This book is the converse of Ecclesiastes. There the heart sought for an object, and could not find one; it had to conclude that “all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” But here the heart has an attractive object, and the more the thoughts and feelings are drawn after it the more delight there is, because the beauty and perfectness of Himself become better known.
In the Song of Songs, therefore, the desires and affections are drawn out after Him who is “the king.” (chapter 1:12.) It is, no doubt, the Jewish remnant in whose hearts these desires and affections are wrought by the Spirit, especially Judah and Benjamin; for the ten tribes come in after, and we know that “He will save the tents of Judah first.” (Zechariah 12)
It is the working of desire and affection, and a sense too, in some measure, of His excellencies which we find in Canticles; those feelings which will really be created in the hearts of the Jews according to their calling and hope by and by. It is not desire and affection flowing from the consciousness and joy of relationships already formed, as characterizes the Church, and the difference is immense. The affections and delight of saints now who form the Church are based on the consciousness of being redeemed by His blood, already delivered from the wrath to come, now sons of God, partakers of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, and called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. While, therefore, in the Song of Songs we have not, properly speaking, the true character of Christian worship and affection, yet the Lord Himself being the object of both people—each, too, loved by the same blessed Person—the heart of every heaven-born soul can delight in pondering the blessed interchange of affection and desire, and that too in a higher way than those to whom this precious little book primarily refers. Surely we who are longing now by faith for closer personal fellowship with Himself can fervently exclaim, “Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth, for thy love is better than wine.” We too can speak of His precious name “as ointment poured forth,” and while rejoicing in Him as “the altogether lovely,” we can sing, as we often do―
“O draw me, Saviour, after Thee!
So shall I run and never tire;
With gracious words still comfort me:
Be Thou my hope, my sole desire.
On Thee I’d roll each weight and fear,
Calm in the thought that Thou art near.
“What in Thy love possess I not?
My star by night, my sun by day;
My spring of life when parch’d with drought;
My wine to cheer, my bread to stay;
My strength, my shield, my safe abode;
My robe before the throne of God.”