. He had compared the bride to a lily among thorns; she compares him to an apple tree among the trees of the wood. As the apple tree with its sweet fruit and its fragrant smell excels the barren trees of the wood, so the bridegroom excels all other men in the eyes of the bride. It is uncertain what the tappuach, called in our version “apple tree,” really is; it has been identified by different writers with the quince, the citron, or the orange. It is enough for our purpose to know that it excels the trees of the wood, that its foliage gives a pleasant shade, that its fruit is sweet and fragrant and possesses certain restorative properties. The fact that it is five times mentioned in the Book of Joshua (Jos 12:17; Jos 15:34, Jos 15:53; Jos 16:8; Jos 17:7) in connection with the name of various towns or fountains, Beth Tappuach or En Tappuach, shows that in the old times it must have been widely cultivated and greatly valued. It excels other trees; so does the beloved excel all other men in the estimate of the bride. Christ is very dear to the Christian soul. He is the Treasure hid in the field, the Pearl of great price; those who have found him and known him by a real spiritual knowledge count other objects of human desire as nothing worth in comparison with him. “What things were gain to me,” says St. Paul, “those I counted loss for Christ;” and again, “I do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him.”
2. The bride‘s delight in him. The tappuach offered a pleasant shade; the bride delighted in it; she sat down beneath its bower of foliage; its fruit was sweet to her taste. We think of the holy women who stood by the cross of Jesus (Joh 19:25). The shadow under which the Church finds rest must be the shadow of the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ is to the believer “a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat;” “the shadow of a great rock in a weary land” (Isa 25:4; Isa 32:2). He bids the weary and heavy laden to come to him that they may find restrest for their souls. There is no other true and abiding rest for these restless, dissatisfied souls of ours, but only the rest which he givethrest in the Lord. But it was the agony and bloody sweat, the bitter cross and passion, which made the Lord Jesus what he is to the believer; it is the exceeding great love of our Master and only Saviour manifested forth in that sacred suffering; it is the blessed atonement for the sins of the world wrought once for all through the virtue of the precious blood;it is this which makes the Saviour’s cross a place of rest and refreshment for the weary soul, which causes the Christian to take delight in the shadow of the cross rather than in any form of earthly joy; hence the words of St. Paul, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal 6:14). As St. Paul gloried in the cross, so the bride delighted in the shadow of the beloved. “In his shadow I delighted, and I sat down,” is the literal rendering of the Hebrew words. It is delight in the Saviour’s love which draws the penitent to the cross; as the Lord said, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” The Lord’s love draws the penitent soul burdened with the sense of sin; the cross is to such a soul like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land; there only is a sure refuge from the heat and turmoil of the world, from the cares and the manifold temptations of this life. Therefore the Christian sits down beneath it, taking the cross for his portion, meditating much on the Saviour’s cross, seeking to live ever nearer and nearer to it, within the inner depths of its awful shadow, and finding there a deep and holy peace which the world can neither give nor take away. Under the shadow of the cross we learn ourselves to take up the cross, and to follow after Christ; there we learn that in patient self-denials practised in the faith of Christ there is a spiritual delight, a joy severe indeed, but far more abiding, far more precious, than any joy this world can give. There we learn what St. Paul means when he says, “We glory in tribulations also” (Rom 5:3); what St. James means when he says, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.” For “his fruit is sweet to the taste.” The soul that sits under the shadow of the cross of Christ feeds upon Christ, in spiritual conmmnion with him, and in the blessed sacrament which he ordained, and finds in that holy food a Divine sweetness, which wholly passes every form of earthly delight. But it is only they who sit under the shadow, who live very near to Christ in daily bearing of the cross, in patient continuance in well doing, who can realize that blessed sweetness; they “by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb 5:14); they know that Christ is the Bread of life, that his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed; their earnest, persevering prayer is, “Lord, evermore give us this bread.”
3. Her remembrance of his love. “He brought me to the banqueting house,” she says; literally, “to the house of wine.” The bride passes from metaphor to facts. The bridegroom is no longer a fair and fruitful tree; he is once more the King of Israel who sought and loved the lowly maiden; she recounts her past experience of his love. He had brought her, humble as she was, into his palace, into the banqueting house. The literal translation brings to our thoughts the Lord’s words, “I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Mat 26:29). It is he who must bring his people into his banqueting house; it is his presence manifested to faith which makes the holy communion what it is to the believer. He gives us then the wine that maketh glad the heart of man, when he saith, “Drink ye all of it: for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under his table; but when he brings us thither, when we come led by the Spirit, drawn by the constraining love of Christ, then we know that it is his banqueting house, the house to which he calls his guests, where he seats them at his own board. “With desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” There he bids us drink: “Drink ye all of it;” we all need that cup, for it is the cup of the new covenant. When we take it in faith and love, the new covenant, the covenant of grace, is confirmed to us afresh; for he gives us the blood that was shed for the remission of sins, the blood that cleanseth from all sin those who walk in the light. But we must ask him to bring us; without him we can do nothing. If we approach without him, without his grace and guidance, without faith in him, we shall bring no blessing away with us, but only the judgment of those who discern not the Lord’s body (1Co 11:29). The banqueting house of the King of Israel was signalized by the royal banner, the standard which had often led to the battle the warriors of Israel. That standard was the centre round which the king’s followers were wont to flock, to guard him in the hour of peril, to honour him with their attendance in the time of peace. But what drew the bride thither was the love of the bridegroom; that was the banner which was beautiful in her eyes, which was over her. The banner of the cross goeth onwards before the followers of the Lord; it is the centre round which they press, which is ever drawing them nearer and nearer. The banner which draws Christians to the blessed sacrament is the love of Christ. The banner tells of battle and of victory. We are told that after the conflict between Israel and Amalek in Rephidim, when the victory was won through the sustained persevering prayer of Moses, “Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi: for he said, Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation” (Exo 17:15, Exo 17:16). Moses said, “Jehovah is my Banner;” the bride says, “His banner over me is love.” The Hebrew words, indeed, are different, but the thought is similar. Jehovah will have war against the enemies of his people. “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him” (Isa 59:19). The Lord is his people’s banner, their rallying point, the centre round which they range themselves in the hour of danger, when trials and temptations thicken, and the fiery darts of the wicked one are most frequent and most deadly. The banner is the Lord himselfhis presence, his love. But as the standards round which our troops have fought are cherished and honoured, and reverently preserved in our cathedrals; so the royal banner which had led the soldiers of the cross to victory floats over the banqueting house of the King. It is the token of his presence. He is there with his faithful ones; he receives them to his board; his banner is love. His love, which was their strength in the day of conflict, is the joy of their souls in the blessed hour of holy communion with their Lord. But the words run, “His banner over me was love;” “The Lord is my Banner.” We seem to see here a foreshadowing of those very precious words of Holy Scripture, “The Son of God loved me, and gave himself for me.“ The love of the Lord Jesus Christ is a personal, an individual love. “The Lord knoweth them that are his;” he knows them one and all. His banner is over each of them as he brings them into his banqueting house, as he draws them ever nearer to himself; and that banner is love. That unutterable love is their defence in times of danger, their joy and delight in seasons of spiritual enjoyment. Their earnest effort is so to lift up their hearts unto the Lord that they “may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.” The banqueting house to which he brings the faithful here is the ante-room of the true presence chamber of the King. “Here we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: here we know in part; but then shall we know even as also we are known.” That banqueting house is the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. There also his banner, which is love, will be over his elected saints. But it will no longer lead them to the battle, to hard and difficult struggles; it will tell of victory and glory, and of the unveiled presence of the King. Heart of man cannot tell what is the joy of those who in that banqueting house sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Then the bride shall be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, the fine linen which is the righteousness of saints (Rev 19:8). Then each true soldier of the cross, who with that banner floating over him has fought the good fight of faith, shall see that banner in all its glorious beauty, and sit beneath it very near the King; for it is written, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.”
4. The bride‘s longing. She is sick of love. The joy of the bridegroom’s love is too great and overwhelming; she is fainting in delight too sweet for her powers. She asks for restoratives, “cakes of raisins” (as the word seems to mean, not “flagons”) and other fruits which were supposed to possess strengthening or reviving powers. When the Christian comes into the very presence of the King, he is oppressed with the deep sense of his own unworthiness, his own cold unloving heart, and the King’s awful holiness and adorable, incomprehensible love; he needs the support of the fruit of the Spirit; he needs to be strengthened with all might by the Spirit in the inner man. When God reveals his great love to us, it makes us feel all the more the depth of our ingratitude, the coldness, the hardness, of this stony heart of ours.
“O Love Divine, how sweet thou art!
When shall I find my willing heart
All taken up by thee?
I thirst, I faint, I die to prove
The greatness of redeeming love,
The love of Christ to me.”
The bride longs for yet tenderer tokens of affection. Perhaps the words of verse 6 would be better rendered as a wish or prayer, as in So 8:3, where they occur again: “Oh that his left hand were under my head, and his right hand should embrace me!” The Christian longs to be drawn ever closer into the Lord’s embrace; he longs to lie in spirit, as the beloved apostle once actually lay, “on the breast of Jesus.” Especially he hopes and prays to be supported in those tender, those protecting arms, when he must pass through the dark valley of the shadow of death; then it will be sweet to feel that “the eternal God is thy Refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deu 33:27). “Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord,” in his presence, in his embrace. But if we would have the holy comfort of that dear embrace in our dying hour, we must try to live “in the Lord” now, to walk with him all our days, to cling to him with the embrace of faith. The Hebrew verb “embrace” is that from which the name of the Prophet Habakkuk, the prophet of faith, is derived. He longed for the Lord’s coming; he ever watched to see what the Lord would say to him; he had learned to rejoice in the Lord in the midst of great distress; he taught us the holy lesson which St. Paul so earnestly presses upon us, “The just shall live by his faith.” Such holy souls, being justified by faith, shall have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
5. The bride‘s charge to the chorus. There is an error in the old version of this thrice-repeated charge (So Hab 2:7; Hab 3:5; 8:4). The bride is not cautioning the chorus not to awake her love, the bridegroom; she is adjuring (the literal translation) them not to awaken love, that is, the emotion, the affection, of love till it please, till it rise spontaneously in the heart. Hence the adjuration by the gazelles and the hinds of the field. They are gentle, timid creatures. Such is love true and pure; it is retiring; it shrinks away from observation; it is a sacred thing, between the lover and the beloved. The bride longs for the bridegroom’s love, but the daughters of Jerusalem must not try to excite it; it is more delicate, more maidenly, to wait till love pleases to stir itself, till it springs up spontaneously in the heart of the beloved. The relations of the soul with Christ are very sacred; they may be mentioned only to the like-minded, and even that with a certain awe and reserve. And there are communings of the heart with the heavenly Bridegroom which may be divulged to none, not even to the nearest and dearest. And we must wait in patience for the Bridegroom. If for a time we cannot see him, or discern the tokens of his love, we must wait for his good time. “The vision is yet for an appointed time,” wrote the prophet of faith; “at the end it will surely come, it will not tarry” (Hab 2:3). God’s people must not be impatient; they must trust; they must believe that “he who hath begun a good work in them will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Php 1:6); that he will at last “fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power” (2Th 1:11).
Son 2:8-17
The visit of the beloved.
I. THE BRIDE‘S NARRATIVE.
1. The description of his first coming. The bride seems to be relating to the chorus the circumstances of her first meeting with the bridegroom. The King of Israel sought her in her humble home among the mountains of Lebanon; there he wooed and won her to be his bride. So the heavenly Bridegroom, the true Solomon who built the spiritual temple of living stones, came from his glory throne to seek his bride, the Church; so he cometh now to seek and to save that which was lost. The bride hears the voice of the beloved; “my beloved,” she says. In that little pronoun lies a great meaning. If we can only say in sincerity “my Saviour,” “my Lord and my God,” “my King,” “my Beloved,” then we can realize more or less the language of this holy Song of Songs, and see the spiritual meaning which underlies its touching parable of love; then we shall often look back with wondering gratitude and tender joy to the days of our first conversion, when we first heard the Saviour’s voice calling us to himself; when we first felt that “he loved me, and gave himself for me;” when we first tried to give him that poor love of ours, which in his blessed condescension he sought in return for his own exceeding great love. The beloved is seen bounding over the mountains; he is like a gazelle or a young hart, fair to look upon and graceful, fleet of foot; he stands by the clay-built wall of the humble cottage; he looks in at the windows. So the Lord came to this poor earth of ours to seek the Church, his bride; he despised not the stable or the manger. So now he seeketh his chosen often in the lowliest homes; he looks for them shining (such is one possible interpretation of the word) through the lattice, bringing brightness into the poorest abode; the true Light “lighteth every man” (Joh 1:9).
2. The call. Those first words of love are treasured up in the memory of the bride; she remembers every tone of the bridegroom’s voice, the place, the time, all the surroundings. The Hebrew word is that which the Lord used when he called the little daughter of Jairus from the sleep of death: “Talitha, cumi.” So now he calls his chosen one by one: “Rise up.” They that have ears to hear listen to the gracious voice, and, like Matthew the publican, rise and follow Christ. The soul must sleep no longer when that call is heard; it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation near at hand. When he bids us rise, we must be up and doing; we must ask, “Lord, what wouldest thou have me to do?” we must follow whither he is leading, and give him the love which in his love he desireth. His call is sweet, exceedingly full of gracious love: “My love, my fair one.” “My love,” perhaps better, “my friend” (see So Mat 1:9). The Lord would have his Church “a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.” The Church, alas! is not without spot; it is stained with many sins; it numbers many evil men within its fold. But the Lord said of the twelve, the first germ of the Church, “Ye are the light of the world,” “Ye are the salt of the earth,” though there was a Judas among them; and so now his great love for the Church makes the Church with all her faults fair in the Bridegroom’s eyes. Whatever beauty of holiness she possesses comes only from his beauty, who in his love has chosen her, and brought her near to himself, making her shine with the reflection of his light, who is the true Light. But the call comes, not only to the Church in the aggregate, but in God’s good time to each elect soul. The Lord knows his own; he calls them by their name. “Jesus said unto her, Mary.” And they who answer, “Rabboni, my Master,” are fair in the Bridegroom’s sight. Each awakened soul, as it rises and comes to Christ, and sees something of his heavenly beauty, and of its own deformity and unworthiness, is filled with thankful wonder. There are, alas! so many stains of sin, and yet he says, “My fair one;” so much weakness and unbelief and selfishness, and yet, “My fair one;” so much ingratitude and hardness of heart, and yet, “My fair one.” It is the Saviour’s great love which makes our sinful souls fair in his sight. If there is any answering love in our hearts; if we rise when he bids us and come to him; if we can say in any sincerity, though, alas! It must be with trembling and a deep sense of sin, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee;”then the soul that gives its love to Christ, though feebly and imperfectly, is fair in the sight of the Bridegroom. For it is our love that he seeketh. Love covereth a multitude of sins: “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much.” The soul that hears the Bridegroom’s call must rise and come away; it must give the whole heart to Christ, and come away from other masters, saying, “Rabboni, my Master,” and giving itself wholly to the one Master’s love; it must come away daily from every little thing which tends to impede its communion with the Lord, or to deaden its sense of his love and presence; it must part with lower ambitions, lower desires, if it is to win the pearl of great price, the hidden treasure. So we are told in Psa 45:1-17; which is so like the Song of Songs, “Hearken, O daughter, and consider: incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house; so shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty.” The soul comes; for the Lord’s call is very sacred, and touches the heart with thrilling power. The soul comes; for the joys to which he invites us are beyond all comparison more blessed and holy than all besides. The winter is past when the Lord’s voice is heardthe winter of coldness and indifference and unbelief; the spring of hope and holy joy begins; the heart singeth unto the Lord, making in itself a melody which is the foretaste of the new song which only the redeemed of the Lord can learn; the voice of the holy Dove is heard in the heart, which then becomes “our land”the kingdom of God.
“And his that gentle voice we hear,
Soft as the breath of even,
That checks each fault, that calms each fear,
And speaks of heaven.”
When the Holy Spirit dwelleth in the heart, the fig tree is no longer barren, the Lord’s vineyard no longer bringeth forth wild grapes; there is promise of the fruits of the Spirit in ever fuller abundance. Again the Bridegroom calls in the earnestness of his blessed love, “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.” It may be that in that second call we may discern an anticipation of the midnight cry, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye forth to meet him.” Then he will call his chosen into that blessed Paradise, the true garden of the Lord, into which he led one forgiving soul on the day of his own most precious death. Then the winter will be past indeed; the eternal spring will begin to shine; angel voices will welcome the redeemed into that blessed rest which remaineth for the people of God. They that are ready shall enter in; and they will be ready who have listened to the first call of the heavenly Bridegroom, who have arisen in answer to his bidding and come to him, giving him their heart’s best affections, and forsaking for his dear love’s sake earthly desires and earthly ambitions.
II. THE BRIDEGROOM AND THE BRIDE.
1. The voice of the bridegroom. He has climbed the steep rock by the ladder-like path, he has found the secluded cottage; he calls the bride his dove; he desires to see her and to hear her voice. The King of Israel climbed the rocks of Lebanon in search of the malden whom he loved. The heavenly Bridegroom climbed the steep ascent of the awful cross that he might draw to himself the love of the Church, his bride (Joh 12:32). The bridegroom had already compared the eyes of the bride to doves (So Son 1:15); now he says, “O my dove.” It tells us how dear the Christian soul is to the Lord; it tells us what that soul ought to be”harmless as doves.” The rock dove lives in clefts of the rocks. The soul which the Lord in his holy love condescends to call his dove, must dwell in the clefts of that true Rock which is Christ. The Rock of ages was cleft for us; the Christian soul must hide itself therein; there only are we safe. The dove is in the secret place, which can be reached only by climbing up the precipitous path. There is a steep ascent to be climbed before we can be hidden in the clefts of the Rock, before we can live that hidden life which is hid with Christ in God, before we can be safe, hidden in the wounded side of our dear Lord. That ascent is the path of self-denial, leading ever upward, ever closer to him who trod the way of the cross for our salvation. That life is hidden. “In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock” (Psa 27:5). The saint-like character is like the dove, retiring, shrinking from observation; some of God’s holiest saints live silent, humble lives, in lowly circumstances, unseen of men. But our Father which seeth in secret knows their prayers, their charity, their self-denials; he will reward them openly. The heavenly Bridegroom deigns to see a sweetness and a beauty in a lowly Christian life; such a life is comely in his eyes, for it hath the beauty of holinessa beauty derived only from communion with him who is the eternal Beauty. The voice of hymn and psalm ascending from that lowly dwelling is sweet in the Saviour’s ear. The loftiest melodies of choir and organ, if love and faith and reverence are absent, cannot reach to heaven; but the heart that is practising the new song in thankfulness and adoration maketh a melody which causeth joy in the presence of the angels of God.
2. The song of the bride. “Take us the foxes, the little foxes.” Some scholars regard this as a fragment of a vintage song. The bride sings it in order to intimate to the bridegroom, as she does more plainly in verse 17, that the care of the vineyards (see So Son 1:6) must prevent her from joining him till the shadows lengthen in the evening. The foxes waste the vineyards, and the vines are in blossom; therefore the little foxes must be caught. The little sins as they sometimes seem to us, the small neglects, the prayer carelessly said, the worldly thought, the idle word,these things spoil the vineyard of the Lord, which is the Christian soul; they check its blossoming, and so prevent the fruit from being formed. The believer must watch, for these things are enemies of his soul; they may seem to be like little foxes, small and of no strength, but they mar the beauty of the Christian character, and tend to check the promise of the fruit of the Spirit. Therefore they must be caught and destroyed by diligent watchfulness, by earnest persevering prayer. The little foxes do not, indeed, root up and devour the vineyard like the wild beasts of Psa 80:1-19; but they check its fruitfulness. And the small transgressions, if they do no worse, at least prevent the Christian from attaining that saintliness to which we are called. The little foxes hide and skulk about; the small sins are apt to escape detection. Therefore there is need of constant watchfulness and of very careful and diligent self-examination. For we are “called to be saints” (1Co 1:2; Rom 1:7); we are bidden to follow after holiness, to aim at perfection, to walk in the light. The little hindrances must be overcome, the little shadows must be driven away.
3. The happy union of love. “My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth his flock among the lilies.” The favoured maiden, it may be, could not at the moment join her royal lover; but her heart was wholly his, and she knew that his love was fixed upon her. She describes him as a shepherd, but her words are figurative; he feedeth his flock, not in common pastures, but among the lilies of his garden, the garden of spices mentioned again in So Psa 6:2. She delights in dwelling on the union of their hearts; three times she repeats the happy words (verse 16; So Psa 6:3; Psa 7:10). The Church is the Lord’s. He loved her, and gave himself for her, and presenteth her to himself as his bride (Eph 5:25, Eph 5:27); and he is hers, her Bridegroom, her King, her Lord. The Christian soul is the Lord’s. “Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom 14:8). He gave himself to each one of us individually when he called us to be his own; we give ourselves to him at the moment of our first spiritual awakening; we renew the gift continually in the hour of prayer, in the holy communion: “We offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to he a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto thee.” “My Beloved is mine, and I am his”to know that with the knowledge of personal experience is the highest of spiritual blessings. He gives himself first to us, and by that gift he enables us, cold and selfish as we are, to give ourselves to him. None can tell the blessedness of that inner spiritual union with the Lord save those happy souls to whom it is given; and they to whom he has manifested himself must very jealously keep their souls from any unfaithful leaning to other masters, that they may be wholly his, that no unfaithfulness may mar the pure clear truth of their heart’s love for him who loved them even unto death, and deigns now to irradiate their hearts with his most sacred presence. He is their Lord, and he is their good Shepherd; he knoweth his own, and his own know him. Once he gave his life for the sheep; now he feeds them, and leads them on their way, tilt they come to the lilies of Paradise, the garden of the Lord.
4. The adieus of the bride. She has expressed her confidence in her lover’s affection and her own devotion to him; but now, apparently, she repeats the intimation of verse 15 in plainer words: her duties in the vineyard will occupy her time till the evening. She wishes her lover to continue his hunting excursion on the mountains of Bether, or, it may be, “of separation”the mountains which for the time separate the lovers. She invites him to return when the day is cool, when the day breathes; that is, when the breeze comes in the evening, and the shadows lengthen and flee away (see Jer 6:4). The Christian must not neglect the ordinary commonplace duties of life; he must not allow himself, like the Thessalonians, to be so distracted with spiritual excitement as to be unable to attend to the pursuits of his calling. The bride tends the vineyards which have been committed to her charge; the Christian must do with his might whatever his hand findeth to do. He must not neglect his duties even for the sake of giving all his time to religious exercises. Laborare est orare. If, whatever he does, he does all to the glory of God, Christ is his, and he is Christ’s, as fully in the midst of daily work as in the hour of prayer. Daniel, who kneeled upon his knees, and prayed and gave thanks three times a day, was faithful in all things to the king his master; no error or fault could be found in the administration of his arduous office. The bride will welcome her lover back in the cool of the evening, when she has finished her work; the Christian will take delight in his evening prayers when the tasks of the day have been performed.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Son 2:1
The rose and the lily.
We have suggested here the self-consciousness of the renewed soul as to its true character and condition. It is the maiden who speaks, not her beloved, who in the next verse lovingly responds to what she says of herself. She likens herself
I. TO THE ROSE OF SHARON. That is, to a common field flower, not rare or distinguished, but of the lowliest if also of the loveliest kind.
1. It is the utterance of humility. (Cf. Paul’s word of himself as “less than the least of all saints.”) Lowly thoughts of themselves are ever the characteristics of saints. It is not so strong an expression as the “I am black” of So Son 1:5, but it is of similar order (cf. on So Son 1:5)
2. But not of false humility. For though a lowly it is yet a lovely flower. The rose of Sharon was that “excellency of Sharon” which Isaiah couples with “the glory of Lebanon.” Here, too, the resemblance between this and the “but comely” of So Isa 1:5 is evident. And the saintly soul is lovelyin the sight of its Lord, in the sight of the Church, and in the sight of men. Of our Lord it is said that “the grace of God was upon him,” and that he grew “in favour with God and man.” And this is so with his people, for he makes them beautiful and precious in his sight. She who is here the type of such soul is called “the fairest among women.”
3. And the rose is also fragrant. True, to it as to others the poet’s lines apply
“Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its fragrance on the desert air.”
but the saintly soul is what it is because it is its nature to be so, whether admired or not (cf. on So Isa 1:12). And such souls are:
4. The glory of the places where they are found. The Plain of Sharon is remembered in the minds of men for this its “excellency”the roses that grow there. The world would not say that the glory of a place was its saints. It would point to its popular heroes, and those whom it calls its great men. But by the side of such flowers Solomon in all his glory fades by comparison. How plainly the Divine estimate of men is seen in God’s choice of Israela small, insignificant people, contemptible in the eyes of the great empires of ancient and modern days! But because in them, as in none other, the saints of the Lord were found, therefore on them and on their land the eyes of the Lord rested night and day. According to our character, according as we are governed by the faith, the fear, and the love of God, are we a blessing and an honour to our land and age. And they:
5. Delight in the sunshine of his love. The rose is the child of the sun. Its bright rays must rest upon it or its radiant beauty will not be revealed. And we are to “walk in the light,” and to be “children of the light.”
II. THE LILY OF THE VALLEYS. This is another emblem of the saintly soul.
1. Of their character. Purity, sweetness, power of self-multiplication. What numbers of them there are! Bushnell speaks in his ‘Christian Nurture’ of “the out-propagating power of the Christian stock,” by which he means the power given to Christian faith to reproduce itself beyond, the like power possessed by that which is unchristian. And it has been so. How soon was the whole Roman empire converted to Christianity! It is the truth taught in the parable of the mustard seed (Mat 13:1-58). And it will be so yet more. “The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.”
2. Their home is in the “valleys.“
(1) The lowly places. They “mind not high things.” They “learn of” him who said, “I am meek and lowly in heart;” and, “When thou art bidden to a feast, take the lowest place.” It is in such valleys that some of Christ’s fairest flowers are found. Amongst the poor. The afflicted. The persecuted.
(2) Where, though exposed to much peril, they are yet preserved. How wonderful has been the preservation of the Church when we think of the perils it has had to encounter! As sheep amongst wolves Christ sent them. But yet the sheep outnumber the wolves, and have long done so. The lilies liable to be plucked by any passer by, trampled on or devoured by any beast, yet they live on, and each spring sees the valleys covered with them again.
3. They are found where the living streams abound. The well watered valleys are the lilies’ natural home. And so with the saintly soul. It lives by that river the streams whereof make its home glad. So, then, here is another portraiture of such a soul. Do we behold our face in this glass?S.C.
Son 2:2
The Lord’s response to the lily.
“As the lily among thorns.”
I. HE DOES SET HIS LILIES AMID SUCH SURROUNDINGS, By the thorns we may understand:
1. The world of the ungodly. “Among them that are set on fire, eve, the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword” (Psa 57:4). “The saint must expect to find himself, while in this world, among uncongenial and hostile spirits.”
2. Trials and temptations. (Cf. Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.”)
3. Hindrances to our growth and peril to our life. “The thorns sprang up and choked them” (Mat 13:1-58.). ‘Tis a wonder, when we think of it, how any of these lilies live at all
4. All others them they who are the Lord‘s. The speaker in text compares all other daughters with her, and classes them all with the thorns as compared with her. If whatsoever be not of faith be sin, then, whatsoever it be, it comes under this ill-sounding name of “thorns.” Such are the surroundings of the saintly soul.
II. NEVERTHELESS, THEY GROW THERE. As a fact, they do and increase. And the reason is that given to Paul when he “besought the Lord thrice” concerning his thorn: “My grace is sufficient for thee: my strength is made perfect in weakness.” There is no other account to be given of the matter. It is all a marvel but for that.
III. AND IT IS IN HIS GRACE AND WISDOM THAT THEY ARE WHERE THEY ARE. How many wise and holy ends are secured by it!
1. God‘s grace is magnified in and by them. It is easy to grow amid favourable surroundings, where much helps and but little hinders. Growth there is not remarkable. To be Christ’s servants where such service is general, and even popular, is no hardship. But if amid thorns, amid all that hinders, all that makes it difficult to serve Christ, if there we serve him, then is his grace magnified.
2. The world is kept from being hell. From being all thorns, dry, barren, hurtful, fit only for the fire. What would this world be if God’s saints were taken out of it? Life would, indeed, then be not worth living. It would be better had men never been born.
3. The thorns may be led to become lilies. Of course, this is impossible in the natural world, but, thank God, not in the spiritual. And such transformation often occurs, and that it may, God places his lilies where they are. “As the Father hath sent me, so send I you,” he said to his disciples. But the Father sent the Son to save the world. This, therefore, in their measure is the mission of his people, and hence they must be where they are.
IV. BUT IT WILL NOT BE SO ALWAYS. The lilies shall be transplanted that they may bloom forever in the Paradise of God. And the thorns!what is fit for such will be done. Therefore if we be of the blessed number whom the lilies of the valleys represent, let us not murmur, but remember what our mission is, and seek to fulfil it. And let each one of us askWhich am I, lily or thorn?S.C.
Son 2:3
His shadow.
St. Bernard takes this as telling of the Passion of Christ, and especially of the time when, as he hung on the cross, there was “darkness over all the land.” Now, it does not mean this, but rather, as the whole context of the verso tells, of the cool shelter from the sun’s fierce heat and glare which the speaker enjoyed beneath the o’erarching of the boughs of the tree under which she had seated herself. Hence it tells of “the shadow of the Almighty,” of which Psa 91:1-16 so fully speaks. Therefore let us take this
I. ITS TRUE MEANING. “Man is born to trouble;” he needs shelter continually. The sun smites him by day; the fierce heat of life’s cares and distresses often make him faint and weary. Now:
1. There are other shelters which men often choose. The world offers many.
(1) Its riches. Men think, if they can only get these, they will be protected from all harm, both they and theirs. Hence men struggle after them incessantly.
(2) Its friends. If we can gather round us a sufficient number of these, and of the right kind, we sit down under that shadow with great delight.
(3) Its pleasures also. Men plunge into them as into some leafy covert, where they can hide themselves from the darts of all kinds of pursuing pains. But are not all these what the prophet calls “walls daubed with untempered mortar;” or, as in another place another prophet speaks, “battlements” which are “not the Lord’s”?
2. But what harm they do us! They are short-lived, and when our sorest need comes these Jonah gourds have all withered. And at the best they are but imperfect. They can for a while affect our circumstances, but the soul, the true seat of all trouble, they cannot better, but only make worse. For they do us this wrong alsothey come between us and man’s only true Shelter, “the shadow of the Almighty.” They hinder our seeing and our seeking it, and then, sooner or later, do assuredly fail us themselves. Under the image of “cisterns, broken cisterns, which can bold no water,” and for the sake of which men in their folly forsake the fountain of living waters, Jeremiah mourns the same infatuation.
3. But the Lord is alone man‘s true Defence. The failure of others, the unvaried protection that this affords, is proof incontestable. This blessed shadow, whilst Israel rested in it, sheltered them from all evil; and it does so still forevery one that “dwelteth in the secret place of the Most High”every one, that is, who abides in the trust of him of whom the secret place told. That secret place was the inner chamber in the tabernacle which was known as the most holy place, and which was emphatically secret, for it was never entered but once a year, and then by the high priest alone. But it told of man’s need of God’s grace, and of that grace provided for him. To trust, then, in that God was, and is, to dwell “under the shadow of the Almighty.” May that happy lot be ours!
II. THE MEANING IT HAS SUGGESTED. The shadow of the cross, the shadow into which our Lord entered during his Passion especially.
1. It was his shadow. See the agony in the garden; hear the cry from the cross, “My God, my God, why hast,” etc.? Read Psa 22:1-31; which tells of those dread hours. We read, once and again, in the Gospels of his being troubled, of his sighing, of his tears. Anticipating his death, he said, “Now is my soul troubled.” Yes, what wonder that he feared as he entered that dark shadow!
2. But we may sit under it “with great delight,“ and its fruit is sweet to our taste.
(1) For that shadow has flown away. The cross is taken down. In its special form the Passion is past. Now, “on his head” is not the crown of thorns, but the “many crowns” of his people’s love. With great delight do they think of this.
(2) And dark as that shadow was, it was the background on which shone out resplendently the love of the heart of God. Man had never really seen that love but for that shadow.
(3) And because of all that has come forth from that shadow. Who can reckon up in order or number the sweet fruits of that tree on which the Saviour hung? Have they not been, are they not, and will they not yet more be, blessed for man? What of redeeming force for all men was not set in motion by that act of redemption? Well, therefore, may even those who look not upon our Lord as we do, nevertheless sing, “In the cross of Christ I glory.”
3. But his shadow may, will, must, be ours. For we also are to take up our cross and follow after him. We have to “know the fellowship of his sufferings, and to be made conformable to his death.”
“All that into God’s kingdom come
Must enter by this door.”
In some this fellowship with his sufferings has been manifest to all in that which they have been called upon to endure. In others, outwardly, there may not have been much, if anything, to tell of such fellowship. But there is the spiritual cross, as real, as sharp, as heavy, as repellent to our nature, as the outward and visible one. And who may escape that? But:
4. We may sit under such shadow with great delight.
(1) Men have done so (cf. “I glory in tribulations also”). And St. Paul again, throughout the Epistle to the Philippians, whose keynote is joy. Yet he was in prison and in peril of his life all the while. And his experience has been that of “a great multitude which no man can number, out of,” etc.
(2) Why is this? Because it has been his shadow. The reason of suffering is the measure of its power over us. Does the fond mother, watching night after night by the bed of her fever-stricken, darling child, think much or complain of her sufferings? Does she not glory in them if they can but help her child? And so if our shadow be his shadow, that which he has bidden us bear, then because it is his we shall “sit down under it with,” etc. St. Paul sprang towards it, counted all things but loss that he might attain to the excellency of its knowledge; so he speaks of it with almost rapture, with certainly no complaint. He was one of those who “sat down under to his taste.” Then let it be our sole care to see that the shadows which draw over all lives, and which will darken ours sometimes, be his shadow, and then all will be well.S.C.
Son 2:5-7
Faint for love.
Keeping to the spiritual, not the historical, interpretation, these verses suggest what is common to all, but confessed here only by the saintly soul.
I. CHRIST SHARES IT. He said when on the cross, “I thirst,” and that told not alone of his physics thirst, but of that sacred, insatiable, and still unsatisfied thirst for the love of human hearts. He could say, “I am faint for love.” And yet he yearns for that love, though much he already possesses, and will more and more. The Passion was but as a picture thrown upon a sheet to make clear and conspicuous to all what else they had not seen. So the sufferings of Christ serve to show not what was once, but what eternally is, in the heart of Christthis yearning for man’s love. The Holy Spirit, the unseen and spiritual Christ, is yet on earth amongst men; and yet, as he pleads with them, is grieved and done despite to, as he was in the days of his flesh. His thirst is not yet satisfied; all the loving invitations of the gospel prove this. It is our joy to believe that the day will dawn when, though now, as ever in the past, faint for man’s love, he will “see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied.” Be it ours to hasten that day!
II. THE WORLD ALSO, BUT KNOWS NOT WHAT IT NEEDS. The love of Christ is what the world wants, though it wanders wearily off, as it has done from the beginning, after what it foolishly deems will satisfy its need. All the unrest, the agitation, the seething discontent, the wild rush after this scheme and that, which promise its betterment,all show how great its need, and how yet that need remains unmet. If the Church of Christ on earth were but what its name professes, soon would the weary world see where all its wants would find supply, and turn to him for whose love it is that it faints, and is so wretched and woebegone. It needs that love to be the animating principle of Christian people, in their conversation, conduct, habits, business, and ways; which assuredly it is far enough from being at present, else why is society as it is? why are there “submerged tenths” and “darkest Englands,” as we know there are? Is this the outcome of a Christian civilization? No; only the natural product of a civilization which is everything but Christian. And yet more, the world needs Christ’s love in themselves. For lack of that it is as it is.
III. BUT SPECIALLY THE CHRISTIAN SOUL. And the confession of faintness for his love may be true:
1. In a sad sense. If such soul be faint, as many are, incapable of real service, weakly, ineffectual, and impoverished, is not the true and sad cause revealed in this confession? As plants cannot grow without the light and warmth of the sun, so Christian souls cannot prosper that do not come into and “continue in” Christ’s love. But the confession as made here is not in a sad sense, but:
2. In a very blessed one. It is the very presence of his love in the soul that leads to the longing for deeper enjoyment of it. “My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath after thy commandments at all times;” “My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord;” and Psa 63:1, are all similar expressions. Great saints have all of them known this holy longing, this going out of the soul after God in great vehemency of desire; and blessed, blessed indeed, are they. My soul, be thou of their number! And such revelations of the Lord’s grace often affect the body as well as the soul, causing faintness and overwhelming emotion (cf. Dan 10:8-19; Jdg 6:22; Rev 1:12-18; 2Co 12:7, in illustration of this).
3. But in such faintness the soul craves support. This is suggested by the request made (Psa 63:5), “Stay me with cordials, comfort me with citrons.” These were the refreshments she had enjoyed when “under his shadow,” and when she ate of the “fruit sweet to her taste” (Psa 63:3). Translated into their spiritual meaning, they tell of those precious truths and teachings which come from and cluster round the cross of Christ. The soul would drink again of such “cup of salvation,” and eat of the fruit of such “tree of life.” It was the power of those truths, brought home by the Holy Spirit, that heretofore had quickened and sustained the soul, and hence they are desired again. And they seem to have been partaken of (cf. Psa 138:3; Pro 31:6), and the soul to have been thereby brought again to the rich enjoyment of the Divine love. And:
4. It finds what it has so earnestly desired. (Psa 63:6.)
“As in the embraces of my God,
Or on my Saviour’s breast.”
This sacred enfolding of the soul in the love of God is the meaning of the verse, or, at least, the designed teaching. Think what must have been the joy of the penitent prodigal when, after his weary journey, he found thrown around him, in loving welcome, the arms of his father, against whom he had so sinned; and on his brow the father’s kiss. That rapture of the soul when it is filled with the sense of the Divine love,these are the embraces of God and the fulfilment of the well known words, “He fell on his neck, and kissed him.” That part of the parable which tells of the prodigal’s yearning for home, the weary journey, and then the welcome, may be taken as the gospel commentary on these verses. And the soul shall be enfolded in this Divine love; it shall not be taint for it, and ever continue so. For the next verse tells:
5. How the soul is anxious not to be disturbed in its blessed condition until the Lord will. The maiden of the song is represented as addressing a passionate adjuration to her companions, “by the roes and hinds”that is, by all beautiful, loving, timid, and easily startled things, as these werethat they should not awaken her beloved from his repose until he will. And so the soul that rests in the realization of God’s love would linger therein.
“My willing soul would stay
In such a frame as this.”
And this side of heaven there is no such joy to be realized as this. Alas! how rare it is, or rather, how rarely we find it, though we might if we would! Still, the soul knows that its life is not to be all enjoyment. Service has to be rendered. The disciples would have liked to stay on the Mount of Transfiguration; they said, “It is good to be here;” but the poor lunatic lad down below needed healing, and therefore neither their Lord nor they might linger where they were. Hence, though the soul would rest always in the joy of his realized love, yet it may, probably will, as with Paul, be sent forth to stern duty and patient toil. Therefore it is added, “until he please.”
“O Love Divine, how sweet thou art!
When shall I find my willing heart
All taken up by thee?”
S.C.
Son 2:8-17
The soul wooed and won.
In this lovely pastoral the literal meaning is, we think, as stated in introduction to homily on Son 2:15. But it may be taken as setting forth how Christ woes and wins the souls he loves. The various stages are shown.
I. THE SOUL HEARS HIS VOICE. “The voice of my Beloved” (Son 2:8). It is as said in Joh 10:1-42; “My sheep hear my voice.” They hear it in the loving exhortations of those who would win them for Christ; in his Word; in the silent pleadings of his Spirit; in his providence. And it is gladly heard. The tone of this Joh 10:8 shows that she who hears is pleased to hear. There is the response of her heart; cf. “My sheep hear and follow me;” “Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth.”
II. THEN THE SOUL SEES HIM COMING. “Behold, he cometh leaping upon,” etc. Christ says to his Church, “Behold, I come quickly.” There, as here, his coming is:
1. Swiftly. Conversions to Christ very rarely are sudden, but they often seem so (cf. those of penitent thief, Paul, Philippian gaoler). The conviction that Christ alone can save us, and that he will, is borne in upon our souls all in a moment, as it were; the truth rushes in upon us.
2. No distance can keep him back. The soul has been distant enough from him; “over the hills, and far away.” How we have kept aloof from him! What space we have put between him and ourselves! Gone, maybe, into some “far country.”
3. Difficulties do not daunt him. Mountains and hillshe leapeth upon them. What impossibilities have sometimes seemed to stand in the way of a soul’s salvation! Take the instances above named. What human probability was there that they should be won for Christ? But he makes nothing of them; they cannot hinder him. “Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel,” etc. (Zec 4:7).
4. Very near. “He standeth behind our wall.” Just outside (cf. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock”). Often the soul when sought by the Saviour is conscious of his nearness, and that he is seeking her. Sometimes when we are alone and in serious thought; sometimes in sacred services, when his Word has been preached with power.
III. KNOWS THAT HE IS SEARCHING FOR HER. “He looketh in at the windows” (Joh 10:9). He will find her if she is to be found, and so his eyes search for her. This, too, the soul often knows. “Thou God seest me” (cf. Psa 139:1-12, “O Lord, thou hast searched me,” etc.). Our hearts’ inmost secrets, unknown to our nearest and dearest earthly friend, are known to him; for all our hearts have windows through which his eyes often keenly glance. Conscience shows us those “eyes of the Lord which are in every place.” (For illustration of this loving search, cf. parables in Luk 15:1-32.)
IV. IS AFFECTIONATELY ENTREATED BY HIM. He:
1. Addresses her as his much-loved one. “My fair one.” Such name of endearment tells the truth as to what our souls are to him. So also “my dove” (Joh 10:16). We should not call them fairno, indeed! But love invests all it loves with beauty. What mother does not think her child lovelier than everybody else’s? Other people do not see it; she does. And so Christ sees in our souls what we certainly cannot see.
2. Bids her “rise up and come away.“ (Cf. “He arose and came to his father.”) How many would be saved willingly if only they could stay where they arein self-indulgence, in gainful trade, in worldly conformity, in allowed sin! But it may not be. The soul must “rise up,” etc. We must leave our sins behind us when we come to Christ.
3. He encourages her by telling of the pleasure he desires for her. He would have her go forth with him in delightful walk amid the flowers and fragrance, the sunshine and song, of a lovely spring morning. No more exquisite description of such a morning was ever penned. And so the Divine wisdom moves us, saying, “Her ways are ways of pleasantness,” etc. And we are taught that the course of the soul should be as a going forth amid the loveliness of such a morning in spring. It is not through a vale of tears, but amid what is here told of. Joy should be a chief element in the soul’s life in Christ.
4. He bids her cast away her fear. (Cf. as to her fearfulness, on Joh 10:15.) Young souls are often fearfulof themselves, of the world, of the cress. Christ would dispel such fears.
5. He asks for response. He would hear her voice. The voice of the soul in prayer, in praise, in self-surrender,that is the voice Christ loves to hear.
V. IS FINALLY AND FULLY WON. (Cf. Joh 10:16.) See how gladly:
1. She confesses him, openly avowing that he is the Beloved of her heart, and that she is altogether his (cf. “She fell down before him, and told him all the truth”). Confession is the law of love.
2. She declares that he dwells in her heart. Those pure graces, the lilies of his creating, are those amongst which he takes delight. Christ dwells in our hearts through faith.
