The Song of Solomon 6
WE cannot question the state of the bride’s heart after her description of the Bridegroom in the closing verses of chapter 5. She is happy again. That He has never changed in His love for her, is amply shown in His utterance beginning in verse 4.
Well is it for God’s children that their security, their everlasting portion, depends not upon themselves or their feelings, but upon the finished work of Christ.
The daughters of Jerusalem, not realizing the change that has come over the bride, ask her where her Beloved is gone, where turned aside (as though the fault lay with Him!), and they would seek Him with her. She knows where He is (verse 2); it is where she wished Him to be (end of chapter 4), —among His people, finding enjoyment as in a garden of spices and lilies.
He speaks to His beloved, and in His words, there is no reproach. There is no love like His! Sadly, had she failed to welcome Him when He came before (verse 3, chapter 5) but she has learned a lesson, and is before Him with not a cloud between.
In chapter 2, verse 16, in her happiness, the bride had said “My Beloved is mine, and I am His.” A deeper work has gone on in her breast, and now she says, “I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine.” It is now her greatest joy to know that she belongs to Him, is His. Is this our chief joy, too?
In language of perfect grace, the Bridegroom tells her again what he had said in chapter 4, before her coldness to Him; could He more perfectly express the unchangeability of His love for her? But the language is not only purposeful repetition; there is addition to what He had before told her.
The earthly bride is compared in beauty to Tirzah, capital of Israel’s ten tribes before the city of Samaria was founded by Omri (1 Kings 16:2323In the thirty and first year of Asa king of Judah began Omri to reign over Israel, twelve years: six years reigned he in Tirzah. (1 Kings 16:23)). Tirzah means “delight” or pleasantness. She is also comely as Jerusalem, terrible as troops with banners. What Jerusalem will be is described in Psalm 48, Isaiah 62 and Zechariah 14:8-11, 16, 20, 218And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. 9And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one. 10All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king's winepresses. 11And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. (Zechariah 14:8‑11)
16And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:16)
20In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. 21Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. (Zechariah 14:20‑21), beside other passages. There will be but one capital city then, the rivalry of Samaria and Jerusalem (John 4:2020Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. (John 4:20)) will be over, and the New Israel will be far beyond the old Israel in glory (Isaiah 54), and the chief city of the world.
Verses 8-10 compare all others with the bride; no city like Jerusalem; no earthly people so beloved as the remnant of Judah. Jerusalem’s and Judah’s day of glory, shining as the moon by night and the sun by day, is about to arrive.
Verses 11, 12. The Bridegroom—King of Israel—has come to see His land, and His willing people set Him upon their chariots. It is the scene of earthly glory, the answer to His own word in Matthew 23:3939For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. (Matthew 23:39).
Verse 13. Shulamite is the feminine of Solomon; it is the new name, the name of the married wife of the true Solomon. She is with her Husband, David’s son and David’s Lord. Israel and Judah are one, not two anymore, and Christ is their King. The prophecies of the Old Testament are thus completed.
ML 02/26/1933