Chapter 7:
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Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Ecclesiastes Isaiah
Song of Solomon 7
Complete Concise
In this chapter, I. Christ, the royal bridegroom, goes on to
describe the beauties of his spouse, the church, in many instances, and to
express his love to her and the delight he has in her conversation (v. 1-9). II.
The spouse, the church, expresses her great delight in him, and the desire that
she had of communion and fellowship with him (v. 10-13). Such mutual esteem
and endearment are there between Christ and believers. And what is heaven but an
everlasting interchanging of loves between the holy God and holy souls!
Verses 1-9
The title which Jesus Christ here gives to the church is new:
O
prince's daughter! agreeing with Ps. 45:13, where she is called
the
king's daughter. She is so in respect of her new birth, born from above,
begotten of God, and his workmanship, bearing the image of the King of kings,
and guided by his Spirit. She is so by marriage; Christ, by betrothing her to
himself, though he found her mean and despicable, has made her a
prince's
daughter. She has a princely disposition, something in her truly noble and
generous; she is daughter and heir to the prince of the kings of the earth.
If
children, then heirs. Now here we have,
I. A copious description of the beauty of the spouse, which,
some think, is given by the virgins her companions, and that those were they who
called upon her to return; it seems rather to be given by Christ himself, and to
be designed to express his love to her and delight in her, as before, ch. 4:1,
etc., and ch. 6:5, 6. The similitudes are here different from what they were
before, to show that the beauty of holiness is such as nothing in nature can
reach; you may still say more of it, and yet still come short of it. That
commendation of the spouse, ch. 4, was immediately upon the espousals (ch.
3:11), this upon her return from a by-path (ch. 6:13); yet this exceeds that, to
show the constancy of Christ's love to his people;
he loves them to the
end, since he made them
precious in his sight and honourable. The
spouse had described the beauty of her beloved in ten particulars (ch. 5:11,
etc.); and now he describes her in as many, for he will not be behindhand with
her in respects and endearments. Those that honour Christ he will certainly
honour, and make honourable. As the prophet, in describing the corruptions of
degenerate Israel, reckons
from the sole of the foot even unto the head (Isa.
1:6), so here the beauties of the church are reckoned from foot to head, that,
as the apostle speaks, when he is comparing the church, as here, to the natural
body (1 Co. 12:23),
more abundant honour might be bestowed on those parts
of the body which we think to be less honourable, and which therefore
lacked
honour, v. 24. 1. Her
feet are here praised; the feet of Christ's
ministers are beautiful in the eyes of the church (Isa. 52:7), and her feet are
here said to be beautiful in the eyes of Christ.
How beautiful are thy feet
with shoes! When believers, being made free from the captivity of sin (Acts
12:8),
stand fast in the liberty with which they are made free, preserve
the tokens of their enfranchisement, have
their feet shod with the
preparation of the gospel of peace, and walk steadily according to the rule
of the gospel, then their
feet are beautiful with shoes; they tread
firmly, being well armed against the troubles they meet with in their way. When
we rest not in good affections, but they are accompanied with sincere endeavors
and resolutions, then our feet are beautified
with shoes. See Eze. 16:10.
2.
The joint of the thighs are here said to be
like jewels, and
those curiously wrought by
a cunning workman. This is explained by Eph.
4:16 and Col. 2:19, where the mystical body of Christ is said to be held
together by
joints and bands, as the hips and knees (both which are
the
joints of the thighs) serve the natural body in its strength and motion. The
church is
then comely in Christ's eyes when those joints are kept firm
by holy love and unity, and the communion of saints. When believers act in
religion from good principles, and are steady and regular in their whole
conversation, and turn themselves easily to every duty in its time and place,
then
the joints are like jewels. 3. The
navel is here compared to
a round cup or
goblet, that
wants not any of the agreeable
liquor
that one would wish to find in it, such as David's cup that ran over (Ps.
23:5), well shaped, and not as that miserable infant whose navel was not cut,
Eze. 16:4. The fear of the Lord is said to be
health to the navel. See
Prov. 3:8. When the soul wants not that fear then the
navel wants not liquor.
4. The
belly is like a heap of wheat in the store-chamber, which perhaps
was sometimes, to make show, adorned with flowers. The
wheat is useful,
the
lilies are beautiful; there is every thing in the church which may be
to the members of that body either for use or for ornament. All the body is
nourished from the
belly; it denotes the spiritual prosperity of a
believer and the healthful constitution of the soul all in good plight. 5. The
breasts
are like two young roes that are twins, v. 3. By the breasts of the church's
consolations those are nourished who are born from its belly (Isa. 46:3), and by
the navel received nourishment in the womb. This comparison we had before, ch.
4:5. 6. The
neck, which before was compared to
the tower of David
(ch. 4:4), is here compared to
a tower of ivory, so white, so precious;
such is the faith of the saints, by which they are joined to Christ their head.
