He sees in her the beauties and the fruitfulness of the tall and upright palm, of the graceful and clinging vine, of the fragrant and evergreen citron. Grace has made her like the palm-tree, the emblem alike of uprightness and of fruitfulness. The fruit of the date-palm is more valued than bread by the Oriental traveller, so great is its sustaining power; and the fruit-bearing powers of the tree do not pass away; as age increases the fruit becomes more perfect as well as more abundant.
The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree: He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They that are planted in the house of the LORD Shall flourish in the courts of our GOD. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; They shall be full of sap and green.
But why are the righteous made so upright and flourishing?
To show that the LORD is upright; He is my ROCK, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
One with our LORD, it is ours to _show forth_ His graces and virtues, to reflect His beauty, to be His faithful witnesses.
The palm is also the emblem of victory; it raises its beautiful crown towards the heavens, fearless of the heat of the sultry sun, or of the burning hot wind from the desert. From its beauty it was one of the ornaments of Solomon's, as it is to be of Ezekiel's temple. When our SAVIOUR was received at Jerusalem as the KING of Israel the people took branches of palm-trees and went forth to meet Him; and in the glorious day of His espousals, "a great multitude, which no man" can "number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," shall stand "before the throne and before the LAMB, clothed with white robes"; and with palms of victory in their hands shall ascribe their "salvation to our GOD which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the LAMB."
But if she resembles the palm she also resembles the vine. Much she needs the culture of the Husbandman, and well does she repay it. Abiding in CHRIST, the true source of fruitfulness, she brings forth clusters of grapes, luscious and refreshing, as well as sustaining, like the fruit of the palm--luscious and refreshing to Himself, the owner of the vineyard, as well as to the weary, thirsty world in which He has placed it.
The vine has its own suggestive lessons: it needs and seeks support; the sharp knife of the pruner often cuts away unsparingly its tender garlands, and mars its appearance, while increasing its fruitfulness. It has been beautifully written:--
The living Vine, CHRIST chose it for Himself:-- GOD gave to man for use and sustenance Corn, wine, and oil, and each of these is good: And CHRIST is Bread of life and Light of life. But yet, He did not choose the summer corn, That shoots up straight and free in one quick growth. And has its day, is done, and springs no more; Nor yet the olive, all whose boughs are spread In the soft air, and never lose a leaf, Flowering and fruitful in perpetual peace; But only this, for Him and His is one,-- That everlasting, ever-quickening Vine, That gives the heat and passion of the world, Through its own life-blood, still renewed and shed. . . . . . . The Vine from every living limb bleeds wine; Is it the poorer for that spirit shed? The drunkard and the wanton drink thereof; Are they the richer for that gift's excess? _Measure thy life by loss instead of gain;_ _Not by the wine drunk, but the wine poured forth;_ _For love's strength standeth in love's sacrifice;_ _And whoso suffers most, hath most to give._
Yet one figure more is used by the Bridegroom: "The smell of thy breath [is] like apples," or rather citrons. In the first section the bride exclaims:--
As the citron-tree among the trees of the wood, So is my Beloved among the sons. I delighted and sat down under His shadow, And His fruit was sweet to my taste.
Here we find the outcome of that communion. The citrons on which she had fed perfumed her breath, and imparted to her their delicious odour. The Bridegroom concludes his description:--
Thy mouth [is] like the best wine, That goeth down smoothly-- For my Beloved--
interjects the bride,
Causing the lips of those that are asleep to move.
How wondrous the grace that has made the bride of CHRIST to be all this to her Beloved! Upright as the palm, victorious, and evermore fruitful as she grows heavenward; gentle and tender as the Vine, self-forgetful and self-sacrificing, not merely bearing fruit in spite of adversity, but bearing her richest fruits through it;--feasting on her Beloved, as she rests beneath His shade, and thereby partaking of His fragrance;--what has grace not done for her! And what must be her joy in finding, ever more fully, the satisfaction of the glorious Bridegroom in the lowly wild flower He has made His bride, and beautified with His own graces and virtues!
I am my Beloved's, And His desire is toward me,