Peter Masters on the Song of Solomon . Daily Devotions (Issue 3)
A great allegory of Christ and his church, the Song of Solomon has for centuries provided comfort and uplifting to the Lord’s people. These devotionals, taken from The Mutual Love of Christ and His People by Dr Masters, will lift the soul and soothe the troubled mind by directing it to Christ.
Day 1 . Tuesday
The Secret of the Song of Solomon
Solomon’s Song of Songs is a very beautiful poem of tender love, but why is it in the Bible? There is, after all, nothing in the Song directly about God or faith or worship, nor is there any specific moral instruction. And who are the two lovers?
The answer, and the ‘secret’ to understanding this remarkable book, is that the characters did not literally exist, because this remarkable poem is an allegory like The Pilgrim’s Progress, except that the author is the Holy Spirit.
It is through picture language that rich spiritual lessons are given. This is the oldest view of how we should understand the Song. The great majority of Bible-believing preachers and commentators throughout history have identified the groom as Christ and the bride as His church, and they have shown how the love metaphors prophesy and describe in an amazing way the work of Christ for believers and their response to Him.
For generations the immense value of the Song has been recognised in setting out the ‘ingredients’ of spiritual love.
A very different point of view says that this poem celebrates a real love relationship (some say between Solomon and his first wife) in order to present human love at its best and to suggest lessons for courtship and married life.
Still another viewpoint sees three people in a love triangle, the young woman, her rustic shepherd lover, and King Solomon who tries to seize her for his harem.
We greatly prefer the traditional view for a number of reasons which readers need to know to get the most from the book.
1. The Title Points to Christ
Firstly, the original Hebrew title is ‘Song of Songs’, meaning the best of all possible songs, or the supreme and most beautiful song ever composed, an extravagant title for the love of ordinary human beings. Such a title best refers to the love of the Son of God for His people and their responding love to Him.
2. Solomon is Not a Model for Marriage
Secondly, Solomon, the inspired author, would hardly be the ideal channel for lessons on love and marriage in view of his having acquired a thousand wives and concubines who turned away his heart from God.
The life of the teacher must surely commend the message. If Solomon wrote about his own first courtship and marriage, how could this be described as the best song and put forward as a model when it quickly became a betrayed relationship?
A repentant sinner, however, is an acceptable person to write about the mercy of Christ to His church, and Solomon became such a person after his restoration to God (reflected in Ecclesiastes).
3. There is No Wedding
A third reason why we must see the Song as an allegory of the love between Christ and His church, rather than a manual on married life, is that there is no wedding in it.
It is a fact that the bride and groom are viewed throughout the book as not yet fully married, this being one of the compelling dramatic features. Modern writers tend to marry the couple off at an early stage so that they may view them as husband and wife, complete with physical intimacy and marital tiffs, but all this is read into the Song.
The reality is that the bride and groom had engaged in the first stage of an ancient Jewish betrothal, so that they were wholly committed to each other, but they did not yet live together (a situation reflected in Deuteronomy 20.7).
Today, we would say they were engaged, but the initial betrothal of those days was more binding than modern engagement. Throughout the Song the bride and groom are seen waiting for the day of the wedding ceremony with its great marriage supper, and they are still looking forward to it with great desire at the end.
This, as we shall see, is powerfully prophetic, providing a picture of the exceptionally close union between believers and their Lord as they wait for His coming at the end of the age, and the great bridal supper of the Lamb. This was perfectly expressed long ago by the outstanding commentator Matthew Henry:
‘The spouse wishes for a constant intimacy and freedom with the Lord Jesus. She was already betrothed to him, but the nuptials being not yet solemnised and published (the bride, the Lamb’s wife, will not be completely ready till His second coming), she was obliged to be shy and to keep at some distance.’
The Song is like a drama with several acts, in which we see visits and also times of separation between bride and groom, because she lives in one place and he in another.
Even the wedding procession scene (in chapter 3) ends without ceremony or feast because this is the theme of the book – to view the church of Christ in her wedding procession (now) heading for the great day that lies in the future.
In the Song, therefore, the bride and groom never lie down in intimacy, and it takes hugely imaginative and presumptuous exposition to see them doing so. This ‘in between’ state of being betrothed, and waiting for the great day of the wedding, is the supreme feature of the Song, for this makes it relevant to us today, teaching us how to improve and maintain communion with Christ.
No wonder CH Spurgeon said, ‘As a believer draws near to Heaven, this is the book he takes with him.’ If we miss this feature, the Song becomes chaotic in its order of events, and has nothing to say to our spiritual lives.
4. Love Terms Cannot be Real
A fourth reason for the superiority of the grand old view is that many expressions of admiration used in the Song are simply not credible for human love, such as when the groom tells the bride she resembles pharaoh’s horses, or that she has a neck like the squat, rough Tower of David, plus other equally jarring descriptions.
If, however, the poem is an allegory of the love between Christ and the church, these strange sentiments come to life, describing the privileges and characteristics of saved people.
The love poem is only the ‘vehicle’ for a message. The descriptions were never meant to be wholly realistic, or to be taken literally. As the old saying goes: an allegory says one thing but means another. We must see the deeper meaning.
5. Great Prophecies are Here
A fifth reason for taking the groom to be Christ, and the bride to be the church, is the amount of prophecy which becomes obvious through this interpretation.
It is no coincidence that many passages picture well the incarnation of Christ, His saving work, His resurrection, the establishment of the church age, the calling of the Gentiles, and the future heavenly kingdom. To see these events is certainly not fanciful, as we will show.
One modern evangelical Bible dictionary says rather surprisingly that ‘there is little in the book that is explicitly religious’. This is only true if one takes the fairly modern view that it is a literal love story.
However, if we take the older view, that this book is a guide to spiritual love, then we see Christ and His work prophesied throughout its eight chapters.
6. Allegory is Solomon’s Speciality
A sixth reason for believing that Christ and His church is the subject of this poem is that the Bible tells us that a parable style was the principal feature of Solomon’s writings.
He issued 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 songs (1 Kings 4.32), many of the proverbs being in the book of Proverbs. A proverb is (in the Hebrew) a rule or a comparison, ranging from a short, pithy comparison to a full-size parallel or allegory.
While we are told that Solomon specialised in ‘comparisons’ (teaching truth by means of a fictional story) and also in songs, we are not told that a major part of his work was a marriage guidance manual. We therefore believe that this poem is a combination of song and ‘proverb’.
Applying the Song
The Song is not only an allegory, it is a devotional allegory, intended to exercise and stir our hearts. To explain it we must identify the features of the love of Christ and His people pictured by the words of the groom and the bride.
The point behind the words is often fairly obvious, and in places where it is not so obvious great expounders of the past have frequently proposed excellent applications that seem to hit the mark.
It is true that if we take the view that the Song is an allegory, we could easily be over-imaginative in drawing parallels with the mutual love of Christ and His people. This has been a fault with some writers from the past whose applications, although usually spiritual and touching, are sometimes far-fetched.
In this series of devotions every attempt has been made to keep to applications that are plausible, logical, straightforward, and fully in line with teaching elsewhere in the Bible.
All that follows is in line with the tradition of interpretation so loved by the Reformers, the English Puritans and the great eighteenth and nineteenth-century revival preachers.
It is also in line with the practice of the Jews, who publicly read this book every year at the Passover, their greatest feast, commemorating Israel’s redemption from Egypt, and typifying the redeeming work of Christ.
Why ever would they have read a poem about marriage guidance at such a feast? The Song is clearly about the love of their expected Redeemer.
Day 2 – Wednesday
The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s
Chapter 1
Verse 1. “The song of songs, which is Solomon’s.”
This is described as the very highest song of all, showing that its theme is the greatest manifestation of love ever, the love of God.
Ancient Jewish interpreters unhesitatingly decided that the Song was about the Messiah, and this would have been the view of all believing Jews before the coming of Christ. Much of the message of the Song would have been a great comfort and encouragement to all who waited for Him. Christian expositors soon formed the same view, but with New Testament light and accuracy.
The style of the poem is sometimes reflective, but mainly conversational, as the bride and groom-to-be express their requests and love to each other. As we walk through the fields and glades of these scenes, we remember we are listening to a song, not a lament, and a song that is intended to lift our hearts in devotion and appreciation.
Verse 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.’
The bride-to-be speaks first (and most throughout the Song). She is called ‘my love’ by the groom (in the King James Version), whereas she calls him ‘my beloved’.
