THUS will be accomplished the confident and bright anticipation of “the Israel of God,” expressed vividly in Psa. 73:24, but travestied in most versions through unbelief of their just hopes, and the consequent substitution for them of Christian feeling, quite beside the mark in the psalm of Asaph or of any other in the book. “Thou wilt guide me by [or M] thy counsel, and after glory thou wilt receive me.” So it will be with the earthly bride, but not with the heavenly; which last being assumed probably led to the singular departure from all legitimate construction, and tends to keep the unwary English reader in the continual misinterpretation of the Psalms. Christ, as made known to the church, was received up in glory on the accomplishment of redemption, and will receive us to Himself changed at His coming, before He displays us as the sharers of His heavenly glory in His kingdom. The reception of Zion, guided in a way little known and through desolating sorrow, will be after glory appears. Compare Psa. 85:9; 102:13-22, and Zech. 2:8.
Like the last chapter from ver. 4, this again is the utterance of the Bridegroom save from the latter part of ver. 9 to the end.
“How beautiful are thy steps in sandals,
Ο prince's daughter!
The joints of thy thighs like jewels,
work of the hands of a skilful artist.
Thy navel [is] a round goblet,
wanting not mixture;
Thy belly, a heap of wheat set about with lilies;
Thy two breasts are two fawns, twins of a gazelle;
Thy neck as a tower of ivory;
Thine eyes, the pool in Heshbon by the gate of Bath-rabbim;
Thy nose as the tower of Lebanon looking toward Damascus;
Thy head upon thee as Carmel,
and the locks of thy head as purple—
The king held captive in the tresses.
How fair and how pleasant [art] thou, love, in delights!
This thy stature [is] as a palm-tree,
and thy breasts [grape-] clusters.
I said, I will go up the palm-trees,
I will take hold of the branches thereof;
And thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine,
and the smell of thy nose as apples;
And the roof of thy mouth as the best wine
Goeth down aright for my beloved,
Gliding over the lips of those asleep.
I am my beloved's, and his desire [is] toward me.
Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field,
let us lodge in the villages;
Let us get up early to the vineyards,
let us see if the vine hath budded,
The blossoms appear, the pomegranates bloom:
there will I give thee my loves.
The mandrakes yield fragrance;
and at our doors [are] all choice fruits:
New and old I have laid them up for thee, my beloved” (vers. 1-13).
It is the expression of His complacency in the bride. What a change for the Christ-despising Jew does grace effect! We know it, for ourselves too well, too little for Him. All that He accounts goodly and fragrant is of Him whether now or in that day. And the fruit of the godly remnant's progress in the knowledge of Messiah's love appears in verse 10, as compared with chaps. 2:16, and 6:3. They, as ourselves, as all that are genuine, must begin with “My Beloved is mine, and I am His.” It is the true order of grace. He looked on the bride and deigned Himself to become hers, as she is His. Now at length she wakes up to the infinite love that she once blindly and proudly refused to her ruin. Now she knows that He is the King, and that He loves her spite of all and is hers, and that she is His. Even then how much had she to learn! But she does gradually learn more and more of His love to her, and what she was in His eyes. Hence, in chap. 6:3, she can say, even after feeling her folly and the self-judgment it wrought in her, “I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine.” This is a great step in its season, and the mark of confidence in His love. And here, in chap. 7:10, it again takes the first place with language which seals her sense of His affection. “I am my Beloved's, and His desire is toward me.” Surely it is most holy and sovereign in its grace, but love that answers, by the Holy Spirit's power, to Him Who, as the prophet says, will not only save but rejoice over His bride with joy—will rest in His love and exult over her with singing.
Then will follow in due time the mission of Israel, renewed and humble, and the going out of heart for the blessing of others. What joy for all families of the earth when the ancient promise to the fathers of the faithful is literally in all its extent fulfilled! What a morrow after the long night of sin and shame and tears But this cannot be till the faithless one owns her sins and receives the Beloved, saying in truth of heart, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of Jehovah. Then too, when men are blessed under the Blesser, shall the earth itself yield its long pent increase. But none the less shall Zion have her own peculiar place of love and honor here below. It is ours to enjoy and testify the grace that gathers to the glorified One in heaven, whence we look for Him and are assured He will come and take us there, even to the Father's house. But in that day Zion will be glad and the daughters of Judah rejoice, because of His judgments which inaugurate earth's peace and blessedness under His righteous rule.