The name of the Lord, improved by faith, is to the saints as a strong and
impregnable tower. 7. The
eyes are compared to
the fish-pools in
Heshbon, or the artificial fish-ponds,
by a gate, either of Jerusalem
or Heshbon, which is called
Bath-rabbim, the daughter of a multitude,
because a great thoroughfare. The understanding, the intentions of a believer,
are clean and clear as these ponds. The eyes, weeping for sin, are as fountains
(Jer. 9:1), and comely with Christ. 8. The
nose is like
the tower of
Lebanon, the forehead or face set
like a flint (Isa. 50:7), undaunted
as that tower was impregnable. So it denotes the magnanimity and holy bravery of
the church, or (as others) a spiritual sagacity to discern things that differ,
as animals strangely distinguish by the smell. This tower
looks towards
Damascus, the head city of Syria, denoting the boldness of the church in
facing its enemies and not fearing them. 9. The
head like Carmel, a very
high hill near the sea, v. 5. The head of a believer is
lifted up above his
enemies (Ps. 27:6), above the storms of the lower region, as the top of
Carmel was, pointing heaven-ward. The more we get above this world, and the
nearer to heaven, and the more secure and serene we become by that means, the
more amiable we are in the eyes of the Lord Jesus. 10.
The hair of the head
is said to be
like purple. This denotes the universal amiableness of a
believer in the eyes of Christ, even to
the hair, or (as some understand
it) the pins with which
the hair is dressed. Some by
the head and the
hair understand the governors of the church, who, if they be careful to do
their duty, add much to her comeliness.
The head like crimson (so some
read it)
and the hair like purple, the two colours worn by great men.
II. The complacency which Christ takes in his church thus
beautified and adorned. She is lovely indeed if she be so in his eyes; as he
puts the comeliness upon her, so it is his love that makes this comeliness truly
valuable, for he is an unexceptionable judge. 1. He delighted to look upon his
church, and to converse with it, rejoicing in that habitable part of his earth:
The
king is held in the galleries, and cannot leave them. This is explained by
Ps. 132:13, 14,
The Lord has chosen Zion, saying,
This is my rest for
ever; here will I dwell; and Ps. 147:11,
The Lord takes pleasure
in those that fear him. And, if Christ has such delight
in the galleries
of communion with his people, much more reason have they to delight in them, and
to reckon
a day there better than a thousand. 2. He was even struck with
admiration at the beauty of his church (v. 6):
How fair and how pleasant art
thou, O love! How art thou made fair! (so the word is), "not
born so, but made so with the comeliness which I have put upon thee."
Holiness is a beauty beyond expression; the Lord Jesus is wonderfully pleased
with it; the outward aspect of it is fair; the inward disposition of it is
pleasant and highly agreeable, and the complacency he has in it is
inexpressible.
O my dearest for delights! so some read. 3. He determined
to keep up communion with his church. (1.) To
take hold of her as of
the
boughs of a palm-tree. He compares her
stature to a palm-tree (v. 7),
so straight, so strong, does she appear, when she is looked upon in her full
proportion. The
palm-tree is observed to flourish most when it is loaded;
so the church, the more it has been afflicted, the more it has multiplied; and
the branches of it are emblems of victory. Christ says,
"I will go up to
the palm-tree, to entertain myself with the shadow of it (v. 8) and
I
will take hold of its boughs and observe the beauty of them."
What
Christ has said he will do, in favour to his people; we may be sure he will do
it, for his kind purposes are never suffered to fall to the ground; and if he
take
hold of the boughs of his church, take early hold of her branches, when they
are young and tender, he will keep his hold and not let them go. (2.) To refresh
himself with her fruits. He compares her
breasts (her pious affections
towards him)
to clusters of grapes, a most pleasant fruit (v. 7), and he
repeats it (v. 8): They
shall be (that is, they shall be to me)
as
clusters of the vine, which
make glad the heart. "Now that I
come
up to the palm-tree thy graces shall be exerted and excited."
Christ's presence with his people kindles the holy heavenly fire in their
souls, and then their
breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, a cordial
to themselves and acceptable to him. And since God, at first,
breathed into
man's nostrils the breath of life, and breathes the breath of the new life
still,
the smell of their nostrils is
like the smell of apples, or
oranges, which is pleasing and reviving.
The Lord smelt a sweet savour
from Noah's sacrifice, Gen. 8:21. And,
lastly, the roof of her mouth is
like the best wine (v. 9); her spiritual taste and relish, or the words she
speaks of God and man, which come not from the teeth outward, but from
the
roof of the mouth, these are pleasing to God.
The prayer of the upright
is his delight. And, when
those that fear the Lord speak one to another
as becomes them,
the Lord hearkens, and hears with pleasure, Mal. 3:16.
