Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.
Here Jesus takes up the discourse, and which he doth in the most gracious manner, in commendations of his love. He saith that she is beautiful as Tirzah. There was a city in the tribe of Manasseh called Tirzah; Joshua 12:24; Joshua 12:24. And as Judea is said to have been the glory of all lands, no doubt that Tirzah was a pleasant place. But some have thought that it is not the name of a place intended by the expression, but that she is lovely in his eyes, comely from the comeliness he had put upon her. And if this be the sense of it, how delightful ought it to be to a child of God, to consider, however poor, and low, and despised we are in our own eyes, and in the eyes of the world, yet, Jesus declares his people beautiful as Tirzah. But Christ doth not rest here. The church is also comely as Jerusalem. This city, is said in scripture, to be the joy of the whole earth. Psalms 48:2. And if the church of Jesus be thus lovely upon earth, amidst all the spots and infirmities of its inhabitants; what must it be in the Jerusalem which is above? Read the beloved Apostle's description of it; and while reading, connect with it, in recollection that every individual child of God forms a part in it. Revelation 21:2-4. There is another description Christ gives of his church in this verse, and that is, that she is terrible as an army with banners. And is it not so? How often hath it been known that vice hath been put out of countenance by the singular zeal of some faithful servant of the Lord? How often have the constancy and firmness of the saints made tyrants tremble? Acts 24:25; Hebrews 11:33-35. And yet more and much more important, how often have the faithful overcome the Lord himself by the prevalency of faith and prayer? See Genesis 32:24-28; Exodus 32:11-14; Joshua 7:6-9.