Modern Bible translators name the speaker above each verse or group of verses, but this is guesswork and not always reliable. One version calls the groom ‘Solomon’ throughout and the bride ‘the Shulamite’ but this assumes that Solomon is the literal groom which is only the translator’s opinion.
For clarity, and to save on words we will call the woman the bride, or the church, and the man the groom, or Christ.
The bride (the church) begins in reflective vein, but immediately speaks directly to the groom, as we might do when we move from desire to prayer. She wants his kiss as an assurance that they are united in heart.
The kisses of Christ are the redemption-teachings of the Word given, as it were, by His mouth. Here the church mentions her love and enjoyment of the Word, which to her is better than the very best pleasures of the world.
The truths that flow from the Word are vastly superior, bringing the message of a Mediator, of atonement, of pardon, of adoption, of eternal and free salvation, and of communion with God, together with a host of promises and assurances. These are the kisses of Christ, representing blessings without parallel in the world.
The application for us is that our devotions should begin with the Word and with a deep appreciation of its great truths, as words spoken personally to us by the Lord.
Fading is the worldling’s pleasure,
All his boasted pomp and show!
Solid joys and lasting treasure,
None but Zion’s children know.
(John Newton)
The groom’s love is in the plural in Hebrew, signifying the all-surpassing greatness of Christ’s feeling for His people. This is the love that brought Him to Calvary, and that follows each believer through life’s journey.
The bride’s longing for love should be represented in our eagerness to reflect in detail on Christ’s person and work, in order to feel more of His glorious Being and love for us.
Verse 3. “Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.”
The fragrance of the groom’s costly ointments or oils is so remarkable and distinctive that the bride is reminded of them by the very mention of his name. When we really love Christ the mention of His name stirs love and gratitude.
Costly ointments were used in those times to refresh (suggesting again the promises of Scripture), to mollify and heal wounds (we think of the work of Christ that takes away sin), to anoint kings (we think of our being received into God’s family at conversion), and to give pleasure (and we think of the assurance and joy of salvation).
His name should remind us of such blessings. Because the ointment is ‘poured forth’ we are reminded of the sheer abundance of mercy, pardon and life given to saved sinners.
The ‘name’ of God usually stands for His attributes, and when we remember Christ’s divine power, infinity, eternity, purity, knowledge, wisdom and love (which we should frequently do in our devotions) we are moved to amazement that we should be loved by Him. With all this we identify with the words of John Newton:
How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.
In this third verse we meet ‘the virgins’, or the bride’s maidens-in-waiting (elsewhere called the daughters of Jerusalem), who also love the groom. These virgins are treated as learners in the Song and characterised as possessing a certain innocence.
Who are they? The following time-honoured view is favoured by this writer. The church has many close followers who, although not yet mature members, sincerely accept the Gospel and the Lord, such as new believers and very earnest seekers. These are strongly attracted to the church, identifying with her and sharing her interests.
These are the people represented by the virgins. We will call them her maidens-in-waiting, or her friends.
Verse 4. “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 remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.”
The bride speaks both for herself and for her friends, asking the groom to draw them.
Firstly, this drawing reflects conversion, which is the Lord’s initiative, without which our hearts would never have been moved to seek and trust Him.
Secondly, it reflects all times of communion with Him, and here the church is seen praying for desire for real communion.
How much we need a deep desire to meet with Christ! ‘Draw me!’ tells us that we must realise we are at a distance without His help.
‘We will run!’ tells us that we must be determined to respond eagerly and promptly to every opportunity for prayer.
‘Run after’ is more: it is our promise to obey all His commands, focus our minds on His Word, and work for Him.
‘Run after’ also reminds us that the Christian life is a race, and that great effort must be exerted to ensure that we come daily to the place of Bible study and prayer.
The kingly groom responds to the bride’s prayer and brings her to visit him in his palace. In other words, in response to her appeals and her pledges the church is brought into communion and deep appreciation of the Lord and the Word. The result is great gladness and assurance, and the application to us is that every day we must call for admission, valuing the privilege of access, and giving Christ a worthy length of time.
The bride next employs a process of comparison, appreciating her blessings by consciously contrasting them with the worldling’s ‘wine’, or benefits and delights, and we must often do the same, lest we take our blessings for granted, or overvalue worldly things.
Says the bride, ‘the upright love thee,’ hinting that the groom is loved with sincere and genuine love. Bible-believers must be careful not to use greatly excessive expressions of love and appreciation for Christ merely as a matter of habit or ‘culture’ (a fault with some people) so that their love becomes mere sentimentality.
Real love, above all else, is sincere.
Day 3 – Thursday
I Am Black but Comely
Chapter 1
Verse 5. “I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.”
The song has scarcely begun when the bride (the church) gives her testimony to her maidens-in-waiting. She is black, she exclaims, speaking not of her ethnicity but of her excessively sunburned skin acquired as a manual worker in the fields.
She realises she is a woman of low station and many blemishes. However, in the eyes of her groom she is beautiful, and this is her testimony. It is ours also in the church of Jesus Christ.
We are fallen, sinful people, but clad in Christ’s righteousness we are deemed beautiful to Him – ‘comely’. On the one hand, the bride (the church) resembles the black goat-hair tents of Kedar, on the other she resembles the costly tapestries of Solomon’s palace, these suggesting to us the interwoven doctrines of the faith, and the new nature of saved people.
The church’s testimony of grace is here being explained to seekers and to new believers. Unworthy and condemned, she has been brought into wealth and beauty.
Verse 6. “Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother’s children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.”
The bride continues her testimony of grace saying, in effect, ‘Don’t look at me as if I deserved my groom; on the contrary, I am a low-class person of no account, made to work in the vineyards, neglecting my own.’
So the saved person looks back and says, ‘The world got hold of me and I toiled to do its bidding, serving the things of the world and failing to keep my character in order.’ We should never forget our low pre-conversion estate as slaves in the land of Egypt, for this always stirs our love for our Deliverer.
Verse 7. “Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?”
The bride now makes a plaintive cry to her groom, who in verse 4 was a king, but now is seen as a shepherd, an appropriate occupation for one who represents the great Shepherd of the sheep Who knows His own sheep by name, and Who feeds, protects, watches and leads them.
In this verse it appears that the bride has for the moment lost contact with her groom, and is longing to locate him. Where, she asks, is the place where he rests the flock at the heat of noon – a shady place?
When believers are temporarily pushed off-track by temptation, doubt, grief, persecution, hardship or loss they need to recover their communion with the Lord. Here is a good argument to lay before Him when asking for a renewed sense of access to His presence: ‘O thou whom my soul loveth’. We mention our love for Him, and our desire for Him rather than anything in this vain world. This will move the Lord to draw us near.
In addition the bride here offers another reason why she needs to be with the groom, namely that she fears being turned aside in loneliness, or falling from assurance and devotion. Some translate her words, ‘Why should I be as one who veils herself by the flocks of your fellow-shepherds?’ Or ‘Why should I be lost in sorrow, cut off from you?’
We too may plead our fear of falling away, without assurance of communion with Christ.
Verse 8. “If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents.”
The shepherd-king, the groom, now replies to his bride, telling her she is fair and beautiful in his eyes (as we are by grace). If she has lost her way, he tells her, she should obey these directions to find him: she must look out for the tracks of the flock, and follow them.
The application to ourselves is obvious. To relocate the Lord at any time, whether a seeker or a veteran Christian, is not complex. Just look for the old paths.
Go to Him by way of Calvary and repentance, asking the Spirit to search your heart, giving fresh conviction of sin, together with sincerity and love.
Truly turn away from sin, including attitudes such as ingratitude, self-pity, and resentment of others.
Reflect on what Christ has done for you, thank Him, and yield your life to Him afresh.
Tell Him you will henceforth love, obey and serve Him, and wholeheartedly join the shepherds’ tents of those who love Him and engage in His service, for the non-serving believer can hardly expect an increase in felt love and communion.
Also, when you go to Him for renewal of spiritual life and vigour, take others with you, the ‘kids’ or the little goats. In other words, be a witness and a blessing to others, taking them into your daily ministry of intercession, just as the bride of the poem evidently does for her maidens-in-waiting.
Day 4 – Friday
A Company of Horses
Chapter 1
Verse 9. “I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh’s chariots.’
The groom now speaks as if to balance the bride’s view of her unworthiness for him as a weather-burnt labourer (verse 5).
As the groom says to her, so Christ says to us, ‘O my love,’ expressing His special interest in us and His atoning work carried out for us. We are not like distant relatives, but loved ones with whom He keeps a constant and deep friendship.
