Bride and Bridegroom’s Mutual Commendations.
I. THE KING’S COMMENDATION OF SHULAMITE
Behold, thou art fair, my love;
Behold, thou art fair;
Thou hast dove’s eyes (Song of Solomon 1:15).
The language earnest and emphatic. ‘Behold:’ expressive of admiration. Repeated with the declaration—‘thou art fair,’—as indicative of strong emotion and deep conviction, as well as of the desire to assure the bride of its truth, and the difficulty of doing so. The assurance all the more necessary from Shulamite’s own sense of her blackness, and the depreciation of her by the ladies of the Court on that account. Observe—
(1) Believers’ eyes more readily fixed on their own corruption than on Christ’s grace in them.
(2) Love delights in expressing high esteem for and admiration of its object.
(3) Believers never fairer in Christ’s eyes than when blackest in their own, and meekly enduring the contempt of others.
(4) Believers not only beautiful in the eyes of others (Song of Solomon 1:8), but very specially in the eyes of Christ Himself. Christ looks not at the blemishes, but the beauties of His people. The beauties His, the blemishes their own. ‘He seeth no iniquity in Jacob.’ Christ the best judge of beauty. To be beautiful in His eyes is to be beautiful indeed, and blessed as well as beautiful. Beautiful in His eyes, it matters little what we are in the eyes of others. ‘Let them curse, but bless thou.’ Christ looks not only at what believers are now, but at what they shall be hereafter. Views past, present, and future at one glance. Christ takes delight in His people’s beauty (Psalms 45:10-11). Rejoices over them as the Bridegroom over the Bride (Isaiah 62:5). The double assertion: ‘Thou art fair,’ probably intended to express the greatness as well as the reality of Shulamite’s beauty. A two-fold beauty in believers: beauty of the inward spirit and of the outward life; beauty in doing and in suffering; beauty in imputed righteousness and imparted grace. The repeated assertion of Shulamite’s beauty, accompanied with the King’s assurance of His love to her, and her relation to Him: ‘My love.’ Sweet and comforting, as well as strengthening and sanctifying to believers, to be assured of Christ’s love, and of their relation to Him as His bride.
A special feature in Shulamite’s beauty noted: ‘Thou hast doves’ eyes,’ or ‘Thine eyes are doves.’ The eyes of Syrian doves distinguished for their softness, tenderness, and lustrous beauty. The eye especially the seat of beauty. The eyes of Syrian females particularly beautiful. The eye the expression of the soul. More especially the expression of inward affection. Hence the power of the eye in captivating the heart (chap. Song of Solomon 4:9; Song of Solomon 6:5). Observe—
(1) Christ notices not only the beauty of believers in general, but their single graces in particular; more especially He notices their love which has Himself for its object.
(2) The eyes of believers those of doves, or doves themselves. The dove distinguished for (i) gentleness and meekness; (ii.) affection and fidelity to its mate; (iii.) purity and cleanliness; (iv.) timidity and retiring disposition. Its character indicated in its eyes. The eyes of believers not those of the tiger, or the fox, or the hawk; but of the dove. The contrast of the believer’s eyes indicated in Matthew 20:15; 2 Peter 2:14; Psalms 131:1. Believers learn of Jesus to be meek and lowly in heart. The ‘gentleness of Christ’ to be a distinguishing feature in their character. ‘Gentleness’ is love holding intercourse with those around us. Implies tenderness of feeling; readiness of sympathy; considerateness of others. ‘Gentleness’ is ‘love in its depth and in its delicacy.’ Believers chosen in Christ to be holy and without blame before God in love (Ephesians 1:4). Not to be drawn away from Christ by any suffering or persecution. Pass the time of their sojourning here in fear. Work out their salvation with fear and trembling (1 Peter 1:17; Philippians 2:12).
2. SHULAMITE TO THE KING
Behold thou art fair, my beloved; Yea, pleasant.
The Bride returns her Beloved’s commendation. Every good word from Christ to be turned to His own praise. What the believer is made, he is made ‘to the praise of the glory of His grace.’ The title also reciprocated: ‘My Beloved’. The believer made conscious both of His love to Christ and his relation to Him. Bride’s commendation also commences with a note of exclamation: ‘Behold.’ Implies the reality and greatness of the King’s beauty. His beauty a thing to be contemplated and dwelt upon. The ascription of beauty to the Bride returned as belonging rather to Himself. The believer’s beauty only a reflection of Christ’s. Shulamite commends her beloved as—
I. FAIR. Observe—
1. Jesus supremely beautiful in the eyes of believers. Their eyes anointed with Divine eye-salve to see His beauty. Able to testify with John we beheld His glory. Their blessedness, to behold even now, by the eye of faith, ‘the King in His beauty.’ Christ formerly to them as to others, a root out of a dry ground, without form or comeliness: now the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely.