3. She desires that whilst her life lasts he may come to her as he has done. (Joh 10:17.) So long as the night of life lasts, and until the eternal dawn breaks, will she welcome his presence and rejoice in his coming.
CONCLUSION. Christ does so woo our souls, especially those who, as the one told of here, are young. May he win them as he won this!S.C.
Son 2:11, Son 2:12
Spring.
According to St. Paul, God’s natural world was intended to bemight, would, and should have been, but for man’s sinthe Bible for the great part of mankind. “Nevertheless,” said he to the men of Lycaonia, “God left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” And again (Rom 1:1-32), he declares that “the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.” Not the Bible alone, then, but nature also, was intended to reveal God, and men ought, as we are assured, to have seen God in the things that he made. But instead of being a revelation of God, it has been perverted into an impenetrable screen to hide and to conceal him; or, still worse, to distort, misrepresent, and dishonour him. So that, left to nature only, men have sunk lower and lower, as all experience proves. This is true of mankind generally. But it is not universally true. Long ere the written Scriptures were given, and in parts of the world where they never came, there have been those who by Divine illumination have learnt much of God through the works of God. Doubtless many of those of whom St. Paul speaks as having by nature done the things of the Law, though they never had the Law, these learnt from the great Bible of naturethat page having been, even as the written page must ever be, opened up to them by the teaching of the Spirit of God. Hence was it that their consciences became so enlightened as to approve or condemn according as they did good or evil. But if it was expected of them who had not, as we have, the written Word, but only nature to teach them, that they should understand God and his ways, how much more will be expected, and justly expected, of us! There are many who rejoice in the natural world as a revelation of God. What a proof we have of this in that glorious Psa 104:1-35! There the devout writer goes over the whole of God’s creation, animate and inanimate; that which has, and that which has not, the gift of reason. And he ends his devout meditation saying, “Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord.” Here, then, is a worthy model for us to follow in contemplating the works of God. Let us try to imitate so good an example. Our text is a short but beautiful description of an Eastern spring. In that land of the sun it is true, as it is not always here, that in the spring time “the winter is past, the rain is over and gone heard in the land.” But let us listen to some few out of the many holy and helpful lessons which this season of the year is ready to teach us, if only our hearts be open to receive them. These teachings of the spring, then, what are they? Well, one of them is surely this
I. “REST IN THE LORD, AND WAIT PATIENTLY FOR HIM.” Try to imagine, if you can, what your thoughts would have been during the dark winter time, supposing you had no idea of spring. It is difficult for us even to conceive that we could ever have not known that winter gives way to spring, and that the seasons follow in their orderly round. But suppose one waking up to consciousness for the first time at the beginning of winter. He would have seen the days getting shorter and shorter, the cold becoming more intense, every leaf stripped from well nigh all trees, and their unclothed, skeleton-like branches quivering and moaning in the wintry wind. He would see the bare, brown fields stiffen and become rigid under the icy blast and the imprisoning frost; and from time to time the whole land would put on its white shroud of snow as if it were indeed dead. He would see all this and the many other familiar features of winter; and had he never known or heard of spring, would he ever think that such a season would comethat all the present dreariness would give way to brightness, the sad silence to the joyful song of birds, and the gloomy grey tints of winter to the brightness of the foliage, the blossoms, and the flowers of spring? I do not think he would. For this is how many of us feel and speak, notwithstanding perpetual reminders to the contrary, when winter reigns in the heart. Hearken to Jacob, “All these things are against me,” etc.; Moses, praying God to kill him out of hand because he could not bear the people nor endure his wretchedness; Elijah, too, making the same request; and Job, and many more. Are they not all instances of that mournful tendency in our minds, to think that when like sad wintry times are upon us so they will always be? Surely, then, the teaching of the spring is that we should “rest in the Lord,” etc.; for spring declares of him that he is the gladness-giving God; that though there be winter, yet it has to give way to the bright and joyful spring. In the natural world the “oil of joy is given for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” God does turn Nature’s mourning into dancing; he puts off her sackcloth and girds her with gladness. “The winter is over and past,” etc. Therefore may we not be well assured that so it will be with the winter of our hearts, the sadness and the silence there, if only we will “rest in the Lord,” etc.? Let our prayer, then, be
“Lord, let thy love,
Fresh from above,
Soft as the south wind blow,
Call forth its bloom.
“Now when thy voice
Makes earth rejoice,
And the hills laugh and sing,
Lord, teach this heart
To bear its part,
And join the praise of spring.”
II. THE INFINITE TENDERNESS or GOD. We go forth into the country, and we note all around us the first springings of that plant life which when matured is to be of such vast value to us all. But how fragile everything looks! How little it would take to destroy the whole of it! A too-severe storm, an over-rough wind, a frost, any out of a thousand casualties, would destroy all. But yet God takes care of it. He will not suffer the too-violent storms to come, but only gentle showers; not the rough wind, but the milder gales. Thus with infinite tenderness he rears up the young plants.
1. Now, how all this rebukes the hard thoughts of God which many have held and taught and maintained, in books as innumerable as dreary. We wonder at the heathen, in view of the loveliness of nature, fashioning their gods so cruel and relentless as they did. But that we, with nature and the gospel, should so conceive of God is sad indeed. We little know the mischief such hard representations do, the alienation and the bitterness towards God which they foster. It is the source of the Madonna and saint worship of Rome, and of worse things still. For men become as the gods they worship.
2. It shows us how to deal wisely with all young life, especially the beginnings of the Divine life in the soul: how to train our children.
3. And it bids us trust God. Will God be so gracious to birds and blossoms and not tenderly care for us? Impossible.
III. “WITH HIM IS PLENTEOUS REDEMPTION.” Spring teaches that our God is the redeeming God. For spring is the redemption of outward nature, its regeneration and resurrection. She was dead, but is alive again; was lost, but is found. Darkness has given place to light, barrenness to fruitfulness, and the “hills rejoice on every side.” The vision of Ezekiel is put before us as oft as the spring comes round. “Can these dry bones live?” said he. “Can all this seeming deadness live?” say we. And the spring is our answer. And we are told further of our dependence upon God for such redemption. Who can bring about the renewed life of spring but God? and who that yet higher life of the soul? And how visible the life is! See all around the proofs of the presence of the spring, Not less visible are the fruits of the spring tide of the soul. And as the spring is promised, so is the better gift of redemption. Each blade, blossom, and bud seems to say to us, “Shall God redeem me, and will he not redeem thee?” And the mystery of the cross is shown. For what is spring but life out of and through death? Redemption must imply a Redeemer, and the life of spring coming, forth out of the death of winter patterns forth how the Christ must needs suffer and be raised again. And for ourselves it tells of him who said for us, “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” and bids us say, “I know that my Redeemer liveth.”
IV. “PUT YE ON THE NEW MAN.” All Nature does this at spring tide. We in our dwellings and in our dress try to imitate her and do the like. They who can, get new garments; they who cannot, try to make the old look new. Let us learn the lesson in things higher still. Is there not much room for it? In too many even Christian people the remains of what Paul calls “the old man” are too plentifully visiblein homes, in habits, in speech, in thought, in temper. How much we need yet to be created anew in Christ Jesus, to “put on the new man”! And he who maketh “all things new” is ready to help us herein if we will have his help.
V. BE DILIGENT. Spring is a time of great activity. The husbandman dare not waste those precious hours if he would rejoice when harvest comes. So with this life of ours, all which is given us for preparation for the great harvest time. Then let the activities of the spring remind us that we, too, must be diligent if we would be found at the last faithful before the Lord.S.C.
Son 2:15
The little foxes.
This verse is part of the description which Shulamith, the betrothed, gives of her beloved. In the verses preceding she relates (Son 2:8, etc.) how he was wont to come to her home after her, bounding and leaping over the hills in his loving haste, like a young hart. And how, when he had reached the house, he would “look in at the windows,” and beg her to come forth to him. And to entice her he would sing the beautiful song of the spring, “The winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth, and the time of the singing of birds is come.” And then, because she was still slow to come forth, she tells how he would call her again, and by the tender name of his timid “dove,” that hides itself, because of its fear, in the clefts of the rocks, and amid the inaccessible crags and. crevices of lofty cliffs; and then how he would ask her to sing to him her song of the foxes, “Take us the foxes, the little foxes grapes.” Such seems to be the circumstantial setting of this verse; but, like the whole poem of which it forms part, had it no more meaning than lies on the surface it would not, we believe, have found place amongst the sacred Scriptures, the Bible of the people of God. If, then, the words suggest to devout minds, as they have done in all the centuries since they were written, truths which belong to the region of the soul, to our relationships with God more than to any relationship of earth, surely we may believe that they were designed so to do; and earthly as the story may be on which such truths are grafted, like the parables of our Lord, it has a heavenly meaning, and is designed to help us on our heavenward way. Now, of some of these suggested truths let us speak. One word as to the imagery of this verse. “Foxes, jackals, little foxes, are very common in Palestine, and are particularly fond of grapes. They often burrow in holes in hedges round the gardens, and, unless strictly watched, would destroy whole vineyards. Their flesh was sometimes eaten in autumn, when they were grown fat with feeding on grapes. Thus Theocritus says-
“‘I hate the foxes with their bushy tails,
Which numerous spoil the grapes of Mecon’s vines
When fall the evening shades.’
And Aristophanes compares soldiers to foxes, because they consume the grapes of the countries through which they pass” (Burrows). But now as to the spiritual teachings which are contained in these words. We have brought before us here
I. A SAD POSSIBILITY. Vines that promised well, spoiled. Translated into the language of the Spirit, they speak of blessed beginnings of the Divine life in the soul not realized. Few things are more beautiful than the beginnings of the Divine life. The promise and hope they give rise to of matured and rich and Christ-like character fill the devout-minded observerespecially if he himself has prayed and watched and toiled for such beginningswith a deep and sacred joy. What does he not anticipate from them? What of influence on others, in the Church, the home, the business, the world generally? What of service for Christ and truth and all goodness? Hence when he sees that tenderness of conscience, that prayerfulness, that gentleness and humility, that alacrity in service, that delight in worship, all which mark these beginnings, how can he but be glad? or how can any one who has a Christ-like heart in him? But few things are more sad than to see all this hopefulness and promise spoiled. And such things do happen. “Ye did run well; who did hinder you?” so said St. Paul to the foolish Galatians who had so bitterly disappointed him. And how often in our Lord’s ministry had he to bear this disappointment! Again and again there would come to him those about whom bright hope might have been cherishedamiable, well disposed, warm-hearted, intelligent, pure-minded, generous, much esteemed, kindly, lovable, and. beloved. Such people were irresistibly drawn to him, and for a while they would follow him; but then after a while we find something offending them, and they go away. Christ drew their portrait in his parable of the sower, where he likens such to the seed sown on the stony ground. Quick to spring up and present the appearance of vigorous life, but as quick to wither away when the sun’s scorching heat smote them as it smote all else. And surely, in the spoiled vines told of in our text, we have another of these Bible portraitures of the same, or a similar class. And where there is not the actual destruction and perishing of what is good, there is yet the spoiling. The vines are not cut down, they are not hindered from bringing forth any fruit; the foe told of “spoils,” which is less than to destroy. And how often we have to mourn this “spoiling of the vine”! Neither we nor others come up to that elevation of Christian character which might fairly have been expected. Many people are, in the main, worthy; there is very much that is excellent in them, but their characters are sadly marred. They are ineffectual; they do not tell for any real or large amount of good in any one, anywhere. Their type of life is low; they have the name and the form of godliness, but all too little of the power. They are respectable, decorous, outwardly religious, and live, as we say, consistently with their profession. But if you come to know them, how little of their real life is touched by their religion; what a mere veneer it is on their ordinary existence! How little it does for them in making them really holy or happy, or powerful for good! They began well, but they have sunk and settled down to this. He who looks that these people should bring forth their fruit in due seasonplentiful fruit, much fruit, the best fruitwill assuredly be disappointed. “And what hinders them? Now, mark you, it is not said here, as in that mournful psalm, ‘The wild boar out of the wood doth root it up, and the wild beasts of the field devour it.’ it is not said here, ‘It is burnt with fire and cut down, and they shall perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.” It is not said here, ‘Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they that go by pluck off her grapes?’ No; it is the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the tender grapes.” Therefore let us now look at this
II. ITS TOO MUCH NEGLECTED CAUSE. It is the little sins, the small faults, the slight self-indulgences, what we count as trifles and think nothing, or almost nothing, ofthese are the little foxes which spoil the tender grapes. All sins waste and destroy the soul. Not merely the Wage but the work of sin is death. Some there are so notorious that they are as St. Paul says, “open beforehand, going before to judgment.” They are as the wild boar out of the wood and the beasts of the field, told of in the psalm we quoted just now. High-handed, bold, Heaven-defying sins, bringing down on the doers of them, sooner or later, the dread judgments of God. But there are other masters of the soul, spoilers of the grapes of God,those sins which here are pictured to us as “the little foxes.” “Little,” so we call them, and others call them so too; and. hence, though we be all wrong together in so calling them, we have come to think them little as well as call them so. And fox-like, which we often forget, for they skulk and lurk and hide; they have, as our Lord said, “their holes,” and there they burrow and bury themselves out of sight. And many of them have other characteristics of the foxdeceit, cruelty, foulness; true vermin of the soul are they. And they all of them often feign death as the fox does. And we think them dead, and lo! they spring to life again, and are as active as ever. Hence we do indeed need to be on our guard against them. But it is the littleness of these sins to which our thoughts are chiefly turned by the vivid image of the little foxes. Their littleness, like charity, covers a multitude of them, and so conceals them from our own censure and that of others. And if the great adversary of our souls can persuade us not to mind these little sins, he has almost all he cares for. For then he knows that we shall never be what he most of all hates, that is, great saints.
1. For such have ever shunned them with holy care. It has often been pointed out how Daniel might have prayed to God notwithstanding the king’s decree, and yet never have incurred the awful peril of the lions’ den, if he would only have shut his window when he prayed. But he must needs open it, and so, of course, he was seen. But he would not compromise with what he deemed his duty to God even in so slight degree as this. And the martyrs, too. The Roman judges used. perpetually to remind them how trifling was the concession asked forjust sprinkling a grain or two of incense on an altar, that was all. “Now, if men have been able to perceive so much of sin in little transgressions, that they would bear inconceivable tortures rather than commit them, must there not be something dreadful after all in these little sins?” If we would have fellowship with the great saints of God, the eminent and true disciples of our Lord, we must give no quarter to these so called trifling sins. They did not, or they would not have been what they were.
2. And the little foxes grow into great ones. Has not the indulgence in one glass of intoxicating liquor often led on to the liking for two, and that to the taking of three, and that has been followed by the man’s becoming a drunkard and a sot? “Tremblez, tyrans; nous grandirons!” was the shout of the young French lads who, drilled and dressed as soldiers, marched, in the days of the Revolution, through many a town and village in France. They bade the tyrants that oppressed their nation tremble, because they, though but little lids now, would one day be grown up into men. And might not our souls be well made to tremble as they contemplate one of these little sins? for it, too, will grow up, and then will be no longer little, but great and strong. Scarcely more surely does the boy grow into the man than does a little sin tolerated grow into a great one. It is one of the ways of burglars, in effecting an entrance into a house, to attack a small window not nearly large enough to admit a man. But they bring a boy with them, and him they thrust through, and he then undoes larger windows or doors, and so the men enter too. Yes, my brother, if you are allowing yourself in what you are pleased to call a little sin, it may be but the boy getting in at the window who will let in the greater thieves as soon as he is safely in himself. Let us remember that.
3. And how these little sins multiply themselves! Great sins are rare. Tremendous transgressions we are guilty of but now and thenbut once in our lifetime, it may be; or God’s grace may always keep us “innocent from the great transgression;” we trust it will. But these little onesthey are like the myriad insects in our gardens. How they swarm! The more minute they are the more they multiply, until they devour everything if they be let alone. They never come singly, but in troops. And so is it with these little sins that are like them. A man will think it but a trifle if he utter a profane expression, he counts it a very small matter; but it soon comes to pass that he can hardly open his mouth anywhere or anywhen without some miserable profanity dropping from it. A little temper may come to mean an explosion half a dozen times a day, until it is said of the man that he is always in a temper. That great Zuyder Zee, on which Amsterdam is built, was once a fair fertile land covered with farms, villages, and hamlets; a strong embankment shut it off from the Northern Sea. But that embankment had, no doubt, somehow began to yield in very slight degree, when one stormy winter night the whole gave way, and now the once fruitful land is turned into barrenness, and has been so for centuries past. Oh, take heed of these small beginnings of sin. Yes, they “are like the letting out of water: first there is an ooze, then a drip, then a slender stream, then a vein of water, and then at last a flood, and a rampart is swept before it and the whole land is devoured.” God help us, therefore, to be on our guard. And, indeed, if we will think of it, they are not little. There may be but a handful of men cross the frontier of a state, but that is as much an act of war as if an army had come. There are people who never cease to ridicule the idea that “death and all our woe” were the result of man’s once eating the forbidden fruit. But there the fact is, all the same. It was the violation of the Divine Law, and it did not matter how it was done. And so with all those sins which we are pleased to call little. They are as much outrages on the Law of God as if they were acts so flagrant and enormous that all men should denounce them. Broken law is broken law, no matter whether the breach be great or small.Moreover, these sins which we call little are often greater than those which we call great. “If you have a friend and he does you a displeasure for the sake of ten thousand pounds, you say, ‘Well, he had a very great temptation. It is true he has committed a great fault, but still he has wronged me to some purpose.’ But should your friend vex and grieve your mind for the sake of a farthing, what would you think of that? ‘This is wanton,’ you would say. ‘This man has done it out of sheer malevolence towards me.'” And must not the same verdict be passed when, for the sake of one of these trifles, as we term them, we grieve the Spirit of God and outrage his holy Law? And, remember, if you be a Christian, these sins will ruin your peace with God. You cannot be happy in him whilst you walk contrary to his will. And if you be not a Christian, these same sins will lessen the likelihood of your ever becoming one. They may be but as small stones, but they will build up a strong and high wall of separation between you and God, which will more and more effectually shut you off from him. Every way they are deplorable things. Therefore consider
III. THE SURE REMEDY. These “little foxes” must be taken and destroyed. You must search them out by prayerful and diligent self-examination. You must drag them forth into the light of conscience and the judgment of God by full and penitent confession of them; and by vigorous acts of a will inspired by the Spirit of God you must slay them before him. “These mine enemies which would not that I should rule over them, bring them hither and slay them before me.” These are our Lord’s words, and he who spoke them will, if you do really desire it, give you grace to obey them. May he help you so to do!S.C.
Son 2:16
He mine; I his.
This verse is the oft-repeated and rapturous utterance of her who is the type of the redeemed soul concerning her beloved. Of course, we regard it as telling of the soul’s joy in Christ.
I. HE MINE. Let us ask three questions.
1. How?
(1) By his free gift of himself. “He loved me, and gave himself for me.”
(2) By believing appropriation. Faith has this marvellous power.
(3) By joyful realization of his love to me.
His love has been shed shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit. “I know whom I have believed.” How unspeakably blessed such realization is! But it is not universal nor even common. A little child will cry even in its mother’s arms. But the arms are there all the same. And so is Christ’s love.
2. What for? “He is mine to look upon, to lean upon, to dwell with; mine to bear all my burdens, discharge all my debts; mine to answer all my accusers, mine to conquer all my foes; mine to deliver me from hell, mine to prepare a place for me in heaven; mine in absence, mine in presence, mine in life, mine in death, mine in the grave, mine in the judgment, and mine at the marriage of the Lamb” (Moody Stuart).
3. What then?
(1) All that is his is mine. His righteousness, acceptableness, worthiness; his incarnation, atonement, resurrection, and intercession.
(2) I ought to know it if I do not. It is all-important to me if he be mine.
(3) I ought not to be so anxious about other things.
(4) Let me take care not to lose him. It is possible (cf. Son 5:6).
II. I HIS. We ask the same three questions.
1. How?
(1) By creation. “It is he that hath made us” (Psa 100:1-5).
(2) By the purchase of his blood.
(3) By the conquest of his Spirit.
(4) By my own free choice.
(5) By open avowal.
2. What for? To work and to witness, to suffer and to live, and if needs be to die, for him. To care for those for whom he cares, and to minister as he ministered.
3. What then?
(1) All that is mine, a sad inheritance indeed, is his. My sin, my guilt, my sorrow, my shame. And he has taken them on himself and away from me forever.
(2) Others should know it. I may not be a secret disciple.
(3) He will be sure to take care of me, teach me, perfect me, and bring me to himself.
(4) I will be his even when I cannot realize that he is mine.
(5) I will try to win others to him.S.C.
HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES
Son 2:2
Eminent piety seen in contrast.
Some similarities must exist, or the contrast could not be seen. The godly and the ungodly are both men, or we could not put their characters in contrast. Thorns are rooted in the same soil as the lily. They are nourished by the same sun, watered by the same rain, enjoy the same course of the seasons. But the inner life of the lily deals differently with the natural elements than does the inner life of thorns. So the ungodly live in the same land as the godly; they have the same access to God’s truth; they dwell amid the same forth-puttings of the Spirit’s power; yet, for want of self-appropriation, they are barren of good results. They are as noxious thorns compared with the lily. This eminent goodness of the lily implies
I. LOWLINESS. In the previous verse, the king’s bride had designated herself as a mere “lily of the valley.” And now the king responds and says, “It is so; but others are as thorns compared with thee.” Humility is the distinctive mark of all the godly. Native pride is crucified on the cross. The Christian longs to have a just estimate of himself. He will not “think of himself more highly than he ought to think.” If he discovers any goodness in himself, he attributes it to the active grace of his Benefactor. He is content to take the lowest place in the kingdom. If only he may belong to the chosen race, he is ready to be a “hewer of wood and a drawer of water.” Hence he sings –
“The more thy glories strike my eyes
The humbler I shall lie.”
II. PURENESS. The white color of the lily is a pure white. It has approved itself universally as the best emblem of innocence. All over the world it is a silent messenger from God. As every plant reaches out toward perfection, so the noblest yearning of the human soul is for purity. I may be learned and rich and renowned, but if I am lacking in purity, I despise myself; my heart refuses joy. I have fallen from my high estate. Other virtues in me are only leaves and blossoms; purity is the proper ripe fruit, which the owner longs to see. Yet, so full of grace is our Immanuel, that he sees, not only what is now actually in us, but what is comingthe perfect holiness which is slowly developing. As the whiteness of the lily is produced by its reflecting back again all the rays of light that fall upon it, and is whitest under the full blaze of the summer sun, so the Christian gains his purity by reflecting all the love and grace from the Sun of Righteousness.
III. FRAGRANCE. The lily of the valley is noted for its delicious odour. The subtle essence of the flower flows out in a perpetual stream of blessing. Its very life is expended in doing good. It cannot do much; it cannot bear clusters of juicy fruit; but what is possible for it to do, that it freely does. Is not this a portrait of a genuine disciple? Does he not count it his meat and his drink to spread blessing on every side? And can he prevent the sweet savour of his Master’s grace flowing out day and night? However obscure and insignificant he may be, his piety will diffuse a heavenly fragrance, and men will feet his influence.
“As some rare essence in a vase of clay
Pervades it with a sweetness not its own;
So when thou dwellest in the human soul,
All heaven’s own fragrance seems around it thrown.”
IV. BEAUTY. The lily charms the eye no less than it pleases the nostril. The eye has a native instinct for beauty, and through the eye the soul is enchanted. “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” And nothing in human character is half so beautiful as genuine piety. Heroism is beautiful, philanthropy is beautiful, parental love is beautiful; but the quality of godly love transcends them all. It has a sublimity which cannot be described. It has a potent influence which ennobles the whole man. It is immortal in its duration, and has a splendid sphere for growth. Well may we think of it as the amaranthine flower that blossoms in the Paradise of God. “Blessed are the pure in heart.”
V. THIS EMINENCE IS REACHED THROUGH DIFFICULTY. This lily has grown up “among the thorns.” They robbed it of the nutriment that dwelt in the soil. They hindered the free circulation of the balmy air. They shut out some of the quickening sunshine. Yet, in spite of hindrances, the lily grew and flourished. So it happens with the pious love of the Christian. It has to contend with hostile influences. Formidable opposition bars its growth. We have to resist the chilling influence of an ungodly world. Yet these very difficulties have their uses. Difficulties rouse our latent energy; difficulties put us on our mettle; difficulties give scope to heroic effort. No one of us is seen at our best until we are coping with gigantic opposition. As storms root the oak more firmly, so the opposition of the world blows up the fires of our piety into a white heat of sacred fervor. Thank God for the opposition of the world. Out of antagonism springs the noblest life.D.
Son 2:3
The pre-eminence of Immanuel.
In Eastern lands, far more than in Western, men are dependent on ripe fruit to allay their hunger. A man may walk all day among the oaks of Bashan or among the cedars of Lebanon, and find no food. To discover an apple tree or a citron tree among the trees of the forest would come as a surpriseas a meal direct from Heaven. Equally true is it that men wander from teacher to teacher, from one religious system to another, in quest of saving knowledge, and find it nowhere, until they find Jesus, the Christ. In search of soul-rest and soul-purity, men try practical morality, asceticism, bodily mortification, Church sacraments; but they are doomed to disappointment. For Jesus, the Son of God, is the only Saviour, and, apart from him, the soul is starved, diseased, undone. “As the citron tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons.”
I. THE SUPERLATIVE EXCELLENCE OF JESUS CHRIST.
1. Here is the idea of rareness. The event was rare to find a citron tree among forest trees. So Jesus stands alone. As Adam stood alone, the head of a new order of life, the Head of the human race; so Jesus is without a parallel, the covenant Head of the new family. He is “the only begotten Son.” By nature and by right, as well as by transcendent goodness, he is unapproachable. In him alone “dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” He is the God-Man: “God manifest in the flesh.” “Let all the angels of God worship him.”
2. Here is implied delicious fragrance. The blossom of the citron is not only beautiful to the eye; it is sweet and refreshing to the nostril. And it is a constant perfume. While ripe fruit is found on some branches, fresh blossoms are adorning others. Impressive emblem this of the rich fragrance of Immanuel’s love. With the sweetness of his disposition nothing can compare. It spreads today from the frozen plains of Greenland to the sultry cities of Burmah. From the equator to the poles, the fragrance of the Saviour’s love is diffused. It refreshes the fainting; it revives again those “who are ready to perish.” Some kinds of apples are named “nonpareils.” Jesus is the real “Nonpareil;” he has no equal.
3. The figure suggests fruitfulness. This is a theme that will loosen into eloquence every Christian tongue. Every part of Christ’s nature is fruitful. The woman, afflicted with old disease in Canaan, found fruitful blessing even in the hem of his garment. He is fruitful as a Teacher, for his words dispel all the perplexities and fears of the human family; he is fruitful as a Healer, for his gracious virtue cures every disease of body and of soul; he is fruitful as our Priest, for his one sacrifice atones forevery sin; he is fruitful as Intercessor, for his righteous pleadings always prevail; he is fruitful as a King, for his reign brings order, content melt, righteousness, peace; he is fruitful as a Friend, for all that he has he shares with his saints. For fruitfulness he is the Vine.
II. THE SUPERLATIVE USEFULNESS OF JESUS CHRIST. “I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.” Jesus is not simply excellence in his Person; his virtues are suited to the needs of men.
1. There is shady rest. The dwellers in the temperate zone can little appreciate what shade is to dwellers in the tropics. The fierce heat of noon means exhaustion, pain, fever. Rest in cool shade is like life from the dead. And the rest which Jesus gives is more precious yet. It is rest from the gloomy fear of hell; it is rest from the drudgery of sin; it is rest from slavish toil to work out a personal righteousness; it is rest from anxious, worldly care.
2. This fruitfulness of Christ is life giving. All other trees in the wood are impotent to sustain life. This is the tree of healththe tree of life. This is the grand prerogative of our Immanuel: “I am the Resurrection and the Life;” “I am come that ye may have life, and have it more abundantly;” “I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish;” “Because I live, ye shall live also.” And Jesus has always acted up to his word. A myriad human souls in heaven today join in the testimony, “Once we were dead; now, by Christ’s grace, we live.” “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable Gift.”
3. Jesus Christ, as the citron tree, imparts joy. “I sat down under his shadow with great delight.” It is an unusual joy, an overflowing blessedness. The joy which Christ gives is real, pure, ennobling, abiding. He gives to men “his own joy.” Do men rejoice when pain yields to medicine, and new health flows in? Do men rejoice in the brightness of spring, or amid the plenty of autumn? Do men rejoice on their marriage morn, or when fortune crowns their toil with large success? In Christ’s smile all joys are rolled into one. He who has Christ has a pledge of heaven. This joy is a “joy unspeakable.”
4. Jesus Christ is eminently adapted to our needs. As the ripe fruit of the citron tree was exquisitely suited to travellers in those hot climes, so Jesus is precisely suited to our necessities. You cannot mention a want of yours which Jesus is not competent to satisfy. He is Light for our darkness, Strength for our weakness, Food for our hunger, Rest for our weariness, Freedom for our bondage, Pardon for our guilt, Purity for our uncleanness, Hope for our despondency. As a well made key fits a lock, so Jesus fits all my needs. I want no other Saviour. He “is all my salvation, and all my desire” Fitness is God’s sign manual.D.
Son 2:4
Royal generosity.
The testimony of personal experience is specially valuable. We may argue from a priori data what generous love must reside in God, in order to harmonize with his perfection; and such a line of reasoning has its value. Or we may argue from analogy, that since fervent love stirs in the human breast, purer love and mightier glowsan uncreated flamein the heart of God; and this form of argument leaves a comforting impression on the mind. But personal testimony has a tender force all its own. If God has dealt generously and graciously to one member of the human family, no more deserving than I am, it is evident that he will deal with equal generosity of love toward me. For he is impervious to change. If it brought him joy and renown to show practical love to fallen men centuries ago, it will contribute to his renown and to his joy of heart now. If it added to his glory to save a lost soul in Palestine, it will add to his glory to save me. One deed of the heavenly King is a sample of all his deeds. Ex uno, omnia disce.
I. THE ROYAL GRACE OF CHRIST PROVIDES A BANQUET OF GOOD. It is everywhere a mark of friendship if a king invites a man to a banquet; and, through every part of Scripture, God represents himself as providing for penitent men a “feast of fat things.” Resentment and vindictiveness towards his frail creatures are things not to be thought of; they are sentiments familiar in hell, but unknown in heaven.
1. Here is the idea that hunger is satisfied. At a banquet the primal want of the body is met. And there is no hunger of the soul so widespread, so deep, as the craving for reconciliation with Godthe craving for pardon. What bread is to the bodily appetite, God’s mercy is to the convicted soul; it is “the one thing needful.” Well, God has provided this gift in no stinted fashion. It does not come to us as a bare measure, just enough to meet the case. It is a banquet; it is supplied in sumptuous abundance. Nor is it pardon alone that the heavenly King supplies. It is a banquet of all kinds of substantial good; luxuries gathered from far and near. Wisdom, mercy, righteousness, sonship, hope, victory, eternal life, are some of the viands spread. The Son of God “has given himself for us.” And ever and anon we hear the voice of the King himself, “He that cometh to me shall never hunger; he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
2. Here is also the idea of renewed friendship. To eat together is an act of friendship. It is a seal impressed in public that a covenant of friendship exists. To have our several bodies nourished from the same meal, from the same loaf, is a beautiful bond of attachment. It was an aggravation of Iscariot’s sin, that “he who had eaten bread with Jesus had lifted up the heel against him.” If the king invites us to a banquet, it means that he finds a pleasure in our society; he wishes to draw closer the ties of sacred intimacy. Thus Jesus acts. He wants to come into closer fellowship with us. He calls us, not servants, but friends. He undertakes to be our Surety, our Advocate with the Father. He will keep nothing from us, not even his throne. Other friendships may languish; the friendship of Jesus shall eternally abide. From his love nothing shall separate us.
3. Here is the idea of exuberant joy. A banquet is not spread, and lavishly embellished with beauty, simply to allay bodily hunger. It is a royal device for promoting joy. And he, who has given to us a great capacity for joy, intends to fill that capacity to the very brim. If there are occasions on earth when joy flows in upon us like a rising tide, these are only prophetic moments of the ineffable and eternal joy of heaven. Desire gratifiedthis is joy; effort successfulthis is joy; hope realizedthis is joy; development completethis is joy. To be with God, to be like God,this is noontide gladness; this is the “fulness of joy.”
II. THE ROYAL GRACE OF CHRIST USES GENTLE CONSTRAINTS. “He brought me into his banquet house.” A man’s worst enemy is usually himself. He cannot persuade himself that such generous love is intended for him. Others may perhaps be invited, but not he. Nor does he see that this unbelief is a fresh act of sin. If I discredit a person’s word, I may do him a great injustice. If I doubt the promise of a friend, it is an insult. And if I question the faithfulness of my King, I give him pain.
1. He sometimes uses the rough messenger of affliction to bring us to his banquet hall. Many a pardoned man will say with David, “Before I was afflicted I went astray.” Saul’s blindness made him sensible of Christ’s nearness. The peril of Jonah taught him to say, “Salvation is of the Lord.” When Manasseh was in affliction he sought unto Jehovah. In times of earthly prosperity men are often self-sufficient; they have all that heart can wish; they have no sense of soul hunger. But when argosies are wrecked, or harvests fail, or death sweeps, with black pinions, through the house, then they discover their impotence, and long for the heavenly supply. Often has a pitiless storm driven despairing men to the Refuge on Calvary; often has affliction, in some form, been the messenger employed to bring men to the gospel feast.
2. Sometimes Christ uses his gospel heralds to bring men in. Our heavenly Friend has seen fit to employ renewed men, though imperfect, to persuade the prodigals to return. He does not so employ the angel bands. Pardoned men know what are the burdens of sin, and what are the seductions of the tempter. Pardoned men have tender sympathies for their fallen fellows. And pardoned men know by experience the joy of acceptance; the blessedness of God’s friendship contrasted with his frown. Cleansed and consecrated men are specially fitted to bring sinners to Christ’s banquet. Thus Jesus has brought many.
3. His own Spirit, the Comforter, is the great Agent in filling the banquet hall. Said Jesus, prior to his crucifixion, “He shall testify of me;” “He shall take of mine, and show it unto you.” To him belongs the prerogative of enlightening the mind, arousing the torpid conscience, convicting of sin, and quickening into life dead souls. He “strives” with the opposition of a rebellious will. By his Divine anointing, men are empowered to use the arts of heavenly Persuasiveness. Jesus, the soul’s Bridegroom, has furnished the sumptuous banquet; now it is the mission of the Holy Spirit to persuade the perishing to come. Have we not heard his “still small voice within us, imploring us to accept the generous offers of a Saviour’s grace? Have we not put off his pleadings again and again with the promise that we would before long come? And has not our promise been as often violated? Thrice happy is the man who can say, “He has conquered.” “He brought me into his banquet house.”
III. THE ROYAL GRACE OF CHRIST VOUCHSAFES NEW TOKENS OF AFFECTION. “The device on his banner is love.” The beginning and middle and end of the banquet is love. This is the solution of every problem. Whence originated the feast? In love. Why are the guests rebellious and fallen men? Love! What methods are employed to induce them to come? Love? What end is contemplated in the feast? Love? On every banneret the symbol is love.
1. This banner implies triumph. It was the banner which, our great Champion carried in the war. If we are at the banquet table, we have been captivated by Immanuel’s love. This love pursued us in our wanderings, convinced us of our folly, bore with us patiently, sweetly induced us to lay down our arms and to submit. We were softened and subdued by love. Now “we love him, because he first loved us.”
2. This banner means devotement. We adopt it as our own. We have sworn to serve our Master under this peaceful banner. At the banquet we enlist ourselves on the side of the righteous King. Constrained by love, we freely devote to him all we have, all we are. We must be trained and disciplined for this noble warfare in the school of love. The love that has conquered us shall, through us, conquer others. Love is the heavenly steel from which we fashion all our weapons. Love moulds and inspires our life. “The banner over us is love.”
3. This banner means security. If I am the object of Immanuel’s love, I am safe; no harm can befall me. The brood under the wing of the parent hen cannot be pierced by foeman’s arrow, unless that arrow pierce the parent’s wing; so the blow which falls on me must strike my Protector first. Whatever apparent evil fall upon me, it is by the permission of infinite love; therefore is only apparent. It is simply disguised blessing; a sweet kernel in a rough shell. If over me floats the banner of Immanuel’s love, I have charmed life. Every foe, visible and invisible, is disarmed.
“And so, beside the silent sea,
I wait the muffled oar;
Assured no harm can come to me,
On ocean or on shore.”
D.
Son 2:8-13
Christ’s coming makes a new epoch in our history.
Nature is a mirror in which God is seen, and all the processes of nature are samples of God’s works in us. Such analogies we ought to expect, because all the forces in nature are the projections of God’s thoughts and purposes. The same God who works so mightily in the material world works with mighty grace in us. If, in the visible creation, he gives life to dead matter, so does he likewise give life to dead souls. The sun which rides in royal majesty across the heavens is a picture of the great Sun of Righteousness, who arises on the soul “with healing in his beams.” As the coming of spring makes a new epoch in the material world, so the coming of Immanuel is the opening of a new era to the soul. It is nothing short of a spiritual evolution. We pass out of winter into spring; out of death into life.
I. THIS LANGUAGE IS A PICTURE OF CHRIST‘S INCARNATION. “The voice of my Beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains,” etc.
1. He overleaps all difficulty. Principles of eternal righteousness stood in the way of man’s redemption. The interests of Divine government stood in the way. The peace and welfare of the heavenly hosts seemed to be obstacles. Man’s enmity was a tremendous barrier. But the Son of God was deterred by no obstacle. Although the temporary renunciation of his glory and dignity was required, he did not hold back. Immeasurable condescension was demanded; yet to this he cordially submitted. In view of the splendid result, he triumphed over every hindrance.
2. His coming was a joyful act. “Leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.” With the affectionate purpose to save men strong in his breast, he felt a joy in self-humiliation; a delicious pleasure in self-sacrifice. “His delights were already with the sons of men.” “Lo!” said he”lo! I come to do thy will, O God; yea, thy Law is within my heart.” When our globe was fashioned, there was new gladness in heaven; “the sons of God shouted for joy.” And when the Son of God appeared on earth as its Redeemer, a multitude of the heavenly host broke upon the midnight silence of Bethlehem with the song, “Glory to God in the highest!” Although to execute his task he was “the Man of sorrows,” nevertheless in his heart there glowed the fire of sacred rapture. “For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, and despised the shame.” As a noble Bridegroom “he rejoices over his bride.” In his completed work “he shall be satisfied.”
3. His coming was discerned only by his chosen. The bulk of men knew nothing about his coming; eared nothing about it. To Herod it was a perplexity and a terror. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” Yet a few chosen ones “waited for the hope and consolation of Israel.” Andrew and Simon Peter and Nathanael had been pondering the old prophecies, and were looking hither and thither for signs of fulfilment. Old Simeon’s heart overflowed with gratitude when, embracing the holy Child, he said, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.” Not to the eye of man was he revealed. Outwardly, “there was no beauty in him that men should desire him.” To many he was known through his voice of wisdomthrough his voice of tender invitation and generous love. “The voice of my Beloved.” “Faith cometh by hearing.” To the heart Jesus Christ still speaks. The sweet tones of his love win us to obedience. ‘Tis not only a voice, but “the voice of my Beloved.”
II. THIS LANGUAGE IS A PICTURE OF CHRIST‘S COMING AT OUR CONVERSION. In the day of our personal regeneration, Immanuel came into our heart to dwell. Then all the mountains of opposition were levelled, and all the abysses of degradation were filled up. We straightway passed out of darkness into light, out of bondage into liberty, out of banishment into sonship. If it were not a time of harvest, when men gather up the ripe sheaves of plenty, it was a spring time, when young life appears, and gives fair promise of growth and fruitfulness. So we could sing, “For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is ever and gone.”
1. A surprising change. If ever a miracle has been wrought On earth, our regeneration is a miracle. It is a new departure in life. We, who once loved sin, now hate the abominable thing. We had “sold ourselves for nought;” now we are redeemed with priceless blood. We were righteously condemned; now we are righteously accepted. We are brought into covenant relationship with God. In that day hell was exchanged for heaven. It was a day of jubilee. Through all the ranks in heaven a thrill of gladness ran. The barrenness and death of winter were gone, and spring, fresh with life and hope, filled the soul. The heavenly Bridegroom had arrived.
2. Varied beauty is here represented. “The flowers appear on the earth.” Bright and fragrant flowers are fit emblems of Christian virtues. The early flowers of meekness and penitence send forth a goodly smell, and the spicy beds of obedience produce a rich aroma. Some Christians are like violets, unconscious of their sweetness; some are like snowdrops, lacking character; some are full of sacred enthusiasm, rare roses, like Augustines and Ambroses and Luthers. The brightest and noblest specimens of men are found in the Church.
3. And fruitfulness is also foreseen. “The fig tree putteth forth her green figs.” True religion is not mere sentiment; it is practical; it is beneficial to mankind. Whence sprang our hospitals, our asylums, our penitentiaries, our almshouses? They have all sprung from Christ, as the Root. When the Spirit of the Lord anointed Jesus, he preached good tidings to the poor; he announced “liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to those who were hound.” No life has been so fruitful in good results as the life of Jesus Christ, and every true disciple aspires to be fruitful too. In the first age of Christianity, Paul saw many excellent fruits”love, joy, peace, long suffering, meekness,” etc. And the catalogue has been growing from that day to this.
4. Gladness is another feature in the coming of the Bridegroom. “The time of the singing of birds is come.” If any event on earth can awaken joy, surely this must in a superlative degree. If, on the return of spring, lark and linnet and thrush trill their notes afresh, and fill the woods with music, can we restrain our joy when the spring is within usa new incoming of heavenly life? This joy is joy of the richest quality. It is the cream of all joy. It is joy akin to that which floods the heart of God. We did not know what joy was until Christ visited the heart. Said Rutherford, “Hold, Lord! it is enough. The vessel cannot contain more.” “It is meet that we should make merry and be glad.” Let nature share in the gladness! It is the birthday and bridal of the soul in one!
5. This new love is held precious by Christ. “Sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is lovely.” We cannot understand why our attachment and our loyalty should be so highly esteemed by Jesus; yet so it is. He “rests in our love.” He “rejoices over us with singing.” He calls us “his jewelshis treasures.” He has his “inheritance in the saints.” Where the disciples meet, he delights to come. “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth” him. And such complacent joy does he find in his consecrated servants, that he says, “I am glorified in them.” In the visions of heaven vouchsafed to St. John, the redeemed of earth occupied a place nearer to the throne than the unfallen angels. They are styled “messengers,” “servants;” but consecrated men are designated “brethren.”
III. THIS LANGUAGE IS DESCRIPTIVE OF REVIVAL AFTER TEMPORARY DEADNESS. The coming of Christ to the soul is like a restoration to life after fainting, or like new life after sleep.
1. The novelty of spiritual life, arising from contrast, does not abide. The joy that springs from pardon does not remain, just as the freshness of spring does not continue all the year. When the new experience becomes a settled thing, the gladness that could not at first but break into a song subsides into a calmer delight. At conversion the change was so great, the contrast with the former state so striking, the deliverance so welcome, we could not restrain our joy. But the festivities of marriage do not remain perpetual. The rosy hues of dawn do not continue all the day. So the rapture of the new birth does not remain all through the pilgrimage.
2. The Christian, too, has seasons of dark desertion. There are seasons when dark clouds gather round him, and the face of his best friend is hidden. Doubts, like malignant spirits, haunt his mind, and rob him of his peace. Satan entangles him in his enchantments, and lures him into the thickets around Doubting Castle. They “cannot read their titles clear to mansions in the skies.” They miss the warm sunshine of Immanuel’s face. And they are perplexed. If they are the Lord’s, why this painful discipline? Why this loss of conscious favour? And in sad despondency they ask, “Will God cast off forever? Will he be favourable no more?”
