The Pulpit Commentary — Song of Songs — Section 158

to our weakness to remember that the great King humbled himself to our low estate, that he was made as one of us, that he shared all our human infirmities, sin only excepted ; that he who is the Life of the world hmnbled himself for us unto death, cYen tbe death of the cross. And of all the titles by which he has been pleased to make himself known to his people, there is none so full of comfort as that of the Shepherd, the good Shepherd, who calls his sheep by name, who guides them and foods them, who knows his own and his own know him, who once laid down his life for the sheep. Now he feeds them in his garden, the garden enclosed (eh. iv. 12), which is the Church, among the beds of spices, which are the fruit of the Spirit. 'l'here he gathers the lilies one by one, the souls of his redeemed, the souls which he has tenued and cared for, and glorified with a beauty of holiness which is a faint reflection of his own heavenly beauty. Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of those precious lilies. He gathers them one by one when they have grown into that spiritual beauty for which he planted them at the first, and carries them into a better garden, the true Eden, the Paradise of God, there to blossom into purer and holier beauty. 2. She is wholly his. " I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine : he that feedeth [his flock] among the lilies." She repeats the happy assurance of eh. ii. 16, only she inverts the order of the clauses, and adds the description. "He is feeding his flock among the lilies: but I am his, and he is mine." 'l'here is no jealousy, no doubt now, as there seemed to be when she dreamed of his absence. The shepherd is her shepherd, the lilies are for her, she is his. She thinks first now of her gift to the bridegroom. In eh. ii. 16 she put his gift first. He had given his heart to her in the first happy days of their young love; and that gift had won from her the responsive gift of her affection. She knew now that her heart was wholly his; she delights in owning it. And she was sure of his affection. His heart was wholly hers. "We love him, because he first loved us" (1 John iv. 19). It is the love of Christ manifested in hi~ blessed life and precious death, revealed into the believer's heart by the power of the Holy Spirit,-it is that constraining love which draws forth from our cold and selfish natures that measure of love, real and true, though unworthy and intermittent, with which the Christian man. regards the Lord. At first we are more sure of his love tha.n of ours. He loved us, that is certain; the cross is the convincing proof. But ~e are not sure, alas! that we are returnin.g his love. We have learned from long and sad experience to doubt these selfish hearts of ours; we are afraid that there is no real love in them, but only excited feeling, only transitory emotion. But if by his grace we persevere in the life of prayer and faith, little by little his love given to us, manifested in our souls, draws forth the response of earnest love from us; little by little we begin to hope ( oh, how earnestly I) that we may be able at last to say with St. Peter, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou k.nowest that I love thee.'' But to say that, with the knowledge that his eye is on us, that he is reading our heart, involves much awe, much heart-searching, as well as much hope, much peace. We can only pray that "the God of hope may fill us with all joy and peace in believing, that we may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost" (Rom. :xv. 13). And if that love, though weak, as, alas! it must be, is yet real, we may make the bride's words our own: "I am my Beloved's; I belong to him. My heart is his; I am giving it to him; and he, blessed be his holy Name, is helping me to give it by first giving himself to me. I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine." 'l'Lerefore tbe Christian soul may say, "I hope one day to see him face to face, and to be with him where he feedeth his flock among the lilies of Paradise." Vers. 4-9.-TM bridegroom's praise of the bride. I. RENEWED ENUMERATION OF HEB GRACES. 1. General praise of her beauty. Her beauty is compared to the beauty of Tirzah or Jerusalew. t:ibe is beautiful as Tirzah, which word means "grace" or "beauty;" comely as Jerusalem, the habitation or foundation of peace. The bridegroom ~e □ tions Tirzah as well as J ~rusalem, which seems to imply that the song was written before the division of the kingdom. '!'he bride is beautiful as 'l'irzah was to the inhabitants of Northern Palestine-a. fair city in a fertile country, deriving its name from the attractive graces of the surroundiug scenery. She is comely as J Grusalem was to every Joyal Israelite. "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole t:nr1h, i~ M•Jnut Zion, on the sidr,1 of the north, the city of the gre:lt King;" "Wal~ <lli. vr. 1-13.) TH~ SONG OF SOLOMON. 149