2 Jesus in Himself transcendently beautiful. Observe, in reference to the
Beauty of Christ—
1. Its greatness. His beauty such as no angel’s hand could pourtray, or tongue describe. The exclamation of the prophet: ‘How great is His beauty!’ (Zechariah 9:17.) Of the Psalmist: ‘Thou art fairer than the children of men; grace is poured into thy lips’ (Psalms 45).
(2) His beauty a glory such as becomes the Son of God: ‘We beheld His glory; the glory as of the only begotten of the Father’ (John 1:14). All beauty summed up and centered in Jesus. Whatever is beautiful in the creature, found in Him in an infinitely greater degree. All creature beauty only a ray or emanation from His own. Christ the fountain and ocean of beauty; all beauty in the creature, whether angel, man, or nature, only a stream from that fountain, or a drop from that ocean His an essential beauty; theirs a derived one. All beautiful things in nature only made to reflect something of His beauty, and to lead up to it.
2. Its character. His beauty mainly a moral and spiritual one: ‘Full of grace and truth.’ His countenance, doubtless, indicative of that spiritual beauty. Not the less beautiful because, for our sakes, marred more than any man’s, and soiled with blood and tears His beauty in His soul, but manifesting itself in His words, looks, and actions. Seen both in what He is in Himself, and in what He is to others, especially to poor sinners of mankind. His soul free from all sin, and full of all grace. All its powers and faculties in complete order and perfect harmony. His beauty seen not only in the separate graces of His character, but in their combination, proportion, and symmetry. Displayed in His love and lovingness—His self-forgetting, and self-denying benevolence, sympathy, and compassion; in His gentleness and tenderness, His meekness and humility; in His kindness and condescension to the poor, the ignorant, and the despised; in His wisdom and intelligence, combined with forbearance and child-like simplicity; in His patience in suffering and submission to His Father’s will; in his fearlessness in regard to Himself with the tenderest care and consideration for others; in His manliness combined with meekness; in His firmness of principle with flexibility of manners; in His purity combined with pity; in His hatred of sin with love to the sinner; in His ardent affection for His friends with the most generous forgiveness of his enemies; in His supreme love to God combined with untiring self-sacrificing love to man.
II. PLEASANT. Shulamite adds—‘Yea, pleasant’ or comely. ‘Yea,’ indicating the difficulty she finds in expressing her appreciation of the King’s excellence, and the delight she found in Him. Not only ‘fair,’ but ‘pleasant’ besides. The most beautiful not always the most pleasant. Christ not only beautiful but pleasant. Observe in regard to the
Pleasantness of Christ:
In Him the greatest moral excellence combined with the greatest pleasantness. Pleasantness a special quality, and superadded to excellence. Indicates what a person is in relation to others. That which renders a man amiable, agreeable, and enjoyable to those around him. The quality in an individual that affords pleasure and delight in his presence and society. Has special reference to one’s spirit and temper, manners and deportment,—a person’s looks, and the tone of hit voice, as well as his words and actions. Implies a combination of graces as well as virtues; of charms, as well as excellencies; of agreeable as well as solid qualities, fitting their possessor for imparting pleasure as well as profit to those in contact with him. Such pleasantness in Jesus. Jesus fair in Himself; pleasant to others. Such that not only angels but men—not only the godly but sinners—may find pleasure in Him. The evidence of His pleasantness seen in His disciples who so fondly adhered to Him and so closely followed Him; in John the fisherman, who was wont to pillow his head on His bosom; in the multitudes that everywhere thronged about Him; in the publicans and sinners that drew near to hear Him; in the children that followed Him with their parents, and sang His praise in the temple-courts; in the infants that He took up in His arms, putting His hands on their head and blessing them. David’s testimony in regard to Jonathan that of every believer in regard to Jesus: ‘Very pleasant hast thou been unto me.’ Jesus ‘very pleasant’ to believers now while conversed with through a veil. What when they see Him face to face?
3.
SHULAMITE REJOICES IN THE KING’S FELLOWSHIP AND THE PLACE OF ITS ENJOYMENT
Also our bed is green;
The beams of our house are cedar,
And our rafters of fir.
