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.
Ver. 3. As the apple tree among the trees, &c.] Among wild trees, moss begrown trees, trees that bring not forth food for men, but mast for hogs. Such is every natural man. Rom 11:24 "Ephraim is an empty vine, he beareth fruit to himself," Hos 10:1 paltry hedge fruit. Oaks bring forth apples, such as they are, and acorns. But what saith our Saviour; John 15:2, "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away"; and "without me ye can do nothing." Joh 15:5 That is a true saying (though Spiera the expositor censures it for a cruel sentence), Omnis vita infidelium peccatum est, et nihil bonum sine summo bono, a The whole life of an unbeliever is sin, neither is there anything good without Christ the chiefest good. Here he is fitly compared by the Church to an "apple tree," which yields both shade and food to the weary and hungry traveller, furnisheth him with whatsoever heart can wish or need require. Christ is cornucopia, a universal good, all-sufficient and satisfactory, proportionable, and every way fitting to our necessities. It is not with Christ as with Isaac, that had but one blessing, for "in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom," Col 2:3 and whatsoever worth. So that, as a friend of Cyrus in Xenophon, being asked where his treasure was, answered, οπου Kυρος φιλος, where Cyrus is my friend; so may a Christian better answer to the like question, σπου Kυριος φιλος, where the Lord Christ is my friend; for as sine Deo omnis copia est egestas, without Christ all plenty is scarcity, so with him there can be no want of anything that is good. "In the fulness of his sufficiency he is in want, "saith Job of a wicked man. Contrariwise the godly, in the fulness of his want, is in an all-sufficiency; because he is in Christ, who hath filled παντα εν πασι Col 3:11 - the neuter gender, not only all the hearts of his people, but all things; he hath filled up that emptiness that was before in the creature, and made it satisfactory.
I sat down under his shadow with great delight.] Heb., I delighted and sat down. The Church, being scorched with troubles without and terrors within, ran to Christ for shelter, and found singular comfort. Psa 91:1 Isa 25:4 Tua praesentia, Domine Laurentio ipsam craticulam dulcem fecit, saith an ancient. Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, being a long time prisoner under Charles V, was demanded what upheld him all that time? Respondit, divinas martyrum consolationes se sensisse, he answered, that Christ came in to him with such cordials as kept up his spirits above belief. There be divine comforts that are felt by the suffering saints that others taste not of, nor themselves neither at other times. When the child is sick, out come the preserves and deserts; never sits he so much on his mother's lap and in her bosom as then.
And his fruit was sweet to my taste,] i.e., His word and promises, which I rolled as sugar under my tongue, and sucked therehence more sweetness than Samson did from his honeycomb. Psalms 19:10 ; Psa 119:103 Jer 15:16 Luther said he would not live in paradise if he might without the Word, at cum verbo etiam in inferno facile est vivere, saith he, b but with the Word he could live even in hell itself. True it is that those that have not the spouse's palate find no such sweetness in Christ or his promises. Most men are so full gorged with the devil's dainties, so surfeited with sin's deserts, that they find no more relish in the good Word of God than in the white of an egg, or in a dry chip. These feed upon that now that they must, without repentance, digest in hell; c there will be bitterness in the end. Whereas they that, by sucking those full strutting breasts of consolation, the promises, have "tasted and seen how good the Lord Christ is," as their souls are satisfied with fat things, full of marrow, with the very best of the best, Isa 25:6 so he shall make them to "drink abundantly of the river of his pleasures," Psa 36:8 he shall take them into his wine cellar and fill them with gladness.
a Aug. De Vera Innocen., cap. 56.
b Oper. Lat., tom. iv.
c Multi in terris manducant quod apud inferos digerunt. - Aug.