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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
S O N G O F S O L O M O N.
CHAP. VII.
In this chapter,
I. Christ, the royal bridegroom, goes on to describe the beauties of
his spouse, the church, in many instances, and to express his love to
her and the delight he has in her conversation,
II. The spouse, the church, expresses her great delight in him, and the
desire that she had of communion and fellowship with him,
Such mutual esteem and endearment are there between Christ and
believers. And what is heaven but an everlasting interchanging of
loves between the holy God and holy souls!
| The Beauty of the Church; The Complacency of Christ in His Church. | |
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1 How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince’s daughter!
the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands
of a cunning workman.
2 Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not
liquor: thy belly is like a heap of wheat set about with
lilies.
3 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.
4 Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the
fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim: thy nose is as
the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus.
5 Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thine
head like purple; the king is held in the galleries.
6 How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!
7 This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to
clusters of grapes.
8 I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of
the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of
the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples;
9 And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved,
that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are
asleep to speak.
The title which Jesus Christ here gives to the church is new: O
prince’s daughter! agreeing with
where she is called the king’s daughter. She is so in respect of
her new birth, born from above, begotten of God, and his workmanship,
bearing the image of the King of kings, and guided by his Spirit. She
is so by marriage; Christ, by betrothing her to himself, though he
found her mean and despicable, has made her a prince’s daughter.
She has a princely disposition, something in her truly noble and
generous; she is daughter and heir to the prince of the kings of the
earth. If children, then heirs. Now here we have,
I. A copious description of the beauty of the spouse, which, some
think, is given by the virgins her companions, and that those were they
who called upon her to return; it seems rather to be given by Christ
himself, and to be designed to express his love to her and delight in
her, as before,
&c., and
The similitudes are here different from what they were before, to show
that the beauty of holiness is such as nothing in nature can reach; you
may still say more of it, and yet still come short of it. That
commendation of the spouse,
was immediately upon the espousals
(ch. iii. 11),
this upon her return from a by-path
(ch. vi. 13);
yet this exceeds that, to show the constancy of Christ’s love to his
people; he loves them to the end, since he made them precious
in his sight and honourable. The spouse had described the beauty of
her beloved in ten particulars
&c.); and now he describes her in as many, for he will not be
behindhand with her in respects and endearments. Those that honour
Christ he will certainly honour, and make honourable. As the prophet,
in describing the corruptions of degenerate Israel, reckons from the
sole of the foot even unto the head
(Isa. i. 6),
so here the beauties of the church are reckoned from foot to head,
that, as the apostle speaks, when he is comparing the church, as here,
to the natural body
more abundant honour might be bestowed on those parts of the
body which we think to be less honourable, and which therefore
lacked honour,
v. 24.
1. Her feet are here praised; the feet of Christ’s ministers are
beautiful in the eyes of the church
(Isa. lii. 7),
and her feet are here said to be beautiful in the eyes of Christ.
How beautiful are thy feet with shoes! When believers, being
made free from the captivity of sin
(Acts xii. 8),
stand fast in the liberty with which they are made free,
preserve the tokens of their enfranchisement, have their feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and walk steadily
according to the rule of the gospel, then their feet are beautiful
with shoes; they tread firmly, being well armed against the
troubles they meet with in their way. When we rest not in good
affections, but they are accompanied with sincere endeavors and
resolutions, then our feet are beautified with shoes. See
2. The joint of the thighs are here said to be like
jewels, and those curiously wrought by a cunning workman.
This is explained by
where the mystical body of Christ is said to be held together by
joints and bands, as the hips and knees (both which are the
joints of the thighs) serve the natural body in its strength and
motion. The church is then comely in Christ’s eyes when those
joints are kept firm by holy love and unity, and the communion of
saints. When believers act in religion from good principles, and are
steady and regular in their whole conversation, and turn themselves
easily to every duty in its time and place, then the joints are like
jewels.
3. The navel is here compared to a round cup or goblet,
that wants not any of the agreeable liquor that one would
wish to find in it, such as David’s cup that ran over
(Ps. xxiii. 5),
well shaped, and not as that miserable infant whose navel was not cut,
The fear of the Lord is said to be health to the navel. See
When the soul wants not that fear then the navel wants not
liquor.
4. The belly is like a heap of wheat in the store-chamber, which
perhaps was sometimes, to make show, adorned with flowers. The
wheat is useful, the lilies are beautiful; there is every
thing in the church which may be to the members of that body either for
use or for ornament. All the body is nourished from the belly;
it denotes the spiritual prosperity of a believer and the healthful
constitution of the soul all in good plight.
5. The breasts are like two young roes that are twins,
v. 3.