The scene now the grounds of the palace. Shulamite has found the King at the shepherd’s tents. Intensely happy in each other’s society and love, they sit down and repose on a green and flowery bank—the resting-place at noon (Song of Solomon 1:7). The cedars spread their shady branches over them like the beams of a palace, while the fragant fir trees form a gallery for their walk. Shulamite notices these things, and in her delighted enjoyment of the King’s fellowship, and her fine appreciation of the objects of nature, expresses her gratification in these agreeable surroundings. Brought up in the country, she is everywhere exhibited in the Song as an enthusiastic admirer of natural beauty. In this way as well as others, a meet companion for him who ‘spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall’ (1 Kings 4:33). Enjoyment of a dear one’s fellowship gives of itself a charm to the place which is the scene of it. The place where a believer has enjoyed sweet and hallowed communion with his Saviour, especially in the season of his first love, rendered beautiful in his eyes, and endeared to his heart. All the more so when this has been in the midst of natural scenery. With the joy of a soul’s deliverance from bondage and possession of a newly found Saviour, all surrounding nature seems to be in harmony. By a law of our mental constitution, the joy transfuses itself over all surrounding objects. The mountains and hills break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field clap their hands (Isaiah 55:12). Christ’s graciously manifested person sheds a beauty and sweetness over every thing around us. Himself fair and pleasant, the very place becomes such where He is found and enjoyed. Where He treads, lilies and roses bloom. Hence the sweetness of Divine ordinances. Christ’s fellowship usually most enjoyed in connection with the ordinances of His own institution. Gospel ordinances the shepherds’ tents where the Chief Shepherd is found, and where He makes His flock to rest at noon. The promise,—‘I will commune with them from off the mercy seat.’ Hence, the very place of these ordinances, beautiful and delightful to a loving believer. ‘How amiable are Thy tabernacles;’ ‘Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.’ ‘A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand.’ Hence his longing desire after them. ‘My soul longeth, yea even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord.;’ ‘One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire in His temple’ (Psalms 84; Psalms 96; Psalms 63; Psalms 27). This sweetness and charm connected with the sanctuary something very different from mere outward attraction; though it may be desirable that even that should not be altogether wanting. Nothing lost when that which meets the bodily eye is somewhat in harmony with the spiritual beauty of the sanctuary, which only the eye of the living soul can perceive and the renewed heart delight in.
Shulamite commends both the beauty of the grassy couch on which they reposed, and the agreeableness of the shade afforded by the trees which spread their branches over their heads like the beams of sylvan chambers. ‘Our bed (or couch) is green (or flourishing); the beams of our house (Heb. “houses”) are of cedar (or cedars are the beams of our chambers); and our rafters (or galleries) are of fir’ (or fir trees are our rafters or galleries). Suggesting, in regard to
Divine Ordinances,
1. Community of interest and participation on the part of Christ and His people. ‘Our bed;’ ‘our house;’ as pertaining both to the bride and bridegroom. So Divine ordinances the joint property of Christ and His people. The temple at Jerusalem spoken of as both God’s house and that of the people: ‘Our beautiful house;’ ‘Your house is left unto you desolate.’ The sacrifices participated in both by God and the offerer. Called ‘the bread of their God,’ ‘the food of the offering made by fire unto the Lord’ (Leviticus 3:11; Leviticus 21:6; Leviticus 21:8, &c.). Christian ordinances intended both for the enjoyment of Christ and His people. ‘If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him, and will sup with him and he with me’ (Revelation 3:21).
2. Repose as well at comfort to the soul. Christ found in the ordinances of his house as ‘the rest and the refreshing’ wherewith ‘the weary’ are to be made to rest, and ‘as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land’ (Isaiah 28:12; Isaiah 32:2). ‘One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life: For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me.’ ‘There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most high, (Psalms 46:4; Psalms 27:4-5).
3. Freshness and life. ‘Our bed is green’ or flourishing. The ordinances of the Christian Church, wherever two or three are gathered together in the Master’s name, as fresh and lively, as full of blessing and as precious to believers note as when after Pentecost the disciples ‘continued steadfast in the Apostles’ fellowship and doctrine, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers’ (Acts 2:42). These ordinances as sweet and refreshing to the believer at the close of his earthly pilgrimage as at the beginning of it. The promised presence of Christ and the operation of His Spirit, that which keeps the couch green and flourishing. ‘There is a river, &c.’
4. Strength and permanence. ‘The beams of our house are cedars.’ Strength as well as beauty in God’s sanctuary (Psalms 96:6). Christ’s promised presence gives permanence, as well as life and freshness, to ordinances. The Lord’s Supper, the central ordinance of Christian worship, to continue till He come again. These ordinances have continued throughout eighteen centuries in almost all parts of the known world, and are, to a great extent, the same even in form at this day as when originally instituted and observed by the earliest converts. One precious fruit of the Reformation, the restoration of these ordinances to their primitive simplicity, after having been overlaid and disfigured both in the Eastern and Western Churches with rites and ceremonies of mere human invention. What is Divine in ordinances permanent as the cedars; what is merely human, perishable, and to be put away.
5. Fragrance and beauty. ‘Our rafters (or galleries) of fir’ (or, are firs or cypresses). The fir or cypress distinguished for its beauty as well as its fragrance. ‘Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree.’ Promised in connection with the sanctuary in Gospel times. ‘The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree and the pine tree and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary’ (Isaiah 60:13; Isaiah 55:13). Beauty, as well as strength, in God a sanctuary (Psalms 96:6). The fragrance and beauty of Divine ordinances not in the fumes of incense, or in external decoration, whether of place or persons; but in the truths of the Gospel exhibited, the presence of Christ enjoyed, and the power of the Spirit experienced in them.