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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadSpurgeon Verse Expositions - Song of Solomon 2:1 - 2:7
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We believe that this song sets forth the mutual love of Christ and his believing people. It is a book of deep mystery, not to be understood except by the initiated; but those who have learnt a life of sacred fellowship with Jesus will bear witness that when they desire to express what they feel they are compelled to borrow expressions from this matchless song. Samuel Rutherford, in his famous letters, when he spoke of the love of Christ as shed abroad in his heart, perhaps was scarcely conscious that he continually reproduced the expressions of the song, but so it is. They were naturally fresh enough from him, but they came from this wonderful book. It stands in the middle of the Bible. It is the holy of holies — the central point of all.
Thus he speaks — the glorious “greater than Solomon.”
Son_2:1-2. I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
So does Christ’s Church spring up singular for her beauty — as much different from the world — as much superior thereto as the lily to the thorns. Now see how she responds and answers to him.
Son_2:3. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood. so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was street to my taste.
To him there is none like her; to her there is none like him. Jesus values his people. He paid his heart’s blood for their redemption, and “unto you that believe, he is precious.” No mention shall be made of coral or of rubies, in comparison with him. Nothing can equal him. There are other trees in the wood, but he is the one lone fruit-bearing — the citron tree, whose golden apples are delicious to our taste. Let us come up and pluck from his loaded branches this very night.
Son_2:4. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
You and I know what this means — at least, many here do. You know how delightful it is to feel that it is not the banner of war now, but the banner of love, that waves above your head, for all is peace between you and your God. And now you are not brought to the prison-house or to the place of labour, but to the banqueting house. Act worthily of the position which you occupy. If you are in a banqueting house, take care to feast.
Son_2:5. Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.
Oh! that I knew him better! Oh! that I loved him more! Oh! that I were more like him! Oh! that I were with him! “I am sick of love.”
Son_2:6-7. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.
If he be with me, may nothing disturb him — nothing cause him to withdraw himself. Our Lord Jesus is very jealous, and when he manifests himself to his people, a very little thing will drive him away like the hinds and the roes that are very timid, so is communion a very delicate and dainty thing. It is soon broken. Oh! may God grant tonight that nothing may happen to the thoughts of any of you by which your fellowship with Christ should be destroyed.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psa_116:10-19; Son_2:1-7.
Son_2:1. I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
So he is, and much more than that.
“
Must mingle colors quite unknown.”
So rich is he—rose and lily both in one.
“White is his soul, from blemish free,
Red with the blood he shed for me.”
His church stands out like a fair lily in a thorn-brake—separate and distinct—often suffering, standing where she does not wish to be, but all the lovelier by contrast. But if Christ praises his church, she praises him again.
Son_2:3-4. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons, I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
So full of joy is she, that she can bear it no longer. She seems ready to faint with bliss.
Son_2:5-7. Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.
His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, —By every lovely, timid, tender, chaste thing.—
Son_2:7. By the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.
If I have fellowship with him—if I am near his cross—if I am drinking in his love, oh! do not hinder me. Do not call me away. Do not break the spell; but let me go on with this blessed day-dream, which is truer than reality itself, till I see him face to face, when the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psa_22:1-22; and Son_1:1-7; Son_2:1-7.
Son_2:1-2. I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
It is the nature of love to make the thing beloved like itself. If Christ be a lily. he makes his people lilies too. Certainly he is the lily of the valley, and ere long his Church is able to say, “As the lily among the thorns, so am I,” while for the present Jesus says it. She is among the thorns, thorns that hurt and vex her. The people of God are still in the tents of Kedar, still among the wicked, having their ears vexed with their filthy conversation. But the lily is all the more beautiful on account of the thorns that make the background, and so your piety may be all the more resplendent because of the evil men among whom you sojourn.
Son_2:3. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons.
The citron tree towered aloft in the midst of the forest, and it was covered with its golden apples. Such is Jesus Christ, the most lovely of all objects, and though there be some that pretend to contend with him, yet to the believer, rivals are left in the distance, nay, they are altogether forgotten. “As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, the most distinguished and the most lovely, so is my Beloved among the sons.” How dost thou know?
Son_2:3. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
I know his loveliness, for I have felt it, and I not only have comfort without, but I have food within.
Son_2:4-5. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.
A strange thing is this love of Christ, for, as Erskine puts it: —
“
When sick, it makes me well.”
Son_2:6. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.
The hand with which he smites his enemies cannot smite me, for it is under my head, my sweet support; and his right hand, the hand with which he blesseth, the hand of his power and his glory, doth embrace each one of his people.
Son_2:7. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.
The next passage we shall read is at the commencement of the third chapter, and presents quite a different scene. Perhaps you will scarcely think it is the same person that writes it, but, oh! we are very variable. See now how that sunshine has just gilded that side of the house, and in another minute — see — it melts away and has gone again! Just so is it with our experience. We rejoice for a few moments, but anon the clouds hang heavy over us, and we scarce know what and where we are. The Spouse has now faltered, but her Husband never does falter, the Lord, the King, abideth still the same, and herein is our joy.
This exposition consisted of readings from Son_2:1-7; Son_3:1-5.