But why the comparison with a company of élite Egyptian horses drawing pharaoh’s chariots? Here the old writers had a field-day listing (and rightly) characteristics of truly saved people.
These special horses were set aside for royal service, not just kept in a field. They were bought at a high price (1 Kings 10 mentioning 150 shekels of silver, an immense sum). They were then made fit for their noble station (a good picture of justification). They were well fed (as believers are with the Truth), and majestic in bearing (suggesting distinctive Christian character). They were trained to be unusually strong and courageous to withstand deafening crowds and the tum-ult of battle (as believers holding to Christ are strong in the trials of life and in witness), and they were quick to respond to the commands of the rein (as believers are to learn and obey). They were also given grooms to care for them (as the church has her pastors).
As we have already observed, for a young woman to be seen as a company of horses is a strange compliment, but for the church to be so described is rich with obvious devotional suggestion.
Verse 10. “Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.”
We believe this continues the description of pharaoh’s horses as an illustration of the virtues of the bride.
It is the horses that are richly decorated with jewels and gold chains (which was literally true of pharaoh’s horses). To put such finery on horses indicated the wealth, dignity, and stature of the pharaoh who was served by them. His rule and might were projected through them.
So with the church, believers are given the glorious ministry of the Word, Gospel labours, and beauty of character (especially seen in unselfishness, self-denial and sincerity). This is the ornamentation of the believer, all of which glorifies Christ.
Verse 11. “We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.”
The horses were also draped with ornamental blankets of silk and rich tapestry, bordered with priceless studs, probably trophies of great victories or ceremonial emblems from pharaoh’s coronation.
The church also has a record of great victories since the Day of Pentecost, especially conquests of reformation, revival, and faithfulness in persecution.
Individuals, too, bear the evidence of great victories over sin, and all are being made ready for the final coronation and wedding of their victorious Lord.
Verse 12. “While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.”
Now the bride speaks, but once again she is not in the same place as the groom, here described as the king. He is in his palace at his table, and she is presumably at her house waiting for their next meeting.
The picture is of the church waiting for Christ. He went to His palace two thousand years ago, and we await His return. However, by the Spirit He entertains us at His table even now, for we sit with Him and hear Him in the Word, and address Him and look upon Him (with the eye of faith) in our devotions.
The bride’s spikenard is a costly aromatic ointment from India, and it represents her love for her groom. He is absent, but her love is like a radiant force or commitment, and so is our love for Christ, seen in the fervour of our prayers, obedience and radiating of His name and glory.
Verse 13. “A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.”
With the groom far away the bride must have something to remind her of him and so she carries a fragrant posy, taking it to bed clutched closely to her heart. With this she cannot forget him.
Believers must never leave Christ out of their thoughts for long. Through the day as opportunity arises we are to think of Him, or of some aspect of our service for Him such as an approach to someone in witness.
Also, we are to repeatedly ask God’s help whether for secular work or for help against sin. In all such prayers we remember Christ, and ask in His name. The hymnwriter Frances Ridley Havergal determined that her last thoughts at night and her first on waking would be about Christ.
We think of Him to revive our flagging spirits, and we think of Him to sanctify heartache. We think of Him to overpower the alluring aroma of covetous desires. We keep His interests always on our minds, and while doing this we can never be unfaithful, allowing our desires to roam to earthly things.
All this we learn from the posy of myrrh, the bride’s reminder of her groom.
Day 5 – Saturday
A Cluster of Camphire
Chapter 1
Verse 14. “My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.”
Continuing the thought from the previous verse, the bride takes a cluster of camphire (henna blooms), possibly a figure for a bunch of the very best grapes. If so, as she plucks and eats she is reminded of having shared such fruit with the groom, and it is like being with him.
So it is for the church or the individual believer who reflects on Christ’s fruits. He is not present in His person, but we reflect on what He has done for us, and we are moved to love Him.
We learn of the salvation and imputed righteousness of Christ, but do we ‘take it’ by thanking Him every day? Our sin has been cast into the vast ocean of God’s forgetfulness, but do we praise Him daily? We experience His powerful deeds in answer to our prayers, but do we ‘take them’ by praising Him in our subsequent daily prayers?
To know anything of the presence of Christ in our lives we must be engaged in daily taking of the fruit of His glorious work for us, and reflecting on it.
Verse 15. “Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes.”
The king, the groom, now speaks of the beauty of the bride, indicating the pleasure that Christ takes in the church of His making.
The beauty of Christ’s people is seen in their unreserved belief in His Word, their changed lives, their obedience to Him, their love and service for Him, and their spiritual graces (soon to be listed).
Most of all, probably, believers are beautiful to Christ because He sees what they will be in glory when He has perfected them. Specifically the bride is applauded for her ‘dove’s eyes’, alert, observant and docile or non-argumentative toward God.
Old writers point out that the eye of the dove is not bent on prey, as the eagle’s or the hawk’s, but is non-vindictive, and sympathetic. Do we reflect this?
Verse 16. “Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.”
The bride responds to the groom, exclaiming that he has beauty not only in appearance but also in manner (his pleasantness), for he exercises grace, kindness and gentleness towards all. Christ has both beauty of character and of deportment, and we should resemble Him.
The bride refers to their bed, not meaning the place where they lie together, for they are not yet fully married, but signifying the secure and happy future that lies ahead when they do live together.
The ‘bed’ is green, not in the sense that they will lie down in the field, but in the figurative sense that their union will flourish and advance like a growing plant. The Hebrew word here actually means an arch or canopy, referring possibly to the beautiful boughs under which they walked, making them think of their future marital happiness.
As believers we should reflect often on the church’s spiritual environment, for we walk with Christ in the most pleasant places and have the most glorious future prospects.
Verse 17. “The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.”
The bride continues (although the groom could be the speaker here). Some modern writers (surely mistakenly) take this verse to mean that the lovers, who they think have been lying together in the grass, now say that their house is the cedars and firs around them.
Faintly plausible as this may seem it sees the yet unmarried bride and groom living dangerously and over-intimately, anticipating their marital privileges.
Clearly their ‘house’ (the Hebrew is actually plural) is a figure of their hopes and dreams for the future. It simply means that their union will be spacious, glorious, happy and enduring.
The tallest of trees will be needed for the beams, so great is the span of this house, and the roof will be supported by joists of fir, the most pleasantly scented and rot-free of the trees available. It will be an amazing house for size and splendour, and we too look forward to the eternal, heavenly house that follows the bridal supper of the Lamb.
However, even now the kingdom of Christ is such a house. On Christ, the foundation, are built strong walls with windows that stream with light. The large rooms will accommodate the great fruit of the Gospel, and will allow rich fellowship between the occupants.
Such a large house will store countless family treasures – memories of spiritual victories and experiences that will be carried one day into eternity.
Day 6 – Sunday
The Rose of Sharon
Chapter 2
Verse 1. “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.’
Who is the speaker of these famous words? Among the old writers the most popular answer is – the groom. Among modern writers it is the bride. (One recent study-Bible dismisses the idea that the groom is speaking with near derision.)
However, we believe it is undoubtedly the groom, firstly on account of the words, ‘I am’. The ancient name of God is ‘I am that I am’. We are reminded also of the seven ‘I am’s’ of the Gospel of John – I am the bread of life; the light of the world; the door; the good shepherd; the resurrection and the life; the way, the truth and the life; and the vine.
The emphatically spoken ‘I am’ in this allegorical poem is a singularly resonant term which sits best on the lips of the groom, who pictures Christ.
Secondly, it is unlikely that the bride would sing her own praise in such an extravagant way, she never does elsewhere.
Thirdly, there is far greater significance in the rose and lily if they refer to Christ, than if they refer to the church.
The groom, representing Christ, uses the rose and lily to describe His coming humanity and humiliation. This prophetic meaning was no doubt obscure to all but the most spiritual of Jews, but with New Testament light it is rich and clear to us.
The rose of Sharon is the very best. It is delicate, picturing Christ coming in human flesh, and although it lives on the driest soil it possesses unparalleled splendour, picturing Christ, the perfect Man, living in a barren, sin-sick world.
We have read that the Jews of old used a special prayer for Sharon because it had such inhospitable soil. They prayed that the people’s houses would not become their graves.
The lily of the valleys depicts the purity of Christ in His ‘valley’, which is His time of humiliation on the earth. (In the next verse the church will be seen reflecting this.)