It is like that wine which is, [1.] Very palatable and grateful to the taste. It
goes down sweetly; it
goes straightly (so the margin reads it); it
moves itself aright, Prov. 23:31. The pleasures of sense seem right to
the carnal appetite, and go down smoothly, but they are often wrong, and,
compared with the pleasure of communion with God, they are harsh and rough.
Nothing
goes down so sweetly with a gracious soul as the wine of God's
consolations. [2.] It is a great cordial. The presence of Christ by his Spirit
with him people shall be reviving and refreshing to them, as that strong wine
which makes
the lips even
of those that are asleep (that are ready
to faint away in a deliquium),
to speak. Unconverted sinners are asleep;
saints are often drowsy, and listless, and half asleep; but the word and Spirit
of Christ will put life and vigour into the soul, and
out of the abundance of
the heart that is thus filled
the mouth will
speak. When the
apostles were filled with the Spirit they spoke
with tongues the wonderful
works of God (Acts 2:10, 12); and those who in opposition to being
drunk
with wine, wherein is excess, are
filled with the Spirit, speak to
themselves in psalms and hymns, Eph. 5:18, 19. When Christ is thus
commending the sweetness of his spouse's love, excited by the manifestation of
his, she seems to put in that word,
for my beloved, as in a parenthesis.
"Is there any thing in me that is pleasant or valuable? As it is from, so
it is for my beloved."
Then he delights in our good affections and
services, when they are all for him and devoted to his glory.
Verses 10-13
These are the words of the spouse, the church, the believing
soul, in answer to the kind expressions of Christ's love in the foregoing
verses.
I. She here triumphs in her relation to Christ and her interest
in him, and in his name will she boast all the day long. With what a transport
of joy and holy exultation does she say (v. 10),
"I am my beloved's,
not my own, but entirely devoted to him and owned by him." If we can truly
say that Christ is our
best beloved, we may be confident that we are his
and he
will save us, Ps. 119:94. The gracious discoveries of Christ's
love to us should engage us greatly to rejoice in the hold he has of us, his
sovereignty over us and property in us, which is no less a spring of comfort
than a bond of duty. Intimacy of communion with Christ should help clear up our
interest in him. Glorying in this, that she is his, to serve him, and reckoning
that her honour, she comforts herself with this, that his
desire is towards
her, that is, he is her husband; it is a periphrasis of the conjugal
relation, Gen. 3:16. Christ's desire was strongly towards his chosen remnant,
when he came from heaven to earth to seek and save them; and when, in pursuance
of his undertaking, he was even straitened till the baptism of blood he was to
pass through for them
was accomplished, Lu. 12:50. He desired
Zion for
a habitation; this is a comfort to believers that, whosoever slights them,
Christ has a desire towards them, such a desire as will again bring him from
heaven to earth to receive them to himself; for he longs to have them all with
him, Jn. 17:24; 14:3.
II. She humbly and earnestly desires communion with him (v. 11,
12):
"Come, my beloved, let us take a walk together, that I may
receive counsel, instruction, and comfort from thee, and may make known my wants
and grievances to thee, with freedom, and without interruption." Thus
Christ can walk with the two disciples that were going to the village called
Emmaus,
and talked with them, till he made their
hearts burn within them. Observe
here, 1. Having received fresh tokens of his love, and full assurances of her
interest in him, she presses forward towards further acquaintance with him; as
blessed Paul, who desired yet more and more of
the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus, Phil. 3:8. Christ has made it to appear how much
his desire is towards us, and we are very ungrateful if ours be not towards him.
Note, Communion with Christ is that which all that are sanctified earnestly
breathe after; and the clearer discoveries he makes to them of his love the more
earnestly do they desire it. Sensual pleasures pall the carnal appetite, and
soon give it surfeit, but spiritual delights whet the desires, the language of
which is,
Nothing more than God, but still
more and more of him.
Christ had said,
I will go up to the palm-tree. Come, saith she,
Let
us go. The promises Christ has made us of communion with him are not to
supersede, but quicken and encourage, our prayers for that communion. 2. She
desires to go forth into the fields and villages to have this communion with
him. Those that would converse with Christ must go forth from the world and the
amusements of it, must avoid every thing that would divert the mind and be a
hindrance to it when it should be wholly taken up with Christ; we must contrive
how to
attend upon the Lord without distraction (1 Co. 7:35), for
therefore the spouse here covets to get out of the noise of the town.
Let us
go forth to him without the camp, Heb. 14:13. Solitude and retirement
befriend communion with God; therefore
Isaac went out into the field to
meditate and pray.
Enter into thy closet, and shut thy door. A
believer is never less alone than when alone with Christ, where no eye sees. 3.
