Song of Solomon 1v15-2v2

A Lily Among Thorns

Introduction

Continue to see the relationship between the bride and her bridegroom. We are still looking towards the wedding.

1.      A Beautiful Bride 1v15

He discerns beauty in her, who had said, “I am dark” (So 1:5), because of the everlasting covenant (Ps 45:11; Is 62:5; Eph 1:4, 5).

Psalm 45:11

11 The king is enthralled by your beauty;

honour him, for he is your lord.

Isaiah 62:5

5 As a young man marries a maiden,

so will your sons marry you;

as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,

so will your God rejoice over you.

Ephesians 1:4-5

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will”

Doves’ eyes—large and beautiful in the doves of Syria. The prominent features of her beauty gentleness, innocence, and constant love, emblem of the Holy Ghost, who changes us to His own likeness

“Because of the dove’s softness, beauty of feathers and eyes, and affection for and faithfulness to its mate, Song of Songs several times likens the lover to a dove (e.g., Song 1:15; 2:14; 4:1; 5:2, 12; 6:9)”

Matthew 3:16

16 As soon as Jesus was baptised, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him.

2.      A Handsome Bridegroom 1v16

Reply of the Bride. She presumes to call Him beloved, because He called her so first. Thou callest me “fair”; if I am so, it is not in myself; it is all from Thee (Ps 90:17); but Thou art fair in Thyself (Ps 45:2).

Psalm 90:17

17 May the favour of the Lord our God rest upon us;

establish the work of our hands for us—

yes, establish the work of our hands.

Psalm 45:2

2 You are the most excellent of men

and your lips have been anointed with grace,

since God has blessed you for ever.

The couch of green grass on which the King and His bride sit to “rest at noon.” Thus her prayer in So 1:7 is here granted; a green oasis in the desert, always found near waters in the East (Ps 23:2; Is 41:17–19)

Psalm 23:2

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

Isaiah 41:17-19

17 “The poor and needy search for water,

but there is none;

their tongues are parched with thirst.

But I the Lord will answer them;

I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

18 I will make rivers flow on barren heights,

and springs within the valleys.

I will turn the desert into pools of water,

and the parched ground into springs.

19 I will put in the desert

the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive.

I will set pines in the wasteland,

the fir and the cypress together,

3.      A Settled Home 1v17

The scene is a kiosk, or summer house. Historically, the literal resting of the Babe of Bethlehem and his parents on the green grass provided for cattle (Lu 2:7, 12). In this verse there is an incidental allusion, in So 1:15, to the offering (Lu 2:24). So the “cedar and fir” ceiling refers to the temple (1Ki 5:6–10; 6:15–18); type of the heavenly temple (Rev 21:22).

Revelation 21:22

22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

Psalm 92:13

13 planted in the house of the Lord,

they will flourish in the courts of our God.

Ephesians 2:19

19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow-citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.

Hebrews 3:6

6 But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.

Perfect oneness of Him and the bride (Jn 14:20; 17:21).

John 14:20

20 On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

John 17:20-21

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

There is the shelter of a princely roof from the sun (Ps 121:6),

Psalm 121:6

6 the sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon by night.

4.      A Real Humility 2v1

Rose if applied to Jesus Christ, it, with the white lily (lowly, 2Co 8:9), answers to “white and ruddy” (So 5:10). But it is rather the meadow-saffron: the Hebrew means radically a plant with a pungent bulb, inapplicable to the rose. So Syriac. It is of a white and violet color [Maurer, Gesenius, and Weiss]. The bride thus speaks of herself as lowly though lovely, in contrast with the lordly “apple” or citron tree, the bridegroom (So 2:3); so the “lily” is applied to her (So 2:2),

Sharon—(Is 35:1, 2). In North Palestine, between Mount Tabor and Lake Tiberias (1Ch 5:16). Septuagint and Vulgate translate it, “a plain”; though they err in this, the Hebrew Bible not elsewhere favoring it, yet the parallelism to valleys shows that, in the proper name Sharon, there is here a tacit reference to its meaning of lowliness. Beauty, delicacy, and lowliness, are to be in her, as they were in Him (Mt 11:29).

5.      A Glorious Distinction 2v2

Jesus Christ to the Bride (Mt 10:16; Jn 15:19; 1Jn 5:19).

Matthew 10:16

16 I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

John 15:19

19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

1 John 5:19

19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

 Thorns, equivalent to the wicked (2Sa 23:6; Ps 57:4).

2 Samuel 23:6

6 But evil men are all to be cast aside like thorns,

which are not gathered with the hand.

Psalm 57:4

4 I am in the midst of lions;

I lie among ravenous beasts—

men whose teeth are spears and arrows,

whose tongues are sharp swords.

Daughters—of men. not of God; not “the virgins.” “If thou art the lily of Jesus Christ, take heed lest by impatience, rash judgments, and pride, thou thyself become a thorn” [Luther]

Conclusion

Love Christ with undying love.