The key point is that the bride must appreciate the virtues revealed by the groom, admiring them, contemplating them and enjoying them. How often believers become too preoccupied with life to pause and think about Christ and to reflect on His lovingkindness and mighty work.
Do we express appreciation of His glorious person and work in words when we pray? Do we think, and wonder and adore?
Just as the groom speaks these words in the Song, so Christ reveals His nature and redeeming work in the Bible. This inspired Word should be the stimulation for our daily response of admiration, gratitude, obligation and love.
Verse 2. “As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.”
The groom, Christ, sees the church holding up the cause of godliness among the thorns of this world; amidst all the evil and hostility toward Himself.
The church, even if numerically outnumbered, is both more conspicuous (for virtue) and more highly scented (for God’s delight) than the world, but, like the lily, she is vulnerable to being choked. If she stands firm she will never resemble thorns or acquire barbs. She will be conspicuous and influential in countless lives as long as she never relaxes her witness.
Verse 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.”
The bride here begins to respond, comparing the groom to a tree, not as tall, yet superior to all others in the forest for fruit.
So Christ is far, far better than all that this world can offer, but, once again, His benefits must be plucked and eaten by seekers and by long-standing believers alike. To be saved, yet to neglect prayer, Bible study, reflection, and service for Christ (which proves His helping power) is to fail to take the fruit and obtain the blessing.
The people of God delight to sit in Christ’s shade, taking refuge in Calvary from the burning conscience, and taking shelter in prayer from persecution, distress, and temptation. They love also the calm shade of assurance and certainty, comforts which grow and deepen when the Lord is frequently ‘in view’ in devotions. Frances Ridley Havergal was inspired by this verse to pen her well-known words:
Sit down beneath His shadow,
And rest with great delight;
The faith that now beholds Him
Is pledge of future sight.
Bring every weary burden,
Thy sin, thy fear, thy grief;
He calls the heavy laden,
And gives them kind relief.
A little while, though parted,
Remember, wait and love,
Until He comes in glory,
Until we meet above.
Verse 4. “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.”
The bride reflects on what the groom has already done for her in taking her to a great banquet, perhaps part of their initial betrothal ceremony. The banquet stands for salvation, or for the church where the plan of salvation is spread out and the very best of spiritual experiences are given to rejoicing guests.
But how did she get there? Obviously in a carriage, not mentioned but implied, sitting under a streaming royal standard bearing the words – ‘The Victory of Love’. Love drew us also, for Christ saw our condition, pitied us, went to Calvary for us, conquered Satan, and called us to follow Him.
I’ve found a Friend, O, such a Friend!
He loved me ere I knew Him;
He drew me with the cords of love,
And thus He bound me to Him.
Day 7 – Monday
I am Sick of Love
Chapter 2
Verse 5. “Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.’
‘Stay me,’ she calls, because love has made her faint, not with flagons but with pressed flowers (a better translation) for their reviving scent or, as some translate it, raisin cakes, for reviving energy. Flowers seems more likely. The Hebrew word translated ‘flagons’ indicates something pressed.
We too may become ‘faint’ with love. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed by mercy and grace, and then we wonder (especially when first converted) how it can be true that Christ should do so much for us. It is all so glorious, free, and unexpected that even assurance can be shaken. It is all too good to be true, and we fear to lose Christ Who loves us.
Verse 6. “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.”
However, the bride is held from swooning and falling, and gently laid down to rest, picturing the support of renewed assurance and peace ministered directly by Christ.
The important point is that we obtain rest only at His hands. If assurance wavers, or troubles spoil communion with Christ, we may, of course, obtain advice from other believers, but for real comfort we must reflect on salvation, and Calvary, and the promises.
Entertainment will never restore our peace. This can only temporarily and imperfectly blot out some of the troubles. Christian company may help, but not enough. Only our own thinking on Christ’s person and work, plus prayer for help, will bring us to peace.
The groom’s left hand under the head suggests Christ’s comfort to the mind, and his right hand safely holding the body suggests Christ’s strengthening of the believer.
Verse 7. “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.”
The groom (Christ) now speaks to the maidens, charging them very solemnly not to wake his bride, who in the previous verse is left in his arms, evidently asleep.
The King James Version says ‘till he please’, but the Hebrew should ideally be translated ‘till she please’ (the Hebrew verb being feminine).
In other words, Christ wants the church to have undisturbed peace in His love. Bear in mind that this is a picture of the church in her relationship with Christ, not in her battle for the Gospel in a hostile world. Spiritually, the church should have a strong sense of blessedness always, despite trials from outside.
But why should Christ command the maidens about this? If we are correct in thinking that they represent young believers or seekers then the following scene emerges.
New converts and seekers may easily strain the spiritual peace of the church by being tempted into sin, and especially into worldliness. Or they may in their immaturity chase after novelties and become superficial. They may also find obedience to the rule of Scripture irksome after the liberal self-determination of the unsaved life.
But Christ charges them not to go astray, and He does so in this way. He settles them down under a sense of obligation to obey and please Him, giving them an instinct for what is right, by which they realise that worldliness is wrong and feel keenly the authority of the Word of God.
Seekers or new converts who lack this instinct and do whatever they like probably lack any real work of the Spirit in their hearts, because grace always brings about a willingness to obey God, and an active conscience.
It is the Lord Who makes converts a source of joy to the church, rather than a source of unrest and anxiety.
Why should the groom charge the maidens to keep the peace of the bride ‘by the roes, and by the hinds’?
Most probably these energetic animals that leap and bound so easily across the dangerous rocky terrain of the mountains picture victorious spiritual advance and liberty. It is as if Christ is saying to the young in faith, ‘In the interests of your unhindered spiritual growth, joy and victory, do not disturb the peace of God’s family with sinful and worldly ideas.’
One aspect of the church’s life is peace, and another is militant wakefulness because she is also the bearer of the Gospel and the Lord’s mouthpiece in the world. The two aspects – peace and militancy – are pictured by sleeping and waking in this verse.
As churches and as individual believers we must exhibit both to please Christ our Lord.
Verse 8. “The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.”
Now the bride, the church, speaks, making two points. First, she exclaims that she hears the voice of the groom, and second, that she sees him coming.
The voice of Christ is always recognised by true believers and sincere churches, in that they feel the authority of the Word and are ready to obey. If it corrects and convicts they meekly accept it, and if it spells out a duty they gladly comply.
It is a bad sign when professing Christians will not listen to the Word and go to great lengths to justify their evasion. Surely they must either be false converts, or badly backslidden.
True believers value the Word and look to it always for a spiritual and moral message. They have felt its power in their lives in conversion, and love its depths and perfections.
In the second part of verse 8 the groom is seen leaping and bounding over the mountainous terrain as a roe or young hart, the language of effortless victory.
No matter how hard the circumstances of believers or churches, Christ can approach (spiritually) with ease as the all-powerful, risen Lord, and He will come swiftly to strengthen, help, assure, and also to challenge. Like the bride, the believer both hears Christ’s voice, and sees Him with the eye of faith. Whatever our situation we must ‘see’ Him by believing that He is near. It is by our faith that He manifests Himself unto us.
Day 8 – Tuesday
My Beloved
Verse 9.. ‘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.’
There is something of great significance in these verses: a prophecy of the two comings of Christ, firstly to bring salvation and secondly to appear at the end of the age.
In verse 8, the church first hears the voice of the Lord speaking about His coming through the prophets, then she sees Him in the incarnation.
In verse 9 He stands behind or outside the wall of the house or compound, and if the bride cannot see him herself, she has word (from a servant perhaps) that he is there. This is reflected in the ministry of John the Baptist, the voice crying in the wilderness to announce the Lord’s coming.
Then the groom looks through the window at his bride, perhaps depicting Christ contemplating the great host of people for whom He would die. Then the groom shows himself fully, this representing Christ coming to embark on His public ministry, demonstrating His divine power in miracles and authoritative teaching, and also in His death, resurrection and ascension. Immanuel – God with us – is the scene before us in this verse.
Matthew Henry delightfully adds: ‘They saw Him looking through the windows of the ceremonial institutions, and smiling through those lattices … Christ revealed Himself to them and gave them intimations and earnests of His grace.’
Verse 10. “My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.”
The groom then calls the bride away – just as Christ called His truly converted people out of the Jewish church into the new era. He called them out of the mixed multitude, out of the deadness of the ceremonial law, and out of the exclusivity of Judaism.