Having business to go abroad, to look after their grounds, she desires the
company of her beloved. Note, Wherever we are, we may keep up our communion with
God, if it be not our own fault, for he is always at our right hand, his eye
always upon us, and both his word and his ear always nigh us. By going about our
worldly affairs with heavenly holy hearts, mixing pious thoughts with common
actions, and having our eyes ever towards the Lord, we may take Christ along
with us whithersoever we go. Nor should we go any whither where we cannot in
faith ask him to go along with us. 4. She is willing to rise betimes, to go
along with her beloved:
Let us get up early to the vineyards. It
intimates her care to improve opportunities of conversing with her beloved; when
the time appointed has come, we must lose no time, but, as the woman (Mk. 16:2),
go very early, though it be to a
sepulchre, if we be in hopes to
meet him there. Those that will go abroad with Christ must begin betimes with
him, early in the morning of their days, must begin every day with him, seek him
early, seek him diligently. 5. She will be content to take up her lodging in the
villages, the huts or cottages which the country people built for their shelter
when they attended their business in the fields; there, in these mean and cold
dwellings, she will gladly reside, if she may but have her beloved with her. His
presence will make them fine and pleasant, and convert them into palaces. A
gracious soul can reconcile itself to the poorest accommodations, if it may have
communion with God in them. 6. The most pleasant delightful fields, even in the
spring-time, when the country is most pleasant, will not satisfy her, unless she
have her beloved with her. No delights on earth can make a believer easy, unless
he enjoy God in all.
III. She desires to be better acquainted with the state of her
own soul and the present posture of its affairs (v. 12):
Let us see if the
vine flourish. Our own souls are our vineyards; they are, or should be,
planted with vines and pomegranates, choice and useful trees. We are made
keepers of these vineyards, and therefore are concerned often to look into them,
to examine the state of our own souls, to seek whether the
vine flourishes,
whether our graces be in act and exercise, whether we be fruitful in the fruits
of righteousness, and whether our fruit abound. And especially let us enquire
whether
the tender grape appear and whether
the pomegranates bud
forth, what good motions and dispositions there are in us that are yet but
young and tender, that they may be protected and cherished with a particular
care, and may not be nipped, or blasted, or rubbed off, but cultivated, that
they may bring forth fruit unto perfection. In this enquiry into our own
spiritual state, it will be good to take Christ along with us, because his
presence will make the
vine flourish and the
tender grape appear,
as the returning sun revives the gardens, and because to him we are concerned to
approve ourselves. If he sees the
vine flourish, and the
tender grape
appear— if we can appeal to him,
Thou knowest all things, thou knowest
that I love thee,— if his Spirit witness with our spirit that our souls
prosper, it is enough. And, if we would be acquainted with ourselves, we must
beg of him to search and try us, to help us in the search, and discover us to
ourselves.
IV. She promises to her beloved the best entertainment she can give him at
her country seat; for he will come in to us, and sup with us, Rev. 3:20. 1. She
promises him her best affections; and, whatever else she had for him, it would
utterly be contemned if her heart were not entire for him:
"There
therefore
will I give thee my love; I will repeat the professions of it,
honour thee with the tokens of it; and the out-goings of my soul towards thee in
adorations and desires shall be quickened and enlarged, and my heart offered up
to thee in a holy fire." 2. She promises him her best provision, v. 13.
"There we shall find pleasant odours, for
the mandrakes give a smell;" the
love-flowers or
lovely ones (so the word signifies), or the
love-fruits;
it was something that was in all respects very grateful, so valuable that Rachel
and Leah had like to have fallen out above it, Gen. 30:14. "We shall also
find that which is good for food, as well as pleasant to the eye, all the
rarities that the country affords:
At our gates are all manner of pleasant
fruits." Note, (1.) The fruits and exercises of grace are pleasant to
the Lord Jesus. (2.) These must be carefully laid up for him, devoted to his
service and honour, must be always ready to us when we have occasion for them,
as that which is laid up at our gates, that, by our bringing forth much fruit,
he may be glorified, Jn. 15:18. (3.) There is a great variety of these pleasant
fruits, with which our souls should be well stocked; we must have all sorts of
them, grace for all occasions,
new and old, as the good householder has
in his treasury, not only the products of this year, but remainders of the last,
Mt. 13:52. We must not only have that ready to us, for the service of Christ,
which we have heard, and learned, and experienced lately, but must retain that
which we have formerly gathered; nor must we content ourselves only with what we
have laid up in store in the days of old, but, as long as we live, must be still
adding something new to it, that our stock may increase, and we may be
thoroughly
furnished for every good work. (4.) Those that truly love Christ will think
all they have, even their most
pleasant fruits, and what they have
treasured up most carefully, too little to be bestowed upon him, and he is
welcome to it all; if it were more and better, it should be at his service. It
is all from him, and therefore it is fit it should be all for him.
Chapter 7:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Ecclesiastes Isaiah
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalm
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation
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