3. Then the return of the Bridegroom brings new life and joy. “He restoreth my soul.” Possibly there was some fault in us that required chastisement, or some rival to our best Beloved may have appeared in the heart not to be tolerated. Whatever was the cause of this temporary eclipse, certain it is that the reappearance of the sun will be a festive daya jubilee, a resurrection morn. While under that dark cloud, there may have been some needed preparation of the soul for higher service, as with the fields of earth under wintry skies. Larger fruitfulness may result. The friendship of Jesus will be more prized. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Where silence and sadness just now reigned, mirth and music have stirred the echoes. Despondency has given place to hope. The dark shadows of night have fled before a new dawn; and again we can sing, “For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.”D.
Son 2:16
Marriage jointure.
Marriage is a mutual identification of personal interests, therefore it fully represents the mystic union between Jesus and the believer. We may not have always the conscious sense of our Friend’s nearness to us, still we can always say, “My Beloved is mine.” For this is an established facta fact revealedand this fact is ascertained by faith, and treasured in the memory, whether we experience it at the moment or not. If dark clouds hide the face of our Sun of Righteousness, we know still that he is affording us light and heat and life, and still we say, “My Beloved is mine.”
I. THE HEART‘S CHOICE. The door has been opened to Christ, and he has been admitted to the innermost shrine. He has become the soul’s Husband and King by sacred covenant.
1. This choice is an effect, not a cause. “We love him, because he first loved us.” Said Jesus to his first disciples, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” His light has shined into our minds. His spirit has given sensibility to our conscience. He has made us sensible of our need. He has restrained us from further rebellion. He caused us to walk in the King’s highway. “By the grace of God I am what I am.”
2. This choice of Christ is our supremest wisdom. To have made Jesus our soul’s Portion is an act of pure wisdom. It is the only right thing to do. He has a right to the chief place, and it would be sacrilege to give our best love to another. Yet, alas! many do. There are men who make money, or social rank, or fame, or pleasure, the best beloved of their heart. The world is their beloved, or their children occupy the place which should be Christ’s. We may sincerely congratulate ourselves if we can say, “Jesus is my Portion.”
3. Christ has been chosen because of his excellence. Who, in heaven or on earth, can be compared for worth with Jesus? A person is always more precious than a thing. A man is “more precious than the gold of Ophir.” And among all persons Jesus is superlatively precious. Who can compare with him for wisdom? Who has dominion over nature and over the lower world like the Son of God? Who can impart strength like him? Can any one convey life but Immanuel? Or who has such influence for us in heaven as our gracious Intercessor?
“Infinite excellence is thine,
Almighty King of grace.”
4. Christ has been chosen by virtue of his love. Even if he did not possess so many excellences, we should have chosen him for his love. His condescension is wonderful His sweet compassion has captivated our souls. As soon as we realized his tender, strong affection for us, we felt that we must have his friendship. As the echo responds to the speaker’s voice, our love responded to his love. Or as the flowers respond to the summer sun, so our hearts gave out the fragrance of their love, under the quickening influence of his grace. For his love is not a vapid sentiment. His love is an ever lasting force, ever active, beneficent in ten thousand ways. His practical love persevered with us, touched us in a hundred points, and finally melted our ingratitude. Love has made us subjects, servants, slaves. Such love, when known, is irresistible.
II. THIS CHOICE INCLUDES PROPRIETORSHIP. “My Beloved is mine.“ As I say, “This coat is mine,” or “This land is mine,” so I can say, “Christ is mine.” No one can dispossess me. It is an inalienable possession.
1. Mark the nature of this possession. I do not possess it simply with my hands. It is not something outside me, from which I alone can derive advantage. It is a possession within me. It becomes part and parcel of my being. It enters into my very life. I am a totally different being, by virtue of this possession. Jesus is identified with me, and I with him. He is my Life, my Hope. “Christ liveth in me.” We possess him, as the branch possesseth the root.
2. The extent of the possession. As the bride becomes by marriage participator of all the lands and estates and honours of the bridegroom, so is it with every believer. The righteousness of Christ is mine. All the excellences of Christ are mine. The wealth of Christ is mine. “I am joint heir” with him. He has chosen to share with me all that he has. His friends are my friends. His servants are my servants. His world is my world. His throne is my throne. “All things are ours, for we are Christ’s.”
3. The utility of this possession. Does it not bring me great and present advantages? Does it not make me rich indeed? “He is mine to bear all my burdens; mine to discharge all my debts; mine to answer all my accusers; mine to conquer all my foes.” He is “mine in absence, mine in presence; mine through life, mine in death; mine in the judgment; mine at the marriage supper of the Lamb.” I am secure and honoured and happy, because “Christ is mine.” “With him I’m rich, though stripped of all beside; Without him poor, though all the world were mine.”
III. THIS CHOICE INCLUDES DEVOTEMENT. “I am his.” As Jesus has given himself entirely and unreservedly to me, I have given myself wholly and without reserve to him. It is a real surrender.
1. The dignity of self-devotement. The man who devotes his whole self to his king or to his country does not degrade himself thereby. He rises in the scale of being; he rises in honour. Much more does the devoted servant of Jesus Christ rise to the dignity of true living. Better be prime minister of England than king in Dahomey. And nobler far is it to be a servant in Immanuel’s kingdom than to boast of vain independence, and be in reality a vassal of Satan. To serve is noble, royal, Divine. Jesus is a King because he stooped to be a servant, and the only road to kingliness is hearty service. The heraldic motto of our Prince of Wales is, “I serve.” Devotement to Jesus Christ is eternal honour.
2. The extent of self-devotement. It embraces our whole nature, our entire life. The claim of Christ is complete. There is no organ of our body, no faculty of mind, no moment of time, no particle of our wealth, which does not of right belong to him; therefore we can keep back nothing. We are “not our own.” On the grounds of creation, sustenance, redemption, Jesus has a triple claim. And above all, he has our personal consent. By a sacred covenant, we have freely surrendered all we have to his kingly service. The consecration must be complete.
3. This devotement brings supreme satisfaction. There is no joy for the human soul like the joy of entire consecration. This is our proper place, and we cannot find our rest elsewhere. On our death bed, will the review of our life bring us satisfaction, unless that life has been spent, and wholly spent, in the service of our Redeemer? Can we dare to appropriate to ourselves all that belongs to Christ, if at the same time we do not give up all to him? As you cannot put pure water into a vessel that is already full of other things, so you cannot put Christ’s treasures into a soul until it is emptied of self. To do my Master’s will I must surrender all to him. To become like Christ I must be wholly consecrated to his kingdom. Then shall his joy be my joy. Then shall I discover the truth, and shall sing –
“I’m in the noblest sense my own
When most entirely thine.”
D.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON
Son 2:1, Son 2:2
Wildflower beauty.
The scene which suggests this imagery is one abounding in rural delights. In a remote country retreat, the lovers are seated on a couch of verdant turf, decked with lovely flowers. It seems as though nature has prepared for them a pleasant house whose rafters and galleries are formed by the lofty cedars and firs above them. The dialogue is coloured by the suggestions of the rustic spot. To the praises of the lover the bride responds with simplicity and humility: “I am as the wild flower of the vale”the crocus or the rose. He accepts the comparison. “Yes; as a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.” Thus love glorifies and hallows the place of meeting, and transforms it into all that is beautiful. If this world is to the poet a gift of the Eternal Father, a revelation of his character, a means and aid to pietyyea, an earnest of heaven itselfthen we may well see in the rose of Sharon, in the lily of the valley, an emblem of true virtue and excellence, especially as apparent in the Church, which is the garden of God’s delight. Such spiritual excellence is characterized by
I. BEAUTY. The mind is fashioned so that it must recognize and admire that which is beautiful, both in the natural and in the spiritual realm. There is a beauty, a charm in goodness more to be admired than the crimson petals of the rose or the lily’s snow-white chalice. It is given to the spiritual to apprehend the ideal loveliness of virtue and Christian purity. As the flowers of the field and of the forest tell of the Creator’s delight in shapeliest forms and fairest hues, so the graces that adorn the Christian character are witnesses to that Spirit, whose workmanship and design and whose vital creation they surely are.
“Thus beauty here is like to that above,
And loveliness leads up to perfect love.”
II. PURITY. The wild flowers speak to the poet’s mind of stainless goodness; the lily is especially the emblem of maiden pureness. Well may such blossoms, blooming far from the city’s defilements, serve to symbolize that moral excellence which is uncontaminated by sin and by a sinful world. Where the holy Christ is himself spiritually present, his presence creates a purity akin to, because derived from, his own.
III. FRAGRANCE. The Song of Songs contains many references to the delicate and delightful odours which abound in the plains and gardens of the East. To the sense of smell there is an ethereal side, an aspect of sentiment; and to this the royal poet delights to appeal. The exquisite aroma which breathes from the scented blossoms tells of their nearness and suggests their beauty. There is a perfume in the pure and unselfish character which diffuses itself near and far, witnessing to the Divine grace and power that ever live and work in the spiritual garden of the Lord. This fragrance betrayeth itself, and cannot be hid.
IV. PRE–EMINECE HEIGHTENED BY CONTRAST. The lily is pictured as “among the thorns,” by whose neighbourhood its fairness and sweetness are enhanced. The thorns are a foil to the flower. The plants which our heavenly Father hath planted in this world are hard by the useless and noxious growths of sin. Who has not seen a pure and gentle member of a coarse, worldly, and selfish circlea family or a communityshowing, all unconsciously, as a lily among thorns, more beautiful and charming for the uncongenial surroundings?
V. ATTRACTIVENESS. The rose and the lily draw to them the innocent child, the maiden gathering flowers with which to decorate the lowly home, the poet whose heart is open to the sacred sweetness of nature’s symbols. Where there are spirits susceptible to beauty, the flowers will not be unheeded or unsought. A like attractiveness is exercised by the pure, the devout, the benevolent, and sympathizing. No wonder that Christ himself has been named the Rose of Sharon. Those who share his spirit and witness to his love are the ornaments of his garden, joining to render it the congenial resort, the chosen home, of all who are sensitive to the appeal of Divine love, and responsive to the summons of Divine holiness and authority.T.
Son 2:3
Shadow and fruit.
Pleasant was it at noon to quit the close tent pitched upon the open plain, and to seek the shelter of the spreading tree; pleasant, beneath this refuge from the scorching heat, to partake of the cool and juicy fruit plucked from its boughs. No wonder that the Church has delighted to find in the apple or citron tree, chief in value among the trees of the grove, an emblem of that “Plant of Renown,” the Lord and Saviour himself, who has sheltered multitudes beneath his guardian presence, and supplied multitudes from his abundant sufficiency.
I. CHRIST‘S SUPREMACY ASSERTED. As the noble citron in the orchard towers above the lesser trees, so is the Saviour exalted above all human teachers and leaders of men, and even above all inspired seers and prophets. This supremacy
(1) results from his very nature;
(2) is affirmed upon Divine authority;
(3) has proved itself in the history of the Church; and
(4) is made evident in the experience of every individual friend and disciple of the Lord.
II. CHRIST‘S PROTECTION EXPERIENCED. The bride not only looked up to her royal bridegroom with reverence and with pride; she placed herself beneath his guardian care. He was her husband, in whose palace she abode, and in whose keeping she felt secure. He was to her as the spreading tree which protects from noonday heat. So the spiritual spouse of the Divine Bridegroom rests secure beneath the guardianship of her rightful Lord.
“Oppressed with noontide’s scorching heat,
To yonder cross I flee;
Beneath its shelter take my seat
No shade like this for me.”
III. CHRIST‘S SWEETNESS ENJOYED. The tree that yields the shelter supplies also the fruit, which is “sweet to the taste.” And the soul partakes of Christ, feeding upon him by faith. As the fruit enters into the body, is assimilated, and refreshes the system, in like manner our Divine Lord condescends to become the life and nourishment of his people. His sacramental love brings health and nourishment, vigour and revival, satisfaction and joy, to the spiritual nature of such as participate by faith in his sacrifice and in his spirit. Such are happy, for they “taste and see that the Lord is good.”T.
Son 2:4
The banquet of love.
Both in the Old Testament and in the New the blessings of the gospel are set forth, by anticipation or in reality, under the image of a feast. The composite nature of man gives point and effectiveness to this metaphorical language. The soul is led by the Saviour into his banqueting house, where hunger is satisfied, and where the provisions of bounty and of love are partaken and enjoyed.
I. IT IS CHRIST WHO BRINGS THE SOUL TO HIMSELF. He does not wait for the needy and poverty-stricken spirit to find him and to come to him. He came in pity to seek and to save. And as when he was upon earth Jesus sought out many a sinner, many a sufferer, so does he still and ever, in the exercise of his Divine compassion, lay his hand upon needy outcasts, and lead them into his banqueting house.
II. IT IS CHRIST WHO PROVIDES FOR THE SOUL A BOUNTIFUL ENTERTAINMENT. It is not merely bread for the hungry that the gospel offers; it is, in the language of Scripture, a “feast of fat things.” Salvation means something more than deliverance from destitution. God comes to us in Christ, saying, “All things are yours.” The beggar may be relieved at the gate; but the guest is welcomed to the banquet hall, and has his place assigned him at the board of the Divine and blessed Host himself, he whom Christ leads to his own fellowship shall not want any good thing; wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, all are assured to him.
III. IT IS CHRIST WHO REVEALS TO THE SOUL THE MYSTERY OF DIVINE LOVE. The banner or standard is the sign of the presence of the king or the commander. Even over the “house of wine” there floated the symbol of the royal bridegroom. Thus for the soul that Christ finds and leads, that Christ supplies from the stores of his spiritual bounty, is there an assurance that the King himself keeps guard over its safety. There is the pledge, not only of the king’s faithfulness, but of the bridegroom’s love. The soul may feast in security and peace, may enjoy the companionship of Christ’s friends; for high over the banqueting house floats the banner, which is the emblem of a Divine presence, and the earnest of an unchanging, an eternal love.T.
Son 2:8-10
The approach of the beloved.
How poetically does this language picture the rural maiden m her mountain homethe lover climbing the hill like a young hart for strength and swiftness, looking in through the lattice window, calling to his beloved, and inviting her to join him amidst the beauty, the fragrance, and the freshness of the spring! So comes Christ unto the soul.
I. THE VOICE OF THE BELOVED. Jesus speaks in his Word and gospel, and his utterance is
(1) Divine;
(2) authoritative;
(3) gracious;
(4) encouraging; and
(5) welcome.
There is no voice like his; he “spake as never man spake.”
II. THE GLANCE AND GAZE OF THE BELOVED.
1. Our Saviour’s regard is one of interest. Never is his Church forgotten or neglected by him; never does he withdraw his attention or treat with indifference and neglect those for whom he died.
2. He makes himself acquainted with our state and our wants.
3. He looks with affectionate kindness upon those who are dependent upon his favour and bounty.
4. Christ’s gracious regard awakens in the minds of his people a desire to know him more intimately. To see him once is to wish to see him again; to see him now and here is to hope for the nearer and perfect vision hereafter.
III. THE INVITATION OF THE BELOVED. We may notice in the tenth verse:
1. The addressremarkably kind, familiar, and affectionate.
2. The appeal: “Rise up!” Is there slothfulness and inactivity? The summons of the Lord is enough to rouse to earnestness and animation.
3. The entreaty: “Come away!” Thus Christ calls his people to himself, and bids them seek his society, accept that spiritual companionship, desire that affectionate intercourse, which are the prerogative of those whom he loves. Even if to act upon this invitation be to leave all that earth can offer, still there is more than compensation for such loss in the joy and privilege of the peerless friendship of the Son of God.T.
Son 2:11-13
Spring time.
In this poetical language there is an anticipation of that delight in rural scenery which we are accustomed to regard as distinctive of modern feeling and modern literature. But there is no doubt of the power of ardent love to colour all nature to the eye of him who yields himself to the strong emotionthe power of ardent love to make all this world melodious, fragrant, and fair. Emotion gives keenness to the sense and vigour to the imagination. And he whose mind is open, not only to the power of nature to elicit sentiment, but to its power to suggest spiritual truth, the masons of the year and the shifting panorama of earth speak of a Divine presence and of a thousand sacred realities.
I. WHAT SPRING TIME BANISHES. “The winter is past, the rain is over and gone.” There is a spiritual winterthe winter of darkness and gloom, of ignorance and error, of sterility and death, of vice and crime and sin. It was beneath the rigour and the depression of this winter that the world lay, in seeming hopelessness, until the Sun of Righteousness arose upon the world with healing in his wings. It is well, whilst in the enjoyment of the blessings of the spiritual dispensation, to look back upon the winter of humanity, from whose dreariness we have been delivered.
II. WHAT SPRING TIME BRINGS. “The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.” There is a blessed spiritual spring, bringing beauty and fragrance as of flowers, and sweetness as of the music of the grove. Life is the distinctive note of the new and spiritual economy; and with spiritual life all good things come to us. The beauties and all the treasures of the spring are emblems of peace and joy, of purity and glad service, of obedience and praise. The Easter of humanity is the season for thanksgiving and triumph, for radiant hope and for inspiring song.
III. WHAT SPRING TIME HERALDS. “The fig tree ripeneth her green figs; and the vines are in blossom, they give forth their fragrance.” The blossoms of the spring tell us of the coming fruit in abundance and lusciousness. Far off as the world’s spiritual summer may seem, the mission of the Son of God and the mission of the Comforter assure the faithful mind that there is a harvest yet to come. He who could call life out of death, could banish the winter of humanity, can and will, in his own time, bring his work to perfection. The blossom shall mature into fruit, the green of spring shall mellow into autumn’s gold. Fruits of the Spirit shall abound, and the heavenly Vine-dresser and Husbandman shall be satisfied and glorified.T.
Son 2:15
The little foxes.
The maiden sings a vintage song, or repeats the admonition of her brothers, who have left her in charge of the vineyard. It is her duty to protect the precious plants and fruits from the incursions of enemies, even of those which seem the most unworthy of notice. It has been usual to regard these “little foxes” as emblematic of evil powers which perhaps insidiously threaten the welfare of the spiritual vineyard.
I. THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IS THE SPIRITUAL VINEYARD WHICH GOD HAS PLANTED IN THE BARREN SOIL OF THE WORLD. As in the Old Testament Israel is often compared to a vine (Psa 80:1-19.) or to a vineyard (Isa 5:1-30.), so in the New Testament the spiritual society which the Son of God has founded is exhibited under the same similitude.
II. THE CHURCH OF CHRIST EXISTS FOR THE SAKE OF SPIRITUAL FRUIT. The vineyard may be beautiful to behold; it may be a charming addition to the landscape; its gracefulness and verdure may afford pleasure to the passer by: yet it exists for the sake of fruit. So with the Church, which is indeed an element of interest in history, an important factor in the state, an admirable illustration of the higher capacities of man’s being; but which yet exists for the sake of that holy life, those deeds of justice, mercy, and devotion, which are the true fruits of the Spirit, the very vintage of God.
III. THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IS OFTEN ASSAILED BY MISCHIEVOUS INFLUENCES. Like the enemies of the vineyard, evil powers enter in, and damage the spiritual blossom and threaten to destroy the spiritual vintage. False doctrines, heresies, and schisms, delusions, human ambitions, selfish habits, gross corruptions, sins of worldliness and unspirituality,such are some of these influences which portend disaster to the work which has been undertaken for God upon earth.
IV. THOUGH APPARENTLY TRIFLING, THESE MISCHIEVOUS INFLUENCES MAY DO GREAT HARM. Like the “little foxes,” the power of harmful influences must not be measured by appearances, by magnitude. Deflections from truth or from virtue may appear at first slight and insignificant; but the entrance of evil into Christ’s Church is like the letting in of water; what is at first a leak becomes a flood. To change the figure, the disease may in its first approach appear unimportant, yet it may grow until it threatens not only health, but life itself. The vineyard, if left open to the incursions of vermin, will soon give evidence of ravages most serious, if not disastrous. Let no one concerned for the safety and welfare of Christ’s Church be indifferent to the insidious commencement of harm. No one can say whereunto the thing may grow.
V. THESE EVIL INFLUENCES SHOULD, THEREFORE, BE VIGOROUSLY ATTACKED AND SPEEDILY EXTIRPATED. “Take us the little foxes;” wage war against even apparently insignificant foes. Not by way of force or of fraud, but by the presentation of truth, by admonition and exhortation, openly, feelingly, and prayerfully. It is a duty which at some time or other, and in some way or other, every Christian is called upon to fulfil. The ministers of Christ’s Church are especially bound to be upon their guard against the introduction of false doctrine, and of lax and sinful practice; they are set “for the defence and confirmation of the gospel,” and it is their office to withstand every foe that threatens the security and the vitality of the Divine society on earth.T.
Son 2:16
Mutual possession.
One-sided affection is incomplete, unsatisfying, and unhappy; it may be disastrous. Real friendship and true marriage imply mutual love, reciprocal kindnesses. So is it in those personal relations between Christ and the Christian soul, which are the foundations of the spiritual life of mankind. It is only well when the friend of the Saviour can truly say, “My Beloved is mine, and I am his.”
I. THE CLAIM MADE BY THE CHRISTIAN TO A SPIRITUAL PROPERTY IN CHRIST
1. Our Lord and Saviour is ours, to exercise in our favour his mediatorial offices, as our Prophet, Priest, and King.
2. He is ours, to reveal his intimate affection to our heart.
“The opening heavens around me shine
With beams of heavenly bliss,
While Jesus says that he is mine,
And whispers I am his!”
3. He is ours, to impart a value and a charm to all our other possessions. These, whether material or spiritual, are altogether different from what they would otherwise be; they are irradiated and dignified by the glory which shines upon them from our Divine Friend. “All things are ours.”
II. THE CLAIM MADE BY CHRIST TO A SPIRITUAL PROPERTY IN THE CHRISTIAN.
1. The Saviour regards his people with an especial favour and affection. In a sense, all men are Christ’s; he assumed the human nature which is common to us all, and he died for all. But in a peculiar manner they are his who acknowledge his mission, receive his gospel, confide in his mediation, obey his commandments. Towards such his regard is one of complacency and personal affection.
2. The Saviour regards his people as his to care for, to protect, and to save. Having loved his own, he loves them unto the end. There are no circumstances in which he will not remember them, interpose upon their behalf and for their deliverance.
3. The Saviour possesses his people in order to exercise over them a peculiar authority. As the husband is the head of the wife, and as his affection does not destroy his authority, but makes it benign and welcome; so our Divine Lord, who loves his spouse, the Church, which he purchased with his precious blood, directs and governs the object of his tender interest with kindness which is yet authoritative. It is the prerogative and joy of Christ’s people to take their Lord’s will as the binding law of their individual and social life.
APPLICATION. It is forevery Christian to remember that in this relation the Lord Jesus is the superior. “We love him, because he first loved us.” This fact should infuse gratitude into our affection, and should urge us to responsive consecration and obedience.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Son 2:1. I am the rose of Sharon I am a rose of the field. We have here followed all the ancient versions, in preference to those of the moderns, who generally, interpret Sharon as a proper name; yet a little attention to the context will convince us, that the bride does not here mean to extol the charms of her person, but rather the contrary. The Bridegroom had just before called her fair; she, with a becoming modesty, represents her beauty as nothing extraordinary, as a mere common wild-flower. But this the Bridegroom denies, insisting upon it that she as much surpasses the generality, as the flower of the lily does that of the bramble; and she again in return speaks with admiration of the Bridegroom. The words may have a still further force, and imply a tacit comparison. The rose of Sharon expresses eminence; whereas she calls herself a rose of the field, in opposition to the rose of the garden, which has more beauty, and is distinguished for its richness and variety of colouring; whereas the rose of the field, and the lily of the valley, owe their distinction to the less ornamented flowers which grow around them. See the New Translation and Houbigant.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
See Son 1:1 ff for the passage comments with footnotes.
Son 2:1. Shulamith: I am (only) a wild flower of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. The connection with the preceding is not to be denied altogether (with Delitzsch, who makes a new scene begin with this verse); still we must assume a pause of some length after Son 1:17, during which Shulamith who continues to tarry in the garden at the side of her lover, reflects upon her great good fortune in being selected to be the darling of the king, and by the comparison of the splendor which now surrounds her with the meadows and valleys of her home is disposed to humility and at the same time filled with longing for that simpler condition which she must forsake. She gives an artless as well as a delicate and striking expression to these feelings by calling herself a wild-flower, a lily of the valleys, which was not congruous to the many ornamental plants and artistic beauties of the royal court.1Which flower of the plain of Sharon is intended by , it is difficult to determine. Its identity with the lily of the valley (Sept., Vulg., and Targ. on Isa 35:1, the only other passage of the O. Test. in which occurs), [Cran., lily; so Lee], is contradicted by its being mentioned in a parallel with it, a circumstance which requires us to think of some similar plant, but one which is specifically different from it. If were really connected with , to be red (comp. red, Isa 63:1), as Hitzig, Weissb., etc., assume, the simplest course would be with Aquila and R. Kimchi on Isa 35:1, to translate it rose, [so Bish., Genev., E. Ver.], and then to compare the combination of rose and lily in Sir 39:13-14 as probably drawn from this passage. But another etymology, which supposes the word to be in some manner compounded with onion (whether is prefixed, which serves to form quadrilaterals, or the adj. sour, lurks in its initial letters), points rather to some bulbous plant; perhaps the meadow-saffron, which the Old Syriac seems to have intended (comp. Mich., Ewald, Gesenius, etc.), [so Royle, Wordsworth, Noyes and Thrupp, who however translates it daisy], or the tulip (Velthusen, Magn., Vaih.), or the narcissus, for which last the Targ. already testifies with its . As no one of these significations can be demonstrated with absolute certainty, it may be most advisable with the Sept. and Vulg. to abide by the indefinite flower [so Cov., Dow.], or wild-flower [so Withington, Ginsburg]. Also in regard to the name Sharon , it cannot be said decisively, whether it denotes the well-known plain along the coast between Cesarea and Joppa (Act 9:35), or the trans-jordanic plain named 1Ch 5:16, or finally a third meadow-land of Sharon between Tabor and the lake of Gennesaret mentioned by Eusebius in the Onomast. This last might perhaps be most readily thought of on account of its vicinity to Shunem.2Further is, notwithstanding the article before , to be translated a wild-flower of Sharon (comp. Gen 9:20; Gen 35:16; Jer 13:4, etc.), and no conclusion can be drawn from this expression in favor of the allegorical explanation of Shulamith as the Church (against Hengstenberg).3In both these comparisons, that with the flower of Sharon, and that with the lily (by which must be meant not the strongly scented lilium candidum, but rather as appears from Son 1:5-6; Son 5:13 the Palestine red lily, lilium rubens of Pliny H. N. 21:5), the tertium comparat. is both the diminutive size of these plants compared with cedars, cypresses, etc., and also their beauty and elegance (Mat 6:28; Luk 12:27), so that, although Shulamith refers to her lowliness and rural simplicity, she yet says nothing derogatory to herself,4 and quite in analogy with Son 1:5 manifests a certain self-regard though genuinely modest, and pure as a child.
Son 2:2. As a lily among thorns, so is my dear among the daughters. That which had been to Shulamith an expression of her lowliness is seized upon by Solomon with courtly skill in order to bring out of it the more emphatic praise of her grace and beauty. More strongly almost than afterwards in Son 6:8-9 he puts all other women in the shade in comparison with his chosen one, likening them to thorns, the well-known figure of whatever is mean, troublesome and offensive (comp. Jdg 9:14; 2Ki 14:9; Isa 7:23 ff; Isa 32:13; Isa 55:13; Eze 2:6; Eze 28:24; Hos 9:6; Hos 10:8; Psa 58:10; Pro 22:5, etc). [Noyes: It is not implied that the lily grows among thorns, but that his love surpassed other women as much as the lily the thorn. Moody Stuart quotes the following as illustrative from Bonar: Close by these lilies there grew several of the thorny shrubs of the desert; but above them rose the lily spreading out its fresh green leaf as a contrast to the dingy verdure of these prickly shrubs.] With the translation rose [so Cov., Cran.] (which is moreover absolutely inadmissible, since the fem. must unquestionably have a sense like that of the masc. or lily) the strong contrast intended would almost entirely vanish, for the thorns serve only to adorn the rose. Renan regards this verse and Son 2:7 as spoken by the shepherd (!) entering here for the first time (entrant brusquement en scne)! [Ginsburg imagines that Son 1:15 is also spoken by this imaginary shepherd.Tr.]
Son 2:3. As an apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. Observe the exact parallelism of this sentence with Son 2:2. Shulamith gives back the flattering commendation of her lover with a still closer adherence to his expressions than above in Son 1:16, and thus their conversation assumes the appearance of a contest of mutually eulogistic love (Delitzsch). The reference of Shulamiths language to an absent lover, whom she praises in opposition to Solomon, who is indifferent or repulsive to her (Ew., Hitz., Vaih., etc.), destroys the simple beauty of the dialogue. It is inadmissible to understand by the apple tree (, Sept. ) some nobler fruit tree than the common Pyrus malus, as for instance, the quince (Pyrus cydonia), or the citron (malus medica) [so Good, Williams, Taylor, Thrupp, With.], or the orange (as is done by Celsius in his Hierobot.Velthus., Rosenm., Van Kooten, etc.), on account of the mention made immediately afterwards (Son 2:3 d, and Son 2:5) of the sweet fruit of the tree, because those acquainted with the East in former as well as in more recent times commend even the common apples of Syria and Palestine as an exceedingly generous fruit, of fine flavor and a pleasing fragrance (comp. Harmer, Observations, etc.,), and because the comparatively rare occurrence of in the Old Test., and its combination with the fig, pomegranate, palm, etc. (Joe 1:12; comp. Sol. Son 7:9; Son 8:5) point to its belonging to the nobler fruit-bearing plants of the flora of ancient Israel. [Wordsworth: It is a generic word (like malum in Latin), and may include the citron and lemon].In his shadow delighted I sit, lit., I delight and sit ( ) [Gins.: I delight to sit], a construction like 1Sa 2:3, where the first verb seems to have only an adverbial force and the second expresses the principal idea,5 comp. also below Son 4:8; Son 5:6, and Ewald, Lehrbuch, 285, b. [GreensHeb. Gram. 269]. Further it is no more necessary to take these verbs in a preterite sense here (Ewald, Hitz., etc.) than in Son 1:12, [strictly: I have been sitting and still sit.Tr.], so that this passage supplies no valid argument in favor of the shepherd hypothesis. In the figure of the shadow the point of comparison is not the protection afforded (as e.g.Psa 17:8; Psa 91:1; Isa 25:4, etc.), but the refreshing and reviving influence of the nearness of her lover, just as the sweet fruit of the apple-tree serves to represent his agreeable caresses, so Son 4:16; Son 7:13 (comp. Weissb. in loc.).
Son 2:4. He has brought me into his wine house. must be the same essentially as , that is to say, a room or apartment for drinking wine, a banquet hall [Eng. Ver.], not a wine shop (! Bttch.), or a wine cellar (Vulg.: cella vinaria, Luth., Ren., etc.), [Cov., Cran., Genev., Doway, Williams], or a vine-arbor (Vaih., etc.), or a vineyard (Ewald, Heiligst., etc). But so surely as the expressions in the context, especially the fruit of the apple-tree in Son 2:3 d, and the banner in 4 b, are to be understood figuratively, with the same certainty must the literal interpretation of leading into the wine room be rejected, and the sense of this expression must be found rather in an increased participation in the sweet tokens of his love, an intoxication from caresses (already essentially correct Ruperti, Dderl., Gesenius, Dpke, Weissb., etc.). [So Good, Noyes. Gins.: bower of delight.] The words need therefore neither be taken as a wish (Sept., , Velth., Amm., Hug, Umbreit, etc.), [so Good, Fry], nor as a narrative of what her country lover had previously done with her (Ewald, Vaih., Bttcher), nor as the enthusiastic exclamation of a lady of the harem, who was now embraced by Solomon instead of the coy Shulamith (!! Hitz.), etc. There is no alternative but to regard it as a figurative description of the love which she had experienced from Solomon, having its most exact analogon in Son 1:4 b, the king has brought me into his chambers.And his banner over me is love,i.e. not he bears his love as an ensign before me who follow him (Grotius, Hitzig, Weissb., etc.), [so Noyes, Thrupp, etc.], but love waves as a protecting and comforting banner over my head (Psa 20:6) when I am near him. So correctly Dpke, Del., [Wordsw., Burrowes]; also Ewald, Vaih., etc., only the latter here again find described the love formerly enjoyed with her shepherd in the country. The banner () is, wherever it occurs in the Old Test., a military figure (comp. besides Psa 20:6, also Num 1:52; Num 2:2, ff.). It must accordingly be explained here too in this sense, and not with Bttcher of the sign before a wine shop (a tavern signboard!).6
Son 2:5. Stay me with grapes, refresh me with apples. The caresses of the king, who is clasping and embracing her (see Son 2:6) produce an effect upon one so ardent in her love, which even if not thoroughly agitating (Delitzsch), or taking away her breath and almost stifling (Hoelem), is yet powerfully exciting and as it were intoxicating, and directly wakens in her, probably for the first time since she came to the court, the consciousness that she is sick of love (comp. Son 5:8), and therefore needs to be strengthened by eating some refreshing fruit, or something of the sort. She directs her request for it, as is shown by the plurals (literally, fulcite me, support me; comp. Gen 27:37; Psa 104:15), , not to her lover himself (Weissb.), but to the ladies of the court near her, to whom also the lively exclamation, Son 2:7, is uttered. are neither aromatic unguents (Sept.,), nor flowers (Vulg.:fulcite me floribus [so Doway]; so too Symm., etc.), but agreeably to its probable derivation from to found, to make firm (see Knobel on Isa 46:8), pressed grapes, and so perhaps wine syrup, or better raisin cakes, grape cakes, which is favored both by the verb and by the use of the word in Hos 3:1 (where the Sept. translate, ), and in 2Sa 6:19 (Sept.:, pancakes).
Son 2:6. His left hand is under my head and his right embraces me. must not be taken in the optative here any more than in Son 8:3, where the entire passage recurs, as though the sentence expressed a wish, let his left hand be under my head and his right embrace me7 (Ewald, Vaih., Weissb., etc., [so Ginsb.].This is contradicted by the whole situation as well in this passage as in Son 8:3. On the score of language too it is simpler and more natural to understand it as an indicative.
Son 2:7. I adjure you, ye daughters of Jerusalem, etc. In favor of Shulamith as the speaker in these closing words, it may be said: 1. That she is unmistakably the speaker of these words in Son 3:5 and Son 8:4, where as here they introduce a pause in the action of considerable length (Ewald). 2. That Shulamith already addressed the ladies of the court in Son 2:5, who must accordingly be supposed to be near at hand as spectators of her joy. 3. That what she has said of her being sick of love prepared the way for this adjuration, and the latter is well-nigh unintelligible without reference to the former. We may from the outset, therefore, repel the attempts to treat the verse as the language of the queen mother, who enters here (! Bttch.), or of the celestial Solomon (Hengstenb., after many older expositors as Starke, Jo. Lange, etc.), or of the poet (Umbr., Hitzig),8 or, finally of the shepherd speaking to the chorus (! Renan). I adjure you, literally, I cause you (as much as in me is) to swear, I exact from you the sacred promise, I earnestly beg you.9 Compare Gen 1:5; Num 5:19. By the gazelles or by the hinds of the field. These animals are not named in the adjuration, because animals generally in contrast with men have fixed annual rutting seasons (Hitzig; likewise also Herder and others); nor because the ladies of Jerusalem were in the habit of keeping little pet gazelles (J. D. Mich.), nor on account of the resemblance of and to the divine names and (Weissb.); but doubtless on account of their pretty and graceful appearance (comp. Pro 5:19), which makes these animals in particular fit symbols of tender and ideal love, and must make them especially dear to women in this point of view. Comp. particularly Dpkein loc., likewise Ewald: In common life people swore by things, which belonged to the subject of conversation, or were especially dear to the speaker. As therefore the warrior swears by his sword, as Mohammed by the soul of which he is just about to speak (Kor. Song 91:7), so here Shulamith by the lovely gazelles since she is speaking of love.10That ye wake not nor awaken love until it please. , literally, if ye wake, etc. (Ewald, 325, b), [GreensHeb. Chrestomathy on Gen 42:15]. The verb is here masc., corresponding to in a, not because the daughters of Jerusalem were not real female personalities, as Hengstenberg [so too Wordsworth] insists, but because the primary gender is here used as common, as in Son 2:5 above, and Jdg 4:20; Isa 32:11; and frequently in the imperative. [Thrupp explains it by the general indefiniteness of the character which the daughters of Jerusalem as members of the chorus here sustain. But see GreensHeb. Gram. 275, 5.Tr.] is certainly not the loved one, as though the warning here were not wantonly to wake Shulamith who had fallen asleep (Vulg. dilectam, Syr., Gesen., Ewald, Rosenm., Hengstenb., Renan and J. D. Michaelis who for the sake of this sense points ), but as this meaning would be in the highest degree unsuitable in the parallel passages Son 3:5 and Son 8:4, and as love as an ethical idea comes significantly forward elsewhere in this poem (Son 7:7 and Son 8:6 f.), it is manifestly love itself as a passion slumbering in the heart, which it would not do over-curiously to rouse or kindle to a flame. cannot possibly mean disturbing love before it has attained full satisfaction of its desire for converse with the beloved object (Delitzsch, Weissb.), for it certainly expresses something analogous to stir up jealousy Isa 42:13, and the Pi. , which is added to strengthen it, always and only has the sense of exciting or awakening e.g. strife, Pro 10:12, strength or power, Psa 80:3, etc. Comp. also irritata voluptas, irritamenta amoris seu veneris in Latin poets (e.g.Ovid, de arte am. 2, 681; Metam. 9, 133; Juven. 11, 165); although here we are certainly not to think of any magic charms or philters to inflame love or lust, such as love apples, Gen 30:14, etc., or quinces (Bttcher). The meaning of the admonition is rather simply this: Plunge not rash and unbidden into the passion of love, that is to say not before love awakes of itself (till heart is joined to heart, till God Himself awakens in you an affection for the right man), be not forward to excite it in your hearts by frivolous coquetry or loose amorous arts. This caution may in some measure be regarded as the moral of the entire poem, inasmuch as it aims at the preservation of the chaste, truly moral, and consequently truly natural, character of love. It is, therefore, most suitably put into the mouth of Shulamith as the bearer or representative of such pure ethical love in contrast with the women of Solomons court.11 Comp. the like sentence Son 8:7 b.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The allegorical interpretation current in the Church regards all the particulars in the foregoing description of the loving intercourse between the bridegroom and the bride, as allusions veiled under mystical figures to the relation of Christ to the Church and further to the soul of the individual Christian. It sees in the opening words of Shulamith Son 1:2-4 a manifestation of the longing of the Church for union with her heavenly bridegroom, whilst the partial identification or combination of Shulamith with the other virgins was especially designed to indicate that the speaker was an ideal person as well as her lover, who is now addressed, now mentioned in the third person, and who forms the object of her longing desire. It further supposes in what Shulamith says Son 1:5-6 of her blackness and of her not having kept her own vineyard, references to the sins of the church, as the causes of her temporary separation from God and her enslavement by the empire of this world; and accordingly finds, in Son 1:7, a prayer to be informed respecting the way which leads back to communion with God and Christ, in Son 1:8 a statement of this way vouchsafed to her by divine grace; Son 1:9-17 depict the emulous contest of love, which proceeds between the Church penitently returned to her heavenly bridegroom and Christ, who graciously receives her; in which the cordial promptness and address, with which the bride immediately repeats in application to her bridegroom everything said in her praise, indicate the faith of the Church working by love and making constant progress in holiness. Then in Son 2:1-7, it is alleged that declarations of love advance to the enjoyment of love, and this latter is represented in Son 1:6 as having already attained its acme under the emblem of an embrace, or of the nuptial couch. The epiphonema in Son 1:7 brings the entire development to its conclusion, and shows by its twofold recurrence subsequently in Son 3:5 and Son 8:4, that the same subject is treated in successive cycles, and the process by which the loving union of Christ with the Church is effected is thus repeatedly symbolized under an allegorico-dramatic veil, varied with every iteration.So among the more recent allegorizers, e.g., Hengstenberg (pp. 2 ff., 24 ff., 36 ff.), with whom the rest, as Hahn, Hoelemann, etc., agree in everything essential, and particularly in the assertion of a cyclical mode of presentation, by which the dramatic unity of the whole is fundamentally destroyed, and several successive tableaux or portraitures of character are assumed, all relating to the same subject (or as Hahn expresses it, each serves to supplement or further explain its predecessors). Similarly the older allegorical interpreters, only they go into more detail in the mystical exposition of the individual figures, and see e.g. in the bundle of myrrh, Son 1:13, a reference to Christs bitter passion, or to His perfect sacrifice for the sins of men (comp. Starke in loc.), whereby consequently an allusion to His munus sacerdotale is added to that to the munus propheticum (Son 1:7, Christ as shepherd), and regium (Son 1:12, Christ as king); or expound the golden bracelets Son 1:11 of the growth of faith, the silver points, in the same passage, of holiness of life; or hold the wine cellar Son 2:4 to be an emblem of Christian churches and schools as houses of wisdom, or see in it whether the altar of the Church, where the body and blood of Christ are dispensed, or the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, with their various sorts or stages of divine Revelation 12
2. In opposition to such aimless and unbridled trifling, which lays no sure historical and exegetical foundation at the outset, and hence supposes that it can bring every possible mystery into the simple language of this poem, an unprejudiced historical exposition can see nothing in the section explained above, but the first act of a more prolonged lyrico-dramatic action, which by a gradual progress brings to its denouement the relation of two lovers, king Solomon and a fair Israelitish maiden, whose previous condition was that of a shepherdess or a vine-dresser. The development in this first section is not carried beyond the exhibiting a decided ethical contrast between the character of this maiden and that of the daughters of Jerusalem, i. e., the ladies of Solomons court or harem, and the knitting in addition of a firm bond of loving heart-communion between her and the king, who for her sake already begins to contemn all the others, and even to find them unlovely (see Son 2:2). It is not exactly the very first of the mutual attachment of the two lovers (Delitzsch), but it is the first consciousness in both of the incomparable strength and ardor of their reciprocal affection (see particularly Son 2:5-6), which is exhibited in this act, together with the first evident cropping out of an inner contrariety between this closely united pair and the other persons of the court; and this is brought by the principal person in the piece to the briefest and most emphatic expression possible, by the remark at the close in Son 2:7, as a contrast of true and false love, or that which awakes of itself, and that which is excited by amorous arts.13
3. Only thus much can be maintained as the well assured result of a sober, yet earnest-minded exposition of this first division, which keeps aloof from the profane assumptions and artificial combinations of modern shepherd-romances and amatory poems; and it is simply on this basis, therefore, that a practical application of the contents of this chapter and a half must proceed, if it is to be conducted upon sound and worthy principles. Its aim must consist essentially in pointing out and devoutly estimating the typical analogy which undeniably holds between what is here found and the dealings of the Redeemer with His Church. As Solomon raised his beloved from a low condition to his own glory, and that from mere love, and drawn by her beauty and charms, so the Lord has exalted man, sunk in misery and degradation, from no other motive than His love, His mere personal regard for our race, upon which His divine glory and blessedness were in no manner dependent; for
Nothing brought Him from above,
Nothing but redeeming love.