However, there is a further application of the call of the groom, both to an individual believer and to a church. This call is heard by the individual at conversion: ‘Arise from spiritual death, come away from your old life and from the world, and let us go together into a new life.’ It is a call to separate and to follow a sanctified and spiritual lifestyle.
The believer may hear this call often on life’s journey, whenever he succumbs to sleepiness, complacency, or preoccupation with present, material matters. ‘Rise up from all that,’ says the Lord, ‘and come away to purposeful service and the winning of lost souls. Come away to mission, to closer communion, to greater learning and discovery of spiritual things, and to holiness.’
The bride is called ‘my love, my fair one’, reminding us that this is a most gracious call of love and affection to those made fair by the inestimable privilege of the imputed righteousness of Christ.
Verse 11. “For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.”
Here is the pleading reasoning that urges the bride to heed the groom’s call to come away, and it is all about the coming of spring.
The spring came, first of all, with the resurrection and ascension of the Lord and the Day of Pentecost, when a new and glorious order began for God’s people. The long years of lifeless-ness – the winter time of the Old Testament church – were over, and grace flooded the new church in abundance.
In the light of this new dawn, the call to the church was, ‘Arise, leave the old order, come out of the physical Temple.’ The New Testament call anticipated in this love poem is also found in the prophets:
‘Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee . . . and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising’ (Isaiah 60.1-3).
It is so much easier to travel in the spring, when the heavy rains are over, the rivers are no longer swollen, and the ground is firmer. So the Gospel flew to the nations once the new age arrived. Isaac Watts wrote:
The Jewish wintry state is gone,
The mists are fled, the spring comes on.
This call of the Lord to come away at spring time applies also to present day believers and churches in several ways.
Perhaps we have been through a period of hardship, illness, grief, persecution or even backsliding and correction. But now the dark winter has come to an end, and the call of Christ comes to us once more to take advantage of new and better conditions and recommit ourselves wholly to Him and His service.
It may be that a local church has been through a hard winter in some way. Sowing and reaping has drawn to a halt, or perhaps in a pioneer period there have been very few labourers and few recruits.
But now things are a little better, and a new surge of effort is called for. Improved circumstances are further described in the next verse.
Verse 12. “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.”
Flowers of fellowship begin to bloom out of a deeper understanding of Truth. New seekers come into bud, showing promise of eternal fruit. Perhaps saved youngsters, at first resented in their unbelieving families, begin to find acceptance and interest developing.
It is a time for the singing of birds, for deeper gratitude and praise, for the building of nests, or the framing of schemes of witness and outreach. Also, the voice of the dove is heard, meaning, perhaps, that the Gospel of peace is being preached, and Christians must take full advantage of it. Perhaps a persuasive evangelist has come to the pulpit, or a soul-hungry Sunday School leader has emerged, and God’s people must recognise the season of opportunity, and respond to the task of bringing in others to hear.
Verse 13. ‘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.’
At the end of this appeal to come away at spring time, the groom utters the words taken up by Christ:
‘Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled’ (Matthew 24.32-34).
These words are part of the momentous passage in which the Lord speaks both of the beginning and the ending of the church age. The ‘parable’ of the fig tree applies to the beginning, namely His work to liberate souls on Calvary and so inaugurate the new age.
The groom’s words in verse 13 of the Song are firstly, therefore, predictive of Christ’s coming.
Secondly, for today, the green figs and the fragrance of the tender grape suggest Christ’s encouraging, fruit- bearing promises, such as – ‘Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit,’ and ‘I have chosen you . . . that ye should go and bring forth fruit.’
He promises that He will be with us in our witness and that the Spirit will work in hearts and souls will be saved. In the light of these blessings we are once more told to arise, and come away from slumber and walk in commitment and service.
He calls the church, ‘My love’, indicating His desire and delight to use her. ‘Come away!’ He calls, from self and from the world, to the fullest engagement with Himself.
Day 9 – Wednesday
My Dove
Chapter 2
Verse 14. ‘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 comely.’
Now the groom calls the bride his dove, the characteristics of doves being listed by many of the old writers, and shown to picture believers.
They love cleanliness, we are told, carefully cleaning all dung out of their nests, and here the application is obvious. By choice they eat grain (rather than worms or rubbish), are innocent and harmless, are very social birds, and, of course, they fly, indicating the believer’s ability to fly above trials by prayer.
Doves, however, are vulnerable in the hierarchy of birds, being oppressed by birds of prey. They may be fearful, calling out with an appealing voice, yet these are the believers whom Christ so loves. He delights to look upon our born-again characteristics, and to see us acknowledging our needs and depending upon Him.
In this verse the dove hides in the clefts of the rocks, the crags of the mountains, and who of us cannot see the imagery of Calvary first employed in Exodus 33.22, where Moses was placed in the cleft of a rock while the Lord, in His glory, passed by. Used again in Isaiah 32.2, Christ is seen as a hiding place from the wind, and as ‘the shadow of a great rock in a weary land’.
Christ is that great rock once riven for us when the wrath of God against sin was poured out upon Him. In Him we have an infallible atonement, an unshakeable forgiveness, an indestructible imputed righteousness, an impregnable defence, and an everlasting life.
In the second part of the verse the groom desires to see the face of the bride, and to hear her voice. So Christ, in astonishing condescension and kindness, loves to see our faces upturned to Him in adoration and prayer, and to hear our petitions.
‘Look up to Me!’ He says. And we must respond to Him, for He has purchased us from slavery and death, and made us precious in His sight. We must in all things lean on Him, speak His praise, thank Him and desire Him, expressing all these attitudes with a ‘sweet’ voice (which in Hebrew means an agreeable or pleasurable voice).
The believer’s voice is harsh and discordant to Christ when it is proud, self-reliant, or resentful, but the sweet voice is one that is repentant, thankful, adoring, dependent and dedicated. Christ loves the distinctive tone of faith and the melody of intercessory prayer. Our literal voices may rasp and croak, but our spiritual voices, rightly used, are music to the Lord.
Verse 15. ‘Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.’
There is here something that the groom must ask of the bride; something she must do for him. She is to catch the little foxes that ruin the vines. This pictures the command Christ gives to believers and churches to bring out of their holes the sins that impede the fruits of holiness and of soul-winning. Sin, like the fox, is crafty, twisting in all directions, and if left unmortified it will strip the character of everything good.
These foxes include false teaching and all worldly influences which will ruin our own spiritual progress and also that of others. Christ is here depicted as saying to the church, ‘Protect the vines and the tender grapes; bring vulnerable teenagers and children from this atheistic world where they live among the moral wolves of present-day culture, and draw these children into Sunday Schools and youth classes.’
But we are not to forget the foxes that gnaw and tear at our personal vine. We must all arrest wrong appetites, passions, tempers, unkind, selfish or lazy schemes, together with fits of pride, and all other thoughts and deeds that lay waste the Lord’s work in us.
The bride, very much in love, will do anything she can to please the groom, and we too will arrest the stirrings of sin because we love Christ and are amazed and overwhelmed at His love for us. The most successful strides in sanctification (by the help of the Spirit) are made when we are motivated and energised by love for Him.
C. H. Spurgeon identified the tender grapes of Christ, the true vine, as being the work of conversion. He listed the fruits as: (1) secret mourning for sin; (2) humble faith in Christ; (3) a genuine change of life; (4) secret devotion; and (5) simple love.
The grapes smell, he said, of sincerity, teachability, and joy. Spurgeon identified the foxes that would spoil these fruits as people who discourage new converts by any means, or who cause them to doubt, or who draw them back into the world. The vines must be protected, and the foxes denied further spoil.
Verse 16. ‘My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.’
The bride says these beautiful words to herself, and it is apparent that ‘engagement’ promises have been made, the first stage of betrothal in those times. The couple did not yet share their lives, but would be bound by these promises, and now had a right to each other.
The groom had evidently given himself to her, picturing Christ giving and pledging Himself to His people at His first coming, leading to the ‘engagement’ period preceding the great marriage supper of the Lamb (at His second coming).
The groom’s heart is full of love for his bride, as Christ’s is for the church. The bride being poor, the groom has provided everything for their union, just as Christ has for ours by His atoning work on Calvary, and the giving of His righteousness.
The groom is his bride’s for ever, as Christ is our Lord eternally. Not only the groom, but all he has, is now the bride’s, and, similarly, with Christ we become the beneficiaries and sharers of all His wisdom, power, work (of redemption), guardian care, and future reign.
