The YOUNG WIFE replies.
“My beloved is gone down to his garden, To the beds of spices, To feed in the gardens, And to gather lilies. I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine, He feeds his flock among the lilies.”
As could only happen in a dream she is immediately aware of where her husband will be. She is taken back to the time when he had first sought her out (Song of Solomon 2:16). She knows that he has returned to those happy surroundings, and that if she would find him she must return there too. She knows that he will be out there watching over his sheep among the lilies of her own homeland, seeking to restore their first love. Describing the pasture in terms of a scented garden has in minds his words when they first made love together (Song of Solomon 4:12 to Song of Solomon 5:2). But it is now also the place to gather lilies. He has returned in his heart to the place where they first courted, when she was but a lily of the valley (Song of Solomon 2:1-2), for he carries her in his heart. ‘Lilies' are regularly connected with her homeland (Song of Solomon 1:1-2; Song of Solomon 1:16; Song of Solomon 4:5). And it is among the lilies that she knows that she will find him as he longs for their love of earlier days.
This vivid indication that her beloved is not to be found in Jerusalem, but is to be found among the natural beauties of her homeland, is quite startling in view of the importance that Jerusalem would later assume. It is an indication to Israel that the One Whom they are to love can be found just where they are, in the land which He has given to them as an inheritance. But as we have been shown this is not just in the north of the kingdom. It is wherever the beauty of His creation is revealed (e.g. Song of Solomon 1:14). This would appear to indicate a time when the Temple had not yet been established, when Jerusalem was not so important, and before the kingdoms had become divided.
One thing that we can be sure of as His church is that when we have lost Him we know where we can find Him. He will be in the place where we first met Him when He was everything to us, and He will be found caring for His sheep. He will be fulfilling the task that He gave to us, in which we are failing (John 21:15-17; 1 Peter 5:2). And if we are like the church of Ephesus and discover that we have lost our first love (Revelation 2:4) we too must go back to those heady days when we first met Him as the shepherd Who watches over His sheep, that time when we asked no questions but gave ourselves wholly to Him and sought Him where He was. We need to strip off the trappings of the king's palace and return to the pure love of early days. We must leave the scented gardens and make our way among the lilies. We need to join Him in watching over and tending His sheep, instead of preening ourselves upon our beds (Song of Solomon 5:2-3).
But notice the subtle change in her words. Her experience has deepened her love, and her commitment to her husband. While saying virtually the identical thing, she no longer commences with ‘my beloved is mine' (Song of Solomon 2:16), but rather with ‘I am my beloved's'. She has learned that He Himself is more important to her than the way in which He sees her, and that what matter most is that she belongs to Him, although, of course the fact that He is hers immediately follows. There is now a new and deeper dedication. ‘I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.' It is a wonderful thing to be able to say ‘My Beloved is mine' and to be able to delight in what He is to us, but when we can first say ‘I am my Beloved's' it is a sign of deepening maturity.
Note also that this time she does not let him go as she had done in Song of Solomon 2:17. There is no equivalent here. This time she wants to remain with Him among the sheep and share His labors.