Songs 6:1-3 Where is your beloved gone, O you fairest among women? where is your beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with you.… The conversation still goes on between her who has lost her beloved and the daughters of Jerusalem. She has just poured out her heart to them in the description of him whom her soul so loved, and these verses give their response. We learn - I. THAT THERE IS A SPIRITUAL LOVELINESS IN THE SOUL THAT EARNESTLY SEEKS CHRIST. (Cf. ver. 1," O thou fairest among women.") It is not merely that Christ sees this loveliness, we know he does; but others see it likewise. It is not the beloved who speaks here, but the daughters of Jerusalem. (Cf. 2 Corinthians 7:10, 11, where are set forth some of those graces of character and conduct which are found in the seeking soul.) And that humility, tenderness of conscience, zeal, devoutness, holy desire, and gentleness of spirit which accompany such seeking of Christ - how beautiful these things are! And, like all real beauty, there is no self-consciousness in it, but rather such soul mourns that it is so little like what Christ would have it be. II. IT WILL WIN SYMPATHY AND HELP, WHICH ONCE IT DID NOT POSSESS. At the beginning of this song it is plain that the maiden who speaks did not have the sympathy but rather the contempt,, of the daughters of Jerusalem (cf. Song of Solomon 1:5, 8). But now all that is altered. They are won to her love. Great love to Christ will blessedly infect those about us. We can hardly live with such without coming under the power of its sweet and sacred contagion. Cf. Jethro, "We will go with you, for we see that the Lord hath blessed you." See, at the Crucifixion, how Joseph of Arimathaea, Nicodemus, the centurion, and others ceased from their cold neutrality or open opposition, and showed that they felt the power of Christ's love. III. IT WILL BECOME THE WISE INSTRUCTOR OF OTHERS. This inquiry of ver. 1 had its fulfilment when Christ lay in the tomb. Those who sought him mourned, but found him not. Cf. Christ's words concerning his absence, "Ye shall have sorrow, but your sorrow shall be. turned into joy. Also Mark 2:20. And the reply of ver. 2 had part fulfilment at that same period. Cf. "This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise (Luke 23:43). Yes, the Beloved had gone down into his garden (ver. 2). But we may also understand by the garden his Church (cf. on Song of Solomon 4:6). Arid thus the soul we are contemplating instructs others. She tells them: 1. Where Christ is to be found. In his garden, the place he has chosen, separated, cultivated, beautified, and whither he loves to resort. And: 2. What he delights in there. The spices - the fragrant graces of regenerated souls, the frankincense of their worship and prayers. The fruits on which he feeds - the holy lives, the manifestation of his people's faith and love. The lilies - the pure, meek, and lowly souls that spring and grow there. 3. What he does there. He feeds" there. "He shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. As his meat and drink" when here on earth was "to do the will of" the Father, now his sustenance is those fruits of the Spirit which abound in his true Church. And he "gathers lilies." "He shall gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom" (Isaiah 40.). Whenever a pure and holy soul, like those of children and of saints, is transplanted from the earthly garden to the heavenly, that is the gathering of the lilies. "O death, where is thy sting?" Thus doth the soul that loves Christ instruct others. IV. GAINS THE OBJECT OF ITS SEARCH. (Ver. 3.) "I am my Beloved's... mine." It is the declaration of holy rapture in the consciousness of Christ's love. They that seek him shall find him. There may be, there are, seasons when we fear we have lost him, but they shall surely be succeeded by such blessed seasons when the soul shall sing in her joy, "My Beloved is mine," etc. (ver. 3). - S.C. Parallel Verses KJV: Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee. |
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