In return, the bride gives herself to the groom. Because Christ is ours, we are His. Lost in His love we say, ‘I give myself to Thee.’ We yield ourselves to be wholly at His disposal. We are His by purchase at Calvary; by conquest as He worked irresistibly in our heart; and by surrender, when we cried out for mercy and life, and submitted to His rule. We are no longer our own.
How sad it is that nowadays so many Christians do not want to be wholly for the Lord, thinking this to be ‘legalism’. They want to have whatever they desire, and do whatever they like. My career is for me, they say, and my leisure for my pleasure. But real love takes the view that our time, energies, loyalty, abilities, and resources are not our own but His, for we belong to Him. His interests are our interests, and we will not give away our hearts to other things.
In this verse the groom is absent, feeding his flock among the lilies, but the bride knows she is in his heart. She thinks of him constantly, cherishing the memory of his every word. He is Christ, and she is the church on earth, living at present by the Word, and looking forward to the great day of the wedding.
Verse 17. ‘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.’
The bride, the church, is determined to maintain her love for her groom until the day they will be gloriously united. That is the day to which she looks, and she will show unwavering faithfulness, fuelled by love, until the moment comes.
For us, this is the dawn of eternal day when our Lord shall return. The bride is certain her day will come and the groom will be waiting for her, and surely the doctrine of final perseverance is to be seen here. Then will come the greatest adventure imaginable for the human soul: the revelation of all things, the commencement of eternal glory, and the day of meeting with the Lord (and also with all the saints who have gone before).
The shadows of sin and disobedience will flee – the last vestiges of our rebellion. The scourges of aging, sickness and death will cease, together with all the heartache, war, fear, and oppression of this evil world. Unbelief, scorn, ingratitude, and all that obscures the Lord from our view in this life will be no more.
‘Come back soon for me,’ calls the bride, or the church. ‘Turn, and return for me. Come like the agile hart across the mountains of ravines and division’ (the meaning of Bether).
‘Speed the day of Thy return, because we so desire the Lord we love, and we pine for Thee, and long to see Thee, on that great and wonderful day.’
Day 10 – Thursday
I Sought Him Whom my Soul Loveth
Chapter 3
Verse 1. ‘By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.’
Is this a dream? Does the bride have nightmares? (The Hebrew is literally ‘by nights’ or ‘night after night’.) Does she dream that she has lost her groom? Or was she expecting a visit, and being sure he had arrived in town was unable to sleep until she saw him?
For the church, this present age is the time of night when the full presence of Christ is not available to us and we must walk by faith. For this reason assurance sometimes runs low, spiritual experience cools, and zeal is eroded.
Reference to the bride’s bed may suggest a cause, namely that we are on a ‘bed’ of excessive ease and comfort, or of spiritual laziness.
Whatever the reason, we say with Psalm 30.7, ‘Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.’ Anxiously, we try to get back to real and heartfelt communion with the Lord, but our efforts sometimes seem to fail.
Verse 2. ‘I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.’
It may be we do not even attempt to get back to where we were, continuing voluntarily in a low spiritual state, but the bride in this love poem goes anxiously through the city searching, a picture of believers seeking renewed spiritual well-being through advice and companionship with other Christians.
When spiritually low, some go further, venturing into the ‘broad ways’ of trying other churches, or books and podcasts from afar, or even resorting to contemporary Christian music.
Some try earthly remedies like a change of job or a new place to live or a special earthly friend. But the broad ways of the city will not reveal the Saviour.
Verse 3. ‘The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?’
The watchmen illustrate pastors and other spiritual shepherds who watch for souls. (They are Isaiah’s watchmen on the wall.)
Chiefly through applied preaching of the Word, watchmen ‘find’ and help troubled souls, and while there is no mention of their having helped the bride in this case, they clearly did, because very soon afterwards she found her groom.
A pastor cannot himself re-establish a believer in a close walk with Christ, but he can point out the direction. Some believers seek too much from preachers, imagining that deeply emotional preaching might lift their soul. But the truth and counsel of the Word must be understood and applied by the believer to his own case before there can be a benefit.
Verse 4. ‘It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.’
Having gone only a few yards from the watchmen, the bride finds her love. So, we take the Word to heart and seek Christ afresh by faith, by recommitment, by yieldedness, by obedience, by thankfulness and love, and by renewed effort in His service. None of these should be omitted. Then we find Him again.
The bride now holds her groom tightly, in deep earnestness, and so appreciates him that she will not let him go, and we too, having renewed our communion with Christ, value Him as never before.
The bride takes the groom home, not to sleep, but to spend time in conversation, using the only private chamber in her rustic home, her mother’s room.
As far as we are concerned, having re-established close communion with Christ, we take Him back to church with us (our family home) and share our joy and our reanimated zeal in the service of our fellowship.
Joy renewed is not for private pleasure only, nor for mere emotional self-indulgence. It is to be our contribution to the life of our spiritual family.
Verse 5. ‘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.’
The words of chapter 2 verse 7 are repeated here, for the bride (the church) now has peace once again, and it must not be disturbed for the time being.
Christ, by His great kindness, usually restores the joy of our salvation in a stable way, preserving us from any immediate fresh disturbance so that we have a little time to grow stronger in devotion and service before the next great test or trial.
Day 11 – Friday
The Wedding Procession
Chapter 3
Verse 6. ‘Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?’
The scene now changes dramatically to that of a wedding procession, in which a great king and his bride approach the city for marriage. The speakers are either the maidens-in-waiting, or other unnamed bystanders.
Modern translations tend to link this verse with the next, as though Solomon was in view. But in the phrase, ‘Who is this?’ the word ‘this’ is feminine, showing that the bride is seen first.
The wilderness refers here to the unfarmed countryside, which in the case of Jerusalem was some way outside the city boundary. Immediately around the city were tilled fields, and, of course, the renowned orchards. The procession represents the onset and the course of the Gospel age, the entry into the city still lying some way ahead.
We must take special note of the fact that no wedding takes place in this chapter, nor do we even see the procession arrive at the city gates, because this procession is simply another view of the time between the first betrothal (the engagement) and the wedding ceremony. To marry the bride and groom at this stage is a mistake, and one that ruins the point of the poem.
The bride in this procession firstly pictures the church at Pentecost, brought out of the ‘wilderness’ of the Jewish church. No more would there be the mixed multitude of old Israel, with all the pains due to faithlessness. A new order had arrived in which Christ would be pre-eminent.
Also, the Gentiles would be called out of the even wilder wilderness of paganism into the kingdom of Christ. The uncultivated countryside characterised by little food, confusing tracks, wild animals and many dangers, would yield up the bride to her wedding journey.
Secondly, the wedding journey pictures this present Gospel age, and thirdly, the personal spiritual journey of every believer. This is the very journey we are on today, heading for the eternal City, and for the marriage of the Lamb.
Some think the pillars of smoke are incense burning at the head of the procession, but it is more likely (despite the change of metaphor) that these are the enthusiastic rush of smoke associated with newly lit fires, a picture capturing the excitement and anticipation of the church.
The perfumes represent the church’s God-given graces and marks of salvation (for these are very evident to onlookers), while the powders or ointments brought by travelling merchants suggest the international character of the church.
Verse 7. ‘Behold his bed, which is Solomon’s; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel.’
Suddenly the maidens or bystanders recognise the carriage of Solomon, exclaiming, ‘Look, Solomon’s sedan!’ (the flexible Hebrew word for bed, in the context of a procession, refers to a carriage).
Solomon is the most important of the two parties, and attention quickly focuses upon him. This is not literally Solomon, of course, for he appears in the poem only as a type or symbol of Christ.
We see the church here wonderfully blessed, but the most important person is Christ. The sedan or carriage on which Christ travels in the world is none other than His grace and saving work. This is unassailable and undefeatable in the world, for Christ will surely save His elect and bring His purposes to pass – hence the picture of sixty noble defenders encircling the carriage. Some writers also see here pastors and teachers set to defend the faith.
Verse 8. ‘They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.’
The wedding procession has come a long way, including overnight travel with all its hazards, but its defences ensure that nothing will cause disturbance or delay. Not false religion, empires of unbelief, or all Satan’s wiles will prevent the salvation of those who are to be saved. The Truth will prevail.
Verse 9. ‘King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.’
The kingly groom made the carriage himself, signifying that Christ made His ‘carriage’ of grace and salvation (the Gospel) by His atoning death on Calvary. That it was made of wood suggests His condescension in entering into human flesh to die for us.
Verse 10. ‘He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.’