As further Solomons love to Shulamith appears in a gradual growth and a progression by successive steps, so too Christ lifts both His entire church and the individual souls that compose it, only step by step to the full and complete fellowship of His grace. To the call into His kingdom, which corresponds with the establishing of the relation of conjugal love in the royal gardens at Jerusalem represented in this act, succeed the higher stages of illumination, conversion, sanctification; but they do not follow immediately upon the heels of the former. As finally the lovely combination of child-like humility and of inward longing for her beloved, which Shulamiths character already exhibits in this first Song, forms her chief attraction which first makes her appear truly worthy of the love of her royal bridegroom, so in the soul of every Christian whom the Lord calls into His kingdom and will make partaker of His grace, the necessity of surrendering himself voluntarily to these gracious drawings with a hearty desire for a complete union with him becomes His highest duty; for non visi volentes trahuntur a Deo (Mat 23:37.)Besides these analogies a sound and sober practical exposition of this section must also hold up the numerous points of difference between the historical type and the soteriological and Messianic antitype; and among these it must particularly point out the dissimilitude, nay the contrast between the earthly Solomon, and the divine-human Redeemer, as well as between the surroundings of both. For it is only in this way that the total of what is contained in this action can be duly developed and converted to practical profit in both a positive and a negative respect. Comp. Introduction, 4, pp. 16 ff.
Footnotes:
[1][Patrick, Poole and Doway follow Wicliffe and Matthews in making Son 2:1 the language of the bridegroom. The great body of commentators with better reason assign it to the bride. Burrowes: Reclining thus on a bed of grass and flowers, the beloved and the bride naturally speak of each other in language drawn from the beautiful objects under their notice. Still more appropriately Williams: The spouse with the most beautiful productions of the royal garden in her view, ventures to compare herself, not with them, but with the more humble natives of the fields and valleys. The longing, which Zckler here finds for her home and former humble station, belongs purely to his theory of the plot in the Song, and has no place in the text itself.Tr.]
[2][Hengstenberg argues that the valleys, which correspond in the parallelism with Sharon, must also have the force of a proper name, and on the ground of 1Ch 12:15, he decides that the valleys on either side of the Jordan are referred to. Cov., Geneva, Doway, Fry, Thrupp, With., Gins., follow the LXX in giving to Sharon an appellative sense: meadow, field or plain. The parallelism is, of course, not sufficient to justify either conclusion. Good finds an allusion here to her birth-place: she was not of Egyptian origin, or royal descent, but a rose of the fields of Sharona native of Palestine. Of course the famous Sharon must be the one intended in such a passage as this.Tr.]
[3][The article is always definite in Hebrew; and the only correct translation is therefore, the flower of Sharon, where the article, however, is not to be taken in an eminent or exclusive sense, the flower par excellence (as Wordsworth: the flower of the whole earth; Doway: the flower of mankind) but has its generic sense, as is usual in comparisons. We may in conformity with our idiom substitute our indefinite for the Hebrew definite article in such cases, but this is by way of paraphrase, not exact translation. See Greens Heb. Gram. 245, 5, d.Tr.]
[4]If really meant the saffron, Colchicum autumnale, the comparison would contain what was damaging and degrading to Shulamith; but this is not admissible on account of the parallel, lily of the valleys.
[5][Wordsw. preserves the distinct verbal force of both words: I long for his shadow and sit beneath it. Cov.: My delight is to sit under his shadow. Eng. Ver.: I sat down under his shadow with great delight. Geneva: Under his shadow I had delight and sat down.]
[6][The meaning of this clause is well expressed by Coverdale: He loveth me specially well. Doway has: He hath ordered in me chastity. Parkhurst, without reason, supposes a reference to a light or lamp, such as was carried before the new-married couple on the evening of their wedding, comp. Mat 25:1-2.]
[7][Thrupp insists on the future sense: The time shall come when that sickness of love, of which I now complain, shall be solaced and satisfied. Taylor makes Son 2:4-6 the protasis of the sentence completed in Son 2:7, when he brings me, etc., when his left hand is, etc., I adjure you, etc.]
[8][Gill, Patrick, Scott and Williams make this the language of the bridegroom; the great body of English commentators refer it to the bride.Tr.]
[9][Withington, in accordance with his supposition that the bride is the daughter of an Arab chief, whose adjuration is consequently by the roes and hinds of her native fields, remarks: The semi-paganism of the oath is extremely natural. Moody Stuart: This is no oath by the hinds of the fields, but a solemn charge with the strength of an oath. Williams infers, from a comparison of Gen 21:30, that the antelopes and hinds of the field are referred to as witnesses of this solemn adjuration made in their presence.Tr.]
[10][Henry: She gives them this charge by everything that is amiable in their eyes and dear to them. Fry: The bride bids her attendants to be cautious not to disturb or call off the attention of her husband, whose society she has so coveted, as though they were approaching the gazelles or the deer of the plain. Taylor and Burrowes likewise find the point of the allusion in the timorousness of these animals. Gill and Scott combine both: They are gentle and pleasant creatures, but exceedingly timorous. Words: The roes and hinds love their mates with tender affection and steadfast reliance and will not disturb them in their slumbers.]
[11] [This surely cannot be accepted as a satisfactory explanation of this difficult verse. The spontaneity of love, which no effort must be made to awaken, but which must be excited of itself, so far from being accounted a worthy lesson of divine revelation, is not even a doctrine of ethics, and would require considerable qualification before it could be admitted to be sound rational advice. If inspired instruction were to be given on the subject of conjugal love, and a whole book devoted to the treatment of it, we might reasonably expect that its constancy, purity and strength would be prominently dwelt upon, that due attention would be paid to the qualities on which it should be based, the affectionate offices by which it should be maintained, and the holy principles by which it should be regulated. But instead of all this the one thing insisted upon is that love must be spontaneous and unsolicited. What is this but to convert it into heedless, inconsiderate passion, the spring of ill-judged attachments, which prove as inharmonious in their issue as they were irrational in their origin? This is, besides, a very different thing from the theme of this book, as Zckler himself conceives and represents it, which is the commendation of a pure and chaste conjugal affection as opposed to the dissoluteness and sensuality fostered by polygamy. It would also be a most extraordinary admonition for Shulamith to the daughters of Jerusalem, among whom, according to Zcklers hypothesis were the wives of Solomon, married to him long before Shulamith had ever seen him.
Then besides the feebleness and inappropriateness of the sense obtained, it is doubtful whether the language of the verse can be made to yield it. The expressions thus explained are exceedingly vague. There is nothing to indicate in whom they are cautioned not to awaken love, whether in themselves or others; or in what waymay they not in any way seek to win anothers affection or to excite their own, not even by exhibiting or discerning what is worthy of regard? And till it (i.e., love) please, is to say the least an unexampled phrase. It is a very singular form of speech for any one to adopt: do not excite a passion until that passion is willing to be excited.
Of the English commentators, who take love in its subjective sense of the feeling or emotion, Ginsburg under the bias of the unfounded shepherd-hypothesis translates: neither to excite nor to incite my affection till it wishes another love, the words another love being introduced without any warrant from the text or context. Patrick paraphrases thus: I conjure you not to discompose or give the least disturbance to that love; but let it enjoy its satisfaction to the height of its desires. So substantially Taylor and Thrupp. Weiss.: if ye disturb this love until it shall become complete, i.e., until the marriage be consummated. But the verbs here employed mean to awaken or excite, not to disturb. It seems better, however, with the great body of interpreters to take love here as in Son 7:6 in its objective sense of one who is beloved. Wordsworth compares the words of S. Ignatius ad Romans 7, The bride is locked in the fond embrace of him whom she loves. She would not have him aroused by the intrusion of others to the interrupting or abridging of her joy. Poole, with an eye to its spiritual application: Do not disturb nor offend him by your miscarriages. Words.: The church conjures her children that they be not impatient but wait in faith and hope for Gods own time, when it may please Him to arise and deliver her.Tr.]
[12] [Geneva Bible, note on Son 1:2 : This is spoken in the person of the Church or of the faithful soul inflamed with the desire of Christ, whom she loveth. Ainsw.: The bride is the Church espoused to Christ. In Son 1:2 she desireth to have Christ manifested in the flesh, and to have the loving and comfortable doctrines of His gospel applied unto her conscience. By virgins (Son 1:3) are meant all such (whether whole churches or particular persons) who with chaste and pure minds serve the Lord only. The daughters of Jerusalem are the friends of Christ and His Church, the elect of God, though not yet perfectly instructed in the way of the Lord. The brides blackness (Son 1:5) is the Churchs afflictions and infirmities. Her mothers sons, either false brethren, false prophets and deceivers, or inordinate lusts and sins which dwelt in her, and were conceived with her. The vineyards opposed to her own vineyard seem to mean false churches, and in them the corruption of religion, whereunto her mothers sons sought to draw her; setting her to observe the ordinances and traditions of men, or otherwise to undergo their cruelty and wrath. In Son 1:7 the Church maketh request unto Christ for instruction in the administration of His kingdom here on earth. Burrowes regards this section as exhibiting, in successive steps, the progress of the pious soul in the enjoyment of Christs love and favor. 1. We enjoy the love of Jesus as manifested in private communion in His chambers, Son 1:4. 2. In the way of duty and self-denial, Son 1:7-11. 3. In sitting with the King in the circle of His friends, and enjoying, as one of them, the delights of social communion with Him, Son 1:12-14. 4. In delightful repose with Him, amid enlarged prospects of spiritual beauty, Son 1:15-17. 5. In the protection and delights set forth in Son 2:1 to Son 3:6. In enjoying at last the pleasures mentioned in Son 2:4-7, the greatest possible on earth.
Wordsw. finds expressed in Son 1:2 the fervent yearnings of the Church for the advent of Christ. The mother of the Bride (i.e., of the Church of Christ) is the Jewish nation, and her mothers children are Jews or Judaizers. It was the delinquency, ingratitude and cruelty of the mothers children which made the Christian Church become the keeper of the vineyards.
According to Thrupp, the Church of Israel, in Son 1:2, desires the very presence of her Saviour. She had been instructed and wooed through the messages of the prophets; she desired now that her promised Messiah should pour into her mouth words from His own mouth. The daughters of Jerusalem are the members of the Church of Israel in their contemplative capacity; not necessarily different persons in their outer being from the virgins of Son 1:3 (the upright), but yet representing them in a different point of view, with reference solely to their intelligent and emotional survey of what is passing, and without regard to their own spiritual state. The mother of the Bride is the nation of Israel. The mothers sons are the several members of the nation, viewed only in their civil dealings, in their relation to the State, not in their relation to the Church. Their anger was the rebellion of the ten tribes. Her own vineyard was the religious culture of all Israel. Hindered in this by the political condition of the nation, she was driven to the establishment of colleges of holy disciples, the sons of the prophets at different centres, whose spheres of action are denoted by the vineyards, of which the anger of her brethren made her the keeper. Weiss refers this section to the time when Israel lay encamped at the foot of Sinai. The blackness of the bride (Son 1:5) was the sin of the golden calf, the sun that occasioned it was the bondage in Egypt. The petition (Son 1:7) concerns the leading through the wilderness, and the house (Son 1:17) is the tabernacle of Moses. Moody Stuart supposes the longing for Christs appearance, and His actual birth among men, to be the subject of this section; his interpretation of which is specialized even to the extent of making the green bed of Son 1:16 refer to the fresh grass upon which the newly-born Saviour was laid in the manger for the cattle.
[13] [The contrast in character, which Zckler finds already indicated in this section between Shulamith and the daughters of Jerusalem, though essential to his scheme of the book, is purely imaginary. It certainly is not established by Son 2:2, the only passage that can, with the slightest plausibility, be urged in its favor; whilst Son 1:3-4 speak decisively against it.
Whether the cyclic or the dramatic view of this book is to be preferred, may be left an open question at this stage of the exposition. If our author succeeds in showing a continuous progress in the action from first to last, the latter view is of course entitled to the preference. But if he fails in this, as in the translators judgment he does, and as all have done who have made the same attempt before him, we seem to be shut up to the former; unless indeed even the cyclic view, at least as refined by some of its later advocates, is too artificial for the artless simplicity of this beautiful poem, in which the same theme recurs under varied aspects, but the law of succession is rather that of poetical association than logical exactness.
And the general character of this section creates an antecedent presumption favorable to this view. The intimacy here described is of the strictest and most loving nature, and seems to leave no room for any further advance. Instead of preparing the way for a married union, it rather implies that the marriage has already taken place. The bed Son 1:16 is in all probability not the nuptial couch. But Shulamiths presence in the kings apartments, the kisses and embraces, her open expression of her passionate fondness for the king would be unbecoming and inadmissible, especially amid the restraints of oriental society, prior to marriage.Tr.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
I. 1 THE SONG OF SONGS, WHICH IS BY SOLOMON
FIRST SONG
The first time the lovers were together at the royal palace (in or near) Jerusalem
(Son 1:2 to Son 2:7)
FIRST SCENE:
Shulamith and the Daughters of Jeruzsalem
(Son 1:2-8)
Shulamith
2 1Let him kiss me with kisses2 of his mouth,
3for better is thy love than wine!
3 In fragrance thine unguents are good;4
5an unguent6 poured forth is thy name,7
therefore virgins love thee.
Shulamith and the Daughters of Jerusalem (in responsive song).
4 Draw me!after thee will we run!8
9The king has brought me into his chambers!10
We will exult and be glad in thee,
will commend11 thy love beyond wine!
Rightly12 do they love thee!
Shulamith
5 13Black I am, but 14comely, ye daughters of Jerusalem,
as the tents of Kedar, as the tent-cloths of Solomon.
6 Look15 not at me, because16 I am dusky,17
because the sun has scorched18 me;
19my mothers sons were angry20 with me,
made me keeper of the vineyards;
mine own vineyard I have not kept.21
(Looking around for Solomon)
7 22Tell me, thou whom my soul loveth, where23 feedest thou?
where makest thou (thy flock) to recline at noon?
For24 why should I be as one straying25
by the flocks of thy companions?
Daughters of Jerusalem
8 26If thou know not,27 fairest among women,
go forth in the footprints of the flock
and feed thy kids beside the shepherds tents.
SECOND SCENE:
Solomon and Shulamith
(Son 1:9 to Son 2:7)
Solomon
9 To my horse28 in Pharaohs chariots
I liken29 thee, my dear.30
10 Comely are thy cheeks with chains,31
thy neck with beads.32
11 Chains33 of gold will we make thee
with points34 of silver.
Shulamith
12 35Whilst the king is at his table,36
my spikenard yields its fragrance.
13 A bundle37 of myrrh is my beloved38 to me,
that lodges between my breasts.
14 A cluster of the cyprus-flower39 is my beloved to me,
in the vineyards of Engedi.
Solomon
15 40Lo! thou art fair, my dear,
lo! thou art fair; thine eyes are doves.
Shulamith
16 41Lo! thou art fair, my beloved, yea sweet;
yea our couch is green.42
17 The beams43 of our houses are cedars,
our wainscot44 is cypresses.45
II. 1. 46I am (only) a wildflower of Sharon,
a lily of the valleys.
Solomon
2 As a lily among thorns,
so is my dear among the daughters.
Shulamith.
3 47As an apple-tree among the trees of the wood,
so is my beloved among the sons.
In his shade delighted I sit.
and his fruit is sweet to my palate.48
4 He has brought me into the wine-house,
and his banner over me is love.
5 Stay me with pressed grapes,49
refresh50 me with apples,
for I am sick of love.
6 His left hand is under my head,
and his right embraces me.
7 51I adjure you, ye daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field,52
that ye wake not, and that ye waken not
love till it53 please.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. For the explanation of the title, see the Introduction, 1 and 3. To the view of those who assign Son 1:2-4 entirely to the daughters of Jerusalem, and suppose the words of Shulamith to begin with Son 1:5 (Hitz., Vaih. and others, so too Del.) stands opposed1. That the wish to be kissed with the kisses of his mouth could scarcely have been expressed by the ladies of the court, or even by one of them, without filling Shulamith with indignation, of which, however, she shows nothing in what follows. 2. That the way in which the lover is extolled in Son 1:2-3, agrees perfectly with the fond encomiums and enthusiastic descriptions which Shulamith subsequently, Son 1:13 ff., and Son 2:3 ff., bestows upon her loSong Son 1:3. That the interchange of the 1st sing. and the 1st plur. plainly points to a diversity of persons speaking, or to an alternation between a single speaker and a whole chorus. This latter circumstance likewise renders their assumption impossible, who (as Ew., Hengstenb., Weissb. and most of the older interpreters) suppose that the whole of Son 1:2-7 is spoken by Shulamith. Undoubtedly Shulamith and the ladies of the court here respond to each other in speech or song; yet not so that only the words Draw me after thee … chambers Son 1:4 a belong to Shulamith, and all the rest to Son 1:5 to the women of the harem (so Renan), but simply that all that is in the singular is to be regarded as spoken by her alone, and all that is in the plural by her and the ladies together, so that in particular (we will run) and (we will be glad, etc.) are to be assigned to the ladies who confirm the words of Shulamith by joining in them themselves, while (draw me after thee), (the king has brought me into his chambers) and (they rightly love thee) belong to Shulamith alone54 (comp. Dpkein loc.) Then Son 1:5-7 unquestionably belong to Shulamith alone; Son 1:8 again to the ladies of the court, who reply with good-humored banter to the rustic simplicity and naivet with which she has expressed Son 1:7 her desire for her royal lover; Son 1:9, ff. to Solomon, who now begins a loving conversation with his beloved, reaching to the close of the act.55 During this familiar and cosy chat, which forms the second scene of the act, the chorus of ladies withdraws to the back-ground, but without leaving the stage entirely; for the concluding words of Shulamith Son 2:7 are manifestly directed to them again, and that not as absent, but as present on the stage. The place of the action must be supposed to be some locality in the royal palace or residence in or near Jerusalem, some one of the kings chambers ( ) Son 1:4; whether precisely the room devoted to wine parties, the wine-room of the royal palace (Del.), cannot, as it seems, be certainly determined from the repeated reference to the excellence of wine (Son 1:2; Son 1:4), nor from the mention of the house of wine ( 2:4); and even the table of the king spoken of Son 1:12 does not afford a perfectly sure support to this opinion. Only it appears to be certain from Son 1:16-17 that we must imagine the scene to be open outwards, and to afford a prospect of fresh verdure and stately trees, such as cedars, cypresses, etc. It must therefore have been either a room in the kings palace upon Zion immediately adjacent to parks or gardens, or what in view of Son 6:2-3 (comp. Son 4:16) is still more probable, an open summer-house (or pavilion) in the royal pleasure gardens of Wady Urtas, south of Jerusalem, near Bethlehem and Etam, in those magnificent grounds of Davids splendor-loving son, which probably bordered upon Zion itself, and thence extended southward for several leagues, and of which there still remains at least a grand aqueduct, with three basins lying successively one above another, the so-called pools of Solomon (comp. K. Furrer, Wanderungen durch Palstina, Zrich, 1865, p. 178, etc.; C. Hergt, Palstina, p. 278, etc.;Ewald, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, III. 1, p. 64, etc.). That Shulamith had formed a personal acquaintance with the royal gardens in the neighborhood of Jerusalem directly after she had been brought from her home in the north of Israel to Solomons court, is shown by her mention Son 1:14 of the vineyards or vine-gardens of Engedi, near the Dead Sea, five or six German miles south-east of Jerusalem, from which however the conclusion must not be drawn that these pleasure-grounds of Engedi formed the scene of the action in the opening of the piece; see on that verse. Weissbach very properly locates the second scene of the Song from Son 1:9 onward in the gardens of Solomon near Jerusalem, but puts the action of Son 1:1-8 somewhere on the way to this retreat, where Shulamith in her search for her lover chances to meet the women of Jerusalem. But in opposition to this may be urged1. That there is nothing in the context to indicate a change in the locality between Son 1:8-17. The mention of the kings chambers in Son 1:4 certainly implies the immediate vicinity of a royal palace, and probably the presence of the speaker in it. 3. It by no means follows from the metaphors borrowed from pastoral life, in which Shulamith speaks of her lover, Son 1:7 that she thought he was really to be found in a pasture ground, and engaged in feeding sheep. 4. With as little propriety can it be inferred from Son 1:8 that Shulamith is represented as wandering about over the country and accompanied by some little kids, searching for her lover in or near Jerusalem.56
2. First Scene. Shulamith. Son 1:2-3.Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.for which Hitzig needlessly reads , let him give me to drink, etc. (comp. Son 8:2)is manifestly the utterance of a wish, O that he would kiss me; and its subject is not , his mouth, which is too remote and manifestly stands in a genitive relation to kisses; nor , equivalent to one of his kisses (Ewald, E. Meier), for a kiss kisses not but is kissed, and includes an accusative (Hitzig). The speakers lover is rather thought of as the kissing subject, the same, whom in the vividness of her conception she immediately afterwards in b and in Son 1:3 addresses in the second person, as though he who is so ardently longed for were already present.57 The partitive properly points to but one or a few kisses of her lover as the object of the beloveds wish; comp. Gen 28:11; Exo 16:27; Psa 132:11, and generally Ew., Lehr., 217, b, 294, c. [GreensHeb. Gram., 242, a]; J. H. Michaelis, in loc., uno tantum vel altero de osculis.Kisses of his mouth58 are, moreover, in contrast with the idolatrous custom of hand-kisses, or kissing the hand to any one (Job 31:27; comp. Del., in loc.), tokens of honest love and affection between blood relations and friends (Gen 29:11; Gen 33:4; Gen 41:40; 1Sa 10:1; 1Sa 20:41; comp. Psa 2:12), and especially between lovers (Pro 7:13). It is not likely that the similarity of the words kiss and drink gave occasion to the comparison in b of caresses with wine (Weissb.); this comparison is of itself a very natural one; comp. Son 4:10; Son 5:1; Son 8:2.For better is thy love than wine. different from breasts, paps (which the LXX here express by , and the Vulg. by ubera [so Wic., Cov., Dow.]), as well as from plur. of beloved (Son 5:1), denotes manifestations of love, caresses, (comp. Son 4:10-11; Son 7:13; Pro 7:18; Eze 16:8; Eze 23:17), i.e., dalliance, exhibition of (Son 7:7; Son 8:6), fond endearments, (in bad taste Vaih., Liebelei, flirtation.) In the comparison of such love with wine, the tertium comparationis is, as is shown by the parallels Son 4:10 ff.; Son 5:1; Son 7:9, ff. not the intoxicating power of wine, but primarily its sweetness59 only; comp. Act 2:13. The figure of intoxication indicates a higher grade of loving ecstasy than is here intended, comp. Son 5:1 b;Pro 5:19; Pro 7:18, and in general Weissb., in loc.
Son 1:3. In fragrance thine unguents are good., in respect to odor, as to fragrance, limits , good (comp. Jos 22:10; 1Ki 10:23; Job 32:4), and is emphatically placed at the beginning of the sentence. Commonly: to the smell, or for the smell, against which, however, lies the twofold objection: 1, that denotes not the organ of smell, nor the act of smelling, but the odor which any thing exhales (odor, halitus), comp. Son 1:12; Son 2:13; Son 4:10; Song 7:14; Hos 14:7, etc.; 2, it is not , but simply . Hitzigs construction is quite too artificial; he connects 3 a with 2 b as its sublimitation, and translates thy caresses are more precious than wine with the odor of thy precious ointment (comp. the like mode of connection adopted in the Vulg., uberafragantia unguentis optimis [so Coverdale, Doway]). So also is that of Weissbach, thy ointments are good to serve as a perfume, where too much is evidently foisted into the simple .60An unguent which is poured forth is thy name.The comparison of a good name with a fragrant unguent is also found, and on the basis of this passage in Hos 14:7-8; Ecc 7:1; Sir 49:1. The ideas of smelling and being (or being named, bearing this or that name) are, as a general fact, closely related through the intermediate notion of breathing, respiring; comp. in German Gercht, ruchbar.61 That the name of the lover is thus compared to a costly perfume diffusing a wide fragrance (comp. Mar 14:3; Joh 12:3) plainly indicates that it is only the renowned King Solomon, an actual possessor of (name, i.e., fame, gloriacomp. Pro 22:1; 1Ki 1:47; Job 30:3), who can be thought of as this lover, and not a simple country swain (so Weissb. properly against Herd., Umbr., etc.).Therefore virgins love theei.e., not barely on account of this thy renown, but on account of all the excellencies celebrated in Son 1:2-3. Observe that is without the article. It is not the virgins universally, but simply virgins, such as Shulamith herself, or the daughters of Jerusalem, the ladies of Solomons court, by whom she sees herself surrounded, that she describes as lovers, as reverential admirers of the graceful, brilliant and lovely king. The guileless country lass, who has but recently been transferred into the circle of the countless virgins of the royal court (comp. Son 6:8) here accounts to herself for the fact that many other virgins besides her are attached to the king with admiring devotion and love; comp., 4. e.
3. Shulamith and the daughters of Jerusalem.
Son 1:4. Draw me after theeas it is to be translated with the Targ., Luth. and most of the recent expositors, connecting contrary to the common accentuation with , which requires it as its proper complement;62 comp. Hos 11:4; Jer 31:3. By this drawing is meant, as appears from b, a drawing into the kings chambers, or at least into immediate proximity to him, not a conducting out of the palace into the country, as the advocates of the swain-hypothesis suppose, who see in these words an ardent call upon her distant lover.We will runi.e., not, let us take flight, and hasten hence [so Ginsburg: Oh, let us flee together!], as though here again there were a cry for help to her absent lover; but: we will hasten to him, viz.: the gracious king; a lively exclamation uttered by Shulamith, and at the same time by the chorus of the daughters of Jerusalem catching the word from her.The king has brought me into his chambersa simple expression of the virgins rapturous joy at the high honor and delight granted her by the king. As the words stand, they contain neither an indirect petition or complaint addressed to her distant lover (to which the following clauses of the verse would agree poorly enough), nor a wish directed to the kingas though the preterite were to be taken in the sense of a precative or optative: O that the king had brought me into his chambers (so, e.g., Hug, Weissb.), nor finally a condition dependent on the following (so Hahn, who supplies , if, before . If the king brings me into his chambers, we will,63etc. Furthermore, the kings chambers are by no means simply identical with the harem, the house of the women belonging to the royal palace (Vaih., Ren., etc.); this would rather have been designated , as in Est 2:3; Est 2:9, ff., or simply called , house, as in 1Ki 7:8; 1Ki 9:24; Psa 68:13, etc. They are 2Sa 4:7; 2Sa 13:10, the kings own rooms in the palace, his sleeping apartments and sitting-rooms, penetralia regis, in distinction from those of his wives and the ladies of the court, which formed a particular division of the royal palace. Comp. 1Ki 7:8; Est 2:12-14. Into these the kings own innermost apartments, Shulamith, as the favored object of his special love, had been repeatedly brought,nay, she has in them her own proper abode and residence. She had therefore a perfect right to say: The king has brought me into his chambers.64We will exult and be glad in thee.With these words, which recall Psa 31:7; Psa 118:24; Isa 25:9; Joe 2:21; Joe 2:23, the ladies of the court again chime in with the language of Shulamith, in order to commend with her the happiness of belonging to the number of those who were loved by the king. , in thee, belongs in equal measure to both verbs; comp. Isa 65:19.We will celebrate thy love more than wine.Comp. Son 1:2.Rightly do they love thee.The most obvious construction is to make the virgins again the subject, as in 3c, and consequently to regard Shulamith as again the speaker. But the 3d plur. might also be taken impersonally (they, i.e., people generally love thee. Comp. , they despise, Son 8:1), and then the clause might be spoken by the entire chorus. , an adverbial accusative (as, e.g., , wonderfully, Lam 1:9), means neither without reserve (Weissb.), nor sincerely (Gesen., Del.) [so Noyes; Eng. Ver. marg.: uprightly], but, as appears from the context and the parallels Psa 48:2; Psa 75:3, with good reason, rightly (Ew., Hitzig, Vaih., etc.). This word is taken as the subject by the Sept. (), Vulg. (recti diligunt te), Hengstenb. (rectitudes, i.e., abst. for concrete, the upright love thee), Umbr. (O favorite of all the virtues), etc. [so Eng. Ver., Thrupp, Wordsworth, Withington, Ginsburg], interpretations as ungrammatical as they are unsuited to the connection. The attempts at emendation proposed by Velth., Schelling, Augusti, are altogether unnecessary65 (see Weissb., in loc.).
4. Shulamith. Son 1:5-7.
Son 1:5. Black I am, but comely.The explanation of the fact that she was black () contained in the following verse shows that by this blackness can only be meant her being browned by the hot sun. Then too in Lam 4:8 the substantive denotes only the livid or swarthy appearance of one who has suffered long from famine and wretchedness, and in this very passage the strong expression black is qualified by the diminutive blackish () in the verse immediately following.Moreover, the whole statement before us was occasioned according to Son 1:6, by the curious looks with which Shulamith had meanwhile been regarded by many of the daughters of Jerusalem and probably also by jeering remarks which they had made (comp. Son 1:8). But comely [Taylor: attractive, engaging] (., lit., agreeable); the plain country maid hereby expresses with frank, straightforward simplicity her consciousness that nevertheless she was not altogether unworthy of the love of Solomon. There is no vain self-laudation in the words.As the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.The first of these comparisons is designed to illustrate and set before the mind the idea of blackness, the second that of comeliness or elegance. Kedar is a Bedawn tribe near Palestine in the Arabian desert, Gen 25:13; Isa 21:17, which is here named in preference to all others, simply because the name seems originally to denote blackness. Tents of poor Bedawns, which are always exposed to the heat of the sun, must certainly appear blacker and less attractive than those of Solomon; and we need not therefore with other interpreters (see especially Hitz. and Weissb. who refer to the observations of modern travellers as della Valle, Burckhardt, Harmer, Volney, etc.,) have recourse to the tents now commonly covered with black goat skins, as Shulamith only has in mind the blackness caused by the suns rays. But Solomons tents as a figure of the greatest elegance can only correspond to comely. We may without difficulty assume that the splendor-loving Solomon adopted the custom of oriental monarchs of living in tents once in the year in some charming district and in the utmost elegance and splendor (comp. the remarks above, Son 1:1, respecting the pleasure grounds at Etham and Engedi.) It is, therefore, wholly unnecessary to understand by (with Del., Hitz., etc.,) tapestry,66 which is neither permitted by usage nor by etymology, from continuit, prop. velum, then tent-cloth. We shall have in the main to abide by this explanation of the passage given by Ewald, although we might assign to a different etymology, and derive it perhaps with Gesenius from to tremble, flutter, or with Weissb. from to be bad, i. e., of coarse, inferior workmanship. The two comparisons are in any case understood in quite too artificial a manner by the latter and by several others, who assume that both the tents of Kedar and the tent-coverings of Solomon set forth the peculiar combination of dark color with attractiveness in Shulamiths looks (for which an appeal is made to the testimony of travellers like DArvieux, Shaw, etc., according to whom a plain filled with the black tents of the Bedawn presents a very pleasing and even beautiful spectacle.) In opposition to Bttchers view, who though he assigns the words Black am I, daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar to the vinedresser, i.e., to Shulamith, refers the rest (but comely and as the tent cloths of Solomon) to an elderly princess, who looks with astonishment at the new comer, comp. Hitz. in loc., who properly rebukes the extravagance of the dissecting mania here exhibited.
Son 1:6. Look not at me because I am dusky, because the sun has scorched me. There is nothing in the context to indicate that the look is one of approval, in admiration of her beauty67 (versusBttcher, Hitz., etc.) Comp. above on Son 1:5. My mothers sons were angry with me.Velth., Umbr., Ewald needlessly think of step-brothers or half-brothers; the passages adduced for this purpose Lev 18:9; Lev 20:11 : Deu 23:2, etc., are outweighed by many others as Gen 27:29; Psa 50:20; Psa 69:9; Deu 13:7, where mothers sons corresponds in the parallelism to brothers, and consequently is entirely synonymous with it. And this expression is the less surprising in Shulamiths mouth since like a true Hebrew daughter she is in the habit of denominating everything after her mother; comp. my mothers house, Son 3:4; Son 8:2, and so too Rth 1:8. We need not even assume that she would intimate a less favorable judgment of her brothers as more or less strange or distant in their bearing to her (Rocke, Hitz.); and there is still less to justify the assumption that her brothers are by this expression emphatically designated as Shulamiths own brothers-german (vs.Magnus.) Yet it may with considerable probability be inferred from the expression before us, that Shulamiths father was no longer living at the time of this transaction, and her brothers had assumed the prerogatives of a father (comp. Gen 34:5, ff.; 2Sa 13:20 ff.), but that her mother meanwhile was still living, which also seems to be favored by Son 6:9, (Son 8:2; Son 3:4).Made me keeper of the vineyards. This manifestly does not assign the reason of her brothers anger, nor is this intimated in the following clause (vs. Hengstenberg and E. Meier), it is rather passed over in silence as irrelevant. But this clause tells what her brothers did in consequence of their anger, and then the last clause states what further happened to her when degraded into a vineyard-keeper.Mine own vineyard I have not kept.The addition of not only gives a special emphasis to the suffix in , but distinguishes the vineyard of Shulamith here named as quite distinct and of another sort from those of her brothers, which she had been obliged to keep (Son 8:12). It is a vineyard of a higher and more valuable kind, which alas! she had not carefully guarded. She herself with all that she has and is, must be intended by this vineyard of her own (comp. Del. and Weissb. in loc.), or it may be her beauty (Ew., Dpke., Magn., Heiligst., Hitz., Vaih.),at all events every thing that she had to surrender to Solomon and devote to him when she became his beloved and followed him. There is, in these words, no serious lament for her lost virtue (on the contrary see Son 4:12-16) or for her forsaken lover (as Bttcher, Meier and tentatively also Vaih.); but they contain a lament half in jest or with mingled sadness and irony for her forfeited freedom, for which she constantly longs in spite of her attachment to her royal lover. In favor of this double meaning of vineyard may also be urged the etymology of , which agreeably to its derivation from the root , signifies the noblest, the most valued possession, the highest good, (comp. Hos 2:17; Isa 5:7; Psa 16:6, as well as Ewald and Hitzigin loc.).
Son 1:7. Tell me, thou whom my soul loveth, where feedest thou? To this dreamy exclamation of longing desire for her still absent lover, the close of the preceding verse forms a thoroughly appropriate introduction. Despoiled of her freedom and her beloved home she can only then feel happy amid the new and splendid objects which surround her, when he from love to whom she has forsaken all and to whom her whole heart belongs, is actually close beside her. inform me not cause me to be informed, for always denotes an immediate declaration or announcement. This expression would manifestly be less suited to an address to a far distant lover. The paraphrase of the idea by the fond circumlocution whom my soul loveth is found four times beside in the beautiful section Son 3:1-4.Shulamith represents her royal lover as feeding and then as reclining (or more exactly as causing to recline, viz., his flock) simply because, as a plain country girl, she supposes that she can directly transfer to him the relations and occupations of country life, and hence assumes that the king may now be somewhere in the fields with his flocks, and have sought with them some shady resting-place as a protection from the hot noon-day sun. That Solomon was just then residing in his pleasure grounds near Jerusalem, that is to say in the country, might favor this artless conception of hers (comp. above on Son 1:5.) But the assumption of Weissbach is needless, that Solomon was then actually engaged in the over-sight of his flocks (Ecc 2:7) like Absalom and his brothers who, according to 2Sa 13:23, ff., were accustomed to manage the sheep-shearing themselves, and to convert it into a merry-making. Nothing further is to be sought in the expressions before us, than a ready trope from pastoral life, and consequently one of those criteria which mark this poem as at least a partially idyllic or pastoral drama (comp. Introduc. 1, Rem. 3). That Josephs going to the pasturage of his brethren, Gen 37:15-16, was what specially suggested the present figurative representation is too far-fetched, though asserted by Hengstenberg, and connected with his allegorical mode of interpretation. Parallels for this reclining at noon may better be adduced from the figurative language of the prophets, as Isa 49:10; Psa 23:2; Eze 34:13-15, or even from the ancient classics, as Theocritus, Id., Son 1:14-15; Son 6:4; 25:216: Horace, Od., III. 29:21; Virg. Georg. III. 324 ff.68
For why should I be as one straying?etc. is very variously explained. to cover is commonly regarded as its theme, and it is accordingly translated as one veiled [so Eng. Ver. margin] i.e., as a harlot, Gen 38:14-15 (Rosenm., Del.) [so Thrupp, Burrowes, Noyes]; or as one ashamed, veiled through shame (Umbreit, Dpke, Hengstenberg), or as one unknown (Ewald, Heiligst., who compare the Arab. obscurus fuit, occultavit) [Williams: as a stranger], or as a mourner, (so some of the older commentators, as R. Solomon ben Melek, [Ainsworth] after 2Sa 15:30). [Weiss.: Muffled up as eastern women always were when exposed to the eyes of strangers, and as a shepherdess subject to insolent and injurious treatment from the shepherds, comp. Exo 2:16-19]. But the signification cover can no more be proved for , than that of pining away, which Schultens (Op. Min. p. 240), Rocke and others have sought to establish for the word. The Vulgate (ne vagari incipiam), Symmach. ( ), Syr. and Targ., favor the meaning of wandering or straying, which is admirably suited to the context; [Clarke: as a wanderer; one who not knowing where to find her companions wanders fruitlessly in seeking them.] In proof of it we shall not need Bttchers emendation (as a country-stroller), but simply Hitzigs assumption that by a transposition of the is for (= comp. Gen 37:15); comp. = , = Arab. etc., (a view as old as Kleukerin loc., who with S. Bochart actually proposes to read ). The following expression by the flocks of thy companions is closely connected with this idea as the more exact limitation of the straying. The straying by the flocks of the kings companions, is nothing but a figure of speech for remaining among the throng of ladies in the royal court without the presence of the king himself; and that is just the veritably desolate and forlorn condition, from which Shulamith wishes to be released by the return of her lover. Hitzig arbitrarily explains the wandering of a wandering of her thoughts; and still more arbitrarily Weissbach seeks to give to (with the following for ) the sense of laying hands upon, purloining (that I, by the flocks of thy companions, be not regarded as one who will lay hands upon them, and for that reason is sneaking about them watching his opportunity.)
5. The daughters of Jerusalem.
Son 1:8. If thou know not, fairest among women,etc. This address (lit. the fair (one) among the women. compare [GreensHebrew Grammar, 260, 2 (2)], Ewald, Lehrbuch, 513, c) which is also used Son 5:9; Son 6:1 by the daughters of Jerusalem in speaking to Shulamith, does not prove that the counsel here given to follow the tracks of the flocks and pasture her kids beside the shepherds huts is a seriously meant exhortation to Shulamith to return to the condition of a shepherdess, or a friendly direction to her on her way to the royal flocks (Weissb.). This language is evidently an answer adapted to the narrow range of thought implied in Shulamiths question (which must necessarily appear foolish to the ladies of the court) and hence an unmeaning one, after which the fair shepherdess knew neither more nor less than she did before (Del.). It is therefore jeeringly intended, and if it did not exactly wound her deeply, it was certainly adapted to increase Shulamiths longing for her lover. means neither if thou do not know thyself (Sept., Luth.), nor if thou art deficient in understanding (Ewald, Hitzig, etc., who appeal to Isa 1:3; Isa 56:10, passages not appropriate in this connection), but conformably to the similar passage, Son 6:12, if thou know not, viz.: where thy lover feeds, this object being readily supplied from the context. go out at the heels of the flock, i.e., go after it, follow its tracks, comp. Jdg 4:10; Jdg 5:15. therefore denotes here, as the Hiphil in Isa 40:26; 2Sa 5:2, going forth with the flock, not going out of the palace (Vaih., etc.).Thy kids, i.e., the kids which as such an enthusiastic admirer of country life, and a shepherds occupation you must certainly have. That she actually had some with her (Weissb.) by no means follows from this expression.
6. Second Scene. Solomon, Son 1:9-11. The king has now returned from the engagements, which had hitherto detained him from his women, and he begins a tender conversation with Shulamith, who is favored by him above all the rest; during which the others withdraw into the background. Comp. No. 1, above.
Son 1:9. To my horse in Pharaohs chariots, literally: to my mare; for can scarcely stand collectively for horses, a body of horse, (Vulg. equitatui;Hengstb., Weissb., etc.), and there is nothing to justify its being pointed (Magn., Hitz.). The singular evidently refers to a favorite mare of the king (comp. Zec 10:3), to a particularly fine, and splendidly caparisoned specimen of those , which according to 1Ki 10:26, Sept., Solomon had for his chariots; and more exactly to such a steed used on state occasions in Solomons Pharaoh-chariots, i.e., in those costly Pharaonic spans of horses, which according to 1Ki 10:28-29, he had imported from Egypt. Solomon compares his beloved to this mare of his, harnessed and magnificently decorated before stately Pharaoh-chariots (not exactly before one of them, Vatabl.), and that on account of her youthful bloom and her unaffected demeanor, whose lovely charms are still further heightened by the simple ornaments worn upon her head and neck, Son 1:10-11 (Del.). The point of the comparison is not to be sought exclusively in the proud bearing of the horse, Job 39:19, etc. (Ewald, Vaih., etc.), any more than in the glittering ornaments of his head and neck. In opposition to Weissb., who thinks merely of the latter, and referring to HartmannsHebrerin am Putztische, (Hebrew woman at her Toilet), OleariusPersische Reisen (Travels in Persia), etc. [see also HarmersOutlines, p. 205, and the illustrations of a brides dress, in CalmetsDictionary] maintains that there was a marked similarity between the ornaments of pearls and chains worn by horses and by women in the East, and consequently by Shulamith in the present instance, it may be said that according to Son 1:11 Solomon now first proposes to adorn his beloved with the proper gold and silver ornaments, and therefore she did not yet wear a burdensome head and neck ornament like a richly bridled mare.69My dear; comp. Son 1:15; Son 2:2; Son 4:1, etc., where the same familiar form of address recurs.
Son 1:10. Comely are thy cheeks in chains. kindred with , etc., is equivalent to a circle, ring; in the plural consequently it denotes a chain composed of many rings, which goes around from the head under the chin, by which therefore the cheeks are encircled. Shulamith may not have brought this ornament together with the necklaces named in b ( kindred with , , little disks of metal or corals pierced and strung together) with her from the country, but may have received it as a present from Solomon since her coming to the royal court. Solomon, however, is not satisfied with this simple ornament, but promises her, Son 1:11, much richer and more splendid jewels,scarcely with the view of alluring her and binding her to his court (as even Del. supposes) but simply to adorn yet more handsomely one who is so lovely, and to have his full pleasure in her as a magnificently attired princess.70
Son 1:11. Chains of goldwith points of silver. Needlessly, and quite too artificially, Weissb. will have us understand by the something similar to the little disks of silver pierced and strung together, which might be worn along with the gold chains. But with by no means requires this explanation (comp. Son 4:13): it rather leads to the far more natural assumption that the golden chains were dotted with silver punctis argenteis distincti (Hitzig).71
7. Shulamith Son 1:12-14.
Son 1:12. Whilst the king (is) at his table, my spikenard yields its fragrance. If these words were to be translated: whilst the king was at his table, my spikenard yielded its fragrance (Rosenmueller, Ewald, Hengstenb., Vaih., Weissb., etc.), they could only mean: as long as Solomon was absent, and did not burden me with his attentions, I was happy in the memory of my friend; they would accordingly bear an emphatic testimony to the correctness of the herdsman or shepherd-hypothesis; for that the fragrance of the spikenard is to be taken literally and explained of the costly nard-oil on Shulamiths hair and garments, which had been as it were suppressed and far exceeded by the coming of her lover with his much more delightful fragrance (Weissb.) is a very far-fetched explanation of these simple words.72 They are rather to be taken as referring to the present, because the fact of there being no was in the protasis makes against the preterite sense of give73 (comp. Hitz. in loc.) and because does not properly mean table, but rather company, festive assembly (comp. the adverbial use of the word in the singular, 1Ki 6:29, and in the plural, 2Ki 23:5; Job 37:12) and consequently points to the place where the king then was, to the womens apartment of his palace or park in contrast with his former stay in the fields, with the soldiers, on the chase, or elsewhere. The fragrance of Shulamiths nard is accordingly a figurative designation of the agreeable sensations or delightful feelings produced in her heart by the presence of her lover (comp. Del.: it only emits again that fragrance, which it has absorbed from his glances), a representation which by no means sounds too refined and courtly for this simple country girl, this child of nature, which therefore Hitzig very needlessly puts (as well as Son 1:13) into the mouth of an enamored court lady as a voluptuous piece of flattery for Solomon.74 For , which must here denote not a stalk of the well-known Indian plant Valeriana Jatamansi (Magn., Bttcher), but the aromatic unguent prepared from it, and that as poured out, and consequently emitting its fragrance, comp. Winer, R. W. B. Art., Narde. [SmithsDictionary of the Bible, Art. Spikenard. KittosBiblical Cyclopedia, Art. Nerd].