By the breasts of the church’s consolations those are nourished who are
born from its belly
(Isa. xlvi. 3),
and by the navel received nourishment in the womb. This comparison we
had before,
6. The neck, which before was compared to the tower of
David
(ch. iv. 4),
is here compared to a tower of ivory, so white, so precious;
such is the faith of the saints, by which they are joined to Christ
their head. The name of the Lord, improved by faith, is to the saints
as a strong and impregnable tower.
7. The eyes are compared to the fish-pools in Heshbon, or
the artificial fish-ponds, by a gate, either of Jerusalem or
Heshbon, which is called Bath-rabbim, the daughter of a
multitude, because a great thoroughfare. The understanding, the
intentions of a believer, are clean and clear as these ponds. The eyes,
weeping for sin, are as fountains
(Jer. ix. 1),
and comely with Christ.
8. The nose is like the tower of Lebanon, the forehead or
face set like a flint
(Isa. l. 7),
undaunted as that tower was impregnable. So it denotes the magnanimity
and holy bravery of the church, or (as others) a spiritual sagacity to
discern things that differ, as animals strangely distinguish by the
smell. This tower looks towards Damascus, the head city of
Syria, denoting the boldness of the church in facing its enemies and
not fearing them.
9. The head like Carmel, a very high hill near the sea,
v. 5.
The head of a believer is lifted up above his enemies
(Ps. xxvii. 6),
above the storms of the lower region, as the top of Carmel was,
pointing heaven-ward. The more we get above this world, and the nearer
to heaven, and the more secure and serene we become by that means, the
more amiable we are in the eyes of the Lord Jesus.
10. The hair of the head is said to be like purple. This
denotes the universal amiableness of a believer in the eyes of Christ,
even to the hair, or (as some understand it) the pins with which
the hair is dressed. Some by the head and the hair
understand the governors of the church, who, if they be careful to do
their duty, add much to her comeliness. The head like crimson
(so some read it) and the hair like purple, the two colours worn
by great men.
II. The complacency which Christ takes in his church thus beautified
and adorned. She is lovely indeed if she be so in his eyes; as he puts
the comeliness upon her, so it is his love that makes this comeliness
truly valuable, for he is an unexceptionable judge.
1. He delighted to look upon his church, and to converse with it,
rejoicing in that habitable part of his earth: The king is held in
the galleries, and cannot leave them. This is explained by
The Lord has chosen Zion, saying, This is my rest for
ever; here will I dwell; and
The Lord takes pleasure in those that fear him. And, if Christ
has such delight in the galleries of communion with his people,
much more reason have they to delight in them, and to reckon a day
there better than a thousand.
2. He was even struck with admiration at the beauty of his church
(v. 6):
How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love! How art thou made
fair! (so the word is), “not born so, but made so with the
comeliness which I have put upon thee.” Holiness is a beauty beyond
expression; the Lord Jesus is wonderfully pleased with it; the outward
aspect of it is fair; the inward disposition of it is pleasant and
highly agreeable, and the complacency he has in it is inexpressible.
O my dearest for delights! so some read.
3. He determined to keep up communion with his church.
(1.) To take hold of her as of the boughs of a palm-tree.
He compares her stature to a palm-tree
(v. 7),
so straight, so strong, does she appear, when she is looked upon in her
full proportion. The palm-tree is observed to flourish most when
it is loaded; so the church, the more it has been afflicted, the more
it has multiplied; and the branches of it are emblems of victory.
Christ says, “I will go up to the palm-tree, to entertain myself
with the shadow of it
(v. 8)
and I will take hold of its boughs and observe the beauty of
them.” What Christ has said he will do, in favour to his people; we may
be sure he will do it, for his kind purposes are never suffered to fall
to the ground; and if he take hold of the boughs of his church,
take early hold of her branches, when they are young and tender, he
will keep his hold and not let them go.
(2.) To refresh himself with her fruits. He compares her breasts
(her pious affections towards him) to clusters of grapes, a most
pleasant fruit
(v. 7),
and he repeats it
(v. 8):
They shall be (that is, they shall be to me) as clusters of
the vine, which make glad the heart. “Now that I come up
to the palm-tree thy graces shall be exerted and excited.” Christ’s
presence with his people kindles the holy heavenly fire in their souls,
and then their breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, a
cordial to themselves and acceptable to him. And since God, at first,
breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and breathes
the breath of the new life still, the smell of their nostrils is
like the smell of apples, or oranges, which is pleasing and
reviving. The Lord smelt a sweet savour from Noah’s sacrifice,
And, lastly, the roof of her mouth is like the best wine
(v. 9);
her spiritual taste and relish, or the words she speaks of God and man,
which come not from the teeth outward, but from the roof of the
mouth, these are pleasing to God. The prayer of the upright is
his delight. And, when those that fear the Lord speak one to
another as becomes them, the Lord hearkens, and hears with
pleasure,
It is like that wine which is,
[1.] Very palatable and grateful to the taste. It goes down
sweetly; it goes straightly (so the margin reads it); it
moves itself aright,
Prov. xxiii. 31.