The decorations on the chariot, however, testify to Christ’s divine glory and saving accomplishments, and most of all, speak of His love for His children.
The silver posts show the purity and beauty of the Gospel. In all the world there is no scheme so kind, so life-changing, or so free.
The back or base of gold shows the riches of the Gospel, for mercy and salvation will embrace the very worst sinners and flow liberally to a vast host of people gathered from every land and every age. To these will be given the priceless blessings of eternal life as co-heirs with the King of kings.
The purple fabric of the seats (or curtains) is the colour of royalty, and the interior is lined (or fitted) with love (the figurative language gives way to the reality) for the daughters, or young converts.
Modern versions translate, ‘lovingly fitted by the daughters of Jerusalem’, but we prefer the sense of the KJV, ‘fitted with his love for the daughters’. Thus the carriage of salvation has: (a) purity and beauty; (b) riches; (c) royal stature; and (d) Christ’s love for converts.
Verse 11. ‘Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.’
The speaker here is probably the bride, although it could be the bystanders, or even the voice of God.
Is this the wedding? No, it is the maidens being urged to look upon the groom wearing the crown or wreath given to him at the initial betrothal some time before. This clearly took place before the bride’s exclamation in chapter 2.16, ‘My beloved is mine, and I am his.’
The maidens are urged to look at the king, the groom, as the one on whom the wedding depended, and we urge new converts and seekers to fix their eyes upon Christ, for He alone is the source of salvation. We say, ‘Seek the Lord, repent and believe in Him. Trust Him, love Him, yield to Him, worship Him, for He is your life and your all.’
Christ wears the betrothal crown given, in a sense, by His ‘mother’, referring to the church, for the church of the Old Testament ‘brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations’ (Revelation 12.5), and the church of the New Testament crowned Him as Lord and King.
Christ went to Calvary for the joy that was set before Him – the eternal blessedness of His people – and that was the day of His espousal, the first part of the wedding process, the engagement or initial betrothal. Like the maidens, we see our King, and love Him more than we love anything or anyone else.
Once again, a scene closes without a wedding, the recurring riddle of the poem, but this is the point, because the grand wedding will take place at the return of Christ. If this eleventh verse described a wedding, as some suppose, it would amount to the most frugal description of such a day in all literature. What an anticlimax it would be, and how out of character with the rest of the Song!
Day 12 – Saturday
The Beauty of Holiness
Chapter 4
Verse 1. ‘Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead.’
The groom praises his bride, once again using terms which would be inappropriate and even peculiar for human love, but are deeply meaningful if the bride represents the church of Christ.
These descriptions of the bride were not designed to vaunt outward, physical beauty, as Matthew Henry points out, ‘but the beauty of holiness’, or the qualities which Christ gives His people at conversion.
Human beings stand back and admire their achievements of craft and creativity, often with unwholesome pride, and Christ also takes delight in His handiwork in the lives of His people but without a trace of sin. He has given believers the graces described in this chapter, and He loves these characteristics.
What an incentive it is to us to exercise our graces, when we know that our Saviour loves us for them. How carefully we should honour and preserve them!
The groom’s love is mentioned first in the words, ‘Thou art fair, my love.’ A more modern word would be ‘beautiful’.
Then he refers to the first grace on the list, the bride’s dove-like eyes, alert, observant, docile and non-argumentative toward him (mentioned before). The eyes of believers answer to this, showing eagerness to pick up every morsel of spiritual bread and to enjoy the Word. The eye of the believer is supremely the eye of faith, ready to trust God’s way and His promises, and when Christ sees this characteristic in us, He loves us for it.
The bride’s eyes are within locks (the Hebrew meaning ‘something fastened’ or held back), possibly a veil, in which case her modesty is in mind. Humility is certainly a grace given at conversion, seen initially in our humble acceptance of our sin and need, and then in our continuing dependence on Christ, and He loves us for it.
The hair is an ornament of the head, which is the seat of the mind. The bride’s hair, intriguingly compared with a dense flock of black goats winding their way down the mountainside, is possibly a figure for the conspicuously well-ordered and principled way of thinking that characterises believers.
Some years ago one of the most senior policemen in Britain spoke of how Christian conversion as a young officer had brought him to the Bible, and this had taught him how to think. Prior to this, his thinking processes had been haphazard, but the orderly and interlocking doctrines of the Word, together with the consistent flow of insights into human nature and behaviour, shaped his approach to people, crime, and all other branches of secular life.
Christians who grow in grace are conspicuous in society by the thoughtful way they handle life and its problems. This is a very significant grace, and Christ loves to see it.
Another suggestion for the meaning of the flock of goats supposes that these were the groom’s own goats, in which much wealth was invested. The idea is that Christ cherishes us as a valued possession (made valuable by grace). We can understand that Christ should have pity for us, but that He should treasure us is almost beyond our power to grasp.
Verse 2. ‘Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them.’
The bride’s teeth are perfect, but this flattering description clearly alludes to her radiant smile. The groom loves her for her warmth of affection and settled joy. It is evident she is supremely happy to be with him, this being more endearing than the literal perfection of her teeth.
Equally, the Lord loves His people for their happiness and appreciation of their benefits, a tendency He gives at conversion. How important it is for us to maintain this grateful joy, keeping our privileges and our future glory constantly before our minds so that we never plunge so low as to lose our happiness in Him.
Some believers suffer melancholy (as the Puritans called it) as a mysterious component of their natural temperament, and these words are not intended to discourage such people, but in general Christians should aim at maintaining a joy in the Lord that cannot easily be quenched by burdens, disappointments and cares.
The use of a perfect flock of sheep as an illustration for teeth leads to another possible lesson, namely that joy (the perfect smile) is associated with humble acceptance of providential circumstances (the habit of sheep). It is usually the case that pride in some form is behind our inability to accept trials and difficulties, leading to the forfeiture of joy.
Verse 3. ‘Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks.’
The first part of the verse rather obviously pictures the grace of good speech. At conversion, as part of the new nature, we are given an aptitude for kindness in our words, along with an abhorrence of gossip and backbiting. We also receive a love of spiritual conversation and a desire to witness for Christ.
Do we strive to exercise and maintain this gift of good speech, and do we daily repent of any ‘unconverted’ style of talk? Christ loves to see the graces He has given us valued and kept pure.
In prayer this gift of speech is to be manifested in a full range of different kinds of prayer, including praise, love, repentance, dedication and intercession. Impoverished prayer, omitting any of these categories, will not greatly gladden the heart of the Saviour.
The bride’s temples suggest dignity and wisdom, adding to the beautiful hair, that ornament of the head, which is the ‘palace’ of the mind. The groom admires and loves his bride’s depth of understanding, insight and discernment.
So Christ loves His people when they stir up the gifts He has put within them to become wiser and deeper in their knowledge of His Word, and in the spiritual processing of life’s decisions and trials.
Verse 4. ‘Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.’
Here is another improbable compliment for the groom to pay his bride, because the tower of David was apparently a squat, ungainly structure, more robust than beautiful. (The thousand shields are described as hanging on the outside, whereas literally they were stored inside.)
This is obviously a figurative statement illustrating the strength that holds the head erect, unflinchingly facing forward in the midst of troubles.
Christ loves His church greatly when her members, each holding firmly their shield of faith, prove Him and stand loyal to the Gospel no matter what may distract or threaten them. Loyalty He prizes highly.
Verse 5. ‘Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.’
Now the groom, representing our Lord, praises the part of the bride’s body nearest to her heart, the symbol of her love. The highest and greatest of all graces given at conversion is love (1 Corinthians 12.31 and 13.13).
This includes love for God, love for fellow believers, love for the Word, and yearning, sympathetic love for the lost, including the young. When imbued with such broad-spectrum love, the Christian is a delight to the Lord.
Most people possess the capacity to love before conversion, but afterwards their love becomes much more grateful, less selfish, more pure, more sacrificial, and more outward-flowing.
If Christ loves our love, let us never allow ourselves to become hardened. Love shed abroad in the heart is not something weak, pathetic or effeminate, but the noblest and strongest grace, and in the Song it feeds, like tender roes, among the lilies (representing the church at large), meaning that it thrives best when believers are exercised by and engaged in the worship and labours of God’s people.
Day 13 – Sunday
Until the Day Break
Chapter 4
Verse 6. ‘Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.’
What the bride said in chapter 2 when she pledged her loyalty and called to the groom to return soon, he now echoes, telling her that he must go away until the great day of the wedding.
