The Lover to His Beloved:
5:1 I have entered my garden, O my sister, my bride;
I have gathered my myrrh with my balsam spice.
I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey;
I have drunk my wine and my milk!
C.H. Spurgeon:
The heart of the believer is Christ’s garden. He bought it with His precious blood, and He enters it and claims it as His own.
A garden implies separation. It is not the open common, it is not a wilderness; it is walled around, or hedged in. Would that we could see the wall of separation between the church and the world made broader and stronger. It makes one sad to hear Christians saying, “Well, there is no harm in this; there is no harm in that,” thus getting as near to the world as possible. Grace is at a low ebb in that soul which can even raise the question of how far it may go in worldly conformity.
A garden is a place of beauty, it far surpasses the wild uncultivated lands. The genuine Christian must seek to be more excellent in his life than the best moralist, because Christ’s garden ought to produce the best flowers in all the world. Even the best is poor, compared with Christ’s deservings; let us not put Him off with withering and dwarf plants. The rarest, richest, choicest lilies and roses ought to bloom in the place which Jesus calls His garden.
The garden is a place of growth. The saints are not to remain undeveloped, always mere buds and blossoms. We should grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Growth should be rapid where Jesus is the Gardener, and the Holy Spirit the dew from above.
A garden is a place of retirement. So the Lord Jesus Christ would have us reserve our souls as a place in which He can manifest Himself, as He does not unto the world. O that Christians were more retired, that they kept their hearts more closely shut up for Christ! We often worry and trouble ourselves, like Martha, with much serving, so that we have not the room for Christ that Mary had, and do not sit at His feet as we should. May the Lord grant the sweet showers of His grace to water His garden this day.
(Source)
The Poet to the Couple:
Eat, friends, and drink!
Drink freely, O lovers!
The Trials of Love: The Beloved’s Dream of Losing Her Lover, 2-7
The Beloved about Her Lover:
5:2 I was asleep, but my mind was dreaming.
Listen! My lover is knocking at the door!
The Lover to His Beloved:
“Open for me, my sister, my darling,
my dove, my flawless one!
My head is drenched with dew,
my hair with the dampness of the night.”
The Beloved to Her Lover:
5:3 “I have already taken off my robe—must I put it on again?
I have already washed my feet—must I soil them again?”
5:4 My lover thrust his hand through the hole,
and my feelings were stirred for him.
5:5 I arose to open for my beloved;
my hands dripped with myrrh—
my fingers flowed with myrrh
on the handles of the lock.
5:6 I opened for my beloved,
but my lover had already turned and gone away.
I fell into despair when he departed.
I looked for him but did not find him;
I called him but he did not answer me.
5:7 The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city.
They beat me, they bruised me;
they took away my cloak, those watchmen on the walls!
The Triumph of Love: The Beloved Praises Her Lover, 8-16
The Beloved to the Maidens:
5:8 O maidens of Jerusalem, I command you—
If you find my beloved, what will you tell him?
Tell him that I am lovesick!
The Maidens to The Beloved:
5:9 Why is your beloved better than others,
O most beautiful of women?
Why is your beloved better than others,
that you would command us in this manner?
The Beloved to the Maidens:
5:10 My beloved is dazzling and ruddy;
he stands out in comparison to all other men.
5:11 His head is like the most pure gold.
His hair is curly—black like a raven.
5:12 His eyes are like doves by streams of water,
washed in milk, mounted like jewels.
5:13 His cheeks are like garden beds full of balsam trees yielding perfume.
His lips are like lilies dripping with drops of myrrh.
5:14 His arms are like rods of gold set with chrysolite.
His abdomen is like polished ivory inlaid with sapphires.
5:15 His legs are like pillars of marble set on bases of pure gold.
His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars.
5:16 His mouth is very sweet;
he is totally desirable.
This is my beloved!
This is my companion, O maidens of Jerusalem!
Tommy Nelson comments on the NKJV text of vv10-12:
‘My beloved is white and ruddy, chief among ten thousand. His head is like the finest gold; his locks are wavy, and black as a raven. his eyes are like doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set’.
Nelson comments:
‘He was pure in his motives and behaviors toward her. Repeatedly she referred to him as white… his head (in this case his mind) was filled with wisdom more valuable than gold. He was respected even though he was youthful. His hair was black with no evidence of the weakness of age. Sin is often pictured in the Bible as the weakness of aging (see Hos 7:9). He was gentle; his eyes were soft and tender toward her. He was sober. The whites of his eyes were white, not reddened by alcochol of debauched living.’
This, Duguid suggests, is a specimen of interpretation by ‘free association’:
‘These may be excellent attributes to affirm in a husband – there is much practical advice in Nelson’s book, just as there is much spiritual truth in Brooks – but none of the connections that Nelson makes grows out of a solid understanding of the text. The word for ‘white’ (sah) used in describing the beloved here may better be translated ‘radiant’ (NIV; ESV), and is not used elsewhere in the Old Testament to describe purity; the Hebrews would never have equated the head with the mind, and the fact that the whites of the man’s eyes were, well, ‘white’ has nothing to do with his avoidance of debauched living.’
Tremper Longman writes:
‘The role of the woman throughout the Song of Solomon is truly astounding, especially in the light of its ancient origins. It is the woman, not the man, who is the dominant voice throughout the poems that make up the Song. She is the one who seeks, pursues, initiates. In Song 5:10-16 she boldly exclaims her physical attraction [“His abdomen is like a polished ivory tusk, decorated with sapphires…” (14)]…Most English translations hesitate in this verse. The Hebrew is quite erotic, and most translators cannot bring themselves to bring out the obvious meaning…This is a prelude to their love making. here is no shy, shamed, mechanical movement under the sheets. Rather, the two stand before each other, aroused, feeling no shame, but only joy in each other’s sexuality.’ (Cited by Keller, The Meaning of Marriage, 221f.)
He is altogether lovely – One of the defining characteristics of beauty is symmetry. In the best of men there is imbalance and inconsistency, and as the tallest building throws the longest shadow, so the greatest people have the most prominent faults. Virtue slips into vice; courage turns into cowardice; purity into prudery. Not so with the Lord Jesus. In him all virtues were maintained, in perfect harmony and without eclipse. He was as eloquent in silence as in speech; as loving in judgement as in mercy.