Son 1:13. A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me. Evidently an advance upon the figure of the fragrant nard. The royal lover, who now rests upon Shulamiths bosom, is compared by her to a parcel of the costly myrrh-gum such as the ladies of the East are in the habit of carrying in their bosom. is not a bunch [so Noyes] or sprig of myrrh (Ewald, Delitzsch, etc.) for there is no more evidence of any aromatic quality in the branches and leaves of the myrrh tree than there is of its occurrence in Palestine at all. We must therefore think of a bundle or box (not exactly a flask, as Weissb. proposes, contrary to the meaning of ) of semi-fluid, or fluid myrrh gum, and must besides compare the use of this gum as an unguent, which is vouched for also in Son 5:5; Son 5:13; Est 2:12; Exo 30:28. On the carrying of boxes of ointment by Hebrew women, comp. also Isa 3:20; Job 42:14, and Hartmann, die Hebrerin am Putztische II., p. 280 f.
Son 1:14. A cluster of Cyprus is my beloved to me.Sept.: ( here and Son 4:13) is the Cyprus flower or Alhenna, which is indigenous to India, and probably to Egypt (Pliny, H. N. xii. 24) and may have been transplanted by Solomon in his vineyards at Engedi (on which comp. No. 1 above) for the sake of the peculiarly strong odor of its yellowish-white, grape-like clusters of flowers. [See HarmersOutlines, pp. 218221; ShawsTravels, pp. 113, 4: SonninisVoyage, pp. 291302]. Comp. in respect to the fondness of oriental women for this aromatic plant the testimony of a recent traveller in the Ausland, 1851, No. 17. The white Henna-blossoms, which grow in clusters and are called Tamar-henna, have a very penetrating odor, which seems disagreeable to the European who is unaccustomed to it; but the Orientals have an uncommon liking for this odor, and prefer it to any other. The native women commonly wear a bouquet of Tamar-henna on their bosom. The Hebrew name of this plant might with Simonis and others be derived from to cover, with allusion to the custom which prevails among Oriental women of staining their finger nails yellow with Henna powder, but it is more natural to refer as well as and the Lat. cuprum to the Sanskrit root cubh, to shine, be yellow, whence cubhra. The exact parallelism between Son 1:13-14, and in general the intimate connection of Son 1:12-14, with their figures taken without exception from the region of vegetable aromas further yields decided testimony against Hitzigs division of the passage as though Son 1:12-13, belonged to one of the women of the Harem, and only Son 1:14 to Shulamith.
8. Solomon, Shulamith, Son 1:15-17.
Son 1:15. Lo! thou art fair, my dear. The fond ardor, with which she has just spoken of her lover, has doubled the expressive beauty of her features. The perception of this leads Solomon full of rapture to praise her beauty.Thine eyes are doves,i.e., not thine eyes are doves eyes, as though (like Psa 45:7; 1Ki 4:13, Ezr 10:13) the const. were to be supplied; and the dove-like simplicity and fidelity of Shulamiths eyes were to be brought into the account as the point of comparison (Vulg., Syr., Ibn Ezra, Vat., Gesen., Del., etc.), [Eng. Ver.]; but as is shown both by the context and the parallel passage, Son 5:12, thine eyes resemble the lustrous and shimmering plumage of doves, wherein more particularly the white of the eyes is compared to that of the body, and the lustrous iris to the metallic lustre of the neck or wings of the dove (comp. Psa 68:14). Correctly therefore the Sept.: , and in the later times Targ., Rashi, Hengstenberg, Hitzig, etc.) [So Hodgson, Williams, Fry, Thrupp, etc.].
Son 1:16. Lo! thou art fair, my beloved, yea sweet. The exactly analogous form of expression, with which Shulamith here answers the flattering caresses of the king, makes it appear to the last degree forced to regard these words of hers as addressed to a distant lover. The climacteric yes sweet, yes charming is only the expression of her loving transport, and finds an illustrative commentary in the description Son 2:3-5. [Will., Gins. connect this adjective with what follows: Lovely is our verdant couch].Yea, our couch is green, lit.: greens, grows green () a reference to the stately, verdant, and refreshing natural surroundings, in the midst of which to their delight their loving intercourse now takes place, and perhaps more particularly to a shady grassplot under the trees of the park, upon which they were for the moment sitting or reclining; comp. 1 above, and Weissb. in loc. In opposition to Hengstenb., who takes in the sense of marriage-bed, and in a purely figurative sense of a gladsome and flourishing condition, may be urged that no mention can be made of a marriage-bed for Shulamith and Solomon before their nuptials, which are not described until Son 3:6, etc.; likewise the contents of the following verses, especially Son 2:1-3, which point to a continued stay of the lovers in the open air, under shady trees, and beside fragrant flowers.75
Son 1:17. The beams of our houses are cedars, our wainscoting cypress-trees. This can neither be the language of the choir of women belonging to the harem (Bttcher), whose entrance here would be to the last degree disturbing; nor even of Solomon (Hitzig, Weissb., Ren.) to whom the beauty of the place where they are, is a matter of perfect indifference, by reason of the rapture with which he regards his beloved; but only that of Shulamith, the innocent, light-hearted child of nature, who has just begun to express her pleasure in that lovely spot in the open air, to which her lover had conducted her, and whose words would sound quite unfinished and end abruptly if nothing further were added to the commendation of their verdant couch.Cedars and cypresses, also named together Isa 14:8; Zec 11:2, as costly species of wood for building and stately, lofty trees, are here evidently meant in the literal sense, of living trees of this description, such as were to be found, along with other rare and noble plants, in the royal gardens of a king so skilled in nature and so fond of splendor. The figurative part of her language lies rather in the beams and the wainscoting ( from = Ar. to hew, hence = laquearia of the Vulg., wainscoting on walls and ceilingsnot. pillars, Weissb., nor rafters, Vatabl. and L. Cappell, [so E. V.], nor floor, Hengstenberg, who prefers the Kri ). She, who had hitherto been without Solomon in the showy apartments of the palace, felicitates herself that she can now rest with him under the green trees of the garden, which seem to her to arch over them a far finer ceiling than those richly adorned halls. It is impossible to reconcile the mention of cedars, which only grew wild in Lebanon, not in central or northern Palestine, and consequently not in the vicinity of Shunem, with the shepherd hypothesis, whose advocates here find expressed Shulamiths longing for the verdure and shade of her home (e.g.Ewald, Vaih.).
For the DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL comments, see Son 2:7 ff.
Footnotes:
[1][Wicliffe: The Church of the coming of Christ speaketh, saying. Matthews: The voice of the Church. Cover-Dale: O that thy mouth would give me a kiss, for thy breasts are more pleasant than wine, and that because of the good and pleasant savor.].
[2]On the combination of the kindred words and . Comp. 1Ki 1:12; 1Ki 2:16; Isa 1:13; Isa 8:10; Jon 1:10; Jon 1:16, and generally Ewald, Lehrbuch, 281 a, [Greens Heb. Gram. 271, 3].
[3][Wicliffe: The voice of the Father.]
[4][Thrupps proposed emendation like as the scent which cometh from incenses, is nothing but ingenious trifling, and has not even the merit of being good Hebrew.Tr.]
[5][Wic. The voice of the Church.]
[6]Observe the assonance in and which is probably intentional. [Thrupp: as ointment thou art, by thy name, poured forth.]
[7]In regard to the construction of the words four views are possible: 1. is taken as the subject, and as 3 pers. fem. here employed because is exceptionally used as a feminine after the analogy of the Ethiopic (so Ew.: thy name is poured out as an ointment; Vaih.: as the fragrance of balsam thy name pours itself forth, etc.) 2. is regarded as the subject, which is here exceptionally treated as feminine, and to which belongs as a relative clause; an unguent, which is shed forth, is thy name (so the Septuag., Vulg., Luth. and the generality of interpreters). 3. is taken as a masc., but the form is regarded as a hardened form for (after the analogy of Isa 44:28; Ecc 10:15), and accordingly translated as before (Hitzig). 4. is held to be the 2 pers. sing. fut. Hophal with a double accusative: thou art poured forth in respect to thy name as ointment, i.e., thou, or more precisely thy name, diffusest a noble fragrance, like a box of ointment which is emptied of its contents (so J. H. Michaelis: sicut oleum effunderis nomine tuo; Hengstenb., Weissb.). This last construction is to be preferred as grammatically the best established, while it agrees in sense substantially with Nos. 2 and 3.
[8][Matt. Yea, that same moveth me also to run after thee.]
[9][Matt. The spousess to her companions.]
[10][Cov., Cranmer, Bishops: privy chamber; Doway: cellars, altered in later editions to store-rooms.]
[11]Upon prop. to mention, bring to remembrance, then to mention with praise, celebrate, comp. Psa 20:8; Isa 48:1; Isa 63:7; also Ps. 45:18; 1Ch 16:4, where it is parallel to thank, praise.
[12][Cov. Well is them that love thee. Eng. Ver. The upright, Marg. uprightly. Noyes, Burrowes: sincerely.]
[13][Wic. The Church, of her tribulations. Mat. The voice of the Church in persecution. Cov., Cran. I am black, (O ye daughusalem) like as the tents of the Cedarenes and as the hangings of Solomon; but yet I am fair and well-favored withal. Ginsburg: swarthy.]
[14][Withington: fair; Burrowes: lovely.]
[15][Cov. marvel; Doway: consider; Williams, Noyes: gaze; With. scorn; Ginsburg: disdain.]
[16] signifies in both instances, in and in not for, but for the reason that, because ( ); comp. Exo 2:2. The second clause is therefore co-ordinated with the first, although explanatory of it (comp. Weissb. in loc.)
[17][Cov.: so black. E. Ver. black; Doway: brown; Weiss: swarthy; Bur., Thrupp: dark.] On blackish, dusky (not very black, deep black, as Hitz. and formerly Ewald too would have it), comp. on Son 1:5 above [Greens Heb. Gram., 188].
[18] is not look upon [so E. V.; Cov. shined; Will. beamed; Thrupp: fiercely scanned; Weiss: glanced] (Septuag. , comp. Job 20:9), but is here= (Gen 41:23) scorch, blacken, the sense already expressed by Aquila ( ) and the Vulg. (decoloravit me) [Good: discolored; Bur., Gins. browned], and retained by most of the recent interpreters (in opposition to Rosenm., Hengstenb., Weissb.).
[19][Mat. The voice of the Synagogue.]
[20] either Niph. of to burn, glow, (so Ew., Meier, Hitz.), or more probably from (so that the sing. would be or ); for the Niph. of always elsewhere means to be dried, parched (Psa 69:4; Psa 102:4, etc.), whilst the meaning demanded here is to be angry, wroth. Comp. Gesenius Lexicon and Weissb. in loc. [Cov.: had evil will.]
[21][Cov.: Thus was I fain to keep a vineyard, which was not mine own.]
[22][Wic., Mat. The voice of the Church to Christ.]
[23] elsewhere how? [which Weiss. retains] is here= where? so too 2Ki 6:13, Kthibh, whilst the Kri has
[24] properly for why (comp. , Dan 1:10), a fuller expression for the simple why, as in Job 34:27, stands for , Psa 45:3. The sense is correctly given by the Sept. and Syr., which here and in Dan 1:10 translate that not, lest (). [Cov.: and that. The critical conjecture mentioned by Williams, that this word should be pointed as a proper name O Solomon is unworthy of attention.Tr.]
[25][Wic. go vagrant; Cov. lest I go wrong and come unto the flocks of thy companions; E. Ver. one (Genev. she) that turneth aside; Good, Percy, Clarke: wanderer; Williams, Fry: stranger; Taylor: rover; Ginsb.: roaming; E. Ver. Marg. one that is veiled, so Noyes, Weiss., Thrupp.]
[26][Wic., Mat. The voice of Christ to the Church.]
[27] is here added inasmuch as the action returns upon its subject (comp. Pro 9:12; and Pro 2:6; Pro 8:14 below), so in general Ewald, Lehrb. 315 a [Greens Heb. Chrest. note on Isa 40:9.]
[28][Wic. my riding; Genev. troop (E. V. company) of horses; Will.: the horse; Noyes: the horses; Gins.: my steed.]
[29][Cov. There will I tarry for thee, my love, with mine host and with my chariots, which shall be no fewer than Pharaohs]
[30]The plur. [rather Tr.] Jdg 11:37 Kthibh. [E. Ver. my love, Marg. in Son 1:15 : companion; Will.: consort; Fry: partner.]
[31][Genev. rows of stones; E. Ver. rows of jewels; Fry: jewels; With. chains; Thrupp, Ginsb.; circlet; Weiss.: reins.]
[32][Genev. chains; E. Ver. chains of gold; Doway: jewels; Fry: strings of beads; Good, Burrowes: strings of pearls: Thrupp, With., Ginsb. necklace; Weiss.: chains, i.e., such as are attached to the pole or beam of the carriage, and which the horse wears on his neck.]
[33][In addition to the renderings given to this word in the preceding verse, Wic. here translates it: ribands; Cov. neck-band; E. Ver. borders; With. collars.]
[34][Cov. buttons; E. Ver. studs; With. stars.]
[35][Wic. The voice of the Church, of Christ. Mat. The voice of the Church.]
[36][So Cov., Eng. Ver.; Genev. repast; Doway: repose, after the Vulg. accubitu and the LXX ; Good: banquet; Fry: the king in his circuit may either refer to his going round in some part of the procession, or to taking his stand in the midst of his retinue, or we may translate, until the king had taken his seat; Will., Burr, circle of friends; Weiss.: with his guest.]
[37][Ainsw.: bag; Taylor: scent-bag; Good: casket; Burrowes: amulet.]
[38][Cov. O my beloved. E. Ver. my well-beloved, so constantly throughout the book in Genev., except once in Son 5:9, lover.]
[39][So Cov., Doway, E. Ver. Marg. The text of the Eng. Ver. has camphire.]
[40][Wic., Mat. The voice of Christ to the Church.]
[41][Wic., Mat. The voice of the Church to Christ.]
[42][Cov., Cran., Bish. Our bed is decked with flowers. Dow.: our little bed is flourishing.]
[43][Cov. ceilings.]
[44][Cov. balks; Cran., Bish. cross-joints; E. V.: rafters, Marg.: galleries; Good, Noyes boardings; Parkhurst: ceiling; Gesen.: carved ceiling; Fuerst: carved beams].
[45][E. Ver. fir; Ains. brutin-tree.]
[46][Wic. The voice of Christ, of Him and of the Church; Mat. The voice of Christ.]
[47][Wic., Mat. The voice of the Church, of Christ.]
[48][Cov., Cran., Bish., Dow. throat; Genev. mouth; E. V. taste].
[49][Cov. grapes; Cran., Bish. cups; Genev., E. V. flagons].
[50][E. V. comfort; Marg. straw me; Doway, compass me about; Ainsworth: strew me a bed; Williams: strew citrons around me; Thrupp: strew me with citron leaves].
[51][Wic., Mat. The voice of Christ, of the Church; Wic., Dow. I adjure you; Cov., Cran., Genev., E. V.: I charge you.]
[52][Thrupp has: fells, so as to rhyme with gazelles, in fancied imitation of the original].
[53][Cov., Dow., Genev. she; E. V. correctly: he; Ginsb., Thrupp: it].
[54][So Patrick, Good, Williams, Taylor, Fry, the last two of whom divide Son 1:5 in like manner, assigning the words but comely, and as the curtains of Solomon to the daughters of Jerusalem, who compliment the bride on her beauty, while she in the remaining clauses speaks depreciatingly of herself; Taylor also apportions Son 1:2-3 between the bride and her attendant ladies, to whom Fry adds an imaginary messenger from the king. Harmer carries the sub-division of parts to an equal extent, claiming that not only the variation in number, but the change of person from third to second, and vice versa, indicates a diversity of speakers. The majority of English Commentators regard the bride as the sole speaker in Son 1:2, as is done also in the headings to this chapter in the authorized version, and either find in the change of number evidence of the plurality involved in the unity of the speaker, (Poole, Thrupp), or suppose that she in thought associates her companions with herself, we, i.e., I and the virgins fore-mentioned (Ainsworth), or that it is the language of modesty, though she means only herself (Clarke)].
[55][Patrick. Scott and Taylor suppose it interrupted by the attendant ladies in Son 1:11].
[56][Taylor and Williams make the place to have been the brides parlor in Solomons palace, and the time the first day of the week preceding the marriage, Son 1:1-8 belonging to the morning, and Son 1:9 to Son 2:7 to the evening of the day. Burrowes follows Harmer in the conjecture that in the opening scene of this poem the king had probably gone forth, according to Oriental customs, to meet the bride, and was awaiting her with his princely retinue in an encampment where his rich pavilion, Son 1:5, stood pre-eminent. The spouse on coming in sight of those kingly tents, gives utterance to the strong emotions of her heart].
[57][Patrick. As in Joh 20:15 the pronoun is used without a consciousness of the absence of the antecedent. Her heart is so full that she supposes every one must know who she means by him].
[58][Permission to kiss the hand of a sovereign is considered an honor; but for that sovereign to give another the kisses of his mouth, is evidence of the tenderest affection, and is the highest possible honor.Burrowes.]
[59][Thy love is more reviving and exhilarating than the effects of wine. Comp. Psa 104:15; Pro 31:6.Burrowes].
[60][Weiss.: Besides or in addition to the savor, etc. A sense which the prep. rarely has, and which is neither admissible here nor in Exo 14:28; Lev 11:26; Lev 16:16, to which he appeals. Incorrectly also the Eng. Ver.: Because of the savor, etc., which must then be connected with therefore, etc., in the last clause, the second clause being parenthetic. She has ointments preparatory to her exaltation; just as Esther was purified to go in to the king, Est 2:12.Withington].
[61][Comp. Eng. To be in good or bad odor for good or ill repute. This explanation of the relation of these ideas, which is developed at length by Baehr, Symbolik d. Mos. Cultus, I., p. 459 ff., appears to be too subtle and remote. It is simpler to find the connection in the fact that the odor, like the name, indicates the character or quality of that from which it proceeds, or to which it belongs. It is an efflux from the object itself, the impression which it makes ad extra.Tr.]
[62][There seems to be no sufficient reason for departing from the authority of the accents in the present instance. We will run requires after thee as its complement to indicate the direction of the running more than draw me, where the direction is sufficiently implied. The violation of the accents is merely for the sake of evading the evidence afforded by the masc. pron. , that after thee we will run is still the language of the bride to Solomonnot of her virgin companions to the bride.Tr].
[63][So too Weiss.: When the king shall have brought me; nor is it a prophetic preterite, the bride anticipating the time when she shall be brought (Thrupp). Ginsburg insists that the changes of person in this verse clearly show that the king here referred to is a separate person from the beloved to whom the maiden is addressing herself. But he is compelled to acknowledge that just before in Son 1:2 the third person and the second both refer to the same subject.Tr.]
[64][This would seem to compel the conclusion that the marriage has already taken place, and is not still future, as our author supposes.Tr.]
[65][Fry, who disregards the points; they do right in loving thee. Good alters the text into: thou art every way lovely.]
[66][Eng. Ver., curtains, Ainsworth: the goodly hangings that were in his house and about his bed.]
[67][Look not disdainfully upon me, Hall; do not too accurately scrutinize, Taylor; Gaze with wonder at her presumption, Noyes.]
[68] [The introduction of these figures from pastoral life has occasioned much needless perplexity among interpreters. Clarke says: How this would apply either to Solomon or to the princess of Egypt, is not easy to ascertain. Probably in the marriage festival there was something like our masks, in which persons of quality assumed rural characters and their employments. Some have thought this to be a separate and independent composition, unconnected with the preceding in which the king was spoken of. So besides the German fragmentists, Fry, who begins a new idyl with Son 1:7 on account of the entire change of imagery. Others maintain that the unity of the poem is unbroken, but insist that the king and the shepherd are distinct persons; so Ginsburg and the entire class of interpreters to which he belongs, and extremes meeting here as not infrequently elsewhere, allegorical interpreters have gone so far in the same direction as to allege that these diverse representations are incompatible in application to any literal subject, and that no consistent sense can be made of them but by referring them to Christ. This, however, is to prejudice the beauty and perfection of the allegory, and to damage the spiritual interpretation of the Song itself. The author of the Song is not writing directly of Christ and His church, but only under the figure of a bridegroom and his bride. His language must, therefore, in all cases have immediate application to the latter, and can set forth the former only as the character and relations in which the more immediate subjects are presented, serve as their faithful image. If this image is distorted, wanting in consistency, and its various parts mutually discordant, the effect of the whole is marred, its beauty and its truth are defaced. It is at least safe to say that this is an assumption, which should not be made without necessity.
The objection to the explanation of the brides language given by Zckler is, that it seems to impute to her the silly conceit that her royal husband or betrothed was actually engaged in the occupation of a shepherd, and it makes the reply by the daughters of Jerusalem utterly unmeaning. Withington presents three alternatives, the last of which is the only simple and natural one. This speech may be a natural mistake of the rural lass on her first union with the king, or it may be the king went into her country to rusticate, or it may be an allegorical expression by which she signifies that the king is a shepherd and his kingdom is a flock. Williams: If he be like a good shepherd feeding his flock, administering public benefits and dispensing judgment, why should not I enjoy the common benefit? If he be indulging in retirement, why may not I, who am admitted as his wife, enjoy his company and conversation?]
[69][Clarke, Burrowes, and others adhere to the singular, to my mare or steed. Good drops the pronoun: one of the steeds, supposing the final yodh to be paragogic. So the common Eng. Ver., which takes the noun in a collective sense company of horses, and is followed by the majority of English commentators, who find in this a proof of its allegorical meaning. The point of comparison according to the Westminster Assemblys Annotations is comeliness, according to Fry splendid decoration. Poole, An horse is a very stately and beautiful creature, and the Egyptian horses were preferred before others, and Pharaohs own chariot horses were doubtless the best of their kind. Thrupp, Wordsworth, Moody Stuart suppose special allusion to the formidable character of Pharaohs horses and chariots at the Red Sea, Exo 14:9; Exo 14:23. Several classic parallels have been adduced as Theocritus, Idyl, 18:30; Horace, Odes, Son 3:11; Sophocles, Electra, 25.Tr.]
[70][The mention of the Egyptian steed in Son 1:9 naturally suggested the reference here made to the beautiful head-dress of the spouse. Burrowes. Whether she be still compared hereby to a company of horses, as in Son 1:9, or to a woman is doubtful, for both similitudes do agree to the things here spoken of. The bridles of horses are often adorned with rows (of jewels) especially in kings chariots. Also the next words thy neck with chains may have like reference; for the kings of Midian when they went to war had chains about their camels necks, Jdg 8:26. Ainsworth, so too Gill. Of the ornament spoken of in the first clause Ainsworth further says, The same word is also used for a turtledove, which some therefore take here to be jewels or ornaments that had the figures of turtle-doves. It is so in fact translated both in the Sept. and Vulg., followed by Wicliffe and Doway, thy cheeks are beautiful as the turtle-doves. So too Cranmer and Bishops: thy cheeks and thy neck are beautiful as the turtles. It is needless to say after the explanation given in the commentary that this rendering confounds two entirely distinct words.Tr.]
[71][Burrowes adopts the conjecture of Harmer in his Outlines, p. 206, that this is the description of a crown. So Moody Stuart: These silver studded circles of gold mean either the royal or the nuptial crown, or both in one. Patrick, Williams, Taylor make this the language not of the bridegroom, but of the attendant virgins.]
[72][Much less so, however, than that which would make the nard refer to a distant shepherd lover, of whose existence there is no evidence. Weiss, who adopts the above rendering gives a peculiar turn to the thought: The bride is supposed to have been provided with a bundle of spikenard, with which she intended to regale her bridegroom, when he entered the banqueting house or saloon, where the guests and the bride await him, and he approached to salute her according to custom. But unfortunately the bridegroom being detained a long time in another chamber by one of the guests, the brides precious bundle of spikenard yielded all its fragrance, and became useless. When he enters, however, Son 1:13 it is more than supplied by the delicious odors of the bridegrooms ointments and spices, which fill all the room. This belongs to his historical interpretation of it as an emblem of Israels losing his pious fervor and lapsing into gross sin, while the Lord was with Moses on Mount Sinai, and the subsequent forgiving love and condescending grace of God.Tr.]
[73][There is no need of departing from the preterite form of the Hebrew verb to obtain the sense desired. It should be rendered Whilst the king has been (as he still is) with his company, my nard has yielded its fragrance.Tr.]
[74][The meaning of this verse is differently given by Coverdale: When the king sitteth at the table, he shall smell my nardus. Her spikenard was not for her own gratification; she had perfumed herself with it for the kings sake alone, Est 2:12, and it now gladly diffuses its fragrance in his presence to afford him pleasure. This Fry takes in its literal sense, supposing allusion to the throwing of flowers and perfumes as a token of high respect and complimentary congratulation. To this Noyes adds with an unnecessary degree of hesitation its emblematic sense: It would seem to be too harsh a figure to suppose my spikenard to mean my personal charms and graces though such a supposition is favored by the next verse. Ainsworth suggests the spiritual application: In her and from her so adorned by her beloved, the odor of the Spirit of God in her, flowed forth and spread abroad to the delight of herself and others. Thrupp: The symbolism of the song of songs was outwardly acted, as is recorded in the gospels in the earthly life of the Lord Jesus, and is also permanently embodied in the worship of the Christian church. It was while He sat at table that the feet of our Saviour were on two separate occasions anointed, Luk 7:36-50; Joh 12:3 ff. And it is in the celebration of the Lords Supper that the church still most solemnly presents her sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, which she beseeches God of His fatherly goodness to accept.Tr.]
[75][The scene seems to be laid in the kiosk or summerhouse in the royal garden. The green flowery turf is our place of repose; our canopy is cedar interspersed with fir, richly carved. Burrowes. Better still, GOOD: The lovers are not in a house, but a grove, where the spreading branches of the firs and the cedars are poetically called the beams and the roof of their chamber. Thus Milton, describing Adams bower, Par. Lost., 4:692, comp. Homer Il., 24:191. Harmer supposes Son 1:16 to be the language of the bride, and Son 1:17 that of the bridegroom. She commends the rural beauty of the spot in which they then were. He, impatient to introduce her to his palace, replies in substance: Arise, my love, and quit this place, pleasant as it is, for equally pleasant and much more commodious will you find the abode to which I am conveying you, it being built of the fragrant cedar, and of other precious wood. Poole, with many others, supposes the nuptial bed to be referred to adorned with green garlands or boughs. Ainsworth: Green is not meant so much of color as of flourishing growth and increase.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 849
THE CHURCHS FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST
Son 2:1-3. I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight; and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
FROM the general scope of this whole poem, we can have no hesitation in saying, that the words which we have read are a part of a dialogue between Christ and his Church; the former part containing his testimony respecting her; and the latter, her testimony respecting him. It is a kind of pastoral song, as the images used by both the parties shew; and, though exceeding difficult of interpretation in some parts, it is very intelligible and instructive in others. We must bear in mind, that Christ speaks as the Bridegroom of his Church; and the Church, as his Spouse: whilst the sons and daughters mentioned in our text, are those children of Adam who yet lie in darkness and the shadow of death, or, at best, have only the form of godliness, without the power. As for the daughters of Jerusalem, who occasionally bear a part in the dialogue, they are professors of religion, who, though friendly on the whole, are not yet brought into this near relation to Christ, nor made partakers of his saving benefits.
In discoursing on the words before us, we shall consider,
I.
Christs testimony respecting his Church
The commendation bestowed upon her is the highest she could possibly receive: it is, that she, according to the measure of grace given to her, resembles him. In order to point out the resemblance,
He first declares his own character
[I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. Whatever is most excellent in the universe, is brought forward from time to time, to designate and illustrate the character of our Lord. Of the heavenly bodies he is the Sun, the Sun of Righteousness. Of inferior creatures, he is the Lion, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Even the plants and flowers yield him honour also: as the rose is exceeded by none in fragrance, and the lily is pre-eminent in beauty, he is a Rose, the Rose of Sharon, whose excellence was proverbial [Note: Isa 35:2.]: and a Lily, the Lily of the valleys, to which Solomon in all his glory was not worthy to be compared [Note: Mat 6:29.]. Infinitely diversified are his perfections. In whatever point of view we consider him, his person, his offices, his relations, we shall be fully convinced, that to him alone pertain the garments which were made for glory and beauty [Note: Exo 28:40.]. In his person are united all the attributes of the Deity, and all the grace of humanity in their highest possible perfection In his offices, nothing is wanting that could contribute to the welfare of his Church and people. As their High-priest, he has made a full and all-sufficient atonement for them: as their Prophet, he instructs them by his word and Spirit; and as their King, he rules over them, and in them; and puts all their enemies under their feet As for his relations, there is no relation that can inspire us with hope and confidence, which he does not bear towards his believing people. He is our Shepherd, our Brother, and our Friend. Whether viewed in his exaltation, as God; or in his humiliation, as Man; or in his mediatorial state, as Emmanuel, God with us, he is infinitely great and glorious, fairer than ten thousand, and altogether lovely.]
He then acknowledges her resemblance to him
[To the glories of his Godhead no creature can bear any true resemblance; so infinitely is he above all: but in his humiliation he was a pattern both of lowliness and purity, to which his believing people are conformed: yea moreover, as he in this respect infinitely excels the highest of his creatures, so does his Church excel all others of the daughters of men: she is, like him, a lily; like him also, a lily among thorns; no others bearing any more comparison with her, than a thorn or brier with the lily. Mark the lowliness of the true Christian: he boweth down his head with a sense of his own unworthiness, and manifold infirmities: yet is he pure, at least in purpose and desire, even as God is pure. The very same mind is in him that was in Christ Jesus: yea, being joined to the Lord, he is one spirit with him; a partaker of his holiness, a partaker of his very nature [Note: 2Pe 1:4.], created anew after his image in righteousness and true holiness. Compare the Church with others, and they are no better than thorns before her; so superior is she to them in all her principles, her purposes, her attainments. The one have no higher aim or end than self: the other disdains to act but from the love of God, and for the glory of his name. The one leave God out even from the most sacred exercises; the other brings him into the most common acts and offices of life [Note: 1Co 10:31.]. The one have no life but what they received from nature: the other has Christ himself living in her; yea, Christ himself is her life [Note: Col 3:4.]. True it is, that by nature the Believer was not at all different from others, but grace has made the difference; according to that prophetic declaration; Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall grow up the myrtle-tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name, and for an everlasting sign, that shall not be cut off [Note: Isa 55:13.]. Thus is that amply verified which was spoken by Solomon, The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour [Note: Pro 12:26.].]
In reply to this commendation, the Church proclaims,
II.
Her testimony respecting him
This she bears,
1.
From her knowledge of his excellencies
[Christ is as the apple tree among the trees of the wood. Other trees can afford shadow only; whilst to those who take refuge under him, he administers the most refreshing and satisfying food. Under them, the soul that continues to abide, must perish: but the soul that abides in him, shall live for ever. All that it can want or desire is found in him. He is the tree of life, that bears twelve manner of fruits [Note: Rev 22:2.]; one for every season, every situation, every circumstance of life. The very leaves of that tree are for the healing of the nations. The law appeared to offer a salutary retreat: but it could never satisfy the hungry soul, or make a man perfect as pertaining to the conscience. But what not all the trees of that forest could do, Christ has done [Note: Rom 8:2.]; and does continually for all who seek repose under the shadow of his wings. And they who have the clearest views of his excellency, determine to know nothing but him, even him crucified.]
2.
From her experience of his love
[The Church here says, in fact, What my eyes have seen, my ears have heard, and my hands have handled of the word of life, the same declare I unto you, In fact, no other knowledge than that which has been wrought into our own experience, is of any use; at least, not for the Christians own benefit. Hear then the Churchs happy experience; I sat down under his shadow with great delight; and his fruit was sweet unto my taste. The Believer has come to Christ weary and heavy-laden with a sense of his sins, and has found rest unto his soul. Like the traveller fainting beneath the intense heat of a vertical sun, he has sought the shade in Christ Jesus, who has approved himself all-sufficient, even like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land [Note: Isa 25:4; Isa 32:2.]. Of his fruits too does the Believer eat in a rich abundance. O! how sweet is his pardoning love to the soul, when he says, Thy sins are forgiven thee; go in peace! Who can describe the blessedness of that peace which proceeds from him; from Him who said, My peace I give unto you? Truly it is a peace that passeth all understanding. As for the joy with which these manifestations are accompanied, it is unspeakable and glorified. How can a soul feel any thing but exquisite delight, when thus favoured with the spirit of adoption, yea, the witness of the Spirit also attesting its relation to Christ, sealing it unto the day of redemption, and giving it even now an earnest and a foretaste of its heavenly inheritance? Such are the fruits of which every one shall eat, who sits under the shadow of the Lord Jesus; and sweet shall they be unto his taste, even sweeter than honey or the honey-comb.]
Having no fear that either of these testimonies shall ever be set aside, we ground upon them a word of exhortation
1.
Let us contemplate the excellencies of the Lord Jesus
[There is not any thing in the world which may not serve to illustrate his beauty: for, in fact, all created excellencies are but rays of his glory, and stars winkling with his reflected splendour. We do not think enough of him: we can admire beauty in the creature, but have no eyes to behold it in Him who is the centre and source of all. Did we but duly reflect on him, we should pant after an union with him; and despise every thing else in comparison of him. All other knowledge would be to us but as dross and dung. Truly his name is as ointment poured forth; and therefore do the virgins love him [Note: Son 1:3.]. Say, Believer, Is he not precious to thy soul [Note: 1Pe 2:7.]? O that every one amongst us would be persuaded to go into this garden, and compare the fragrance of this rose, and the purity of this lily, with all that ever his eyes beheld, or his most impassioned sense experienced! O that all might behold his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father; the brightness of whose glory he is, and the express image of his person [Note: Joh 1:14. Heb 1:3.]! The effect of such a sight cannot be conceived by those who never yet beheld it: for we should be constrained by it to cry out, How great is his goodness! how great is his beauty [Note: Zec 9:17.]! and, whilst beholding his glory, we should be changed into his image, from glory to glory, by the Spirit of our God [Note: 2Co 3:18.]. Go, beloved, into the holy mount, and converse with him; and you shall come down, like Moses, irradiated with the beams of his glory. Be conversant with this lily, and ye shall become lilies yourselves.]
2.
Let us receive kindly his overtures
[We have before shewn, that this is a dialogue between Christ us a Bridegroom, and the Church as his Spouse. Into this relation Christ is desirous to bring us all. We come in his name, to invite you all to unite yourselves with him; we come, that we may present every soul among you as a chaste virgin to Christ [Note: 2Co 11:2.]. Hear the invitation given, as it were, from his own lips: I will betroth thee unto me for ever: yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies: I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord [Note: Hos 2:19-20.]. Beloved Brethren, Who is there that has such a title to your affections as He? Who can make you so happy as He? Have not all other sources of comfort proved as broken cisterns, that can hold no water? Why then will ye not come to the fountain of living waters?
Say not, I am unworthy of this high honour. Who is not unworthy? Who could ever have obtained it by any worthiness of his own? Every creature that was ever united to him was first a wretched, helpless outcast, like thyself [Note: Eze 16:4-8.]: and, if thou desire an union with him, be assured that he will never cast thee out. Only come to his banqueting-house, and his banner over thee shall be love [Note: ver. 4.].]
3.
Let us duly estimate our privileges
[The happiness of the soul that is united unto Christ, no words can declare, no imagination can conceive. Only hear the terms in which He and his Spouse speak of each other: her he calls, My Love: and of him she speaks in that endearing term, My Beloved. Think, for a moment, what immense, what inconceivable privileges are implied in these terms, whether as applied by him to us, or by us to him! Whatever he is, he is for you: whatever he has, he possesses for you: whatever he does, he does for you; whatever he enjoys, he enjoys as your Head, your Representative, your Forerunner: The glory which his Father has given him, He has given you. You may enjoy earthly sweets, and they will cloy; yea, the most fragrant rose will fade. Not so the Rose of Sharon: its fragrance will be undiminished to all eternity. You may sit under the shadow of other trees, and their foliage shall fail; yea, like Jonahs gourd, they may wither in a night: but not so the apple-tree that grows in the midst of the Paradise of God: there is no worm at the root of that: its benign influence shall endure for ever: and its delicious fruits be ever new. Make then these things your own, by apprehending Christ, and giving yourselves up to him: for all things are yours, if ye be Christs. Only taste, and see, how gracious the Lord is: and having once tasted that the Lord is gracious, you will never rest till you can say My Beloved is mine, and I am his.]
4.
Let us walk worthy of our high relation
[If one be brought into union with an earthly monarch, she feels an obligation to conduct herself henceforth in a way suited to her high calling. And shall not we, when united to the King of kings? Yes: we must resemble him, and exhibit, according to the measure of the grace conferred upon us, the mind that was in him. Let us especially resemble him in his humility and purity. We are not indeed to bow down our heads as a bulrush, as if we were in a pitiable and disconsolate state: but to bow our heads as the lily, is our beauty and our excellence. Never does the Christian look so beautiful as when he is low in his own eyes. Surely whatever may have been done for us, and in us, we must still to our latest hour walk humbly with God. We must also be pure and spotless as the lily; yea, blameless and harmless as the sons of God. We must not be contented with low attainments; but must seek to walk worthy of the Lord himself, whose we are, and whom we profess to serve. Let this be the one object of our ambition: and, as we profess to surpass every flower of the field in fragrance and beauty, let us so live, that we may not fear a comparison with any of the sons of men. Let us not be found vain boasters of privileges that are merely ideal: but, whilst we profess to enjoy so much in and through the Lord Jesus, let it be seen, that, having this hope, we do indeed purify ourselves, even as he is pure [Note: 1Jn 3:3.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
CONTENTS
The subject which the first chapter contained is the same as is continueth through this: indeed there is none other through the whole book of the Song, the mutual love of Christ, and his church. Jesus commends his spouse, and the spouse commends her Beloved.
Son 2:1
I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
There is a lovely obscurity which runs through the whole of this Song, more or less, which prevents us from determining, upon many occasions, who is the speaker, Christ or his church. I call it a lovely obscurity, because, as the point is undetermined, the awakened soul may consider the several expressions wheresoever this obscurity prevails, as in the person of both, and, thereby derive a double sweetness from them: and I hope that I do not err when I say, that perhaps the Holy Ghost might be graciously pleased so to leave the words, on purpose that the soul of the faithful might occasionally apply them to both; and, under his teaching, find a blessedness as referring to both. Thus in the verse now before us, in the first reading, it should seem that the words are the words of the church; for how can we expect to find the Son of God comparing himself to similitudes so very low and familiar as the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the vallies. But yet, when we consider to what a wonderful degree of humiliation the Lord of life and glory came down, we may suppose, without violence to the figure, that Christ thus expressed himself as this verse sets forth. Jewish writers for the most part, have accepted them as the language of the church; and many among Christians have been of the same opinion. Reader! let you and I see whether they are not very delightful if applied to both. And first of Christ; the rose of Sharon, as a figure of Christ, may be supposed to refer to his human nature. Adam, the first man, is so called from red earth; and the rose, in its beauty and redness, can be no unapt representation of him who is fairer than the children of man, into whose lips grace is poured, and whom Jehovah hath blessed forever, And from the fruitfulness of Sharon, it is probable that the roses grew there in the greatest beauty and loveliness, and were of a superior quality: neither do I think it an improbable circumstance, that Christ, in this view of himself, had an eye both to the sweet savor of his merits, and the incense of his righteousness, with which all heaven is perfumed; and thereby efficacy and acceptance is given to the poor polluted prayers and offerings of his people; the offering of his precious blood corresponding to the redness of the rose, and his righteousness set forth under the image of the whiteness of the lily. Let the Reader, if he be a real lover of Jesus, and enamored with his Person, blood, and righteousness; let him determine whether the sweetest rose hath a fragrancy equal to the order of Christ’s oblation; or the loveliness of the lily, comparable to the purity of Jesus’s holiness? I must not overlook what some have thought, when accepting these words as the words of Jesus, that they intimate by the rose of Sharon, that Christ declared himself to be the flower of the field: for some translate the passage. And they conceive this not only because it is planted, watered, and brought forth without human art or human labour, as Christ was in his human nature wholly by God; but also because a flower of the field, like his gospel is open to all: Whosoever will, that is, whomsoever the Holy Ghost makes willing in the day of Christ’s power, Let him come, and take of the water of life freely; without money and without price. Certainly these things open to our meditation sweet views of Jesus; but if the words of the rose of Sharon are thus beautifully considered as referring to the person of Christ, and spoken by him, we shall find an equally sweet allusion in the latter part of the verse, in which he compares himself to the lily of the vallies: for here, the unequalled whiteness of the lily may well he supposed to resemble the purity of Christ’s human nature; and the valley where this humble modest flower delights to grow, sets forth the gracious humiliation of our Jesus, in the assumption of our nature. Of him indeed it may be, and must be truly said, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. And hence in both, the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley, we may find these, and perhaps many other very pleasing similitudes concerning the Person and character of our dear Lord to lead to him. But if the obscurity I just now remarked, hath rendered it difficult to ascertain with certainty, whether the words belong to Christ or the church, let us now consider them with reference to the latter: – and here it is certain we cannot err, if it be supposed the church used such language from her union and interest in Christ. She may truly call herself all that is beautiful, and fragrant like the sweetest flowers, from the comeliness that Christ hath put on her. In his eye, he saith himself, she hath no spot. Son 4:7 ; Eph 5:27 . And from the many qualities of his grace in her heart, she may consider herself complete in him. But though by way of setting forth the glories of her Lord, and as she had before said, I am black, but comely; Son 1:5 . she still felt her own original worthlessness, while taking delight in what she was in Jesus; yet, I confess, I am inclined rather to accept this first verse as the words of the Lord Jesus, thus recommending himself to the notice, love, and acceptance of his people. Isa 65:1 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Winter Is Past (Tuesday after Low Sunday)
Son 2:10-13
I. ‘My Beloved spake.’ You must lay hold of that little word my: in it lies the chief virtue of love to God: it will be useless that He should be Chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely, unless it may be my Lord and my God. But it is more than this here. ‘My Beloved spake:’ so He does in a thousand different ways, and with a thousand different voices. But that is not enough. ‘My Beloved spake, and said unto me.’ That is the joy of all joys, if He will but do so! If He will but speak to each of you, it need be but one word, it need be but by your own name. As of old time, ‘Jesus said unto her, Mary! She saith unto Him, Rabboni, which is to say, Master.’
