My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.
Gone down. Jerusalem was on a hill (answering to its moral elevation), and the gardens were at a little distance in the valleys below.
Beds of spices - (balsam) which He Himself calls the "mountain of myrrh" (Song of Solomon 4:6); and again (Song of Solomon 8:14), the resting-place of His body amidst spices, and of His soul in paradise, and now in heaven, where He stands an High Priest forever. Nowhere else in the Song is there mention of mountains of spices.
Feed in ... gardens - i:e., in the churches, though He may have withdrawn for a time from the individual believer.
Gather lilies. She implies an invitation to the daughters of Jerusalem to enter His spiritual Church, and become lilies, made white by His blood. He is gathering some lilies now to plant on earth, others to transplant into heaven (Song of Solomon 5:1; Genesis 5:24; Mark 4:29).