Where will the groom go? Of course, he represents Christ, Who must go to Paradise until His second coming, the time of the bridal supper of the Lamb. The fragrant mountain is inaccessible to us physically, but we may go there now by faith.
The sweet smelling groves and woods of frankincense and balsam of the Holy Land represent the place of private prayer and devotion, and also the house of worship and hearing of the Word.
Communion by faith is the believer’s present privilege and joy until the day when the ultimate delectable mountain comes into full view.
Verse 7. ‘Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.’
Here is the church’s forgiven condition as viewed by the Lord, for He chooses to see us clothed in the garment of His own imputed righteousness.
He loves also our completeness by grace, for we are somewhat akin to babies born happily with every limb and finger and toe. We may be weak and needy, but viewed spiritually we all possess a measure of every grace. No believer lacks the faculty of prayer, or the capacity for faith, or the new nature.
We may in our foolishness not exercise all our graces, but every spiritual birth is a perfect birth and all parts are there. The same applies to any truly believing congregation. All the faculties needed for obedience to Christ and access to blessing are bestowed.
In addition, Christ sees us as spotless by comparison with the world. True believers have been changed and beautified far beyond anything they were as unbelievers, and the Lord loves His handiwork. How carefully we should guard our hearts and keep ourselves unspoiled!
Verse 8. ‘Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.’
The groom calls to his spouse to leave the barren mountains and follow him to the glorious and beautiful place where he would be. She is to look from her bleak hilltop to the distant landscape, the view ahead, and follow him.
Of course, there is great beauty also in the places named, but not for the bride who longs to be where the groom lives. True conversion takes away our taste for the things of this world. She must quit the place of wild beasts and pursue him.
So the church surveys the scene ahead, the glories of a walk with Christ and the future glory, and leaves worldly goals and ways to take the heavenward road. There is no middle way in the Christian life, for we either remain as worldlings, or we launch out as children of Heaven, but we cannot have a foot in each place.
Lions and leopards in the form of Satan and his host will tear our soul and character if we compromise and remain as worldly Christians. Watts penned the lines –
He calls me from the leopard’s den,
From this wide world of beasts and men,
To Zion, where His glories are;
Not Lebanon is half so fair.
Nor dens of prey, nor flowery plains,
Nor earthly joys, nor earthly pains,
Shall hold my feet or force my stay,
When Christ invites my soul away.
Verse 9. ‘Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.’
‘Ravished’ here means something like ‘taken away’ or ‘captured’. Yet again we are to note how greatly Christ loves us. His is not just protective love, glorious as this is, but a love of deep affection and delight.
We repeat, it is hard for us to take this in, that the mighty Maker of all loves us with the fondness and intensity of a groom for a bride. Says Cowper –
Lord, it is my chief complaint
That my love is weak and faint.
So it is, and we should be burdened to reflect more upon our Lord’s lovingkindness, to praise Him more, and to curb our excessive love for those things in this world which steal away the affection that belongs to Him.
Let us remember that our Lord ever intercedes for us. Let us be moved to think that He will be present at our every sickbed, at hand in all our troubles and triumphs, and with us in the moment of death, in order to exercise His great love for us.
He has every believer on His heart and His joy is in our spiritual advance. We may tell Him anything, and He will hear with immeasurable and everlasting love, because (astonishing thought) we have captured His heart and, according to this verse, we have done so with only two of the many graces He has given us.
Day 14 – Monday
A Garden Enclosed
Chapter 4
Verse 10. ‘How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!’
The groom now repeats to the bride that he loves her love. This is not about her physical beauty, but her love to him.
So Christ loves our love, and therefore we should express this in words and also do all the things that express love. We should study Him, speak to Him often, look forward to being with Him, represent Him, work for His cause, defend His name, reflect on His wonders, and so love Him.
Let the heart be tender and moveable whenever He is in mind, and love Him as the One vastly greater in our esteem than all the famous names of this world put together.
Verse 11. ‘Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.’
The groom here goes further than praising the character of the bride’s words to say how sweet and acceptable they are to him.
Yet again we are moved and amazed to think that the Lord of Heaven and earth derives great pleasure from hearing our feeble words, whether expressing praise and worship to Him, or speaking words of compassion, edification and comfort to others. And how pleased He is also to hear our words of witness representing Him to lost souls around us!
Verse 12. ‘A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.’
Now the great garden metaphor begins in which the bride is herself described in terms of a delightful walled garden for the pleasure of the groom.
She is designed and kept for him to visit, and how well this describes the character and purpose of the church, or of any saved individual.
As a walled garden a true congregation (or an individual believer) is distinctive and set apart from the world and sin to be for Christ. Here, a great variety of beautiful plants grow and flower, illustrating all the spiritual graces and character graces given by the Lord.
These, of course, must be cultivated and the ground dug and weeded, otherwise the thorns and briars of misconduct and backsliding will invade and conquer. Christian sanctification is in mind.
The plants are attractively ordered, picturing the well-sanctified believer’s organised, faithful adherence to spiritual duties and commitments.
The privacy of this special garden reflects the practice of personal communion with Christ, while the spring or fountain suggests the energising and sustaining power and joy provided by the Holy Spirit – a well of water springing up into eternal life.
The spring is barred or sealed from the interference of any who might pollute, destroy or steal from it, illustrating the security of a believer’s spiritual life.
And just as the individual is comforted by the doctrine of final perseverance, so a faithful congregation may be sure that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, so that its witness will prevail from generation to generation. Watts writes of the church –
We are a garden walled around,
Chosen and made peculiar ground;
A little spot enclosed by grace
Out of the world’s wide wilderness.
Verses 13-14. ‘Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard; spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices.’
The groom continues to list the bride’s graces, referring particularly to fruitbearing and scented plants, indicating that congregations and individual believers are equipped to be useful to the Lord Who loves them for their fruits of character and soulwinning.
Certainly, these fruits come only by His generous power and blessing, yet He loves His people as if they had achieved them by their own effort. We are converted not only that we might believe and love Him, but also that we might bear fruit, and permeate society with the aroma of the knowledge of God.
The plants named, experts tell us, do not generally grow in the wilderness, but only in fertile and cultivated places, showing that the graces they represent are best found in believers. (It should convict us that these graces are sometimes stronger in wordlings than in ourselves.)
Some are evergreen, denoting that spiritual joy and peace can flourish even in the winter storms of life. All possess medicinal properties, indicating that, alongside the fruits and scents of character and Gospel influence, believers should be beneficial in the world through compassionate and helpful acts.
Myrrh and aloes also have preservative properties (including the embalming of bodies), suggesting the peace-making role of God’s children (mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount), and also their influence in preserving a measure of morality and dignity in a decadent society. The Lord loves His church for this.
Verse 15. ‘A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.’
These words could be those of the groom to the bride, or hers to him. It may be that the bride, having been praised, turns that praise back to her kingly groom saying, in effect, ‘But you are the fountain of many gardens …’
This would certainly fit the glorious work of Christ through the Gospel, for from Him flows an abundant, unfailing stream of justifying grace, wisdom, peace, assurance, and strength to needy souls.
If, however, they are the groom’s words, then the bride is praised in figurative language for being a benefactor and blessing to others, and this is, or should be, true of the church. Like streams from the mountain ranges of Lebanon that water the plains, so Gospel witness goes forth from the people of God to bring conversion and blessing to countless lost people. Does this describe our church and our individual lives?
Verse 16. ‘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 pleasant fruits.’
This verse – or the first half of it – must be the groom speaking, because only Christ can command the winds to blow.
Without doubt, the winds here represent the trials of life. The purpose of these trials is that the fragrance of the garden may flow out, witnessing to those around us of the character of our renewed lives.
In our family circle, or our place of study or work, it will be seen that we are different people, and that we have a firm hold on divine resources.
The spices are patience, prayerfulness, joy, peace and a well-controlled temperament. The north and south winds conflict, producing unpredictable events occurring with variable strength, but through them all we are refined, drawn nearer to the Lord, and thus given a firm ‘platform’ of character from which to witness.
In the second half of the verse the bride speaks, asking the groom to come into the garden of her life, because if he is with her when these storms arise all will be well.
So too we pray to Christ to be with us by His Spirit, giving light on the Word and strength to stand. We ask for assurance, calm deportment, warm faith, much help, and an opportunity to represent Him in all the circumstances of life. ‘Come Lord,’ we say, ‘and let us bear fruit for Thee.’
Audio digitally generated, using the voice of Matthew Wainwright. All rights reserved.