The pleasures of sense seem right to the carnal appetite, and go down
smoothly, but they are often wrong, and, compared with the pleasure of
communion with God, they are harsh and rough. Nothing goes down so
sweetly with a gracious soul as the wine of God’s consolations.
[2.] It is a great cordial. The presence of Christ by his Spirit with
him people shall be reviving and refreshing to them, as that strong
wine which makes the lips even of those that are asleep
(that are ready to faint away in a deliquium), to speak.
Unconverted sinners are asleep; saints are often drowsy, and listless,
and half asleep; but the word and Spirit of Christ will put life and
vigour into the soul, and out of the abundance of the heart that
is thus filledthe mouth will speak. When the apostles
were filled with the Spirit they spoke with tongues the wonderful
works of God
and those who in opposition to being drunk with wine, wherein is
excess, are filled with the Spirit, speak to themselves in
psalms and hymns,
Eph. v. 18, 19.
When Christ is thus commending the sweetness of his spouse’s love,
excited by the manifestation of his, she seems to put in that word,
for my beloved, as in a parenthesis. “Is there any thing in me
that is pleasant or valuable? As it is from, so it is for my beloved.”
Then he delights in our good affections and services, when they
are all for him and devoted to his glory.
| Desiring Communion with Christ; The Love of the Church to Christ. | |
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10 I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me.
11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us
lodge in the villages.
12 Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine
flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the
pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves.
13 The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all
manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up
for thee, O my beloved.
These are the words of the spouse, the church, the believing soul, in
answer to the kind expressions of Christ’s love in the foregoing
verses.
I. She here triumphs in her relation to Christ and her interest in him,
and in his name will she boast all the day long. With what a transport
of joy and holy exultation does she say
(v. 10),
“I am my beloved’s, not my own, but entirely devoted to him and
owned by him.” If we can truly say that Christ is our best
beloved, we may be confident that we are his and he will save
us,
Ps. cxix. 94.
The gracious discoveries of Christ’s love to us should engage us
greatly to rejoice in the hold he has of us, his sovereignty over us
and property in us, which is no less a spring of comfort than a bond of
duty. Intimacy of communion with Christ should help clear up our
interest in him. Glorying in this, that she is his, to serve him, and
reckoning that her honour, she comforts herself with this, that his
desire is towards her, that is, he is her husband; it is a
periphrasis of the conjugal relation,
Christ’s desire was strongly towards his chosen remnant, when he came
from heaven to earth to seek and save them; and when, in pursuance of
his undertaking, he was even straitened till the baptism of blood he
was to pass through for them was accomplished,
Luke xii. 50.
He desired Zion for a habitation; this is a comfort to believers
that, whosoever slights them, Christ has a desire towards them, such a
desire as will again bring him from heaven to earth to receive them to
himself; for he longs to have them all with him,
II. She humbly and earnestly desires communion with him
(v. 11, 12):
“Come, my beloved, let us take a walk together, that I may
receive counsel, instruction, and comfort from thee, and may make known
my wants and grievances to thee, with freedom, and without
interruption.” Thus Christ can walk with the two disciples that were
going to the village called Emmaus, and talked with them, till
he made their hearts burn within them. Observe here,
1. Having received fresh tokens of his love, and full assurances of her
interest in him, she presses forward towards further acquaintance with
him; as blessed Paul, who desired yet more and more of the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
Phil. iii. 8.
Christ has made it to appear how much his desire is towards us, and we
are very ungrateful if ours be not towards him. Note, Communion with
Christ is that which all that are sanctified earnestly breathe after;
and the clearer discoveries he makes to them of his love the more
earnestly do they desire it. Sensual pleasures pall the carnal
appetite, and soon give it surfeit, but spiritual delights whet the
desires, the language of which is, Nothing more than God, but
still more and more of him. Christ had said, I will go up to
the palm-tree. Come, saith she, Let us go. The promises
Christ has made us of communion with him are not to supersede, but
quicken and encourage, our prayers for that communion.
2. She desires to go forth into the fields and villages to have this
communion with him. Those that would converse with Christ must go forth
from the world and the amusements of it, must avoid every thing that
would divert the mind and be a hindrance to it when it should be wholly
taken up with Christ; we must contrive how to attend upon the Lord
without distraction
for therefore the spouse here covets to get out of the noise of the
town. Let us go forth to him without the camp,
Heb. xiv. 13.
Solitude and retirement befriend communion with God; therefore Isaac
went out into the field to meditate and pray. Enter into thy
closet, and shut thy door. A believer is never less alone than when
alone with Christ, where no eye sees.