II. And what are His first words? ‘Rise up.’ Is it possible that you should not? Rise up from all lower love, from all lower desires, to Him Who only is worthy of perfect love to Him Who alone, when we awaken up after His likeness, can make us satisfied with it ‘My love!’ And in what words are we to speak of that condescension of our dear Lord, which thus applies to you the nearest and dearest term of earthly affection? The term which speaks of perfect nearness, perfect confidence, satisfied love, common hopes, a common home, a union which God has made, and which man cannot unmake.
But still He speaks. ‘Rise up, My love, My fair one.’ So much done that ought not to have been done, if you are to shadow out His Image, and still, ‘My fair one!’ So much left undone that ought to have been done, if you would show forth the likeness of the King, and still, ‘My fair one!’ So much infirmity and irresolution of purpose, so much despondency, so much self-indulgence, so much temper that is not His temper, and still, ‘My fair one!’ But He has said it. And why? Because, beyond and above all things else, He looks to love. It is that which is fair in His eyes.
‘And come away.’ From what? Still further and further from everything that is opposed to Him that is not stamped with His Image that is of His enemies that belongs to the world. Daily come apart from every little thing that keeps you in the least away from Him. What they fable of the fish called the remora is, at all events, true enough in the Christian life how being very small, it attaches itself to the keel of great ships, and so impedes their progress that in vain are the sails spread in vain is the breeze favourable: they are sore let and hindered by this one little obstacle.
‘For lo, the winter is past.’ Nature itself tells us that now: the Church tells the same thing. we know that we have passed from death unto life: from the death of snow and frost to the life of green leaves and budding flowers. From the death of Lent and Passiontide to the new and everlasting life of Easter. ‘The rain is over and gone:’ not now have we to remember the strong crying and tears which He offered up to Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared: the tears of His dear Mother when the sword passed through her own heart also: the tears of the faithful ones who stood by the Cross, and watched Him as He yielded up His most blessed Spirit into His Father’s Hands. ‘The flowers appear on the earth’. All those are glorious consequences of His Resurrection. It is well said, ‘On the earth’: when it was by His sleeping in death that He so hallowed the whole face of this world, that He asserted in a new and higher sense that which was written long before, ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof’; when He gave promise that some day or other, in a time known to Him, ‘the little hills,’ namely, the graves, ‘should rejoice on every side’. ‘The time of the singing of birds is come.’ What else but every answer, every response, every antiphon, every hymn, which speaks of our Paschal joy? But they only can sing who, like the birds, rise above this earth: who, like the birds, rise above this earth by means and in virtue of the sign of the Cross: and that, not without labour, not without opposition and buffeting by the winds of temptations; but still rise, and, like Noah’s dove, find no rest for the soles of their feet in the crowd and the turmoil of this world.’ And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.’ Till the Conqueror of Satan rose in triumph, the Giver of all good gifts could not come down in glory. Till the winter of our Lord’s sufferings was over, the voice of this Heavenly Dove could not be heard elsewhere than in His Own Land.
J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 92.
References. II. 10. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year, p. 217. J. R. Popham, Sermons, p. 242. II. 10, 11. R. E. Hutton, The Crown of Christ, vol. ii. p. 573. II. 10-13. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii. No. 436.
The Soul’s Summer
Son 2:11-12
Every period of the year has its charms. The spring has: fresh, flowery, green, sweet; summer has; autumn has; so has winter. We do not recognize the charms of winter as perhaps we might. The cause of the winter, the properties of the winter, the effects of the winter, all combine to give the winter a bad name. And yet the winter is not only necessary and God’s ordering, but it has its uses, and even its blessings. It kills weeds; it freezes out disease; it builds up vegetable life in its hidden parts. And not only has winter its uses but it brings real blessings.
I. God’s winter gifts. Think of one or two of God’s winter gifts which are distinctly inconvenient and unpleasant, but really bring blessing. Here is one. I quote the actual Word of God, ‘He giveth snow like wool,’ bleak as it is it warms the soil and nourishes the earth and incubates the seed which is underneath it. Or again, from the same Psalm, ‘He scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes,’ to cleanse the ground, to purify the soil, to rid the fields and gardens of the hundred pests that swarm and creep and devour vegetable life.
II. When God sends a winter into our heart, or, perhaps withdraws a sense of His presence, there is always a purpose, intention, blessing ‘snow like wool,’ ‘hoar-frost like ashes ‘. And there are limitations to His severity ‘He casteth forth his ice, but only like morsels,’ perhaps that we may grow at the roots, perhaps to purify, to cleanse, to eat up that which would otherwise destroy our spiritual union with the Lord. But it happens sometimes that we make our own winter God does not always get away from us; we sometimes get away from Him. The simple reason why we are chilled in winter is because we are where we cannot receive the full rays of the sun; and as an American writer says, often the reason why we are cold and prayerless and faithless is that we have ‘swung away from God ‘.
III. The opportunities of summer. What shall we do in life and work if our spiritual winter is past? But is it past? Is the summer come to our soul? The summer comes when the Christian enjoys Communion with Christ wherever he is; when he increasingly loves his Bible, and is spoken to in it; when he is blessed with the outward privileges of the Gospel, and is satisfied with inward peace. And if it is thus with you and me, what shall we do?
1. Improve your summer opportunities, outdoor opportunities of doing good ought to be seized on. I believe in outdoor preaching. Jesus Christ did.
2. And in our experience and life are work. Look for the summer fruit The prophet Amos speaks of a basket of summer fruit. Look for the flowers; look for the figs even if they are only green; for the grapes even if they are only tender. Look for some spiritual habits, feelings, aspirations, which flesh and blood cannot produce, but God’s grace can.
References. II. 11, 12. Stopford A. Brooke, The Fight of Faith, pp. 324, 337. T. A. Gurney, The Living Lord and the Opened Grave, p. 176. II. 11, 12, 13. S. Thornton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxix. 1906, p. 347.
The Singing Time (For Easter)
Son 2:12
Spring is a season enjoyed by all. It speaks to us of life, of hope, of plenty; of bright skies instead of leaden ones, of greenness instead of grey bareness, of days growing warmer and longer, and sweeter with the perfumes of flowers, and gladder with the songs of birds.
I. Singing Suggests the Resurrection of Hope. ‘Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.’ So Christ says to His Church, and the Church responds and ‘returns with singing and everlasting joy upon her head’. There was much singing in connexion with our Lord’s Advent. (Canticles, Benedictus, Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis, the Songs of the Angels.) We do not read of angels or men singing at His Resurrection. It is in another sphere. The book of the Revelation tells us of the great multitude whom no man can number singing,’ Amen, blessing and glory and honour and power,’ and the harpers singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. And here on earth the Church sings. We celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord with songs of holy gladness, and though at times our songs go into the minor, yet even when we commit our loved ones to the tomb we do so in sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the just Yes, for the Church ‘the time of the singing is come’. Our Lord hath broken the bars of the prison of death, and ‘them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.’ So also, there are songs of hope as regards our own resurrection and future life. Singing is the expression of joy, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
II. Singing Expresses the Joy of Life. It is hard to sing in sorrow. In captivity Judah hung her harp on the willows. But when the door of hope should be opened in the Valley of Achor the prophet tells her she will sing there. The two disciples journeying to Emmaus were sad. Yet their sorrow was turned into joy. Why? ‘Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.’ Not these two only, but all the disciples. The indisputable and certain fact of our Lord’s Resurrection turned their sorrow into joy. So the true joy of life to the Christian is the radiancy which flows from our Lord’s risen body, and as when the sun shines after rain the air becomes vocal with the songs of birds, welcoming its genial rays, so when the Sun of Righteousness arises the heart of the believer sings with joy. The night is past; Gethsemane, with its dark shadows, Calvary with its blackness, are things of the past. The Easter of glorious Resurrection is with us. Rejoice therefore. Christ is Risen.
III. Singing Means Victory the victory of faith. Satan’s power is great, for he hath the power of death. But Christ, the risen Christ, ‘destroys him that hath the power of death, that is the devil’; and further, ‘delivers those who through its fear are subject to bondage’. Hear the testimony of some dying saints. Dr. Goodwin: ‘Ah! is this dying? How have I dreaded as an enemy this smiling friend!’ Another: ‘I have so learned Christ that I am not afraid to die’. Another: ‘Let my people know that their pastor died undaunted, and not afraid of death’. Fletcher: ‘God is love! love! love! Oh that a gust of praise might sound throughout the earth.’ Such could rejoice even in death. It was the time of singing to them. Christ gave them songs in the night, even the night of death. But the song of faith is not for the dying alone. It is for the living. It is like singing the battle-song of victory as the troops enter the field of battle, the song of anticipated triumph. Let us have stronger faith and we shall have sweeter songs.
IV. Singing Suggests the Tunefulness of a Consecrated Life. There is the melody of one pure life of single aim; there is the unison of souls in Christian brotherhood, and there is the harmony of the Divine and human wills, when the latter is fully surrendered to God. The Resurrection of our Lord strikes the keynote of all soul-singing.. The life that is holy is holy because it is attuned by Him, the love of the brethren is love that finds its one centre and meeting-place in the heavenlies, whither He has gone before. Self and pride must be humbled to bring us into tune with God. The proud heart cannot sing.
References. II. 12. A. Macrae, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxi. 1902, p. 364. T. Sadler, Sermons for Children, p. 164. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year, p. 146. II. 13. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlii. No. 2480. II. 14. C. G. Clark-Hunt, The Refuge of the Sacred Wounds, p. 1.
Christ Waiting At the Gate
Son 2:15
Did you ever hear, not of a Maud, but a Madeleine, who went down to her garden in the dawn, and found One waiting at the gate, whom she supposed to be the gardener? Have you not sought Him often; sought Him in vain, all through the night; sought Him in vain at the gate of that old garden where the fiery sword is set? He is never there; but at the gate of this garden He is waiting always waiting to take your hand ready to go down to see the fruits of the valley, to see whether the vine has flourished, and the pomegranate budded. There you shall see with Him the little tendrils of the vines that His hand is guiding there you shall see the pomegranate springing where His hand cast the sanguine seed; more: you shall see the troops of the angel keepers that, with their wings, wave away the hungry birds from the pathsides where He has sown, and call to each other between the vineyard rows, ‘Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes’. Oh you queens you queens; among the hills and happy greenwood of this land of yours, shall the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests; and in your cities shall the stones cry out against you, that they are the only pillows where the Son of Man can lay his head?
Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies, 94, 95.
References. II. 15. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 106. T. Teignmouth Shore, The Life of the World to Come, p. 213. S. Martin, Rain Upon the Mown Grass, p. 36. E. Browne, Some Moral Proofs of the Resurrection, p. 77.
My Beloved Is Mine
Son 2:16-17
If there be one happy, peaceful verse in the Bible, thoroughly happy, thoroughly peaceful, this is it.
I. Beloved, indeed, He ought to be, Who wrote such a large letter of love to us with His own Hand: Who for us, but without us, bore the burden and heat of the day: Who for us endured the Mocking and the Crown of Thorns, and the Scourging and the great Nails and the Cross.
But the word Beloved is not enough. It is my Beloved. If we were not so familiarized with it by custom, it would be a wonder beyond all wonders, that expression, my God. It was Jacob who first said, ‘Then shall the Lord be my God ‘. And in the New Testament he that was the first so to speak was none other than Thomas, making up the failure of his faith by the boldness of his confession: ‘Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God’.
It goes on ‘And I am His’. In a certain sense, this is true of every one: ‘we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture’.
II. It follows ‘He feedeth among the lilies’. It is written of Behemoth, the type of Satan in the book of Job, that ‘he lieth under the shadow of the tall trees’. But this spotless Lamb chooses no such lofty places. And what are these lilies among whom He feeds? Surely the pure in heart. The straight stalk standing up erect from the earth, its flowers as high from the ground as possible do not they tell us of heavenly mindedness? Do they not seem to say, ‘Set your affections on things above, not on things of the earth?’ And, if the spotless snow of the leaves teaches us of the grace, then the gold of the anthers tells us of that crown which shall be the reward of the grace. He feedeth among the lilies, then, here: but, in a more full and glorious sense, He rests among them in that land where these lilies thrive best.
III. ‘He feedeth among the lilies.’ Till when? ‘Until the day break, and the shadows flee away.’ The eternal day to which we are all looking forward: the day of which the promises of God are like the grey clouds that gather over the place where the sun is about to arise speaking, but still very faintly, of His coming glory. It follows, then, that through the night in which we now are, we have our Lord with us. It is as if He said to us, ‘That darkness in which you now are, O my true servants, I also was in: according to that saying of My Prophet, I walked in darkness, and had no light: but I will not leave you so: I will be with you till the day break ‘.
J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 118.
References. II. 16. H. E. Manning, Sermons, p. 411. C. Bickersteth, The Shunammite, p. 71. J. Duncan, In the Pulpit and at the Communion Table, p. 159. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No. 374; vol. xx. No. 1190; vol. xxvii. No. 1634; vol. xli. No. 2442.
Donec Aspiret Dies (Advent)
Son 2:17
Hope is the flower of the root Penitence: and so the season of the expectation of Christ is a penitential season.
I. The whole meaning of Advent is the expectation of Christ.
But this hope of Christ’s coming is no vague, natural poetry in us, like our blind longing for the first signs of spring coming after winter. It is an energy of conscience, reason, and will, set upon things above, seeking the highest and the loveliest; yes, an energy of our highest faculties, and of all of them, even of our earthly body, because we know that we are not created only to think of what is highest, but to suffer and strive for it, attain, and possess it.
And the expectation of God proves to be the only expectation in which man can never hope too much, and can not be disappointed; because man is made for God, and in God is all perfection.
II. This expectation of God gives the specially Christian character to a man, and to all that he does. Each act of his has a true purpose and principle in it; it is not done for the moment; it has secret relations with eternity. It may be a mere act of ordinary duty, but that means for him an act of fellowship with God. Or if it is some heavy, loss, or great pain which he has to bear, it is the same; it is not merely external evil, crushing a man to earth; here is the man’s love welcoming God’s will in the pain making the pain his own treasure, and lifting it up to God in sacrifice, that is, something offered as a means of union with God.
But this expectation of God which characterizes all Christian life implies penitence, self-mastery, humility of mind, patience, self-renunciation. There must be a breaking of bondage to the unreal, temporal good if there is to be a sincere reaching forth in desire to win the eternal.
St. Peter the Penitent is the Apostle of Hope When he is converted he strengthens his brethren, he teaches them to ‘hope to the end’.
III. And then if out of our penitence expectation of Christ grows, and makes everything we do and suffer a seed of hope for ourselves and others, this new energy has a natural development and expression in prayer. A life that becomes full of hope is a life in which prayer overflows the stated hours of prayer, a life which becomes prayerful. And that is the essence of the dedicated life. In Advent we are not waiting drowsily for Christ as a nurse waits through the night for the inevitable crisis in the sickroom. Our waiting for Christ is the silent cry of hearts that are awake and seeking Him.
G. Congreve, The Spiritual Order, p. 59.
References. II. 17. T. T. Munger, The Freedom of Faith, p. 379. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlii. No. 2477.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Satisfaction In Christ
Song of Son 2
We have been told that the Song of Solomon is a piece of secular literature. That is not the judgment of unfriendly critics, but the judgment of the most pious and evangelical minds. What is the literature which is called secular? We have not dismissed the case when the word “secular” has been employed in designating the literature which is before us. The word secular itself must be defined. We may be too apt to divide all things into sacred and profane. Men have actually divided history so. In the olden times there were not wanting men who spoke of certain kinds of history as “profane.” They did not mean in any sense indicating wickedness, but as contradistinguishing a kind of history from the history which is found in the Bible, and which on account of its being in the Bible is called sacred. What, then, is secular literature? Should we call stones, wood, iron, glass, secular substances? Let us allow that they might be so denominated. But may they not all be gathered up, and by pious ability be shaped into a sanctuary? then the very materials we once regarded as in some sense secular or profane become sacred, hallowed, separate for holy uses. It may be the same with literature that is called secular. The Song of Songs may be but a love poem so we have already ventured to describe it; but may it not have further meanings than the poet himself saw? Do we always know what will become of the buildings we put up, the programmes we suggest, the courses of life or policy we indicate? Suppose we turn the Song of Songs into a riddle, and ask for an answer in personality? The riddle should be, Given all this elaborate and glowing description, to find out who is meant by it? All history is open for the suggestion of an answer. Who can find a man who will fitly clothe himself with all this parable, and wear it like an appropriate robe, and who having assumed it will at once indicate his right to it, and have that claim confirmed by universal consent? When we come into the Scriptures we should come with one cry, namely, Sirs, we would see Jesus! We shall know him when we see him; there is no mistaking that identity; even those who most nearly approach him stand away at an infinite distance when he himself comes forth in visible and palpable disclosure. Whilst he is away there are men who might simulate his presence; they might paint themselves into a high beauty, and adorn themselves with many rich robes, and might so far cause us to believe that they were what they professed to be the very Christ of God. But when he comes it will be as when the sun comes after we have trimmed our artificial lights, and called them the glory of day: they look well; they almost seem to fit the occasion, they just lay themselves over the darkness and melt it away; but when the sun comes, rejoicing like a strong man to run a race, the first thing he does is to put out all artificial rivalry, to drive the darkness away, so that we can see it fleeing like a thing that is afraid; there is no mistaking the identity and the royalty of the sun. If you will suggest any historical character who can put on this robe, and wear it as if he had a right to it, do so; then Jesus Christ shall come in and assume the garment; then let men say to whom the robe belongs. We do not force this Song of Songs into unmeant uses or unholy uses when we ask how far it reveals in anticipation the Son of God.
Let us look at some of the features here indicated with a master’s hand.
In this chapter there is given to Christ an undisputed preeminence in beauty and fruitfulness. And the Church is magnified by Christ into an equivalent beauty. Sometimes we can hardly tell whether it is the Church or Christ that is described, for the two seem to become interchangeable and one: “My beloved is mine, and I am his,” and it is impossible to say with regard to the distribution of beauty which belongs to the one and which belongs to the other. The bride is made meet for the bridegroom. But let us take this description of beauty as referring to Christ; then see how preeminent it is. “As the lily among thorns” ( Son 2:2 ). Is that a description of the Church? So let it be. Meanwhile, it is also descriptive of the Church’s Redeemer and King. “As the apple tree among the trees of the wood” ( Son 2:3 ). These beautiful things put all rivalry far away. Not, as the lily among roses, as the lily among other flowers nearly as beautiful; but, “as the lily among thorns,” the point is in the contrast. There is no approach to equality, no claim for approximation; the whole stress of the thought is in its strong and powerful contrast. “As the apple tree among the trees of the wood” the trees that bear no fruit, the trees that are little but timber. Not our apple tree, for our apple tree is not known in the land in which this song was written, but another kind of tree the apricot, the quince, the tree that spread itself far and wide, and seemed to be enamelled with living gold; such a tree as perhaps western and northern eyes never gazed upon. What we have to do, therefore, is to point out the preeminence of beauty; not only beauty, but supreme beauty; not only supreme beauty as beautiful to the eye, but ideal beauty, that leaves even the imagination far behind. This is the conception we are to form of Christ: all other flowers are but thorns, all other trees are withered in every branch; Jesus Christ stands out, the one loveliness, the one satisfaction. All this might be mere poetry, or sentiment, or dream. We have, therefore, to refer the matter to Christ himself. Does Jesus Christ anywhere even seem to confirm this preeminence of beauty, fascination, and claim? If he nowhere reters to any such preeminence of beauty and power, then let the Song of Songs be reckoned among the poetries of the past, and let it fall into desuetude. But what does Jesus Christ himself say? If he does not sing the song, does he at any point confirm the images or figures by which he is represented in this sweetest of all music? Hear him: “I am the Vine.” He is a tree then tree of life; he supplies the branches; the branches are nothing without him: “Without me,” saith the vine, “without me ye can do nothing.” Truly, there is a sound of preeminence in that claim. He is not second on the list of greatness who has so asserted himself. Hear him again: “I am the Light of the world.” Is that not a claim to preeminence? Not, I am one of the lights of the world; not, I am one of the stars of heaven; not, I am one of a multitude, and you ought to be indebted to us all: but simply, sternly magnificent in the austerity of the figure, “I am the Light of the world.” So, then, she who sang this love-song in the eastern land has some authority for assigning to her love preeminence, kingship, in the very words of Christ himself. Hear him again: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” Is Christ, then, one of a multitude? does he take his place modestly amongst all the claimants to human attention and confidence, and say, You behold us all, a galaxy of glory, of wit, of intellectual splendour, and philosophic capacity, take which of us seems best to suit the occasion? Be he whom he may, he stands out at the head, and says: Discipleship means hatred of all other claims, absorption in my personality, undivided and immutable consecration to my service. Did Christ then mean to pour contempt upon father, mother, wife, child, brother, sister? No; the whole point of his argument is in the contrast which he seeks to establish as between himself and all other creatures. So when the singer of this song speaks of her love “as the apple tree among the trees of the wood,” she is confirmed so far by the authority of Jesus Christ, who claims that all love should be concentrated upon himself, and that therefore all other and minor love should be sanctified and ennobled, and share the elevation of the first dominating passion. Hear him once more: “All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers.” That is enough to establish his claim to preeminence. Whether that claim was just or unjust, there it is. He would stand in solitary shepherdliness: “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep…. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” This is not murder, it is sacrifice.
Keeping, therefore, strictly and critically to the mere literature of the question, whatever is claimed in the Song of Solomon for an anticipated and ideal Christ was asserted in actual words by the historical Christ himself: “I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star”: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” “That in all things,” saith the apostle, “he might have the preeminence.” So far there is no forcing of the song into undue uses by finding in it the preeminent and ideal personality of Christ.
In this chapter protection and satisfaction are ascribed to Christ. “I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste” ( Son 2:3 ). The quince has a great shadow. The very shadow of that fruit-tree is a house, a place of protection and rest and sweet quietude. Can we be wrong in ascribing protection and satisfaction to Jesus Christ? Does he himself anywhere offer these privileges? Does the poet here transcend the occasion, and resort to a species of metaphor which can have no solid equivalent in history? Let us hear Christ himself. Observe what the question is; it is purely one of protection and satisfaction the protection indicated by the shadow, and the satisfaction being indicated by the fruit which “was sweet to my taste.” What hast thou to offer, thou Son of God? Thou hast not where to lay thine head; what gift can be in thine empty hand? Hear the Saviour: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” These words seem to fall like chiming bells into the music of the ancient song. “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” Lord, every man thirsts, every man’s life is like a burning fever; the rivers cannot quench that fire: canst thou quench it? “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.” This is poetry turned to history; the history will again become poetry, and some day we shall hardly know which is the history and which is the poetry: the poetry will be so lofty in its claim, and the history will be so musical in its gospels, that he will have a most inspired ear who can tell where the poetry ceases and the history begins, or contrariwise. Enough, however, has been quoted to show that Jesus Christ offers protection and satisfaction to all who come unto him. Who has not felt a sense of satisfaction and protection in being safe in the arms of Jesus? Who has not felt the difference in blessedness between Christ’s words and all other? They have vindicated themselves. One taste that the Lord is gracious hath put away from the palate the memory of every other feast. This point can be testified to by living witnesses. Christians are not men who have had experience in one direction only; they have sat at many tables; they have been the guests of the devil; they have gone with their vessels from spring to spring that they might taste many waters; and now, having been in a far country, and returned home, and tasted the sweetness of Christ’s doctrine and promises, they say, Lord, ever more give us this bread, this water: there is none like it; it fills the soul with satisfaction. Men have gone mad with delight under the consciousness of Christ’s presence not mad in the sense of mental unbalancing, but in the sense of rapture, ecstasy, joy unutterable, unspeakable, and full of glory. This has been the experience of the most solid intellects amongst men. It has taken a long time to set them on fire, but once in a glow they have burned up the rivers that were meant to quench them. Let Christians declare their testimony, and not be ashamed of the protection and satisfaction they have enjoyed at the hands of their master and Lord.
Another point would seem to be that Christ is spoken of as always coming: “The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills” ( Son 2:8 ). Jesus Christ will come again. He has but taken his journey into a far country. “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” He was always speaking of his own coming. His going away seemed to be a kind of returning. He said: I go for your sakes: “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you”: “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself”: “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him”: “The coming of the Lord draweth nigh”: he will come as a thief in the night suddenly, almost unexpectedly: “In such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh.” That is the only mood in which we can truly live. Whilst we live in a historical Christ, we also live in a Christ that is yet to complete his advent by another descent. Various theories about that descent have been formed. There is a physical or personal coming; there is another kind of coming to my own mind richer, larger, and truer the continual coming of Christ, in new ideas, new impressions, the awakening of higher aspirations, the satisfaction of the soul’s hunger; and that wondrous coming which men call Death. Think not of your Beloved as away in any sense of distance that signifies separation, coldness, and cessation of fellowship: he is away preparing for us; he will come again. He comes every day to the soul that waits for him. He can so come to the spirit that any bodily coming would be held in contempt in comparison; he can so fill the heart, and satisfy and gladden it, that any vision of his personality by the bodily eyes would be unworthy of the occasion. He enlarges our manhood, he clears our spiritual horizon; he gives us to feel that he can come better spiritually than physically and literally. At the same time, let us hold any theory of Christ’s coming we please which draws us towards him, which impels us to duty and sacrifice, which creates in us a larger manhood and a completer beneficence; but whatever the coming may be there must be in it a spiritual realisation transcending all language in its expression, and all sensuous representation as to its grandeur and value.
Then Christ is associated in this song with springtide, light, song, gladness: “My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, and the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away” ( Son 2:10-13 ). That is not mere passion of words. There is a sense in which the soul feels every touch of that appeal. When Christ comes the spring comes. Say not the coming of Christ is the coming of winter. If your Christianity has been associated with frost and snow and ice, cold north-easterly blasts, then know ye that some false Christ has laid hold of your duped souls. Where Christ is there is spring, music, festival, wine of heaven, dancing and joy fit for the city of jasper walls. How stands the case with us, then? Are we orphans? are we desolate wanderers? are we without an ideal preeminence? are we without a sense of protection and satisfaction? Or have we in our hearts an assurance that Christ is the beginning and the end, the first and the last, all and in all? Are we assured that being with us he will bring springtide into the soul, we shall forget all the sorrow, all the night, all the cold, and in one warm gleam of his presence shall find and feel the beginning of eternal summer? Oh, poor life of man, thou needest some comfort! Life feels so keenly the wintry wind. Then at its very festival there is a deep pit called the grave, in which no flower grows, in which no fair thing can ever live. Poor life, thou needest some comfort; thou art poisoned by the springs thou didst think would quench thy thirst; and when thou hast got a little light, and art sheltering it by thine hand, lo! a rough wind blows it out, and leaves the darkness darker still: the children go astray, and friends are like broken staves, and the stream that was coming to quench thy thirst recedes and mocks thee like a living enemy. Oh, poor life! truly thou dost need comfort. Thy comfort is in Christ. He knows the meaning of pain, shame, poverty, desolation, homelessness; he has been buffeted and forsaken; there is no region of poverty he has not known, there is no hardship he has not undergone; his face is marred more than the face of any man; yet see how through the scars there kindles a strange beauty as of hidden light, and see how the pierced hand is put out helpfully, scattering its infinite blessings upon all the misery and pain and necessity of the times. Oh, poor, poor lost one! hast thou not thought of all this? hast thou not thought of Christ? Is it not a great thing that man should be so constituted that he must be drawn by ideals infinite in their sublimity and excellence? Is it not much to the credit even of human nature that nothing can really satisfy but that which is infinitely greater than itself that the leverage which moves humanity must be from an eternal sanctuary? God recognises in our poverty a proof of our greatness. Were we less the earth might satisfy us; were ours the mere hunger of the body the meanest shrub might find us bread enough: it is because we are men, made in the image and likeness of God, lost divinities, that nothing can appease our hunger but the Tree of Life, nothing quench our thirst but the river of God. Have no mean conceptions of Christ. Do not cause him to be represented by unworthy similitudes. Wherever you hear the highest music, say, That would best express my love of Christ. You call a trumpet a secular instrument: a man may lift up the brazen thing and say, This is secular, this is but perishable material. So it is to him, because he himself is secular, he himself has not realised the passion of immortality. Let another kind of man seize the same instrument, even after it has been filled with unworthy music, and he will cleanse its passages by a new breath, and through it will blow a blast worthy of jubilee, not unworthy of heaven.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Sowing and Reaping
Song of Son 2 and Song of Son 3
There is something very remarkable in the sweet words, “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away” ( Son 2:13 ). Wherever we find these words we should be gratified with their music, their simplicity, their human tenderness. When we apply them to Jesus Christ they are invested with new and large significance. Jesus Christ is always calling his Church away to some higher altitude, to some greener pasture, or by some quieter stream. The Church is always under inspiration. This is not the time for rest, finality; this is the time for marching, advancing, learning, putting into practice what we learn, and obeying the voice of one unseen but well known, calling us to go forward, though we are apparently going into thick darkness and into troubled seas. When did Jesus Christ ever say, You have made all the progress you can make: sit down and rest evermore; for there is nothing more that can be learned; at least, there is nothing more for you to acquire? That is not the voice of Jesus. We should contradict any one instantly and strongly who made the declaration that Jesus Christ had said, Men have now come to the end of their learning and their beneficence. Blessed is he who hears his Lord always saying, Arise, come away: you have not seen all yet; the real beauty is yet to be shown, the great harvest-field has yet to be reaped; you have hardly begun to live. Arise, come away, halt not, fear not; I have many more things to tell thee, and when thou art able to bear them thou shalt hear them one by one. It is a cheerful voice, and a voice that cheers. It is full of vivacity not the sharpness or shrillness that merely excites and arouses, but the deep music that expresses joy, and that always promises a larger blessing as yet in store. When we sit down, and say, This is the end; when we dismiss our energy; when we cease to put on our strength, then know that if we were once temples of God we have been forsaken by the living One. We must prove our Christianity by our progress; our love of Christ by understanding the present day, the immediate times, and responding to contemporaneous demands with cheerful alacrity and encouraging abundance: to-morrow will be an unread book; we must peruse it with the learning we have acquired to-day. Every morning brings with it some message from Christ, and that message is always an inspiring one, calling us to some new duty, some humble task, some great endeavour, some painful sacrifice.
Is it then all sunshine? Do we leave behind us all discipline? or is there a voice of warning to be attended to? Let us read these words: “Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: tor our vines have tender grapes” ( Son 2:15 ). There is nothing fanciful in regarding these “foxes” and “little foxes” as representing spiritual enemies or difficulties peculiar to our situation and capacity. The little foxes spoil the vines, the grapes. What are these little foxes? Which of us is guilty of some great heresy? who can stand up and say he belongs to the party of the great and violent apostasy? who will rank himself with those who openly blaspheme against heaven? Not a man. Who will charge himself with glaring crimes, with obvious and intentional rebellion against God? We do not err in that direction. These would indeed be great foxes, great displays of depravity a depravity that overleaps itself by its very extravagance and vulgarity. We need have little fear of ourselves along that line; we have lived too long and seen too much to commit ourselves to such gross profanity. But what of the little foxes the irregularities, the nameless indulgences, the self-consideration, the endless omissions? Who makes some great speech infamous in its conception and its rhetoric? No man at all connected with the sanctuary of God. But what about the little bitter speeches that spoil family communion, the petty criticisms, the malignant, half-concealed allusions, the reminiscences that are all sting, the odd sentences that give the hearer heartache all day? and what of concealed selfishness that worst kind of all, that gloves its hand, that cloaks its personality, that apes the attitude and speech of generosity; a calculated selfishness that touches and retires, that asks as if not asking, that claims as if not asserting, but persistently pursues its own policy and its own advantage? There, if the question be pressed severely, we shall fall at one stroke, and be taken captive instantly and completely.
Have we got rid of the larger evils? Then attention must be directed to what are known as minor evils the little foxes, the little blotches upon the character, the small aberrations that require an eye of spiritual criticism to see that they are aberrations at all. We can draw a rough circle with a practised hand, but lay the compass upon it, and then see how defective it is when brought under the judgment of a true geometry. So we may in life do many things tolerably well, wonderfully well, so well as to attract attention and elicit commendation, but when the compasses of the sanctuary are laid upon our circles, the best of them is but a rough polygon; it is no circle at all. Yet to the eye it looks quite right. But what is the eye of the body? What can it see? What can it judge? It is dependent upon atmosphere and distance, and at the very best it is a lame judge of straight lines or circular lines. We must be judged by the spirit of the sanctuary, by the genius of the altar, by the Holy Ghost, and then so judged there is fire enough in the criticism to burn us as with the scorching of hell.
“Our vines have tender grapes.” In our life there are budding thoughts. Do we know what we do when we destroy a blossom? Who can measure the disaster? Who can compute the loss? It is in blossoming and budding time that we have to take great care: then the frost tells heavily, then the cold wind is very cruel, and the toiling insect seems to carry everything before it. So many of us have been cruelly used at budding time. We have had beautiful blossoms of character. Who cannot remember these? Once we nearly prayed; at one time men took notice of us that there was a new element in our character, and they expected us to become religious; but some little fox destroyed the tender grape, or some great enmity was discovered, and it fell upon us like a cold wind; some senior professor snubbed us, was unkind to us, did not understand us, so the blossom was taken away, and where the blossom is destroyed what fruit can there be? Take care of first impressions, little budding thoughts, tender blossoms of moral aspiration, for in these are the beginnings of good character. Take care of the little things, the apparent trifles; the great main lines of character may be left to other influences and to broader culture. So then if we are called away to sunny places, to paradises, to fruitful gardens, there is difficulty, there is danger, and there is a need of discipline.
Again in chapter Son 3:8 we have the same idea “Every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.” Who expected to find these words in a love-song? We thought we had passed all the hard books of Scripture, and had now come into a garden of delights, a very paradise of love; yet here are military words. Who can escape the military and disciplinary part of life? To have a sword may be ornamental, to have a sword in the daytime may look well; but what of the sword never taken off, ready at night-time, ready for all the messengers of darkness? What about this aspect of life? Yet who does not know it? Who is not aware of the fact that he must never take his sword off night or day? Why not? Because of the unexpected visitations which distress our life, because of temptations which give no notice of their coming, because we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. That is why! Do we part with our sword? Do we say, Surely at night-time there can be no need for the sword, so we will lay it aside, and commit ourselves to rest, and to dream, and sweet converse? The enemy overhears us; the enemy knows who has the sword on and who has laid the sword away. He is a wise enemy skilful, penetrating, sagacious, unslumbering; we cannot fight him in our own wit and skill and strength; we need all heaven’s help to strike that foe fatally on the head. So whilst we have been enjoying the beauty of the song, its rare music, and have simply given ourselves up to the swinging rhythm of the singer, we must now obey the same inspiration, and if it was worth while to follow him when he spoke highly and sweetly concerning love and treasure and peace and joy, we must also obey him when he speaks of care and watchfulness and discipline. And as for this night-time, has God no care of it? Are there any Christian references to night-time in the New Testament? “At midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh”: “The Son of man will come as a thief in the night.” Has not God made use of the night-time? When did the song which we associate with the gospel make itself heard by the sons of men? At midnight there was an angel, and with the angel a great host, and the song sung in that star-time was, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” Do not think, therefore, that God has no sanctuary in the darkness; do not suppose that God retires from the providence of life at sundown, and takes no heed of it until the sun rises again. If the enemy is abroad at night so is God; he neither slumbers nor sleeps; he gives no rest to his eyelids. The darkness and the light are both alike unto thee, thou living, all-seeing God. So we must keep the two sides of the case clearly before us. The enemy seems to rule the night, but he does not in reality. It would sometimes appear as if the field of darkness were left wholly to the great foe: not one single cloud of it but is under the dominion and hand and care and love of God. “Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.” He comes down upon the clouds; the clouds are the dust of his feet. Let no man, therefore, imagine that night indicates God’s having forsaken the earth; it indicates rather the curtaining-in of the earth when it lies down to sleep in his infinite arms.
Notice another beautiful expression “Behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him” ( Son 3:11 ). Does that always mean something beautiful? Not always, as history has abundantly and painfully testified. Mothers have given crowns they had no right to give. Bad women have promised kingdoms to their husbands, and have succeeded in conferring those kingdoms upon them without title that could be justified, without one tittle of righteousness marking the whole process. Yet who has such right to give a crown to a son as a mother? What other crown is worth having? Behold, King Solomon, with the crown that his mother crowned him with. The image is beautiful, instructive, encouraging. What chances the mother has! she is always near; she sees when the gate of the mind is ajar, and she can enter in, as it were, stealthily, with all the quietness and tenderness of patient love. How soon she can begin! No other workman can be upon the ground so early as the mother. What questions are put to her! What answers she may return! Yet how soon is she forgotten! Who remembers Bath-sheba except in connection with shame? Surely it required some one to speak of her in connection with the coronation of her son. Life is a mixed quantity: we are bad, yet sometimes we pray; we sin much, yet to-morrow we may touch the divine arm, and see the King in his beauty; now scorched with hell, now blessed and calmed with all heaven’s peace. True, we could go back and find out painful things in every history; but who cares to do this mean work? Who would live in such criticism? Has the man, the woman, ever done any beautiful thing, spoken any sweet word, gone out in sacrifice? has he, has she, been patient; thoughtful, unselfish, forgiving? In the name of reason, conscience, righteousness, let us magnify these instances, and allow all other matters to fall away into forgetfulness.
“The crown wherewith his mother crowned him” ( Son 3:11 ) the crown of love of truth, love of honour, love of service; other crowns are trivial, other crowns are tinsel. The great Napoleon once said, “Who rocks the cradle rules the world.” When that is believed in all the scope of its significance we shall see reformation without injustice, revolution without violence, the quiet dawn which always typifies the greatest of renewals and the greatest of beginnings. When Plato saw a child do wrong he went instantly and rebuked the parent. Truly he was a wise philosopher! Plato did not speak to the child; he did not imagine the child had invented some new depravity; he did not say, Thou art a genius in evil, thou hast found out quite a novel wickedness, and therefore I must address thee in thy personality. Without heeding the child he went and rebuked the parent. What a grasp of true wisdom he had! what a conception of the mystery of heredity! He was right. How can the parent draw himself up with pharisaic pride and rebuke the child? The child is but the man reduplicated; the child owes its birth to the man who rebukes him. Is your child a drunkard? So were you, or, if not you, the one behind you. This child of yours never invented the game of intemperance: he is not a discoverer in the art of wickedness. But you say you never were a drunkard? Wait. Be not quite so sure of that. Not perhaps in the open, obvious, vulgar sense of the term; but recall what you have done in that way, how you accustomed yourself to almost miracles in the way of drinking and self-indulgence. You did it little by little; the process did not seem to tell upon you; or there were circumstances in your case which mitigated the effect of the poison as to the public eye and as to your own consciousness, but all the while the mischief went on, and it comes up in that son who gives you heartache day by day. Are your children incapable, nervous, irritable, difficult to manage and govern? Blame yourselves. You wasted your constitution in your youth. The child inherits what you laid up. Every nervous fit is something you ought to be sorry for, and something for which you ought to apologise to the child. There are many murders committed without any blood being shed. When will people know that every thought they think tells upon the next generation: that every bad thought that passes through the brain repeats itself in the coming time? When will men remember that they cannot stay out late at night doing evil things without the black seed coming up in a black harvest? You look at the child and say you are surprised, for you began this practice and that practice when you were in your teens; if it is a poison, it is a very slow poison, for it has had no effect upon you. Supposing that you have been rough enough, hard enough, to bear the process yourself, yet see the full effect of the thing in those who have come after you: the process does not end with you; it only began mayhap in your instance: you must follow it out to your children, and if you see them incapable, nervous, irritable, worldly, drunken, beastly, do not pull yourself up in some haughty pharisaic attitude and begin to lecture them fall down in the dust, and say, God be merciful to me a sinner: I have murdered children! Blessed be God, the law tells also upon the other side. Every noble thought you think has an effect upon the little child. Every generous deed you did comes up in beauty on that child’s sweet face; the child never would have had such a visage but for your beneficence, pureness, religiousness; if you had prayed less the child’s countenance would have been less suggestive of the highest significance. “The way of the Lord is equal.” If we have done evil, evil we shall reap; if we have done good, our harvest shall be an abundance of good in return: “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” You have it not in your power, it may be, to leave your child gold. Thank God for the child that has little gold left. It is almost certain temptation; it is almost probable ruin. Bless God that the little child has to count its fingers, and see how many it has which it can employ as instruments of honest labour. But you can leave your child a beautiful example; you can so live that the child will be able to say, I never knew him do a mean thing; I never knew her carried away with vanity and folly; I have always known both the old folks sweet, kind, patient, longsuffering: God bless them. Epitaph they may have none in the churchyard, but they have an epitaph written upon the tablets of my heart. To work for such a speech is task enough for any angel.
One greater than Solomon is crowned. We read that on his head are many crowns. He deserves them all. He is Lord of all
As for us, this is the rule: No cross, no crown; no sword, no sceptre; no storm, no calm. Thus a new view of the song comes before us. Hitherto we have been enjoying it as a piece of music; now we must listen to it as a law, a call to duty, a warning, and yet a promise. If we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with him. “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” That is enough. We will think of the music, and think of the discipline; we will remember the beauty, and not forget all the service; we will think of the promise, and know that the promise lies on the farther side of the cross, and that they who bear the cross well shall wear the crown evermore.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
(See the Song of Solomon Book Comments for other methods of interpreting the Song of Solomon)
XXX
AN INTERPRETATION OF THE SONG OF SOLOMON AS AN ALLEGORY
According to the first verse, the title of this book is “The Song of Songs,” and the author was Solomon. The Vulgate has the title, Canticum Canticorum, from which comes the title, “Canticles,” by which it is sometimes called and to which the references in some English versions are made. This title, as it appears here, implies that it is the choicest of all songs, in keeping with the saying of an early writer that “the entire world, from the beginning until now, does not outweigh the day in which Canticles was given to Israel.”
The parts of the book are marked with a refrain, thus: I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, By the roes, or by the hinds of the field, That ye stir not up, nor awake my love, Until he please, Song of Son 2:7 ; Song of Son 3:5 ; Song of Son 8:4 .
It will be noted that the second line in Song of Son 8:4 is omitted, perhaps, because it had been given twice before and the shortened form suited better the purpose of the author here.
It is well at this point to fix in mind the representative characters of the book, so as to make clear the interpretation and application. In this allegory the Shulammite may represent souls collectively, but more aptly applied to the individual soul seeking Christ. The daughters of Jerusalem represent the church. Solomon represents Christ, and the watchmen represent the spiritual leaders, such as priests, prophets, and preachers.
The prologue expresses the desire of a soul for Christ, a prayer to be drawn to him, conversion, and a consciousness of unworthiness.
In Part I the soul is instructed to seek its lover at the feeding places of the flock, or places where Christ meets his people; as, in meetings, etc., and upon their meeting they express their love for each other in which the soul is represented as being completely enraptured by its first love to Christ.
In Part II we have the beautiful serenade in which Christ is represented as entreating this new convert to come away and separate herself from her people and everything that might cause alienation. But upon neglect to heed this entreaty the little foxes, that is, little sins creep in and alienation is the result. So she sends him away till the cool of the day so characteristic of the soul that is neglectful of its early Christian duties. But soon she goes out to seek him another characteristic of the sheep that has wandered away from its shepherd and the flock. As she goes out to seek him she meets the city watchmen and inquires of them likewise the soul thus realizing its need at this point makes inquiry of spiritual leaders. She soon finds him and brings him to her mother’s house, thus representing the soul that has not left its former associations.
