Song of Solomon 7

Song of Solomon 7:1-8

SECTION 6. The Restored Couple Rejoice In Each Other (Son 7:1 to Son 8:4). The restoration of the royal couple is now complete. Their harmony is fully restored, and they can once again enjoy their pure untrammeled love, back in the land of their original courtship.Once she returns from her walk the BELOVED continues to rejoice in his beautiful young wife.

Song of Solomon 7:6-9

The BELOVED continues.“How fair and how pleasant are you, O love, for delights! This your stature is like to a palm-tree, And your breasts to its clusters. I said, I will climb up into the palm-tree, I will take hold of its branches, Let your breasts be as clusters of the vine, And the smell of your breath like apples, And your mouth like the best wine –.”He now describes her statuesque beauty and compares her with a palm tree, with her breasts like coconuts, so that he can shin up the tree and sample her delights by grabbing hold of its branches; or like clusters of grapes on the vine. And he ends his idyllic picture with a description of the sweetness of her breasts, and the fact that her mouth is like the best wine. It is at this point that his wife then takes over the theme.While we might find these long descriptions somewhat overextended, the people of Israel at their feasts no doubt delighted in these theoretical description of themselves in the Lord’s eyes, as it described His delight in them. (We say theoretical because it strictly only applied to the righteous among them). The same descriptions, of course apply to us.

We too can delight in the descriptions, but we must remember that we are only beautiful in His eyes if we are truly His, and it is being revealed in our lives. It is only then that He can climb up and partake of our fruits.His YOUNG WIFE takes up her husband’s rhythm and replies (note the use of ‘my beloved’ which indicates the change).

Song of Solomon 7:9

“ — Which goes down smoothly for my beloved, And makes the lips of the sleepers to speak. I am my beloved’s, And his desire is towards me.”Taking up her beloved’s theme his wife assures him that her lips will indeed provide the best wine for him, a wine which will go down his throat smoothly, causing his sleeping lips to say, ‘My love you are mine’. That is why, instinctively recognizing this, she is able to add, “I am my beloved’s and his desires is towards me.’ Note that she is longer thinking in terms of ‘my beloved is mine’ (Son 2:16; Son 6:3). She is wholly taken up with him, and the fact that his desire is for her. Happy are we when our whole delight is in Christ and His love for us, and when it is God Who is in all our thoughts.

Song of Solomon 7:11-13

The YOUNG WIFE continues her words to her beloved husband.“Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, Let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards, Let us see whether the vine has budded, And its blossom is open, And the pomegranates are in flower. There will I give you my love. The mandrakes give forth fragrance, And at our doors are all manner of precious fruits, new and old, Which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.”The Beloved’s wife now calls on him in their reunited love to go forth with her into the countryside and the villages, and into the vineyards to see whether the vines have budded and the pomegranates are in flower. It is there that she will give him her love, in the place where the mandrakes (famous as an aphrodisiac - see Genesis 30:14-16) give forth their fragrance. The provision of ‘all manner of precious fruits’ at ‘our doors’, which she has laid up for him, may indicate the promise of the pleasures of love.

The plural ‘our doors’ probably indicates the recognition of her as their princess by her countrymen and countrywomen. They gladly leave their gifts, possibly even tribute to their tribal chieftain, for her to share with her husband. But it may indicate a personal offering of herself to her beloved husband.We can see how these verses might well have been used by the country folk in worship at their local feasts as they offered their love unrestrainedly to God. And it is a reminder to us that wherever we are we also should be desirous of going aside with our Beloved and offering up ourselves and our worship to Him, because we love Him so.