3. Having business to go abroad, to look after their grounds, she
desires the company of her beloved. Note, Wherever we are, we may keep
up our communion with God, if it be not our own fault, for he is always
at our right hand, his eye always upon us, and both his word and his
ear always nigh us. By going about our worldly affairs with heavenly
holy hearts, mixing pious thoughts with common actions, and having our
eyes ever towards the Lord, we may take Christ along with us
whithersoever we go. Nor should we go any whither where we cannot in
faith ask him to go along with us.
4. She is willing to rise betimes, to go along with her beloved: Let
us get up early to the vineyards. It intimates her care to improve
opportunities of conversing with her beloved; when the time appointed
has come, we must lose no time, but, as the woman
(Mark xvi. 2),
go very early, though it be to a sepulchre, if we be in
hopes to meet him there. Those that will go abroad with Christ must
begin betimes with him, early in the morning of their days, must begin
every day with him, seek him early, seek him diligently.
5. She will be content to take up her lodging in the villages, the huts
or cottages which the country people built for their shelter when they
attended their business in the fields; there, in these mean and cold
dwellings, she will gladly reside, if she may but have her beloved with
her. His presence will make them fine and pleasant, and convert them
into palaces. A gracious soul can reconcile itself to the poorest
accommodations, if it may have communion with God in them.
6. The most pleasant delightful fields, even in the spring-time, when
the country is most pleasant, will not satisfy her, unless she have her
beloved with her. No delights on earth can make a believer easy, unless
he enjoy God in all.
III. She desires to be better acquainted with the state of her own soul
and the present posture of its affairs
(v. 12):
Let us see if the vine flourish. Our own souls are our
vineyards; they are, or should be, planted with vines and pomegranates,
choice and useful trees. We are made keepers of these vineyards, and
therefore are concerned often to look into them, to examine the state
of our own souls, to seek whether the vine flourishes, whether
our graces be in act and exercise, whether we be fruitful in the fruits
of righteousness, and whether our fruit abound. And especially let us
enquire whether the tender grape appear and whether the
pomegranates bud forth, what good motions and dispositions there
are in us that are yet but young and tender, that they may be protected
and cherished with a particular care, and may not be nipped, or
blasted, or rubbed off, but cultivated, that they may bring forth fruit
unto perfection. In this enquiry into our own spiritual state, it will
be good to take Christ along with us, because his presence will make
the vine flourish and the tender grape appear, as the
returning sun revives the gardens, and because to him we are concerned
to approve ourselves. If he sees the vine flourish, and the
tender grape appear–if we can appeal to him, Thou knowest
all things, thou knowest that I love thee,–if his Spirit witness
with our spirit that our souls prosper, it is enough. And, if we would
be acquainted with ourselves, we must beg of him to search and try us,
to help us in the search, and discover us to ourselves.
IV. She promises to her beloved the best entertainment she can give him
at her country seat; for he will come in to us, and sup with us,
1. She promises him her best affections; and, whatever else she had for
him, it would utterly be contemned if her heart were not entire for
him: “There therefore will I give thee my love; I will
repeat the professions of it, honour thee with the tokens of it; and
the out-goings of my soul towards thee in adorations and desires shall
be quickened and enlarged, and my heart offered up to thee in a holy
fire.”
2. She promises him her best provision,
“There we shall find pleasant odours, for the mandrakes give a
smell;” the love-flowers or lovely ones (so the word
signifies), or the love-fruits; it was something that was in all
respects very grateful, so valuable that Rachel and Leah had like to
have fallen out above it,
“We shall also find that which is good for food, as well as pleasant to
the eye, all the rarities that the country affords: At our gates are
all manner of pleasant fruits.” Note,
(1.) The fruits and exercises of grace are pleasant to the Lord Jesus.
(2.) These must be carefully laid up for him, devoted to his service
and honour, must be always ready to us when we have occasion for them,
as that which is laid up at our gates, that, by our bringing forth much
fruit, he may be glorified,
(3.) There is a great variety of these pleasant fruits, with which our
souls should be well stocked; we must have all sorts of them, grace for
all occasions, new and old, as the good householder has in his
treasury, not only the products of this year, but remainders of the
last,
We must not only have that ready to us, for the service of Christ,
which we have heard, and learned, and experienced lately, but must
retain that which we have formerly gathered; nor must we content
ourselves only with what we have laid up in store in the days of old,
but, as long as we live, must be still adding something new to it, that
our stock may increase, and we may be thoroughly furnished for every
good work.
(4.) Those that truly love Christ will think all they have, even their
most pleasant fruits, and what they have treasured up most
carefully, too little to be bestowed upon him, and he is welcome to it
all; if it were more and better, it should be at his service. It is all
from him, and therefore it is fit it should be all for him.
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