In Part III we have the procession of Solomon coming out to her to take her to his own home. Here he praises her, wooes her, and pleads with her to come away from her old associations. She is won and agrees to go with him, but when he knocks at the door she is half asleep and does not open to him. Her indifference brings about another alienation, and he leaves. Soon she arises to open, but, alas! he has grown tired of waiting and has gone away. She seeks him again, but the preachers (city watchmen) make it hard for her this time, upon which she appeals to the members of the church (daughters of Jerusalem) and they test her with a question, whereupon she declares her appreciation of him in a most glowing description of him. Then they submit the second test by asking another question as to his whereabouts. Here she understands perfectly as to his abiding place, which she shows them. While this is going on he draws near, speaking of his love. Surely, it is a sweet thought that, while we are talking about Christ and praising him, he draws near and is mindful of us, though we have suffered the little foxes to do their work and have not heeded every knock upon the door by our Lord. As he is thinking and speaking of her he sees her in the distance and exclaims, Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, Fair as the moon, Clear as the sun, Terrible as an army with banners?
After telling where he had been he pleads again, very earnestly, for her return. In the remaining part of this division they converse with each other and he wooes her again and she agrees to leave all and go with him into the fields and villages.
In Part IV the daughters describe them as they proceed toward his house, conversing with each other of love in which she shows love to be the strongest thing in the world.
The Epilogue contains the vows of the woman to do her part and applies beautifully to the loyalty of the soul espoused to Christ.
Now, I call attention to the prayers of the Shulammite which indicate the conflict and progress of the Christian life. These are as follows: Draw me; we will run after thee: The king hath brought me into his chambers; We will be glad and rejoice in thee; We will make mention of thy love more than of wine: Rightly do they love thee. (Song of Son 1:4 ) Tell me, O thou, whom my soul loveth, Where thou feedest thy flock, Where thou makest it to rest at noon: For why should I be as one that is veiled Beside the flocks of thy companions? (Song of Son 1:7 ) Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, And eat his precious fruits. (Song of Son 4:16 ) Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; Let us lodge in the villages. (Song of Son 7:11 ) Set me as a seal upon thy heart, As a seal upon thine arm: For love is strong as death; Jealousy is cruel as Sheol; The flashes thereof are flashes of fire, A very flame of Jehovah. (Song of Son 8:6 )
Two of the most beautiful passages in the book are the Serenade, which pictures all nature calling to activity, and the passage on Love and Jealousy, showing love to be “The Greatest Thing in the World.” These passages are well adapted to the theme of the book and furnish an appropriate closing for our discussion on “The Poetical Books of the Bible.” THE SERENADE My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past; The rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; The time of the singing of birds is come, And the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land; The fig-tree ripeneth her green figs, And the vines are in blossom; They give forth their fragrance, Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, In the covert of the steep place, Let me see thy countenance, Let me hear thy voice; For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. The Song of Son 2:10-14
LOVE AND JEALOUSY
Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm: For love is strong as death; Jealousy is cruel as Sheol; The flashes thereof are flashes of fire, A very flame of Jehovah. Many waters cannot quench love, Neither can floods drown it: If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, He would utterly be condemned. The Song of Son 8:6-7
QUESTIONS
1. According to Song of Son 1:1 , what is the title and who is the author of The Song of Solomon?
2. How are the parts of the book marked?
3. Whom does the Shulammite represent?
4. Whom do the daughters of Jerusalem represent?
5. Whom does Solomon represent?
6. Whom do the watchmen represent?
7. What is the spiritual interpretation and application of the Prologue?
8. What is the spiritual interpretation and application of Part I?
9. What is the spiritual interpretation and application of Part II?
10. What is the story and spiritual application of Part III?
11. What is the interpretation of Part IV?
12. What are the contents of the Epilogue and its application?
13. What are the prayers of the Shulammite?
14. What to you are the moat beautiful passages in the book and in what consists their beauty?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Son 2:1 I [am] the rose of Sharon, [and] the lily of the valleys.
Ver. 1. I am the rose of Sharon. ] The Greek renders it, “the flower of the field,” that grows without man’s labour, having heaven for its father, earth for its mother. So had Christ, “made of a woman,” “manifested in the flesh,” without father as man, without mother as God. Heb 7:3 ; Heb 9:11 The tabernacle of Christ’s human nature – so called because therein “the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily” Col 2:9 – was “not made with hands”; that is, not by man’s help; it was “not of this building,” by the power of nature. But as matter in the beginning of time was taken from man to make a woman, so matter in the fulness of time was taken from woman to make the man Christ Jesus. And as Eve was a true woman without woman, so Christ was a true man without man. He is called filius hominis, but it is only of the feminine gender. He is the “flower of the field,” as here; the “stone cut out without hands”; Dan 2:45 the phoenix that hath no parents; the pearl that is not made through any earthly copulation, but is begotten of the dew of heaven. For as pearls are bred in shell fishes of a celestial humour, so was Christ, by heavenly influence, in the Virgin’s womb. But let us weigh the words as they are commonly rendered. Sharon was a most fruitful place, situated under the hill Lebanon, 1Ch 27:29 coupled with Carmel for excellence, Isa 35:2 not more afield than a fold for flocks. Isa 65:10 To a rose, that queen of flowers, here growing doth the Lord Christ fitly compare himself. This flower delights in shadowy places – and thence borroweth its name a in the original; it is orient of hue, cold of complexion, but passing redolent, and of comfortable condition. Such a flower is Jesus, saith an expositor b here, most delighted in temperate places, for hue white and ruddy, the chiefest of ten thousand; a cooler to the conscience, but passing savoury, and comfortable to the distressed patient.
And the lily of the valleys.
a Habaste eth.
b Clapham.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Song of Solomon Chapter 2
Son 2:3-17
It will be noticed that the bride speaks a great deal of the Beloved to others, while He speaks rather of her to herself. This is thoroughly according to her need of re-assurance, and to the truth of things, when we know that Christ is the One really intended by the Spirit; for He is above all need of the creature and by His love creates love. That He loves her she needs to know; and on this He dwells most fully. Others may learn it from the fact that His love is set upon her: she relieves her heart by setting forth His beauty and excellence to others.
“As the citron among the trees of the wood,
So is my beloved among the sons.
In his shadow I delighted and sat down,
And his fruit [is] sweet to my taste.
He brought me to the house of wine,
And his banner over me [is] love.
Stay ye me with raisin-cakes,
Refresh me with citrons;
For I am sick of love.
His left hand [is] under my head,
And his right hand doth embrace me.
I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem,
By the gazelles and by the hinds of the field,
That ye stir not up, nor awake [my] love,
Until he please.
The voice of my beloved! behold he cometh,
Leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
My beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart.
Behold, he standeth behind our wall,
He looketh in through the windows,
He glanceth through the lattice.
My beloved spake and said unto me,
Rise up, my fair one, and come away.
For, behold, the winter is past,
The rain is over, it is gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of singing is come,
And the voice of the thrush is heard in our land;
The fig tree melloweth her winter figs,
And the vines in bloom give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
My dove, in the clefts of the rock,
In the covert of the precipice,
Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice;
For sweet [is] thy voice, and thy countenance comely.
Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards:
For our vineyards are in bloom.
My beloved [is] mine, and I his;
He feedeth [his flock] among the lilies.
Until the day dawn, and the shadows flee away,
Turn, my beloved: be thou like a gazelle, or a young hart,
Upon the mountains of Bether” (vers. 3-17).
Christ is described under the figure of the citron, the true bearer of fruit. Under His shadow she had rapture and sat down, and His fruit was sweet to her taste. Moses did not avail Israel, though faithful as a servant. Nor did the first covenant meet the need, but provoked transgressions, and brought forth death and ruin. Christ is the spring of all good. Yet even at this early point the bride feels that the bright time is coming. It is evident that in the Canticles is the revelation of the mutual affection between Messiah and the Israel of God, such as is found nowhere else. And this will be the sweeter to the people of God when brought by the Holy Spirit to judge their whilom truant affections; for Israel had gone after many lovers in the past: see Jer 3 , Eze 16 , Hos 1:2 , Hos 1:3 . But her restoration to Messiah in the discovery of His faithful love, notwithstanding her shameless infidelity to such a lover, will be all the deeper; and this book supplies the needed expression of it all on both sides: so gracious is God, so complete His word, Who knew all from the beginning and reveals fully what will be realised only at the consummation of the age.
The psalms of David are rich indeed, but they reveal the rejection and the sufferings of the Messiah (no doubt in infinite grace), and the people’s wickedness, sins, unbelief, and need generally, rather than the mutual love expressed in the Song of Songs. Still less do the Law and the Prophets show this forth as here. Yet Zep 3:17 is a beautiful word that illustrates, as far as it goes, the bearing of Canticles. Sympathy in sorrow predominates in the Psalms. Every thing in the scripture is perfect in people, place, and season. And those taught of God find Christ to their everlasting profit and joy everywhere, save in such an unfolding as Ecclesiastes (the remarkable writing by the same hand which indited Canticles), the nothingness and misery of all where Christ is not, spite of the utmost round of passing pleasures and pursuits with the largest means and power of enjoying them. That the style necessarily differs immensely goes without saying: none but a simpleton or a malignant would expect, or if able, execute, otherwise. Yet in all these inspired books, however profoundly instructive to the Christian, the Jewish people are those immediately and primarily in view, not the church of the firstborn ones, not the saints blessed with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ as we are now.
After the introductory sketch of Son 1 , the godly Jewish remnant are here shown as going through the spiritual process to make Messiah’s love appreciated and fruitful. And the charge in ver. 7 should be compared with a similar one in Son 3:5 , and in Son 8:4 . In each case the coming of Messiah follows suitably to the advancing action of the book. The bride anticipates it by faith; for He is not yet come, however warm the language that realises its blessedness. Jehovah shall arise and have mercy on Zion; for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come, though the Psalmist alone could suitably add that His servants take pleasure in her stones and favour the dust thereof. It is here His voice that is heard, as He comes leaping on the mountains, skipping on the hills. What He spoke and said reached the ear, the heart, of the bride (vers. 13, 14), where we next hear of “our” vineyards (ver. 15): compare Son 2:6-11 . The first expression of conscious relationship follows (ver. 16). Progress is clear, when we compare what appears afterwards. It is rather Himself and His love to her that comes out on this mention of His coming. We shall see more on each fresh occasion; but here His fulness of power, the suitability of the time and circumstances, and the welcome sound of His love to her, have their due place.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Son 2:1
1I am the rose of Sharon,
The lily of the valleys.
Son 2:1-2 There are no VERBS in Son 2:1-2; all are NOUN phrases.
These verses (and Son 2:4) are often used as metaphors for the Messiah. However, this assumes that Song of Songs is an allegory (see Introduction). There is nothing grammatically or lexically that would make one think this book is about God’s love for Israel or the church! Be careful of presuppositions and/or traditional interpretations that do not firmly hold to authorial intent.
Son 2:1 rose This (BDB 287) can mean crocus. It refers to a common wild flower (cf. Isa 35:1, see Helps for Translators, Fauna and Flora of the Bible pp. 150-151).
Sharon This refers to the low, flat coastal plains (about ten miles wide) beside the Mediterranean in northern Palestine. It was known for its lush plants (i.e., Isa 35:2) and, therefore, a renowned pasture land (i.e., 1Ch 5:16; 1Ch 27:29; Isa 65:10).
lily This term (BDB 1004) is used several times in the book:
1. Son 2:1-2; Son 7:3 – a flower describing the bride
2. Son 2:16 – a flower describing the groom
3. Son 4:5; Son 6:3 – flowers of the field
Hos 14:5
4. Son 6:4 – an allusion to sexual activity (i.e., gardens, beds)
5. in 1Ki 7:19; 1Ki 7:22; 1Ki 7:26 – it refers to the carved top of pillars in Solomon’s temple
6. in 2Ch 4:5 – it refers to the brim of the laver in Solomon’s temple
7. in Psalms 45, – it refers to a tune or musical term of some kind
60, 69, 80
In this context she is describing herself as pretty and fragrant, but not unusual, just one of many. This may be another way (like Son 1:5-7) to describe herself as a country girl (see UBS, Handbook for Translators, p. 52).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
I am the rose of Sharon: i.e. I am a mere wild-flower of the plains: a flower found in great profusion: disclaiming her lover’s compliment.
the = a.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 2
I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys ( Son 2:1 ).
The bridegroom responds.
As the lily among the thorns, so is my love among the daughters ( Son 2:2 ).
The bride responds.
As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick ( Son 2:3-5 )
And it probably should be translated “sick with love” because we have a thing of sick of love. We think that, you know, I’m sick of it. But that isn’t the meaning here. I’m sick because of it. I’m sick and like I would say I’m smitten of a bad malady or something. Well, I’m sick of love. Love is the cause of my sickness. I’m sick with love. I’m just lovesick, we would say.
His left hand is under my head, his right hand doth embrace me. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please ( Son 2:6-7 ).
And then the bride goes on to speak.
The voice of my beloved! behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he stands behind our wall, he looks forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice. My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; and the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is beautiful. Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes. My beloved is mine, and I am his: and he feeds [his flocks, actually] among the lilies. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether ( Son 2:8-17 ).
She continues to speak. Or sing, actually, because it’s a song. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
We believe that this song sets forth the mutual love of Christ and his believing people. It is a book of deep mystery, not to be understood except by the initiated; but those who have learnt a life of sacred fellowship with Jesus will bear witness that when they desire to express what they feel they are compelled to borrow expressions from this matchless song. Samuel Rutherford, in his famous letters, when he spoke of the love of Christ as shed abroad in his heart, perhaps was scarcely conscious that he continually reproduced the expressions of the song, but so it is. They were naturally fresh enough from him, but they came from this wonderful book. It stands in the middle of the Bible. It is the holy of holies the central point of all.
Thus he speaks the glorious greater than Solomon.
Son 2:1-2. I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
So does Christs Church spring up singular for her beauty as much different from the world as much superior thereto as the lily to the thorns. Now see how she responds and answers to him.
Son 2:3. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood. so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was street to my taste.
To him there is none like her; to her there is none like him. Jesus values his people. He paid his hearts blood for their redemption, and unto you that believe, he is precious. No mention shall be made of coral or of rubies, in comparison with him. Nothing can equal him. There are other trees in the wood, but he is the one lone fruit-bearing the citron tree, whose golden apples are delicious to our taste. Let us come up and pluck from his loaded branches this very night.
Son 2:4. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
You and I know what this means at least, many here do. You know how delightful it is to feel that it is not the banner of war now, but the banner of love, that waves above your head, for all is peace between you and your God. And now you are not brought to the prison-house or to the place of labour, but to the banqueting house. Act worthily of the position which you occupy. If you are in a banqueting house, take care to feast.
Son 2:5. Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.
Oh! that I knew him better! Oh! that I loved him more! Oh! that I were more like him! Oh! that I were with him! I am sick of love.
Son 2:6-7. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.
If he be with me, may nothing disturb him nothing cause him to withdraw himself. Our Lord Jesus is very jealous, and when he manifests himself to his people, a very little thing will drive him away like the hinds and the roes that are very timid, so is communion a very delicate and dainty thing. It is soon broken. Oh! may God grant tonight that nothing may happen to the thoughts of any of you by which your fellowship with Christ should be destroyed.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psa 116:10-19; Son 2:1-7.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Son 2:1
Son 2:1-2
I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
It will be noted that I associated Son 2:1 and Son 2:2 with Solomon’s blandishments in the previous chapter. See comment on Son 1:15-17; Son 2:1 there.
“As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters” (Son 2:2). Many of the commentators view the word `love’ here as Solomon’s reference to the Shulamite. If that had been the case, the word would have been `beloved’ as the triple use of it in Son 1:15 indicates. What Solomon is saying here is that his style of loving affection shines like a lily among the thorns, a self-compliment that Solomon supposed that all “the daughters” agreed with. If that had not been true among the daughters, not one of them would have dared to contradict the king. The failure of the RSV to make the distinction between love and beloved as used in these chapters obscures the meaning. This is unfortunate, because the proper understanding of this verse clarifies the following paragraph.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Son 2:4
In estimating the blessedness of any creature, you must never forget that there is a certain faculty of enjoyment which is itself the gift of God. And have we not here at once the real secret of the certainty of the superior delights of the people of God-in that to them alone, or at least to them in a far higher degree than to other men, is given that capacity of enjoyment, that appreciation of the sweet and beautiful and holy, which is radiant in everything.
I. Among the choice things of the prepared banquet, the chief is rest. It is only the Gospel of Jesus Christ which has the exclusive prerogative to give a man rest. And every one who goes into that sanctuary of the soul’s rest, is a man who, just before, has been fighting his way to it through tremendous toils and conquests.
II. If there can be anything on this side of heaven worthy to be mentioned with that rest-the feeling of a forgiven soul-it is intimacy with God Himself; the nearness, and consequently the acquaintance with God’s mind, into which the Christian is at once, though it be progressive, yet at once admitted; as soon as he obeys the drawings of the spirit, and comes near to God.
III. It is the actual presence of Christ which becomes dear to an advancing Christian. He has had His grace, but He wants Him. Therefore, more and more as a believer lives, you will find him meditating on the Person and the Being of Christ.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 101.
References: Son 2:4.-J. J. West, Penny Pulpit, No. 3218; J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 85.
Son 2:5
I. Looking at an apple from a morphological point of view, we find that it is an arrested branch. Instead of going on to develop more wood and foliage, a branch terminates in an apple; and in this apple the sap and substance that would have prolonged the branch are concentrated, and hence its enlarged size and capability of expansion. We behold in it, as in a glass, a very striking natural example of the law of self-sacrifice; that law which pervades all nature, and upon which the welfare and stability of nature depend. It is in this self-sacrifice of the plant that all its beauty comes out and culminates.
II. The little globe of the apple is a microcosm, representing within its miniature sphere the changes and processes which go on in the great world. Life and death, growth and decay, fight their battle on its humble stage. While it hangs upon its stem, it is in some kind of magnetic correspondence with all the powers of nature; it shares the life of the earth and the sky. It is an embodiment of the air and the sunshine, and the dew. But its special charm consists not in its’ scientific teaching or in its material utilities. Who would care to study an apple or any other natural object, were it not for its religious side? Nothing can be simpler and lowlier than such an object lesson. It is nigh unto us, in our very mouths, familiar to every child, but its simplicity is the mystery of the unsearchable God, the depth of the clear but unfathomable heaven. Autumn is the season of revealing; and the fruit is ripened when the foliage that hid the orchard is stripped off, and all its secrets are opened to the glances of the sun. But no autumn of revelation comes to this tree of knowledge, and we pluck its fruit from the bough in the midst of mysteries that conceal even while they reveal it-that baffle even while they instruct us. But these mysteries are favourable to faith and to a simple, childlike trust, leaving what it cannot understand, with a wise contentment, in the infinity of God.
H. Macmillan, Two Worlds are Ours, p. 213.
References: Son 2:7.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1463. Son 2:8.-Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 80. Son 2:8-17.-R. M. McCheyne, Memoir and Remains, p. 437. Son 2:9.-S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, p. 168. Son 2:10.-Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 116. Son 2:10-12.-J. M. Neale, Sermon on the Song of Songs, p. 92; J. H. Newman, Sermons on Various Occasions, p. 190. Son 2:10-13.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii., No. 436.
Son 2:11-12
There are two characteristics of spring that strike us, I do not say as wrong, but as more belonging to human than Divine character. The first of these is its changeableness, the second its extravagance.
I. Even in climates better than our own we know the changeableness of spring, but in our spring scarcely a single day is true to its beginning. But when we look closer, such change belongs naturally to the first rush of life, not only in spring but in all things. (1) It paints our own youth only too faithfully. Our outer life flits from interest to interest, from friend to friend, from love to love, as the winds of purpose, interest, and impulse blow. As to our inner life of feeling and thought, it is never at rest for a single moment. To cherish this changeableness is wrong. But as long as it belongs to youth we have no right to be too hard on it. Our business is to accept what is natural in it, and to guide its eager life into noble ways. (2) We may learn another bit of wisdom from the changeableness of spring. It is caused by the last struggle of winter against the warm gusts of life. It images the struggle in a heart which has come out of the far country of sin, near to God its Father. The life of God and the glowing of His love have begun to move within, to clothe the barren soil with the flowers and the blossoms that promise fruit. But the old deathfulness still lingers; habits of evil, not yet overcome of good, raise themselves again, and conquer for a time; the storms of trial that resistance to sin causes are so violent as to exhaust for a season all spiritual strength, and we seem to die. Take comfort from the spring. Life is stronger than death, goodness than sin, noble joy than base sorrow. Day by day the attacks of evil will lessen, day by day they will be easier overcome, and a summer of righteousness will be yours at last.
II. The extravagance of the spring. Much more than is apparently needful is produced. There is the greatest prodigality, even waste; of a hundred flower-shoots not half come to perfection; of a cloud of blossoms many altogether fail. The analogy to this in our youth is in itself sad enough. But when we ask ourselves in what the changeableness and prodigality of spring ends, the analogy ceases to be true, and the rebuke and warning of nature is given to our youth. God’s end for spring is the fulness of summer and the harvest of autumn. There is no other end also than that for youth; richness of nature in oneself and a plenteous harvest for the world.
S. A. Brooke, The Fight of Faith, p. 337.
I. Life, love, joy-what are these in their tale to the spirit, as spring sends them flowing into our hearts? They are a revelation of the Being of God. (1) Its first attribute is infinite life. In this world of decay and death, where sorrow and apathy and dulness play so large a part in us, it is unspeakable comfort to know that there is above us and in our God an eager, unwearied, universal life. (2) This life is love-love in God, the same as goodness. That there is such a thing as creation; that life and joy come out of death and pain; that the wonder of the spring is born out of the travail of the winter, is proof enough to those who feel how impossible creation is to evil, that it is goodness-goodness that streams forth as love; love that is life in all things, that is the spirit of the universe. (3) If life and love be one in the being of God, that being must also be joy-infinite, self-exultant, varying through every phase of quiet and of rapture. Words would fail to paint one moment of its triumphant fulness: joy is the glory of God.
II. We take the same thoughts, and bring them to touch on our own life. Spring is the image of our youth, and the lesson we should learn from it is, that our youth should be life and love and joy, and that these are its natural companions.
S. A. Brooke, The Fight of Faith, p. 324.
References: Son 2:11, Son 2:12.-W. P. Balfern, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 237. Son 2:11-13.-W. Sanday, Expositor, vol. iii, p. 240; H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Waterside Mission Sermons, 2nd series, p. 97. Son 2:11-14.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. viii., p. 205. Son 2:12.-J. N. Norton, The King’s Ferry Boat, p. 8; Sermons for Boys and Girls, 2nd series, p. 230; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 115. Son 2:14.-Homiletic Magazine, vol. ii., p. 518.
Son 2:15
To despise little things is to show oneself utterly ignorant of the philosophy of life. The phrase “little sins,” common though it be, is highly unscriptural, highly immoral. In the Bible you will frequently find such sins as lying, slander, and selfishness classed with sins like drunkenness, theft or murder. The former are represented as equally effective with the latter in excluding from the kingdom of God.
I. It is curious to notice that the very characteristics which commonly earn for a sin the name of little, are often just the characteristics which in reality enhance its sinfulness, and render it pre-eminently worthy of being called great. For example, an ingenious prevarication would be usually considered far less sinful than a downright awkward falsehood. But the kernel of truth which it contains makes it more sinful, not less. It shows its perpetrator to be a cultivated liar. Judged, too, by its effects, it may often be discovered to be a lie of surpassing magnitude.
II. The sins of which we are speaking not only cause a vast amount of suffering, but they have the most fatal effect upon character. A great sin, severely punished and bitterly repented of, is not all likely to be repeated. The sins which seem to be little, just for that very reason, and also because they are generally unpunished, are likely to be first of all ignored by a man, and then repeated, till at last their total effect may be to render his character hopelessly and irretrievably bad. A number of very little sins will make a very great sinner.
III. Our so-called little sins have the most fatal moral effect upon the characters of others. They are just the sins which others will be likely to imitate. The average man is more likely to be infected by such a sin as scandal than he is to be infected by such a sin as theft. Therefore these little sins do the most widespread moral mischief in society.
IV. If we desire to form for ourselves a perfect character, a studied avoidance of little sins is of the first importance. Our habits depend upon the way in which we comport ourselves; not in great and startling emergencies, but rather under the simple, common circumstances of our common daily life. Everything we do or say leaves us somewhat different from our former selves, and is productive of good or evil to numbers of our fellow-men. Every action we perform, every word we utter, every thought we think, has wide-spreading, far-reaching effects-effects that will eternally endure. Stand in awe and sin not.
A. W. Momerie, The Origin of Evil, and Other Sermons, p. 86.
I. Consider the text as addressed to the individual. (1) The evils, the capture of which is here urged, are such as the following:-Ostentation, concealment, the easily offended and unforgiving spirit, fear of man and men-pleasing, anxiety, and all such plausible errors in doctrine and specious deviations from truth as affect principle and conduct. (2) The good which may be marred is of this kind:-The subjects of Christ’s kingdom are born from above; we may expect in them heavenly-mindedness. They are born of God, and we may look to them for godliness. The fruit, in this case, is the fruit of righteousness, sown in place of them that make peace. (3) This good may thus be marred:-The pursuit of religious information may be checked. The judgment may be perverted or corrupted. The conscience may be blunted or defiled. The energy of holy principle may be impaired. The lustre of reputation may be dimmed. (4) Such mischief ought to be prevented or cured. Take the foxes. Make impending evil captive, and, if possible, destroy it.
II. Contemplate the text as addressed to the churches of Christ. Take the foxes: govern the tongue, cleanse the hands, purify the heart. Have light in your countenance and salt in yourselves, that you may live together and act together with joy and with profit.
S. Martin, Rain upon the Mown Grass, p. 43.
It is only man’s littleness which discovers no importance in trifles. Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle. The most deplorable failures in Christian consistency and uprightness may, generally, be traced back to a very small departure from duty. Little sins are as wrong as larger ones, and in the end come to the same thing. They are, in fact, the foxes that spoil the vines.
What are some of these little sins which mar our happiness or hinder our usefulness?
I. At the head of the list may be placed a sour and crabbed temper.
II. Another little sin to be watched against, is the giving way to ease and self-indulgence.
III. Dishonesty in our ordinary dealings may be named as another example of little sins.
IV. Another little sin is jealousy. It is a weakness which few would confess that they have yielded to, and yet multitudes are made miserable by its evil influence.
In religious character there is nothing unimportant, and the smallest inlets of sin should be carefully closed. Earnest prayer and dilligent effort should be employed, that the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts may be more thorough and pervading.
J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 348.
References: Son 2:15.-Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 151; J. Vaughan, Children’s Sermons, 1875, p. 21; Expositor, 3rd series, vol. iii., p. 63; T. T. Shore, The Life of the World to come, p. 215; T. Champness, Little Foxes, p. 7; J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 106.
Son 2:16
These few deep words express the bond or hold of love between Christ and His Elect, whether they be saints or penitents, and they fasten it by a twofold strength. “My beloved is mine; and not this alone, but “I am His.” They teach us:
I. That He is ours in the very sense in which we speak of our father or our child, our life or our own soul. And how has He become ours? Not by deserving or earning, by finding or seeking; not by climbing up to Him, or taking Him for ours; but because He gave Himself to us. He gave Himself to us as the bridegroom gives Himself to the bride. In this mystery of love is summed up all that is inviolable, binding and eternal. He will never draw back from it, or release Himself, or annul His vows, or cast us away. The pledge of His love is everlasting, as His love itself.
II. And next: these words mean that, in giving Himself to be ours, He took us to be His own. It is a full contract, binding both, though made and accomplished by Himself alone. We are bought, purchased, redeemed; we are pledged, vowed, and betrothed; but, better than all these, He has made us to be His by the free, willing and glad consent of our own heart. This is why we may call Him “My Beloved.”
III. These words are full of all manner of consolation. (1) They interpret to us the whole discipline of sorrow. It is most certain that, if it were not necessary for our very salvation, He would never send affliction. (2) In this we see further the true pledge of our perseverance unto the end. Our whole salvation is begun, continued, and ended in His love. He that kept us from perishing when we were willing to perish, will surely keep us from perishing now that we are trembling to be saved. (3) In this there is our true and only stay in death. If we were saints, if we loved Him with all our soul and with all our strength, the most blessed day in life would be the last. To go and be with Him whom our soul loveth; to be for ever with Him, gazing upon His face of love, ourselves sinless, and living by love alone-this is heaven.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. iii., p. 411.
I. Think first of the person here designated “My Beloved.” Christ is the object of the believer’s love. He is altogether lovely (1) when we consider His Person. We behold in Him all the beauty of the Godhead and of humanity. (2) When we consider His suitableness. He is suitable to us as the image of the invisible God. Man needs this: man was made thus. He was himself made in God’s image, after His likeness-and he lost it; but now he has in Christ the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. He is suitable to our state as ignorant-being made of God unto us “wisdom;” as guilty-being made of God unto us “righteousness;” as polluted-being made of God unto us “sanctification;” and as altogether undone-being made of God unto us “redemption.”
II. Now of this Beloved, the Church says and the believer says, “He is mine, and I am His.” This is the language (1) of direct faith; (2) of adherence to Christ; (3) of strong affection.
III. There are times when this affection is brought into more lively exercise, and the soul says, “My Beloved is mine and I am His.” (1) There is the time of conversion-of the first embracing of Christ. (2) There are times of special approach, of peculiar fellowship, when Christ draws near the soul, and the soul under His approach draws near. (3) There is the time of recovery out of backsliding, out of carelessness, out of forgetfulness of God. (4) There is the hour of death; (5) the hour of temptation, which is twofold-temptation of want, and temptation of fulness. (6) The time of sacramental communion when He who gave Himself for you gives Himself to you.
J. Duncan, The Pulpit and Communion Table, p. 159.
The going-out of every man’s mind is after property. The keenest man of business and the devoutest Christian share this principle alike; both desire property. There is no rest in anything till it is property. This universal desire is the return of the mind to the original design of its creation. Man was made to be a proprietor. Sin broke the title-deeds; all property rose in rebellion against its proprietor, and death cancelled every tenure. From that time, man has nothing to do with any creature, but as with a loan. The heart that holds, and the treasure that is holden, are only upon a lease. Woe to the man who calls anything his own. He will wake up tomorrow and find it gone, Christ is the property-the only property a man has, or ever can have, in any world. God never revokes that. And Christ carries with Him the universe, and carries with Him all that is of real value in this life. “My Beloved is mine, and I am His.”
I. The communication of Christ to the Church is always called a gift. “Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.”
II. It is not only by a common deed of gift that Christ is made over to a believer, it has been made a matter of most solemn contract.
III. There is a property to which neither gift nor compact can reach. It is the property which a man holds in himself. Christ is actually in you,-the very being, and framework, and constitution in every believer. There is no unity in any part of a man in himself more real than that which Christ holds with every member of His Church.
IV. “I am His.” Possession depends upon the possessor. What were the best property if the possessor cannot keep it? There are two ways in which possession may be obtained. By an act on the part of the possessor, and by an act on the part of the possessed. On the part of the possessor, by purchase and conquest, and on the part of the possessed by surrender. It is by these three processes, united, that any soul becomes Christ’s property.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 10th series, p. 215.
References: Son 2:16.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 374, and vol. xx., No. 1190; J. Duncan, The Pulpit and Communion Table, p. 172. Son 2:16, Son 2:17.-Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 171; J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 118.
Son 2:17
Whatever the first use and intent of this phrase, it describes a waiting and a joy to come; a waiting under darkness and shadow, and a joy to come with the light. And so the words answer well the purpose of suggesting the truth, that there are many things in life and destiny that are to be awaited.
I. We wait for rest. If the question were raised, Is man made for toil or for rest?-the answer would be a mixed and qualified one. He is appointed to toil, he is destined to rest; one is his condition, the other is his end. Unceasing toil is the largest feature of human life. As the sun journeys about the earth, it summons the greater part of those it shines on to hard and heavy toil, till its setting dismisses them to brief rest. And this rest is chiefly found in sleep, the nightly death to life, as though rest were no part of man’s conscious life. We die, in a sense, to this daily life of toil, to get rest, and thus go off into a world of freedom that is revealed to us by fragments of chance-remembered dreams. Now, surely, it is an intimation that the other death ushers us into a world of absolute freedom and repose; for freedom and repose are correlatives. Rest is something to be awaited in God’s own time. To unduly seize it is ruin; it breaks the mould in which our life is cast. To patiently wait for it makes toil endurable, and assures us that our external lives are not a mockery of the hopes wrought into us. Some morning this shadow will flee away. In the Church of St. Nazaro in Florence is an epitaph upon the tomb of a soldier, as fit for the whole toiling race as for his own restless life, “Johannes Divultino, who never rested, rests-hush!” We say of our dead, “They rest from their labours.”
II. We wait for the renewal of lost powers. St. Paul speaks of the redemption of the body as something that is waited for. He means no narrow doctrine of a physical resurrection, but a renewal of existence-a restoration of lost powers.
III. We wait for the full perfecting of character. We are keyed, not to attainment, but to the hope of it by struggle towards it. And it is the struggle, and not the attainment, that measures character and foreshadows destiny.
IV. We wait the renewal of sundered love. Love may suffer an eclipse, but it is not sent wailing into eternal shadows. It is as sure as God Himself that human love shall again claim its own.
V. We wait for the mystery to be taken off from life. Mystery may remain, but it will be harmonious mystery. The accusing doubt, the seeming contradiction, the painful uncertainty, will pass away, and we shall see “face to face,” and know even as we have been known.
VI. We wait for full restoration to the presence of God.
T. T. Munger, The Freedom of Faith, p. 379.
At its longest, the night can only run its appointed hours. The aggregate of the trouble that is to be in this world was a preordained, fixed quantity. The older we grow the easier it ought to be to say, “Till the day break.”
I. There are four things which seem to me to make the night of this present state. (1) Indistinctness. We see a very little way, and what we do see is so imperfect, and we make such sad mistakes. (2) Oppressiveness. Who has not felt the weight of night? Have we not all had consciousness of power which we could not put forth-an awe, an enervating sense of the unknown, all about us? (3) Loneliness makes a great part of the feeling of night. (4) The want of God’s felt presence. This world is simply what it is because Christ has not His proper place in it. All things else, be they what they may, become dark in consequence of that one eclipse.
II. But there are signs, glowing signs, that the cheer of the morning is coming. Only two unfulfilled prophecies stand between us and the second Advent. (1) The evangelisation of the whole world; but already the Gospel is a witness to the whole world. (2) The restoration of the Jews; but it is just possible that that restoration may follow, not precede, His coming. But if not, their return might occupy such a small space of time, that literally a nation might be born in a day.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 4th series, p. 258.
References: Son 2:17.-H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Waterside Mission Sermons, 1st series, p. 53. Son 3:1.-Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 19; J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs, p. 127.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 2
The voice of the bride is heard again in the opening verses of this chapter; some understand it as meaning the Messiah speaking of Himself as the Rose and the Lily of the valley, but it is rather the bride. She is in her purity and separation like the lily among thorns, among the apostates of the nation during the end of the Jewish age. Of the Messiah she speaks as the apple-tree. She has no fruit of herself, but rests under Him as the blessed fruit-bearer. Under Him she finds her shelter, while He protects her and she can enjoy His fruit under His shadow. There she, and all true believers have rapture and rest and enjoy His fruit, which is sweet to the taste. The Bridegroom has brought her to His own place. She is in the house of wine (the better translation, instead of banqueting house). Unlimited joy and gladness are now her portion; the banner of love is over her; while she revels in His love, and He, too, rests in His love, for all His gracious purposes towards the godly remnant of Israel are accomplished. The spiritual application to the church is easily made. In Son 2:7 she charges the daughters of Jerusalem not to disturb in any way the love-relations she enjoys, till He please, till the rest of the daughters of Jerusalem, too, shall know Him, according to His own purpose. It is interesting to note that several times the phrase, I charge you daughters of Jerusalem is found in this song. Each time it is followed by His coming. Here we read, The voice of my Beloved! Behold He cometh! It is His coming as Messiah revealing Himself to the bride. In chapter 3:6 He comes as King Messiah; His Name is revealed as Solomon, the Prince of Peace. Then once more the same phrase, I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, is found in chapter 8:4-5, and here the bride is coming out of the wilderness with Him, leaning on her Beloved, not the supposed shepherd lover, but King Messiah.
The rest of this chapter bears witness to the correctness of the Jewish interpretation. All shows that it refers to the time when the remnant of Israel knows Him and is enjoying the blessings and the glories promised unto them. The winter is past, the time of death and coldness; the rain is over, spring-time is at hand. The morning without clouds is breaking! Flowers appear; the birds begin their song; the cooing of the bird of love, the turtle dove, is heard. Furthermore, the fig tree putteth forth her green figs (the national fruit-bearing of the once cursed fig tree); the vines, too, begin to give the tender grapes. Who cannot see in the imagery of all these statements that millennial times are about to begin! Then there is His call to her, Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. Be wholly for Me! He calls her My dove. She is in the clefts of the rock, and He Himself is that rock, where His people are hidden away and find shelter. He longs for her and she longs for Him. His eyes are upon her, His beloved bride, and her eyes upon Him. Joyfully the bride cries out, as the assurance of His great love stirs her soul, My Beloved is mine and I am His. Yet the fullness has not yet come. It is all still in blessed anticipation of the time of fullest manifestation–until the day dawn and the shadows flee away. Turn my Beloved, she calls to Him, Be Thou like a gazelle or a young hart, swift in Thy coming, upon the mountains of Bether, the mountains of spices and frankincense, when the time of worship begins.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
6.
I am sick of love
Son 2:1-7
“I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.) He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.”
Have you ever experienced love-sickness? Love-sickness is that sickness you get when someone dear and precious to you, someone you love is absent. It is that sick feeling you get when the one you love is absent from you and worse, there is a wedge between you. That is what is set before us in these verses. Only, the love-sickness before us here is altogether spiritual. It is a love-sickness between the believers soul and Christ, our Well-Beloved, a sickness caused by our sin.
In this chapter we have another picture of that intimate love which exist between Christ and his church and the blessedness of our fellowship of love with our Redeemer. That which we most highly value and most greatly desire as the church of Christ is the constant fellowship of his manifest love.
When I can say, My God is mine;
When I can feel Thy glories shine;
I tread the world beneath my feet,
And all the world calls good or great.
Assured security
We know and rejoice in the fact that Christ is the omnipresent God (Psa 139:7-12). We know that Christ is always present with his people (Isa 43:1-2; Mat 28:20; Rev 1:13; Rev 1:16; Rev 1:20). We know that Christ always meets with his people, as often as we gather in his name (Mat 18:20; 1Co 3:16-17). We know that Christ is always with each of his people (1Co 6:19). We know that Christ always loves his people (Joh 13:1). We know that Christ always does what is best for his people (Eph 1:22). And we know that Christ will ultimately bring all of his people to be with him in heaven. He will present us faultless, blameless, unreprovable, and perfect in heavenly glory (Eph 5:25-27).
Without question, our souls are secure in Christ. All that concerns the eternal welfare of Gods elect is safe. The Lord Jesus Christ will keep his church, which he purchased with his own blood, in perfect safety. Truly, at all times, it is well with my soul.
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows, like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
All of these things are true. They are a source of comfort and joy to believing hearts at all times. Still, there are times when our Lord withdraws his manifest presence from us. There are times when we are unable to sense and perceive the reality of his presence with us (Son 5:6). This is the thing we greatly fear. We have no fear of Christ ever leaving us entirely. That he will not do. But we do fear losing the manifest presence of our beloved Lord. We do fear losing the blessedness of his fellowship.
Sometimes he withdraws himself from us, because of our sin, our unbelief, or our neglect, as we shall see when we get to chapter five. Sometimes he withdraws himself in order to increase in us the awareness that we do truly need him. Whenever he is pleased to withdraw his manifest presence from us, it is for our own good. He intends to awaken us. He intends to draw out our hearts love for him. He intends to return unto us. He promises, If I go away, I will come again…I will not leave you comfortless. Yet, for us it is a sad, sad time when Christ withdraws the sweet manifestation of himself. When he does, our worship is empty, our usefulness is diminished, and our joy is gone. We are compelled to sing with Newton, in low, bass tones
How tedious and tasteless the hours,
When Jesus no longer I see;
Sweet prospects, sweet birds, and sweet flowers
Have all lost their sweetness to me.
The mid-summer sun shines but dim;
The fields strive in vain to look gay.
Then, our very hearts cry, I am sick of love. There is a heavenly love-sickness in our souls for Christ. We want him. There are five things in this passage which will help to show you what I mean when I say – This is one sickness which I hope you will catch. I am sick of love.
A Loving Comparison
It is common with lovers to use poetic comparisons to describe one another. And in the first three verses of this chapter both Christ and his bride use poetic comparisons to describe their love and esteem for one another.
Christ, our Beloved Redeemer, speaks first (Son 2:1-2). “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.” He describes himself. Then, he describes those people whom he has loved, chosen, redeemed, and called unto himself. Our beloved Savior is to all of his people The Rose of Sharon and The Lily of the valleys.
The Rose of SharonThis speaks of his redeeming blood. Though in the eyes of the world it is obnoxious, to us it is precious. The Rose of Sharon gives off the sweet smelling nectar of redeeming love, pardoning grace, and complete atonement.
The Lily of the ValleysThrough the righteousness of Christ, we have been made pure and white as a lily. The word translated lily is from a root word that means whiteness. The lily is in the shape of an umbrella, and Christs righteousness, like an umbrella, covers us. In our many valleys, Christ is our Lily, both to cover and to cheer us.
Then the Lord Jesus tells us that we who are united to him by faith and love are as the lily among thorns. By the mighty operation of free grace, the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us in justification and imparted to us in sanctification, so that we bear a likeness to our Lord, even here upon this earth. The church of God in this world is A lily among thorns. The cares of this world, unbelieving rebels, and our own vile lusts are thorns, things that contribute nothing but pain. Yet, among these thorns, Gods people stand by his grace in Christ as lilies.
In verse three the Bride speaks of her Beloved. Here is a tender comparison of Christ, our beloved Savior, to a fruitful apple tree. He is the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God. “As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.”
Christ is a fruitful Tree. He declares, From me is thy fruit found (Hos 14:8). He is a shade Tree. HI sat down under his shadow with great delight!is fruit is sweet, oh, how sweet and refreshing to us! The fruit of this tree is eternal life, free forgiveness, complete justification, all the fullness of grace here, and all the fullness of glory hereafter!
A loving remembrance
“He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love” (Son 2:4). Here the Bride lovingly remembers and gratefully acknowledges that she has all the blessings of the Kings house only because of the Kings grace. She remembers the first time she came to know his love to her. Can you not recall those first revelations of the Saviors love to your heart? He brought me into the banqueting house. His house of wines, or His place of feasting.
Christs banqueting house is the church of the living God. The table of feasting is spread with the truths of the gospel:Covenant MercyUnconditional ElectionSubstitutionary RedemptionIrresistible GraceFinal PerseveranceEverlasting Glory. He took us by the hand and led us into his house. The wine of that house is the fellowship and communion of Christ himself. His banner over me was love.Eternal love!Special, distinguishing, electing love!Redeeming love!Persevering love!Irresistible love!
A loving sickness
Remembering that which we have experienced and known of our Savior and his grace, realizing that which is lost when our Lord withdraws himself, knowing something of the bliss and joy of his presence, when he hides his face our souls faint with a heavenly love-sickness. “Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love” (Son 2:5).
I am sick of love! More than anything in this world, we want him. We long for his presence. We want to know him. Our hearts cry, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death!” We want to know Christ in the fullness of his love. We want to know him in the fellowship of his suffering. We want to know him in the power of his resurrection. (Eph 3:19; Php 3:10). We long for his return. We long to be with him, and to know his manifest presence with us. So long as we remain in the body of flesh, so long as we must live here, among all the thorns of this sin-cursed earth, let us ever have the refreshing comfort of his grace.
Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples. The flagons of wine represent the love of Christ. The apples represent the promises of the gospel. The promises of the gospel are as apples of gold in pictures of silver (Pro 25:11).
A Loving Comforter
“His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me” (Son 2:6). Our beloved Lord knows how to comfort our troubled and distressed hearts. John Gill wrote, The church, having desired to be stayed, supported, strengthened, and comforted, presently found her beloved with her, who with both hands sustained her.
These words are expressive of many things. Surely, they speak of his tender love and care for us. They reflect the believers intimate union and communion with Christ. And they display our safety and security in the arms of Christ. Is this now true? Has our beloved Lord and Redeemer come to us once again? Does he again hold and embrace us? If truly we are made to enjoy the fellowship of Christ, let us heed the admonition of verse seven.
A loving admonition
“I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.” Having experienced the sweetness of Christs communion and the manifestation of his love, we greatly desire that they continue so long as we are upon the earth (Mat 17:4). Yes, our Lord will come to us and withdraw himself from us according to his own wisdom and pleasure. We recognize those words, Till he please. We bow to his will, even here. Yet, we must be careful that we do nothing to provoke him to leave us (Eph 4:30). We must not neglect him and his love. We must take care not to grieve him (Eph 4:23-32).
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
the rose: Psa 85:11, Isa 35:1, Isa 35:2
lily: Son 2:16, Son 6:3, Isa 57:15
Reciprocal: 1Ch 5:16 – Sharon Son 5:10 – beloved Son 5:16 – most Isa 33:9 – Sharon Hos 14:5 – he shall
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Son 2:1-2. I am the rose of Sharon These are the words of the bridegroom. He compares himself to the rose and lily, for fragrancy and beauty. Sharon was a very fruitful place, and famous for roses. As the lily among thorns Compared with thorns, which it unspeakably exceeds in glory and beauty; so is my love So far doth my church, or people, excel all other assemblies. The title of daughter is often given to whole nations. These are Christs words, to which the spouse makes the following reply.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Son 2:1. Sharon was a fertile district not far from Nazareth. 1Ch 27:29. Isa 33:9; Isa 65:10.
Son 2:6. His left hand is under my head, conferring all temporal favours. His right hand administers all divine consolations; yea, sustains me while I run the heavenly course.
Son 2:7. I charge you, oh ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, the startling antelope and the timid deer; if ye disturb, if ye discompose his complete affection till (affection) itself shall desire it. TAYLOR. These words occur in Son 3:5; Son 8:4; and it would seem, exactly in the same sense.
Son 2:12. The voice of the turtle is heard in our land. The voice of the swallow, as many would read, which announces by its welcome tweetlings, that the spring is come with all its reviving charms. We have in England about twenty birds of passage, which come as harbingers of the approach of summer.
Son 2:15. Take us the foxes. Hebrews the shualim, as in Jdg 15:4; which properly means the foxes; yet the jackals, and other depredators of the vineyards and fruiteries, may be understood. These are the words of the bride, the bridegroom being asleep.
Son 2:17. Be thou like a roeon the mountains of Bether; a range of hills lying north of the road to Csara. Some read craggy mountains, where the wild goats, the chamois, and the deer rebounded in the chase. The roe discovers the finest actions of nature in flying from danger, and seeking the cooling streams, while the affrighted goat aims at the craggy mountains, where he can leap from rock to rock, and leave his pursuers far behind.
REFLECTIONS.
The preseding chapter exhibits the spouse longing for her Lords return, and the conversation which ensued. Here she is conducted into the banqueting house, after their walk in the gardens, and after selecting flowers in the perfection of bloom. I am, says the king, the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the vallies. He was more to Pharaohs daughter than the rose she carried in her bosom; and his beauty and fragrance far surpassed those of the sweetest flowers.
While yet in the garden, he compares his beloved to the lily among thorns; for she was hated of her mothers children, and envied by the daughters of Jerusalem. So the church, the beauteous lily of christian piety, has flourished among the piercing thorns of pagan persecution; and often among the corrupted creeds and superstitious rituals of the church of Rome. Yea, God has caused the earth to help the woman; and the thorns, whose end is burning, to protect the church. The queen, in return, compares her Lord to the apple-tree, which seems to surpass all others in usefulness to man: she sat under his shadow with great delight. The lovers of devotion in warm climates sought solitude in the shade. Under the oak of Mamre, Abraham was often blessed; under the figtree Nathaniel had a blessed morning, which prepared his heart for a sight of the Saviour. Happy is that people, allowed to sit under their vine and figtree undisturbed by wicked men. Oh what a shadow is Christ: what breezes of balm and spicy fragrance are wafted by the Holy Spirit on devout souls, and what delicious fruits do they taste in the garden of God!
The princely banquet follows. Here the queen, seeing the magnificence of the hall, the delicious quality of the viands, the splendour of his ministers, eclipsed by the glory of the king, faints like the queen of the south, or like the apostles on the mount. Here she is comforted with cordials, and revived with fruits: here she is supported by the king, and encouraged by a sight of Davids banner, so terrific to all his foes, but to her a canopy of love. Now, besides the ordinary comforts of the Holy Ghost, Act 9:31; there are in private and public devotion, sometimes such overshadowings of the divine favour as cannot be uttered in human words. I have been so happy, says Ambrose, in devotion, that I have thought my soul caught up into the third heaven, and praising God with hosts of angels. Those seasons leave a most sanctifying serenity on the soul, which reposes on the Lords arm, and is emboldened by the banner of his triumphant cross.
The scenes of the day close by sleep at night; and in the care which the spouse evinces that her weary lord might enjoy a peaceful repose, women are taught to refresh and comfort their husbands, when they return from the fatigues of labour and of business. Here properly the chapter should end with the duties of the day. Verse the eighth opens with a morning scene, and in the reviving season of the spring. The king rising early, which no one will doubt who considers his works, returns at a proper hour to invite the queen to walk in the pleasure grounds. He approaches from the gardens the wall of her house, he looks in at the lattice, and says, rise up my love, my fair one, and come away. The arguments he uses are, that the winter is past; the rainy season, (with us the snow) is gone. Hence the church is instructed by the seasons in the service of her God. During the winter of afflictions and trials we should take root in all the passive virtues, and in the exercise of faith. We should revive as the spring, we should put on beauty as the summer, and bring forth the golden fruit of autumn, correspondent to the culture of God.
The church must be roused from lethargy, and the supineness of a winterly state. Rise up my love, my fair one: it is high time to awake out of sleep. Rise, shine, for thy light is come. Thy God and king is calling thee, with all the alluring titles of grace. Oh how moving is his voice, how inviting the glory to which we are called! And if the balmy fragrance of the spring, if the warblers of the grove, and the voice of the turtle, a bird of passage which knows her season in the heavens, be so inviting to enjoy the charms of spring, how much more should the voice of Christ, the drawings of his Spirit, and the invitations of ministers allure us to rise from slumber, that we may walk in the light of his countenance, and taste the joys of his kingdom.
The church, seeing the depredations committed by the foxes in the vineyard, implores that they may be taken in the gins or nets prepared for that purpose. And what animal could more strikingly represent false teachers, and false professors? They spoil the vine by the daily influence of their maxims, temper and spirit. They misguide the rising age by their principles, they prejudice the public against piety by their worldly and unsanctified spirit, and they burden the church by the aversions they betray to experimental religion. The same may be observed with regard to indwelling sin. Here the little foxes of pride, self-love, and low desire have their covert. These are the cubs which must be taken while young; for all sin is the easiest to be vanquished in its first rising. Then the soul enjoys the sanctifying rest of Gods people; and then she can say, My beloved is mine, and I am his; yea, I am his for ever, by every bond and every tie. He is my all in all; my Creator, my shepherd, my rock, and my God. He is my way, the truth, and the life. He is made of God to me wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. I am his by every vow which worms of dust can make or pay to God.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Son 2:1-7. Mutual Praise and Praise of Love.The bride sets herself forth as the Rose (meadow saffron or crocus) of Sharon (or the plain) and the Lily (scarlet anemone?) of the valley. To this the lover replies that other young women are in comparison to her the thorns among which those lilies often grow. This is not a cynical attack on womankind, but shows the idealising power of love for the one. The appropriate reply is that he also stands out from among men as the apple (or quince) tree among trees, a tree which gives grateful shade and a pleasant aromatic fruit; it is joy to be in his company as it was a delight to sit under the shadow of such a tree. This thought is now expanded as the young woman dwells upon the delights of love. For banqueting house the literal rendering of mg., house of wine is to be preferred: as it is not likely that the phrase is a proper name, it is probably a symbol for the chamber of love. The banner means not a flag to be followed, but a sign for gathering. It is possible that there may be an allusion to the custom of the ancient wine-seller, who hoisted a flag to show that he had wine in stock. The excitement and ecstasy induces weariness and faintness, so she desires to be restored and strengthened by raisins (2Sa 6:19) or raisin cakes (Jer 7:18), and apples with their stimulating aroma and suggestions of love. The passage closes with the refrain which occurs again in Son 3:5 and Son 8:4, in a similar context. On the whole, though the abstract word love is used for the concrete lover, it seems most probable that the charge is not to disturb the enjoyment of love rather than not to waken the desire for it. In this connexion it is natural that the conjuration should not bring in the name of Israels God, but rather, as here, the names of animals that were used as symbols of modest gracefulness and by tradition associated with the ancient worship of the goddess of love.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
2: 1. I am the rose of Sharon,
A lily of the valleys.
The King has said “Thou art fair,” and in response to his “Thou art” she can rightly say “I am.” “I am the rose of Sharon.” Faith expresses what grace has made her in His sight – fragrant as a rose and beautiful as a lily of the valleys. Not a lily in some crowded city for the admiration of the world, but a lily for the Bridegroom’s delight in some secluded valley. There is no presumption in accepting the place that Christ, by grace, has given us before Himself. Rather is it presumption, when Christ says “Thou art fair,” to say “I am unworthy.” The prodigal could speak thus in the far country, but when the Father’s arms were around him and the Father’s kisses covered him all was changed. And, in the presence of the King at His table, we may well take up the words of the bride, not indeed to exalt ourselves, but to magnify the grace of the One who has put His beauty upon us.
The Bridegroom.
(2).
2. As the lily among thorns,
So is my love among the daughters.
This is the response of the King. He affirms what the bride has said. She is the lily; but in the valley where the lily grows there are thorns which serve as a background to bring out the beauty of the lily. In the dark valley of this world there are those who have none of the beauty of Christ upon them, thorns for the burning, thorns that would only wound Him. But there are also His own, those in whom Christ can delight – the excellent of the earth – lilies among the thorns. They are Christ’s sanctified ones, and He has put His beauty upon them. Their excellencies are the more displayed by reason of their dreary surroundings. To have His lily Christ had to descend into the valley of the thorns, yea, He must wear the thorns to win His bride. It is by His “one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Heb 10:14).
The Bride.
(3 – 7).
3. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood,
So is my beloved among the sons;
I sit down under his shadow with great delight,
And his fruit is sweet to my taste.
The response of the bride is immediate. If the King sees excellence in the bride above all the daughters of women, the bride sees in her beloved the only one among the sons of men in whom she can find rest, and shade, and fruit. Thus she likens him to the citron tree with its dense shade and luscious golden fruit. Many trees of the wood may appear more imposing to the eye of man, even as men esteem their fellows of more account than the despised and lowly Jesus. Other trees of the forest may give shelter, but yield no fruit; some, too, may yield fruit but give no shade, but this tree alone meets every need. Christ is the true citron tree. Christ is the tree of life. To man’s eye, as He passed through this world, merely a root out of a dry ground, without form or comeliness, but to the believer that lowly Man is the only one among the sons of men that can afford shelter, and refreshment, and rest in this dry and weary world. If, with faith’s transpiercing gaze, we look on to the New Jerusalem we see the tree of life in the midst of the street, by the river of life, growing in its native soil, and there indeed shall we find eternal rest and perennial refreshment. Like the bride we shall say, “I sit down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.”
4. He hath brought me to the house of wine,
And his banner over me is love.
In the Bridegroom’s presence the bride has found rest from toil, shelter from the heat of the day, and fruit sweet to her taste. Now her experience deepens; her needs all met she is led into the full enjoyment of the bounties provided by the King. She is brought into the house of wine, to taste the fulness of his joy and the rapture of his love. Not now “his shadow,” nor “his fruit,” but himself.
So, in the experience of our souls; we sit down under the shadow of Christ, and in His presence find rest from toil, relief from the burden and heat of the day, and refreshment and nourishment for our souls. But, great as these blessings are, they have in them a measure of relief; and beyond the blessings that bring relief there are others that carry with them richer, deeper, experiences – experiences into which no thought of relief can enter, but only the infinite enjoyment of His fulness. Experiences which answer to the house of wine and the banner of love. Setting us free from earthly things Christ would lead us into His heavenly things. He would give us a taste of the fulness of joy and the pleasures for evermore, there to find His banner over us is love. The banner tells of the conqueror and of victory gained. The love of Christ has conquered. And what a victory has Christ gained for His people! Not a victory such as the poor clay kings of this world gain, who wade to their thrones through the blood of millions of their fellowmen, this mighty Conqueror gains His victory by the shedding of His own blood – by Himself becoming the Victim. And having gained His victory He unfurls His banner, and His banner is love. Love made Him the willing victim; love held Him on His way as He descended into the valley of thorns; love held Him on the cross – no nails of man’s forging could hold the Christ of God upon the cross – love that the many waters could not quench or the floods drown held Him there. Love divine, eternal, unquenchable, all-powerful, has gained the mighty victory, and the banner that declares His victory is inscribed with His love.
5. Stay me with flagons,
Refresh me with citrons;
For I am sick of love.
The ecstasy of the house of wine is more than the Bride can sustain. There are spiritual experiences too deep for these weak vessels of clay. Was it not thus with the Apostle when caught up into the third heaven? He heard unspeakable words, not possible to utter. Little indeed may such experiences be the common lot of the Christian life, but at times the Lord grants to His people such an overwhelming sense of His love that we are constrained to cry out in such language as a dying saint once used, “Lord, hold Thy hand; it is enough, thy servant is a clay vessel and can hold no more.” One of the later Puritans well expressed such an experience when he wrote:
“The love, the love that I bespeak,
Works wonders in the soul:
For when I’m whole it makes me sick,
When sick it makes me whole.”
6. His left hand is under my head,
And his right hand doth embrace me.
This is the answer to the bride’s call for sustaining power. The banner of love is over her, and the arms of love are around her. She has attained the longing of her heart expressed in the opening of the canticle. She has reached the assurance and enjoyment of the Bridegroom’s love. How happy when the saint finds every longing of the renewed nature satisfied by the love of Christ.
7. I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem,
By the roes, and by the hinds of the field,
That ye stir not up, nor awaken love, till it please.
The canticle closes with an appeal to the daughters of Jerusalem not to disturb the rest of love. The slightest movement would disturb the timid and sensitive roe or hind of the field. With the banner of love over her, and the arms of love around her, the bride dreads the slightest intrusion that would mar the enjoyment of love. And well may the saint, in the enjoyment of the love of Christ, dread any intrusion that would break up or mar that intimacy of love that may exist between him and his Saviour.
Canticle 2. Son 2:8-17; Son 3:1-5.
The Awakening of Love.
The Bride.
(8, 9).
8. The voice of my beloved!
Behold, he cometh.
The first canticle presents a day scene with the King sitting at his table: in the second canticle the enjoyment of love in the presence of the King is past, and it opens with the bride reposing in her home in the plains, with its latticed windows. In the absence of the Bridegroom, she has turned back to her own home, in her own land; like Peter, in a later day, who said, in the absence of Christ, “I go a-fishing.” He turned back to circumstances that once he had left to follow Christ. Others follow him, only to find on “that night they caught nothing.” The bride is aroused by hearing the voice of her beloved, which tells that he is coming. Then in the distance he is seen approaching over the mountains: a little later he stands behind the wall of the house, then he shows himself through the lattice.
How often, in the history of the Lord’s people, a time of great joy and blessing is followed by a season of spiritual torpor. The banqueting house of the King gives place to the latticed home of the bride. Communion with the King at his table is followed by the solitary longings of the bride in her own home.
How soon the early freshness of the church passed away. When “the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul”; when the saints were marked by “great power” and “great grace”; when they continued daily with “one accord,” “breaking bread from house to house,” and “did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,” may we not say, they were in the banqueting-house, with the King at his table. But when this early freshness passed away, when all sought their own, and not the things of Jesus Christ, must we not admit that spiritual night had fallen upon the saints, that they had lost all sense of their high calling, and settled down in their own homes in the plains of the world?
And what is true of the church as a whole is often true, alas, of the individual. After the early freshness of first love how often the young convert settles down at a low spiritual level, in which, though the outward routine of service may be kept up, yet the constraining love of Christ – the true motive for all service – is lacking.
Such are the conditions portrayed in this second canticle. But further, we see the way love takes to meet this condition, how the King reawakens bridal affections in the heart of the bride. And herein there is rich instruction for our souls, to which we do well to take heed.
The affections of the bride are first awakened by the voice of the Bridegroom. Drowsy though she may be at once she recognizes the voice of her beloved. So with the Lord’s sheep: they may wander from Him, but it ever remains true “they know His voice” (Joh 10:4). Peter, and those who follow him, may turn back to their poor fisherman’s life; but when recalled by the visit of the Lord, at once they discern “it is the Lord.”
The voice proclaims that he is coming. Could anything awaken the affections like the news that he is coming? What would so quicken the affections of a wife as the knowledge that at last her husband from overseas is coming? What will quicken the affections of Israel’s godly remnant, in the day to come, like the glorious announcement, “The King is coming”? “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh” (Zec 9:9). So, too, the affections of Christ’s waiting church are awakened by the truth that He is coming. All the majestic unfoldings in the Revelation, by elders and angels, of solemn events, of coming glories and eternal blessing, are heard with calm if rapt attention; but when every other voice is hushed, and we hear Jesus Himself saying, “Surely I come quickly,” then, at last, the affections of the church are aroused, and the cry goes back, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
8. Leaping upon the mountains,
Skipping upon the hills,
9. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart.
With the energy of a gazelle or a young hart, leaping from rock to rock on the mountains and the hills, so the earnest desire of the King, to claim his bride, is presented as overcoming every obstacle. The bride may sleep, but not so the King. Israel may sleep, but “He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” Four times over does the Lord say to His church, “Behold I come quickly”; and does not this word “quickly” bespeak the earnest desire of the Lord for that great day when “the marriage of the Lamb is come”?
9. Behold, he standeth behind our wall,
He looketh in through the windows,
Glancing through the lattice.
Not only does the King awaken the affections of the bride by the sound of his voice, but, in patience, he stands waiting at the wall of the house; and then, showing himself through the lattice, attracts her by the beauty of his person. Was it not thus that Christ dealt with those two disappointed saints on the way to Emmaus? He first made their hearts burn within them as He talked with them by the way. Then He stands at the threshold of their house as a wayfaring man, and at last He reveals Himself to them – just a glance, as it were, through the lattice – and He is gone. And in like manner He deals with His beloved people to-day. He awakens our drooping affections by making His still small voice of love to be heard in the secret of our souls, and in wonderful patience He often stands at our doors, even as He stood at the door of the poor Laodicean, waiting to show Himself and attract our hearts by His excellencies.
The Bridegroom.
(10-15).
10. My beloved spake and said unto me,
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
Hitherto the bride could only catch the sound of his voice, but now she hears the words of his mouth, and gladly repeats what her beloved says. The King would no longer be without his bride; he would call her away from the dark wintry plains to fairer, brighter scenes. His first word would arouse her from her circumstances: “Rise up.” His next word proclaims how precious she is in his sight: “My love, my fair one.” And lastly, she hears the clear, definite call: “Come away” – telling of the longing of his heart.
And is it not thus the Lord is speaking to His people to-day? Can we not hear His voice saying to us, “Rise up,” as He seeks to arouse us from the spiritual torpor that overcomes us and holds us down to earth? Is He not saying to us, “Arise ye, and depart: for this is not your rest”? And again we are reminded by the Apostle, “Now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”
But further, does not the Lord remind us how precious we are in His sight when He tells us how He loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church? Should it not move our hearts to their very depths to hear Him still call His bride, “My love, my fair one,” in spite of all our coldness, our wanderings, and our breakdown?
Moreover, do we not hear Him calling us away from this poor world, as He says, “Ye are not of this world, but I have chosen you out of the world”? And shall we not very soon hear His voice saying, “Come away,” as He calls us to meet Him in the air?
11. For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
12 The flowers appear on the earth,
The time of singing is come,
And the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land..
13 The fig-tree melloweth her winter figs,
And the vines in bloom give forth their fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away!
The King not only calls the bride from her home in the plains, but he unfolds to her a new world of blessing, where neither storm nor winter’s blast can ever come, where all is beautiful to the eye, sweet to the ear, and pleasant to the taste – the land of flowers and singing, the land of green figs and the new wine. The presence of the bride is all that is lacking to complete the blessedness of that scene, and therefore the King concludes with the call, “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away!”
When the Lord gathered His sorrowing disciples around Him, on that last sad night before He left the world, He poured comfort into their troubled hearts by unfolding before them another world, a home that He was going to prepare, beyond this world’s wintry night. The storm that was over our heads was about to burst on His Head, and He can look beyond the darkness and the judgment and open to our vision a new home, where faith will be changed to sight – the flowers will appear; where the time of weeping will be past, and the time of singing will be come; where the voice of the dove will be heard, as the saints join to sing the new song of glory to the Lamb. There indeed we shall feed on heaven’s fruit and drink of the new wine. And to complete the blessedness of that scene there only wants the presence of the bride, the Lamb’s wife. Long has been the waiting-time – the patience of Christ – but ere He went He said, “I will come again and receive you unto Myself,” and soon, very soon, the winter-time will be past, the waiting-time will be over, He will come to fetch His bride, and we shall hear His call, “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away!” Well may we sing, with such a prospect before us –
“Beyond the storms I’m going,
Beyond this vale of tears,
Beyond the flood’s o’erflowing,
Beyond the changing years,
I’m going to the better land,
By faith long since possessed,
The glory shines before me,
For this is not my rest.”
14 My dove, in the clefts of the rock,
In the covert of the precipice,
The King has told the bride of a land of sunshine and song, when the winter will be past and the rain will be over and gone; but in the meantime she is yet in the land of winter and storm. But the one who is coming for her is the one who protects her. He likens his bride to a dove hiding in the cleft of the rock, and finding shelter from the storm in the covert of the precipice. And even so to-day, while waiting for the Lord, His people have enemies to oppose, and storms to face; but grace has provided a hiding-place and a covert from the storm. As we read, “A Man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of waters in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land” (Isa 32:1; Isa 32:2). In the cleft of that Rock – the Man Christ Jesus, with the pierced side – how safe from the storm are the Lord’s poor people, who may truly be likened to a timid dove. Well may we sing –
“O Lamb of God, still keep us
Close to Thy pierced side,
‘Tis only there in safety
And peace we can abide.”
14. Let me see Thy countenance, let me hear thy voice;
For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.
Through the lattice of her home, the King had revealed Himself to the bride, and spoken to her; but this will not satisfy his heart. He would fain see her countenance, and hear her voice. To his ear her voice is sweet, and in his sight her countenance is fair. May we not say the Lord is not content to reveal His glories to His people and converse with them? He longs for the day when His people will be presented to Him all-glorious, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing – perfect through the comeliness that He has put upon them. And He longs to hear them unite in saying, “Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.”
15 Take us the foxes,
The little foxes, that spoil the vineyards;
For our vineyards are in bloom.
The King has expressed His longing to see the face of His bride, and to hear her voice; but as the foxes, with their young, spoil the vineyards as they break into bloom, so oftentimes evils, of a secret and subtle nature, may be at work which hinder the bride from yielding refreshment to the heart of the King.
Christ longs for the company of His people, His desire is to sup with them and they with Him. To sit at His feet and hold communion with Him, is the “one thing needful.” Our busy service He can dispense with, but our company He will not be without. Mary yielded this pleasant fruit to the Lord, but not so Martha. For the moment a fox had made her unfruitful. And how often our case is like Martha’s. Some fox – it may be, as nature counts, a little fox – is allowed to work unheeded in the secret of our hearts. Pride, covetousness, lust, unkind and bitter thoughts, murmuring and discontent, irritability and impatience, jealousy and envy, or vanity and levity, may be allowed unjudged, and communion is hindered, and the life becomes unfruitful. We need to keep a sharp watch against the inroads of these foxes, and expel them with ruthless hand if they appear.
The Bride.
(16 – 3: 5).
16. My beloved is mine, and I am his.
The King had paid a brief visit to his bride and was gone; but in that short interview he had awakened her affections, even as in a later day – a resurrection day – the Lord, at another short interview, could turn “slow hearts” into burning hearts. The King had revealed himself to the bride through the lattice: He had poured into her ear the report of a land of sunshine and flowers, a land of rest and song, a land of joy and plenty: He had called her to arise and come away to that happy land: He had disclosed the longings of his heart to see her face and hear her voice, and as she listens to these wonderful unfoldings, her heart is stirred, her love is awakened, and in the realization of his love and devotion, she exclaims, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” He becomes the absorbing object of her heart, through the realization that she is an object to him. And thus it is that Christ deals with His own to-day. He reveals Himself to us; He unfolds to us all that His heart has purposed for us; He tells us how He longs to have us with Him face to face, and to hear our voices as we raise the new song, and thus once again, as He talks with us by the way, He makes our slow hearts burn, and gives us the deep consciousness that He is ours and we are His. And thus, not through the bare statement of a truth, but, through the experimental realization of His love He speaks to our hearts in such wise that each one is compelled to own with great delight, “My beloved is mine, and I am His.”
16. He feedeth among the lilies.
17. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away.
The King has already likened the bride to the lily, and has unfolded to her all the thoughts of his heart, and thus she is brought to realize that his food and his delight is in herself. During the night of his absence and until the marriage-day, “He feedeth among the lilies.” During the night of Christ’s absence what is there to minister to His heart save His beloved people? It is still true, “He feedeth among the lilies, until the day break and the shadows flee away.” He would indeed have us with Himself in the glory where He is according to His prayer, “Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am,” but, during the time of shadows, He delights to come to His own, according to that other sweet word, “I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.” How true are the words of an old divine, “The believer hath a heartsome life, and a rich inheritance, Christ here, and Christ hereafter.”
17 Turn, my beloved: be thou like a roe, or a young hart’
Upon the mountains of Bether.
The bride expresses the longing of her heart for other visits from the King even as the roes and the harts come down from the mountains by night to feed in the plains. So, indeed, may we welcome every occasion on which the Lord comes into the midst of His people as they pass through this dark world.
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
The Shulammite described herself as a rather common, albeit attractive person. The "rose of Sharon" probably refers to the crocuses (possibly narcissuses, lilies, or meadow saffrons) that grew on the plain of Sharon that bordered the Mediterranean Sea south of the Carmel mountain range. Other less likely locations are the area in Galilee between Mt. Tabor and the Sea of Galilee, [Note: Delitzsch, p. 40.] or the Sharon in Transjordan (cf. 1Ch 5:16). Lilies grew and still grow easily in the valleys of Israel. She did not depreciate her appearance here as she had earlier (Son 1:5-6), though she was modest. Perhaps Solomon’s praise (Son 1:9-10) had made her feel more secure.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
TRUE LOVE TESTED
Son 1:1-17; Son 2:1-17; Son 3:1-11; Son 4:1-16; Son 5:1
THE poem opens with a scene in Solomons palace. A country maiden has just been introduced to the royal harem. The situation is painful enough in itself, for the poor, shy girl is experiencing the miserable loneliness of finding herself in an unsympathetic crowd. But that is not all. She is at once the object of general observation; every eye is turned towards her; and curiosity is only succeeded by ill-concealed disgust. Still the slavish women, presumably acting on command, set themselves to excite the new-comers admiration for their lord and master. First one speaks some bold amorous words, {Son 1:2} and then the whole chorus follows. {Son 1:3} All this is distressing and alarming to the captive, who calls on her absent lover to fetch her away from such an uncongenial scene; she longs to run after him; for it is the king who has brought her into his chambers, not her own will; {Son 1:4} The women of the harem take no notice of this interruption, but finish their ode on the charms of Solomon. All the while they are staring at the rustic maiden, and she now becomes conscious of a growing contempt in their looks. What is she that the attractions of the king before which the dainty ladies of the court prostrate themselves should have no fascination for her? She notices the contrast between the swarthy hue of her sunburnt countenance and the pale complexion of these pampered products of palace seclusion. She is so dark in comparison with them that she likens herself to the black goatshair tents of the Arabs. {Son 1:5} The explanation is that her brothers have made her work in their vineyards. Meanwhile she has not kept her own vineyard. (Son 1:6) She has not guarded her beauty as these idle women, who have nothing else to do, have guarded theirs: but perhaps she has a sadder thought-she could not protect herself when out alone at her task in the country or she would never have been captured and carried off to prison where she now sits disconsolate. Possibly the vineyard she has not kept is the lover whom she has lost. (See Son 8:12). Still she is a woman, and with a touch of piqued pride she reminds her critics that if she is dark-black compared with them-she is comely. They cannot deny that. It is the cause of all her misery; she owes her imprisonment to her beauty. She knows that their secret feeling is one of envy of her, the latest favourite. Then their affected contempt is groundless. But, indeed, she has no desire to stand as their rival. She would gladly make her escape. She speaks in a half soliloquy. Will not somebody tell her where he is whom her soul loveth? Where is her lost shepherd lad? Where is he feeding his flock? Where is he resting it at noon? Such questions only provoke mockery. Addressing the simple girl as the “fairest among women,” the court ladies bid her find her lover for herself. Let her go back to her country life and feed her kids by the shepherds tents. Doubtless if she is bold enough to court her swain in that way she will not miss seeing him.
Hitherto Solomon has not appeared. Now he comes on the scene, and proceeds to accost his new acquisition in highly complimentary language, with the ease of an expert in the art of courtship. At this point we encounter the most serious difficulty for the theory of a shepherd lover. To all appearances a dialogue between the king and the Shulammite here ensues. {Son 1:9-17; Son 2:1-6} But if this were the case, the country girl would be addressing Solomon in terms of the utmost endearment-conduct utterly incompatible with the “shepherd hypothesis.” The only alternative is to suppose that the hard-pressed girl takes refuge from the importunity of her royal flatterer by turning aside to an imaginary, half dream-like conversation with her absent lover. This is not by any means a probable position, it must be allowed; it seems to put a strained interpretation on the text. Undoubtedly if the passage before us stood by itself, there would not be any difference of opinion about it; everybody would take it in its obvious meaning as a conversation between two lovers. But it does not stand by itself-unless, indeed, we are to give up the unity of the book. Therefore it must be interpreted so as not to contradict the whole course of the poem, which shews that another than Solomon is the true lover of the disconsolate maiden.
The king begins with the familiar device by which rich men all the world over try to win the confidence of poor girls when there is no love on either side, -a device which has been only too successful in the case of many a weak Marguerite though her tempter has not always been a handsome Faust; but in the present case innocence is fortified by true love, and the trick is a failure. The king notices that this peasant girl has but simple plaited hair and homely ornaments. She shall have plaits of gold and studs of silver! Splendid as one of Pharaohs chariot horses, she shall be decorated as magnificently as they are decorated! What is this to our staunch heroine? She treats it with absolute indifference, and begins to soliloquise, with a touch of scorn in her language. She has been loaded with scent after the manner of the luxurious court, and the king while seated feasting at his table has caught the odour of the rich perfumes. That is why he is now by her side. Does he think that she will serve as a new dainty for the great banquet, as a fresh fillip for the jaded appetite of the royal voluptuary? If so he is much mistaken. The kings promises have no attraction for her, and she turns for relief to dear memories of her true love. The thought of him is fragrant as the bundle of myrrh she carries in her bosom, as the henna-flowers that bloom in the vineyards of far-off Engedi.
Clearly Solomon has made a clumsy move. This shy bird is not of the common species with which he is familiar. He must aim higher if he would bring down his quarry. She is not to be classed with the wares of the matrimonial market that are only waiting to be assigned to the richest bidder. She cannot be bought even by the wealth of a kings treasury. But if there is a woman who can resist the charms of finery, is there one who can stand against the admiration of her personal beauty? A man of Solomons experience would scarcely believe that such was to be found. Nevertheless now the sex he estimates too lightly is to be vindicated, while the king himself is to be taught a wholesome lesson. He may call her fair; he may praise her dove-like eyes. {Son 1:15} His flattery is lost upon her. She only thinks of the beauty of her shepherd lad, and pictures to herself the green bank on which they used to sit, with the cedars and firs for the beams and roof of their trysting-place. (Son 1:16-17) Her language carries us away from the gilded splendour and close, perfumed atmosphere of the royal palace to scenes such as Shakespeare presents in the forest of Arden and the haunts of Titania, and Milton in the Mask of “Comus.” Here is a Hebrew lady longing to escape from the clutches of one who for all his glory is not without some of the offensive traits of the monster Comus. She thinks of herself as a wild flower, like the crocus that grows on the plains of Sharon or the lily (literally the anemone) that is sprinkled so freely over the upland valleys. {Son 2:1} The open country is the natural habitat of such a plant, not the stifling court. Solomon catches at her beautiful imagery. Compared with other maidens she is like a lily among thorns. {Son 2:2}
And now these scenes of nature carry the persecuted girl away in a sort of reverie. If she is like the tender flower, her lover resembles the apple tree at the foot of which it nestles, a tree the shadow of which is delightful and its fruit sweet. {Son 2:3} She remembers how he brought her to his banqueting house; that rustic bower was a very different place from the grand divan on which she had seen Solomon sitting at his table. No purple hangings like those of the kings palace there screened her from the sun. The only banner her shepherd could spread over her was love, his own. {Son 2:4} But what could be a more perfect shelter?
She is fainting. How she longs for her lover to comfort her! She has just compared him to an apple tree; now the refreshment she hungers for is the fruit of this tree; that is to say, his love. {Son 2:5} Oh that he would put his arms round her and support her, as in the old happy days before she had been snatched away from him! {Son 2:6}
Next follows a verse which is repeated later, and so serves as a sort of refrain. {Son 2:7} The Shulammite adjures the daughters of Jerusalem not to awaken love. This verse is misrendered in the Authorised Version, which inserts the pronoun “my” before “love” without any warrant in the Hebrew text. The poor girl has spoken of apples. But the court ladies must not misunderstand her. She wants none of their love apples, {See Gen 30:14} no philtre, no charm to turn her affections away from her shepherd lover and pervert them to the importunate royal suitor. The opening words of the poem which celebrated the charms of Solomon had been aimed in that direction. The motive of the worm seems to be the Shulammites resistance to various attempts to move her from loyalty to her true love. It is natural, therefore, that an appeal to desist from all such attempts should come out emphatically.
The poet takes a new turn. In imagination the Shulammite hears the voice of her beloved. She pictures him standing at the foot of the lofty rock on which the harem is built, and crying, –
“Oh, my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the cover of the steep place,
Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice;
For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.” {Son 2:14}
He is like a troubadour singing to his imprisoned lady-love; and she, in her soliloquies, though not by any means a “high-born maiden,” may call to mind the simile in Shelleys “Skylark”:
“Like a high-born maiden In a palace tower,
Soothing her love-laden Soul in secret hour,
With music sweet as love, which overflows her bower.”
She remembers how her lover had come to her bounding over the hills “like a roe or a young hart,” {Son 2:9} and peeping in at her lattice; and she repeats the song with which he had called her out-one of the sweetest songs of spring that ever was sung. {Son 2:11-13} In our own green island we acknowledge that this is the most beautiful season of all the round year; but in Palestine it stands out in more strongly marked contrast to the three other seasons, and it is in itself exceedingly lovely. While summer and autumn are there parched with drought, barren and desolate, and while winter is often dreary with snowstorms and floods of rain, in spring the whole land is one lovely garden, ablaze with richest hues, hill and dale, wilderness and farm-land vying in the luxuriance of their wild flowers, from the red anemone that fires the steep sides of the mountains to the purple and white cyclamen that nestles among the rocks at their feet. Much of the beauty of this poem is found in the fact that it is pervaded by the spirit of an eastern spring. This makes it possible to introduce a wealth of beautiful imagery which would not have been appropriate if any other season had been chosen. Even more lovely in March than England is in May, Palestine comes nearest to the appearance of our country in the former month; so that this poem, that is so completely bathed in the atmosphere of early spring, calls up echoes of the exquisite English garden pictures in Shelleys “Sensitive Plant” and Tennysons “Maud.” But it is not only beauty of imagery that our poet gains by setting his work in this lovely season. His ideas are all ill harmony with the period of the year he describes so charmingly. It is the time of youth and hope, of joy and love-especially of love, for,
“In the spring a young mans fancy
Lightly turns to thoughts of love.”
There is even a deeper association between the ideas of the poem and the season in which it is set. None of the freshness of spring is to be found about Solomon and his harem, but it is all present in the Shulammite and her shepherd; and spring scenes and thoughts powerfully aid the motive of the poem in accentuating the contrast between the tawdry magnificence of the court and the pure, simple beauty of the country life to which the heroine of the poem clings so faithfully.
The Shulammite answers her lover in an old ditty about “the little foxes that spoil the vineyards.” {Son 2:15} He would recognise that, and so discover her presence. We are reminded of the legend of Richards page finding his master by singing a familiar ballad outside the walls of the castle in the Tyrol where the captive crusader was imprisoned. This is all imaginary. And yet the faithful girl knows in her heart that her beloved is hers and that she is his, although in sober reality he is now feeding his flocks in the far-off flowery fields of her old home. {Son 2:16} There he must remain till the cool of the evening, till the shadows melt into the darkness of night, when she would fain he returned to her, coming over the rugged mountains “like a roe or a young hart.” {Son 2:17}
Now the Shulammite tells a painful dream. {Son 3:1-4} She dreamed that she had lost her lover, and that she rose up at night and went out into the streets seeking him. At first she failed to find him. She asked the watchmen whom she met on their round, if they had seen him whom her soul loved. They could not help her quest. But a little while after leaving them she discovered her missing lover, and brought him safely into her mothers house.
After a repetition of the warning to the daughters of Jerusalem not to awaken love, {Son 3:5} we are introduced to a new scene. {Son 3:6-11} It is by one of the gates of Jerusalem, where the country maiden has been brought in order that she may be impressed by the gorgeous spectacle of Solomon returning from a royal progress. The king comes up from the wilderness in clouds of perfume, guarded by sixty men-at-arms, and borne in a magnificent palanquin of cedar-wood, with silver posts, a floor of gold, and purple cushions, wearing on his head the crown with which his mother had crowned him. Is the mention of the mother of Solomon intended to be specially significant? Remember-she was Bathsheba! The allusion to such a woman would not be likely to conciliate the pure young girl, who was not in the least degree moved by this attempt to charm her with a scene of exceptional magnificence.
Solomon now appears again, praising his captive in extravagant language of courtly flattery. He praises her dove-like eyes, her voluminous black hair, her rosy lips, her noble brow (not even disguised by her veil), her towering neck, her tender bosom-lovely as twin gazelles that feed among the lilies. Like her lover, who is necessarily away with his flock, Solomon will leave her till the cool of the evening, till the shadows melt into night; but he has no pastoral duties to attend to, and though the delicate balancing and assimilation of phrase and idea is gracefully manipulated, there is a change. The king will go to “mountains of myrrh” and “hills of frankincense,” {Son 4:6} to make his person more fragrant, and so, as he hopes, more welcome.
If we adopt the “shepherd hypothesis” the next section of the poem must be assigned to the rustic lover. {Son 4:8-15} It is difficult to believe that this peasant would be allowed to speak to a lady in the royal harem. We might suppose that here and perhaps also in the earlier scene the shepherd is represented as actually present at the foot of the rock on which the palace stands. Otherwise this also must be taken as an imaginary scene, or as a reminiscence of the dreamy girl. Although a thread of unity runs through the whole poem. Goethe was clearly correct in calling it “a medley.” Scenes real and imaginary melting one into another cannot take their places in a regular drama. But when we grant full liberty to the imaginary element there is less necessity to ask what is subjective and what objective, what only fancied by the Shulammite and what intended to be taken as an actual occurrence. Strictly speaking, nothing is actual; the whole poem is a highly imaginative series of fancy pictures illustrating the development of its leading ideas.
Next-whether we take it as in imagination or in fact-the shepherd lover calls his bride to follow him from the most remote regions. His language is entirely different from that of the magnificent monarch. He does not waste his breath in formal compliments, high-flown imagery, wearisome lists of the charms of the girl he loves. That was the clumsy method of the king; clumsy, though, reflecting the finished manners of the court, in comparison with the genuine outpourings of the heart of a country lad. The shepherd is eloquent with the inspiration of true love; his words throb and glow with genuine emotion; there is a fine, wholesome passion in them. The love of his bride has ravished his heart. How beautiful is her love! He is intoxicated with it more than with wine. How sweet are her words of tender affection, like milk and honey! She is so pure. there is something sisterly in her love with all its warmth. And she is so near to him that she is almost like a part of himself, as his own sister. This holy and close relationship is in startling contrast to the only thing known as love in the royal harem. It is as much more lofty and noble as it is more strong and deep than the jaded emotions of the court. The sweet pure maiden is to the shepherd like a garden the gate of which is barred against trespassers, like a spring shut off from casual access, like a sealed fountain-sealed to all but one, and, happy man, he is that one. To him she belongs, to him alone. She is a garden, yes, a most fragrant garden, an orchard of pomegranates full of rich fruit, crowded with sweet-scented plants-henna and spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon and all kinds of frankincense, myrrh and aloes and the best of spices. She is a fountain in the garden, sealed to all others, but not stinted towards the one she loves. To him she is as a well of living waters, like the full-fed streams that flow from Lebanon.
The maiden is supposed to hear the song of love. She replies in fearless words of welcome, bidding the north wind awake, and the south wind too that the fragrance of which her lover has spoken so enthusiastically may flow out more richly than ever. For his sake she would be more sweet and loving. All she possesses is for him. Let him come and take possession of his own. {Son 4:16}
What lover could turn aside from such a rapturous invitation? The shepherd takes his bride; he enters his garden, gathers his myrrh and spice, eats his honey and drinks his wine and milk, and calls on his friends to feast and drink with him. {Son 5:1} This seems to point to the marriage of the couple and their wedding feast; a view of the passage which interpreters who regard Solomon as the lover throughout for the most part take, but one which has this fatal objection, that it leaves the second half of the poem without a motive. On the hypothesis of the shepherd lover it is still more difficult to suppose the wedding to have occurred at the point we have now reached, for the distraction of the royal courtship still proceeds in subsequent passages of the poem. It would seem, then, that we must regard this as quite an ideal scene. It may, however, be taken as a reminiscence of an earlier passage in the lives of the two lovers. It is not impossible that it refers to their wedding, and that they had been married before the action of the whole story began. In that case we should suppose that Solomons officers had carried off a young bride to the royal harem. The intensity of the love and the bitterness of the separation apparent throughout the poem would be the more intelligible if this were the situation. It is to be remembered that Shakespeare ascribes the climax of the love and grief of Romeo and Juliet to a time after their marriage. But the difficulty of accepting this view lies in the improbability that so outrageous a crime would be attributed to Solomon, although it must be admitted that the guilty conduct of his father and mother had gone a long way in setting an example for the violation of the marriage tie. In dealing with vague and dreamy poetry such as that of the Song of Solomon, it is not possible to determine a point like this with precision; nor is it necessary to do so. The beauty and force of the passage now before us centre in the perfect mutual love of the two young hearts that here show themselves to he knit together as one, whether already actually married or not yet thus externally united.